“Rise of the Evening Star” by Brandon Mull
Tweet Back of the Book: At the end of the school year, Kendra and her brother Seth find themselves racing back to Fablehaven, a refuge for mythical and magical creatures. Grandpa Sorenson, the caretaker, invites three specialists — a potion master, a magical relics collector, and a mystical creature trapper — to help protect the property from the Society of the Evening Star, an ancient organization determined to infiltrate the preserve and steal a hidden artifact of great power. Time is running out. The Evening Star is storming the gates. If the artifact falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the downfall of other preserves and possibly the world. Will Kendra learn to use her fairy gifts in time? Will Seth stay out of trouble? DeLaina’s Review on Goodreads.com: The themes in the book are excellent too. For example, the girl is a rule-keeper and the boy is a curious mischief-maker, and one of the central themes is obedience. At the end you figure out that a measure of disobedience was necessary to set in motion the events that eventually lead to the ultimate demise of evil, which could not have happened otherwise. Fascinating!!! (read the entire review here) I chose this book, obviously, because it’s the second in the series I’m currently reading. (The first is reviewed here.) Literary Merit: The conversations and the way the dialogue is written is wonderful. The books are written pretty well in general, but the conversations come across as genuine. There’s nothing unusually stilted about the relationship between Kendra and Seth. In fact, half of their conversations remind me of conversations I’ve had with my siblings. The detail of the world tends to vary, in my opinion. There are times when I can clearly picture the scene as it unfolds, and other times when it’s not so clear. Individual characters are usually detailed fairly well, while a setting not so much. This is understandable and allows my imagination to fill in the blanks, so to speak, but it seems inconsistent because other settings are extremely detailed. Plot: The plot is simple, but strong. For adult readers, you can usually see where the story is going, but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment. Younger readers, for whom the story is intended, shouldn’t have that problem which will make the twists and turns extremely exciting! Characters: Kendra is one of the main characters. She’s about 15 years old in this book (maybe 14, but I’m pretty sure it’s 15) and she’s a goody-two-shoes. She’s also a tattle-tale, a bookworm, and fairykind. (Read the books and you’ll understand that last part.) Seth is Kendra’s little brother. He’s around ten or eleven years old, and he’s a bit of a dare-devil. Courageous, reckless, and somewhat self-centered, he tends to cause a ton of trouble. He is almost the opposite of his sister, but he does have a good heart. There are tons of characters in this (and the other) books, but I’m not going to [read full post]
Well, this whole site is pretty much about me. You can click the pretty "about me" link in the menu bar near the top of the page if you like, but everything on this site gives you some insight into my psyche. Good luck returning to normal. :-p
