These last three books in the Spiderwick Chronicles, Lucinda’s Secret, The Ironwood Tree, and The Wrath of Mulgarath, by Holly Black, aren’t really quite complete books. Although there was an overarching story that was fairly obvious, books 1 and 2 held their own as individual books, containing everything a book needs. Not so with the last three in the series. Each of them has a plot, but the beginning is in book 3, the middle in book 4, and the end in book 5. As such, I’m reviewing them all together. (Reviews of books 1 and 2 are found here and here.

As three books that are actually one book, they’re a decent book. In Lucinda’s Secret, we discover . . . Lucinda’s secret: why she’s locked up in a mental institution. This gives the Grace kids more information towards figuring out why everyone wants the Guide (from book 1). In The Ironwood Tree, we meet the dwarves, who have kidnapped Mallory on Mulgarath’s (a shape-shifting ogre) command. There’s a vague ending to that bit of plot, but it only serves to set up the final conflict in The Wrath of Mulgarath. Book 5 finally includes the clueless mother into the plot, and we find out a little more about the absent father. There’s an elderly mentor, a funny sidekick, some clever thinking by Jared, and a final Ultimate Showdown. None of this should be news to any of you.

The first two books had self-contained plots, but I really didn’t feel that the last three did. Once I finished book 3, I immediately started book 4. Same thing when I ended book 4: I read book 5. I suspect even if I were a fourth-grader, and even if the books took me several days to read (that chapter-a-day thing that some people do), I would immediately want to start book 4 upon ending 3, and 5 upon ending 4.

The characters are interesting, still, and they finally achieve a bit of depth somewhere between books 3 and 5. The ending – well, it was what you would guess, not an unhappy ending, but it wasn’t precisely what I expected. I liked that. There’s a fair amount of violence in the end of book 4 and various parts of book 5 – deaths, Mallory stabbing something with a sword, people stomping on baby dragons, etc. Also, most ogres I know aren’t shape-shifters, but then again, I haven’t read everything on ogres ever. Having a shape-shifter around does help a plot a lot.

Regarding the movie, I think they could fit all five books into two hours. I hope they do so, because it seems to me that there is no good breaking point.

As I’ve been saying all along, if you’re over the age of 12, I’d recommend getting all five books at once, or perhaps waiting until the Science Fiction Book Club or someone else publishes them all in one volume. As individual books, I can’t give books 3-5 the same 4 stars that the other books got, because they aren’t complete books. They get about 3/5 stars apiece, though, and 4 stars collectively. The whole series of five books also gets a solid 4/5 stars.