History Literature / Fablehaven

The series consists of five books: ''Fablehaven'', ''Fablehaven: Rise of the Evening Star'', ''Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague'', ''Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary'', and ''Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison''. A sequel series, ''Dragonwatch'', consists of ''Dragonwatch'', ''Dragonwatch: Wrath of the Dragon King'' and ''Dragonwatch: Master of the Phantom Isle''.

%%** Torina in the fourth book.

%%* AmplifierArtifact: The revenant's nail.

%%* BiggerOnTheInside: The knapsack in Book 4.

%%* ChekhovsGunman: In Book 5, [[spoiler: Grandma and Grandpa Larsen]]... from all the way back in ''Book 1!''

%%* FantasticNatureReserve

%%** Tanu's growth potion.

Death and the Society await around every corner. Will Kendra and Seth be able to work with their friends and prevent demons from destroying the world? Even moreso--will they ''survive?''

** [[spoiler: The revenant's nail turns out to be this in the third book.]]
** [[spoiler: Early in ''Dragonwatch'', Seth tricks his cousin into venturing into one of the dangerous areas of Fablehaven. However, since that cousin is LockedOutOfTheLoop and has no idea what he's doing, the treaty still protects him and it's Seth who is considered to blame. At the climax of the book, Seth exploits the same loophole to allow his cousin to walk past dozens of furious dragons to retrieve the scepter.]]

The [[WomenAreWiser intelligent and measured Kendra Sorenson]] and her [[SiblingYinYang knuckleheaded younger brother Seth]] are shipped off to spend the summer with their paternal grandparents after their mother's parents are killed in an accident. (Part of their grandparent's will stipulated that a portion of their money be used to send their children on a cruise as a "parting gift.") Reeling from the loss, they don't expect to enjoy the trip much, but are pleasantly surprised to discover that their other grandparents live in a spacious mansion. They've also got a garden filled with more birds, insects, and flowers than anyone they've ever met. But after sipping some of the milk left out for the "birds," they learn the truth: The "birds and insects" are actually ''fairies!'' The milk enables them to see them in their true forms. Their grandfather reveals that they are actually caretakers of a wildlife preserve for magical creatures named Fablehaven. It's filled to the brim with colorful fairies, witty and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] fauns, GentleGiant golems, and a couple dangerous giants and trolls. Grandpa, along with his assistants Dale and Lena, offers to show the two siblings around the preserve, and begin to teach them the strange and exiciting ways of the magical reserves.

* AffablyEvil:
** Nero may be a greedy brute, but he's always polite, in his own oily way, and he never takes action against the heroes. When Seth fails his climbing challenge, Nero makes it a point to save him from a great fall, rationalizing that having come as far as he did in the challenge Seth earned a victory.
** Torina in the fourth book.

* AmplifierArtifact: The revenant's nail.
* AncientConspiracy: The Society of The Evening Star
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: The Sphinx]] has traits of Type I and Type II
* AnyoneCanDie

*** Played heartbreakingly straight with [[spoiler: [[HeroicSacrifice Lena]]]], [[spoiler: [[EatenAlive Dougan]]]], [[spoiler: [[FinalSpeech Coulter]]]], and [[spoiler: [[TearJerker Mendigo]]]]

* BigBad: [[spoiler: The Sphinx.]]

* BiggerOnTheInside: The knapsack in Book 4.

* CatchPhrase: To Seth, ''everything'' is ''"Awesome!"''

* ChekhovsGunman: In Book 5, [[spoiler: Grandma and Grandpa Larsen]]... from all the way back in ''Book 1!''
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: ''The Sphinx''.]]

* [[ConjoinedTwins Conjoined Triplets]]: The Singing Sisters.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: All of them. In ''Rise of The Evening Star'' it's [[spoiler: Errol getting mauled to death by the Guardian for the 'sands of sancity'. Vanessa drops him on purpose when he gets too heavy. In ''Grip of the Shadow Plague'' (which is significantly darker) it's several violent deaths in search of the artifact in the Lost Mesa, and then Lena's crushing death at the end]]. That's only a few examples! All the deaths are gory or sad.

