Mystify the Magician

Everworld #11

by K.A. Applegate

There is a place that shouldn’t exist. But does. And there are creatures that shouldn’t exist. But do. Welcome to a land where all of your dreams and nightmares are very real—and often deadly. Welcome to Everworld.

Christopher, Jalil, April, David, and Senna thought they’d seen it all. Especially after “visiting” Neptune’s watery world and then ultimately finding themselves in Atlantis. Once again, they’ve managed to find a way to the next land—hoping it will be the passage back to the earth they know. Back to the real world.

But when they wash up on a beautiful beach, they quickly realize that they’ve still not quite made it back home. That they’ve arrived in Eire. And it’s not the modern-day Ireland they’ve read about in class. This is a land of giants, leprechauns, and yes, more gods. But Christopher and the others have experience with these beings. The real problem is that Merlin is closing in, and this time he will not be outsmarted. And he will not leave without Senna…

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Fiction, Adventure, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a minor detour under the sea, it’s back to business as usual. And K.A. comes back with a bang!

The story starts where the previous ended, they are under attack by a giant. Right out of the gate, the action slurps us back inside the magical awesomeness that is Everworld. The gang has arrived in an old Irish land with giants, druids and fairies. Best of all though, Merlin is still chasing them, he’s coming for Senna. And what’s this magical land called? Merlinshire! Senna can feel Merlin breathing down her neck and leaps into action. Her plans unfold and an army comes knocking on Merlinshire’s door. And her army has weapons from the real world. What happens when modern weapons get introduced into a dark ages-style fairy land? Violence erupts, a war begins and all hell breaks loose.

Christopher has been the least likable narrator in the series. But here, it all comes together. You really see how much Everworld has changed him and how he has evolved as a person.

This was an absolute blast. So much happened, both on a small scale and in the grand scheme of things. The ending was awesome. Easily one of the series’ best.

[Nemo (The ☾Moonlight☾ Library) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher and the EverWorld gang come upon EverWorld’s version of Ireland, complete with telegraphs, electricity, elves, half-elven princesses, giants, and all kinds of stuff that makes them not hate EverWorld for once. But then Senna gets loose and goes crazy, opening the gateway and bringing through her crazy bigoted militia, complete with machine guns. As strange and weird as EverWorld is, it doesn’t stand a chance against guns.

This is one of the best EverWorld books because right away the gang has a plan and you know what’s going to happen. Christopher and the others are determined to stop Senna from murdering them and EverWorld Ireland. Although they’re only half-successful, it does make the book easier to read when the gang isn’t just running away with no goals in mind. There’s even an elaborate stunt set in the real world involving Christopher, Jalil, blanks in a real gun, and April screaming – all to try to stop Senna.

What I like most about this book is Christopher’s realisation that the things he’s experienced in EverWorld have changed him, but not changed the real world him. The real world him is still a lazy racist horndog asshole. The EverWorld him is no longer racist and mostly has his libido under control, and although he’s not the hero-wannabe type, he actually likes who he’s become. You can see he prefers EverWorld to the real world, especially since he’s got no hope and no future in the real world. In EverWorld he is someone, even if that someone is still liable to fall under Senna’s spell and fuck everything up.

After the last book was a waste of time filler book where nothing happened, it’s great to see so much movement, even if half the cast is brand new. With the return of old allies, it’s time to stop Senna once and for all – even if it means the gateway will never open again and the gang may be trapped in EverWorld.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh!! Maybe some of my gushing right now is due to my extra-underwhelming reaction to the Senna & ghostwritten books before this one, but I think Mystify the Magician is literally the best of the entire series so far?? (and it's a Christopher book, omg my bb.) As the penultimate Everworld book, not only does it:
- a) introduce a really cool new setting that displays the rapid effects of Jalil/April/Christopher/David (JACD) on Everworld itself, the possibilities of their leveling the playing field with technology, and maybe accidentally dragging this world out of the Dark Ages (which is a risk to the gods they worship);
- b) the worldbuilding is also really interesting to begin with, what with this quasi-medieval/proto-modern society and its factions of druids and law enforcement;
- c) the book also advances the main plot like CRAZY, pushing the pedal to the metal with (literally) explosive action that reminds me of the end of Animorphs;
- d) but it ALSO includes some good character development & further growth on Christopher's part, as he self-examines his own progress and his idea that he's fallen in love with Etain.

And it's sweet. His attachment to Etain is a little insta-love, but it makes complete sense to me because of the stressful situations they're stuck in, and he even points that out (Maybe that was it, maybe it was a reaction to stress, you know? My own tiny life force reaching out for something to hold on to. And Etain was something to hold on to.) -- which I don't think I've seen other YA ever acknowledge, to be honest, that these heightened feelings may be the result of adrenaline and panic and just wanting something good in your life before you die horribly. Also, Etain is awesome so I like her; plus he doesn't stop flirting with April either, so a tiger doesn't change its stripes overnight; plus his & Etain's interactions go pretty slowly; and, most importantly, it builds to such an awesome reversal at the end when SENNA MANIPULATES HIS FEELINGS IN ORDER TO IMPERSONATE ETAIN, ENCHANT HIM, AND HAVE HIM BETRAY THE REST OF THE GROUP. AWESOME.

In a series that has been very episodic/adventure-of-the-week, with constantly changing casts, I like that this is Merlin's third appearance -- he's such an interesting character to have around, sort of an ally, sort of not.

A couple spoilery thoughts: The real-world plot arc gets So Real too, with the kids engaging with KIDNAPPING AND ALMOST-MURDER!! And we finally flirt with the prospect of death, real death in this series, answering a question that has been haunting them this whole time: yes, if you die in Everworld, then you'll die in the real world as well, Freddy Krueger-style. Sucks to be you. Good luck!

David also ends up pitted against the locals and against his teammates, still standing up for Senna despite her continued betrayal of him; the rest of the group end up needing to bail him out before angry villagers turn on him. He's frustrating, in his stubborn insistence that SHE'S ONE OF US!! (because Senna so obviously isn't and doesn't even want to be), but that makes him a believably flawed character and I like him for it.

