Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I've been putting off this post for a little while because I wanted to write about all of the books together, but then I realized that this might mean a really long post and I've never been particularly long winded, so I'll do my best. These books were recommended to me by several people, the latest being my sister Teresa and brother-in-law Frank. The author, Brandon Mull, was actually on of Frank's roommates at BYU, which I think is funny because he also knows Stephenie Meyer from his home ward in Arizona. I guess Frank just has awesome connections to people who write books that I really like! Moving right along, the Fablehaven series was SOOOO GOOD!!!! I recommend it to everyone; I absolutely loved it.

Book 1: Fablehaven

Fablehaven sucked me in right away and I quickly fell in love with the two main characters, 14-year-old Kendra and 12?-year-old Seth. They are fun, real kids who actually act like siblings. Their banter is very entertaining. The world that is set up in such a beautiful way and I was so quickly drawn in. In this story Kendra and Seth discover the secret world of magical creatures that live around them during their visit to their grandparents, who happen to be caretakers of the magical preserve Fablehaven. Fun first story!




Book 2: Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star

This was a step above the first book on the "exciting" scale. I feel like the first book could have stood on it's own as a single, fun book without any sequels. So I enjoyed how Book 2 brought you back into the story at the end of their school year to spend their summer break at Fablehaven. We start to experience what betrayal feels like by characters you think you can trust, which becomes a theme that the author tends to touch on quite a bit. Kendra and Seth do make some lasting relationships and encounter some creative difficulties in this second book, including surviving being eaten by a huge demon, finding an artifact, and destroying an evil revenent. Always good times!


Book 3: Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague

In this book the adventure and trials get stepped up again in intensity and excitement. The preserve is being taken over by a plague that is turning all the creatures dark/evil. In this book we get to know a greater variety of the kinds of creatures that live on the preserve. And just so we're all clear, the centaurs are total jerks! I would not want to have anything to do with them. The satyrs are fun; highly immature and add a lot of spunk to the story. They help lighten the mood when things get too serious. Seth and a character named Warren also have fabulous senses of humor. Throughout their adventuring in the last couple books Kendra and Seth have acquired some new and useful abilities that help them save the preserve from the source of evil that is threatening to take over. Of course they save the day while meeting more fun and exciting characters along the way. Fun story! Oh, and Kendra totally meets a cute boy in this book who we quickly fall in love with. At least I did, but then I'm a total sucker for adolescent romance.

Book 4: Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary

Again, a large step up in excitement from the last story. You can feel the tension growing as you get a feel of what they need to accomplish before the end of the series in Book 5. Getting an idea of the overall purpose behind the adventuring made it more intense for me. This book was definitely the most....I don't wanna say emotional but I guess it was in the sense that it toyed big time with your connections with the characters. Brandon Mull was very successful in making you fall in love with several particular characters so that you really come to care about their well being and how they relate to other characters. Because he was so successful in creating meaningful characters, the ending in this book REALLY pissed me off!!! I haven't been so angry from reading anything in years. In fact, it's possible that I have never been as angry as what happened at the end of this story. I'm still fuming, even though I know everything works itself out by the end of Book 5. But holy cow! I don't want to put in too many details here in case anyone who might happen to read this blog actually reads these books, but man, it was intense. So even though it made me really mad, there were some seriously creative and fun adventures in this story, including being kidnapped, escaping from vampires, and breaking into a dragon sanctuary to steal an artifact. Brandon Mull created such a crazy twist ending and again visited his theme of serious betrayal, which I suppose is safe to say what caused the emotional roller coaster I went through in the last couple chapters. I hope I'm not giving away too many details; I'd really hate to spoil the story for anyone...maybe if you read this and want to read Fablehaven take a break before reading so you can forget everything I wrote about the story.

Book 5: Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison

So in all the previous books Kendra and Seth and a bunch of others have been trying to collect 5 artifacts that serve as keys to the demon prison Zzyxz. A bad guy is trying to open the demon prison which would basically mean the end of the world cuz the demons would get out and slaughter everyone. So the good guys are trying to get the artifacts and make them safe to save the world from the demons. Basically in this book they fail to keep the artifacts safe and so now have to prepare for how to keep the world safe from the demons. There is an epic battle at the end, very exciting as should be expected. And there is also a new love interest in this story for Kendra! which I was very happy about. This guy is really cool and we like him a lot. The sap in me wishes that there had been more details about their budding romance, but I have to remind myself that these books were written for 10 to 12-year-old kids who have no desire to read about how Kendra and (I won't ruin the story for anyone by saying his name here) hold hands or how he puts his arm around her. But the story ends very well and the world doesn't get destroyed by demons. I definitely read this book in 3 days while simultaneously hanging out with my family. I had a really hard time putting it down at all. Captivating read!

Overall summary: Fablehaven is fabulous! I'm already considering buying all the books because I think I'll want to read them again. Plus I think Chris should read them and someday I'll read them to my kids. I think they're just as fun as Harry Potter and I have all of those books. I love adding to my library when I find truly entertaining (and clean!) literature. Everyone needs to read these stories!


Rating: 5 stars! (I rarely give 5 stars, so this must be big.)