The Kaleidoscope Chronicles: Lost in Dara Review

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Lost in Dara (The Kaleidoscope Chronicles, #1) by Robert Barrett
Published by Brewster Publishing on June 7, 2024
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Format: eARC
Source: Provided by author for honest review
Goodreads

13-year-old Jack has pure white eyes and his two sisters – Emma and Holly - have rainbow colored birthmarks that make them stand out as freaks in the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire. But then Jack discovers a mysterious kaleidoscope that pulls the three kids through a glowing red doorway.
Now trapped in the Seven - a set of lands where colored Marks mean everything - the siblings are thrust into the ages-old struggle against the legendary Angel of the Abyss and her dark minions. With the aid of a freckle-faced servant girl, a banished Captain, a revenge-minded warrior and a singing thief, they launch a desperate search for the first of seven items needed to fully activate the kaleidoscope - the key to getting home and saving the Seven from darkness.
The worst part isn’t even the shrieking of the black Shards hunting them each night. Emma and Holly are singled out as Guardians, their seven colored Marks giving them not only staggering powers but also a death sentence.
And Jack is a Zero, a boy with no Marks and strange white eyes in a place where status and power is based on your colors. A million miles from home and he’s still a freak.

 Julie’s Review:

The Kaleidoscope Chronicles: Lost in Dara: Book One in a thrilling YA Fantasy series:  I enjoyed the unique world introduced in the book. The world adjacent to our Earth, reachable only by a specific ability through this Kaleidoscope (which the people of the world of Dara called the Eye of the Prophet). Dara is part of 7 worlds, between which you can only travel by portal or by this Eye if you have the ability of the Prophet.

I enjoyed the characters – our three siblings grew up with very strange features. The sisters have rainbow marks that itch and burn, and the brother has colorless eyes. Growing up, they were weird and ridiculed, but they found their features to be part of that world. This falls into the trope of a parent keeping secrets from their children, which ends up getting them in trouble and caught in this adventure. These kids don’t remember their mother, who supposedly died when the youngest was born. But there are no photos of her anywhere. Why? I suspect she wasn’t of Earth. But I guess that’s something that will be revealed somewhere along this series. I also enjoyed meeting the characters who become their team and rescuers though I hope to see more character development and getting to know them in the future books.

The setup was interesting, where the kids find this secret room in their Dad’s house and find the kaleidoscope, all by snooping as they were not intended to. The brother can see a door on the other side, and he accidentally brings his siblings and himself through. Then, the story unfolds. The land they reached has status based on the number of your marks, and no one has seen someone with 7 marks or eyes of the prophet. They’re captured, accused as thieves and liars, and imprisoned. The people with marks of 6 in charge plot how their execution, so they must escape.

That’s where I struggled with the rest of the book. We’re escaping. Then, escaping some more. I had to put it down a few times and read something else more exciting. And still escaping. And still riding away, hiding from everyone. At one point, the oldest sister even comments on how bad her brother smells since they’re stuck traveling through the desert and have no means to wash. The animals and creatures of horror in this world are interesting, but there is one typo where the narration accidentally mentions a horse and then goes back to calling the things they are riding on correctly. The three siblings, their rescuers who believe they are who they say they are, form a team of the magic number 7.

The very ending got curious and exciting because they had to rely on their abilities to solve some clues to get to a special magical creature to get the key to opening the kaleidoscope to the next world. You see, you can’t go back to Earth now that you got here (why was the door open one way?) but you must put a specific item from each world into to open the next door. It’s an interesting concept. But at the very end, it was almost too easy. I thought the creature would test them more, but it took them at face value and helped them. Maybe that’s the difference between YA and the epic fantasies I have been reading. It’s never that easy in those. Anyway, I am curious to keep reading because the series has potential. The next book is called “Escape from ….” and that gives me pause as we spent way too much time just escaping and riding.

The book had some illustrations sometimes between chapters but not each time. Many of them were not clear to understand what was going on, perhaps because mine was black and white. I would have liked illustrations of the creatures and the people with the marks.

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