Troubletwisters

Troubletwisters, Book 1

By: Garth Nix, Sean Williams

Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes

Jaide and Jack Shield’s lives are changing in a very, very strange way. The weather is turning against them. Magical disasters occur when they’re around. And a mysterious explosion has just destroyed their house... from the inside. Without knowing why, the twins are stolen away to live with Grandma X - a relative they’ve never, ever met.

At Grandma X’s house, things are even stranger. Weather vanes point in the opposite direction of the wind. Doors appear and disappear. Cats talk.

Jaide and Jack Shield don’t know the reason behind all this strangeness. They don’t know that they’re troubletwisters, and that they must defend the world against a dark, evil force. The time has come for them to discover the truth - and the powers that come with the truth. Are they ready?

©2011 Garth Nix (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Almost as a good as earlier similar works

The book reminiscent of Over Sea, Under Stone, House with a Clock in its Walls, The River at Green Knowe, The Psammead Trilogy, The Famous Five and the like. Reminiscent but not as good as. But good enough to make me want to read more.

Jack ask Jade said.

The story was great and all... but, there was zero variation of asking questions and stating something in this book. This alone was disappointing for such a good story. the younger generation needs to expand their vocabulary.

Interesting and well told

Very well read, her voice is both soothing and compelling.

Very fun artist
story told in interesting ways. I already bought the next two!

A slow start. Good story. Great preformance.

The story has an exciting beginning with a lot of mystery but gets slow, predictable, and repedative for a while before picking up. Once the climax starts its engaging keep readers on the edge to see how it ends. Better then the book is the preformance. The reader did an amazing job with the different voices and pertraying emotions in the voice. It was astounding.

Fun, but not as strong as Keys to the Kingdom

This is fun story. The characters are not flat, though only limited development over the book. It modern with reference's to mp3 players, laptops and cell phone but doesn't let that get in the way of the magic of the children. Grand-mama X and her cats are in some ways better characters then the main twins Jack and Jade.
While the story isn't transparent it's could have been much more original.

If you or your kids have issues with (not graphic) descriptions of ants, bugs, rats and white eyes this would be one to pass. Evil is much more clear then in Keys to the Kingdom.

While I'm sure I'll enjoy the next book. I hope that Garth decides to go back to writing solo.

Not great

I am usually a huge Garth Nix fan (don't know anything much about Sean Williams) but this was a huge disappointment. None of the kids could get through even the first half and I only plodded on to the end because I had paid for it. The story is too slow and the characters are dull and vapid. Nobody in my family could believe in a 12 year old boy who says "ooh, you gave me a fright" even in a fantasy story. Maybe a better narrator would have helped some (her voices for the cats were almost intolerably shrill) but all in all, I wish we had skipped this one.