I think I've seen people complain that Senna devolves too much into cackling megalomaniacal villain by this point, but frankly, after spending so much time in her head in #9, I was not surprised at all and it fit her perfectly. She was finally just voicing the white-cat-stroking, muahaha-ing thoughts that she'd kept inside her this whole time. AND DAT ENDING: FUCK YEAH APRIL!!!!! GOD BLESS YOU FOR FINALLY TAKING DOWN THIS THREAT. With Chekov's Coo-Hatch knife, even! I really can't wait to hear from her in the next book and see how she deals with this: not only having taken a life, but her sister's life.

This book is also longer -- it's 10-20 pages longer than the previous two, which isn't technically that long, but considering the short pagecounts of this series in general, even that little does feel like it makes a big difference. SO MUCH HAPPENS, when I kept expecting it to cut out on another cliffhanger and end -- in other installments, I feel like it would have ended earlier, while instead here it just kept increasing the stakes over and over.

Definitely favourite of the series so far. It's moments like this where I glimpse what this series could have been if infused with more purpose throughout, and it's really really great. I can't remember that much about the ending, so I'm open to being blown away and impressed in the next book... but I'm mainly girding myself just in case the next doesn't fulfil the promise & potential of Mystify the Magician.

I highlighted SO MANY QUOTES, you guys. Just look at this bristling dog-eared mess in such a short book:


Christopher is my fave. Quotes below:

[After Christopher is almost eaten by a giant in Everworld and spat out of its mouth...]
  At the top of my lungs I shouted a four-syllable word that was very popular with Eddie Murphy back when he was doing stand-up.
  I shouted that word, jumped to my feet, spun, and fell into my girlfriend's mother. She was a small woman, and I carried her and her serving platter of lemongrass chicken right down to the geometric-pattern rug and lay on top of her panting like a sled dog in the last lap of the Iditarod.
  There was a horrible silence. [...] My girlfriend, Jennifer, my girlfriend for a week, said, "Christopher, I think you'd better go."
  Up until that point I had not guessed that Jennifer had a talent for understatement.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: I actually never tire of the "unexpected crossing over" humour. It's always jarring and entertaining each time.]

***

  David Levin is our Fearless Leader, our Ulysses S. Grant. He wants to grow up to be Russell Crowe in Gladiator but without the beard. He's our very own hero. The man with the sword--Galahad's sword, no less. The man with the great big stick up his hinder. David "no booze, no babes, no party" Levin. David of the perpetually gritted teeth and manly clenched jaw.
  [...] Then there's Jalil. Jalil, whose motto is, "I'm smarter than you." Jalil, the only person I've ever known who actually did the extra-credit reading. Possibly the only person who has never slept in math class. He's a prickly, touchy, superior, arrogant, condescending butt-spasm, he really is, but I'm getting so I like him.
  [...] [April's] a babe: about five cubic feet of lose-yourself-in-it red hair; the kind of wise, confiding, I'm-in-on-the-joke green eyes that give you the feeling that, hey, what the hell, give it a shot, she'll let you down easy.
  She's a wanna-be actor. A people collector. A friend magnet. A rare example of a person who can be religious and moral and all that without making a happy, decadent, self-serving swine like me want to choke her.
  Apil loves to bust me. I love to be busted by her. There's absolutely no chance we'll ever be a couple. And yet, optimist that I am, I figure to keep giving it a shot.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: Okay so I like Etain, but SERIOUSLY THO. CHRISTOPHER/APRIL.]

***

I did not let Etain bathe me. Give me some credit. I'm not a complete dog. Besides, David wouldn't let me.

***

  But at last [Lorg] said, "Most humble apologies, sir." And to everyone's amazement he actually stuck out one leg and executed an arm-sweeping bow. And what could I do but bow right back? People bow to you, it just brings out the counter-bow, like it or not.
  "I hopes his honor ain't too discommoded?" the giant rumbled, his hideous face a mask of hideous concern.
  "Who, me? Nah. I'll probably wake up screaming every night for the rest of my life, but hell, Lorg, I was doing that anyway. No hard feelings."

***

  "[Though] I'm afraid your names and even your descriptions have become sadly garbled in the retelling."
  "Yeah?"
  Etain laughed her laugh and said, "Oh, yes, you are described as beings of light, barely human at all, nor elfin, nor of any known race, but fantastically arrayed, fabulously tall, and bedecked entirely with diamonds and rubies, with dragons at your beck and call."
  "That all sounds pretty accurate," I said.

***

  "Technology," Etain said, savoring the word. "Technology."
  It gave me a chill. I'm not Jalil. I'm not some nerd. I'm not all that in love with the real world. I'm not some Palm-Pilot-tapping, beeper-wearing, Web-surfing, cell-glued-to-my-head techie. My love for technology is about cars and remote controls, that's about it.
  But lord, to wander through the horror show of Everworld all this time, stumbling from one nightmare into the next, day after day of life as the gods have dictated it, man, that word, that clumsy, clunky word spilling from the luscious lips of that hottie, I don't know, it made me want to cry. I swear to God, I had tears in my eyes.
  Technology. One word that summed up central air-conditioning and hot water and escalators and The Flaming Lips cranked up in your headphones and automatic transmissions and HBO and downloadable bootleg term papers and beer that's really, really cold even on a hot day.
  Technology. It was like the words Snickers bar to a starving man.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: I adore this love letter to technology, and Christopher catching a glimpse of what they've been missing. But also, I like the inadvertently retro nature of this description of technology circa 2000; it's funny to look back on, because "the Web" (and who even uses that term anymore?) and cell phones are ubiquitous now, to the extent of me being horrified that seven-year-olds own iPhones and tablets. Back in 2000, one would have to be "techie" for a teenager to own a phone. Also, BEEPERS!!!]

***

  "I'll go with you," David said heavily.
  "I would welcome Galahad's sword," MacCool boomed expansively. Good grief, he was more David than David, and that's way too much David.
  I swear I half expected the two nitwit heroes to start high-fiving each other. But David ain't stupid. I mean, he's dumb, but not downright stupid.
  [...] "I'll go with you," I said, startling myself[.]
�� "You will?" April said, more puzzled than impressed.
  "Yeah. Someone's going to need to show these two heroes how to run away."

