The Desert Wall

The Divided World #1

by Raf Morgan

Malenie found the perfect place to hide from the world.

No one else sees the endless Wall that stretches across the desert, and when Melanie is in the shadow of its magic, she becomes invisible. Bullies can’t torment her. Her ex-best friend can’t ignore her. And her beloved Papa doesn't worry about the secret that puts her life in danger...

When a stranger comes to town and abducts Papa, Malenie is thrust into a dangerous quest to save him. She learns that the Wall holds secrets that will bring her in touch with her ancestral magic, bind her to new friends and old enemies, and force her to confront a deadly villain. To save Papa, she will have to learn to use the mysterious magic that is inscribed on her very skin.

The Desert Wall is the first book in a new series about friendship, families and magic.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2018

About the author

Also publishes as R. Morgan

I’ve been preparing all my life to be a writer, though I didn’t know it. Like that time I volunteered to protect sea turtles on a beach in Costa Rica and wound up with half my body in her nest at 3 am with a blue plastic bag under her butt to catch her eggs to relocate them so poachers couldn’t find them. Those nests are deep! Those sea turtles are big! Or living in Bangkok, Thailand, which is where I am now for my day job. (I’m a USAian.) You never know what’s going to happen here and every day is an adventure. Once we hired a driver to take us to the beach and he removed the steering wheel from the dashboard. While we were driving!

Mostly I’ve worked as a technical editor and a translator, but I’ve also worked as a dog walker (sometimes taking 11 dogs to the park at once, but usually only two or three) and in a district court. One time, I was asked by a judge to interpret for a woman who only spoke Portuguese even though I don’t speak Portuguese. He had decided that Spanish (which I speak as a second language) was close enough because it was an emergency. I had to go change my shirt after that, I was so nervous about messing it up.

None of these stories have made it into my books yet, but the settings of the different places I’ve lived often do. The desert in my first book, The Desert Wall, is a mashup of the Sonoran and the Chihuahuan Deserts (I’ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, and Monterrey, Mexico, too).

I don’t have a picture of me on my website or social media because of my day job situation. I hope you enjoy the picture of the saguaro cactus. They’re protected by federal law, live to be 200 years old and their flowers are pollinated by bats. I think that’s pretty cool.

Reviews

[Cathleen Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book—and I don’t love many. But this one deserves my affection.

It has heart. It has vivid description. It has an unusual setting—the desert—and the world-building is meticulous but not wearying. All the right touches in all the right places.

It describes a journey of a girl who discovers who she is and how to control her power, but at its core it’s really the tale of discovering her true family and friends, and how to love them.

If that sort of tale appeals to you, read this story. You can thank me later. :)

[Trish Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coming of age magical adventure in an alternate world (3.5 stars)

Malenie, Nes and Paza travel to several locations on either side of a mysterious wall to try and find, and ultimately rescue, Malenie’s father and Nes’s siblings. Paza is avoiding the clutches of a powerful man in blue robes who seems obsessed with capturing her. Along the way, Malenie must learn to master the magic of the blue diamonds covering her skin, and they meet many other people, some helpful some not so much, culminating in an exciting showdown at the Suntin family home.

There are several characters and magical abilities to learn as expected in the first book of a series, so it can get complicated, but focus on the three main protagonists (all female by the way, which is refreshing) and you won’t go wrong. Given it is a different world to ours, the names are often unusual. I don’t mind that, but often thought Melanie when I read Malenie. My biggest complaint was more the inconsistency. If her name is Malenie then surely her nickname should be Mallie, not Mellie? Also, family names were often similar, e.g. Liac and Serliac; so why then was it Malenie and Emelenie, not Emalenie?

I call this a coming of age, as Malenie had never questioned her father about the blue diamonds and therefore when she discovers her magic, she knows nothing of it; how to control it, rules in using it and so on. Frustratingly, though she meets others who could help her, she asks little about it and only uses what they tell her. Therefore, exactly what she can do is revealed annoyingly slowly.

Also slow, is the middle of the story, in which the girls travel here and there. The descriptions of modes of transport, scenery (it’s mostly desert), and food are vividly detailed, but not varied. We only know what’s going on from Malenie’s POV in the third person and she tends to determine her friends’ and companions’ moods by observation rather than asking them.

The writing is good, although I did get confused sometimes as to who was speaking, and the book provides a solid foundation for the beginning of the series. Lovers of magical worlds and fantasy adventures should check it out.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read in a long time. First, the cover is absolutely gorgeous and was the first thing that caught my eye. I love stories set near deserts and this delivers in spades. The magic system felt fresh and interesting. I loved how the main character had to build bridges between all of the characters, and in light of her upbringing the occasional piece of wisdom made sense.

I love each of the characters fiercely and would adopt all of them in a heartbeat! I actually had a moment (you'll know when), where I thought, well, crap, now I have to adopt this grown man too. They tug on my heartstrings. <3 <3 <3

I loved the strong female friendships formed in this book, it is rare that I read about women forming such close friendships and bonds in a way that it realistic. I really enjoyed the three vicious girls in this book.

