A boy trying to find his way home through a dark and perilous world struggles to stay alive while fighting off the darkness. The strange allies he meets along the way may be the only thing that can help keep the darkness at bay. Can he survive? Will he make it home? Or will the darkness take him like it did so many others before him.

The young Unali Tatsaki Chojiosha caught my attention as soon as she appeared. Her protective yet playful personality drew me in and kept reading. I wanted to know what she was going to do next. I loved the description of this world and the different creatures in it. Other characters drew me in as well and made me think more about them. Like Ramon, Jasmin, and Karolin.

The Unali and Kararan were my favorite. I loved Tatsaki, her protectiveness over the human boy Arata was so much like a sister protecting her brother. Their banter back and forth was entertaining. Tatsaoki’s inner dialog was insightful. Seeing it from Arata’s eyes during his inner dialog gave a sense of what was going on within him. The creatures they met along the way were both entertaining and irritating at times. The way Queen Vernassa was described had me picturing a beautiful creature. I wanted to know more about her and her daughter, I knew there had to be more than just the noble beings they were born to be.

The three Captains they come across, all three exceptionally skilled, are diverse not just in the type of creatures they are, but in their personalities as well. Ramon the aggressive Levichion starts off as an overly angry being who seems to take it out on Arata, but the more you read the more he grows on you. He isn’t as open with his feelings as most are and seems really closed off at times. Jasmine, a half breed human-Unali, only came to be a guard because of him and now she’s the closest thing he has to a friend. Though she can hold her own on the battlefield she does not want to progress any higher than Ramon as she seems to have the same personality as him. They are both the strong silent type. On the opposite end of those two is Karolin who is very loud and brash and doesn’t have any problem expressing her feelings. She want’s two things in life: to make her parents proud and she wants people to recognize her talent. She tries to achieve both of these things by joining the Royal Blue Guard. She has amazing battlefield skills and lots of friends. The way she blushes when Tatsaki was teasing her was cute. I felt the prospect of a connection between her and Arata could’ve been developed more. Her feelings are always there and she doesn’t mind expressing them. I thought she was a very expressive character that always kept me guessing.

I enjoyed the story very much. The characters were relatable even if they were creatures. The World Beyond Sight is really a showcase of Joshua Delany’s creative imagination.

Pages: 190 | ISBN: 1517027519