The Seeing Stone (#2)

By Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

This is my review of the second book in The Spiderwick Chronicles series, be sure to check out my review of the first book, The Field Guide, published below this post!

THE SHORT

The Seeing Stone is certainly packed with way more action than the first book. In it, we are introduced to many different kinds of magical creatures, like the goblins, and griffins. The dangers of the Guide is shown in its true colors, rather than riddles from Thimbletack. Through superb drawings and writing, DiTerlizzi and Black make this book superior to the first one, with action and an exciting climax with the watery troll. They also explain how faeries are normally never seen in the world. There is a noticeable sense of adventure in this book, perhaps foreshadowing the epic battle in the fifth book. In brief, The Seeing Stone shows DiTerlizzi's and Black's growing confidence in telling stories, and this makes The Seeing Stone all the better.

THE REVIEW

This time around, the characters are really fleshed out and show real signs of actual development. Jared gets into trouble again, but shows his love for Simon when he grabs the Seeing Stone from Thimbletack despite the latter's warning not to do so. We also get a glimpse of his frustrations, anger at his new school, at his dad for leaving. In addition, we also get the idea that he is smart, thinking up a plan to escape from the goblins by leading them to the hungry troll. In short, he comes to life on the page and through DiTerlizzi's drawings. These two perfectly complement each other, and this shows us a new side of Jared that we didn't get to see in the previous book.

This time around, it's Simon who gets captured by the goblins, and Mallory has to save him. In this book, Mallory comes across as a rather snarky and sarcastic sibling, but later on, as she shivers from fright at the troll, and her bravery in going with Jared when she couldn't see the faeries at all, give her a 3-Dimensional quality, as if she used to be a small picture on a book, and now she's one of those stand-up things you get when you turn the page. Developing from an uncaring sister to a loving one (very subtle, but you get the gist of it when you read the text), we finally get some insight into these characters.

Time to talk about the faeries. In the motion of slowly introducing us to the magical world of faeries, we slowly wade deeper and deeper into their world. First of all, there's the goblins, green creatures who love to eat cats. As a character in this book, albeit a very un-understandable one, the goblins are the primary antagonists, the main catalysts for this book. Although it does raise some questions: Why did the goblins take Simon? And if it was for the Guide, why would they return to attack Jared and Mallory? How did they even know of the Guide's existence? Presuming they are illiterate, what would they want the Guide for? How did they know what was inside the Guide? Nonetheless, the goblins serve as a very interesting villain in this book.

Then there's the troll. Hiding in the waters, with its draggy way of speaking, and the fearsome version of it depicted in DiTerlizzi's drawings, combine to give us a terrifying view of the troll. Also, the version of the troll living in the water, ties in pretty well with certain versions of trolls we know, like the troll living under the bridge in The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Like that troll, this one lives in the river near a bridge. Hogsqueal is another faerie introduced in this book, being a hobgoblin, we don't really know much about the difference between a hobgoblin and a goblin. Perhaps it's the pig's nose, or just the general cuteness of the hobgoblin. Besides that, we don't actually understand anything else about Hogsqueal or hobgoblins in general.

About the drawings, DiTerlizzi uses masterful drawings to actually bring the troll to life, something we could never have imagined from the text alone. He also keeps the entire front of the troll hidden, it's either below water, or later when Jared is leading the goblins to the troll, just the behind visible. This amazing use of suspense actually makes the troll somehow more menacing, as if it's too terrible for DiTerlizzi to show fully. As such, the troll actually comes to life, and this is, in my view, one of the most brilliant piece of writing and drawing coming together to provide an atmosphere. Other than that, DiTerlizzi's drawings don't change much, other than giving us some visuals to look at while we're reading the book.

Now the plot. As discussed earlier, there is a considerable more action in this book, making it more a fantasy-adventure story. The climax between the troll and the goblins is particularly entrancing, while the build-up to it, meeting the troll at first in the river, saving Simon, and then distracting the goblins from Hogsqueal, may seem a little incoherent at times, but the authors manage to tie all of this together. The wonder of the faerie world experienced by the trio seems to come across to us, and magically, we find ourselves in their world. Creating a logical story while also surprising you with the dangers of the world, DiTerlizzi and Black truly make their mark in the fantasy genre. However, one wishes it could have been longer.

In short, The Seeing Stone certainly is the superior of The Field Guide, but it leaves just enough questions open for you to keep reading. Excellent.

Rating: 8.6/10

Advice: If you liked the first book, you'll love the second. Simply a masterpiece.

I certainly enjoyed reading The Seeing Stone, go check out my review of the first book in this series, The Field Guide, just below this post!

Next week: As the war rages on in England, four children are sent to a country house, where they find a wardrobe that will lead them to a magical world called Narnia, which has been cursed with eternal snow. Will they find the majestic lion Aslan and defeat the evil queen? I review The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, and ask if it really is one of the best fantasy novels.