Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011)

An interesting short novel of Jones' which I had not read before. This takes the idea of the unreliable narrator to a new level by starting in the (third person) viewpoint of a character walking down a country lane and unable to remember what has happened apart from a strong sense of there having been a serious accident - and then realising that she no longer has a body. From there the 'ghost' finds her way to a boys' school run by the parents of four young girls and where she has an increasing sense that she is one of them. But apart from the family dog, no one can see or hear her.

Despite the ghost's confusion she gradually learns that the girls, fed up with the gross neglect of their parents - which during the course of the book descends into downright abuse - have hit on the idea that one of them should disappear for a while (staying at a friend's in the area) and they will force the parents to notice and acknowledge that absence.

The ghost decides she must be the missing girl and that she is dead after an accident - but then it transpires that nothing has happened to the fourth girl. And from there develops the complexity of the novel, with its shifts in time and its involvement with the worship of a supposedly imaginary being which has had the undesired effect of stirring up something powerful, ancient and evil ....

The real strength of this book is in the characters of the girls and to a lesser extent of the parents, some of the boys with whom the girls have formed an alliance, and the ghastly cook from whom the girls are forced to "steal" food which has otherwise been denied them. The dynamics between the sisters, their love/hate relationships, and their mutual dependence in adversity is what drives the book forward. I only felt it flagged a bit towards the fairly rushed ending when it flashes forward in time intermittently so that we see how things had turned out and who the 'ghost' really was - and learned how the evil which would catch up with that person had to be averted in the past. But there are some creepy sections and this story is quite dark given the parental abuse. My only real problem is that the way the girls turn out is not quite consistent with their younger selves. So an enjoyable read but not quite a 4 star for me.… (mais)

I didn't recall a great deal about this book as this was a re-read after a long interval. It concerns a family of children, who have always been a bit "different" from the others in their village. Their mother died some years before (or at least that is what they believe) and their father plays only a minor role in the story since he and the eldest son, Gull, are drafted into the King's army to fight a war against invaders called the Heathern. Unfortunately, only Gull returns, suffering from what we would call PTSD. Meanwhile, the resemblance of the fair-haired children to the invaders has now become known, and the villagers are whipped up against them by the unpleasant headman. This necessitates a hasty departure downriver in their boat, at a time when the river is undergoing a flood, and as the story develops it becomes clear that the flood is an attack by a malevolent wizard who is part of the Heathern forces, but has his own agenda.

The story is a first person narrative told by the younger daughter, Tanaqui, who is actually weaving it into a coat. The part played by weaving as a form of magic and the mythical beings known as the Undying, who have taken the form of three household gods or idols that the children carry into exile with them, is quite fascinating. The main characters are all delineated, although the elder daughter Robin is rather a feeble person, and Tanaqui is quite often annoyed with her especially when Robin is ill. Gull has a quite minor part to play, other than his role in drawing them further towards the sea where the wizard awaits, but Hern and Mallard (known as Duck) are quite interesting characters and the family dynamic between them and their sisters is well developed.

The relationship between the Undying isn't always clear and the ending of the main story is quite abrupt, leaving the subsequent fate of the characters open to interpretation, but at least a couple must have survived to become the legendary figures they are identified with in the post script material. For that reason, I rate this as a 4 star read but very enjoyable despite the slight niggles.… (mais)

This is the second in the Dalemark quartet, and is set in the same timeframe roughly as 'Cart and Cwidder' but from the point of view of children actually brought up in the repressive southern Dales rather than the outsider minstrel children of the first volume.

Alhammitt, or Mitt as he is always known, starts off as a happy child with parents who are always laughing although life isn't easy on the farm. However, the animosity of a rent collector ends all that, with their father forced to look for work in the port of Holand and Mitt and his mother having to follow when they are evicted from their home. The parents soon turn to quarrelling, especially as Milda, Mitt's mother, is a feckless dreamer who often spends their money on trinkets or new shoes. Mitt's father joins a subversive organisation - of which there are many due to the tyranny of the Earls - and one night the group starts a fire at the docks. Mitt's father doesn't return and Mitt and his mother subsequently blame his comrades in the society for betraying him to the authorities.

Milda eggs Mitt on to get revenge and his life becomes dedicated to getting close to these men, by becoming a worker on the fishing boat one owns, and later by working for Milda's second husband, a renowned gunsmith, and trying to steal gunpowder. The revolutionaries have decided to create a bomb to kill the Earl of Holand at the annual festival where effigies are thrown into the sea of 'Old Ammet' and 'Libby Beer', characters who later become far more significant in the story. Mitt has his own agenda - to kill the Earl but let himself be captured so that he can put the blame onto his father's fellow revolutionaries.

A parallel story is that of brother and sister Hildrida and Ynen who live at the palace, the children of the Earl's youngest son. Despite the luxury of their surroundings, they have very proscribed lives. The events at the festival bring both them and Mitt into collision and ultimately a hardwon understanding.

As with a lot of DWJ's fiction, a great deal of the story revolves around the characters, and grows out of their characters. People have to rub along and learn tolerance and acceptance of others. Parents are not perfect and often let children down. Mitt is quite a frustrating character to follow because he is headstrong and his own worst enemy for a lot of the book. And some people probably won't like the 'deus ex machina' element in this story which was not present in 'Cart and Cwidder', but it is still a good page turning read with a really surprising twist.… (mais)

Hayley is a child who has been sent away to an aunt's in Ireland in disgrace by her very strict grandmother and more tolerant but busy grandfather, although she is not really clear why. The reason gradually becomes clear, but meanwhile Hayley is immersed in a, to her, bewildering new existence, as a lot more of the family have come to stay with her aunt for an annual reunion. And as part of that, they play a strange Game which is a scavenger hunt with a difference: each child is set the task of retrieving a mythological/fairy tale/folk tale/fictional object by travelling through a network referred to as the mythosphere. Hayley has learned from her grandfather about this energy field/network, generated by all the stories on Earth and continually changing as new stories emerge and old ones fall into disuse. In the course of her stay at her aunt's house and her participation in the Game, she learns surprising things about her family and the parents whom she thought were dead.

This is a short book - my edition had large print with gaps between the lines and the last 20 or so pages were taken up with an author's note on the characters and some more character notes (a lot of the characters are based on divine/semi-divine beings in Greek/Roman mythology), a quiz and a few other things, so the book ended sooner than anticipated. It is a very quick read; a romp that goes from one bit of action to another with lots of characters being name checked. I didn't find any of them well realised including Hayley, who mainly does things under the guidance of others although she is eventually instrumental in the slightly too convenient finale.

Although the story comes across as meant for younger children, there is some content which is older than that - at one point Hayley meets the Maeneds who, true to mythology, have torn a man to bits and are parading his head around while they cavort in a drunken state, covered in blood. So the book does rather fall between stools as far as its age group is concerned. Anyway, because I didn't love it as much as other DWJ stories, I rate it at 3 stars.… (mais)