“Fire Spell” is a “wonderfully twisty, creepy melodrama with three heroes to love and two villains to hate”. This is written on the back cover of the book and it’s very true! :)
Clara Wintermute is the main character of the story. Her birthday is about to come. She lives in London with her mother, Ada, and her father, Dr. Wintermute (his name isn’t mentioned). When Clara was little, she had four other siblings. Charles Augustus was her twin brother. Unfortunately, Clara’s siblings died because they ate watercress.
Clara organizes a birthday party. A puppeteer named Gaspare Grisini prepares a Venetian Fantoccini (a puppet show) for the little girl. After the party, Clara disappears all of a sudden. Many think that Grisini is the one who kidnapped her. Gaspare performed two other shows for two kids in the past. Both of them have also disappeared.
Elizabeth Rose Fawr (or Lizzie Rose, for short) is a red-haired girl. She is one of Grisini’s assistants. The other helper is a boy named Parsefall Hooke. When they meet Clara, they become good friends with her. They like her big house and wish they could have such a caring family like hers. When Lizzie Rose and Parsefall find out that Clara has been kidnapped, they want to save her.
After a few adventures, the two kids arrive at Cassandra’s house. This woman is a very bad witch. She is also Grisini’s enemy. She has a fire opal that she can’t get rid of. This jewel brings a lot of pain in her soul. It’s like burning in flames... Your question might be: how did she get the fire opal? When Cassandra was a child, she had a friend called Marguerite Tremblay. The two of them were born on the same day, but Marguerite was a year younger than Cassandra. Even though they were very good friends, Cassandra was very jealous of her friend. Marguerite had everything: a family who loved her, lots and lots of jewels...
When Marguerite turned 12, she invited her friends, including Cassandra, to her birthday party. She got many presents and one of them was the fire opal. People believed that jewels such as fire opals could bring you a lot of luck. Cassandra decided to steal it. She felt quite ashamed to hide this secret from Marguerite, but she had no choice.
Unfortunately, the fire opal offers Cassandra a miserable life, so the witch wants to give somebody else the jewel, without letting him or her know what the consequences are. Her opportunities are... Lizzie Rose or Parsefall. The two children have to take care of Clara (who has been transformed into a puppet) and they also have to stay away from the witch as far as they can...
My favorite character is Lizzie Rose. She is a sweet, shy girl who wants the best for Parsefall. She admires Clara’s lady-like attitude and wishes to be just like her. In the end the three kids not only become close friends, but also “siblings”: “Parsefall was tempted to fling his cap in the air. It was almost over. (...) He saw Clara bow her head to hide a smile, and he turned back to wink at Lizzie Rose. They were waiting, all three of them, for the moment when they could be alone again and free to laugh together.” (page 384)
I think “Fire Spell” is one of the best stories I’ve read so far! I would recommend it to anyone, especially to my little sister (because she loves puppets and jewels)! I give the book 5 stars. :)
Love this book :)
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