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.
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