* DarkIsNotEvil: It sure seems like Dark ''Is'' Evil at first--it's the creatures like trolls and imps who are all [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute antagonistic]]--but as Book 4, ''Dragon Sanctuary'' shows, even ''demons'' aren't ''all'' bad most of the time. A lot of the magical creatures--even the ostentiably "light" ones--fall into an obnoxiously ChaoticNeutral territory anyway.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Sphinx.
* {{Expy}}: Newel and Doren? Merry and Pippin?

* TheFairFolk

* FantasticNatureReserve

* GentleGiant: Tanu, the potion-maker. Hugo the golem counts, too.

* HeroicBSOD: Quite a few characters get in on this.

* MonsterProgenitor / PatientZero: [[spoiler: Ephira the tree spirit]], the first creature corrupted by Kurisock's dark power, had been corrupted for a while before finding the AmplifierArtifact that allowed her to spread the Shadow Plague.

* MrViceGuy / NobleBigot / PoliticallyIncorrectHero / StayInTheKitchen: Coulter, who despite being [[TheSmartGuy extremely intelligent]] and exceptionally gentlemanly, still retains a touch of "misguided chivalry"-style sexism (he won't put a woman in danger). He seems to lighten up as time goes by, though, and eventually seems to grudgingly admit that Kendra (and Ruth!) can hold their own.

* OneGenderRace: The Fairies are exclusively female. [[spoiler: Though book 4 reveals it wasn't ''always'' that way...]]
** Despite the fact that Kendra thinks the astrids look neither male nor female, they [[spoiler: all turn into big buff men in book 5, so they technically qualify.]]
* OneWingedAngel:
** The cat/lynx/panther in Book 2 does this ''8 times'', being resurrected into a stronger, larger and more fearsome form every time it's killed.
** Tanu's growth potion.
** [[spoiler:Gavin's dragon form.]]

* SacrificialLamb: [[spoiler: Poor Neil]] and [[spoiler: Dougan...]]
** Book 5, meanwhile, [[spoiler: introduces a whole parcel of characters near the very beginning who get killed just as quickly. Ouch.]]
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler: Oh Coulter... * sniff* ]]
* ScaledUp: [[spoiler:Gavin/Navarog]]

* SequelEscalation: WordOfGod states Mull wrote the series so the books would "build on each other in fun ways". Book 1 is pretty tame compared to the rest, with everything but the first few pages taking place at the titular preserve. By the fifth book, maybe 50% of the story happens at Fablehaven, and the characters see [[spoiler:Obsidian Waste and Living Mirage, two more of the five secret preserves.]]
** ''Dragonwatch'' also manages to be this to ''Fablehaven'' as a whole, since it starts where the previous series left off and somehow manages to ''keep building'' on the potentially apocalyptic crisis of Book 5.

** "We were just being [[IncrediblyLamePun satirical.]]"
*** "Frito Lay!"

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Cows, even magic ones, need to have calves to produce milk. However, the Sorensons' cow seems about ready to burst after less than a day without milking, and no calf in sight.

* [[ActionMom Action Grandma]]: Ruth Sorenson is rarely seen without her crossbow. Thank goodness.
* {{Adorkable}}: Gavin [[spoiler: ''at first''. ]]
** Also, Raxtus to a T.

** There's also a distinction drawn by some of the caretakers between "dark" and "evil". The argument is that a demon or troll or goblin or whatever does not destroy because it's evil, but because it's a dark creature and that's what dark creatures do, same as how a snake will bite because it's a snake, not because it's evil.

* EasilyForgiven: Averted like ''woah.'' The only reason [[spoiler: Vanessa]] is accepted "back" is desperation; they still don't wholly trust [[spoiler: her]]. Not to mention all the heck Seth gets.

* BadassGrandpa: Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson have been working with magical creatures for decades; you do ''not'' mess with them. Grandma Ruth is the more obviously bad-ass one, but Grandpa Stan's no slouch either.
** Coulter Dixon is pretty tough, too, but he's more of TheSmartGuy.

* HeroicAlbino: Warren Burgess. [[spoiler: He wasn't born an albino; his hair ''literally'' went white with shock when he tried to take on the revenant protecting Fablehaven's artifact.]]

* UnequalRites: Wizards are dragons who take permanent human form to drastically increase their magical abilities. Witches are mortals who have(somehow) learned to use dark magic. Warlocks and magicians have been stated to exist and be distinct from both, but it is never mentioned exactly how they are distinct.

