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Monday, December 3, 2007

Book reviews of my favourite books
1.The last/spooks apprentice by Joseph Delaney
The spook helps to deal with ghouls,ghasts, boggarts,witches and creatures of the dark...He only takes in apprentice who are the seventh sons of seventh sons (which he is himself) as they are able to see thing that normal people can't.It's Thomas J. Ward's turn to be the spook's apprentice.He has a lot to learn and see...yX Gregory The alphabet is the Greek letter gamma.It is a sign for a ghost or a ghast.The cross refers to the grading of how powerful or dangerous the creature is.x=10 which is the lowest grading.
Boggarts Can be friendly or hostile or a mixture of both. Have coarse hairy coats and take on different animal shapes-mainly dogs but lots of cats and a few goats/horses.Boggarts that rap on walls or doors and cause a nuisance are called hall knockers. Often get up to tricks. May throw pots and pans around in the kitchen, smash cups and saucers , and wake up household.Pull bedclothes from bed. Dangerous because unpredictable. Can change into stone chuckers.These are boggarts that throw pebbles or even boulders.All boggatrs are ranked from one to ten. One is the most powerful.Can kill. Need to be artificially bound.Cattle rippers are boggarts that drink blood from cattle.Can cause farmer hardship.Sometimes can change without warning into ull-blown rippers which are boggatrs t hat drink blood from humans.To bind a boggart-Boggarts move up and down ley lines but can be trapped in one place.This is called naturally bound.The lines are actually lines of power underground.,invisible roads that boggarts use to travel quickly from one place to another.Earthquakes can trap boggarts naturally.Or needs to be artificially bound:pit needs to be dug at least six feet deep.for rippers,nine feetpit must be coated with mixture of salt and iron mixed into bone glue.Salt burns a boggartiron burns away its strengthblood placed in pit to lure boggart before stone is dropped into place, sealing it underground
Witches The malevolent means evil.The benign means good.Good witches help neighbours and wider community.Cure warts, coughs ,fevers and other ailments.Call themselves healers rather than witches. If both types of witches are caught by people like people of churches. they are burnt in public.The falsely accused are blamed for witchcraft in error. Sometimes tortured. Their homes are often sealed and sold.
The unaware means a witch who doesn't know she is one. Somtimes able to hurt others by habouring resentments, evil wishing or evil eye.Can either be malevolent or benign.Some use bone magic.Victim frequently dies of shock or blood loss.Finger,thumb and rib bones are most useful.Seventh rib most of all. Bones are usually taken just before dawn.Malevolent witches are usually bone-bound after death. Their spirits are trapped in their bones. To stop them from scratching their way to the surface,thirteen iron bars should be used, set into stone. This also helps to bury the witches head downward.Close to roots of a tree if possible.A powerful malevolent witch can be undead after you kill her and not do anything to her body.They can crawl, slither,or drag her way towards her victim.Body will be soft and pliable and able to ooze into a victim's nose or ears or nose and possess his body.Making sure she doesn't come back is difficult.Can burn or eat the witch's heart.Pit is the method that is less digusting. A witch is afraid of salt, iron, fire and water.Beware of village girls with pointy shoes.
The unquiet dead Ghasts are fragments of spirits that have moved on. Leaving bad part of themselves makes them able to do this.Ghasts repeat what they did again and again(bad part).Usually something done at scene of crime. also ranked from one to ten.Ghasts can only harm you if you are afraid.Sometimes they try to touch you. Squeeze your throat or press on chest to make it hard to breathe.Ghosts are full spirits still trapped on earth and unable to pass on.Sometimes because of the crimes they have commited. Others have regrets or tasks to do.Sometimes ghosts do not know they are dead.Can sometimes be persuaded and asked to move on.Most are malevolent.
Mother malkin Mother malkin uses blood magic.Gets her power from human blood, mainly from children.Gave home and support to young women, without husbands,who were expecting babies.Blood of babies used for magic.She has a son called tusk,related to his name ,he has humongous teeth.He is very strong and dangerous, help to crush young women.What Alice said about possessionThe damned,the dizzy and the desperate.First word used by priests for those they are certain that will go to hell.Second word-A body newly possessed has poor balance and keeps falling over.The possessed may be bad tempered too.So sudden change of personality may give a warning.Desperate is the state of an undead witch wanting to possess a new healthy body.Men are easier to possess than women.
