I really enjoyed the adventures of Jayben as he journeys to rediscover his memories and to find out if he is the legendary ninth dreamer. My favourite part was definitely the farting skoggle and the other fantastical beasts which inhabit the Elf World. There are moments of real tension and laugh-out-loud humour which will certainly appeal to the target age audience.
Will he be able to save himself, his friends and the Elf World from the growing evil of Null?

A fantasy book which draws the reader into another world, richly imagined. Jayben is very brave despite his seizures and having no memory, a story that teaches us that the earth is special!

DNF at 20% - not that this is criminally bad at all, but I found it far too earnest, and could tell I could not guarantee the kind of MG read I wanted from it. Ben is stuck in a bad place with his evil teacher aunt lording over him, which is already too over-egged with his 'he doth protest too much' kind of attitude. But his neurodivergence, his seizures, his something, makes him zap to a world of fantasy, where he rescues a man who can train trees to be living, shapeshifting furniture – but discovers he has a whole world to save as well. And only a few days in which to do it.

This threw a lot in – the lad's hidden destiny, the swapping of things from our world to his, collective global amnesia in light of the end of the world, rescue from monsters, farting pets – and then had a humongous info-dump of exposition for the character known there as Jayben to learn what was what. It all just seemed too over-eager, doing too much, being breathless for unhealthy reasons and not the purely page-turning delights.

I note many reviewers have found this to be amazing, and loved Ben/Jayben for so much more than the mindwiping seizures part of his character, but already in the early readers are people not to have finished this, and thoughts in agreement with mine about having been rushed through an over-stuffed narrative. I don't wish this ill at all, but life is too short and the reading pile is too long.

I was drawn to this story via reading about the author's personal experiences of memory loss and his journey to becoming an author. For me, this gave the novel really heart before I even read it as well as an authentic insight into having epilepsy and no memories which can cause confusion, fear and danger. However, Jayben is not a victim of his situation - he is a strong, independant main character on a fabulous imaginative adventure who just happens to have extra challenges to deal with. Hopefully this will give hope, strength, determination and positivity to young readers battling similar challenges and raise awareness of living with epilepsy.
Overall, this is a great fantasy adventure story with plenty of action and agency. There's humour, heart and fantastic world-building which we are allowed time to enjoy. There's a strong plot, with Jayben discovering he is a 'chosen one' type character and it's an excellent debut.

Magical & Mysterious, I Enjoyed this Book to the Absolute Fullest, Highly Recommened for fans of The Peter Jackson Series.
(Thanks to Net Galley for this Book).

What a wonderfully different story of a young boy who wants to get away from his very unkind aunt. But when he wakes up in the Elf world, with no memory of his name or background, he finds himself on a journey of discovery and on a mission to save this strange world from a great evil that is trying to destroy the memories of its inhabitants. the only clue to his name is the word Jayben, which is on a torch in his possession. It is a fantastically intriguing story with so many layers that Jayben has to unravel. I hope that there are more tales to follow.

This book starts with us meeting Ben, an unhappy boy who suffers from seizures. He is living with his aunt, who doesn't like him very much. After having a weird dream, Ben has a seizure and suddenly we find ourselves in another world. Here we meet Jayben, an elfling who wakes up with no memory of who he is or where he's from. Jayben goes on a journey to try to find his memories and on that journey he discovers that he is the Ninth Dreamer and the key to saving both the Earth and Elf world. He also makes friends with a group of beings who help him and each other to overcome their fears.
I really enjoyed the world building in this book. Sometimes in adventure stories the adventure takes precedent over finding out what world is like. What I enjoyed about this book is that there were lots of glimpses of what life would be like if there wasn't the constant threat of danger hanging over Jayben's head. I also really liked the relationships that developed between Jayben and his friends. In the book, Jayben has a number of absence seizures. They leave him confused and unclear about what he had been doing before they happened. Thomas Leeds creates a sense of the confusion and anxiety that must follow in real life when someone has a seizure. You can feel Jayben's worry about the loss of control and his concerns that he may have one that puts him in danger. I feel that this book would help children understand what it is like to have seizures and how vulnerable it can make someone feel.

Jayben and the Golden Torch
Digital ARC

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book 60/55 2022

The Good

🕯 This was a debut novel with some really interesting world building and characterisation.

🕯 The author clearly has a massive imagination, with the world he has created filled with unusual creatures, delicious sounding food and a 5 different realms. I particularly lived the sound of Dropcorn and Gribblenuts (these gave me the same cravings as Silky's popcakes did in the Enchanted Wood when I was a child!)

🕯 Jayben's seizures and memory loss added a different dynamic to the story which was a welcome change from all the action at times - it was about halfway through the book when he started experiencing absences that I became more invested in the character and the story.

🕯 Having researched the author on finishing the story I learned that he suffered a traumatic brain injury as a young adult and suffers from seizures and memory loss himself. They say to write what you know, and I think that is why this aspect of the story read very realistically.

The Bad

🐈‍⬛️ I think there were just too many new names and plot ideas for the story to be easy to follow - every creature, place and food had a totally unfamiliar and unusual name, and whilst this was interesting it meant it interrupted the flow of my reading constantly trying to remember what was what!

🐈‍⬛️ I think this story could really do with a map at the beginning, laying out the world for the reader as it would be easier to visualise what we are reading.

🐈‍⬛️ There was a lot of action and at times I felt the story could do with a little slowing down. This was helped by the introduction of Jayben's medical condition which added another layer of interest to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.