NPO for “Lyli”

Title: Lyli
Author: Bethany Watson
Genre: YA, fantasy
Audience: Teenagers

Characters
Lyli: Being the 12-year-old daughter of the sun god, Aurum, and a mortal woman, Lyli is hated by all the deities except her father. She was banished from her father’s presence when she was an infant, and since her mother died in childbirth, she has lived on her own ever since. She lived in the woods, learning the languages of all the animals and plants, and learning the arts of the forest. She has never met a human who did not fear her, and she doesn’t understand why they are all so afraid. Living on her own and being raised by trees, animals and flowers caused Lyli to be a very unusual person. Having never felt anger, she does not understand it, and having never cried, she doesn’t know how to. Despite this, she knows things that the hermits and sorcerers spend ages trying to learn, like the language of the clouds. She is a very strong and purposeful girl.

Wanderer: Wanderer is one of a race called the heartless, a race of humans who have no emotions. His father was a mutant heartless, who, despite being a heartless, felt emotions, fell in love with a human, and got married. When Wanderer’s mother got pregnant, she was sure her baby wouldn’t be a heartless, but when he was born and didn’t cry, she knew that her worst fears were true. Wanderer’s father felt so terrible for passing on his race to him son that he killed himself, and his wife sent her son out onto the ocean in a basket without naming him, and died of a broken heart. Wanderer washed up on an island and was found by a mother wolf who took him in and raised him with her litter of pups. But when, 12 years later, the wolf mother died, the island became trapped in time because no one was there to love and care for it. Wanderer could not love, so he simply stayed, being a 12 year old boy, for a thousand years.

Ryder: When Ryder was a boy, he was bitten by a werewolf, and ever since then, every full moon, he undergoes a terrible transformation, and becomes a wolf. Even though he did not impose a threat, since he kept his human mind as a wolf, he feared that one day, he would attack someone, so when he was sixteen, he left the town, and joined a crew, and sailed away. On his voyage, his barge was attacked by pirates, and the ship went down. Ryder clung to a plank, and fell unconscious. When he awoke, he was on an island, in the dead of night. He decided to wait till morning, the go inland and try to find help, but morning never came. He was trapped on an island of eternal night, and a magical barrier held him captive.

Point of View
This story it told in third person

Setting
This story mostly takes place on the island of night. It is in a fantasy world, in what is essentially medieval times.

Plot Outline
Lyli is forced to leave her land by the people who fear her, and she sails away until he finds the island that needs love to move through time, and as no one has felt love on the island in a thousand years, it has been trapped in time. She finds Wanderer, and agrees to take him with her as she sails on, trying to find the courts of the gods and plead her case. They go on, and in the dead of night, find an island. They go ashore and meet Ryder, a 25-year-old man, who pleads with them to help him defeat the darkness. This is no ordinary darkness, it is eternal, and evil. Once you comes to the island, you cannot leave, and the darkness takes the worst in you and makes it take you over. Ryder is finding it more and more difficult to keep his mind, and horribly, he is finding it increasingly difficult to change back into a human. Lyli decides to use her sun stone to defeat the darkness. Sun stones are stones from the pavement of the gods, and Lyli is the only mortal in possession of one, and she uses it to communicate with her father, but she discovers that it needs sunlight to function, and she cannot call upon her father to banish the darkness. After a long while, Wanderer’s worst side begins to come out, his emotions, which Lyli thinks is wonderful, but worries Ryder, as he thinks emotions might weaken Wanderer, and when the dark creatures rally to attack this girl and her friends, and Lyli must learn to use her own light to conquer the night.

Conflict
Man vs Man: The gods fight over what to do with Lyli
Man vs himself: this is seen in both Wanderer and Ryder. Ryder who fears himself and is constantly battling the wolf inside. Wanderer who fights against the emotions that he so does not understand, but is so curious about.
Man vs beast: When Ryder loses his mind for a brief moment and attacks Lyli, and Wanderer jumps to protect her in a moment of emotion.

Theme
Good will always win over evil, and light will conquer dark.

Literary Devices
Image: There is imagery used often in this book, as Lyli notices things like smells and sounds and the way things look and feel
Characterization: the story describes each characters appearance and actions in detail
Flashback: there is at least one flashback reminding Wanderer of all his times of emotions and at least one flashback reminding Lyli of all the times he saved her.
Prologue: theres a prologue describing the situations of both Lyli and Wanderer’s births.
Bildungsroman: Both Lyli and Wanderer grow and form themselves throughout the story