***

  [B]ehind us I heard a familiar voice crying, "Go after them! Finish them off!"
  I'll tell you something: Lots of guys have stories about ex-girlfriends from hell, but I was pretty sure I had a special case.

***

  "Six to go with me, six to go with Christopher."
  "I volunteered? Man, I gotta learn to keep my mouth shut."
  "You don't want payback?" David asked me.
  "No, that's you, not me, David. But I'll do it anyway. You know why?"
  "No," he admitted honestly.
  "Because you're just so cute when you go all Napoleon."
  "You're an idiot," he said, but he laughed as he said it.

***

  "[S]he bewitched David. She put the magic moves on our boy here."
  There was a universal sigh, a sort of unspoken "Ahh, now I understand" thing from the locals. That made perfect sense to them.

***

"She said it's probably too late, that no man's sword or arrow will stop Senna: Her power is too great, Brigid could feel it, that's what she said. She could feel Senna's presence, like a weight on her soul, a darkness on her mind, a shadow over the future. That's pretty close to a direct quote. No man would kill her."

[NOTE FROM JULIE: This is the point where I paused and screeched to myself, "APRIL'S GOING TO KILL HER HALF-SISTER!!!!" That's the beauty of misinterpreting literal prophecies, y'all. Also, I recently watched the Fassbender/Cotillard Macbeth, so the trope is on my mind: No Man of Woman Born.]

***

  David was bummed and guilty, April was bummed and pissed, I was bummed and worried about Etain.
  Only Jalil wasn't buying into the gloom and doom.
  "I have an idea," he said. "Let's build a tank."

[NOTE FROM JULIE: I LOVE HIM]

***

  Senna had recruited us into this madness, she'd chosen us and hijacked us into Everworld to work for her. She'd picked David to be her champion. She'd picked Jalil to be her brains. She'd brought me along to keep the group from ever jelling and coming together. And she'd brought April because Senna is a sadistic bitch and wanted to pay April back for... for being a nice, normal, decent girl,< I guess.
  But now we weren't working for Senna. We were working against her. David's crazy-generalissimo thing was working against her. And so was Jalil's twisted-Spock thing. And April had turned out to be a lot tougher than Senna had thought.
  As for me, I was no hero, never had been. But I wasn't the same guy I had been on that fateful day when Fenrir dragged us all into the deep end of the pool with no water wings. I still see the world as more funny than tragic, I still like a drink, I still admire a babe, I'm still not the ratcheted sphincter that David is. But I wasn't ready to play the screwup anymore.

***

And yet, I'd had my own involvement with Keith. He'd thought I was like him. That was enough. He thought I was one of him, one of them, and, man, there are few things more disgusting than discovering that some seething little hate machine like Keith thinks of you as as a brother.

***

  "Well, let's do this," David said. And then the cornball grabbed my hand in a manly grip and gave it a manly shake.
  "Oh, great, now I'm definitely dead," I said.
  David took off with his six fairy archers. Jalil and April headed back to the battlements of the castle. And Etain laid a quick kiss on my cheek.
  I was so dead. By all the Unwritten Rules of Moveis and Television, I was dead: the reformed bad boy who does the heroic thing at last? I could not be more dead.

***

  Then Keith's shrill voice yelling, "Fire in the hole!" and a second grenade went off and I was standing in the side yard looking up at the elm tree with my dad.
  "It's the beetles," he said, and I yelled in rage and frustration and grabbed my head with both hands.
  "Since when do you care about the yard?" my dad wondered.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: a) Wonderful crossing-over humour, but also b) BITING MY NAILS IN ANXIETY. I happened to finish this chapter right when my lunch break was over, so I WAILED.]

***

There was a pay phone at the bagel place so I called Jalil.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: I just like pointing out these weird little nostalgic technological moments. Who uses payphones anymore!!!!]

***

  "April."
  She broke off in mid-note. "Christopher. What are you doing here?"
  "First let me just say that whole 'want a date, sailor?' look works. I never pictured you doing the fishnets-and-spike-heels thing, but now I"ll never picture anything else."
  "Always glad to contribute to your little fantasies, Christopher. What's happened?" She took my arm and guided me out of the way, into a dark little corner.
  "I think maybe I'm dead," I said.

***

I shrugged. "I don't know. Sorry, I know I'm, like, messing up your big night. Although basically, just walk out onstage looking like that and you won't have to even sing. Maybe I should go see Brigid. I'm totally lost. I am messed up. I've never been dead before. Normally it's not the kind of thing you have to actually deal with."

***

  "I'm not shooting anyone."
  "With your dad's gun," David said. "Trent sees you shooting a black guy. He figures he owns you after that."
  "My dad doesn't let me borrow his gun to kill people. He's very strict about that."
  "That's the same thing real-world you said. I mean to the word," Jalil marveled.
[...]
  "You just need to pry the slugs out of the bullets and jam cardboard in," David said.
  "I want to emphasize that part and make sure we're real damn clear: Take out the slug," Jalil said. "Take out all the slugs."
  David nodded. "That would be the main thing not to forget."
  "Take out the slugs," Jalil repeated.
  [...] I drank the [sleeping] drug down in one gulp and tried not to shudder at the taste.
  "So you're saying real bullets?" I said.
  "Pry out the slugs," Jalil said.
  "Extra big slugs, got it."
  "Screw you, too."
  And then I was across.

***

  "You know, when you talk all Hollywood like this, it so totally gets me hot."
  She didn't laugh. "Christopher, I think Etain may actually like you. No one can imagine why, but she does. So why are you going all lizard with me?"
  This was cool news. My heart actually skipped a few beats. That happens fairly frequently, but it's always been from terror before.
  "What, I can't have different girls in different universes?"

***

  I looked up into Senna's manic face. "Who are you?" she demanded. Of course, she couldn't yet see through Merlin's disguise of me.
  She put her free hand on my face, almost caressing, and I felt all the anger, all the determination slip away, disappear behind a bank of fog that rolled into my brain.
  "It's just me, Christopher," I said.

[Katelynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

THINGS HAPPEN. MUCH THINGS. VERY HAPPEN.

