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Children of the Red King is a series of fantasy novels by Jenny Nimmo which first began publishing in 2002. They describe the adventures of Charlie Bone.

The series begins with Charlie Bone accidentally getting the wrong photograph from the photo developer... And discovering that he can hear people talking in the photo. While he is perturbed at this development, his grandmother and great aunts inform him he has magical abilities and enroll him in Bloor's Academy where he becomes part of the music department (because of his supposedly dead father, who played the piano). At Bloor's, Charlie makes new friends, encounters strange magic, and learns all about the history of his Big, Screwed-Up Family.

The books in the series are:

  • Midnight for Charlie Bone (2002)
  • The Time Twister (2003) (Also Charlie Bone and the Time Twister)
  • The Blue Boa (2004) (Also Charlie Bone and the Invisible Boy)
  • The Castle of Mirrors (2005) (Also Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors)
  • Charlie Bone and the Hidden King (2006)
  • Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf (2007) (Also Charlie Bone and the Beast)
  • Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (2008)
  • Charlie Bone and the Red Knight (2009)
  • Henry and the Guardians of the Lost (2016)
  • Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers (2018)

There was also a spin-off series released in 2011, chronicling the story of the Red King and his family.

The books in the trilogy are:

  • The Secret Kingdom (2011)
  • The Stones of Ravenglass (2012)
  • Leopards' Gold (2013)


This series contains examples of the following tropes:

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     Main Series 
  • Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Averted with Amy, who never forgets her husband Lyell even ten years after his disappearance.
  • Academy of Adventure: Bloor's Academy is full of secrets, both dangerous and exciting.
  • Action Girl: Most of the endowed girls in Bloor's Academy. Particularly Emma, who fights in bird form during the final battle.
  • Adults Are Useless: Mostly averted. Most of the adults are fairly competent; when they're unable to help the kids it's for reasons that actually make sense, and when they do help out it makes a big difference. Plus, for every nice adult there's two who are Jerkasses or completely psychotic.
  • Alliterative Name: Several. The most prominent would be Tancred Torsson, and later Bartholomew Bloor and Titania Tilpin. Then there's Alice Angel, Christopher Crowquill, Yorath Yewbeam and his daughter Yolanda, not to mention Bertram Babbington Bloor and his sister Beatrice. Eustacia Yewbeam might qualify too, depending on how you pronounce it.
  • Animal Eyes: Asa Pike's eyes are yellow, which just adds to his wolfish demeanor.
  • Archnemesis Dad: A curse on Dagbert Endless' family ensures that when he turns thirteen, he will have to battle his father, Lord Grimwald, to the death. He wins.
  • Arch-Enemy: Harken for the Red King.
  • The Assimilator: Yorath is capable of this. The victims were released upon his death, though.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: This almost seems to be the case when it comes to the endowed. Those with more destructive powers tend to be on the side of the Bloors, while those with more useless-sounding powers tend to be good. This is averted by Tancred and Lysander, who are easily the strongest of all the kids at the Academy, and who are both very firmly on Charlie's team.
  • Badass Bookworm: Paton Yewbeam.
  • Badass Crew: The children of the Red King.
  • Badass Family: The Gunns, who take on Asa in his beast form with only instruments at hand in the fourth book.
  • Badass Teacher: Dr. Saltweather and Senor Alvaro, though barely mentioned at all in the final battle, make quite a team.
  • Balance of Good and Evil: What Cook/Treasure does. This actually is almost her downfall in the fourth book when the good children start getting systematically picked off by the bad ones.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Miss Chrystal/Titania Tilpin gets increasingly ugly after she turns out to be an evil witch.
  • Benevolent Boss: The Red King was certainly this, when he ruled the Red Castle centuries ago. He was kind and fair to all who were put under his care, and everyone respected and liked him.
  • Big Bad: Ezekiel Bloor, until Count Harken Badlock came around.
  • Bouncer: Norton Cross is a sort-of bouncer for the Pets' Cafe.
  • Butt-Monkey: Poor Benjamin and his dog Runner Bean just can't catch a break.
  • Cast Calculus: Rotates through the books. Mostly involves Charlie and Billy, involves Emma and Olivia more often than not, and occasionally includes Gabriel, Tancred and Lysander.