Death and the society await around every corner. Will Kendra and Seth be able to work with their friends and prevent demons from destroying the world? Even moreso--will they ''survive?''

** [[spoiler: Early in ''Dragonwatch'', Seth tricks his cousin into venturing into one of the dangerous areas of Fablehaven. However, since that cousin is LockedOutOfTheLoop and has no idea what he's doing, the treaty still protects him and it's Seth who is considered to blame. At the climax of the book, Seth exploits the same loophole to allow his cousin to walk past dozens of furious dragons to retrieve the scepter.

** The cat/lynx/panther in Book 2 does this ''8 times''.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Dragons are powerful, proud, long-lived reptilian beasts only found in a few preserves: most live in Wyrmroost alongside other beings too intractable to fit in regular, ordered reserves. Besides the basics their physical forms are extremely varied: some have hair, some have horns, some breathe lightning or poison instead of fire, some have metallic scales and one resembles nothing so much as a gigantic ten-legged salamander.

A witch named Muriel nearly unleashes a demon and overthrows the preserve, and the Fairy Queen turns Kendra into an honorary fairy to save her life. But that's only the ''beginning'' of the trouble. There's an AncientConspiracy called the Society of the Evening Star out to overthrow Fablehaven--and all the other magical preserves--in search of [[PlotCoupon five magical artifacts of immense power]], which together make a key to open up a prison full of demons and blanket the world in darkness. They possess infinite patience--they'll spend ''thousands of years'' building up their credibility in one place before making a move--and a nearly innumerable number of [[TheMole moles]], which pop up in unexpected places. Kendra and Seth, having been dragged into the mess, must quickly discover a new way of life: Nowhere is safe. No one is trustworthy. AnyoneCanDie, and anyone can turn on you. The Society possesses near [[GambitRoulette omnipotence]], and can pop up to get you at any second. To make matters worse, most of the "magical creatures" quickly reveal themselves to be true animals (or very alien beings), and are nowhere near gentle dewy-eyed beings they are in most fairy tales.

* BadPowersGoodPeople: Seth can telepathically speak to the undead, become invisible in even slight darkness, speak demonic languages, and ([[InformedAbility although he never does so]]) project fear, lower the temperature in a room, and cause dizzy spells. He's unquestionably one of the good guys. Although it's deconstructed a bit, as even his own family is worried about him going dark side and everyone else is amazed that a guy like him is on their side.

* BaitTheDog: [[spoiler: Graulas, helping Seth and being an ally was all just to gain their trust, get healed, and hijack the BigBad possession with Luna.]]

* BarrierMaiden: [[spoiler: The five Eternals, which are the ''second'' barrier to opening Zzyzx.]]
* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: The Fairy Queen and her realm pull one on the entirety of the demons of Zzyzx when she lets them go into her realm, as she knows they will not be able to resist destroying it. Once they are inside, they realize that every other exit has been destroyed, and the Fairy Queen has closed off the entrance, trapping them again. To add insult to injury, the Fairy Queen has moved into Zzyzx, intending to make it her new realm.]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Kendra is a sweet, hesitant girl who hates touching weapons. She fights demons with powers verging on godhood, and it is they that fear her, with good reason. The best example comes in Book 5... [[spoiler: after the Demon King attacks Bracken, Kendra borrows Vasilis and cuts his head off. Yes, Kendra just killed the King of Demons.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Albino!Tanu and Colter]] at the climax of ''Rise of the Evening Star.'' In [[spoiler: Tanu]]'s case, it's literal.

* BreathWeapon: Dragons. While we see a few breathing fire, most have a more unique breath weapon. [[spoiler:Navarog]] breathes molten metal, Siletta breathes poison, and dragon king Celebrant is described as having at least five separate breath weapons [[spoiler:and one made of pure energy is shown on Brogo in the fifth book.]] Subverted with Raxtus, whose breath makes plants grow.

