Brave Story

Summary: Young Wataru Mitani's life is a mess. His family has problems they never told him about, a new student at school upsets everything he knows about the world, and a girl's voice rings in his mind all hours of the night. Desperately he searches for some way to change his life; a way to alter his fate.

To achieve his goal, he must navigate the magical world of Vision, a land filled with creatures both fierce and friendly. And to complicate matters, he must outwit a merciless rival from the real world.

Wataru's ultimate destination is the Tower of Destiny where a Goddess of fate awaits. Only when he has finished his journey and collected five elusive gemstones will he possess the Demon's Bane; the key that will unlock his future.

Charity, bravery, faith, grace and the power of darkness and light: these are the provinces of each gemstone. Brought together, they have the immeasurable power to change Wataru's life. 

Thoughts: This is a story rivaling many classics in size (it's huge) and content. A heartbreaking story of divorce and family issues seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy, Brave Story packs a punch. Masterfully told, we follow Wataru through his real-world troubles and his Vision-world troubles as he searches for a way to fix his broken family and make sense of his life. The world-building was a little shaky but the characters are great and the story keeps you pretty entertained despite being so big. It's moving and gripping with a culmination that places it with the classics. 

Content: There are some dark moments, magic, and a few mature plots lines like Wataru's father was cheating on his mom, but it is all told through a twelve-year old's point of view so it remains pretty clean. Overall, good for middle-grade and older.