Young Adult Review: The Fountain of the Earth

The Fountain of the Earth (Fountain of the Earth, 1) by H.L. LeRoy, November 22, 2013. 272 pages. Published by Tranquille Press. Source: Author

Terra Vonn is fighting to survive in a destroyed world,
surrounded by unspeakable horror . . .
and things are about to get much worse.

After witnessing the horrific murder of her mother, fifteen-year-old Terra Vonn has a singular focus—exacting revenge on the killers. But before she can complete her plan, savagery intervenes, and she is cast alone into a brutal post-apocalyptic world. As she trails the murderers south—through a land filled with cannibalistic criminals, slave traders, and lunatics—the hunter becomes the hunted. Terra quickly learns that she is not as tough or as brave as she thought she was. Worse, she may be the only one who stands between what little remains of civilization and destruction.

First Sentence:

My clan had decided when I would marry, and, as bad as that sounds, a few goats or chickens-more or less-were going to determine who would marry me.

Alright, so it has taken me some time to get through The Fountain of the Earth. Partly because it took a little bit for the book to pick up and partly due to tour books. While it did take me some time to actually get into this one, I enjoyed it because it was interesting and I was curious to see if Terra would ever be able to move past the trauma she suffered in the first couple of chapters.

The Fountain of the Earth is quite violent, so, if you are not really the type to read violent reads then I would recommend that you pass on this one. While it is an interesting read, it does deal with violence directed at women (I'm sure I don't need to elaborate); mainly in the first few chapters as it sets Terra on her quest for vengeance and again later when she come across a couple other clans.
   While I really disliked the overly violent portions, the rest of the book is quite good as you watch Terra struggle with her hate and rage towards those who murdered her mother. Even though it was sad to watch her suffer, it helped to set the course for the book as she would learn more about what she could and couldn't do and help her see just how corrupted things had become.

So, even though The Fountain of the Earth started out slow, the writing is why I soldiered on and kept reading. I thought the author did an excellent job with the characters and making their stories come to life. Although Terra frustrated me at times, like in the beginning when she thought it be relatively easy to track done and bring the murderers to justice, I enjoyed reading about her because she kept pushing forward; I expect that there will be both more danger and further ways things will change for her in the next book.

There are are only two things that kept me from enjoying this one more than I did. The first being that it took around a hundred pages for things to get rolling, in regards to the corruption and danger facing all of the clans. While the slow points do set up these points, I at times became frustrated waiting for things to happen. The second being that it was a little more violent than I had expected it to be. But, the amount and type of violence did fit in with the type of world that the characters lived in so...

Final Verdict: The Fountain of the Earth- A gritty post-apocalyptic read with well written characters.

The Fountain of the Earth earns 3.5 out of 5 griffins

this book was received in exchange for an honest review