At this point in the story, you really like Cat.  He’s a nice kid and doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to his sister’s obvious talents.  Gwendolen annoyed me greatly.  She acts like a spoiled brat, someone who deserves to be treated better because of her gift.  Cat on the other hand is grateful just to have a bed in Mr. Chrestomanci’s beautiful castle.  They both, however, notice that there is something strange about the castle.

Gwendolen becomes increasingly frustrated that she is not being taught ‘proper’ magic and instead ‘regular studies’.  She beings a series of increasingly magical pranks to try and gain attention from Mr. Chrestomanci.  This includes moving all the trees to surround the castle, playing pranks at church and turning a housemaid into a frog.  Eventually, Chrestomanci has had enough and removes Gwendolen’s witchcraft from her.

Gwendolen finally gets so fed up that she searched out dragon’s blood, a forbidden substance and drags Cat along with her.  One day soon after Cat wakes up to find that Gwendolen is not actually Gwendolen, but a double from another world named Janet.

Janet is instantly more likeable than Gwendolen and treats Cat like a brother rather than a slave.  They decide that they must keep Gwendolen’s switch a secret until they can figure out a way to make things right.

They are tracked down from characters from Gwendolen and Cat’s past including Mr. Balsam, who sells them the dragon’s blood, Mr. Nostrum, who was Gwendolen’s former witchcraft teacher and finally Mrs. Sharp, who used to take care of them.

While it was clear Mr. Balsam and Mr. Nostrum were up to no good, Mrs. Sharps visit seemed out of true concern and genuine care for Cat.  Janet, pretending to be Gwendolen, tried to extrapolate more from Mr. Nostrum’s plan.  The most that the children could get was that there was a plan to bring down Chrestomanci and enhance their own powers.  Mrs. Sharp warns Cat to not go along with the plan.

Here is where I get lost…and this happens to me in some stories I read.  If they know of this great plan to destroy and cause great harm, why don’t they go and tell someone who can actually help??  I guess it wouldn’t make for as good of a story.  I suppose it’s like in a horror movie where you are screaming at the tv, “NO, whatever you do DON’T go up the stairs!”

Long story short, with the help of Janet, Cat discovers that he actually has 9 lives like a cat. Amongst Gwen’s belongings they find a matchbook with 4 unburned matches and 5 charred ones.  Trying to prove it to Cat, Janet strikes one of the matches and subsequentially turns Cat into a ball of flames.  Janet, who had suspected Chrestomanci was and enchanter all along, does the only thing she can think of, call his name so he will appear.

Of course he was there in an instant and has realized what has happened.  They put Cat out and Chrestomanci explains that he, like Cat was born with 9 lives.  To his knowledge they were the only two alive.  They gained the nine lives by a fluke in which their alternate selves never formed in the other worlds.  Cat learns that he too is an enchanter.

For some reason Janet and Cat still decide to steal some dragon’s blood and go to the magic garden and try to switch Janet back to her world.  Maybe I’m just a chicken, but I would have told someone else a long time ago.

They make it to the garden with the stolen dragon’s blood and sprinkle it in thearch in the garden.  There they see the real Gwendolen, living as a queen.  Unfortunately, she notices them as well.  Mr. Nostrum and the other witches and warlocks and various necromancers turn up to invoke their plan.  Chrestomanci is summoned and chained to a tree with silver, his one weakness (think kryptonite).  He is powerless.

Cat finds out with great horror that his sister has been using him all of these years.  It was he who had all of the powers and she was sucking them out of him.  She placed the charm that stuck his nine lives in the matchbook and she herself had used several of his lives for her own benefit. Even worse, she has agreed to allow them to kill Cat to allow their evil plan to work.

Cat is devastated.  Everything he knew and trusted is wrong.  His sister used him.  Chrestomanci convinces Cat that his power is so great he can get out of this situation.  He guides him through an escape.  The others of the family are summoned as they are much stronger as a group.  It becomes a good vs evil battle with the Chrestomanci group on one side and the other witches and warlocks on the other.  The Chrestomanci children Julia and Rodger could not fetch their mother Milly.  They needed her to win the battle.  Cat finally realized what was blocking them.  It was Gwendolen, stealing his powers again.  He figured out how to take his magic back.

Chrestomanci uses the remainder of the dragon’s blood Cat stole to spread as powder against the opposing crowd.  The result is the stripping of all of their powers.

Gwendolen would not give up as easily.  She escaped into the archway of the other world and sealed herself there.  This left Janet stuck in the world of Cat and Chrestomanci.  She missed her family terribly, but had read the diary of her replacement in her world.  She was an orphan named Romilllia, who had been very unhappy in her own world and was delighted to have a family again.  Selflessly Janet decided to leave Romillia there and comes back to be with Cat.

The secret of the letters between Chrestomanci and Cat’s father was finally revealed.  Frank Chant knew hid daughter was a witch and was somehow using her younger brother in some way.

Chrestomanci makes arrangements for Cat to begin studying Advanced Theory with him and to begin training him to be the next Chrestomanci.

Now, if I compare this with Harry Potter, I prefer Harry Potter every time.  I did however like the storyline, and other than wanting to slap Gwendolen around a bit and smack some sense into Cat, it was a good read.  I will be reading the next book in the series….eventually.  There is a long list of books ahead of it!  I give this book a B+.