I thought this review that was just posted on Amazon UK might be of interest. I'm really pleased with it because the reader absolutely 'got' what the novel is meant to be about.



'If ever you've strayed in a dodgy part of town you'll have felt what this novel at times conveys; a sense of anxious dread and paranoid suspicion. Evil doesn't play by the rules or rather it does but the rules are hidden. You're left constantly wondering what lurks beyond the next page and 'The Magic Lands' doesn't disappoint with twsts and turns aplenty.

Surreal, beguiling, entrancing, deflating, uplifting and even at times demanding the book reminds you of life itself and I guess that's the point. I'd recommend this for the older teenager and above or a bright younger teenager as the concepts, whilst wrapped in a context akin to a child's story, are altogether adult and belong to a world we know in real life to be decidely grey and occasionally bleak.

However there is hope - but again, as in real life, at a cost - and the reader is ultimately rewarded for the journey they take with the two boys and their companions. I'll leave you to discover what that is for yourself but if you like your novels to reach out, grab your brain and go 10 rounds instead of lying passive like the pulp they often are then I highly recommend this book to you.

'The road is cruel and dark, my friend.' '