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Pure Dead #4
Magiaa musta taivas
Fantasiaa valoakin nopeammin!
Pimeyden voimat ovat taas valloillaan StregaSchlossissa. Huomaako niitä kuitenkaan kukaan? Pandoraa kiinnostaa vain uusi hovimestari, Titus keskittyy surffailemaan netissä ja perheen lemmikkipedoilla on kihlajaiskiireitä. Vain lastenhoitaja rouva McLachlan tajuaa tilanteen. Demoni Isagoth on kronokiven jäljillä, mutta onnistuuko hän sieppaamaan sen linnasta, jossa jopa pienokaisilla on taikavoimia?
Pimeyden voimat ovat taas valloillaan StregaSchlossissa. Huomaako niitä kuitenkaan kukaan? Pandoraa kiinnostaa vain uusi hovimestari, Titus keskittyy surffailemaan netissä ja perheen lemmikkipedoilla on kihlajaiskiireitä. Vain lastenhoitaja rouva McLachlan tajuaa tilanteen. Demoni Isagoth on kronokiven jäljillä, mutta onnistuuko hän sieppaamaan sen linnasta, jossa jopa pienokaisilla on taikavoimia?
331 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
249 people want to read
About the author
Debi Gliori
232 books130 followersDebi Gliori (born 1959) is a Scottish author and illustrator of children's books.
She grew up as an only child in Glasgow, and when young began drawing and writing stories. She started writing children's books in 1976, and attended art school in Edinburgh from 1979 to 1984. She then received a travelling scholarship award to go to Milan, and worked as a freelance from 1984 onwards.
She is the author/illustrator of many books for children including Mr Bear, the winner of a Children's Book Award. She is best known for her black comedy Pure Dead series for older children, which display strong elements of family lives amid dark and fantasy-based plots.
She grew up as an only child in Glasgow, and when young began drawing and writing stories. She started writing children's books in 1976, and attended art school in Edinburgh from 1979 to 1984. She then received a travelling scholarship award to go to Milan, and worked as a freelance from 1984 onwards.
She is the author/illustrator of many books for children including Mr Bear, the winner of a Children's Book Award. She is best known for her black comedy Pure Dead series for older children, which display strong elements of family lives amid dark and fantasy-based plots.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 31, 2011
I loved the first two books of these series but I didn't like the third as much and figured I was getting too old for it. In the interests of finishing what I had started, I put the last three books on my Christmas wishlist. After having received them, I'd finished them by the day after Boxing Day. These books, as a series, are very readable - even if the toilet humour does become a bit overwhelming after a while. This was really the turning point of the set for me: the point in which all the books plots began to draw together and make sense as a bigger picture. All the loveable, familiar characters returned and, all-in-all, I was left wondering why I ever thought I was too old for these books.
December 29, 2020
I absolutely loved the Pure Dead books as a kid and when they got into the 2nd half of the series I was blown away by the escalation of the stakes while still at it's heart remaining a hilarious and fantastical tale about family love!
January 7, 2021
I tried to start this book years ago but gave up because there were too many words I didn't know - now I believe it was mainly the pronunciation of names...
A lot happens in this book, and can definetly be called an explosive restart to the series. You get more glimpses of Mrs McLachlan's past, Titus and Pandora run into serious danger and Damp causes more magical trouble. All of this happeneing with a demon hunting them down; at least life at StregaSchloss is never boring.
A lot happens in this book, and can definetly be called an explosive restart to the series. You get more glimpses of Mrs McLachlan's past, Titus and Pandora run into serious danger and Damp causes more magical trouble. All of this happeneing with a demon hunting them down; at least life at StregaSchloss is never boring.
April 13, 2018
Another great installment in the Pure Dead series. This one was darker and sadder with the disappearance of Ms McLachlan.
July 16, 2020
A fantastic ending, holding me in suspense for the next book!
March 15, 2025
One star for the pretty illustrations
November 14, 2020
This book had been the one to least stay in my memory from childhood. I'm not sure why as I still really enjoyed it. It occurs to me that it may have been a less obvious plot that made the whole plot slip my mind. An issue that affects me not as an adult. I love the characters and setting, humour and pacing of this series so much I can't bring myself to fault it.
