From sardonic ghosts in jars to old-enemies-turned-friends, this entire series has been one massive journey that I'm overjoyed to have been a part of. This is the book where we see what huge plot has been building throughout the last four books, right under our noses the entire time. This entire series made me FEEL so many things. I had no idea when I started these books that I'd be this attached by the end. How am I going to be able to move on after this? *spoiler*: I probably won't. 😭 We’ve worked wonders to get here, and we won’t panic now. If we’re right, there won’t be anything to worry about. If we’re wrong, we deal with it, as we always do. […] But we won’t be wrong. We’re on the verge of something big here. It’s going to be good!” Then there's Kipps. Can we talk about how freaking awesome Kipps became later in the series?! And this book was the pinnacle of it. Kipps dry humour was just a pleasure and seeing him and George go at it was just priceless. But I also live for Kipps' soft side. Kipps is just amazing.

Is it weird that while I didn't WANT anyone to die I'm also calling this book a copout for the fact that no one in the main crew died? Probably. It beats out Harry Potter for me. It even beats books from my own childhood like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Jonathan Stroud has taken a scary, creepy setting of a major ghost problem and made it just scary enough that kids will get a bit of a shiver (I certainly did at times) but still able to sleep at night. Everything about this series is just wonderful! I cannot wait for my niece to be 9-10 years old so I can get her this series! She just turned 8 and is a great reader but is currently into unicorns, fairies and such. So I don't want to jade her just yet into more gothic things. But I absolutely plan to do so in the coming years! (lol) Pitched into a desperate race to get to the truth behind the country's ghost epidemic, the team ignite a final, epic battle against the Fittes agency. A battle that will force them to journey to the Other Side, and face the most terrifying enemy they have ever known.Kipps adjusted his goggles dolefully. “Since when has anything good happened in a crypt? It’s going to be bad by definition.” And with this my review eventually ends! I really wish there would have been more books! I still have so many questions and there were so many things I would have loved to read about. XD I guess Stroud decided that if it can’t get any better, he should stop and no matter how heartbroken I am, I can still understand this sentiment. Over the final few chapters, Lucy carried around the burnt skull that she saved from the fire in the hopes that his spirit hadn't been destroyed, and she was clearly far more distraught than the other members of her team. The development of her friendship with the skull was one of my favorite things about the series as a whole, and the fact that she continued to bring the skull with her everywhere (even to the dinner table, which Holly wasn't impressed with) was heartbreaking. I was mourning the skull's spirit right along with her.

Not my favourite ending but totally appropriate for a middle grade kids book and definitely will make a beautiful movie/tv series. This whole series (if done right with good effects and acting) will be absolutely stunning. I cannot wait for us to see it on screen! Of course something is always left in the books to discover and so I hope many people will see the (forthcoming) show and proceed to grab the novels as well.PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Empty_Grave_-_Jonathan_Stroud.pdf, The_Empty_Grave_-_Jonathan_Stroud.epub

I haven't had so much fun with a series like this in forever. This series has been a highlight of my reading year this year. And I will gladly relieve it again and again in the future.Speaking of ghosts, the scary factor is still there. I feel chilly when dusk settles. Eerie and foreboding. Even those illustrations in every chapter beginning creep me out, I tried not to look at them. Among his most prominent works are the bestselling Bartimaeus Trilogy. A special feature of these novels compared to others of their genre is that Stroud examines the stereotypes and ethics of the magician class and the enslaved demons. This is done by examining the perspective of the sarcastic and slightly egomaniacal djinni Bartimaeus. The books in this series are The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate, his first books to be published in the United States.