Nina of the Dark - Ken Catran

Nina of the Dark - Ken Catran

Blurb:

Against the forces of evil and night, who will stand true?
Slave-born, fated to seek a terrible truth from lost centuries, her only allies are a thief , a giant and an ancient prophesy.
Together, they must seek answers to shrouded mysteries and resolve the fate of their world... but first they must survive a haunted landscape of monsters and ruthless lords.
Unknown to her companions, the girl has another battle, uniquely her own.
Before she can face the ungodly creatures who threaten humanity with a new age of darkness and evil incarnate, she must first defeat the darkness within herself.
She is Nina of the Dark, thrust unwillingly into a legacy of nightmare and violence. In a world on the edge of an abyss, she is the last hope ... and she is afraid.

This book was really interesting because it showed me that although you may know what is happening to a person on the outside, you will never be able to tell what is happening to them on the inside. The thumb-fire was a prime example of this because this influenced Nina's choices quite extremely. This book also showed me that no matter what you are doing or who you are, you must always be true to yourself. In the beginning of the book, Nina was completely in charge of her own thoughts but as the thumb-hurting began to progress she found that her thoughts were being gradually taken over by the strange being living inside her brain. You could see that this was becoming worse and worse as the plot progressed until we could tell that she was a completely different person from the girl at the beginning of the book. At the end of the story she realized how different she had become and makes an obvious choice to become the girl she once was. During the story, when Brod dies protecting Nina, and lets her know that Alen is still alive and hiding somewhere, she begins a perilous journey in search of her old friend and finds him where no others had ever been before. In the end, what saves her is the kindness that she had before the thought-fire really took control. I think this was a huge wake-up call for Nina as she realises that the thought-fire actually doesn't know what's best for her like she perceived when it first announced itself all those years ago. Heroes of literature have certain aspects of their life simulated during the plot. Two of those things that Nina of the Dark possesses is that she was born in unusual circumstances and she had to complete the last task on her own. This book was great and I would recommend it for anybody who loves to read books about adventure and mythical creatures.