Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Several belittling comments and made-up cuss-type words in their society.

Violence: Threats of torture, beatings of non-compliant citizens, cities and houses on fire, threats to eat a human for dinner, holding a knife to the throat and threatening death.

Adult Themes: Mel is taken from his family to protect his life.  Ministries have a communist-type rule over the kingdom.

Synopsis

When Mel finds out that he has been accepted to Master Blenk’s art studio as an apprentice, he is thrilled.  He has grown up in a village that has very little color.  Color is considered a ‘Pleasure’ which is expensive and  strictly controlled by the evil Fifth Ministry. Upon arriving at the studio, Mel is amazed at the rich color and detail that the master uses in his paintings.  He can’t wait to start training, but Mel’s dreams are crushed as his days are filled with tedious chores instead of art lessons.  However, Mel is befriended by a fellow apprentice, Ludo, and a kitchen maid, Wren who try to buoy his spirits.  When Master Blenk mysteriously disappears, the three become caught in a battle between the Fifth Mystery and the Rainbow Rebellion, an underground gang who is trying to make Pleasures more affordable for all.  This battle is far from ordinary as they find themselves able to enter into the Master’s paintings.  This alternate world is full of living houses, mazes, monsters and angels.  Paintbrushes, pigment and imagination are your greatest weapons.  Rescuing the master becomes harder than they think.

A very imaginative story.  It took me a few chapters to get into it.  I wish there had been a little more development of the other two characters (Ludo and Wren).  I wasn’t really sure if Ludo was the type of friend that Mel could depend on , but maybe that was part of the suspense.  In the end I enjoyed the story.