Serafina and the Twisted Staff

This was exactly my kind of book.. Nothing else matters when story is so exciting. All twist and turns, mystery and adventure, shapeshifters, Biltmore house and forest.. everything was amazing and spellbinding. After reading this book I really want to visit Asheville. Best about the book I enjoyed -that was also in the first one -was short stories or history about the characters, house, and forest that gives clear picture about them and helps in evaluating mystery.
Those who love animals would like this book. I am eagerly waiting for the release of third book.

A lot of the fun of Serafina #1 was lost in this one, mainly because roughly 50% of the book is either a chase scene or a mauling scene. Serafina is bitten and clawed so frequently, by such a variety of animals and rodents, that surely she should have been dead before page 100. Many of these scenes went on for way too long. One does become rather desensitized when a heart-pounding action sequence drags on for 15 pages past its peak.

Also - either Serafina or the author can't seem to decide how she naturally speaks. With almost anyone aside from her father, there's nothing notable about the words she uses or the sentences she uses them in. For example: "What? ... How could all this be true? My mother did not tell me any of this."

There, show more she doesn't even get so informal as to use a contraction. But when she speaks to her father: "I'm with ya, Pa. No confrontin'."

I started this review with 3 stars, but then realized I couldn't think of anything I particularly liked about it, so, down to 2. On to the next anyway with high hopes for a big decrease in dog bites. show less

A welcome return to the world of Serafina, who remains a relatable and endearing heroine. Here we see her struggle to reconcile her dual identities and discover where she fits in the world, while worrying over changing friendships and, y’know, trying to prevent a powerful evil from destroying everyone and everything she loves. The plot in this one is a bit darker, I’d say, but rightly so. Definitely worth picking up if you even mildly enjoyed the first!

ARC provided by Net Galley.

When we left 12 year old Serafina at the end of the initial book in this series, she had identified and stopped the Biltmore visitor who was absorbing the children of other visitors into the folds of an animated cloak. Her act exposed her father and her residence in the Biltmore basement, however, in gratitude, Mr. Vanderbilt, provided better facilities. She also discovered that her father adopted her when abandoned by her mother, a shapeshifting catamount.

Although Serafina can run faster than other humans, see better in the dark, and has more acute hearing, she has been unable to shapeshift into a catamount, a skill that would come handy to stop the evil that is encroaching on Biltmore. Household animals and wildlife have been behaving show more unusually, fleeing the mountains surrounding Biltmore or attacking in coordinating groups many of the estate's residents including Serafina. Many of the "country-folk" employees believe that the odd behavior is being orchestrated by the Old Man of the Woods. Although Serafina is encouraged by the other shapeshifters to leave the area, she refuses to leave her beloved Biltmore unprotected.

Although this novel is geared for mature middle school children, it is an enjoyable read for adults, too, especially if you enjoy historical fantasies. I found listening to this audiobook especially enjoyable because of the accents attributed to the local mountain residents. I also found the portrayal of the Vanderbilits and life in Biltmore in the late 19th century congruent with depictions in Diane Kiernan's non-fiction, The Last Castle. I look forward to listening to the third novel in the series, Serafina and the Splintered Heart. show less

More Serafina--only a little darker. And now it's not so obvious who the bad guy's are; but at least we know who/what Serafina is. At 370 pages this book is long enough to flesh out the main characters, and a few of the ancillary characters as well. Not to mention that the plot lines are a bit more convoluted. Again we urged to "stay bold". And after it's all over: "It wasn't me. It was everybody--everybody working together". My congratulations to Mr. Beatty for reminding us that appearances are not enough: it's not how you look or what you say, that counts, but what you do.
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This was a solid second edition to this trilogy. I felt like the first book was better, but the storyline was fast paced and engaging. We learned more about Serafina and Braeden, plus we had a bunch of all new characters! I would recommend this book and I can't wait to read the third one and finish off the trilogy. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

This one picks up straight after the other one. Serafina is out hunting in the forest and musing on which world she fits into - the Biltmore human one or her cat-like life when she notices the birds leaving the forest. She then runs into her mother and her family ( who is a Puma) and sees that they are leaving too. Her mother tells her that something evil is coming but if she stays at Biltmore, she should be safe. As Serafina walks back to the grand house, a carriage drives up and a man releases some wolfhounds and tells them to search for "The Black One!"
They chase Serafina through the forest where she is rescued by a feral boy and then finally gets back to Biltmore. Once there, she finds a new rival and strange visitors have come in show more overnight and one of them is the "evil" thing that her mother told her about - but who is it?
I guessed who the evil one was straight away but then I have read thousands of books so the plot devices were easy to spot. This might be one for fans of Miss Peregrine's home for Peculiar Children as it has fantasy and shape changing creatures and a large antique house. show less