Diana Wynne Jones

Charmed Life (The Chrestomanci)

A bewitching comic fantasy by a master of the supernatural Cat doesn't mind living in the shadow of his sister, Gwendolen, the most promising young witch ever seen on Coven Street. But trouble starts brewing the moment the two orphans are summoned to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.

Charmed Life

Sarah Sammis

Christine

Glorious new rejacket of a Diana Wynne Jones classic award-winning favourite, featuring Chrestomanci - now a book with extra bits! 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 is not what either of them expects and sparks begin to fly! Winner of the Guardian Award.

Ed Kay

I didn't get this book at all. Winner of awards, recommended profusely online and described as "subtle, funny and smart" by no less than Neil Gaiman... I found it tiresome, bland and rather vacuous. There are nice touches - Gwendolyn making the stained glass windows come to life, for one - but everything feels rather sketchy and unplanned. Things happen for no reason to partly drawn characters without any sense of narrative drive. It's wishy washy.

I should add I bought this for my nephew and thought I'd dip into some non-Rowling children's fiction before I gave it to him. Maybe I'm too old and it's something that grabs you when you're young, but to be honest I'm not sure I want to give it to him now, I'm not sure he'll thank me for it!

Glorious new rejacket of a Diana Wynne Jones classic award-winning favourite, featuring Chrestomanci – now a book with extra bits!

Charmed Life (The Chrestomanci Series, Book 1)

Dmitry Dudov

This might still be fun as a children book, but it’s rather upsettingly outdated now. The fact most plot would’ve been solved by a 2-minute conversation, the hopeless classism (the poor are unruly and bad, the rich people living in the castle are good, wow), the corporal punishment applied to children as a matter of course… Makes the book rather off-putting.

Toad

Though it's meant for children, it doesn't read like a children's book and was both engaging and thought provoking when first read as an adult. 

Charmed Life (The Chrestomanci)

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