Charmed Life By Diana Wynne Jones (4/5)

Once again I have a book by Diana Wynne Jones that leaves me thoroughly impressed by the woman's imagination. (You can read my previous review of a Diana Wynne Jones book HERE) This book follows a young boy nicknamed Cat and his sister after the death of their parents. Cat's sister Gwendolen has the gift of magic and he admires her very much, after the loss of their parents he has nobody to cling to but her. This is the reason that he lets her take the lead on most things and doesn't seem to realise that she isn't really a nice person. Her magic makes her vain and selfish and she cares far more about her own success in the field than her younger brother.

When a fortune teller tells Gwendolen that she is destined for fame and power she arranges for them to be taken away from their carer by the rich and powerful Enchanter, Chrestomanci.
Unfortunately for Gwendolen when she arrives there children are forbidden from using magic without the supervision of their teacher. Gwendolen doesn't take this very well and begins to use magic anyway, resulting in punishment. This causes her to misbehave more than ever and she acts out repeatedly, causing mayhem for the entire household, trees crowd around the building, the house is in perpetual darkness, all of the food transforms. Some of the things she does even frighten her younger brother, but she would never stop for his benefit.

Eventually Gwendolen gets fed up with the tight controls of the house and runs away to another world, finding a doppelgänger from a parallel world to fill in her place. Her lookalike is friendlier than Gwendolen and yet finds herself being punished and disliked by the majority of the household, who understandably still believe her to be Gwendolen.

The conclusion of the book leads Cat to find out a secret about himself and the true nature of his sister. I won't reveal the exact details in this review as it surprised me in some ways, so I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. It was the kind of revelation that turns a book on its head and makes you flick back through the story in order to see if you could have seen this from the beginning. For this reason I would recommend it to anyone, particularly fans of any of Diana Wynne Jones' other works.

This is the first book that I read by Diana Wynne Jones since learning of her tragic passing. The back of this version had a few interviews with her, where she discussed things like which characters she would like to meet in real life and how her travelling was usually jinxed. It was quite strange to listen to her fascinating opinions and imagination after her demise, and yet it made me realise how much she has truly left behind for the children of future generations. They have these wonderful fantasy books to dive into, different worlds they can wander into whenever they want to escape from reality, and isn't that one of the best things you can give someone? The world has truly lost one of its greatest imaginations, but at least it still has these wonderful books to experience for as long as they are needed.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets By J K Rowling (5/5)

This was the 12th time that I've read this book and somehow every time I read it I am surprised by how dark it is. I seem to always think that the first books of the Harry Potter series are a lot softer and gentler than they actually are. (Read my review of the first book HERE) I think most of this is due to the feeling of fear and vulnerability that runs through the story, caused by the monster that lives inside the Chamber of Secrets. The Basilisk is a dark creature indeed and from the first moment Harry hears its voice when nobody else can, saying “let me rip you... let me tear you,” the tone for this book is set. When the students begin to be attacked the fear and hysteria that ripples amongst the children makes for a great read, even the teachers are powerless to prevent more attacks when they have no idea who is responsible. It is this dark feeling and tense atmosphere that I believe made this book my favourite when I was quite a bit younger. Scenes where it is explained that Ginny Weasley was influenced to strangle the school roosters by the Heir of Slytherin or where Harry finds her in a near death state having the life drained from her in the chamber, are other reasons why this book is particularly dark.

This book isn't just dark though it contains some of my all time favourite moments, the best of which is the monumental, immature fight between Mr Malfoy and Mr Weasley in Flourish & Blotts. They are basically scrapping, causing books to go everywhere with the twins hooting support and because of the nature of this fight this scene has remained one of my favourites for over 10 years. (Yikes that makes me feel old! :P) Another favourite moment of mine was the reaction of Mr and Mrs Weasley when finding out that Ron, Fred and George had flown Mr Weasley's enchanted car to go and rescue Harry from near imprisonment at The Dursleys. Mrs Weasley's righteous anger is wonderfully contrasted by Mr Weasley's immediate eager response of “Did you really? Did it go alright?” In fact any scene that contained the flying Ford Anglia was a great one to read, from Harry and Ron crashing into a tree that would hit them back, to the car saving them from a cluster of giant spiders with a taste for flesh.

The introduction of the character of Dobby was great. His constant attempts to save Harry's life by almost causing his death are very entertaining and he provides a very bizarre form of comic relief to the books. Professor Lockhart is another wonderful new character to this series and his vapid self obsession and vanity is another aspect of the book that is very amusing. He is the opposite to Harry in some ways. Harry is extremely famous for something he had no control over and wishes to be left alone, whereas Lockhart has grabbed at his fame greedily and loves any opportunity to show off. The scenes between him and Harry are very funny moments in Harry's school year.

The final fight between Harry and Tom Riddle/The Basilisk at the end of the book is perhaps one of my favourite confrontations of the series. It is simple and yet tense. It provides a very different aspect of Lord Voldemort to the series and Harry running from a giant monstrous snake is quite the page turner!

I can understand why when I was younger this book was my favourite out of the first three in this series. The darkness that permeates the tome is well balanced by comedic moments from new characters, and even on the 12th read I enjoyed it very much. I would suggest reading it to anyone, along with the rest of the series! (And in fact do often suggest reading it to everyone!)