The Fire Opal

The Fire Opal
by Regina McBride

*Paraphrased from Amazon*
Maeve O'Tullagh is a teen is living in Ard Macha with her family: Mam, Da, Donal, Fingal, and Ishleen. When still very young, Ishleen suddenly dies, depressing Maeve's mother and father. Once becoming pregnant again, Mam insists that she is pregnant with Ishleen, and she won't let the idea go. A woman at the sea gives Maeve a talisman to protect her mother. But when Mam removes it on the night of the baby's birth, she seems lost and catatonic. Maeve believes something stole her mother's soul and dedicates herself to protecting her new sister.

When Ishleen is four, she suffers the same fate as her Mam. With her Da and brothers off fighting to free Ireland from English rule, nineteen year old Maeve embarks on a journey to discover who has stolen their souls and save them before it's too late, encountering an ancient evil along the way.

Grade: B-

This story was filled with magical beings and inanimate objects, and a family that thinks the mother and daughter are absolutely mad. At times, I was agreeing with the men of the family. In some parts, some very crazy stuff was happening, and I almost felt like Maeve was on an acid-trip or something. Seriously! It was nuts, but it was interesting!

The climax of the novel began in one of the last few chapters. This caused the novel to drag on for quite a long time, and it seemed to me that there were many insignificant pieces to the storyline. Also, the ending was very abrupt, which bothers me. It was left for me to wonder what happened to Francisco, a Spanish soldier, and also for Maeve's father and brothers. But really, this novel was interesting, and not really the kind of book I normally read, but it kept me interested, even if I got bored in some places. If you're into the fantasy kind of book, you might like it.

*reviewed for TeensReadToo