The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman

This is a small young adult book that feels like almost every other young adult series.

The Dark Hills Divide introduces us to the Land of Elyon and our main character, Alexa Daley. Her father is leader of one of the 4 towns in the walled areas. Everything outside the walls are considered wild.

Through a series of unfortunate events, Alexa is thrust headlong into a coming crisis. She meets up with some talking animals (made possible by a magical stone) who inform her that angry prisoners are planning to invade their towns.

These prisoners are lead by a man named Sabastian. The trick is, we, along with Alexa, have no idea who Sabastian is and part of the fun is figuring out his identity.

I think there might be a religious tie-in seeing as Elyon is mentioned (Elyon is a name for God).

We'll have to see how this series pans out.