I loved it. Loooooved it. These kids are facing war and battle and the effects of it physically and mentally, much like the kids in Animorphs. But unlike the poor Animorphs, these four teenagers manage to become better, stronger versions of who they once were. These are not shattered shells of children; these are tenacious, unstoppable forces who have learned not only how to swing a sword but also about empathy and magic and when to run away and how to love and be loyal. They didn't know or even like each other in the beginning, and they've grown so much as human beings that now they will do absolutely anything to protect each other. This has been such an incredible journey with such vibrant little sweethearts. I can't wait to read the final book.

Also there were a few parts in this that really touched me in regards to the author, Katherine Applegate, and the soft spot I've learned that she has for boys with the weight of the world on their shoulders. David is not as heart-wrenchingly tragic as Jake of Animorphs, but he's close. I love that you can tell how much Applegate loves and adores her poor David, and that she loves him as much for the fact that he's broken just as much as she loves him for being so brave. It's really kind of beautiful to see a creation radiating with such love from his creator.

I can't remember how the last book ends, but I hope it's happy. These stupid little troopers deserve it.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Old Worlders finally face off against Senna. After hating the previous book, I'm pleasantly surprised that I ate this one up. There's no narrative cul-de-sacs here; it's all plot all the time, doing clever things with the parallel-world setup, carrying through on character arcs (I'll never like Christopher, but he's a good PoV for this book) and the ongoing theme of Everworld eclipsing their original/"real" lives. It retains the flaws endemic to the series, primarily the historical reductivism, but also mediocre writing (ex. the key to defeating Senna is obvious to any reader who's the least trope-aware; neo-Nazis as easily-manipulated pawns of the antagonist is painfully on the nose--but effective, don't get me wrong). But, since I don't know if the series will end well, and since it's been relatively underwhelming up to this point, I'm gratified to have at least one strong book near the end to reward my persistence.

[Tommy Grooms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mystify the Magician is probably the best Everworld book. Several story threads come to a head as Senna finally fully betrays the group, bringing a skinhead militia into Everworld. It's a genuinely chilling, sick twist with an element of train-wreck, can't-look-away horror. Christopher's narration is at its funniest and his most redeeming qualities manifest themselves. The switching-between-worlds element is utilized to its fullest, and remembering Senna's perspective from Inside the Illusion creates a deliciously tragic conclusion as her cold personality (more megalomaniac than mastermind) becomes her undoing.

[Kinsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly the best part of this series is watching the kids who whined about getting blisters in the first book, now straight up committing kidnapping and murder. they grow up so fast :')

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

   As of the half way point of this book, I am actually holding out hope for things to come together in this book and the next one (the last!!). But reading buddy Julie has just forewarned me that disappointment might be more likely instead…oh boy… (actually, it would not be too surprising, given how much there is left to cover in one final book, not to mention the track record this series has created with me). At any rate, this book at least was anything but a disappointment! It is possibly my favorite one in this entire series so far for various reasons.

   After finishing the book: I’ve already commented on the quotes below I wanted to comment on (okay, which is where most of my review is happening after all, haha), so let’s see how writing this portion of my review as well as taking all day to do it may or may not affect my opinion of the book. Right after I finished it, I was thinking it was a solid 4 stars, as it is a mark and above what the books have been lately. But the more I have been thinking about everything that is packed into this book, the subtleties and the action, the plot and universe-spanning scheming, I’m coming up with a 5 star rating, it is so markedly better than the other Everworld books and I really and truly enjoyed it immensely. Maybe it is because KAA had more time to spend on it after finishing Ellimist Chronicles, that it does not seem to be ghost-written at all, or a combination of those and some other outside factors in addition to what actually happens in the book.

   I love how past plot points come back in this book, in full fruition, and pieces are falling into place. Connections are made, character growth is evident, the whole shebang. It felt like a story, and a comparatively well-rounded and finished one in comparison to most of the installments in the Everworld series. There is still, of course, practically non-stop action, and the pattern in a way echoes what happened on Olympus, with the Everworld kids getting pulled in to a battle and having to take command and show the inhabitants of Eire how to deal with the new assaults facing them. But it works, I don’t feel like things were too rushed, the flow and pacing keep up with what you expect from what is going on. When stuff is hitting the fan, you better believe there is a lot of running around and dodging as well as finding ways to throw it right back.

   It was also really interesting to see how the inhabitants of Eire have adopted the technology which JACD (okay, mostly Jalil) introduced back in Fairy Town. What I find especially interesting about this sudden burst of technology is how the Everworlders still explain it in terms of spirits and magic – while they are quickly grasping how to use this technology, they have yet to reach the scientific understanding of it which would allow them to further elaborate on what they have. Given the “rules” of Everworld, and what we learned of the Mayor of Atlantis’ trouble with teaching the ways of democracy to a successor, I have a feeling that it will take a long, long time for a native-born Everworlder to be able to understand technology and start that advancement moving in Everworld (if it ever can happen). Speaking of the rules of Everworld: there are scrolls which contain Everworld’s “software,” as Jalil puts it? Now THAT is an intriguing development. But how oh how will this be sufficiently elaborated upon/searched out in the one book remaining to us readers?

   That ending! I totally, TOTALLY called it that April would be the one who would have to kill Senna! Not that I’m happy about it, but it does make the most sense. Sadly my hopes of learning what exactly April’s beef with Senna is has pretty much died with Senna, but oh boy oh boy the horrible things this is going to do to April’s head. I … should not be excited about that. But I am? Maybe because April is the most do-gooder of the group, she’s the one who wants Everworld problems to stay in Everworld, she’s the moral compass of sorts. But in the end, it was HER who stabbed Senna, and knowing that Senna is dead by her own hand and likely feeling like she will not be able to tell anyone in the real world about it… not even her priest, that is going to be very hard for her. As for the whole, “How are we going to get home?” – my first thought went to, “Well, Senna’s mom is still alive and can get you home. You just need to find her.” Though all of this does beg the question: how are they going to defeat Ka Anor AND find the Everworld "software" AND find a way home over the span of 1 book? This shall be… interesting.

   You know what, I really don’t know what else to say to “review” this up here. I address most of what else I would say about this book in the quotes/comments section re: Christopher's growth (Huh. And those seem to be most of my comments, too, haha). After stewing over it all day though, I guess I would have to say that this book, in relation to the other Everworld books, is a 5 star book; but in the grand scheme of how good of a book it actually is, should be more like a 4. So ... 5 stars it shall be!

