The Forgotten Ones felt a little like two books in one. It starts off very much like a contemporary and ends in such a fantastical world. The mixture of the two genres was wonderfully unexpected.Allison is the daughter of a schizophrenic mother. She and her mother live with her grandparents but Allison's goal is to learn how to care for her mother by herself. She also has work and dreams of completing college. These goals leave no room for a relationship with the love of her life Ethan. Much to Ethan's dismay.About halfway through the story, everything changes. An entire new world bleeds into Allison's life. Her mysterious absent father shows up, looking not much older than herself. He comes bringing promises of helping to heal her mother and keep them both safe. Safe from a dangerous fairy world that threatens them both. This threat washes over Allison and could take not only her mother from her but also the father she never knew and Ethan.Embarking on a journey into the this strange world could mean losing herself there and never returning home but it's a risk she'll take for those she loves.I really enjoyed the set up of Allison and Ethan's relationship at first. I understood where Allison's mind was but I hated her execution of her plans. She's pretty rude and sometimes plain cruel to Ethan. I could not wrap my head around her reasoning for not just opening up and telling him the truth about where she needed her life to go. It made it hard for me to like her at times but it also makes her a more complex character, which I love.This relationship didn't play as big of a part in the second half of the book and I'm a little sad for that. When The Forgotten Ones hit is fantastical stride it felt very disconnected from the start of the story. I loved the world Howard built but there were so many new characters introduced and I felt I lost a little of who Allison was and what she was fighting to save because of it.The Forgotten Ones is a short read and you breeze through it. There is so much that happens and I wish I could have gotten a bigger dose of these characters and this world because it is such a delicious mix of beauty and evil. I really could spend some time there. It looks like I'll get to because the ending is very open and I'll be anticipating seeing where the story goes.
