A fun read for young fans of fantasy and a nice introduction to the genre for younger readers. It has a male protagonist and magic galore.

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. Unfortunately, I just could not get over the similarities between this story and Harry Potter. I am all for using other’s work as inspiration but this just seems to be a poorly reimagined version of a much loved children’s classic.

Jeremy Cutler is a nice story of self-discovery and to make it more complicated he not only has to discover himself but also his magical past. The main character is oblivious to the world that is hidden to mortal eyes, but despite other characters of other stories, he is happy to be part of it and to learn from it almost immediately. He might be a bit perplex of what is going on but he is always curious and eager to learn.
As most main characters, he is Daredevil and is looking not only for his past but also wants to be a sword kind of hero. Sadly to say, I see some things from other stories like the Old Loved Wizard, the Snakish nemesis, the hang of dark hooted people that are looking to revive his old master. But most of them are regular archetypes.

I like the story enough and believe it has potential to be something big and fantastic.

Jeremy Cutler doesn't understand what is going on with his mom. She doesn't want to bother with Christmas. As time goes by, his mother isn't acting like his mother at all. Why? He escapes to his best friend's home who seems to know more about him than he does. His best friend's father has him going to another world. He meets a wizard who tells him an incredible story. The wizard gives him some unusual training so that he can go to his real home and parents. The wizard tells him that he will stay at a temporary home while he makes arrangements and other errands that need to be done. The wizard has Jeremy go with three new friends to help him travel to Grim Lake. After that, he will take Jeremy to meet his parents.

A fascinating book that has a great mix of dark and light fantasy. The action and adventures held me spellbound. It's been a while since I've read an excellent written fantasy book. With the twists and turns in it, you have at times wonder if Jeremy will survive his adventures.

Because of the too many similarities, I cannot help but think of this book as a Harry Potter wannabe: the magic-gifted child knowing nothing about his gift raised by Worldlings (Muggles); of course there's a prophecy about this boy; his father's friends helping and training him; the Interrails (Hogwarts Express) for passing between worlds; there's Harkkruin (Pettigrew) the servent of Mordin (Valdemort), who tries to bring back his master.

But all these resemblances are not the only problem: throughout the book I struggled to understand the story and to make sense of the different epic threads, as almost everything is new and invented and not explained, lots of mysteries are said to be revelead later, only to being half revealed. Should I add that not even the purpose of the Torch from the title wasn't revelead?
Oh, I almost forgot, there were also giant eagles to save the hobbit, arrrgh.. sorry, Jeremy bearer of the torch..

Imho, this was a total mess, and I cannot fathom how a child could understand anything from it..