Tag Archives: Hiago Furtado

A Review of Literally Life

Title: Literally Book cover for Literally Life - Solara and the Talking Tree by Hiago Furtado. Image on the cover shows a young, white woman with straight hair twirling around in a tutu in front of a blindingly white light. She looks as thought she may be performing on stage due to her dancing en pointe in ballet slippers and with her arms outstretched in a ballerina pose. Life – Solara and the Talking Tree

Author: Hiago Furtado

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: July 23, 2023

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy

Length: 54 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Review:

In a farm, far from the kingdom’s eyes, Solara, a lonely little girl who proclaims herself an enchanted princess, brings a nearby tree to life, even though her mother had previously forbidden her from using her powers, fearing they would label her as a witch. The tree, nicknamed by the girl as Mr. Tree, will have to discover its role in the world while maintaining a secret friendship with the little girl. Despite having enchanting powers, its disturbing origin and lack of control over them will bring forth various challenges.

And Solara, embittered by her mother’s disappearance, will try to have fun with Mr. Tree, telling him both epic and mind-bending stories, as well as tragic and macabre ones, in order to help him and teach him about his magical nature. In this chaotic journey, where unknown entities control nature and magical beings are persecuted by prejudice, the two will seek to discover if there is truly a place for fantasy in a world where their mere existence is considered a crime.

Content Warning: Death.

Magic isn’t a toy.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that compared Solara’s and Mr. Tree’s innocent wonder. They had far more in common with each other than one might originally think, and it was fun to take note of the myriad of ways in which a roughly ten-year-old human child and a tree that has only recently become sentient will have the same reaction when confronted with something new. I love picking out the commonalities between character who are otherwise quite different from each other, and I had plenty of opportunities to do that here.

The world building was confusing to me. Since Mr. Tree had a limited perspective on things due to him being a tree who couldn’t physically move around and who didn’t always understand human culture, his understanding of how magic worked in this world didn’t always translate well for me as a reader. I sometimes struggled to understand the logic of his thought processes or why certain scenes played out the way they did. As much as I wanted to give this a higher rating, I couldn’t due to how many times I had to stop and try to figure out what this character was describing.

With that being said, I enjoyed the creative risk Mr. Furtado took by making his main character a plant whose mind was quite different from the mind of the average person. It gave this tale a memorable twist and made me look at everything from chickens to fences to dreaming in new ways. This was my second time reading his work, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for what he might come up with next due to how much effort he puts into writing imaginative stories.

Literally Life – Solara and the Talking Tree made me smile.

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A Review of Ravine of Death

Book cover for Ravine of Death by Hiago Furtado. Image on cover shows an abstract drawing of thick, curvy black lines against a white and grey background. I can’t tell if they’re supposed to be tentacles, veins from the body of a person or animal, or lines in boulders that show where various types of minerals were deposited millions of years ago, or something else entirely. It’s quite vague and open to interpretation, so I’m sorry this alt text can’t be more helpful there. Title: Ravine of Death

Author: Hiago Furtado

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 4, 2023

Genres: Young Adult,  Horror, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 9 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A thief steals a crown of sapphires and is pursued by knights, so to escape, he decides to enter an abandoned forest. Cornered, he must decide whether to jump or not into a gorge called “The Ravine of Death,” where it is said that those who fall are devoured by demons. What does he decide? To jump, of course!

Review:

Content Warning: Murder and theft.

A little horror goes a long way.

The pacing was strong and exciting. I appreciated the fact that the author decided to drop his audience directly into the middle of a tense chase scene while only explaining the basics about what was going on. That was a good choice for the storyline, and it kept me guessing what might happen next until the very end.

Plot holes prevented me from giving this a higher rating. While I certainly wouldn’t expect a short story to have as much character or plot development as a full-length novel, there were many things I struggled to understand about the thief and why he ended up in this predicament. For example, why did he choose to run into the forest? Why didn’t he pick a direction other than the one that lead to something called the Ravine of Death that any sensible person would avoid? While I don’t have a problem reading about characters who have terrible judgment, I do like to know why they lack the common sense that keeps most of us out of trouble most of the time.  There was a lot of promise here, but I thought it needed more development in order to fully realize its potential.

Then again, it was interesting to see the protagonist enter the forbidden gorge and see what all the fuss was about. I knew he wasn’t going to have a pleasant time with it, but I couldn’t have guessed what he was about to experience there. The horror elements of the plot really shone here, so keep reading if the first page or so doesn’t immediately grab your attention and you love that genre. It was inventive and it made me wish for a sequel.

Ravine of Death was full of frights.

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