Nightmare Academy (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nightmare Academy | |
| Image Needed | |
| Author | Dean Lorey |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Brandon Dorman |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nightmare Academy |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Publication date | 2007 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover |
| Pages | 310 pp (1st Edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-06-134042-0 (1st Edition) |
| Followed by | Unknown |
Nightmare Academy (2007) is a fantasy novel written by Dean Lorey about a boy named Charlie Benjamin and his best friends Theodore Dagget and Violet Sweet. The story focuses on how Charlie and his friends repel the forces of the Named, the most powerful creatures in the Netherworld. Nightmare Academy
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The novel begins in a small town describing the life of Charlie Benjamin. Charlie doesn't socialize, and unknowingly brings a Nethercreature into his room when he slept. One night, Charlie brings a scorpion into his room. Charlie wakes up before the scorpion kills him, and sees a team of three people, Rex, Tabitha, and Pinch attempting to bring the scorpion back to where it belongs. After the fight, Charlie's parents meet the team. Pinch explains that Charlie has the Gift, which allows him to open portals into the Nether and bring creatures across them. Charlie's gift is too strong, which can become dangerous. Pinch suggests that Charlie follow them to the Nightmare Division, who will decide what should be done with such a dangerous boy. Charlie's mother reluctantly allows him to go.
At the Nightmare Division, the Director instructs Charlie to open a portal. Charlie proceeds to accidentally open a portal to the Named, which were huge powerful beasts. Chaos ensues, and Barakkas reaches out his hand and attempts to enter. Charlie quickly close the portal, which cuts Barakkas's arm off, including his bracer. After a debate about Reducing Charlie to relieve him of his powers, the Headmaster brings him to the Nightmare Academy.
There, Charlie meets two classmates, Theodore and Violet. The school trains two different groups, the Banishers, and the Nethermancers. Banishers, like Rex, fights and holds off Nethercreatures whereas Nethermancers, like Tabitha, open portals to send them back. Students who lose their Gift are trained as Facilitators, who provide help to the other two. After meeting the Trout of Truth, Charlie finds out that he was a Double Threat, a combination of both a Banisher and Nethermancer.
Charlie was then taken by the Headmaster to Charlie's old house. Barakkas kidnapped his parents and tells him to exchange his parents for the bracer. Charlie, Rex, Tabitha, and the Headmaster then to finds the Hags of the Void. The Hags of the Void, in return for Rex's memories of his parents, allowed Charlie to go through the Gorgon Maze to find the Shadow. At the end of the maze, the Shadow filled Charlie, allowing him to find his parents. Charlie's shadow now points to his parents' exact location.
The group tries to find his parents, and arrives in a volcano. Another of the Named living there, Verminion, tricked Charlie into opening a portal, allowing Barakkas to enter. After the incident, Charlie, Violet, and Theodore sets steals Barakkas's bracer from the Nightmare Academy to exchange his parents. Brooke, a Facilitator, tags along, and they manage to bring the back to the volcano. Charlie tries to trick Barakkas and Verminion by pretending to exchange himself and the bracer for his parents. Verminion doubts Charlie, and exposes his plan. While Violet and Theodore finds his parents and tries to rescue them, Charlie causes the two Named to fight and flees with Brooke. While they were running, Brooke opens a portal, proving that she still has the Gift. The two jumps through the portal back to the Academy.
Meanwhile, Barakkas has his bracer back. Both of the Named reminded each other that they both have to be alive to summon the fifth, more powerful Named with their Artifacts. The Headmaster hides Charlie's parents from the Named, and Charlie, with his two best friends, Theodore and Violet goes into the beach and reiterates how they will be together all the way.
[edit] Characters
- Charlie Benjamin: As the main protagonist of the story, Charlie has a very powerful Gift. He was a Double Threat in the Nightmare Academy, meaning that he could open portals and fight Nethercreatures although he cannot do both at the same time.
- Theodore Dagget: Theodore is Charlie's friend, and was disappointed when he found out that he was a Nethermancer rather than a Banisher, which was his family's occupations for generations. He had an important role in the book for rescuing Charlie's parents with Violet.
- Violet Sweet: Violet is Charlie's friend, and was also disappointed to see that she was expected to be a Banisher when she believed herself to be a Nethermancer.
- Rex: Rex was a Banisher who went with Charlie on his journey to rescue Charlie's parents. In the middle of the book, Rex momentarily lost his memories about his parents.
- Tabitha: A Nethermancer who was part of the group that helped Charlie rescue Charlie's parents.
- Pinch: Pinch was revealed to be Edward, who in his past had opened a portal allowing one of the Named, Verminion into Earth. Pinch was Reduced after the incident, and has held a grudge against others with the Gift ever since.
- The Headmaster: The Headmaster the headmaster of the Nightmare Academy and was also a Double Threat. She participated in Charlie's journey to save Charlie's parents.
[edit] Netherworld Creatures
- Barakkas the Rager: A giant Satyr-like monster that dwells in the center of the Nether. Prone to violent outbursts, Barakkas is one of the four 'Named' Lords of the Nether. His magic bracer is one of the supremely powerful Artifacts of the Nether.
- Verminion the Deciever: A giant monster with the body of a Crab, and a head like a Triceratop's. Smart, seductive and a compulsive lair, Verminion is one of the four 'Named' Lords of the Nether. His choker is one of the supremely powerful Artifacts of the Nether.
- Hags: Hideouse female Demons- like creatures with green skin. Filthy, winged creatures that think they're beautiful. They live in the ruins of a crumbling manor deep in a part of the Nether called "The Void". They are known to guard "The Shadow", a strange power that allows those to find the one thing that they want most. They have the ability to suck the memories of a person's brain.
- Silvertongue: Scorpion-like creatures with tuning fork-shaped tongues with the small abilities to make a person's head explode.
- Netherstalker: Spider-like creatures with snail-like eyes, it is considered the smartest creatures of the Nether, and lieutenants of the 'Named'. It is later learned in the book that the number of eye-stalks represents it's level.
- Gorgon: With greenish, snake-like skin, a forked tongue, snakes for hair, fangs, and it's entire lower half a snake's tail, it has the power to turn anything that looks into it's eyes into solid Marble. They live in the Gorgon Maze, accessible only through the mansion of the Hags of "The Void".
- Snark: A small creature that resembles a ball of fur with big eyes and a little beak. it has the uncanny ability to feed on fear, growing larger and fearcer. They appear to be harmless in their normal state.
- Ectobog: A Slime mold-like creature with the ability to sub-divide, smothering it's prey. It detests the light.
- Gremlins: Mischievous and plentiful on the first ring of the Nether. Gremlins eat electricity, often destroying entire power grids if allowed to Earth. It is considered to be in a different class from the other creatures, since it doesn't grow any larger.
- Professor Xixclix- A Class four Netherstalker that is slowly growing into a Class five. He is one of few Netherworld creatures that have joined with the humans. He is incharge with handling the captured creatures used for Banisher training.
[edit] Planned Movie
A movie based on Nightmare Academy was planned to be released in 2008[1]. The rights to the movie was bought by Universal Studios[2], and the release date may be changed in the future.
