Little Eve is a remarkably complex novel where truth blends to fantasy and back to darker truth continuously. One moment you are caught up in a great power and the next you are brought back to earth in a more mundane reality that still hints it might be false.
Children have been taken to a castle on an island, separated from the mainland by a gate with no fence that is constantly locked. One man suspects the truth, but is unable to prove it. Eve is the key, and also the lock. Unwilling to be completely drawn into her Uncle’s dark world and simultaneoulsly drawn and driven there regardless of her efforts to be free.
The rituals and darkness are deep and binding. The torn lives and hearts of those drawn and trapped there are intriguing and tantalizing. The setting is bleak, and the entire story takes place against a backdrop of the prejudices of the village beyond the gate, and the few who live there and interact with the island.
This is not a happily ever after story, it is a disturbing on many levels. It feels fantastic and all too real and is one of those books I am always searching for. One that leaves me staring at the wall after reading it, lost in thought and sort of sad as the last words slip away.
Highly Recommended.