Midnight for Charlie Bone

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Reading this book showed the writer in me that whilst characters need to learn and grow throughout a story, their problems don’t have to be resolved completely. First off, I have to admit that I bought these books because I thought (maybe I saw this on the internet somewhere, I’m not sure) that the story was similar to the Harry Potter books. Iconic Sequel Character: Dagbert Endless, the most dangerous and complex of the younger antagonists in the series, takes six books to debut. Charlie Bone and his Uncle Paton are visiting Charlie's old house while his parents are out whale watching (on their second honeymoon). While there he finds that his whole upstairs floor area was ripped up and they find that there were people inside the house earlier. When Charlie goes to Bloor's Academy he finds a new boy is there that he has to guide around. His name is Dagbert Endless because his last names are "as endless as the seas". Dagbert's endowment is to drown other people, controlling water. Dagbert has to be around Charlie all the time, so he starts to drive his friends away by insulting them. Later Charlie finds out that his great Aunt Venetia will marry a man who has two young children. Yes, there is an 11 year old boy who has a magical “ability”. Yes, there is a special school for children with these abilities. Apart from that, the story is quite different. I had to push the Harry Potter thought out of my head and start thinking Charlie Bone, because wherever I got that idea…I was wrong…and it was wrong of me to continue reading with that thought in my head.

Billy Raven, an albino, has the ability to speak to animals. He is an orphan, and was briefly adopted in Book 4 by abusive parents. He is adopted by the Bones at the end of the final book. When Olivia giggles while hiding in a closet that is literally full of skeletons, when they think they're about to be caught and possibly killed by a psychopath. There's no indication of her finding anything funny, but suddenly she has trouble stopping her giggles. I Just Want to Be Normal: Charlie frequently wishes to be normal, particularly when he first discovers his endowment and goes to Bloor's. He gets over this after discovering the extent of his power and how useful it is in helping other people and discovering truths no one has ever known before.Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It is Charlie's entering Bloor's that begins to weaken Lyell's trance. The only reason Charlie began attending the Academy in the first place is because his grandmother, aunts and the Bloors wanted him there so that they could keep an eye on and control him and his endowment. Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, Billy Raven's guardian Christopher Crowquill sacrifices his life to save Paton's when Yorath Yewbeam tries to kill him, because he's dying anyway and Paton is the only one who can protect Billy. This makes him one of the very few non-evil characters to be Killed Off for Real. Benevolent Boss: The Red King was certainly this, when he ruled the Red Castle centuries ago. He was kind and fair to all who were put under his care, and everyone respected and liked him. Hidden in Plain Sight: Charlie's father. He was imprisoned in Bloor's Academy for years, where he posed as a piano teacher. When Charlie starts attending the Academy he sees him without ever realising who he really is. After finally discovering where he's been hidden, Charlie is quite bitter about this. Resigned to the Call: Olivia at the end of Castle of Mirrors, after finding out about her endowment.

I wanted to like this series, and in some aspects I did. I really liked the premise and the setting. I enjoyed how it delved into the history of Red King's family and how the author was able to introduce and explain the children's powers. In the third book, it's revealed that Charlie is really a descendant of the wizard Mathonwy, and as a result is the rightful owner of the wand Claerwen (which he originally stole from Skarpo the Sorcerer). This was obviously Ms Nimmo's attempt at a Harry Potter type story. It's not an exact copy or anything, but it's pretty difficult to miss that she was hugely influenced by Rowling's world. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near as good as Harry Potter. It's barely even coherent. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably because it was a forced attempt to cash in on the Harry Potter craze.The series begins with Charlie Bone accidentally getting the wrong photograph from the photo developer... And discovering that he can hear people talking in the photo. While he is perturbed at this development, his grandmother and great aunts inform him he has magical abilities and enroll him in Bloor's Academy where he becomes part of the music department (because of his supposedly dead father, who played the piano). At Bloor's, Charlie makes new friends, encounters strange magic, and learns all about the history of his Big, Screwed-Up Family. Lastly, I must complain about the school, Boor’s Academy, because there’s something I don’t get. What exactly is this school doing to further the endowed children’s usage of their abilities? I mean, the only thing they do that is set apart from the normal arts students is do their homework in a different room. That’s it. They never undergo any training, they never study about the Red King, they never do much of anything that actually concerns their endowments! So what’s the point of sending them to Bloor’s in the first place? They could have gone to any other school and been subjected to the same treatment. I’m sorry to say this, but it truly looks as if the author just wanted to create a “special boarding school” like Hogwarts for the sake of making her story more interesting. We never really learn too much about Bloor’s, anyway, so I believe there is really no point in having the school there at all (except as a means of meeting new people, of course). Unfortunately, even for children's magical fantasy, it was just far too unrealistic. I can accept magic and powers but I can't get past the absentee and globally apathetic parents. Also, the total control Charlie allows - yes, he allows - Bone grandmother to exert over him was over the top, even if he was intimidated by them. There were instances that even the weakest kid would say "no" to, and we're expected to believe the hero of the story had no! idea how to stand up for himself what so ever? By the end of the series he certainly should have been telling Grandma Bone to shove off.