Book Review: The Land of Stories Part 2. An addendum is required.

An addendum post is a bit necessary after reading the end of the fifth Land of Stories: The Author's Odyssey. 

The fifth book is much darker than the other four. 

**SPOILER ALERT** The masked man, who actually turns out to be the uncle of the main characters, is a dark, dark villain. In this book, he plans to drain the blood of his own child whom he never knew to acquire the magic he lost. One of the main characters is forced to collect the supplies for the transfusion, and the child accepts his fate with courage. And, what happens to the masked man? He is dragged beneath the grave of his dead lover, the mother of the child who was to provide the magical blood. Her animated corpse arose for a chat with other wronged women of history at the same time that the masked man entered the scene. 

While the boy is saved and all ends fairly well, this scene was a bit too intense for my youngest, and my older two children actually recommended that I not read the end of this book because they did not like it. There are one or two characters that are also a bit to dark for my younger ones, and the prevalence of dark magic really begins to show in books 4 and 5. 

Are my kiddos begging for the sixth book? Yes. And, I will likely get it for them and discuss the characters and their motivations. Would I recommend reading the series to a child younger than 8? I would definitely stop at book 3 on this one.