Quotes and comments:

Part 1 – typed up about to the mid-point of the book and commented on before finishing the book

   Zeus and Odin and Isis and Quetzalcoatl and the Daghdha and the whole panoply of divinely infantile personalities got together in a rare moment of unity and created Everworld. – page 8 – Not gonna lie, I like this quote purely for the “divinely infantile personalities” bit XD

   April loves to bust me. I love to be busted by her. There’s absolutely no chance we’ll ever be a couple. And yet, optimist that I am, I figure to keep giving it a shot. – page 13 – Oh, my April/Christopher ship has wind in its sails! :D

   Etain unwound a shawl from her shoulders and handed it to me, careful not to let it get wet. I did a nonchalant exit that involved advancing up out of the water while simultaneously adjusting the shawl lower and lower, all the while trying to look as cool as 007 in his tuxedo. -- page 16

   I guess I’d assumed [elves] were just slightly bigger versions of fairies. But fairies are tolerably unmysterious creatures: They like to make money, they take no crap, and you always got the feeling with fairies that while they wouldn’t enjoy killing you, they’d sure as hell do it in a hurry if they thought it was a good idea. If fairies ever break through into the real world you’ll find them all within a few blocks of Wall Street. – page 39-40

   And over there the other Christopher, the one who hadn’t seen Etain up close, the cynical, smart-ass Christopher untouched by love would dilute, water down the feeling I had. – page 48 – Ah, here’s the clue to the direction he will run on page 75. And he’s starting (?) to realize just how different the two Christophers can be, and how he wants to enact change in the real world one as a result of his Everworld experiences (despite how much he has seemed to hate being in Everworld thus far).

   And the thing was that MacCool was putting the moves on Etain. Not that she’d notice, naturally: Girls are always prepared to believe that a guy has something else in mind. Despite roughly a million years of human experience, females persist in their belief that deep down inside, guys are girls. – page 65

   “Come on, Christopher. You’re not scared of Senna,” I told myself. But here’s the thing: Any time you have to deny that you’re scared, you’re scared. – page 67

   Keith yelled and just fired into the air in celebration. It came to me then that it was right now or never. Right this minute or I was never getting out of this place. – page 75 – I like that this was deliberately unclear – he can run through Senna back to the real world, or back into the woods to get back to the other. Not going to lie, I was leaning towards he was headed towards Senna to get out of Everworld. Goes to show just how much he is changing and has already changed as a result of his experiences in Everworld.

   “I volunteered? Man, I gotta learn to keep my mouth shut.”
   “You don’t want payback?” David asked me.
   “No, that’s you, not me, David. But I’ll do it anyway. You know why?”
   “No,” he admitted honestly.
   “Because you’re just so cute when you go all Napoleon.”
   “You’re an idiot,” he said, but he laughed as he said it. – page 98-99

   [April explained,] “[Brigid] wasn’t exactly optimistic, David. She said it’s probably too late, that no man’s sword or arrow will stop Senna. Her power is too great, Brigid could feel it, that’s what she said. She could feel Senna’s presence, like a weight on her soul, a darkness on her mind, a shadow over the future. That’s pretty close to a direct quote. No man would kill her.” – page 103 – First off, I’m not quite convinced of Senna’s actual power, given how drained she would get back in Inside the Illusion (Everworld #9). I can believe she has the potential, given more time to nurture her power, but even now she still doesn’t stand a chance against Merlin, and can barely hold her own against a goddess like Hel – and even that, she could not do. Second, “No man would kill” Senna. I wonder if it is safe for me to read this that it has to be a woman who kills her – and I think April would be the woman for the job? If only because she is the closest to Senna in blood, she’s a woman, and maybe then, finally we might get to hear what exactly April’s beef with Senna is.

   And yet, I’d had my own involvement with Keith. He’d thought I was like him. That was enough. He thought I was one of him, one of them, and, man, there are few things more disgusting than discovering that some seething little hate machine like Keith thinks of you as a brother.
   Plus the little bastard had shot at me.
   So I figured at some level Keith was my problem. Let David handle the universe, I’d take care of Keith. – page 105 – Just like Christopher: he takes care of things that are personal to him, not the things that matter in the big picture. He’s a “small picture”-type of guy.

   I parked on the street, watched by three black guys in full hip-hop regalia. Probably steal my car.
   No, we don’t think that way anymore, Christopher, I chided myself. That’s Keith-ism. Loser-think.
   I locked up anyway and pointed my keys like I was turning on the nonexistent alarm. Yeah, that would fool the whole world. – page 117 – I love how he’s aware of himself and his prejudices now, and how he’s actively noting it so that he can fix it.

-----Part 2: typed and written after finishing the book-----

   “My dad doesn’t let me borrow his gun to kill people. He’s very strict about that.”
   “That’s the same thing real-world you said. I mean, to the word,” Jalil marveled. – page 131 – What I find interesting about this is it further illustrates how close/similar the Everworld- and real-world- versions of Christopher are. It’s nice to be reminded of that. And then how Jalil keeps reiterating “take out the slugs” bit was just hilarious.

   [I answered April in code about the gun,] “Oh yeah, baby, I have the thing you need. Uh-huh.”
   “Are you actually standing there leering and rotating your pelvis like some kind of arthritic Elvis impersonator?”
   I froze. “No. Of course not. How did you know?”
   “I’m on a cell phone. […] I’m right outside on the sidewalk.” – page 134-135 – BWAHAHA!

   [I said to April,] “You know, when you talk all Hollywood like this, it so totally gets me hot.”
   She didn’t laugh. “Christopher, I think Etain may actually like you. So why are you going all lizard with me?”
   This was cool news. My heart actually skipped a few beats. That happens fairly frequently, but it’s always been from terror before.
   “What, I can’t have different girls in different universes?”
   “Focus on this, okay?” she said. “We don’t get to retake the scene.” – page 136 – Other than I’ve never heard the phrase “going lizard” before, I really like how this hearkens back to way back when when Christopher said he wanted a girl in each universe – he’s definitely working on getting it, too! Christopher, being the small picture person he is, is really taken this coup de foudre with Etain very seriously in both worlds. It might even be enough to get him wanting to stay in Everworld…?

