In the grim town of Westborough, adventure is banned, books are burned, and children are meant to behave. But five misfit kids—Petunia, Percival, Digby, Lucille, and Eustace—stumble upon a mysterious book that opens a portal to another world: a wild, overgrown realm teetering on the brink of ruin.
Swept into the Other, the children must navigate cursed forests, whispering dungeons, and the living maze of the Castle in the Weeds. Armed with nothing but courage, sarcasm, and an ever-hungry stomach, they face weedmen, ancient magic, and their own growing fears.
But this world has a plan for them—and so does the dark warlock Malsham.
Can a group of sarcastic, slightly underprepared kids save two worlds from collapse? Or will they end up just another story swallowed by vines?
A fantasy adventure brimming with humor, heart, and unexpected heroism—The Castle in the Weeds is a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the stubborn hope that even a few misfits can make all the difference.
In the grim town of Westborough, adventure is banned, books are burned, and children are meant to behave. But five misfit kids—Petunia, Percival, Digby, Lucille, and Eustace—stumble upon a mysterious book that opens a portal to another world: a wild, overgrown realm teetering on the brink of ruin.
Swept into the Other, the children must navigate cursed forests, whispering dungeons, and the living maze of the Castle in the Weeds. Armed with nothing but courage, sarcasm, and an ever-hungry stomach, they face weedmen, ancient magic, and their own growing fears.
But this world has a plan for them—and so does the dark warlock Malsham.
Can a group of sarcastic, slightly underprepared kids save two worlds from collapse? Or will they end up just another story swallowed by vines?
A fantasy adventure brimming with humor, heart, and unexpected heroism—The Castle in the Weeds is a tale of friendship, sacrifice, and the stubborn hope that even a few misfits can make all the difference.
The bell hadn’t rung yet, so the five children loitered under the crooked statue of Baron Malsham outside the school gates, pretending not to dread what waited inside.
Petunia picked at the peeling paint on the bench and scowled.
“Yesterday’s adventure was way better than this. That troll fight was glorious. Lucille thanks for that healing potion! Eustace you didn't help at all!’ ”
“I did help. I tossed the firespell that gave Percival the chance to attack.”
“Yeah we shouldnt play in Mrs Sanger’s corn field anymore.” “said Lucille
“That’s what makes it fun, silly,” she snapped.
Percival, who’d spent most of the evening trying to scrub yesterday’s mud from his shoes, sighed. “We weren’t even gone for fifteen minutes. You nearly fell into a compost pit.”
“I was scouting,” she huffed.
Lucille quieted down — just stared at the big iron gates and clutched her lunch tin like it might bite her. She’d packed two sandwiches and one apology note to Ms.Bletchley just in case.
Digby arrived last, dragging a half-eaten biscuit in his pocket and licking something red off his fingers. “You reckon lunch’ll be better today?”
“No,” said everyone.
Above them, Malsham’s stone face scowled like it had been personally insulted. The statue’s plaque read: “Obedience is Order. Order is Compliance.”
“Creeps me out,” Petunia muttered. “I bet he watches us.”
“He does,” said Eustace. “There are spies everywhere. I heard it from Edmund.”
She rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. “Maybe You're a spy?, Eustace.”
“Maybe you're a spy?” he eyed her suspiciously
“No, you're the spy!
“No you are!”
Percival exclaimed softly,”Alright stop you two. No one’s a spy.”
“Anyways as I was saying, What's worse is the fertilizer plant! Always billowing smoke!’
“Alright.. stop. Come on, let’s go to school,” said Percival sighing
“Glory to Baron Malsham..” they said with no enthusiasm.
The bell rang in a sharp, angry clang that echoed through the bland halls of Westborough Academy. It was time for political education class. All around the same young age; The friends sat in different wooden seats in Room 14. Petunia the red haired pirate lover, as the mean boys called her was chewing on her pencil and thinking about… swords. All types of swords. Long ones, dangerous ones, and everything in between.
There would be no adventure in this town, of course. Adventure books were about to be banned under Baron Malsham’s law #66. “Adventurous Thinking Promotes Unstable Minds,” the posters read, each bearing the waxy sneer of the Baron himself.
“Turn to page forty-seven in your Factory Work Reader,” croaked Miss Bletchley, a tower of a woman: broad-shouldered, prim and proper, and a lonely spinster. “Today we will read aloud the Oath to the Fertilizer Plant. We will sing a hymn about Baron Malsham, our great savior, who brought us the plant and provided us with jobs. So that we may rent his houses and shop at his grocery stores. Happy, compliant, and unadventurous! Hmph. Time for the pledge ! Stand up children.” clapped Ms Bletchley.
