Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

June 27th, 2008

Charmed Life
Diana Wynne Jones
252 p.

Collins, 2000.
(first published 1977 by Macmillan Children’s Books.)

Back cover blurb:

Welcome to the worlds of Chrestomanci where magic is as common as mathematics - and twice as troublesome in the wrong hands!

Everybody says that Gwendolyn Chant is a gifted witch with astonishing powers, so it suits her enormously when she is taken to live in Chrestomanci Castle. her brother Eric (better known as Cat) is not so keen, for he has no talent for magic at all.

However, life with the great enchanter and his family is not what either of them expects and sparks soon begin to fly…

There’s a badge on my copy of this book proudly saying Hotter than Potter!. I assume Collins added this badge to sell more copies, and seeing as my sister bought this novel eight years ago, I guess it worked. However, if they did it in order to make children actually read the novel, they have failed dramatically. This novel stood in my bookcase for eight years, merely because of that badge. Being a Potter fanatic during the turn of the millenia, I believed anything which claimed to be greater than Harry Potter must be awfully bad, because, obviously, Harry Potter was the best. This was the reasoning of a ten-year-old, mind you.

Admittedly, if it wasn’t Diana Wynne Jones who had written this book, I doubt I’d ever have read it. I have, since getting to know who she is, held in quite high esteem, even though I never have read anything by her before. Although many of my friends have read many of her books, I have never really got around to it. When I, in preparation of the summer, looked through my bookcase, I found this book, placed under W, as it should be. I thought that, seeing as the greatest Potter-era is over, I might as well read some children’s fantasy. Actually, it is here I admit that I in a way prefer children’s fantasy, because they are rarely as pretentious as adult fantasy often is. They are also a lot more fun to read, I think.

So, to begin with, I wasn’t very impressed with the book. I was vaguely interested during the first two chapters, but not much more. After the slow start, however, the book became more and more exciting. I spent a lot of time flailing because I disliked Gwendolyn so, and even more time cooing because I found Chrestomanci so amazing. He was so charming! The last few chapters I read with unbearable excitement. Magic! Gardens! Animals! Stuff! The magic teacher! I can’t really remember his name, but he was pretty awesome as well. This autumn I’ll have to read some more Wynne Jones. Maybe I should read Howl’s Moving Castle, so I can let my family watch the film some time…

Entry Filed under: Children, English, Fantasy, Fiction