Thursday, July 14, 2016

Book Review: Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (The Guardians #1)
by  William Joyce
Date Read:  7/5/16
Rating: ★ ★ 
 ★ 

I was having trouble finding an audiobook for my husband and I to listen to on our commute to work. I somehow stumbled across this, and since we enjoyed the movie, I checked it out.  We are so happy we did.  (Side note: this story also has a series of picture books titled "The Guardians of Childhood" as well with origin stories of the Man in the Moon, Sandman, and Jack Frost – and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous.)

The book was a little slow to start up – it gave a lot of back history on Pitch (the nightmare King) and how he came to be (a fallen hero) and setting up the setting of the story in Big Root and what was going on there with Umbric and Katherine. Once Nicholas St. North actually shows up in the story it really started getting interesting.

The background story is all needed to really understand the story – and it’s a very interesting world. I love the magic and the twists on the childhood characters. I liked how protective North became of Katherine even though he started out as just a thief. Everything was built up really well and in a believable amount of time.

Overall a great story. I feel like I missed out though listening to the audiobook. Reading others reviews, it sounds like there are illustrations in these chapter books as well. I might have to go look at in the library just so I can see the illustrations. The ones that are included in the picture book series are just marvelous (haha, I couldn’t think of any other words that describe how beautiful they are!).

I’m really excited to read more of North’s story to see how he eventually becomes Santa Clause. I’m also really excited to see how Joyce brings to life and twists more of our favorite characters like the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny.

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