    • In the first book, Charlie, Benjamin, Fidelio and Olivia are most prominent in the plot. The second book has Charlie, Olivia, Fidelio,
  • Cats Are Magic: Played straight in the case of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, otherwise known as the Flames. They used to be leopards belonging to the Red King, and are capable of turning themselves into fire, and occasionally can resume their true forms.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The books seems to become darker after the fifth book, though they weren't that light-hearted to begin with.
  • Character Name and the Noun Phrase: "Character Name and the X of Y" is the title of all of the books except the first in the U.S.
  • Charm Person: Joshua Tilpin, who is a human magnet in every sense of the word.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The wand Charlie steals from Skarpo in the second book becomes extremely important later on. It not only helps free Henry from his prison, but saves Miss Ingledew from death, helps Charlie with any problem he has, and also is the key to fixing the damaged Mirror of Amoret.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Mr. Pilgrim, who in the fifth book is revealed to be Lyell Bone, Charlie's ten-years-estranged father. He's also the Red Knight.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Mr Pilgrim's talent as a pianist clues the reader in to the fact that he is really Lyell Bone, Charlie's lost father.
    • In the second book knowledge of the Welsh language becomes important, as it is only through Welsh words that Charlie will be able to command Skarpo's wand to move the rock that is trapping Henry in his prison.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Both Charlie and his father have this to some degree. Both can't stand by and do nothing when they see someone who needs their help. Timoken (aka The Red King) is the same, shown when he rescues Beri, Edern, Gereint, Peredur, Mabon and others from slavers in The Secret Kingdom. He also rode around the countryside as a knight defending his people after the grieving period for his wife was over.
  • The Clan: The Yewbeams and Bloors. The descendants of the Red King as a whole.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Yorath Yewbeam's feeding on Paton in Blue Boa.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Usually the setting is fairly strict on One Person, One Power. However, Yolanda Yewbeam is both a shapeshifter and a hypnotist, Manfred takes up pyrokinesis after losing his hypnotism (only to get his old power back and keep his new one), Natalia Dobinski is a telekinetic conjurer, and Charlie is both a Portal Picture person and a hereditary wizard, though the latter only becomes clear as the series progresses. Guanhamara, the Red King's third daughter, had at least four endowments: psychic power, illusions, spirit-summoning, and witchcraft. Possibly justified in that she was so closely related to the Red King, but then again her siblings only seem to have had one endowment a piece.
  • Constantly Curious: Joshua Tilpin has quite a few questions for Lord Grimwald in the last book.
  • Cool Uncle: Paton Yewbeam is very cool, unlike Charlie's other extended family members.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: In the third book, Yolanda does this to Dorcas Loom, to turn her to the side of the bad endowed. Olivia also has this done to her in the final book by Titania Tilpin, after the Bloors discover her illusionist powers. She gets better eventually, with a lot of help from Emma and Alice Angel.
  • Creepy Twins: Idith and Inez Branko.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • Emma Tolly was given away by her own father when she was just two years old, and ended up being hypnotised for life by Manfred Bloor after the transaction went wrong. She was then given a new name and sent to live with a childless couple who neglected her emotionally. Emma herself tells Charlie that all her life she lived with people who didn't love her and that she'd never known true happiness before.
    • Lyell Bone was hypnotised for life by Manfred Bloor after trying to stop Mostyn Tolly from giving away his daughter Emma. He was then made to crash his car into a quarry to fake his death and was taken back to Bloor's Academy, where he spent the next ten years helpless and lost without his memories or identity.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Paton Yewbeam, though Charlie has a few good ones.
    Charlie: It's just my grandma.
    Billy: No, Charlie, this is different. Rembrandt says it smells of bad magic and things that should be dead.
    Charlie: Like I said.
  • Determinator: Charlie is set on finding his missing father and making his family whole again.
  • Disability Immunity: Billy's albinism gives him poor eyesight, which makes him immune to Hypnotic Eyes.
  • Disappeared Dad: Lyell Bone, who was hypnotized by Manfred and hidden away as a music teacher in the Academy for the next ten years. He's woken up in the fifth book and is finally reunited with his wife and son.
