Lia Park and the Missing Jewel, rippingly shreds the opening to this series

Librarians realize when book trends jump the shark. Too many books are made that are too similar, that are too closely related in too short of a time period. Sometimes that window is mercifully short, other times it wears out its welcome. Books on teen vampires, diversity and post-apocalyptic thrillers with a plucky cast of upstarts come to mind as recent trends that flooded libraries with too much of that content. There are times though when a publishing void is filled with just the right amount of books that previously weren’t represented enough. This can be a tricky thing because savvy young readers know when requisite categories are simply being checked off or were ordered en masse because publishers wanted a book that had this or that. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is not a book that fits into any of those categories. I have to state it like that because one might put the book in league with others if they simply gloss over its plot.

Lia Park is a twelve-year-old girl who lives in a world where magic, for some, exists and is practiced. However, Lia is not magical-or so she thinks and simply wants to live a normal early teen life where she can go to parties and hang out with her friends. The biggest party of the year is happening and her parents have said that she can’t go. When she sneaks out and goes to said party she unknowingly breaks a protection spell that’s been guarding her family for ages. Her parents immediately get kidnapped and taken to another realm where they’re being held hostage by a malevolent spirit. She teams up with her friend Joon to scavenge through her grandmother’s home in Korea, which leads them to the place where the real magic happens.

This is where Lia Park and the Missing Jewel will surprise readers, especially those who might be a bit sour on where they thought the book might have been going. Sure, Lia has to explore her Korean roots, and that’s a big part of the story, but it’s not the driving force of it. Yeah, it’s about magic too, but it’s not so magic-driven that those Muggle opposed folks won’t get it. It certainly has a strong early teen female character, but it’s not all girl power and no bite.

Instead, what the Missing Jewel delivers is a book that really finds its groove once all the stereotypical elements have been introduced. It starts out good and then gets great. What’s more, as the book picks up steam, its heel becomes very believable, scary and one that radiates the fear that’s lacking in some mglit books. To be clear, it’s not a horror-type of scare, rather it’s the fact that readers will believe it when she says that she’ll kill her loved ones, and it won’t be in some faux flashback or dream sequence.

Also, this is not mglit that’s aimed at older audiences. It’s a great book for those avid readers in fifth grade through middle school. The chapters are around nine pages each, which is a length that allows them to accomplish reading it completely or pushing through to read another chapter because they want to see what happens.

It’s the fact that audiences might be expecting a soft book, but are treated to one with real teeth. It’s got adventure to satisfy the action audiences and is diverse enough to bring in those who are looking for something that hasn’t been represented as it could’ve been. Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is the start of a series that’ll keep you hooked as long as future books maintain this quality.

Lia Park and the Missing Jewel is by Jenna Yoon and available on Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

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