Reviews
Charmed: Between Worlds, an Overview
Zenix James (Gryffindor)
As I was rummaging through my closet, looking for anything I could have forgotten before my flight, I came across a book I received for Christmas when I was younger. I had disregarded it then, because my love for literature dwelled only on the Harry Potter series.
I glanced at the cerulean blue cover with three women on it, each looking beautifully dangerous. The title read, Charmed: Between Worlds, sounds intriguing, right? Well, I certainly thought so, and I stuck it in my bag for the flight.
After I was on the plane I withdrew the tiny book and immersed myself in it for the duration of the short flight. I wasn’t expecting what I read. This book was relating to my life and to my thoughts at the present moment. The novel is about a woman, C.K., who has lost the love of her life. C.K. is a witch and she's never truly coped with losing her love. So, instead of dealing with the pain and the grief she feels, she's locked it up inside, making her vulnerable to an outside source of evil magic. Without knowing, she let this evil magic overtake and possess her, in an attempt to destroy a magical Ward and, eventually, the world.
The evil I am referring to, is in the shape of a book called The De Vermis Mysteriis. This book was written by one brother, Mileager De Vermis, but then warped by his jealous younger twin brother, Malvolio, into a work of pure evil. Mileager, using everything he had, trapped his twin inside the book for his own good.
After five hundred years, Malvolio has constructed a plan to destroy the Ward, which is a cluster of portals leading from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead and vice versa. His plan is to be executed on All Souls’ Day, when spirits return to visit their loved ones for twenty-four hours. However, according to his plan, the spirits would not be able to return to the spirit world because the Ward would be destroyed. Phoebe Halliwell, one of the three Charmed Ones, has a premonition (seeing the future), suggesting that if the Ward were destroyed, the spirits would turn on the human race. The world as the sisters know it, would be destroyed.
The person destroying the portals was C.K., who didn’t know what was going on as she was possessed by Malvolio De Vermis. The Charmed sisters have to find C.K. and attempt to help her, but as All Soul’s Day drew closer, Malvolio is gaining more power through her and the portals have started failing.
Are you wondering how C.K. came to be possessed by Malvolio? A simple spell cast to bring back Jace, the man she loved.
Breathe of air, soul of fire.
Grant this night my heart’s desire.
What once was lost, restore to me.
Womb of earth, tears of sea.
So, the book tapped into C.K.’s magical power and twisted the words of the spell for its own end.
The only way for Malvolio to be stopped is for his brother, who had gone into hiding after locking his brother in the book, to come into the open again. The love Mileager held for Malvolio would be the only way to save the world from the wrath of the spirits.
In the end, it was a battle to end all battles. Not the battle you are thinking of though. The Ward was, in fact, destroyed, but the selflessness of two individuals was able to restore the realms back to their original spirits-are-not-going-to-eat-us state. Mileager De Vermis and his brother finally made peace with each other. Malvolio, after trying to destroy his brother, figured out that if he killed Mileager, he would also be destroyed. He also realized that he loved Mileager, even after all those years.
Awwwwww!
The other part of this ending which made this book really great for me, was the fact that C.K. finally came to terms with her grief. She accepted it at the very end when things were looking dire, before Mileager showed up. She let it fill her up and she found peace.
This was truly a fantastic read and the lessons and morals encompassed within it will hold true for years to come.
References:
Weiss, J.G., Bobbi, Wilson, Jacklyn. Charmed: Between Worlds.
New York: Simon Pulse, 2003