tcorder 's review for:

Lucinda's Secret by Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi

4.0

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In this third installment of the Spiderwick series, Jared, Simon, and Mallory learn that the goblins aren't the only ones looking for the field guide. After running afoul of Thimbletack, the children decide to visit their great aunt Lucinda, Arthur Spiderwick's daughter, to see if she can shed any light on the field guide and, so Jared hopes, give them a reason to keep the guide instead of handing it over to the faeries as Mallory wants to do. They find that Lucinda, who is not as crazy as everyone thinks she is, was not aware that the guide still existed. In fact, part of the reason for her "strangeness" is that she was tortured by faeries as a young girl in an attempt to find the guide. During the visit, the children discover that the field guide is missing and return to the attic study to try and find it. Instead they discover a map of the area with a clue that leads them to a group of elves who demand they turn over the field guide to protect faerie kind's secrets from being discovered by mortals. They are also told that an evil being named Mulgarath is looking for the field guide for his own, sinister purposes. Unlike some series, the story and writing in this third book is just as strong as in the first two. The writing is intelligent and cohesive to the point that it almost seems like the authors wrote the whole series in one sitting and it was later chopped up into seperate books for marketing purposes. The story is engaging and fun and really draws the reader in to the point that they can't wait to see what happens next. If there is one drawback to this book, it is at the very end when you turn the last page and realize that that is all there is to the story...for now.