   “Sure. You okay?”
   “No,” [April] said. “It’s different when it’s here. This is the real world. It’s not right. This crap should all be over there, not here.” Then she walked away. – page 137

   Everworld me was getting better. […] I was well enough to bathe myself. Which was a shame because I was also well enough that I’d have enjoyed having Etain give me a sponge bath.
   See, there’s the Catch-22: If you might enjoy it, you don’t get it. Pretty well sums up life as we know it. – page 143

   I felt for my sword. Gone. But the nearest fairy still carried his sword, more like a dagger, really. I slid it from his belt, whispering an apology for robbing the dead. – page 165 – This also seems a strong reflection of the new-and-improved Christopher – that he would whisper an apology to the dead fairy. It is more evident now how despite his denials, the events of Everworld really have gotten to him and affected him.

   This was so screwed up. And it was my fault. I should have been able to resist Senna. Should have been able to keep her from playing with my mind. All the times I’d made fun of David for being her sock puppet. And now whose hand was up my butt? I was the new star of Senna’s very own Sesame Street. – page 166 – Ah, and again now, this has become personal for Christopher. He is becoming more and more intertwined with the events in Everworld, to the point where he would beat himself up about it. This is very much NOT the Christopher who first landed in Everworld, it really is the new-and-improved Christopher.

   But to lie in wait for Senna and jump out from behind a tree and stick my fairy sword into her? Not me, and not anyone I wanted to hang around with. – page 169 – I am loving, loving, loving Christopher more and more. :’)

   So [Merlin and I] sat down well off the road and damned if Merlin didn’t brew up a pot of tea. Made himself a little fire out of damp twigs that shouldn’t burn and whipped a little teapot out of his rucksack. It was a Yoda moment. I expected him to start talking backward and moving like a Muppet. “Screwed we are, yes.” – page 172

   [Merlin and I along with Senna’s goons] marched on our rollicking way: ‘Roid-Senna in the lead, Merlin and me in the rear, and in between twenty or so living proofs that white people aren’t really superior. – page 178 – Nice little nod to a Big Issue, too :)

   Senna spun on her heels, and for a sweet moment I saw fear in her eyes. The tyrant’s natural, instinctive fear of defiance. – page 186

Swear count:
Damn/dammit (42, 87, 90, 124, 131, 161)
Damned (2, 73, 75, 85, 111, 114, 156, 172, 185)
goddam (115)
Ass/es (11, 74, 82, 99, 114)
Jackass (84, 176)
Smart-ass (48, 151, 152)
Weird-ass (126)
Big/huge-ass (135, 193)
Ass-kicking (198)
Bitch (verb) (11, 82, 140)
Bitch (noun) (61, 104, 186)
Hell (13, 17, 34, 39, 43, 55, 61, 71, 103, 108, 116, 134, 140x2, 161, 166, 192, 198)
Mad as hell (97)
Bastard (105, and probably one or two others that I forgot to mark)

[David Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second to last book in the series and boy does shit happen. For a YA book it gets pretty dark towards the end. Unfortunately a major plot point in the beginning got spoiled for me by one of the main entries in the fucking Wikipedia page for the series. Still, a great entry. The narrator for this one is Christopher, the comic relief character, who is my least favorite of the protagonists, but I still enjoyed it immensely.

[Stephanie Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aah this one was really good! I love Christopher now! The boy did some serious growing up. Good for him. The way the battles were handled in this one were great too! I love the switching back and forth - I could feel Christopher's panic at one point. I stayed up late in bed finishing this book because I got so caught up. And that ending!!!! Aaah!!!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely the best Everworld book so far, mostly because this is where the conflict finally comes to fruition. Senna brings her trigger-happy Nazis into Everworld, and sets them loose on the population of Everworld Ireland. Chaos ensues as automatic weapons are pitted against medieval ones.

Senna herself is still an interesting case study as a villain. She is cruel, but it is mostly calculated cruelty. She keeps her men in line by demonstrating her power, but never punishing them without cause (unless she is tricked into doing so). She paints herself as a Valkyrie because this is the image that appeals to them most. She basically knows how to play the skinheads. However, when it comes to her former "friends", it's mostly spite in play there, especially as regards Jalil and April. That's where her sadism really rears its ugly head.

David flinched. I wanted to feel sorry for him. He'd been bewitched by Senna - and in Everworld that's not just a cliche. But to some extent his continued devotion to Senna was his own choice. Plus he had it in his head that he was the brave platoon leader who was going to get us all out safely, come hell or high water. It's no joke being trapped in those macho fantasies, you know: doesn't leave you much room for being a normal human being.

I fully agree with Christopher's analysis here, but interestingly, his opinion changes somewhat after Senna bewitches him too. That is when he (and I suppose the reader too) finally realises how difficult it is to resist her. The illusion she uses on Christopher to get him under her control is a well-played manipulation of one of his key weaknesses: pretty women. It also made me a little more forgiving of David. If Christopher, who certainly does not love Senna or even like her, can fall so completely under her spell, what hope does David have? It just goes to show how expertly she groomed him into being her soldier. It also shows that you don't have to be predisposed to liking Senna to fall under her spell. She's a lot more powerful than you can imagine.

I love how Applegate played to her characters' skills in this book. April as the actress with the fake blood, etc. Jalil creating tanks and sulfuric acid. David showing some real sensibility in not being too proud to run away when needed. As for Merlin, he's probably my favourite side-character. Showing up to hear Christopher's woes while brewing tea in a teapot he randomly carries in his cloak. What a legend.

I also really appreciate that Applegate clearly knew the direction she wanted to go in right from the start. Things come full circle: the Coo-Hatch blade with the Napoleon complex which they named Excalibur, being used to save the day in the most epic way, the goddess Brigid who first popped up a couple of books ago becoming a sort of oracle-like presence, Keith playing out his role of batshit Nazi arsehole to perfection, and even Merlin once again pitting his cunning and magic against Senna.

Medieval Ireland is also my favourite setting, because it's medieval Ireland with electric lights, telegraph and cable cars (albeit ornate cable cars). And there are Fomorian giants here as well.