The children all put their left hand on their hearts.
I pledge allegiance to Baron Malsham.
Of westborough we are from.
For which it stands, one town under control. With liberty and justice for no one.
Everyday of their lives they were forced to pledge to a man they’d never meet or would never know. Who was this person? And why did he want so much control?
They all sat down and fiddled with their belongings getting ready for class
Petunia sighed. The pages of the Political education book were yellow and crinkled from
too many forced readings. She pretended to flip through them, but beneath her desk, her
real treasure waited: a faded
adventure novel titled The Scarlet Dagger, stolen from the trash heap behind the old
library. These types of books were being banned and could get her in trouble. But she
was a pirate through and through,and pirates feared nothing.
Next to her, Percival Whitlock passed a note without looking. It read:
Digby’s got detention again.
Caught drawing a sword in art class.
You look like a plum cake this morning.
Delicious.
Petunia Perrywell smiled, and quickly stashed it in ger frilly pirate shirt.
In the row ahead, Lucille Perrywell tried her best to sit still, her hands tucked beneath her thighs, her lip trembling with the effort of not fidgeting. Her blond hair was combed. Her little shoes were polished. Her satchel was lumpy—probably smuggled muffins from the teacher’s lounge again. A loyal sister to Petunia, but never allowed to be free.
And in the corner by the cracked, sooty window, Eustace Bell sat in his brown bathrobe. He’d never stopped wearing it after one particularly chilly spring day. He claimed it helped him “focus his brain beams,” whatever that meant.
Outside, gray smog blurred the chimneys. The Baron’s fertilizer factory puffed endlessly, lining the skyline like acrid cotton. Across the field, the flagpole creaked under the weight of Westborough’s tattered blue-and-brown standard. A giant billboard loomed:
Comply. Produce. Consume.
Several hours later they were in the cafeteria. Lunch in this school was the worst.
The students lined up for synthetic bread slices, boiled beige cubes stamped Nutritional Food Product, and some kind of jello slop. Digby grumbled as his tray jiggled.
“This isn’t lunch,” he whispered. “This is dog food.”
“You’ll eat it,” muttered Miss Bletchley, who had a habit of appearing out of thin air. “And you’ll be grateful the Baron keeps us strong enough to work long hours.”
At their usual bench behind the recycling bins, the gang sat in a loose huddle. Petunia peeled off her pirate jacket and leaned back, pretending she was lounging on the deck of a Spanish galleon she had plundered.
The day was sweltering hot as it was almost time for summer. Now in most worlds, summer is a fun and exciting time, full of laughter and adventures. Not in Westborough it isn't; summer is for working in the factory. The kids had just seven days left of school.
“Got yelled at again,” Digby muttered, stuffing food cubes into a handkerchief for later. “Bletchley said drawing swords is ‘seditious imagery.’ It was a butter knife!”
“Wanna hear something mad?” Lucille said in a low voice. “My mum says they’re shutting down the sweets store next month. Says it’s too ‘unhealthy and happy.’ But the Baron’s building another factory. Artificial butter, now.”
“They’re replacing food with fake food to save on... food?” said Percival.
“Shh!” Eustace held up a hand. “Malsham’s patrol’s coming.”
Two boys in grey blazers walked by—big, square-shouldered brutes. Baron Malsham’s “Youth Compliance Officers,” schoolyard spies really. The tall one was Tuck Jick, who once kicked a stray cat into a storm drain and bragged about it. His shadow, Alvin Plick, always laughed too hard at nothing.
“Wotcha reading there, pirate girl?” Tuck loomed over Petunia.
She slowly closed the book. “Nothing.”
“Didn’t look like anything….” He snatched it. “The Scarlet Dagger. Sounds like contraband. That ain’t approved Harmony Literature. Might give you thoughts about adventuring.”
Alvin bellowed.” No ‘venturin”
“Arr return it back to me,” Petunia said, voice like Blackbeard.
Tuck flipped through the pages. “Ooh, look—fighting. Danger. Royalty……LOVE? A lady with a sword? Don’t tell me you think girls can be heroes, love is a seditious feeling.”
“Give it back!
“And what’re you gonna do, Pirate-Lover? Throw a bread cube at me?”
Digby stood too, arms crossed. Lucille looked like she might cry.
“I’ll tell Miss Bletchley,” Petunia warned.
Tuck grinned. “Go ahead. She’s the one who gave me the book-burning list.”
That landed like a brick. Petunia stepped back.
