It’s an ordinary Friday afternoon at the end of an ordinary school day. Jacob Jones travels home on the school bus with his good friend Ethan and his best friend Erica both of whom seem to be more excited about the forthcoming ‘special’ weekend than he is.
Campion Hills, where they all live is a quiet, charming village where nothing much changes except the weather and nothing much bothers them apart from the strange old lady at number 1 who watches them arrive back from school every day from her first floor bedroom window.
At home Jacob has two loving parents and one highly irritating older sister, Lilly. He settles down in his very tidy room and considers new ways of irritating Lilly. He also contemplates the impending arrival of a day he has been doing his best not to get too excited about, his twelfth birthday. What he doesn’t know is that the arrival of this important anniversary has also been carefully anticipated by people he has never even met and that his young life is already in danger.
The day before his birthday Jacob notices some odd and unusual things: Animals are behaving strangely, the weather is gradually turning moodier and moodier and for some unexplained reason all the mirrors in his and also in Erica’s house have disappeared.
In the very early hours of Jacob’s birthday the evil begins. Ethan is found murdered in the street and the old lady is somehow involved. She reveals herself to the Jones’ family and reminds Jacob’s parents of the reason for this turmoil and the danger they are now all in. Jacob still doesn’t know it but these circumstances will change his life forever and throw him, his family and his friends into a tumbling drum of tragedy, adversity and adventure. It will set into motion a succession of events that will affect not only his world but another; adjacent, world that as yet he knows nothing about.
The old lady escapes them through a mirror in her home to a safe house where explanations begin. Jacob learns that not only are his parents in denial of their former participation in the other world but also that the old lady is far stranger and far more powerful than he could ever have anticipated. He also discovers that he is one of the chosen ‘Seven’ and that he possesses a special power he has yet to detect. The old lady reveals it is now imperative that he travels to this other world.
On a train full of lost souls where only children can survive Jacob, Erica and Lilly begin their journey to the other world. They face obstacles and danger before locating a castle community protected by high walls and strange, undiscovered creatures. Inside they encounter an almost magical world of contradictions and differences. For all its magic however Jacob discovers this is a vulnerable world, a world that has been waiting for him to arrive, a world that looks to him for its very survival.
Jacob’s quest is explained to him by the leader, Malakiah. He must return to his world and find the hidden Book of Order. The book that lists the identities of the other six who have been chosen to govern their world for the next seven years and whose lives are all now in danger. Malakiah explains that this will be no magical mystery tour; this will be a dangerous and secret journey where they will come up against the existing rogue order who for 21 years have refused to relinquish their power. A power that they will do anything to protect. Can Jacob succeed where all others have failed?
GREAT DAMIEN, IT WORKED FOR ME!:0)
Thanks Elizabeth I needed that..... :)
Hi Damien, I think it does a pretty good job. It looks the right length and gives readers a strong feel for the book (and also a bit about your style of writing) and, as Laura said, it certainly makes me want to read more too. If one of the purposes of a synopsis is to grab your attention then this definitely works!