A book review!!!

Book review

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Ever wanted to live in a world full of mystical creatures? In Fablehaven, that is the situation. Kendra and Seth, a pair of siblings, are thrust right in the middle of the action. But in order to prevent people who have not read this book yet from getting confused, let’s start from the beginning. With a rather calm beginning, Fablehaven begins in the middle of a rather boring car journey. Where to? Their old and boring grandparent’s house, of course. (Or so they thought) However, once they arrived, many mysterious things occurred (or noticed). For one, dragonflies and butterflies in there like drinking milk and staring at their reflections in a mirror. An old witchy woman was found a deep forest, while a secret garden was found in a corner of the forest. Cryptic clues given by their grandfather, along with three keys mystify the siblings even further. The breakthrough came one day, as the last and final key unlocks a seemingly empty journal to reveal a single line of text, “Drink the milk” As Kendra ponders the meaning of this line, a butterfly alighted onto a bowl of milk, and starts drinking. Realizing the meaning behind this line, Kendra then drank a little milk from that bowl, getting Seth to do so as well. When they opened their eyes again, a new world is revealed to them. Dragonflies and butterflies are transformed into fairies; while the old woman is revealed to be a witch and magical beings are present everywhere. All these are due to their grandparents being keepers of magical preserves, and out of all their grandchildren, Seth and Kendra were the only ones that passed. And this is where the action starts. Due to the mischief caused by Seth, the fairies now do not offer their protection for the house, and thus renders the house vulnerable, with midsummer eve coming up, a day where all the boundaries of the preserve were released. In the night, deceptive goblins and evil beings trick both Kendra and Seth into opening in the window, thus allowing them in. They wreak havoc in the house, and it was only due to the extra protection that they were saved. The adults were not so lucky, however, and in the morning, had disappeared. Alone, the siblings seek for help, and then, managing to transform their grandmother back from a chicken, search for allies and weapons to use against the evil forces present in the preserve, even have to give a mountain troll a massage to gain its help. They turned out to heavily outnumbered, and lost. Kendra survived, but had to leave her grandmother and Seth behind. Using her last resort, pleading with the fairy queen, she gained access to the shrine. The fairy queen gave her the recipe for a potion that will turn the miniature fairies into human sized warriors, turning her into fairykind in the process, a human with fairy powers. After gathering all the ingredients and summoning the fairy warriors, they rushed to battle, just in time to prevent a revival of the demon Bahumat, which if given the chance, would destroy the entire preserve. After all the normal commotion over the reuniting of the family, they return to the rebuilt house, and with a hint of more books to come, end the story with their parents coming back for them, after the vacation. This was a quite captivating book, and I believe that Brandon Mull is a great writer, being able to sustain my interest till the end of the story. I practically devoured the book, finishing it within a day, reading even while eating.