Unstark

Ok so as far as my tags go:

#obligated to mention Children Of The Red King#is it a book for middle schoolers? yes#but does it have a 12 y/o half mermaid who's constantly attempting murder and is emotionally unwell and has a tragic backstory and#is under a curse to kill his father? yes#it also has a stolen hypnotized baby and a guy who turns into a beast every night and a long haired vaguely goth hypnotist#the hypnotist and the beast boy are even toxic friendship. yaoi if you're enlightened

Sadly, the incredibly awesome ocean boy does not show up until book 6. BUT. We get the black-clad hypnotist and his beloathed pet beast-guy from the very first book.

The hypnotist is Manfred Bloor, and he's a student (staff after he turns 19) at Bloor's Academy, which is arguably where the characters spend most of their time. Yes, his family owns the academy, and yes, they live there full time. Manfred is a bratty, tantrum throwing, petty little bitch, and I say this with affection.

The beast guy is Asa Pike. He and Manfred are NOT friends. Manfred is NOT shy about the contempt he holds for Asa. Even so, Asa obeys Manfred and often does dirty work for the Bloor family, like spying, chasing children, and generally haunting the castle ruins behind the Academy. He's a silly guy :3

As for their relationship... don't listen to me, listen to these Actual For Real Canon Quotes I'm Taking From The EPubs:

(note that the epubs did something to the punctuation and sometimes the spelling, and the physical books are written better than this)

Shipping them is something you do because you love angst and suffering and mutual misery. "Toxic yaoi" and it's because of [redacted spoilers but trust me that things get soooo bad between them].

As for ships in the vein of characters who like each other, we have canon romance Paton/Julia, a slowburn between an antisocial bookworm and a kindhearted bookseller. They have a bit of a rough start, but quickly become a couple to root for.

Speaking of Paton, he's a great character. He hates going outside in the daylight. He's forever writing a book. He used to keep his head down, but during the series he grows into a brave man who helps the good side. He kills someone (intentional) and burns down their house (not as intentional, but it's not like he feels bad either). Very cool guy.

I do think what I love most about the series is that there's a lot of characters who have cool powers and use them to do cool things. Storm guy literally blows other children into the air and out of the scene. Spirit Summoner guy summons ancient ghosts with spears. Ocean guy is constantly trying to drown people. Bird girl invents a new type of bird to turn into. These kids are great.

A lot of personalities are also just. fun. There's a flamboyant theater kid. Storm guy has wind around him that reacts to his moods. The moon influences how much of an asshole the half-mermaid is. There's creepy twins. There's an evil 6 year old. There's two grandmas that can't stand each other.

There's also a few different locations in the series that are cool. There's the gloomy school I mentioned earlier. There's a castle made of mirrors (they go there one (1) time). There's the crumbling ruins of a (different) castle. There's a cafe that only serves animals (humans may accompany their pets, but the cafe is FOR the pets). There's a gloomy land found inside a painting. There's a street called Darkly Wynd with three number 13s at the end where evil old sisters live. There's a bookshop.

As far as the hypnotized stolen baby... That's actually the main plot of the first book. Charlie learns about a girl whose father sold her years ago and searches for her so she can be reunited with her aunt.

Is the series perfect? No. But it's a fun read and I do recommend it a lot.

Also this post by @children-of-the-red-queen. I feel like this post is a very good argument for reading the books