supercheesegirl

Finally, Charlie gets to Candy Mountain. I was really pleased at the plot and the action in this book. Finally we get something going on with that portrait--finally Charlie's Mom gets to do something--finally Uncle Paton gets some smooching--finally somebody figures out that the Red King is a tree--and finally, FINALLY, Charlie gets a freakin' clue that his dad is Mr. Pilgrim the mysterious hypnotized teacher! And they finally wake him up at the end of the book. I'm so glad. I'm wondering how the next one is going to start--will it pick up right where this one left off? I kind of hope so, because it ended at a kind of crucial moment. I would like to see how they get Lyell home, what Charlie tells his friends, how the Bloors react, all that. Although we saw that sort of thing when Emma Tolly was rescued, so Nimmo might not show it here. The next one's not out for a few months, though.

I also liked how this book introduced us to the wider world of the children of the Red King, and played a bit on how the descendants are spread out all over the world. I don't mind so much the introduction of more new characters, because they're all related, really. And I'm interested to see where Asa Pike's character development is going. It was like the animal part of him finally understood, with this shadow sorcerer coming to town, that the Bloors are bad and wrong. Asa Pike is definitely a jerk, but I'm interested to see where Nimmo will take him. And also, I'm interested in the ultimate ending of the series. Because she can't end it *too* positively. She's done far too much work setting up the importance of the balance between good and evil in the Red King's children. So I'm interested to see where she'll go with that. I don't know if the next book will be the last one or not.