| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: None Violence level: Low (There's a bit of a ruckus, but not exactly violence) Back Cover: “Aidan Cain has had the worst week of his life. His gran died, he was sent to a foster home, and now malicious beings are stalking him. There is one person Gran told Aidan to go to if he ever got into trouble—a powerful sorcerer who lives at Melstone House. But when Aidan arrives on the doorstep, he finds that the sorcerer's grandson, Andrew, has inherited the house. The good news is that Aidan can tell immediately that Andrew's brimming with magic, too—and so is everyone else at Melstone. The bad news is that Andrew doesn't remember anything his grandfather taught him. Chaos is swiftly rising, and he has no idea how to control it. A sinister neighbor is stealing power from the land, magic is leaking between realms...and it's only a matter of time before the Stalkers find Aidan. If Aidan and Andrew can harness their own magics, they may be able to help each other. But can they do it before the entire countryside comes apart at the seams?” |
I enjoyed the basic cleverness of it, especially the way that the characters mirror each other from fairy to humanity. It was a nice sort of challenge, matching them up and trying to figure out why there were two of everyone in the town, one magical and one normal. Well, mostly normal. Groil was an especial favorite, and very useful for getting rid of unwanted vegetables. And as always, Diana Wynne Jones managed to include a dog. She really does enjoy dogs in her books.
So yeah, it's sort of a figuring out how to get rid of the bad guy while avoiding the possible consequences of trying to get rid of the bad guy. This is of course complicated by the presence of the fairy king's wives, who really don't care much about the humans and just want to get back at their husband. Some of the fairies are friendly and others are very not, and throughout the fairy king is mostly just supercilious, vaguely threatening, and really annoying. At the end, I was happy they finally got the better of him, but it would have been so much more satisfying if he'd actually acknowledged it. I guess that's too much to ask from the king of fairies, though, and it does leave you wondering if perhaps he may be right about the dangers of magic.