* ButtMonkey: [[spoiler: Warren]] and Dale experience this at different levels. Dale is often harmed or rendered incapable of helping the team, e.g. [[spoiler: turned to lead, turned into a shadow, holed up in the barn when Graulas destroys the treaty, ''"Dale, I'm sorry you're stuck in a net".'']] And if one of the Knights gets hurt on a mission, it's probably [[spoiler:Warren.]] He's been [[spoiler:stabbed, clawed with harpy venom, trapped in an extradimensional space]]--you name it. The number of injuries he sustains through the series are just about incalculable.
* CasualDangerDialog: If anything ever fazes [[spoiler: Warren]], they haven't yet found it. Even when put up out of comission, he ''still'' tries to help.

* CharacterDevelopment: Seth--over the course of the series, he gradually learns to be a ''little'' less foolhardy and learns to think things through.

* DeadpanSnarker: Lots of people, Seth, Kendra and [[spoiler: Warren]] come to mind.
* DiabolusExMachina: The end of ''Rise of the Evening Star'' looks pretty happy. TheMole is under captivity, the BigGood's on top of things, EverybodyLives, and one of the magical artifacts has been recovered. [[spoiler: And then you find out: The Sphinx is nowhere ''near'' what he appears...]]

** [[spoiler:Earlier, in book 2, we have the scene with the revenant, which may be viewed as even more awesome than the demon-killing in Book 5, considering that Seth had no special powers at the time and far less experience with the magical world.]]

* FantasticFragility: It's evidently a rule of magic that everything which has a beginning must also have an end. This is why Zzyzx was made with keys: By hardcoding in one specific and extremely complex way to open the prison, its builders were able to ensure that it couldn't fail in any other way.

* FantasticRacism: Centaurs are kind of bastards. And dragons see humans the way humans see mice. And everyone(faeries, dragons, spirits...) hates Golems, of all things, for no apparent reason.

* FaunsAndSatyrs: Doren and Newel are both satyrs and they serve as the series's PluckyComicRelief. The third book also introduces Verl as a nerdy satyr who becomes Kendra's AbhorrentAdmirer.

* FromBadToWorse: ''Rise of the Evening Star'' is noticably darker, but things ''really'' start going downhill in ''The Shadow Plague.''

* {{Golem}}: Hugo. He initially starts out as just an "earthen automaton," but thanks to the fairies, he actually becomes a (slowly) thinking being.

* HeelFaceTurn: After being TheMole, [[spoiler: Vanessa decides to become a bona fide good guy.]] It's also a MistreatmentInducedBetrayal, because [[spoiler: she feels as if the Sphinx abandoned her.]]
** [[spoiler: The Sphinx also pulls a HeelFaceTurn after Graulus takes control of the Society.]]

* HeroicAlbino: Warren Burgess. [[spoiler: He wasn't born an albino; his hair ''literally'' went white with shock when he tried to take on the revenant protecting the artifact.]]
* HeroicBSOD

* IdiotHero: Seth wouldn't be out of place in a {{shonen}} anime, the way he acts. Unlike a lot of shonen heroes, though, Seth regularly gets called for it.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: Tanu, Coulter, and Vanessa all stick by Kendra and Seth happily [[spoiler: though Vanessa does eventually [[TheMole turn on them.]]]] Vanessa and Kendra especially seem to bond in a CoolBigSis way [[spoiler: and she's genuinely happy to see Kendra when she's released]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Society member Christopher Vogel finds a bar of gold lying about and takes it with him. It was Nero's gold, which the Satyrs had stolen earlier, and an incredibly pissed Nero beats the crap out of him to take it back.
* KissingCousins: OK, so nothing ever ''actually'' comes of it, but throughout Book 2, Kendra harbors a bit of a PrecociousCrush on [[spoiler: Warren]], who is in fact her distant cousin.

** They can take human form -- except for Raxtus, an unusually small dragon who can only turn into something resembling a female fairy -- and the series' wizards are in fact dragons who chose to permanently become human in exchange for greater magical power.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: Small, AlwaysFemale humanoids with insect wings -- usually, as some have bat or hummingbird wings instead -- and who come in a great variety of subspecies, variants and races associated with different environments. Variants include the "regular" garden fairies with dragonfly and butterfly wings who Fablehaven's gardens, locust-, beetle- and bat-winged fairies who live in the desert around Lost Mesa, golden fairies called "jinn harps" with spellbindingly beautiful songs, and the powerful and mysterious Fairy Queen [[spoiler:who is actually a unicorn in humanoid form]]. Fairies cannot be kept indoors overnight, or they will turn into malformed, hateful and flightless imps.