  • Disney Death: Tancred is drowned by Dagbert Endless in Shadow, but is brought back from the brink of death by the Flames.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: "I think they only put 'FISH' up on that sign to explain the smell, if you catch me. And not because they're selling any."
  • Drama Queen: Olivia Vertigo, as she's a drama student.
  • Dramatis Personae: Each book has several pages at the beginning listing all the current major characters and their powers, as well as a copy of Charlie's ever expanding family tree and in later books, the family of the Red King.
  • The Dreaded: Count Harken Badlock has been this for many centuries, so much so that sorcerers like Skarpo refuse to even utter his name.
  • Duel to the Death: The fight between the red knight and the green at the end of Charlie Bone and the Red Knight is this. Only one is expected to come out of it alive. Luckily, it's the Red Knight who lives and Harken who dies, though Harken does come close to finishing the Red Knight off beforehand.
  • Dysfunctional Family: The entire family at number nine Filbert Street.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Norton Cross. Dorcas Loom, to an extent. Previously she was neutral, and even hinted to be a good person. It wasn't until Yolanda came around that she became bad.
  • Famous Ancestor: The Red King and his children for the descendants of the Red King.
    • Also the Knight of Toledo.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Yewbeams look down upon Charlie's mother and maternal grandmother because they're unendowed and without any impressive lineage. Though unknown to them, they're actually descended from the Welsh wizard Mathonwy, who was a close friend of the Red King.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Ezekiel Bloor attempts to bring the brutal tyrant Borlath back to life, and seemingly succeeds - except that there's no way of controlling him. It turns out that he actually brought back Queen Berenice, who was a loving mother and is compelled to protect the endowed children.
    • Before the beginning of the series, Manfred Bloor hypnotises Lyell Bone to punish him for trying to stop the abduction of Emma Tolly. He also does it partially in an attempt to discern the whereabouts of Maybelle's will (which Lyell had hidden). However, while spellbound Lyell has Laser-Guided Amnesia and as such forgets where he put the pearl-inlaid box containing the will.
  • Good-Guy Bar: The Pets' Cafe.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Amy Bone has brown-blonde hair and a very kind heart.
  • Happily Adopted: Billy Raven, at the end of the series. This is unfortunately subverted earlier on when his initial adopted parents turn out to be evil.
  • Happily Married:
    • Paton and Julia Ingledew, at the very end of the series.
    • Amy and Lyell, before and after Lyell's disappearance.
    • The Red King and Queen Berenice, before Berenice's Death by Childbirth.
  • Have We Met Yet?: When Amy and Charlie go to Bloor's Academy in the fifth book to finally awaken Lyell, Lyell doesn't recognise them.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Dagbert Endless, whose morality changes with the moon. At the end, he seems to have finally settled somewhere on the "good" spectrum. Billy Raven switches to the bad side for several books before rejoining the heroes.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Asa Pike, due to his nature as a Changer. It's implied that he actually might have rejoined the Bloors, had they not seen fit to lock him up for a few months in a cave, later on without sunlight (which is what he requires in order to be human). In other words, they deprived him of his humanity for several weeks and nearly starved him to death in the process. Their actions also led up to Asa's father being shot and killed by local hunters. It's no wonder he turned his back on them completely after that.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors, Billy Raven's guardian Christopher Crowquill sacrifices his life to save Paton's when Yorath Yewbeam tries to kill him, because he's dying anyway and Paton is the only one who can protect Billy. This makes him one of the very few non-evil characters to be Killed Off for Real.
    • Asa's dad was shot to death trying to defend his son from hunters.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Christopher Crowquill was framed for robbery by the Bloors and sent to jail for seven years. After he gets out, he comments that the only person who still stood by him even though he was a criminal was Alice Angel.
    • In Blue Boa Charlie becomes a pariah within the school for one day because of Skarpo's causing mayhem with his magic, as everyone knows that it was Charlie who released him out of his painting. A similar incident happens in the fifth book, with most students in the school becoming angry with Charlie because he managed to return his friends' pets and not anyone else's, and won't reveal where the rest of the animals are.
  • Hero of Another Story: Benjamin's private investigator parents occasionally reference being involved in interesting cases unrelated to the magical war between good and evil that dominates the plot (although this also causes them to neglect their son at times). In Midnight for Charlie Bone, Mrs. Brown mentions how an investigation into the disappearance of a window washer who later turned up in a cave in Scotland. In the third and fourth books, they take their son to Hong Kong while spending several months on the trial of a stolen necklace.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Emma and Olivia.
