The Last Gargoyle
Audience: Middle Grade
Format: Hardcover/Library Copy
My earliest memory is of a crib, a darkened room, and three shadows slipping through the doorway with bad intentions.
- first sentence
This is such a charming book with fun characters and an exciting story. The story includes Grotesques, Bone Masons, Netherkin, Shadow Men, and the Boneless King. It has danger, mystery, good & evil, and suspense. I really liked it.
Penhallow is a gargoyle but he wants you to call him a grotesque. He protects his building and his wards from evil. When he loses his two best friends and faces a new enemy, he feels completely alone, until Viola turns up on his roof.
I loved Penhallow and Viola's relationship. They are cute together and she is stronger than she seems. I also enjoyed Penhallow's way of looking at the world and talking. He calls college students, "practice adults". Here is the definition from Penhallow's glossary:
Practice Adults:
Nocturnal creatures who seem to serve no useful purpose other than to keep taverns and pizza delivery people in business.
I highly recommend this book to middle-grade readers who enjoy dark fantasy with a touch of humor.
I read this for Snakes and Ladders space #16. Genre: fantasy.
I'm also using it for the Goodreads HA a to z challenge. :)
4
 - Paul Durham)
