The story starts out as a tale of a young lad whose family are being torn apart and his relationship with his outspoken, uncompromising, well-traveled grandmother who just makes him fit into her life and plans. He is the complete opposite of her, and initially finds the trip to the Amazon the stuff of nightmares. For the first part of the book, I was loving the pace, loving the wonderful sights and sounds of the Amazon, and getting to know all the characters involved – it was a beautifully crafted jungle adventure…and then there is ‘an event’ (I don’t want to ruin it for anyone) and suddenly the book takes a turn and becomes this mystical tale, full of wonder and magic. I can’t say how much I loved this book – it was a perfect ‘filler’, and I zoomed through it quicker than I do with most books. Turning each page was a joy, and I never knew where it was going to take me. It was also the perfect size – there wasn’t TOO much ‘depth’ – there were no flowery words just for the sake of padding it out and trying to be clever and arty – the story was very much ‘as it was’ – and I never felt that I had been cheated. I usually race through paragraphs when I’m enjoying books, skim-reading just to get to the next good bit (I’m a bugger for that), but I actually believe I read near enough every word because it was relevant! This is definitely my favourite book that I have read in recent months.