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Charlie's father. He was imprisoned in Bloor's Academy for years, where he posed as a piano teacher. When Charlie starts attending the Academy he sees him without ever realising who he really is. After finally discovering where he's been hidden, Charlie is quite bitter about this.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Manfred's original power, though it begins to wane to make way for a newer, much more destructive one.
  • Hypnotize the Captive: Essentially what Harken does to Amy Bone in the fifth book, to ensure that Lyell doesn't wake up from his trance.
  • I Am Who?: Charlie is surprised to find that he is descended from Mathonwy through his mother's family, and thus is the rightful owner of the wand Claerwen.
  • I Choose to Stay: Even after being lost in the ruin at the end of the first book, Charlie chooses to stay at Bloor's to help the good endowed children of the Red King fight against the bad guys.
    • Emma Tolly also chooses to return to Bloor's Academy after her hypnotic trance is broken, for exactly the same reason as Charlie.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Charlie frequently wishes to be normal, particularly when he first discovers his endowment and goes to Bloor's. He gets over this after discovering the extent of his power and how useful it is in helping other people and discovering truths no one has ever known before.
    • Olivia goes through this in Castle of Mirrors, when she goes into denial about being an endowed child of the Red King. In the end she accepts that she is endowed, though she feels more resigned to it than anything else.
  • I Never Told You My Name: Alice Angel knows Olivia's name immediately when she and Charlie walk into her shop, and uses it repeatedly. It doesn't say much for Charlie's intelligence that he doesn't think anything is wrong until Alice also says his name. It turns out that, unknown to them Alice is Olivia's next door neighbor, godmother, and self-declared guardian angel and a friend of Charlie's Uncle Paton.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: Dagbert Endless, the most dangerous and complex of the younger antagonists in the series, takes six books to debut.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Most of the good children are close friends with the Onimouses and Treasure/Cook, who are all middle-aged adults. Other notable friendships include that of Charlie and Paton, who become very close by the end of the series, and also Lyell and Bartholomew Bloor, who is old enough to be Lyell's grandfather.
  • Interquel: Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers is the latest book written to date but is apparently set some time before Charlie Bone and the Red Knight, as Bloor's Academy hasn't been renamed Bone's Academy yet and Ezekiel and Manfred are briefly mentioned in the present tense, meaning they are still alive.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: With a sufficient light source, Asa is human. But in the dark, he cannot retain that shape, instead automatically transforming into a beast — the eponymous "Wilderness Wolf" of the sixth book. Being trapped as an animal for too long can also have a bad effect on his sanity, though luckily he manages to hold himself together enough to not rip apart his rescuers when they come for him.
    • His ancestor Cafal had the same gift.
  • It May Help You on Your Quest: In the second book, Miss Ingledew gives Charlie a Welsh word dictionary which Paton had in his possession when he was run over. It ends up being the key to using Skarpo's wand.
  • Jerkass: All of the evil endowed and adults are this.
  • Kaleidoscope Hair: Olivia likes to wear a different hairstyle every week.
  • Killed Off for Real: In addition to Christopher Crowquill in Castle of Mirrors and Mr. Pike, Big Bad Manfred and his grandfather Ezekiel die at the end of the last book.
  • Kill It with Fire: What Borlath did to the Castle of Mirrors and its inhabitants. The only survivor was Amadis' youngest son, Owain.
  • Kissing Cousins: Subverted. All of the endowed are descended from the Red King, but their respective families have drifted so far that they can no longer be considered related by any stretch.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Lyell Bone and Emma Tolly have this as a result of their hypnotization. Later on in Blue Boa, Samuel Sparks also loses his memories when he is hypnotised by Yolanda Yewbeam.
  • Last of His Kind: The forest jinni who gives Timoken's family the magic ring and spider-web cloak.
  • Left Hanging: It is never explained why the villainous faction was holding the famous pianist Alberto Tuccini hostage in the third and fourth books, nor what happens after he parts way with Charlie, Billy, and Paton.