March 2, 2012
Whoa, I have a whole page of rambled notes on this! Another I grabbed at the book swap for the pretty cover. Took it with me to Vienna, finished it before I was even at Gatwick.
It started off really fun, meeting the Strega-Borgia family on their way home from Milan, at Glasgow airport. They were rather Addams-ish and seemed interesting... but then we kind of went away from them, wtf? It was kind of annoying, to introduce such great characters and then suddenly move right away from them and onto a new set - ie. the magical creatures living around them, who I mostly didn't care about. They seemed rather unnecessary... the only ones you really needed for the story were The Sleeper in the loch, and Tock in the moat. Perhaps Ffup as well, for the Sleeper. The others were kind of extraneous, and more time should have been spent on the family instead.
I giggled at Titus and his list of phrases - "Turn that racket down!" x 27 etc. And I even got used to the name Damp for the baby. I loved the frogs in the plane hold turning into naked princes, that was brilliant! But then the thread about Baci being a witch was also a bit unnecessary because nothing was really done with it. That could have been entirely left out. It seemed like there were too many loose B-threads floating around that had no point. My overall feeling was that there was great plot set-up here, what with Latch not showing up at the airport and his body later being found (unconscious, not dead!) but then 90% of the middle was distracted from that. And then suddenly we got back to it at the end, like the author had suddenly remembered what her story was... The other storyline that took over in the middle, the SapienTech lab plot, that could have done really well as a story on its own. But it really didn't have much place here because it had NOTHING to do with what you're lead to believe is the main story! There was just no link at all so the B-plot leaves you going, wait, what? And why do I care? Not enough detail is given to make the reader care, so it comes across as something randomly in the background that has nothing to do with anything, ie. nothing to do with the main plot. Also it was not explained terribly well and left me a bit unsatisfied. The lab people are bad, Zander the fake butler is bad and tries to kill Pandora and Titus... but then he and the evil lab people are on opposing sides. Meaning he and the kids are technically on the same side. He could have worked with them instead of trying to kill them...
I did enjoy the writing style, but at times I found it to be very grown-up for a young childrens' book. It definitely doesn't talk down to the reader at all, but at times I wondered if it would perhaps go over the heads of its target audience... unless it's the sort of books mums are meant to read to their kids out loud, and explain every second word and catchphrase. (Feet of clay? At 8 or 9 I would have taken that literally!)
I did giggle at, "We're back," Ffup said, somewhat redundantly, since dragons of her size rarely need to announce their arrival in anywhere smaller than the Kremlin. And the names Lochnagargoyle and Auchenlochtermuchty were loads of fun!
But over all, really, I reckon this should have been split into two books rather than forcing the two stories into the one. The Chorostone isn't even mentioned until page 56 - and that comes really out of the blue and isn't tied in to Latch's 'accident' for ages, so you're left going - wait, what? yet again. As I said, the B-plot is extraneous and not deep enough, it's totally disconnected to the main plot... but it forces the main plot to take a back-seat. The climax of the story is at least to do with the A-plot, but it's extremely anti-climatic and such a huge let-down.
It started off really fun, meeting the Strega-Borgia family on their way home from Milan, at Glasgow airport. They were rather Addams-ish and seemed interesting... but then we kind of went away from them, wtf? It was kind of annoying, to introduce such great characters and then suddenly move right away from them and onto a new set - ie. the magical creatures living around them, who I mostly didn't care about. They seemed rather unnecessary... the only ones you really needed for the story were The Sleeper in the loch, and Tock in the moat. Perhaps Ffup as well, for the Sleeper. The others were kind of extraneous, and more time should have been spent on the family instead.
I giggled at Titus and his list of phrases - "Turn that racket down!" x 27 etc. And I even got used to the name Damp for the baby. I loved the frogs in the plane hold turning into naked princes, that was brilliant! But then the thread about Baci being a witch was also a bit unnecessary because nothing was really done with it. That could have been entirely left out. It seemed like there were too many loose B-threads floating around that had no point. My overall feeling was that there was great plot set-up here, what with Latch not showing up at the airport and his body later being found (unconscious, not dead!) but then 90% of the middle was distracted from that. And then suddenly we got back to it at the end, like the author had suddenly remembered what her story was... The other storyline that took over in the middle, the SapienTech lab plot, that could have done really well as a story on its own. But it really didn't have much place here because it had NOTHING to do with what you're lead to believe is the main story! There was just no link at all so the B-plot leaves you going, wait, what? And why do I care? Not enough detail is given to make the reader care, so it comes across as something randomly in the background that has nothing to do with anything, ie. nothing to do with the main plot. Also it was not explained terribly well and left me a bit unsatisfied. The lab people are bad, Zander the fake butler is bad and tries to kill Pandora and Titus... but then he and the evil lab people are on opposing sides. Meaning he and the kids are technically on the same side. He could have worked with them instead of trying to kill them...
