By: D.L. B.
Spellbound by Anna Dale, is a mysterious book that takes you on an magical adventure. Thirteen year old Athene and her little brother Zach, get caught up in quite an adventure due to Athene not being to control her anger. It’s summer vacation, so Athene and her family decide to go out of town to meet up with some family. Athene is very disappointed about this vacation because she would much rather want to hang out with her friends, instead of spending the summer with her family in some random town. Her biggest problem, is that she has to spend it with her annoying brother Zach.
During the vacation Athene makes some new friends, which are two creatures known as humble gloams. The humble gloams live above ground and they get along with humans. However, underneath them below the ground, live the low gloams who despise everyone and are at war with the humble gloams. To get to low gloam territory, you must fall into a hole in a specific tree. Athene’s new friends warn her to never go near the tree, and especially never to fall into the hole. If anybody who is not a low gloam falls into that hole, the low gloams keep you as a prisoner forever. Athene takes their advice and continues to have fun with her new friends. Zach gets curious seeing Athene going out everyday happily, and wonders what’s going on. He follows her out one day and finds out about her new friends. Athene gets mad about this, because she didn’t want to share her new friends with Zach, but Zach ends up becoming friends with the two humble gloams as well. That day when both of them are heading home Athene and Zach get into a fight, and it was raining that day also. Zach runs away from Athene in a fit and thinks the hole in the tree is a good spot for shelter from the rain. Athene out of anger doesn’t stop him, and Zach soon falls into the low gloam territory. Athene realizes that what she did was terrible and begs her two humble gloam friends for help. They cast a spell on her parents, to help them forget their memory of Zach and Athene so that all three of them can go and save Zach. Together they all hop into the hole which leads them to a magical adventure.
Anna Dale’s books are intriguing adventures and those are the books that I personally enjoy. I like how she makes the adventures mysterious, so it motivates the reader to keep reading on. I don’t like the type of books that are really boring and don’t really have any adventure or mystery to them, they put me asleep. Anna Dale’s books are nothing like that, and get you hooked onto the book for days. The only aspect about this book that I wish would’ve been better was the ending. It seemed a little rushed to me, as if she just wanted to finish the book quickly. However overall, the book was really good and I’m looking forward to reading more books from her. If you are into mystery and adventure, I think this is the book for you.
Spellbound, by Anna Dale, Bloomsbury UK, January 2006, 279 pages
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