This didn't feel like a NA, YA or MG book to me, just a fantasy book with protags who were younger and that is refreshing. Highly recommend!

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first novel I've read by Raf Morgan, and they have done a good job creating a rich, believable world and populated it with multidimensional characters. I was particular happy with the way magic is handled in the story, and the exploration of family relationships.

[J.P. Willson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to finish and for many reasons. I just found myself putting this down more often than with most reads. As odd as this may sound, one of my main issues was with the names of the characters. I found myself mispronouncing them in my head as I read because these names were so very similar to actual normal names. Malenie instead of the usual Melanie, Emelenie seemed another derivative of Melanie to me, and there were others that I shall not list because this review would become a book in and of itself. There is also the sheer number of characters in the book, so many I honestly could not keep them all straight where some of them had even entered the story. It did get confusing for me.
There was also the constant use of the term, rot, rotter, you rot, you rotter....from my understanding this is an British term, the author is a self-named USAsian...so why- would be my question. If I were to count the number of times the phrase Gods and Goddesses was used, well it would indeed be a high number. Again, why? It certainly did not add anything to the story as a say, proper 'catch-phrase' would or could.
In essence what I am alluding to is the book itself was repetitive, in repeating of phrases, in repeating of story-line(many fight scenes that served little to set scenes or start new ones) repeating locations also. It seemed they traveled from one place and back only to do this over again or at least it seemed that way.
Do not misunderstand, the writing is quite good and it is obvious this has been edited time and again, but for me it just seemed they were on this endless journey to nowhere for no apparent reason until the end where yes, there is a message and a damn good one that had really nothing to do with the journey.
So, it certainly seemed a roundabout way to get to that end...

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magic, friendship and adventure. This novel weaves together these elements so brilliantly that it will stay with you long after you read the last page. The world building is intricately developed, and you can imagine yourself in each new setting the characters encounter. There are moments of real danger for the characters in this book and not every problem is neatly solved. This really raised the stakes for the resolution at the end and made me invested in the fate of the characters. I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy fantasy and can't wait for the next installment in this series!

[Bobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great plot and story. This book keeps your interest from the beginning to the end. Did not want the story to end and want to hurry and read Red Fortress as soon as I can. The characters are so very diverse and make you want to know what will happen next to them, they feel like friends. This is the first book I have read by this author, but it will not be the last.
The setting for the story was most interesting. It felt so real, whether you were on either side of the wall. The magic interlaced in the plot made the story flow. Highly recommend this paperback book to all lovers of mystery and intrigue.

[T.M. Raskin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a bit of trouble reading this book

Although I enjoyed the different culture I couldn’t tell if it was a true culture or a made up one. I felt a bit like I was thrown midsentence into Melenie‘s world. Without any back story I didn’t understand what was going on with the wall or her powers. I feel the Arthur spent too much time on the detail of the characters five senses than what was really going on. Somehow there was a big disconnect for me and I never got the big picture.

[stacy goff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intense young adventure

An intense young fantasy adventure. I’m a huge fan of Tamora Pierce’s books and this shared the same strong storyline and engaging characters. Looking forward to his next book!

[Neil McFarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing was tight, characters well drawn, the world rich and original and the story engaging and had heart.

[Victoria Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed with this young adult fantasy novel. Good world-building with a largely believable scenario and lits of dramatic action.
Enjoyable read.

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. The beginning & middle but was expecting a bigger end, not that it was bad I just wanted a bigger ending.

[Kristen Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book intrigued me because of the beautiful cover and the setting seemed to have Middle Eastern inspiration. I’m always looking for stories with diverse characters and cultures. What is the desert wall and why does it divide the world in two? How does Malenie have magic inscribed in her skin? But unfortunately, while these questions were answered, the overall story didn’t satisfy me.

I’m not sure if this book is quite young adult or if it’s more middle grade, since the characters’ ages weren’t given but they seemed younger than twelve in their speech, thinking, etc. But some of the subject matter was very dark, while written about in simplistic language like it was trying to be clear to a young reader.

The magic rules weren’t clear in the beginning, then they were haphazardly explained in the middle, and changed in the end. But since magic was central to the story, all the changes were hard to accept. I’m not sure how much of the confusion was from the characters’ youth and inexperience, and what was just a jumble.

Also, by the end, there were too many character names to keep track of and some were too similar. For example, Paza and Papa are one letter apart, It was easy to mistake one for another at a glance.

But for all the young characters, some parts were hard to read because of the harsh violence, especially later on. There is a lot of abuse, death, and pain, some of it inflicted on children. The story’s message that abusers were once victims of abuse themselves was heavy-handed and not applied well. I was supposed to feel sympathy for the villain because of his father, but the other mercenaries who worked for him were killed without remorse, names, or backstory. So do they not deserve the same chance at redemption?

Overall, it was an interesting world but the story was awkwardly written. I’m not sure who the intended audience was (children, teens, or adults) and so I don’t know who I would recommend it to. It was recommended to fans of Tamora Pierce but I don’t think there is much of a comparison there.