Fantastical Beasts... Review

A review of the book Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them. Spoiler alert!!!!

Love, love, love this! Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is a fantastical read, with twists and turns at every angle. The wizarding world of New York in the early 1900s is a wonderfully delightful mix of oppression and secrecy. It's the ultimate secret society, complete with it's own defector.

The story starts as Grindlewald attacks Muggles or No-Maj's across the globe. Grindlewald has disappeared and the worldwide wizarding world is looking for him. Attacks in New York have started, creating panic of exposure in the Wizarding World.

Newt enters New York with a case of full of magical creatures, cleverly tricking customs with his Muggle-worthy switch, and as you might have guessed, immediately has an escapee on his hands. Newt wanders New York, ending up at a bank, where his creature escapes, chasing after shiny objects. Here Newt runs into Jacob, an entrepreneur who wants to open a bakery and Tina, a wizard who works for the Alurers, investigators of magical exposure. Here Jacob is exposed to magic, in the form of an egg hatching another one of Newt's creatures. Shenanigans ensue and just before Newt can Obliviate Jacob, Jacob takes off unwittingly with Newt's suitcase of fantastical creatures.

Tina catches these shenanigans and heads to the MACUSA, the agency that polices the magic in the US. There she bursts in on the Madam President, whom dismisses her without a second thought. Newt is taken to the liscensing office for wands and there he narrowly misses exposure, but discovers that his suitcase has been switched with Jacob's.

Meanwhile Jacob has opened the suitcase, and several creatures have escaped into New York. One attacks Jacob, biting him on the neck and creating an allergic type reaction. Newt and Tina hurry to find the No-Maj that is Jacob, and find him unconscious in his room. The creature that attacked him, flies at Tina and quickly exposes that Newt's lost some of his magical creatures.

In an effort to save face, and return the creatures to the case, Tina takes Newt and Jacob to her place, where they meet her mind reading sister Queenie. Jacob is feeling the effects of the bite and requires medical attention that only Newt can provide. The sisters Tina and Queenie magick dinner for the two guys and eventually, to Newt's relief, they let them sleep.

As soon as the girls are out of the picture, Newt disappears into his suitcase, beckoning Jacob along. There he gives Jacob treatment for his bite and introduces him to his magical zoo. Rare, magical creatures are everywhere, in their own types of habitats and Newt discovers which ones are missing. He enlists Jacob's help to retrieve them.

After breaking in to a Jewelry store and destroying a zoo, the pair end up capturing two of the creatures. They disappear back into the suitcase, and Tina takes this opportunity to seize them and returns to the MACUSA. However, things turn sour when instead of thanking her, the Madame President arrests her for aiding and abetting, along with Jacob and Newt.

A misunderstanding which seems purposefully intended occurs in the interrogation room and Tina and Newt are sent to be executed. In the execution room, Tina is led to a chair floating over a potion and her happy memories are expelled into the pool, turning her into a willing executionee. Meanwhile, Newt's favorite creature named Pickett slowly travels down his suit to pick the lock of the handcuffs holding Newt. Once free, Newt disables the Executioners and then saves Tina from the potion pond. It is during this exchange that Tina starts to trust Newt.

Realizing that Newt is the scapegoat for the horrible goings on in New York, Tina promises to help him get his creatures back, luckily only one more remains free. Newt and Tina, Jacob and Queenie escape the MACUSA and hurry to capture the creature before more damage is done. What's really lurking in the streets of New York is an Obscurial, a young witch or wizard whose suppressed their powers from birth to fit in. No one in the MACUSA believes this is the case, except of course, for Graves, who is somewhat of an enigma.

After retrieving the last TWO creatures, apparently Newt missed one, the four go after the Obscurial. They however, are trying to save the child, not destroy the child like the MACUSA.

Graves finds the child, the obscurus, and ends up setting it on a dangerous path of destruction. The child, whose is a lot older than previously thought, ends up turning into a dark dangerous uncontrollable destructible magic that ravages the city of New York before finally diving into the subway. There Newt find the child, a boy named Credence, a mass of anger and betrayal. Talking to him, he manages to get him to calm down and morph back into a boy, however, Graves enters the scene and because of a backstory between the two, recreates Credence back into the Obscurus by attacking Newt relentlessly. The Alurers and the Madam President have arrived and are ascending the stairs as this occurs. The Alurers immediately start pelting the Obscurus with magic spells, trying to destroy it. Graves angers and attacks the Alurers. This turns into a battle, which slows down once Tina cries for Credence to stop. The Alurers take advantage and destroy the Obscurus.

Graves advances on them, yelling that they have no idea what they've done, and starts to attack. It seems as if he will get the upper hand too, until Newt releases one of his creatures to block the spells and then takes his own wand and ties Graves up. Suspecting Graves is not who he says he is, Newt performs a spell to reveal the true nature of Graves. Grindlewald appears. They apprehend Grindlewald and then are confronted with the exposure of the wizarding world. Newt presents a solution that Oblitevates the entire city of New York, setting Frank, one of his creatures, a Thunderbird, free in the process. The Alurers restore New York to its former glory,

Madam President orders the Obliverate of Jacob and then allows the three to say goodbye. Jacob is obliverated and the there wizards disappear. A couple days later, Jacob is leaving his factory job and bumps into Newt, who exchanges his suitcase with Jacob's, leaving behind a precious amount of eggs that he then uses to fund his bakery.

Newt leaves New York, after an awkward and tearful goodbye with Tina, who's gotten her job as investigator back. They say see you soon, and part.

Jacob, in his bakery, three months later is successful. His pieces of pastry are made into fantastical creatures that we recognize from Newt's suitcase. In the end, Queenie shows up and Jacob remembers.

This book was exciting and dramatic with a slightly dark twist. I love the role of Credence and how the whole thing focuses on Newt, instead of finding the real problem. MACUSA is like the Senate of the Wizarding world and it's corruption is displayed in the form of Graves and even the Madam President. Still, a read I would recommend to anyone!