I did enjoy the writing style, but at times I found it to be very grown-up for a young childrens' book. It definitely doesn't talk down to the reader at all, but at times I wondered if it would perhaps go over the heads of its target audience... unless it's the sort of books mums are meant to read to their kids out loud, and explain every second word and catchphrase. (Feet of clay? At 8 or 9 I would have taken that literally!)
I did giggle at, "We're back," Ffup said, somewhat redundantly, since dragons of her size rarely need to announce their arrival in anywhere smaller than the Kremlin. And the names Lochnagargoyle and Auchenlochtermuchty were loads of fun!
But over all, really, I reckon this should have been split into two books rather than forcing the two stories into the one. The Chorostone isn't even mentioned until page 56 - and that comes really out of the blue and isn't tied in to Latch's 'accident' for ages, so you're left going - wait, what? yet again. As I said, the B-plot is extraneous and not deep enough, it's totally disconnected to the main plot... but it forces the main plot to take a back-seat. The climax of the story is at least to do with the A-plot, but it's extremely anti-climatic and such a huge let-down.
December 6, 2014
I like that these books are set mainly in Scotland. They come with a loch monster, midges, crumbling castles and so on.
The cast list in this book is quite long and the story has been well under way in three previous books, but the mother of this family is a student witch, her kids, husband, butler, nanny and so on put up with her and we don't see where they get their money. There are various creatures around such as a talking tarantula, a scaredy dragon and a centaur.
In this book there is also a demon which I found the weakest part; mainly it came across as padding. And a new butler arrives and acts suspiciously.
Some bits are quite funny and others are not. I think it would be best suited to fans of the series, and there is quite a bit of violence.
The cast list in this book is quite long and the story has been well under way in three previous books, but the mother of this family is a student witch, her kids, husband, butler, nanny and so on put up with her and we don't see where they get their money. There are various creatures around such as a talking tarantula, a scaredy dragon and a centaur.
In this book there is also a demon which I found the weakest part; mainly it came across as padding. And a new butler arrives and acts suspiciously.
Some bits are quite funny and others are not. I think it would be best suited to fans of the series, and there is quite a bit of violence.
April 26, 2008
another solid entry into the “pure dead” series. somewhat like the addams family, the thing about this series that first drew me in was reading that the children were named Titus, Pandora and Damp (she’s the baby). This volume has its fair share of explosions and mythical creatures, but the word that keeps rolling around in my head like a marble is the name of their breakfast cereal of choice: miserablios.
Read
March 8, 2010Had to read because it was the book chosen for my book gang! Was an absoloute drag it took me...gasp... 3 weeks to read! At least I get to pick the next one so at least theres that... You've been warned!!!
Want to read
December 7, 2008looks like a good book can't wait!!
January 22, 2010
2.5 stars.
It simply was not as amusing as previous installments. The best scenes were with Damp and the Dread Scratchy, Flora and Damp's goodbye and Pan and Titus' grieving.
It simply was not as amusing as previous installments. The best scenes were with Damp and the Dread Scratchy, Flora and Damp's goodbye and Pan and Titus' grieving.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2010
Just awesome.
August 8, 2010
A very funny kids series, described as Mary Poppins meets the Addams family, and I think that's a great description. A lot of fun, I recommend it!
February 17, 2012
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10452763
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10452763
October 20, 2012
I own this copy and the British version as well.
Read
August 26, 2013Aka 'Deep Trouble'
August 29, 2013
Very Good.
September 14, 2014
A nice refresher after the last Pure Dead book. Love the style and story as a kid and now
March 7, 2016
Funny, but the vocabulary and dialect are likely to make this book bewildering to all but the most sophisticated (elementary school) readers.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews