The Traitor King

The book The Traitor King is about a boy named Darren Mananann. Darren and his family are going to go visit his Uncle Will for a family reunion. Darren and his sister, Jackie, are so excited, they love their Uncle Will. Every time they visit him he always has a hunt for them. They run to the doorstep but there Aunt Teeny comes out with a note from their Uncle and says that their Uncle is missing.

Darren and Jackie look for clues to lead to where their Uncle could possibly be. As they search they find out that their family is a little bit different. Their family has a gift to see things through their shadows. Darren and Jackie find they have this gift too.While they look for more clues to their Uncle's location, this creepy old man keeps following them. When Darren and Jackie crawl into a hole by the roots of a tree to get away from the old man they soon find themselves in a different world. A world called Tir na N'Og with brownies, nixies, pixies, bogels, pookahs and others. They meet a brownie named Nim. Nim is the brownie of the Mananann family and he is loyal to them. He says he will show them where their Uncle Will is. They start on their journey to find Will and run into a nixie named Dwyfen. She gives her geis (a really strong promise) that she will help Darren and Jackie find their Uncle.

When finally they get to where their Uncle is they find out he was turned into a tree. Darren and Jackie don't know what to think. They have to go back home because if they want to help their Uncle Will they will have to find a hidden magic staff that is somewhere in their world. Darren doesn't know where to look and Jackie gave up before she even started trying. Then one day Darren got really mad at a table in his Uncles house because it was lopsided and so he went to go get a saw to fix it when the table leg wouldn't cut he realized that it was the missing magic staff.

Darren went to Tir na N'Og to release his Uncle it was a struggle to get to his Uncle but he did it along with the help of Nim the brownie, Jackie, and Dwyfen. Darren sees his dad their and his dad says he wants to be done with Tir na N'Og but Darren knows that his dad is making a bad choice and goes to make action.

This book was very interesting and very entertaining. I was always wondering what was going to happen next. I agree with the author that the family name is important and you don't want to disgrace it because if you do then people might treat you differently and it is not good. In the book it talks about how the "people" in Tir na N'Og look down on the Mananann family since they were betrayed by them. In the book it suggests that family should have a strong bond and you see in the book how the Mananann family gets closer together to help each other.

I really liked this book and I would give it an A! This book does have drinking, gambling, and swearing in it, but even though it does over all it is a really good book that is very enjoying and a great book for entertainment.