Book Review of The Vale
The Children’s Book Review
The Vale
Written by Abigail Hing Wen
Ages 8+ | 304 Pages
Publisher: Third State Books (2025) | ISBN-13: 979-8-89013-031-0
What to Expect: Science fiction, artificial intelligence themes, virtual reality, family dynamics, and ethical technology development.
Written by bestselling author Abigail Hing Wen (also a film producer and director), this middle grade novel, The Vale, offers a timely exploration of AI development, family loyalty, and the balance between virtual and human relationships.
Thirteen-year-old Bran Lee has spent seven years building the Vale, a virtual world populated by AI creatures he’s grown to love—especially Gnomly, an elf who feels more like a brother than code. When his family faces eviction and their latest invention fails at a competition, Bran secretly enters the Vale in a high-stakes technology contest. As the competition unfolds, mysterious glitches threaten his virtual world while revelations about a trusted family friend, “Uncle Roy,” shatter everything Bran thought he knew about loyalty and betrayal.
Wen employs a dual-world structure to explore the themes of betrayal, technological ethics, and what constitutes a meaningful relationship with nuance. Alternating chapters between Bran’s contemporary struggles and the Vale’s fairy-tale-inspired “Book of Elf” sections, she creates effective narrative tension, with the virtual world feeling genuinely magical while raising questions about AI development and human attachment to digital creations. Wen’s treatment of AI development feels both accessible and relevant, touching on copyright issues, ethical training data, and the potential for artificial intelligence without becoming didactic.
The family dynamics feel especially authentic, particularly the parents’ marriage under financial stress and Bran’s navigation of social challenges. His difficulty with peer connections and preference for his virtual world avoids stereotypical portrayals, instead showing how creativity and technology can both isolate and connect. When long-held assumptions about trust and loyalty are challenged, the story delves into how relationships can be more complex than they appear, particularly when economic pressures create desperation.
The Vale is an engaging story grounded in genuine emotional stakes and authentic family dynamics—a highly relevant choice for readers interested in stories with strong character development alongside fascinating speculative elements!
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About the Author
Abigail Hing Wen is a tech leader, filmmaker, and the New York Times bestselling author of the Loveboat, Taipei series. She executive-produced the Paramount+ book-to-film adaptation “Love in Taipei,” a romantic comedy starring Ashley Liao and Ross Butler, now available on Netflix.
Abigail holds a BA from Harvard, where she took coursework in film, ethnic studies, and government. In her career in tech, she has negotiated multibillion-dollar deals on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, worked in venture capital, and hosted Intel’s Artificial Intelligence podcast. She and her work have been profiled in numerous publications, including Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, NBC News, Forbes, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, and Bloomberg, among others. Abigail lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For more information, visit https://www.abigailhingwen.com/
