The Princess of Thornwood Drive

The princess of Thornwood Drive. Moreau, Khalia. New York: Forever, 2023.

Content Warnings: death of parents, panic attacks, off-page sexual assault.

I love books like The Princess of Thornwood Drive that straddle genres and make you think about what is real.

This is a wonderful, touching story of two sisters. One (Alyssa) has a traumatic brain injury, the other (Laine) is her caregiver. Laine feels guilty about the accident that killed her parents and paralyzed her sister. She thinks if she hadn’t lied and said she was sick and couldn’t come home from college, they never would have been in the car. Laine is struggling to keep a roof over their heads and pay the bills. But she still wants the best for her sister. She’s just moved her to Lake Forest Day Care Center, which isn’t going to charge for her care. Laine is too tired to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when she’s worried their uncle wants to purchase their house from under them.

Alyssa isn’t able to communicate with her sister, but she is still present in her body. However, she believes she is a princess and her parents are missing in the Dark Forest. She sees her sister as the First Princess and herself as the Second Princess. When she and Laine enter Lake Forest, she sees it as a healing center for changels, and smells the rot. She communicates with her fellow changels via their mind connection, and they warn her of the dark prince who hurts women. But how can she communicate this information to Laine?

The narrative jumps back and forth between the sisters, giving different viewpoints of what is going on. While you know that Laine’s viewpoint is the reality and Alyssa’s is coming from her brain injury, there are times when the lines are blurred and you’re not quite sure. Alyssa’s fantasy world is vivid and detailed.

This book does deal with some upsetting topics (see the content warnings above), and it also serves as a warning to all of us how easy it is to abuse power when you’re working with people with brain injuries, developmental delays or any other disability that makes them reliant on others for care. I hurt for Alyssa and her friends, who had no way to share what was happening.

There are so many wonderful details in this book (like that Laine and Alyssa were award-winning black equestrian riders), that I felt I was able to drop into their lives and enjoy their story. I do wish there was more explanation of the divide between them and their uncle, because that becomes an important factor in the story.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of realistic fiction as well as fantasy!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org.