Monday, June 23, 2008

94. Charlie Bone and the Blue Boa.

Book 3 of the Children of the Red King Series is Charlie Bone and the Blue Boa (UK)Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy(US). I had to confirm that both books were the same before I could mooch them. Who knew that the title would be very different.

As I mentioned earlier, the parallels to Harry Potter is still bothering me, Charlie now has a wand and there's a snake in this one too that is loose int he academy, CoS anyone.

Anyway, this book is about Charlie and Emma finding an invisible boy, except his toe. They find out that the Bloors are hiding him, and the reasson didn't really make that much sense to me. There's a snake loose in the school that turns people invisible once it has coiled around you. With the boy's brother's help, the keeps hatches a plot to rescue him. But there's a new girl in town named Belle, a too beautiful mysterious girl that seems to get along really well with the Yewbeam sisters,warning bells everyone. And Uncle Paton disappears and comes back changed and full of hopelessness.

I liked book three better than book 2 by judge a little bit but could still need a bit more work. The thing I noticed with the series is that the characters aren't as well developed as I would hope it would be and the fluidity of the story is just not very smooth. Characters pop in and pop out and the confrontations end up too easy, in my opinion. I am starting to feel a little symphaty for Billy but he is still a contradiction to me. Also, they defeat their adversaries far too easily in my opinion which makes the ending kind of anticlimactic for me. I already have books 4-6 courtesy of my very very nice bookmooch buddy chris so I'll give them a go.

Rating C

95. Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

I was lucky enough to find the rest of the series on bookmooch and so I was able to continue reading Jenny Nimmo's Children of the Red King Series.

Second to the series is Charlie Bone and the Time Twister. Henry Yewbeam, Charlie's great great grandfather, mysteriously disappeared one night and we find out that he was tricked into using a time twister and was transported into the future to Charlie Bone's time. Amidst problems with his friends and avoiding a plot of his aunts to trick him to enter the painting of an evil sorceror named Skarpo, Charlie is having a hard time trying to hide Henry from Ezekiel Bloom ( the cousin who tricked Henry) and his spies, including BIlly Raven.

Honestly, book 2 was a bit of a letdown for me. At first I liked Henry but I really couldn't sympathize with his character when he was transported to Charlie's time. He just started to annoy me, and his actions that led to his capture was just plain foolish thinking. I can imagine being lost in time should be a bit daunting but he never listens. We also find out that Cook has a big role to play in the story too. And Uncle Paton is solid as a rock amidst bursting bulbs :) . I would probably read the next book hoping it's better than this o ne.

Rating C