A long-winded Confession.

I must admit something, and I must do it now.

I’ve been on a Diana Wynne Jones spree. 

It’s true. 

I’m slightly ashamed. And it’s not over yet.

It’s been so long, so long, since a book made me laugh or cry like a maniac (sometimes both at the same time). What can I say, when I’m bowled over like this? Absolutely nothing. But I can type a whole lot.

Let’s see. It started with:

1. Charmed Life: When I fell in love with Cat and hated Gwendolen and was thankful for Janet and didn’t know quite what to make of Christopher and Millie.

You know what, I happen to be wrong. I read another, but separately, and sometime before the fever really caught me properly. I suppose it won’t hurt to do what that old robot did in Asimov and create the Zeroth Law(or Zeroth book, I suppose):

0. Witch Week: This was Before Cat, of course, and I found the children in this book most unpleasant and Chrestomanci most odd. But I read it through, and the end gave me that feeling of exultation and pleasure that’s been missing in most of the books I’ve been reading intellectually recently.

Anyway, after Charmed Life there was no looking back for the Chrestomanci series. I managed to read in some sort of order:

2. The Lives of Christopher Chant: I want to write more about this book, but there’s this massive lump in my throat that prevents me from doing so. All I can say is, I got really attached to Christopher, and can’t believe Ms. Wynne Jones didn’t write any more about him-- I could cry when I realised--

3. Conrad’s Fate: had him playing a major role, at 15, and sort of different, but plugging in the gaps from the end of The Lives of Christopher Chant until we meet him again in Charmed Life. Oh, and at this time, I noticed something about Conrad. I’ll mention it later down the list, because I made a little detour to read--

4. The Magicians of Caprona: And there really wasn’t anything to say. This book would have been better off as a stand-alone, because while I enjoyed reading it, I never did get the point of my hanging around waiting for Christopher to appear/re-appear. But I did like Tonino a lot. And Benvenuto.(Wow, I got the cat’s name right. I haven’t been able to pronounce it yet.)

5. The Pinhoe Egg: This one really rounded off the set for me, wrapping up lots and lots of things neatly, even while introducing new, awesome characters like Marianne. Unfortunately, I feel somewhat that there was so much meshing of Cat and Janet and Marianne and Chrestomanci that the whole lovely brooding atmosphere of what-bad-thing-happens-next that was present in good quantities in Charmed Life and Christopher Chant, or even the amounts of worry at the characters and what would happen to them in Conrad’s Fate and The Magicians of Caprona was kind of off in this book. And here’s my note. ((Spoiler, spoiler)) Does anyone else think there are way too many downtrodden children doing all the work and getting their respective rewards in the form of adults who understand and take care of them at the end of the book? Marianne, Cat(although he’s just too obedient), Conrad, and, a little later in--

6. Dogsbody: Kathleen made me feel like crying, constantly and continuously. So did Sirius, honestly, because he’s such a nice guy dog star-thingy and doesn’t deserve all that trouble and (slight spoiler) that ending. But the book has me mystified for most of it, and crying for the next part. And oh, I just know Kathleen and Miss Smith are going to be alright.

7. Hexwood: For some reason, the way that Ms. Wynne Jones has knit together everything in this book, confusing temporality and making sure to blame the bannus, giving fantastic explanations for everything that was confusing in the beginning of the book and generally playing out a tale of revenge and poetic justice of epic proportions-- um, what was I saying again? Well, it bowled me completely over. It was just ...awesome.

8. Enchanted Glass: Did I mention the annoying way the characters in all these books have of clinging like limpets to your heart so even when the tale is nicely tied up in satin ribbon, you still want it to go on? You don’t mind even if the villain comes swooping back down a year or so later just so that they can go on having adventures and you can go on spying on them while they’re at it.

I must admit that after Andrew and Aidan I felt bold enough to go pick up--

9. Dark Lord of Derkholm: and I really gave up. I couldn’t actually finish, and I figured that there was just something that unsettled me about how human the griffins were. So I left it halfway, and I don’t plan to read its sequel in the near future.

Most recently, I read a book twice, going back to the start immediately after I finished it. This was:

10. Fire and Hemlock: Strangely, both novels ‘for older readers’, Hexwood and Fire and Hemlock made me feel slightly bored at the beginning, when I couldn’t exactly understand what was going on and why it was important: but then they both got really interesting in the middle. And alright, I thought I saw where this book was going when Polly writes that epic of hers at 14, but then I sort of didn’t, and then... and then... everything makes sense now? So, to clarify, I re-read the book because it was awesome and very, very cute and also because I couldn’t understand a word of the ending. The second reading helped me not one bit.

Polly is another one of those put-upon children, but frankly, she takes herself out of it and she does it quite well. I think she’s my favourite character now-- and when I say it, I have to somehow expand the space in my heart to fit in Christopher and Cat and Aidan and Andrew and Benvenuto and Polly and... alright, even Tom, I guess.

11. The Game: Enjoyable. Greek roots. Quite Good.

12. A Tale of Time City: Thoroughly enjoyable. Laughed at myself when I realised how badly I wanted Vivian to be the Time Lady and Jonathan to be her husband. Sad that it’s over now.

13. Wild Robert: A cute tale, but oh, how I wish for romance!(Even though it would just be creepy.)

Well. If you've read till here(which I doubt), know that I haven't, in fact, been screwing up my Mid-Semester exam just to read Diana Wynne Jones novels. I read them all about a week or so ago, and had this written up and decided to publish it on a whim.

Also, the bibliophile in me went *squeeeee* with the Chrestomanci series book covers, because they're awesome. I was lucky enough that the one paperback I picked up, Charmed Life, had one of those awesome covers and not the uncool, non-sparkly ones.

Also also, Enchanted Glass had the most awesome cover ever! No, really. You can see faces in the glass and everything.

Katze