BACK TO THE DIVIDE

This tepid second entry in the series has a tolerable plot arc but dull, zestless writing. Two creatures, from the magical realm he visited last summer, visit 14-year-old Felix, now cured (probably) of his fatal heart condition and happily at home in England. They freeze his parents with a marbleizing spell, and Felix is off again across “the Divide” to find a remedy. Many creatures figure into his adventure there, some recognizable from mythology but given unnecessary and pedestrian new names (unicorns are “brittlehorns,” for example). Shallow writing kills potentially interesting ideas such as an exploration of free will and an archetypal plot reference to Sleeping Beauty; actions and feelings are told rather than shown and there’s little for readers to sink their teeth into. Tedious. (Fantasy. 8-12)