Off the Shelf: Fabelhaven Book Review

There are no shortage of Fablehaven books to dive into this Fall.

Fablehaven, a book written by New York Times Bestseller Brandon Mull, represents a classic function in fantasy writing that will forever remain important: originality. Fablehaven is an amazing read for teenagers, providing a unique fantasy experience while retaining the use of familiar creatures in unique ways throughout the series. The amazing characters included help it to fully initiate and enrapture new readers who may otherwise be lost in traditional fantasy literature, especially novels with an extreme amount of world building. By starting small with the first Fablehaven, Brandon Mull helps to hook the reader with a simple environment where the world is built up around them at a reader-friendly pace. 

Throughout the rest of the series, this setting is gradually made more advanced, introducing larger amounts of material for the reader to take into account in order to enrich the story without being overly aggressive. The Fablehaven pentalogy is also an incredibly rewarding read because, in addition to being an easy read, it extends into a second series called Dragonwatch. This series contains an additional five books which fully embrace the ability to expand on the world of Fablehaven now that the reader has familiarized themselves with it. I would rate this book personally as an 8/10, with the addition that it is great for introducing readers to the fantasy genre while providing enough unique material to captivate and impress avid readers, all while remaining a casual read. 

More books can be found by Brandon Mull can be found in two series loosely connected to Fablehaven, both just as interesting as the first. One is called Beyonders, which contains three novels, and the other is the Five Kingdoms series with five entries. Brandon Mull is still publishing books today with his The Candy Shop War series, which takes a stronger focus on younger children, though is still written and executed just as well as his other stories and with the same amount of creative twist. Brandon Mull’s novels are all breaths of fresh air within the fantasy genre, easy to read and adventurous in style. Each story has its own, unique plot, which I have never seen in any other book I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for something to read casually, especially alongside a denser novel from school.