Shadows of Sylvaheim

Toula L. Gordillo

Jan 2022 · Feather Knight Books

About this ebook

Sixteen-year-old Jack thinks he’s a failure. Living with aches and nausea, hearing voices and disconnected from his friends, he wonders if crystal meth might take the pain away. But when his mother ends up in a coma, and his father can’t cope, Jack runs from home with his younger sister Emily.

As the siblings shelter from a violent storm, goddess Freyja appears. She says they must travel to the realm of Sylvaheim to defeat the malevolent Lord Batu Glass and his partner Morgana. Growing in power, they now threaten all the realms.

But the ultimate challenge lies within: Can Jack and Emily conquer their deepest fears to stop druglord Batu Glass and his henchmen, the traitorous ravens, before Jack’s soul is lost too?

Shadows of Sylvaheim is not just a coming-of-age mythic fantasy novel, it also acts as a Jungian guide to life.

“It is a worthy undertaking to introduce young people to Jungian psychology and I applaud Toula’s efforts and dedication. I wish her great success!”

Dr Murray Stein ~ Jungian Analyst, Author, Lecturer

Ratings and reviews

Shadows of Sylvaheim is one of those books that you know is special, but it is hard to know exactly why. I had an urge to write specific quotes while I read. Then I did a little research. It turns out that using her mythic fantasy novel is not only a great way to do bibliotherapy (using a book as part of self-help), but writing therapy as well! I would highly recommend this novel to anyone needing to work through some issues, particularly living with poverty, grief and loss and mental health issues. As an expertly written prompt, it is a fantastic tool to enhance self-knowledge and personal insight.

About the author

Dr Toula Gordillo was born in Brisbane, Australia. She grew up travelling the country with a nature-loving father narrating stories, songs and poetry, and a mother who taught her music and distance education. The family eventually settled on the Great Dividing Range—a city called Toowoomba. Toula’s own life, in many ways, is as diverse as the protagonists in this book. Like the characters Jack and Emily who also ‘lived’ west of the Range, Dr Gordillo followed a dream. She escaped to an alternate reality through fantasy fiction to cope with adversity during her teen years. At seventeen, Toula and her mother moved to Katherine in the Northern Territory. Here, Toula attended Katherine State High School and was exposed to the storytelling method of the Territory’s First Nation’s population. Living, studying and working in one of the most remote regions of Australia, combined with her father’s connection to ‘self, spirit and nature’, Toula came to appreciate the value of mythic fantasy to pass on important knowledge traditions.