SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
Theo spends his life in a huge mansion, with only a few individuals to keep him company. A dangerous illness keeps him from a life until one day he gets a message for a secret meeting. This meeting changes everything and suddenly he realizes nothing is what he thought it was, not even himself.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Theo is a sheltered young man, rather meek with only his curiosity pushing him. His knowledge of life is limited, which sometimes leads to silly observations. I found this aspect of him charming.
Dr. Saint is a supposed doctor who is in charge of Theo, making sure he gets treatment for his illness.
Mr. Nicely is the butler. He is rather subservient to Dr. Saint.
Tristus is a garghoul that seems to have his own agenda, while he watches over Theo.
Magnus is an older man who has been watching over Theo from afar.
Sam is Magnus' grandson. He is enthusiastic and eager for adventure.
Chloe is a young women who is sarcastic, bold, and cynical.
PACING
We get an introduction chapter where we see how sheltered and strange Theo's life is. On the second chapter things get more interesting, as Theo learns his caretakers have secrets and by the third chapter, Theo learn's that something really is wrong with him. So the story doesn't wait long to get started.
From then one we get plenty of action including multiple chase scenes. So the story isn't slow by any means. And there are some good cliffhanger chapter endings.
USE OF HUMOR
There are some very silly moments, more in the first portion of the book. Although some of jokes are hit or miss for me. Some of Theo's observations are disturbing while other succeed at being funny.
I had to smile when he thought of coffee as "the brown death". While his spouting that happiness was dangerous was disturbing. But I think the latter was supposed to express the more important teachings of his guardians.
TWO SOCIETIES
The story is about the fight between two groups, the Society of Good Works and the Society of Unrelenting Vigilance. The latter made to watch the former.
I found most of the scenes were Dr. Saint ranted about doing good deeds to be kind of silly. I didn't take him serious as a villain because I couldn't believe that he believed what he was saying. And sadly, I think it could have been done well, because what they want to do is take peoples freedoms to make a better world. They see individualism as dangerous. So their collectivists. No different then communists, socialists and marxists. Seeing how there is so much material to go off of, I was let down that it felt so cheesy.
And the idea is genius, even if its an exaggeration of what politicans already do. Call yourself the Society of Good Deeds. Use buzzwords that the masses have already been trained to respond to. Equality. Justice. Antiracist. Antibigotry. Who can be against those things? No one. And the fact that those who are using these words don't care about anyone but themselves and manipulating others' emotions to gain power, well, most people are too dumb to notice.
THE MERCY TUBE
We learn pretty fast that there is a mechanical device called the mercy tube that Theo has to use every night. It's for his illness. But he doesn't know exactly what his illness is and we aren't told why he believes he is ill. I guess he has just been told his whole life so he believes it.
Regardless, we do eventually learn what the real purpose of the tube is but there isn't any detail given to how it is supposed to work.
THEO & CHLOE
There interactions are funny at first, because Chloe knows all about him. She makes fun of the fact that all he knows are silly fairy tales as well as the fact that he thinks that Sam is dangerous because he wants to be happy and thows jelly beans into his mouth. That line made me laugh but in reality I wish Chloe had realized how screwed up that Theo was.
His reasoning skills are that of a child much younger than him. I eventually expected her to take him more seriously. But she only does that when she sees him use his skill to melt someone.
Theo is often confused by Chloe's behavior but he soon grows to respect her. He realizes the fact that she has been putting her life on the line and continues to do so, is amazing. But instead of this being a gradual process where he sees her actions and he expresses awe through his own he expresses it awkwardly, through his thoughts. And it felt kind of cheesy and overdone.
RELATIONSHIPS
I think one thing that is severely lacking in the story is relationships. The only real relationship that Theo has with anyone is Chloe. He has no real relationship with Dr. Saint, certainly there isn't any trust. Theo just goes along because he is naive and has no reason not to trust him.
Mr. Nicely could be considered more well intentioned, or at least more friendly. But still, not much of an actual relationship.
I guess what I am saying is that Theo can't be crushed about Dr. Saint lying, because Dr. Saint isn't a mentor or protector character. Theo is mad because of the lie of his life, not because he trusted anything Dr. Saint said or did specifically.
I wanted him to recall a moment of kindess between them, so he could feel betrayed. I understand that in order for the story to jump right in, there was time to form any deep relationship. But we could have flashed back a few times, making the truth all the more hard to bear for Theo.
It would have also been nice if Magnus had become a sort of mentor character as well. But he is barely in the story. Also i would have liked it if Sam had become a friend, and perhaps we could see the contrast between an opposite sex friendship and a same sex friendship. And how Theo handled these differences which he had never encountered before.