"We have all the old gods, the Tuatha De Danaan, bless them, but we also have the druids, and the fairy folk, and my mother's own people, the elves. And after the Great Bloodletting that pitted gods and man against elves, fairies, and druids, came the time of the Peace Council..."

I really wanted to know more about what Etain mentions in the above quote, but it did not get explored in this book, and I'm not sure it will be in the next book. Which is a shame. It's a bit of worldbuilding I would love to learn more about.

Two minor quibbles:

1) They got the inner cover wrong for this book. Etain is a redhead, not a brunette, and the fairies are the size of "twelve year old boys", according to Christopher, not "hamster-sized". But that's a design flaw, and not something the author can control.

2) Also that whole "no man will kill Senna" thing was so incredibly Tolkien that I knew the twist before it happened, and that kind of spoils it. However, it was also a nice set up for the Cain and Abel type sororicide that happens at the end of the book. Still, I wonder if Applegate could have worded the prophesy a little differently to not make it so obvious.

Those things aside, I'm rating this book 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

I'm looking forward to the next and final installment in the series. Firstly, because it is from April's point of view, and she and Jalil are my two favourite narrators. Also I am dead curious to see what April's state of mind is after what she had to do at the end of this book. Secondly, this book finally delved into the idea of what would happen to the real world teens if their Everworld counterparts died, and it was not a good sign. So now that the gateway is no longer open to them, what will happen? I have a very vague memory from when I read this series as a child but can otherwise remember nothing of the plot. I really hope it ends strong.

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well. I spent my last review shit-talking the series, saying it wasn’t doing enough to move the narrative forward, and MYSTIFY THE MAGICIAN delivers in a big way. Here Senna reaches her breaking point and decides to lay all her cards on the table—in the form of dozens of heavily-armed Republican Presidential candidates she’s bringing over from the Old World. The Gateway is officially open! The group realizes this when Lorg, a semi-friendly giant is riddled with bullets and killed. From here, things get *real*.

It’s an incredibly violent installment of the series. Not that violence necessarily appeals to me but it heightens the stakes in a serious way. The violence of Everworld is small potatoes next to the gaping wounds any Old World firearm can leave. The headstrong knight MacCool learns this the hard way when a bullet tears through his face.

The group, along with a fair number of fairies and elves, do their best to hold off Senna and her followers, the Sennites, but it’s truly war now. There’s more than once when the group get knocked out and return to their Real-World lives and think, “Is this it? Am I dead?” What once might have been a relief is now a terror, thinking that they might be trapped back on Earth with no way to rejoin the fray.

The depravity of the Sennites, and of Senna herself, is extreme. Guys who admire the Nazis carry out a literal slaughter, leaving bodies in a pile. Senna is off the edge, and if I’m being frank it’s in a somewhat unbelievable way. She roasts anybody who dares back-talk her without thinking of the consequences; not the strategic genius who waits to make her move the way we’ve seen so far. I guess the easy explanation is that her hubris got the better of her. The cat-and-mouse game she plays with Merlin late in the book (Merlin has sure turned into a swell guy!) with masked identities is very fun.

And—okay, let’s get into real spoiler territory now—I was happy that this book finally had the characters suggest what had been obvious to me for some time: Senna’s gotta die. But they did more than *suggest* it. Near the end of the book, April literally stabs her to death with a Coo-Hatch blade! It’s stunning, exciting, and it’s hard not to be somewhat enthusiastic about the decision even though April, understandably, is immediately traumatized by what she’s done.

I was irritated at first that this was a Christopher book because he’s my least favorite character and I knew it meant we would lose either an April or Jalil book in the final count. But he’s actually turned into not such a bad dude after all, and it’s amazing how easily that could be accomplished just by making him *try* to be a better person and *acknowledge* when he’s done wrong. There IS a scene in this book where Christopher has a racist thought about a group of black men but immediately catches himself and reinforces that he knows better. Like, that tiny bit of effort goes miles toward redeeming him. It’s welcome.

I don’t know that I would say this is a five-star book standing on its own, but certainly within the context of the series it’s unquestionably the high point. The action comes to a major head here, it’s thrilling and fast-moving and surprising and all of this is doubly true for how it follows a pair of meandering books that had me worried the whole thing was falling apart. Damn. This is a good one.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember that the previous book in the series is where I originally stopped reading, which was a shame as it turns out, because this is the point where everything finally starts coming to a head.

We've got a group that, after multiple books' worth of endless petty bickering, is finally beginning to cohere. We've got Senna bringing her army of Nazi whackjobs across the barrier, complete with modern weaponry against which Everworld has no defenses. We've got our protagonists who are finally learning her game, but almost too late to do anything to stop it.

Christopher especially has grown so much from the shallow jackass he was when he first landed in Everworld. He may still occasionally be led around by his dick and he may still be figuring out where the line is between funny and offensive, but he's starting to learn what it means to actually care about a woman as opposed to just wanting to cop a feel (and in the next book even manages to comfort April without being a creep about it!), and he's actually starting to stop and think before he opens his mouth. Part of the reason I originally dropped this series, without even realizing it at the time, was due to growing impatience with the lack of real character growth and with the characters' inability to get along even in the most dire of circumstances, but this is the point where we finally get some payoff:

Senna had recruited us into this madness, she'd chosen and hijacked us into Everworld to work for her. She'd picked David to be her champion. She'd picked Jalil to be her brains. She'd brought me along to keep the group from ever jelling and coming together. And she'd brought April because Senna is a sadistic bitch and wanted to pay April back for... for being a nice, normal, decent girl, I guess.

But now we weren't working for Senna. We were working against her. David's crazy-generalissimo thing was working against her. And so was Jalil's twisted-Spock thing. And April had turned out to be a lot tougher than Senna had thought.

As for me, I was no hero, never had been. But I wasn't the same guy I had been on that fateful day when Fenrir dragged us all into the deep end of the pool with no water wings. I still see the world as more funny than tragic, I still like a drink, I still admire a babe, I'm still not the ratched sphincter that David is. But I wasn't ready to play the screw-up anymore.

