Pure Dead Wicked is the third wildly inventive and darkly humorous installment in the Pure Dead series, which chronicles the chaotic and utterly dysfunctional lives of the Strega-Borgia family, an aristocratic clan of witches, wizards, and supernatural beings who live in the eccentric castle of StregaSchloss. The story begins with a truly catastrophic event: the family's magical and essential computer, the Borgia's Book of Spells, has been stolen, and its disappearance is causing all manner of magical mayhem to erupt across the castle and the surrounding village. Simultaneously, the family must deal with the arrival of a seemingly perfect—and therefore deeply suspicious—new nanny, and the continued, nefarious plots of their arch-nemesis, the wicked and determined Aunt Hemlock. The children—Titus, Pandora, and the younger two—must band together, using their questionable magical skills and often-muddled logic, to recover the book and thwart the threats to their bizarre family. Gliori's writing is characterized by its manic energy, creative wordplay, and a Gothic-lite sensibility that makes the dark comedy shine. It is a hilarious, over-the-top adventure that celebrates the joy of being truly, magnificently different and delightfully wicked.
