John Stephen's middle-grade book series The Books of Beginning follows three young siblings; Kate, Michael and Emma. When they were all very small, their parents disappear and they are moved from one orphanage after another. Finally, they end up at a mysteriously empty orphanage in the mysterious town of Cambridge Falls. There they meet Dr Stanislaus Pym, and soon the kids are taken away and forced to confront a terrible evil from the past.
Although a middle-grade series, the books become darker as they progress and even provides us with a horrifying plot-twist in the second novel.
In every sibling gets to narrate in every book, each of the books are focused on the narrative of one of the siblings, starting with the oldest; Kate in Emerald Atlas, Michael in The Fire Chronicler and Emma in The Black Reckoning.
This book provides examples of:
- Big Bad: The Countess is the main antagonist of The Emerald Atlas, while her boss the Dire Magnus is the main villain of the series as a whole.
- Death of a Child: Taken to extremes near the end of The Emerald Atlas where it is revealed that the absence of children in modern Cambridge Falls is because, in the original timeline, the Countess murdered them all. Fortunately, this outcome is averted by her defeat in the past.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: The Countess is a beautiful woman, apparently at the end of her teen years. She is, in fact, an utterly monstrous sociopath who doesn't flinch at enslaving an entire town, threatening the lives of its children, and trying to make good on that threat.
- Missing Child: Several examples. Except for the obvious example of the parents being forced to leave their small and infant children who are being hunted, the kids often find themselves in dangerous situations, and worse, are separated from each other. A Lot.
- Mooks: The function of the undead Screamers, who work for the Dire Magnus and his forces.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The first book eventually becomes this type of plot.
