Book Review of Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

This review sets the  mood and general storyline but does not reveal the plot. 

Set in imaginary feudal Japan, Across the Nightingale Floor is part YA fantasy and part romance with a bit of a poetic narrative. It opens with sixteen-year-old Takeo finding his entire village wiped out by a powerful warlord's men (the men actually were sent there to kill him). What better way to start a novel? Orphaned but having escaped death, Takeo is taken in by Lord Shigeru of the opposing Otori Clan who has traveled far and wide to adopt him. Takeo has mystical powers (something of which the boy is not aware) that he inherited from a secret and outcast race called the Tribe with which Shigeru has a mysterious link. Shigeru mentors Takeo and coaxes out his mystical powers of invisibility and sharpened hearing, even as the powerful warlord, threatened by this power, plots Takeo's demise. The pacing is terrific, filled with betrayals and misty intrigue, a cross between Shogun and Lord of the Rings. There is never a dull moment in the entire book. As with all YA fantasy novels, one has to suspend disbelief but the author did a terrific job in building a realistic imaginary world, oxymoron as the word might seem. Four Stars