Climax of story Thomas noticed a silver trail on the near river bank. It was a hunched figure.As he looked carefully,he realised she was mother malkin and she was eating a rat raw.Thomas coughed accidentally which attracted the witch's attention. She told him to go over to her.He stood rooted to the ground,so she moved towards him.Without thinking, he lifted the spook's wand. Suddenly it conjured something special, catching the witch a terrible blow on the side of the head.She gave a grunt and fell sideways into the river.To his horror,her left arm reached from the water and grabbeda tussock of grass.Then the other arm reached for the bank and she started to dragged herself out of the water.He forced himself to take a step towards the water and he jabbed the witch with the end of the staff till she lost her grip on the bank.As he walked along the riverbank, he felt a grip at his ankles.When he looked down, he saw a pair of red, glaring eyes.He jabbed at her hand hard but his ankle was jerked violently causing him to fall to the ground and sent the staff flying.She was using him to drag herself out of the water. He saw the staff, he twisted to reach it.At last he reached the staff and thrust it hard at the witch.She tried to protect herself by gripping the other end of the staff but she screamed loudly at the touch of the staff.To his surprise, she gave a deep sigh and became very still.Very slowly, one hand let go of his ankle ,and the other released the staff and she slid down the bank into the river softly...but this is not the last of Mother Malkin yet.
The book gets more interesting each time as Thomas unveals the unknown to you.
Second book:The spook's curse**** (Face the horror)
book three:The spook's secret*****(who did spook love?)
Rating:For ten years and above,fantasy and Trilogy

2.The hollow kingdom~
author:Clare B. Dunkle
Characters:
Kate-unknown that she is partially elf. An orphan who is well-educated by her father, pretty and brave(elf power is most powerful on a full moon)Emily-Sister of Kate. Has common looks and has love for pets and animals. likes excitement and fantasises
Hugh Roberts-guardian of the sisters. literally "stole" the property of Hollow estate from them. A well-educated and scheming man. He always wears a white wig.
Marak-King of the goblin race. A powerful magician who wants Kate as his wife. His looks scares Kate-mismatched eyes, hair one half black and the other white, bony, pale skin, thick and bushy eyebrows and sharp silver teeth. He also has six fingers. He is a powerful magician who knows dwarf, goblin and elf magic.He is intelligent, pleasant although he likes to tease Kate. The goblin folk lives in Hallow hill(part of the water of the lake is held up by magic) and are unable to go out at dawn and comes out only at night.
Argatha-A wise old dwarf who aids the King and KateSeylin-Almost pure elf, a handsome thirteen/fourteen years old.Usually appears as a large cat. the king's right hand man, knows quite a bit of magic

The sisters wander off to the hills at night to watch the stars(Kate) and has a weird encounter. goblin kings would capture beautiful humans for a wife at night in the hills.Nobody believes Kate that there were goblins and they were out to get her. Kate gives herself to Marak in return for Emily who was missing. She was mistaken as it was Hugh who locked Em in the Hall. But Kate has promised to marry Marak in exchange for Em's safety. Marak and Kate was able to see where Em was through the water mirror.The king brought guards to rescue Em and in order not to let Kate break her promise, he "tied" Kate to him with magic. At the Hallow Lodge, Hugh was given a Stamp of truth on his tongue, pouring out all his plans of getting rid of the sisters. Goblins love revenge, Marak casts a spell on Hugh which makes him do crazy things, this was a wrong move as it nearly caused the extinction of goblin kind. Em wishes to go to the goblin world which she can never go back to the humans forever and she must marry a goblin when she is of marriageable age.She likes Seylin who is usually in cat form and does magic tricks for her.Marak and Kate goes through the marriage ceremony. Kate drinks a potion to make her temporary mute. She was dressed up by the goblin women. Argatha paints letters using black ink on her arms, which changed into gold, these were tests' of the King's bride. Her hair was twisted and puffed into a swirl on her head and with a strand of hair loose. She was dressed skimpyly with lots of bare skin.Marak was dressed