The Mystic's Spell

Shivers #9

by M.D. Spenser

Tired of being taunted and teased, beaten and bullied... Timmy isn't going to take it anymore. So when the carnival comes to town, he visits The Mystic and begs for strength and power. His wish granted, Timmy marvels at his new awesome might. But then his strength causes havoc he never envisioned. Timmy searches desperately for The Mystic along the carnival's freak show midway in the hope that the spell can be removed. Or else he's doomed to a life of POWER GONE MAD...

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Middle Grade

116 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1996

About the author

M.D. Spenser is a children's author, journalist and music critic. Born in the United States, he lives now in the UK.

"The Enchanted Attic," Book 1 of his popular SHIVERS series of novels for children, was republished as an e-book in August 2011. It is available at amazone.com, Barnes & Noble, Sony and iBookstory. Book 2, "A Ghastly Shade of Green," and Book 3, "Ghost Writer," followed shortly afterwards.


The rest of the 36-book series will be published as ebooks over time.

Also, an internet petition is circulating asking that the entire 36-book series be republished in paperback: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/md...

Reviews

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Timmy was devastated. He was doomed to a life of detention and toilet-cleaning."

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you begged and pleaded with your parents? Promised them everything in your powers and they still said no? Feeling defeated, you sit around sighing. Then your Grandma comes around and gives you a wink. That she’ll get you what you wanted. You want that name brand item so bad that you’ll die. The day finally comes and she hands you that item. You open it with such excitement and then your face falls once you see what it is. It’s the off brand of what you want. That scenario is this book.

You want Goosebumps? Or Point Horror? Nah, here’s some Shivers!

This book was totally cheesy and absolutely ridiculous. I remember reading this when I was a lot younger and thinking the same thing. Totally ridiculous. A great blast from the past but it’s no RL Stine.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked The Mystics spell from the Shivers series,because I wanted to read a few carnival books,and I've heard some good things about this book.I actually have a little bit of nostalgia with this book.One of my good friend's  mom had this book in a barn and asked if I collected these.This wasn't super long ago so it's kinda fun how these books get into my collection.The story begins with Timmy going to school.He is asked by his friend Harold about going to a carnival.Last year Timmy went and threw up after a ride and got bullied by this guy named Hank and his friends.Timmy only has the one friend named Harold and has a crush on a girl named Sally.After school,Timmy and Harold want to stop by the arcade to play a few games when they end up running into Hank and his friends.Hank ends up asking where are the boys going and they say tell them the arcade.Hank ends up stealing some of Timmy's money and pushing him down.The next day Timmy gets picked on a bit by Hank.That night Timmy goes to a carnival with Harold.He ends up getting tripped by Harold.He runs away and finds this booth with a sign that says Myra The Mystic.It says she can cast spells on her sign.Timmy begs for her to help him out,she refuses at first,saying he dosen't have enough money,but timmy offers her 15.75.This is all the money he has.She finally agrees and Timmy wishes to be stronger then anyone in his class.She rubs oil on him.he ends up knocking a bunch of stuff over after a cat scratches him and gets kicked out.He decides to try out his strength and the first thing he does is see a guy with a flat tire and offers to help lift the car so he can change it.Timmy lifts the car and this guy is impressed and pays him.He goes to look for Hank and explores the carnival.He sees a two headed lady thats really not a two headed lady,but instead two women in one dress.He ends up running into hank at one of the games where he squirts water into a fake horse and its like a race thing.Timmy walks over and squeezes his hand and causes him to spray the guy behind the booth.Timmy lets go and Hank and his friends begin to chase him.Timmy hides and lets the kids run past when he jumps out on top of Hanks back.He then lifts him over his head.Hank is of course terrified.Timmy makes him apologize.He runs into Harold and tells him about what happend,but of course he dosen't belive him.They go play this game to prove a point and its the game where you hit a mallet on a base and make this disc fly up to get a score.Timmy does this but the disk flies out of the machine.Everyone is really impressed.Harold now belives him.Timmy gets home and is a little worried about his strength waring off.He goes to his room and lifts this statue off the ground.His mom asks about the carnival and Timmy says it was just like any other carnival.The next day at school Hank is friendly towards Timmy and everyone has heard of his feat of strength at the carnival.A bunch of kids get together to play softball.Timmy is picked first,he misses a few swings,but when he connects he sends it across the fence.The principal gets on to him for losing the ball and dosen't belive he hit it that far.He gets punished by helping thr janitor clean.This is all becsuse the softball is school property.The next day people are still admiring Timmy.Harold asks if Timmy wants to go to the arcade.He goes and ends up breaking this thing called the bicept buster.He gets in Trouble agian and this time his parents are called.Timmy gets grounded.At school the next day Timmy accidently busts t the vending machine with his bare hands after his drink gets stuck and the principal calls his parents.I feel like I Have to point out there is a hilarious scene where somebody put an out of order sign on this vending machine too.He gets in even more trouble after this.Timmy comes to the conclusion he needs to get this spell lifted,so he goes back to the carnival to find Myra.This is where I'm going to leave this,because this is the climax.The Mystic's Spell was another fun book in the Shivers series.For this book to only have one wish and stretch out a whole story is pretty cool.I really enjoyed the carnival setting and Timmy getting revenge.The ending was really great too.I give The Mystic's Spell a four out of five stars.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the reputation this series has garnered, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this one as much as I did! This book is like a reimagining of How I Learned to Fly but filled with a more familiar and basic plot. At the same time, this story is basically Revenge R Us meets Thumbprint of Doom, which are two stories I’m not whole heartedly fond of (Especially the latter; Thumbprint of Doom is NOT good lol). This story has strong writing and decent characters, and a simple plot with story that we’ve seen before—but done right. Nothing about this book blew me away, minus a line about the girl’s bathroom that got a good chuckle out of me, but nothing about this book dissatisfied me, either. The story is just good. Simply good. But I do wish that I could say this story was awesome, but it has faults in its simplicity. There’s nothing original or noteworthy in this book which really disappointed me. But aside from that, not much bothered me besides an entire chapter of filler and the wack ass final page. Overall, 7.5/10, rounded to a surprising four stars. Nothing truly bad, but I’m a good bit underwhelmed.

[Austin Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm getting the idea that these Shivers books just aren't any good... the writing is dull, the stories are uninspired and lack any sort of logic, and the characters are somehow even more thin and one-dimensional than Goosebumps characters. How that's possible I don't even know.
Yet, I managed to finish this book so, it's not complete garbo... I've read worse middle grade horror stuff.

[Ahmed Gohary · Rating 3 out of 5]

تيمي الصغير الذي تمني امنية من العرافة غيرت حياتة

القصة لطيفة وتنتهي نهاية مفاجأة ، القصة تشبة فيلم بيج لتوم هانكس الي حد ما
واعتقد اني قرأتها من قبل لكن لا اتذكر اي نسخة كانت هل كانت نسخة المؤسسة ام النسخة الاجنبية

ترجمة عصمت ممتازة كالعادة

[Amanda Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple “be careful what you wish for” story. Overall a fun and quick read. I thought the ending was a nice surprise

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow this is the first book on the series to not have a happy ending!

I found the trouble he got into with his super strength to be hysterical. Oh no he hit a softball too hard!

It’s not creepy or spooky just goofy.

Oh and once again it takes exactly 100 pages to reach where the book description says and the last 16 to tidy it up with no problems.

[Rizwan]

ITS NICE

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drags a bit and the adults in here are dim.