Once Stolen is a brilliantly diverse book with a wonderful set of characters and an amazing jungle setting that I completely fell in love with. It felt like a very healthy discussion and resolution.

Everyone was held accountable and given the room to grow from their past actions. I also loved that the people who ignored his needs when he was a child had to earn forgiveness too. He had such interesting, brilliant character development. Instead, he’s given the room and support needed to grow and learn. At the same time, the book doesn’t excuse his more negative behaviours. I loved reading about a character who became selfish and jaded because no one else cared about his needs he was surviving in the best way that he could. I said earlier that he’s quite a messy character, and that links very much with his experience of being autistic and being denied the help that he needed. In speculative fiction, people often use different species to play around with disability or gender but don’t give humans that same diversity, so it was great that this book didn’t fall into that trope.Ĭacao was by far my favourite character. There’s also a human character who’s deaf, which I found delightful. Sign language is widespread in this book. Cacao’s species are all deaf because they don’t use spoken language to communicate.

I didn’t expect all of the deaf rep, so that was a lovely surprise. It was great to have a messy disabled character who wasn’t made unsympathetic.

The way sensory overload was described was so relatable. I knew Cacao was autistic and was so excited to see that on the page. I’m always shouting about the need for more disability representation in speculative fiction, and this book truly delivered. Never knowing what the characters were going to run into next kept the stakes high and made the book so compelling no spoilers here, but the race against time kept me on the edge of my seat. Bryn managed to capture that masterfully. One thing I especially loved about this book was the setting jungle swamps are so atmospheric and rich with life, and D.N. I’m glad to say that feeling didn’t last long, and when the plot found its purpose, my enjoyment took off. It took a little while for the plot to get going in Once Stolen the beginning felt a little aimless at times. The problem is Cacao might enjoy her company more than he would like to admit.

He agrees to be her guide through the jungle to get a chance at those stones. When his heist goes wrong, he’s left chained to the cartel’s prisoner, a person with a hidden stash of stones so large that Cacao would never have to worry again. Mer-snake Cacao is desperate for the power-producing stones that calm his sensory overload he’ll even rob the jungle’s notorious energy cartel for a chance to get his hands on them.

Once Stolen by D.N. Bryn