** It should be noted that in cases where family members do not strike them as being Caretaker material, they deliberately make sure the clues will be hidden. Innocence of the existence of magical creatures is (almost) a 100% foolproof way of being protected from them.
* PerversePuppet: Mendigo, Muriel's supernaturally strong puppet minion. [[spoiler: After she's gone and her magic fades, he becomes good. But it isn't really a HeelFaceTurn, since he has no mind.]]

* RedPillBluePill: Ignorance is its own kind of protection, and caretakers are very careful about who they let in on the secret for this reason. In the first book, Kendra and Seth have to solve riddles and then seek out the milk themselves.

* ShooOutTheClowns: Quite surprisingly averted by Newel and Doren in book five. They stick around for the last battle, and, though their accomplishments are those of secondary characters, fight bravely and survive. Before the final battle, they do mention they know they are going to their probable deaths and would have ditched long ago if not for some pesky nobility that snuck into their characters. Yet they still come out with some great wingers even during all this--and while some of it is to help keep spirits up and the like, some of it is just them. Their battle cry is "for Frito-Lay" after all...

* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: The Sphinx]] had an unstoppable plan, with every contingency planned, against which the heroes were powerless - except that they never anticipated that Seth would inadvertently [[spoiler: free the demon Graulas]], causing them to lose control of the plan.

* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler: The Chronometer from Book 3, temporarily bringing Patton Burgess into the present day--which leads him to WriteBackToTheFuture. This also allows the characters to visit him in the past a few times in book 5.]]

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: {{Downplayed}} in Book 4. The heroes need to steal a unicorn horn protected by centaur guards, a maze of invisible walls, a mountain troll, and magic that afflicts a would-be thief with crippling guilt. And then Graulas turns Seth into a shadow charmer. Shadow charmers turn invisible in dim light, can see the invisible, can communicate with and easily befriend dark creatures, and are immune to magic that affects emotions. Granted, all of those are useful abilities that get used in many other contexts, but still...

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Dragons do this all the time, usually into human form. And Kendra and Seth shrink down to miniature size once. And the Eternal's guardians are [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot immortal sentient talking animals can instantly turn into any other animal of approximately the same mass and can only die through powerful magical means or if their charge is killed through the same]].
* WasOnceAMan: Happens occasionally. For example, [[spoiler:Ephira.]] And there's the exact opposite: the wizards weren't always human.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: The revenant's nail turns out to be this in the third book.]]

* AbortedArc: The djinn in Fablehaven's dungeon is built up like one of the ''many'' {{ChekhovsGun|s}} in the series, with a clearly laid-out set of rules and a direct tie to a main character's backstory; but as of the first book of ''Dragonwatch'', it's never been referenced again.

* AbortedArc: The djinn in Fablehaven's dungeon is built up like one of the ''many'' {{Chekhov's Gun}}s in the series, with a clearly laid-out set of rules and a direct tie to a main character's backstory; but as of the first book of ''Dragonwatch'', it's never been referenced again.

* ChekhovMIA: [[spoiler: Seth never does get to use his treasure from Wyrmroost.]] He actually realizes this and is highly disappointed by it, [[spoiler: but he considers using the growing tower to give Hugo a permanent home.]]
** [[spoiler: There's a jinn sealed in Fablehaven's dungeon. Ruth gives a detailed explanation of his powers, but nothing ever comes of it. ]]

* InfinityPlusOneSword: Vasilis

* AlwaysVSexy: Vanessa.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The fairies to an extreme.

* RedPillBluePill

* [[spoiler: Curb Stomp Battle: At the end of book 5: Seth to Graulas and Kendra to Gorgorg]]

* EnemyMine: [[spoiler: The Sphinx quickly starts working with the Knights once Graulas and Nagi Luna take control of things.]]

* NobleDemon: [[spoiler: Graulas. He makes Seth into a shadow charmer in ''Dragon Sanctuary.'' Unfortunately for Seth, he finds out in the next book that it was mere circumstances that truly kept Graulas' innately evil nature in check, not any genuine desire to restrain himself.]]