There are so many ancient stories where magical objects take an import role. The Greek myths are full of them – golden fleeces, winged sandals and Poseidon’s trident. Magical objects can add an exciting and mythical element to any story, but only if they are given the appropriate context, background and purpose. And are not just introduced as a plot device.
I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a while, because there has been a use of a magical object that has been irking me since I read the book some 5 years ago. And that is the introduction of the protection amulet in the final Half Bad book, Half Life, by Sally Green. As ever, I am going to go into some MAJOR spoilers here so look away now if you haven’t read those books and want to (despite the criticism I’m going to give the final book here, I would recommend the series – it had one of the first gay romances in YA I ever read, and wasn’t treated like a big deal).
To give some context, in the Half Bad series there are black witches and white witches. The black witches practice ‘dark’ magic, that the white witches do not approve of. The white witches control all parts of the government and stamp down hard on black witches. Nathan, the protagonist, was born to a white witch mother and a black witch father. The series is about the tension between the two groups, and how Nathan keeps getting caught in the middle. The final book is a build up to the final battle between the two fractions as the black witches (and some white witches) fight against the government white witches for freedom.
During the first two books, Nathan spends time getting to know his witch powers, some of which he gets from his parents. While they are preparing for battle, Nathan goes to see someone to get a special amulet someone has told him about that will give him protection in battle. I felt in the final book that Sally Green didn’t really know what to do while everyone prepared for battle – the final book is suspiciously skinny and while it does wrap some of the personal story lines, it is just a lot of flat battle preparation, and Nathan’s journey to pick up this amulet. The journey to get the amulet felt like padding to me – the amulet hadn’t been mentioned in the other two books, and its existence didn’t really fit in with the nature of magic in the world. It felt very off to me.
In the end, the amulet does service an ironic purpose – Nathan wears it into the battle and during the fighting a spell aimed at him is deflected by the amulet’s powers, and kills his lover. But the lover could have been killed during the battle without the ironic inclusion of the amulet, and it made the journey for the amulet seem rather pointless.
In contrast, one magical object that works well is The Box of Delights in the book by John Masefield of the same name (that book is such a trip fest). In The Box of Delights, the main character Kay meets a strange old man on the train on the way home from school. The man, Cole, is a Punch and Judy man and Kay gets a magical sense from him. There are people on the train that seem to be hunting Cole, and he seems very afraid of him. Cole ends up coming to Kay’s house to give him and his friend’s a Punch and Judy show, and gives Kay a magical box and asks him to protect it.
Kay discovers the box can do two things – shrink him to the size of a mouse and separately transport him to somewhere he wants to go. During the book Kay uses the box to unravel the mystery of who Cole is, uncover the villain’s evil plot as he tries to get his hands on the Box of Delights, and rescue a load of people so that Christmas is saved (he also randomly meets Father Christmas as the end, as well a being that is sort of the green man who turns him into a fish and a stag… Told you, it’s a real trip fest).
But my point is, the box in The Box of Delights – as trippy as the plot is – makes sense. The rest of the world in The Box of Delights is a normal 1930s world, but because the use of the box is so consistent, and the box is very central to the plot, it works. The amulet in Half Lost doesn’t work, because it was very much thrown in as a plot device for the final book, and could have easily been missed out or replaced with something else. The story of The Box of Delights does not work without the box.
Bookworm Scribe 