Book Talk: Ever since Fabrizio's master was tried for witchcraft he and his wife have been prisoners in their home. The other servants have left them, but they are like a mother and father to Fabrizio and he longs to restore his master's position. So, he turns to his master's old tarot deck and turns up: the magician, the servant, the castello, the king, the ghost, the princess, the tutor, the queen, and finally: death. His master may insist that all his magic is illusion and reason always triumphs, but sure enough a summons to the castle soon arrives. There the king orders Fabrizio's master to get rid of the ghost that is haunting his daughter, the princess. The only trouble is that the magician doesn't believe in ghosts at all. How can Fabrizio prevent the final card from coming true when the relationships between the people in the castle are just as confusing and misleading as the halls that they live in? If he succeeds it could mean wealth and power for his master once more, but if he fails it may mean both their heads.
Rocks My Socks: I enjoyed the contradictions in the novel, like the fact that the magician in the story is one of the few characters who doesn't believe in ghosts. Or that the servant is the one who seems to have the most power in the plot (a la Moliere). Any novel set in a castle with secret corridors and ghosts is also always a crowd-pleaser.
Rocks In My Socks: The servant and his master have a habit of arguing in cliches that's amusing at first but got on my nerves before long. The characters are also all pretty stock which leads to a plot that's pretty predictable.
Every Book its Reader: Ages 9-12 fans of historical fiction and magic. It's probably a bit too basic to be enjoyed by older teens and adults.
No comments:
Post a Comment