Other highlights included the group's plan to intercept some weapons in the real world to keep them from getting to Everworld, which ended up going horribly wrong and yet still somehow managed to work. When Merlin said that Senna had gotten so powerful that no man would defeat her, I immediately knew where that was going, to the point where it was almost a bit too obvious. Still, though, one major point of frustration with this series was that it could sometimes be hard to see the forest for the trees, and it was good to finally see that it's actually been going somewhere.

[Namita ♛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say, against my better judgement of a book narrated by Christopher Hitchcock, this book gets a 4. The siege part really did it for me.

It took me awhile to get into this because it was from Christopher's POV and his narration was just difficult for me to comprehend. Maybe I am being thick but his all-American, high-school slangs and pop culture references from the 80s/90s just had me rolling my eyes and cringing.

Though, once I manage to get past that, the book was enjoyable. It was well paced in my opinion and the plot once again held relevance to me. I am still not completely sold on Christopher but he has come a long way, so has David for that matter. However, I would still like to acknowledge some scenes where he (David) still showed some devotion to that psycho and that really irked me.

Speaking of which, Senna is truly a psychotic being and she has my unbridled hate. Amassing Nazis to fight your war and kill innocents? What the actual hell is wrong with this w(b)itch? And using someone's mental health condition against them as torture? Nah, burn the witch! Seriously, I genuinely despise her.

Lastly, something I have been meaning to address throughout this series. I am at the penultimate book here and there is something that has truly baffled me from the start and that is how the hell is David and now Christopher skilled in meelee combat?
In the first book, David did a 180 degree and became a hero and has been handling a sword. I don't know what kind of swords they use in Everworld but I have handled one and let me tell you, that shit is heavy. David is described as someone who is not super athletic from what I can remember and now after picking up a sword he can go up against skilled fighters in combat? And not take ANY life threatening injuries? HOW? And a few books back he goes into war but WITHOUT any sort of protection? NO chain mail, no shield... and still emerge A-okay? Brah, that is NOT realistic.
And then this book where Christopher has the brute stength and dexiterity to take out one of the finest warriors there is? Erm...am I missing an entire section of the series where these 16-year-olds learnt to wield a sword with such skill?

Ayways, bring forth the final!

[Brunna Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moly have we gone off the deep end! Yes!

Christopher’s redemption arc comes full circle when he parks his car, sees three Black men, instinctively thinks he needs to lock his car or else they’ll steal it, then immediately CORRECTS HIMSELF and says “no, we don’t think that way anymore”. Yes, Christopher, yes!!! That is growth and I’m so proud of this jerk of a character written 20 years ago! I’m even okay with him finally finding someone who might finally like him back.

But even better than Christopher’s redemption (amazing that I feel this way), is Senna FINALLY being cast aside as the evil witch she is. Listen, I wanted to give her a chance, but ever since her book I just wanted her to die because the witch is evil. So glad to see David finally accept that she’s the bad guy.

Just in time for the wicked witch to bring over freaking machine guns from the real world. Keith finally shows up again and this time, Senna has friends for him. And she is ready to royally mess up Ireland.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that we’re in Ireland in this book and there is a brief, brief mention of Cu Chulainn and I geeked out for a slight second at Applegate’s homework. But that’s about all we’ve got with the Daghdha eaten by Ka Anor and Brigid in the real world busy not contributing anything.

I really liked the ending of this book and I’m excited to see how it all wraps up.

[Zdravko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first 10 books back in 2007. At that point, I couldn't find the last two and eventually completely forgot about the series. Last year, I was going through unfinished series and came across Everworld. I thought about reading it, but I didn't. But now I've made the effort and found the last two parts. Funny thing is, I remember almost all the events so I didn't have to do much research on the previous books. The narrator in this one is Christopher, my least favourite character but I still enjoyed it. And now, the last one!

[Fefi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ecco perchè Senna mi sta così antipatica... (SPOILER)
La brama di potere, dal mio punto di vista,porta sempre alla rovina...
La compagnia di amici si ritrova nell'Irlanda di Everworld a fianco nuovamente del grande Merlino e di una bellissima principessa elfica a lottare proprio contro la più grande manipolatrice di cervelli e grande trasformista, Senna, l'unica porta tra il mondo reale e Everworld.
Cambia la sua marionetta: non sarà più David, ma...
Vincerà il bene o il male?

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

📖personal library

Wow - this was an action packed penultimate novel. I love that it was from Christopher's point of view. The levity of his personality helped keep this book from getting too dark. But they were also able to show how much growth he's done since the beginning of their stay in Everworld. This is one of my favorites of the series so far, and honestly I'm a little sad to be almost at the end...

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'inferno che si scatena in questo libro è narrato dagli occhi di Christopher. Senna si rivela per quello che è: pazza e manipolatrice con manie di grandezza. Porta il suo esercito di neonazisti armati fino ai denti ad Everworld ferrando un feroce attacco alla fortezza dove sono nascosti gli altri ragazzi, che riusciranno a salvarsi solo per un pelo.

[G. Edweird Cheese · Rating 4 out of 5]

By far my favorite in the series. Senna's plan is finally revealed and it goes splendidly... until it dosn't. Major bloodshed and a huge body count. Christopher has become my favorite character, his arc was the most noticable.
Too bad Senna relied on nazis... her plan could have worked with a smarter army... not one full of little Hitlers.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly did not expect this book to feel as relevant as it does in 2025!

I also fondly remember reading this book and encountering a particular trope for the first time, even though it had been famously used many times before, and it blew my teenage mind. A great penultimate chapter of the series.

[Heather Mayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was probably the best one so far. I do like how Christopher's character has grown. Actually all of the 4 characters now that I think about it. Will be interesting to see how it all wraps up in the last book.

[Sandy Maguire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely the best book in the series, by a wide margin.

[Valia (beingshelfaware) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely the best book in the series.

[Missy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher gets brave and the real world and Everworld start to mix in new ways.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had some really good moments and some that dragged a bit.

[LdyGray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A... plot? Maybe?

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to skip book 10, but it sounds like it was a filler book anyway.

This seems to be a favorite for a lot of people, but I found it extremely boring. The ending was crazy, though!

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Rylee Creed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey! This was insane!!!!

Nazis, Senna becoming the god of Nazis, and then her DYING?

Anyway all books where you punch nazis get 5 stars. I'm glad Senna's dead.