When you get a book for free and out of the blue you expect certain things. Things like gratuitous spelling mistakes, grammar that limps along, and a plot that lumbers down cliche lane.
I had Rich Shapero's Too Far dropped onto my table while I was studying in the University of Victoria's Student Union Building. It was dropped by my request, since I couldn't say no to a free book, however questionable its contents might be. But, those contents are off to a good start.
In what I can only imagine is a story inspired by Bridge to Terabithia, the plot follows six-year-old Robbie and his adventures in the woods near his house. It sounds rather dull, but the first chapter introduces the conflict his free spirit brings him into with his parents, a girl his age whom his mother forbids him from being friends with, and some sort of forest entity made of trees that eats children and commands the mists and winds.
10 chapters remain, so we'll see how Shapero hopefully takes these elements and does something strange and wonderful with them.
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