  • Living Photo: Charlie Bone has the power to hear people in photos talking, though they're not animate and mostly repeat what the subjects said at the time the photo was taken. Paintings, on the other hand, come to life and can converse with him, he can also jump into them.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Mr Pilgrim is revealed to be Charlie's father in the fifth book.
  • Magic Enhancement: Paton Yewbeam is a "power booster", though this mainly extends just to electronics, lightbulbs in particular. He also knows how to utilize this power effectively, and even manages to fatally electrocute Yolanda with it.
  • Magic Wand: Charlie inherits one from his ancestor Mathonwy, though it can only be used by one of his bloodline speaking in Welsh. Later on after Manfred tries to destroy it, it becomes a white moth.
  • Making a Splash: Subverted with Dagbert, who drowns people by simulating the ocean. Somehow. It's implied he will inherit his father's water powers upon killing him, however.
  • Master of Illusion: Olivia Vertigo, after she accepts that she's endowed.
    • Guanhamara, the Red King's third daughter, was a talented illusionist.
  • Mind over Matter: Zelda Dobinski, Beth Strong, and Idith and Inez Branko have the power of telekinesis. They use this power against the heroes many times in the series.
  • Missing Mom: Dagbert Endless' mother is never seen and is only mentioned once in the series. It's revealed in the Dramatis Personae that she was killed by a fishing net when Dagbert was five years old.
  • Muggle Best Friend: Benjamin Brown, Fidelio Gunn, and Olivia Vertigo until she is revealed to be endowed as well.
  • Multigenerational Household: Charlie's household consists of him, his mother, both his grandmothers, and his great-uncle.
  • Mundane Utility: Charlie uses his wand to help him remember things he's studied for school. Olivia sometimes uses her illusion power to stir up mischief when she gets bored.
    • The endowed are generally discouraged from using their powers for "frivolous" things, however.
  • My Greatest Failure: Paton Yewbeam never really forgave himself for not helping Lyell at the cathedral on the day he disappeared.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: Asa at times. Especially prominent where Yolanda was concerned, as he was attracted to her specifically because her powers were similar to his.
  • Mysterious Protector: The Red Knight serves as this during the last three books. No one except a chosen few know who he is.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Never Found the Body: In Midnight for Charlie Bone Paton mentions to Charlie that Lyell's body was never found in the car wreckage after the accident that supposedly killed him.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It is Charlie's entering Bloor's that begins to weaken Lyell's trance. The only reason Charlie began attending the Academy in the first place is because his grandmother, aunts and the Bloors wanted him there so that they could keep an eye on and control him and his endowment.
    • Ezekiel's attempt to resurrect Borlath in Hamaran's body only results in Berenice being brought back to life in the body of her favorite mare. Berenice proves to be completely on the side of the good endowed, and in the last three books carries the Red Knight while he rides around the city protecting the endowed children.
  • No Sense of Humor: Grandma Bone.
  • Official Couple:
    • Paton and Julia Ingledew.
    • Amy and Lyell, after Lyell's awakening at the end of the fifth book.
    • Tancred and Emma count as well, as at the end of the final book they have acknowledged their feelings for one another and are pursuing a relationship of some sort.
  • Offing the Offspring: What Lord Grimwald intends to do to Dagbert, due to their family's curse.
  • One Person, One Power: Having more than one endowment is considered unusual in-universe. For some notable exceptions, see 'Combo Platter Powers' above.
  • Papa Wolf: Do not kill Yolanda Yewbeam or Tancred Torsson. Their fathers will be pissed.
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • Emma's dad, Mostyn Tolly, traded her to the Bloors for a replica of the Toledo knight when she was a baby. He eventually tries to put this right, but is murdered before he can.
    • Naren Bloor's biological parents died in a flood when Naren was only four years old. She was later adopted by Bartholomew and Meng, who took her back to the Red King's city.
  • Parental Substitute: Paton becomes this for Charlie as the series progresses.
  • Playing with Fire: Manfred Bloor, upon losing his hypnotism power, begins instead to develop fire powers like his ancestor Borlath. This is especially terrifying for the younger kids when the only other firestarter in the series was a cruel, brutal tyrant whose greatest sport was stated to be torture.
  • Police Are Useless: Justified, since there's not much the police can do about magical crimes, especially when they've got their hands full with the mundane variety already. Though one does help Charlie's mother offscreen in the last book.