At last, Tuck shoved the book at her. “Have your stupid dagger story. Won’t help you when the Baron bans stories in seven days.”
Just then, Percival approached with his tray.
“What’s going on here?” he said firmly. “Tuck, you’d better leave my friends alone.”
“Yeah! Leave my sister alone.” said Lucille from behind Percival
“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Star hero himself,” said Tuck. “Come to save the damsel in distress? PSsh..Pathetic. Sounds like adventuring to me. What do you think, Alvin? Why don’t you clobber him and see how brave an adventurer he is?”
“We’ll see who does the clobbering.” said Pecival. Alvin took a swing, but Percival dodged—and the punch landed on Digby’s stomach instead.
“Ooh” that’ll hit ya like a stew pot.” said Digby
“That’s enough, you two!” boomed a familiar voice.
Professor Potts had arrived. He was a rare ally in this schoolyard war. A sympathetic man; he’s a twice removed cousin of Baron Malsham. That might be why he’s not been thrown in jail for sedition. He’s a little chubby, balding and has a big bushy mustache.
“Break it up. Alvin, Tuck, don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Tuck sneered. “We’ll be seeing you. When you’re in irons for sedition. Heh. Come on, Alvin.”
As they left, Potts turned to the group. “Are you children all right? Those boys are worse than Constable Brackfink
Digby groaned. “I’m not fine. Just got punched in the tum tum.”
“I'm fine. those bullies don't scare me!” Lucille said defiantly
“Don’t let those bullies get the better of you,” said Potts, rubbing his aching temple. “Blast it, it’s so hard to breathe in this town… Baron Malsham is a—” he stopped himself.
“Baron Malsham is a what Professor?” groaned Digby holding his tummy.
“Forget I said that,” he said sheepishly, "Finish your lunch and we’ll head back to class.”
The rest of lunch passed in a funk.
“Do you think they’d really ban all adventure books?” Lucille asked. “Even the ones about medieval history?”
“They already did,” said Digby. “If it ain’t got the Harmony Seal, it’s trash.”
Eustace was scribbling in his notebook. “Guys... the dreams are getting stronger. I think something’s trying to contact us.”
“Lucille exclaimed then got quiet, Me too! I saw a sign post that said "Oatbarrow.” We were walking, all five of us. I saw an old man waving to us.”
“Oh, here we go again,” Digby sighed.
“No, I’m serious,” Eustace insisted. “There’s a place. It's green. I keep seeing it—covered in vines and moss in a cemetery. And when I wake up, there’s mud on my shoes.”
Percival nodded. “I thought I heard something yesterday. Like a clock ticking backwards. As if someone altered the world. Then I swear I saw a book open on its own.
They were silent for a moment.
Petunia answered, “I had a dream about a giant tree surrounded by weeds. “ All of us were there too, I don’t know what it means,” Petunia said. “But I think we’re not crazy.”
“No,” Eustace said, closing his notebook. “I think we’re chosen to save Westborough. We just need to find the way.” Behind the smog, the old clock tower struck thirteen.
The Castle In The Weeds by M.w Morganson is a somewhat typical but also somewhat odd tale of growing up. It follows a group of five friends in the small town of Westborough where everything is ruled by Baron Malsham and his fertilizer factory. A place where everything fun and adventurous is outlawed. Having received a magical book for guidance the group of friends must work to defeat Baron Malsham and his army of weeds to reclaim their town.
This book was definitely interesting in that I was not expecting for the enemy to have an army of weeds. That really caught my attention as it was rather new for me, I don’t think I have ever seen that element before in literature. However, that seemed to be one of the only unique elements that were present as a lot of the rest seemed similar to things I have seen before. The characters have to go rescue their town from an evil ruler and they seem to be the only ones capable of doing so. They have to go on this long and drawn out journey with random and unexpected perils and many things they have to do along the way in order to win. Don’t get me wrong, the story was good but the format of the plot line seemed familiar even if the specifics were new. The only thing I did not like about the story was how there seemed to be lack of continuity at times. Sometimes it seemed to imply a longer length of time had passed before then contradicting that same time frame. It frequently miscounted how many characters were in the group of friends as well. Neither of these were big issues but I did find it mildly confusing at times. Overall, a good book that gets three out of five stars from me.
I would consider this to be a young adult fantasy novel so if you happen to enjoy fantasy and fall in that age range than I suggest you consider trying this book out. However, I am not sure how well it would appeal to readers outside of that age range or for readers who don’t enjoy fantasy. It is a good book and worth the read so I hope you consider it anyway.