AWKWARD WRITING
The first time we meet Tristus, we don't actually meet him. Theo tries to get out a window only to be swept up into the air. The chapter ends, and in the next chapter, Theo is placed back on the ground. The writing it rather strange, as he gets about two seconds to think about the terrifying incident that just occured and that some sort of monster just swooped in.
And then he is busy being greeted by two strangers. And that's it for Tristus.
The lack of attention spent on this amazing incident baffled me. I wanted Theo to freak out, to scream, to faint, to do something. To speculate about what just happened to him and who or what just appeared and vanished. Because I wanted to do those things too. The importance of this scene was completly underplayed.
WHAT HAPPENED TO WICKLAND?-SPOILERS
We first learn about the previous candlman when Theo finds a secret room. One thing I found strange was that the photograph looked just like Theo. I get that it's later revealed that the previous candleman is an ancestor of Theo's, but wouldn't they merely have a slight resemblance, or none at all? How many of us look nothing like our grandparents?
After that, he and Chloe track down one of the burglars. He has information about the Candle man (it was mentioned when they first met Theo). Turns out his grandpa had a series of novels based opon the Candleman. It was as popular as Sherlock holmes. Then suddenly they stopped publishing them and all the old ones disappeared. Then the government made up some garbage and seized the books.
I found this explanation partly interesting, and partly vague. I kept thinking, that's nice. But where is the important part? Turns out it's a map they end up being given by the burglar.
THE ASCENDENCY
No one knows what the ascendency is. Eventually we learn it is merely Theo. I thought it was underwhelming and had hoped for more mystery.
A DECEPTIVE DEATH-SPOILERS
Turns out that a character supposedly died. I say supposedly because this character has a copy of her...so I didn't really believe they had died. So it ellicted no shock or anxiety from me.
NICELY'S CHANGE-SPOILERS
Near the end of the story Mr. Nicely turns against Dr. Saint, and tries to kill him. There are few hints that this may happen. But mostly its just Dr. Saint mistreating Mr. Nicely. But I kind of assume he has done this all of Theo's life. He doesn't exactly come off as a nice guy. I could understand someone realizing they had been brainwashed but the effort isn't done with Nicely. We just don't know him well enough or see this development.
THE MYSTERY OF TRISTUS-SPOILERS
We eventually learn that Tristus is a ghargoul that has been summoned by Dr. Saint. Tristus refuses to speak to the doctor and does his bidding begrudgingly. But we are not sure why. We get a few scenes here and there as Tristus hunts down Theo. And eventually Tristus becomes an ally and we get a short scene where he and Theo have a discussion near the end of the story.
But I felt the author was assuming they had some sort of relationship by that point. I mean Tristus does save Theo's life. But they don't even know each other. I feel the story was demanding to elicit emotions it wasn't entitled to because it hadn't been earned.
THE TRUTH ABOUT WICKLAND-SPOILERS
Dr. Saint reveals that the ghosts that Theo met earlier were people killed by the candleman. Turns out he killed innocent people quite often. So maybe he wasn't the hero he was made out to be in the books. But Theo realizes this doesn't mean he shouldn't stop Dr. Saint. But it might have caused him to realize he needs help with his abilities. And an unlikley person may be of assistance.
CLIMAX
Theo has to face Dr. Saint and overcome his fear. Throught most of the story he admits to himself that he terrified of facing him again. And when he merely hears the man's voice earlier in the story it terrifies him. So by doing so it's the end of his arc. He faces the dodo as well, and makes a bold move.
REDEMPTION-SPOILERS
Theo ends up asking for the Dodo to help him learn about his abilities since this man knows all about it. I honestly didn't know if Theo could help kill him. He killed others, but it always happened by accident or when he had little chance to stop and think about it. There wasn't any real debate about if he should kill him or if it was moral. That kind of bothered me.
Also as much as I had seen of the Dodo, I had little sympathy for him. So I honestly didn't care that he was spared. I wanted to be upset if he died or relieved if he wasn't. But I didn't feel much of anything. I think the point was that Theo had matured and after learning about the truth about his ancestor feared turning out like him.
CONCLUSION
I liked both Chloe and Theo, but was indifferent to the other characters because I learned next to nothing about them.
I felt the world held potentional with creatures like garghouls and smoglodytes exisiting, but not enough detail was given to exactly what they were. Or perhaps what was given was just dull. I only cared about Tristus because I was curious about him. And I never had my curiosity rewarded with answers. Although I get this was only the first in the series, I wanted something to reward my time.
The same goes for the dodo and the candleman.
As for the two societies, it would have been interesting to delve into their beliefs in a more serious manner, but they were both kind of jokes. And I understand this is a childrens' novel but I think it could have been handled with enough seriousness to make the villain threatening without being dull to kids.
The story isn't dull or slow paced, so I wasn't ever bored.
I give the Candleman" two and a half stars.
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