  • Portal Picture: Charlie's endowment, though it first manifests as simply hearing voices in the pictures.
  • Psychometry: Gabriel Silk can experience the thoughts and feelings of people whose clothes he puts on.
  • Punny Name: An example that overlaps with Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Belle Donner, a riff off the toxic belladonna plant. Who is actually Yolanda Yewbeam.
  • Put on a Bus: Beth and Bindi after Time Twister.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Yolanda Yewbeam, who's over one-hundred years old by the time of her appearance in Blue Boa but looks like a little girl, and also her father Yorath.
  • Red Herring: Bartholomew is implied to be the Red Knight in the last three books, because someone with his jacket is seen taking the Red King's cloak from Mr Silk. In actuality, it's Lyell Bone.
  • Resigned to the Call: Olivia at the end of Castle of Mirrors, after finding out about her endowment.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Yorath Yewbeam, after Paton kills his daughter Yolanda, swears to revenge himself on him however he can.
    • Also Olga goes on this when Lilith is taken away from the Red Castle by Amadis, using her telekinetic powers to wreak havoc.
  • Sadist Teacher: Tantalus Ebony, otherwise known as Yorath Yewbeam.
  • School for Scheming: A lot of scheming goes on at Bloor's Academy, by both the good and bad endowed. Usually the good endowed are trying to foil the bad endowed's plans, while the bad endowed hatch evil plots.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Both Charlie and Lyell have this attitude.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Shadow/Count Harken Badlock.
  • Second Love: Meng for Bartholomew Bloor.
  • Secret Legacy:
    • In the third book, it's revealed that Charlie is really a descendant of the wizard Mathonwy, and as a result is the rightful owner of the wand Claerwen (which he originally stole from Skarpo the Sorcerer).
    • It turns out that Lyell Bone is the true heir to Maybelle's will, and thus heir to the Bloor's immense fortune.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Dagbert Endless, thanks to a nasty curse on his family.
  • Shapeshifter Longevity: Shapeshifters are shown to possess incredible longevity, with Yolanda Yewbeam (who was born in 1900) still alive and very much looking her age when in her true form) by the time she is first encountered by series protagonist Charlie Bone in the early 2000s; her father Yorath (who was born in 1850) is also still alive at that point.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Billy Raven's endowment allows him to do this.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Emma and Charlie, until it is revealed that Emma has a crush on Tancred.
    • Olivia and Charlie.
  • Spoiler Opening: The Dramatis Personae at the beginning of Charlie Bone and the Time Twister gives away the fact that Emma's endowment allows her to turn into a bird - information that otherwise isn't revealed until halfway through that book.
  • Stern Teacher: Arthur Saltweather, the Head of the Music Department.
  • Stupid Scientist: Ezekiel has shades of this, crossed with Genre Blindness. He literally had no other plan for controlling Borlath except that since he was Borlath's descendant, he'd of course be obligated to help him out.
  • Sword Cane: Uncle Paton has one in his walking stick, used in the final battle. And it's electrified.
  • Tell Me About My Father: Charlie asks this of his mother at the beginning of Midnight for Charlie Bone.
  • 13 Is Unlucky: Lucretia, Eustacia, and Venetia Yewbeam live at 13 Darkly Wynd.
    • Parodied. They don't all live at the same house, their street has three No. 13s.
  • Time Skip: Each story takes place at least a few months after the previous one.
  • Emma in Time Twister, when she, as a tollroc, saves Olivia from Zelda and Beth in the Academy grounds.
  • The Trap Parents: Billy Raven is temporarily adopted by Florence and Usher de Grey in The Castle of Mirrors and is excited about getting a family but quickly discovers that the de Greys are abusive and only adopted him to have him spy on Charlie Bone's group.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Most of the evil endowed exhibit this. Particularly Manfred, who crushed his own mother's hand and used his endowment to render a grown man utterly helpless, all when he was just thirteen and nine years old respectively.
  • Two-Act Structure: The first five books focus on Charlie and his friends as they try and foil the Bloors' evil plans and rescue some of the Bloors' many victims. Throughout it all Charlie strives to find his father, who was hypnotised and lost long ago. He does eventually, and they bring him home in the fifth book. The last three books focus on the quest to find Maybelle's will and lead up to Harken's second (and final) attempt to take over the city.
