| The Chestnut King | |
| Author: | N.D. Wilson |
| Illustrator: | Jeff Nentrup |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | 100 Cupboards trilogy |
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| Publisher: | Random House |
| Pub Date: | March 1, 2010 |
| Media Type: | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages: | 483 |
| Isbn: | 978-0-375-83885-9 |
| Preceded By: | Dandelion Fire |
The Chestnut King is a 2010 fantasy novel written by N.D. Wilson. It is the third and final installment to the 100 Cupboards trilogy, and follows 100 Cupboards and Dandelion Fire.[1] Focus on the Family says the book's "readability age range" is 9-12 years old.[1]
When 12-year-old Henry York went to stay with his cousins in Henry, Kansas, he never imagined the trips he'd be taking. The trilogy began in the first book 100 Cupboards, where Henry found 99 cupboards hidden behind his bedroom wall. Each led to a different world. He inadvertently released an imprisoned witch-queen named Nimiane, who is determined to rule the cupboard worlds. Henry fought off Nimiane.
In the second book of the series, Dandelion Fire Henry gets struck by lightning after seeing what he thinks is a dandelion glowing with fire. Bad things begin to happen to him, such as going blind, and the inability open his eyes. They fix the problem by taking Henry to a doctor. Henry finds a portal that he hasn't been to yet and in there is where he meets Franklin Fat Faerie and Monmouth. After almost being tossed into the ocean, he is kept hostage in a castle of faeries. Fat Frank breaks him and Monmouth out but the three run into wizards and fingerlings.
After Henry loses Grandfather's journal, he finds a house and is saved after trying to get in. He collapses, but is taken in by his mother, who tells him all about the family. Henry finds out that he has two sisters, Isa and Una, and two uncles besides Frank Willis, James and Caleb. Henry also finds out that he is the seventh son of Mordecai, which means that he is a green child. A green child is the seventh born child in the family. Each of them has their own mark. Henry's mark is a dandelion, Monmouth's is an Aspen tree, and Mordecai's is a grape. Later, he gets christened after finding out that the green man in his letters is his father. After he gets christened the feast gets interrupted by someone. Henry throws a knife at the person intruding, thinking it is Darius, the person who inflicted a scar on him. This causes the prison holding Mordecai to break. Mordecai is freed after being imprisoned by the faeren.
In The Chestnut King, Henry's Aunt Dotty, Uncle Frank and cousins from Kansas now live in Badon Hill as well. Nimiane continues to stalk Henry. She wants his blood, as it will increase her power. The scar she previously inflicted on his face continues to grow and rot. Henry's father, Mordecai, fears the wound will kill Henry unless they can vanquish the undying witch-queen soon.
Soldiers sent by the emperor of this world demand that Mordecai come with them across the sea. The emperor wants Mordecai to answer to charges that his family helped free Nimiane. Mordecai is more concerned about destroying the witch-queen and saving his son than his defense. He says he will respond to the emperor once he has completed his mission. He leaves for Endor, where Nimiane resides.
In response to Mordecai's disobedience to the emperor, the soldiers capture his family, including Uncle Frank, Henry's mom and his cousins. Then they set fire to the family's house, leaving Henry's cousin Henrietta and grandmother inside. Henry helps his grandmother and Henrietta escape through a cupboard portal that takes them back to Kansas. There, they enlist the help of Henry's baseball buddy, Zeke. Leaving Henry's grandmother with Zeke's mom, the three children travel through the cupboard leading to Endor.
The kids find themselves in a crypt with Nimiane's relative, a shape-shifting creature called Nimroth (the maker of the blackstar). Nimiane has 10 henchmen, whom she controls with her mind. They're called fingerlings because they have fingers attached to the back of their heads. Coradin, the lead fingerling, follows Henry on his journeys through various worlds. Coradin and the fingerlings pursue the children through the underground tombs of Endor until Henry helps Zeke and Henrietta return to the attic in Kansas. Henry returns to Endor, finds his father and Uncle Caleb, gathers old manuscripts that may help them find the witch-queen's secrets and transports the papers back to Kansas.
Back in Badon Hill, Fat Frank — an incompetent fairy who has actually been stripped of his fairyhood — rescues three of the children in Henry's family. A group of fairies locates Frank and takes him and the children to the Chestnut King so Frank can answer for his un-fairylike conduct. Meanwhile, Uncle Frank and the other captured family members find themselves on a rough and unpleasant sea voyage.
Henry finds entry into the fairy world, where he seeks the help of the Chestnut King. The king makes a bargain with him: He will help Henry save his family and vanquish the witch-queen if Henry will take over as Chestnut King. Feeling cornered, Henry agrees. Henry is reunited with the family members that were with Fat Frank. Coradin and the witch-queen's other henchmen capture Uncle Frank's group, forcing Henry to confront Nimiane in her throne room. Henry disables the witch-queen just before she would have destroyed Henry and his loved ones. Instead of becoming the king himself, Henry makes Fat Frank the new Chestnut King.
After receiving his name in the second book, Henry faces the challenge of living up to the destiny given to him along with his name. He also struggles to understand his place as part of his new family. As he forms this new identity as a powerful magic user and a son and brother, he has to reconcile who he used to be with who he has become. This theme is shown powerfully in the climactic final battle with Nimiane, when Henry uses his pitching skills to throw the Blackstar.[6] It is the combination of his magic and his baseball skills learned in Kansas that allows him to succeed, showing the melding of his old and new identities.
Each character demonstrates their own kind of strength, whether it be the Green Men with their plant magic, or the more mundane characters like Henrietta and her family. Henry comes to understand that his strength, represented by his dandelion magic, is based on the ability to put down roots and stubbornly survive whatever is thrown at him. Nimiane has no strength of her own, so she has to steal strength from others, leading to her downfall.
According to Kirkus Reviews, the central conflict that Henry faces is "How do you kill something that cannot die?"[7] From the beginning of the book, Henry is faced with the reality that if he cannot stop Nimiane, he will die. At the same time, he sees death firsthand with the death of his grandmother. He comes to terms with this, only to be faced with the Chestnut King's offer of immortality. His experiences with Nimiane and the other immortal creatures that he meets teach him about the corruption and lack of empathy that come with immortality, leading him to first risk his life to defeat the witch and afterwards reject immortality in favor of a mortal life.