Charlie Bone and the Shadow (The Children of the Red King #7)

Reader reviewed by lewlew27

The Shadow strikes again! In Charlie Bone and the Shadow, Charlie and his friends face their most perilous adventure yet! When Charlie finds a mysterious painting in his basement, he feels a strong urge to look at it. His friends warn him that this might not be a good idea, since he is a picture traveler and might get stuck. However, when his friend Ben's dog Runner Bean gets caught in the picture, it is up to Charlie and his friend Billy Raven to save him. However, Charlie is still unsure of Billy's loyalties. Should he trust Billy or not? And what happened in Dagbet Endless' fight with Tancred...

Reader reviewed by TheBookworm

Where is the schemes, friendship, and trust that we love so much?

Charlie Bone and the Shadow by Jenny Nimmo
Publication Date: September 2008
4 out of 5 stars

Charlie Bone and his friends must ban together once again to save the day. Count Harken, The Shadow, was forced back into his world because of Charlie Bone in the last book but he is back. This time through a painting. Charlies curiosity gets the better of him and he attempts to look at the painting. The painting grabs hold of Charlie and drags him into the world of Badlock. Charlies a traveler (can travel into photos and paintings) and with his wand, Claerwen, he is able to escape Count Harken and his troll army. But Charlie wasnt the only one sucked in. Billy, in his quest to free Runner Bean from the painting, was sucked in. Now Charlie and his friends must work together and save Billy before its to late.

This book was okay. It wasnt horrible, but it wasnt wonderful either. Just okay. I gave this book a 4 and not a 3 because the rest of the series is amazing and I really admire the main character Charlie.

Charlie is a great character. Honest, humble, adventurous, kind, friendly, smart, knows right from wrong, curious, strong in his opinions, pretty independent of his parents but trusts his friends undoubting, wont give up, and tons of other great traits that amazing to find in a 12 year old.

Tancred, Lysander, Emma, Olivia, and all of the other friends of Charlie seemed distant. Charlie was doing a lot of things on his own and I missed the scheme creating that was so dominate in the earlier Charlie Bone books.

Charlie Bone and the Shadow created a lot of new questions without answering must of them. The ending felt lopsided. When you end a book, the ending should somehow relate to the beginning to the book. The beginning of the book went straight to the root problem, but the ending dealt with the branches. The root problem was left unsolved and all the branches were solved. This unfortunately left the beginning of the book and the end disconnected.

This installment in the series lacked in the schemes, friendship, and trust that I loved so much about the series. I hope that the next book, which is also the last in the series, will fix what was broken in Charlie Bone and the Shadow.

Date Reviewed: September 27th, 2008