5/5 stars

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

What a fun story!

Magic candy that gives you super powers? Good guys vs. bad guys….with enough misdirection to keep you guessing if you’re actually cheering for the right side? Treasure hunting? Learning to handle bullies? Learing to appreciate your parents? Having best friends? Making hard decisions? Ending up the hero? Sound good? Then read The Candy Shop War!

It was fun reading Fablehaven and seeing how Brandon Mull got better as an author with each new book. The Candy Shop War was published before the Fablehaven series was finished, and the writing fits in with those middle books of that series. One thing that I thought was weird in Fablehaven–Brandon Mull always wanted to tell you when someone was naked . . . always innocently, of course. But it always felt like a strange and pointless thing to point out. In The Candy Shop War, everyone keeps their clothes on, but this time there is a weird focus on race in the first half of the book. I kept thinking there would be a point to saying there was a black girl doing this or a latino boy doing that . . . but a point never developed. Nothing racist at all, it just felt like and odd and unnecessary way to describe people.

Anyway, I don’t want that to be the tone of my thoughts. The book was great! The four friends as main characters were excellent, and I loved how they stuck up for each other. I’ll be recommending The Candy Shop War to my kids, and I recommend it to you and your as well!