Doris and the Anhk

by Brian Holtz

Doris, a neurotic and quirky thirteen-year-old, is thrust into an alternate reality where flowers sneeze, fairies can't be trusted and a beast that isn't quite a wolf means to kill her. Racing against time, she'll learn that anything is possible, even the unlikeliest of things... And sometimes a big imagination is all you need.

Audiobook

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Hi. I'm the author of two full length novels, both of which can be found at podiobooks.com for your free listening pleasure. Each is also in print and can be purchased at amazon.com. You can read my short story, Harvey & Ethel, from this site, and others are posted on my personal site as well.
Thanks and please leave a comment!
Brian

Reviews

[EJ Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doris and the Ankh had a Wizard of Oz vibe running through it. You have a little girl spun off into an odd, magical world and is joined by 3 companions to help her along the way. They are definitely not your usual companions; one was a once-dead mouse.

While the story itself is interesting, it was held back by a single thing. Until now, I had no clue how important the “show, don’t tell” mantra writers always hear is. This book was balanced on the edge of being okay and amazing by that one problem. There was way too much telling. In places where showing became more prevalent, or the telling was appropriate, the story took off and was quite enjoyable.
I personally found Doris to be a little difficult to understand. I’ll admit I liked her a lot better at the end of the book than I did at the beginning. She definitely grew and changed during her time in the strange land, so that’s good. I found a few of her companions much more agreeable, though there was this one… However, he was set up to be that way, so it worked perfectly.

This book is currently recommended for 5th to 9th grade. I will admit it gets a little dark at times and sometimes a little evil. So I will leave it up to parents how they feel about their younger children reading that. I’d compare it easily to the 5th and 6th books of Harry Potter in the level of darkness.

All in all, there were very few errors in the book, and I can see the right middle-schooler quite enjoying it.

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm kind of torn as to what to say about this book. It's not awful, but neither is it as great as some of the other books that Holtz has put out. (My favorite of which has to be Handbook for the Criminally Insane.) I think that part of this is because quite frankly, I'm not in the target age group for this. It's very much for a younger audience and most of my problems come from the issues that a lot of adult readers find when reading books from the children's section.

The book is a little predictable in that way that most children's books tend to be. You know what the score is and what will eventually happen. That much is pretty evident, although I'm glad things turned out the way I expected, as I don't think I'd have liked it if hadn't. Even so, adult readers and listeners will probably find few surprises here.

This isn't to say that there aren't parts to this book that I really enjoyed. The narration was pretty well done and I enjoyed the various voices and accents given. It's just a shame that we never get as full of a look at any of the characters, as Doris is on a very strict time schedule and much of the book's plot focuses on her finding the Anhk and getting home. This is a shame, as there's a richer story hiding behind all of this and I'd have loved to have more development of the characters, of their back stories, and of the land itself. While giving Doris a set amount of time to accomplish her mission does give it a sense of urgency, it also overly restricts it at times.

Still, this will probably delight the younger listeners and given that there's little for parents to object to, this is a safe listen for those long car trips. There's some terror and dangerous situations, as well as references to magical creatures being used as slaves for mining, but (spoiler!) no gruesome deaths ala Harry Potter and nothing is ever really overly described to the point where your kid would be guaranteed to have "scream themselves and you awake" nightmares later on. (And you can get it for free through the Podiobooks website or through iTunes.)

This is cute, but again- I'm just not the right age group to fully appreciate this. I'm not sorry I listened to it, but I just prefer the adult stuff. Adult readers who aren't into children's stories will want to instead pick up Handbook for the Criminally insane (love that one!) or Nephilim Push. (Neither of which are appropriate for kids in the slightest.)

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A middle grade adventure with fun, tense, and enlightening moments. It's refreshing to read a stand alone book with character growth and development.

[Tovarris Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best but pretty good for a mostly kids book.