Brandon Mull
What’s it about?
Fablehaven is a 5-book series that follows two siblings, Kendra and Seth, as they learn about a hidden world of mythical creatures. Among fairies, centaurs, naiads, trolls, magic, demons, and barn-sized cows that produce magical milk, these children learn about a world beyond everything they were previously taught.
Facing treachery and deceit at every corner, these two pre-teens (who are honestly way too young to have these problems) can only trust those who are closest to them as they fight off evil, which, in this story, is literal demons who are trying to break out of their demon prison.
Why Do I Like It?
If you have read any of my posts thus far, you may have noticed a pattern. I basically only read fantasy/adventure books as a kid, and this is a perfect example of the purest form of that. It has everything you could ask for. When I was given the series (Christmas my 5th grade year), all my dad said was that he thought I would like it. Oh, how right he was. I ended up reading all five books in under a month. When my dad got back home the next month and I told him I was done with the books, he was absolutely shocked. But hey, I really really liked them.
One of my favorite aspects of these books is the idea that there is no real good and evil. All of the characters work in the gray area, even the good guys (except for our main characters, they are definitely meant to be good). One of the most powerful “good guys” is the Fairy Queen, who really only works for innocence and benefit. She is known to turn anyone who steps onto her island, even those with great needs, into dandelion seeds, just because they won’t really benefit her. This is again shown with some of the “bad guys”, some of whom do very good things. They are highlighting the gray area of morals in a way that intrigued me to no end as a kid.
I also connected with Kendra, one of the main characters, a lot, especially when I first read these books. She was a quiet, bookish, rule follower turned badass fairy-kind adventurer. And was an older sister. Though she was a few years older than me (her younger brother was a year older than me when I read them for the first time), I really felt like I understood her character. Her younger brother, on the other hand, annoyed me to no end (at first. His character growth is really amazing and he ends up being a really good kid). He reminded me of my sister when she tries to annoy me for no reason.
Before I wrap up, I just want to let the world know something buck-wild about the 5th book. (spoilers for the 5th book, but who here is actually going to read it) Kendra falls in love with a 500 year old unicorn…. Nobody talks about this because there isn’t really a platform for this series like there is for Harry Potter or Percy Jackson, but this absolutely blew my mind as a kid. When they’re together, it’s not a big deal because they’re all cute and couple-y and you don’t really think about it, but thinking about how a girl, who is probably about 18 at that point in the story, falls in love with an immortal unicorn just…. astounds me. I don’t know if it is in a good way or not, but I just needed to get the word out because this is insane. In this series, unicorns have a human form, or look human all the time, so it isn’t that weird I guess… but it is.
Brandon Mull’s Other Work
If you looked at my first picture, you will notice that there are many other Brandon Mull books. I didn’t do a post on all of his work, because I read most of these way later. In case you were interested, here are his other series that I have read:
Dragonwatch
This is basically Fablehaven season 2.
- Book 1: Dragonwatch
- Book 2: Wrath of the Dragon King
- Book 3: Master of the Phantom Isle
- Books 4 and 5 have not been released yet
The Beyonders
This is a trilogy about literal wizardry (in another dimension/world of course) and has a lot of fun characters with a lot of fun abilities. The magic is set up in a very cool way and the main character can’t actually use magic.
- Book 1: A World Without Heroes
- Book 2: Seeds of Rebellion
- Book 3: Chasing the Prophecy
Five Kingdoms
Again, this series is about magic but has a different system. This one, again, is in another dimension/world and involves normal kids form earth (which all of his main characters are). This time, the different types of magic are split up depending in which kingdom you are in. There is also a cross-over with some characters from the Beyonders, which I love.
- Book 1: Sky Raiders
- Book 2: Rogue Night
- Book 3: Crystal Keepers
- Book 4: Death Weavers
- Book 5: Time Jumpers
My Childhood Library 