10+

This first book introduces us to the eleven-year-old Celie and her siblings Rolf and Delilah. As the youngest child of King Glower the seventy-ninth (I have an entire blog post dedicated to this delightful legacy of the name and how it affects the succession but back to the point). Celie as the youngest of King Glower is given a lot more freedom than her siblings, and spends her days roaming around the ever changing sentient castle. She keeps a sheaf of papers with the Castle maps with her that she regularly changes and alters to keep up with the ever changing castle.

The Castle itself is an immensely powerful sentient building – but we know nothing about it. The inhabitants know nothing either, and Celie mentions a few of the varying theories about how the Castle brought rooms back and forth depending on the need. For the extra house guests the castle grows several more rooms, tailored to its feelings about the guests. If it doesn’t like you, it kicks you out and the Castle’s actions are uncontrollable by the Royals who live there.

As we see, the house guests and villagers are suitably leery of the idea of a sentient castle. Pogue Parry, Princess Delilah’s flirter (I wont say suitor because their relationship feels to me like they both know it wont last) acknowledges this, saying it is only because he has seen it with his own eyes multiple times he can believe it. I like this dose of realism, of course people wouldn’t honestly believe in an unexplainable sentience of a building they hadn’t seen.

I just love this book. It was one of the first series I read that really managed to dip into so many different aspects of fantasy and serious odds while retaining that feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket. It may just be because I have read it so many times but this book has only been reread so many times because of its warm feel. I don’t know how else to describe it, just read it!

Plot  – 4/5 – Love it, every time I am still just as excited and delighted at each turn even though I really should know what happens by now)

World – 5/5 – gushed about it in my review, the Castle location is simply divine. I love it. It is rare that a book with just one location can get a 5 stars from me, but despite the fact they never leave the castle, I love it! (and the world gets better and better and more complex as you delve deeper into the series!)

Romance – NA – no real romance, Lilah and Pogue flirt a tiny bit.

Characters – 4/5 – I do like the characters a lot, they are enjoyable and interesting. Celie actually feels like an eleven year old! Its so rare that characters under twelve actually match their literary age and so this fits perfectly.

Things to be aware of: Honestly not much, there are mentions of death or planned death but nothing on the page.