  • Unexpected Inheritance: At the end of Red Knight it's revealed that Lyell was the true inheritor of Maybelle's will, which means that he inherits all of the Bloors' fortune and Bloor's Academy.
  • Unfazed Everyman: Benjamin, Fidelio, and Olivia until she turns out to be endowed in the fourth book.
  • Wheelchair Antics: Ezekiel Bloor engages in this at least once. In Hidden King, he attaches sparklers to the back of his wheelchair and rides around through a crowd like that.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: It would've been much easier for the Bloors if they'd just killed Lyell in that car accident in 1994. The only reason they didn't was because Grizelda insisted on sparing him, and they also wanted to find out from him the location of the pearl-inlaid box that contains Maybelle's will. However, this is subverted in the fifth book, when Harken (with the Bloors' and Yewbeams' full knowledge) makes Amy forget Lyell to stop him waking up from his trance, as it's heavily implied, if not stated outright, that Lyell will die if Amy forgets him completely. Then in the last three books the Bloors resort to trying to drown him before he remembers where he put the pearl-inlaid box.
  • You Could Have Used Your Powers for Evil: Grizelda Bone often complains that Charlie and Lyell refuse to 'toe the line' and side with the Bloors in the ongoing fight between the descendants of the Red King.

     Chronicles of the Red King 
  • Arch-Enemy: Harken for the Red King.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: This almost seems to be the case when it comes to the endowed. Those with more destructive powers tend to be on the side of the Bloors, while those with more useless-sounding powers tend to be good. This is averted by Tancred and Lysander, who are easily the strongest of all the kids at the Academy, and who are both very firmly on Charlie's team.
  • Badass Bookworm: Paton Yewbeam.
  • Badass Crew: The children of the Red King.
  • Badass Family: Timoken and his family in the third book.
  • Benevolent Ruler: The Red King was certainly this, when he ruled the Red Castle centuries ago. He was kind and fair to all who were put under his care, and everyone respected and liked him.
  • Cats Are Magic: Played straight in the case of Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius, otherwise known as the Flames. They used to be leopards belonging to the Red King, and are capable of turning themselves into fire, and occasionally can resume their true forms.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Timoken (aka The Red King), shown when he rescues Beri, Edern, Gereint, Peredur, Mabon and others from slavers in The Secret Kingdom.
  • The Clan: The Yewbeams and Bloors. The descendants of the Red King as a whole.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Guanhamara, the Red King's third daughter, has at least four endowments: psychic power, illusions, spirit-summoning, and witchcraft. Possibly justified in that she is so closely related to the Red King, but then again her siblings only seem to have one endowment a piece.
    • Borlath is revealed to be a hypnotist as well as a fire-user.
  • Disney Death: Timoken's sister Zobayda is presumed drowned after she throws herself into a river to protect Timoken from the viridees. Turns out she survived and was taken in by a merchant, who she eventually fell in love with and married.
  • Dramatis Personae: Each book has several pages at the beginning listing all the current major characters and their powers.
  • Famous Ancestor: The Red King and his children for the descendants of the Red King.
    • Also the Knight of Toledo.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Zobayda, who throws herself into a river in the first book to protect Timoken and stop the viridees from obtaining the jinni's ring.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Borlath has hypnotic powers as well as the ability to manipulate fire.
  • Jerkass: All of the evil endowed children and adults are this.
  • Last of His Kind: The forest jinni who gives Timoken's family the magic ring and spider-web cloak.
  • One Person, One Power: Having more than one endowment is considered unusual in-universe. For some notable exceptions, see 'Combo Platter Powers' above.
  • Playing with Fire: Manfred Bloor, upon losing his hypnotism power, begins instead to develop fire powers like his ancestor Borlath. This is especially terrifying for the younger kids when the only other firestarter in the series was a cruel, brutal tyrant whose greatest sport was stated to be torture.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Olga goes on this when Lilith is taken away from the Red Castle by Amadis, using her telekinetic powers to wreak havoc.
  • Time Skip: The Stones of Ravenglass takes place a year after The Secret Kingdom. The third book takes place at least twenty years after the second one.


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