In the book Old Magic by Marianne Curley there are two main characters; Jarred Thornton and Kate Warren. From a flood that washed away their house, to a fire that destroyed an entire wing of Jarrod's school, the Thorntons have been plagued by bad luck. When Jarrod's father injured his leg the family decided to move to Ashpeak to start a new life. In Ashpeak, Jarrod meets Kate - a witch in training who is certain that Jarrod's family is cursed, but she has a hard time convincing him.Jarrod's call to adventure happens fairly late in the book when his father tries to kill himself. Jarrod realizes that Kate might not be entirely crazy, and there might be something to her theory about the curse. Kate's grandmother creates a spell that takes the pair back in time to when the curse was placed on Jarrod's family. When Kate crosses the threshold, she is excited, and can't believe she actually went back in time, but Jarrod is more interested in finding the sorcerer who put the curse on his family, and stopping him.
"I yank open the door, my heart thudding somewhere in the vicinity of my tonsils When I see him . . . I can't help but scream a kind of strangled gasp . . . He can hardly speak, his eyes sunken half into his skull, vicious dark circles surrounding them, his skin ashen grey. He doesn't say much except, 'Dad tried to kill himself.' . . . I wait silently while he attempts to pull himself together. When he does, he looks at me, his head tilted, and says, 'I want a shot at Jillian's plan.' " (Marianne Curley, Old Magic 148, 149)
Definitley going to read this book! When I started to read the entry, I thought "Here we go, another sad attempt at recreating a magical world." *eye roll* but then you went into the actual plot line and it's like nothing I've read before.
ReplyDeleteYou know you've done a good blog entry when the reader changes their mind about the book because of you. The quote also helped prove that this book is a fantastic read.