Amadan na Briona

This is a unique YA fantasy novel, set in America, with a rich overlay of Appalachian and Cherokee mythology rather than the usual creatures from European myth and legend. Adanta, a young girl whose parents have disappeared, must venture into Adantis, the land of the Hidden People, to find them. In some ways, this novel reminded me of Stephen King's The Talisman (a young protagonist on a fantastic quest to save a parent), but Youmans's writing is very different from King's. It's descriptive but still very much aimed at younger readers; it has a dark tone at times, but it's safely PG-rated. The only drawback was that, as in many "quest" novels, there were significant stretches of time where not much happened except that Adanta goes somewhere, meets new people, is shocked/surprised/tricked/scared, and then goes somewhere else.