Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

Ofelia and her pregnant mother, Carmen, go to live with Ofelia's new stepfather, a cruel military leader in Franco's Spain.  On the way, Ofelia finds a stone statue that is missing an eye.  She finds the missing piece on the ground and replaces it in the statue.  When she does, she awakens an underground world of fairies and other magical creatures, who have slumbered since their princess was taken away from them centuries before.  

This is one of the rare novels that was written based on a movie.  I didn't know that when I started reading it.  I mostly picked it up because the co-author is Cornelia Funke.  When my son heard I was reading it he was surprised because the movie it was based on was rated R for violence.  I continued reading, but he was right.  It is really really violent and the descriptions of the atrocities of war finally got the best of me.  I wasn't able to finish it.  The writing is good, and the plot is gripping, but it is very dark, the stuff of nightmares.  The cover looks like it is written for middle grades, but don't give this to a kid. An angsty teen might like it. (256 p. 2019)