barbaric too, looked like a peasant in an old tale. Firstly, out of the room, her wrists were chained to a stone table, she was slashed from the bends of her wrist down to the centre of each palm by Marak, blood collected in a bowl. Marak did the same to himself. After adding some powder, the blood blended to become thick red vapour with a silvery mist, in the end silvery pink cream. Marak rubbed it on Kate's wounds. the lines on her palm would tell the lives they live and Marak has a skip between the line.Next table, she was to kneel on a cushion, Marak cut both their fingernals using a golden sword and fed it to the fire.He also gave Kate's loose hair to the fire, again their blood, forming silver ash.Marak rubbed the sword with the ash and slide it down her hair, back and shoulder. A golden snake appeared coiling itself around kate and became flat on her skin. It was the King Wife Charm, it would harm/bite anyone who endangers the King's Wife's life, including the wife herself. The ceremony is over.Marak tells Kate that she is an elf which she cannot believe.The way the King thinks about his wife affects the way the Heir is born, what one likes about the other.Kate started to settle in.Seylin and Em was inseperable. The Dwarves love Kate for her gentleness and mad eher many jewelleries.Kate helped the goblins improve their English.Hugh has attracted the attention of the doctor of an asylum and told him about his encounter with the goblins. The doctor in turn told his brother, a soccerrer. He has captured Hulk, for his blood to slowly summon the other goblins,enslaving them , including Marak. Marak has Seylin to take charge as he will not be summoned. Marak had wanted to prepare spells but it was too late. Kate got advice from Argatha and decided to save the goblins. Kate left the kindom through the water mirror, she imagined the stars in Liverpool and she ended in the lake as what she saw was a reflection. She met a kind woman on the train who got her a coachman-Bingham to drive her straight to Liverpool, but he was interested in her jewels, tried to kill Kate and was bitten by the snake. She abandoned the carriage and saw Thaydar's spirit.She followed him to a dirty house , saw the decaying body of Hulk and was captured by the soccerer who thought she was a soceress.He summoned all the goblins to kill Kate but all refused.He commanded the best of them all-Marak, who was not in the least afraid of her. She tried to persuade Marak and he was hesitating.when Marak raised the sword in his right hand, he pushed Kate with the other.The socerer commanded him again, this time, Kate is on the floor vulnerable. He awoke when Kate said she was carrying the Heir, also helping to deal with the bad guy. However, it was the snake who did it again.She freed caged animals but killed dangerous ones she found.She even got a human baby(matilda,named after a King's wife), two wolves, a monkey and a rat. Kate released the goblin's spirits from the jar which would escape into their body. But Marak's jar was only half full. She burnt the house to release the spirits.Marak was ill for months. Their baby had golden hair and he had a lion paw. He was named Marak Catspaw.
3.Close Kin (The Hallow Kingdom Trilogy)
author:Clare B. Dunkle
Characters:
Seylin-He misunderstoods Emily's intentions when he proposes to her, thinking that she would rather marry Thaydar than him. Devastated, he leaves the kingdom in search of his own people, the elves.Catspaw's tutor.
Emily-After Seylin left, she realises what Seylin means to her other than taking care of baby goblins and sets out in search of him. She is in the company of Ruby, her teacher on human subject, who hates humans.Ruby-finds herself attached to human children to love.
Sable-Direct desecendant of the Sabuls, one of elf King's camp lords. Afraid to marry to Thorn, he who fed her even before her father's death and afraid to die of child's birth, she disfigures her face. She was told to be wary of goblins so she was very protective when the goblins took her away. She married Tinsel who had been caring and nice to her compared to Thorn. She has potential to be a healer but is more interested in mathematics. She became Kate's good friend.
Irina-Cute and naive, she was in the same elf group with Sable. They had to do butchering. When captured by the goblins, she was easily persuaded by Thaydar, whom she was to marry. She was great at turning plant bits into yarn and spells to weave them into cloth or clothing. She became the fashion designer of the kingdom.
