The Book without Words
by Avi

Review by Claire

The Book without Words by Avi is a captivating fantasy novel. Like many other Avi books, this story has a lot of darkness in it and is very magical. Master Thorston, an evil, greedy, arrogant man, owns a book without words, or so it seems. Only people with green eyes and a great desire can read the magical book. Master Thorston has the desire to live forever, and the book without words provides an immortality spell, along with how to make false gold. To live forever, Thorston must take the lives of two others, whom he decides will be his poor meek servant, Sybil and his wicked old raven, Odo. Disguising himself as an alchemist, Thorston keeps himself, Sybil and Odo hidden in the decaying, ancient and neglected town of Fulworth. That is a terrible place to be committing a crime when Ambrose Bashcroft is in charge. When Thorston is in the middle of completing the spell to make himself immortal, he dies for the first time. Sybil, who is much more intelligent than Odo and Thorston take her for, buries Thorston and puzzles over his last words, in which he tells her about the “life stones” that will make him immortal. He also asks her to keep the stones and the book away from the mysterious “green-eyed one.” She must solve the mystery and make things right.
I think that this book is good for people who like dramatic and scary fables with magical happenings, where you can never guess what will happen next. This book was also suspenseful and good for mystery-lovers. I liked this book because Avi does a very nice job of making things exciting and describes everything so well that I can picture everything all the time. I felt like I was one of the characters sometimes. You should definitely read The Book without Words!