Diane Terrana

What greets you when you start this story is every parents' nightmare, a child so lost in grief they have given up. This is what you find when you meet Valentine and learn how she shut the world off after her smart, caring, and funny boyfriend, Amir, died when punched by an opposing football player at the end of a game.
Months later, Valentine has overdosed, but it's uncertain whether it was accidental or deliberate. Her parents, however, have reached the point where desperate times require desperate measures. Shortly after, Valentine and her mom are on a trek through the jungles of Thailand. Some of the other members of the tour play interesting but insightful minor roles, enhancing the story nicely. However, the main part begins when Valentine and several others take the more challenging route up a mountainside where they'll meet the rest at a breathtaking viewpoint. Instead, she and the other more adventurous ones walk into a horror scene when they come upon an elephant massacre. This is where the story begins to take off on a rich, scary, and enlightening path that throws Valentine together with Lin, an enigmatic young man who gives her mixed signals as they are separated from the others while trying to save a baby elephant. Tribal history, lines from poems Valentine remembers, and lots of danger carry much of the rest of the story. The way she comes to grips with herself and how she's avoided the world are done perfectly. I'm so pleased I found this book and opened the cover.… (mehr)

In The World on Either Side, Diane Terrana has written a very good young adult novel that weaves together many themes that are relevant and thought provoking. We currently have an epidemic of young people who are beset by depression. Terrana's main character is set back by grief. Valentine has lost Amir, her boyfriend. In the difficult position her mother finds herself in, trying to assist this nearly but not quite adult daughter, she takes her to Thailand. A new world opens up to Valentine where she learns about a new region of the world, about another faith, buddhism, and also about oppression in many forms: the plight of the Karen and Rohingya peoples, the plight of elephants dealing with poachers. Terrana has brought a study of love, adventure and politics together in a well paced, easy to access novel that will appeal to many kinds of readers.… (mehr)