Kate-Settled down but out of sorts lately. Teased many a times by Marak to try and kill her husband.She is not good at weaving spells.
Marak-Scheming by allowing Seylin to find his kind...He teaches the three elf women magic.
Catspaw-Likes to change into different things/animals with magic. Fairly well-mannered.He had a large amount of military magic, enthusiastic in strategy and battle.He loves his mother and is in awe of his father.He was becoming a real king.
Matilda- The human, foster sister of Catspaw is neglected by Catspaw and Kate. She was starting to become vain, ambitious, hot-tempered, bossy and jealousRichard-A goblin child Em meets on the journey, trying to steal.He took care of Jack and Martha, human children. He became the one of the king's page, also Catspaw companion.
Seylin finally found a group of his kind in the elf's forest.He realises that they are rude and "ugly mannered". As he is ready to leave, Emily found him through words of Jane and his father, and also the golblin king's men. The spell had caused the elves to fall asleep. The goblins took the elf women back to be married.Sable slowly finds out that what Tinsel had promised was true and she was not dying from childbirth. Matilda utrns bad tempered and jealous. Catspaw was slowly becoming more kingly, he would never take orders from Seylin only out of his free will...
Elves love stars, flowers, beautiful things. They wear brown.
4.In the coils of the snake
author:Clare B. Dunkle
characters:
Miranda(coils of the snake/seeing):Matilda's daughter.Marak has been bringing her up to become a king's wife.He brought her down to the goblin kingdom, as he made her family think that she was dead. She has grown a liking to Catspaw.Named Sika-fox because of her red hair, brown eyes
Catspaw:Goblin King after Marak's death, rash but confidentAganir Ash:Elf king(unknown),had a wife, Kara he killed with his magic.He had gathered all elves
Seylin:advisor to Catspaw, wise and knowledgeableArianna:actually bethroed to the elf king, has powerful magic ,afraid
Tattoo:son of Sable, guard of Miranda, likes
celina-Seylin's daughterHunter:An elf
Marak is resting in his tomb and so is Thaydar. Marak had taught Miranda to be brave, intelligent and proud, to be queen. Ash meets Catspaw, hoping to sign a treaty, to be able to make copies of elves' magic books in exchange of an elf bride. Ash even tested the goblin's elves.Kate was especially uptight and even cried as Ash used the Call of the King on her. cayspaw did not find a suitable wife among elves of marriadgeable ages but found Arianna,seventeen,who had black eyes-noble family and was afraid of Catspaw. Now that Catspaw has another wife, Miranda thinks she has no place to stay.In her fury,she requests to leave the kingdom. Catspaw agreed but sends Tattoo after her.She finds herself prisoner of Ash and tattoo who changed into a bird was trapped.Miranda/Sika did not know she had became Ash's wife after he has worked the Seven Stars spell on her. Miranda was quite stubborn at first but gradually settles down as she falls in love with Ash. On the other hand,Catspaw was angry with Ash for capturing Miranda and telling lies to Arriana about terrible things, causing her to keep running away and not talking.He sents Seylin then Sable to send the magic books to Ash. Seylin is burned by the seven stars, the Call of the King was used on Sable to deliever Ash's words and she has been struggling to live. Ash promised Sika of their marriage before setting off.leaving her in hunters care. The next day, Catspaw and an army came to the elf camp.Sika made Catspaw promise not to kill Ash, in return, she has to return to the goblin's kingdom, with Hunter tagging along.Tattoo and Hunter build up friendship during their stay.Seylin comes to take Miranda away secretly, saying he need her help. Seylin had turned Miranda,tattoo,Hunter and himself as shadows. Before Ash and Catspaw starts to fight, Seylin worked some magic, surprising them. Miranda flungs herself at Ash.Seylin reveals Ash's identity as he reads from the elves kings chronicles. Ash went to treat Sable and bring her back.Seylin taught Ash too, about history.... They had build up their frienship- the two races, until the time comes again for the goblins to take the elves' books away again.

'5:28 AM♡.