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Summaries and Short Reviews

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Shvoong Home>Books>Horror>Once Summary

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Once

Book Review by: MadHatterTX     

Original Author: James Herbert
After a debilitating stroke, Thom Kindred returns to his childhood home at Castle Bracken. With young body, once fit, and
now weakened and humiliating to him, he wishes nothing more than to rest and heal. Instead of being greeted by familiar faces and loved ones, he is drawn into a world so charged with magic and fantastical beings that his sanity is tested over and again. The forces of good and evil are personified by 2 women, both smoldering with sexuality, and both seeking separate ties to his soul. The first, a dark witch, who comes as a succubus, and tries to command forces of Hell that even she can't control, will steal Thom's essence and very life to gain the power she craves. Murdering all that stand in her way, she uses the darkest magic ever known. The second, another magical being, innocent and fair, will do anything within her power to save him. His very parentage becomes part of his fight to understand the world, as he learns his very mother was one of these magical creatures. An Undine, called to the mortal realm by the great love between her and Thom's father. Thom is drawn into a world of childhood fears and fantasies as he begins to see and remember the world behind the world most mortals see. Forests, rivers, even the very grass is alive with every type of magical being humans have ever told tales about. Elves, trolls, fairies, silkies, witches, devils, and leprechauns run rampant throughout the book, bringing memories of creatures most mortals have forgotten. With the unusual sidekick of a little man known as brownie, elf, or pixie (take your pick) and the love of an elf woman, Thom will face his worst nightmares to save the life of one man, the world, and his sanity. As the powers of darkness turn against the one who called them forth, and a volley of nightmarish images fall to the dancing lights of the fairies, it is a book to remind us that a world may exist far beyond what we believe.
Published: July 19, 2005
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