Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Fire and Hemlock

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones

8 reviews

antimony's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

i have absolutely no clue how to rate this book. this isn't an "it was ok" 3 stars this is a "i am so deeply conflicted" 3 stars. i couldn't put it down all evening but i was yelling at the characters the whole time. near the end i had to constantly flip back to the first chapter to figure out how things were connecting. i had to google an explanation of the ending when i finished it but it's clear that it is so intricate as well....

things i liked:
- there is so much in this book. i know there are a thousand layers i did not pick up on and it was intricately crafted together and i really respect that about it
- the writing was very good as well. it was really unputdownable especially the last couple parts. i was so very locked in
- the characters were well-crafted which sounds like such a snobby compliment but bc i didn't really love them i don't know how else to put it...

things i didn't like:
-HELLO WHYY IN THE WORLD DID THEY DECIDE THEY SHOULD TRY TO START A RELATIONSHIP AT THE END. like i can forgive a lot of the stuff at the beginning bc polly is an infatuated kid and some kids just do that and tom clearly is not interested. but after she saves him and they've come to the realization that not only was there the power dynamic of them meeting when she was 10 and he was 20-25

he also has accidentally magically molded her into something that kind of belongs to him because of lorelei's gift about the things he imagines coming true????

i don't like that. i don't think they needed to try and start again. i think they could be great friends and i don't think there's anything wrong with intergenerational friendships. or perhaps if they left it and came back to it when she was like 25 or 30 then i don't care but like actually howw in the world did he watch her grow up and he was almost like a parental figure (i know he was too sporadic in her life to truly be one but like maybe like that relative you only see twice a year?) but ohhh now she's 19 ohhh we can try to have a relationship...ughhh i don't want to be the sort of person who says adults and kids can't be friends or that every age gap is inherently problematic and weird but i think in this case it is. and i get that tam lin is an inherently romantic story to retell and so the tam lin character has to be a certain age so he can romantically belong to the fairy queen at the beginning and dwj wanted the mc to be a kid but like perhaps maybe you just retell a different story....didn't help that until page like 300 when i was looking at goodreads reviews that said he was in his 20s i'd been imagining tom to be in his 30s...

that being said i totally understand why people love this book and i wish i could love it more because i truly did at some points...but i think perhaps if the ending had just gone a little teeny bit differently (polly saves tom and they can stay friends idc but they DON'T decide to start their relationship from a blank romantic slate) i would have enjoyed a lot more

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lazydazey's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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oshaniii's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fire and Hemlock definitely isn't without its issues (the relationship between Polly and Tom and all of the iffiness thereof) but it's nevertheless a great book which I enjoyed reading. The writing is atmospheric, and I enjoyed the slow reveals and intricacies of the plot. For a children's book I thought it did a good job of handling the characters' painful relationships with gender and by extension with each other. And the fairytale elements were heartbreaking and poetic

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kaistephan's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

5.0

I read this as a child, didn't really get it, came back to it in my thirties and it looks completely different. There are so many different threads of narrative and motif and everything is connected to everything else in such intricate ways that it barely makes sense because everything makes too much sense and you're trying to comprehend it all. An absolutely genius piece of literature.

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mysimas's review against another edition

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Doesn’t spark joy. The core relationship between Polly and Mr. Lynn reads like a sleazefest. According to the spoilers this might eventually be addressed (

she gains a sort of independence from him and won’t be as malleable anymore though they might still end up a couple

) but why suffer to get there. Shame, because the writing pulled me right in.

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jfield351's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I first read this a year ago and fell in love with it, i would have given it 5 stars last year. I was also completely at a loss to understand it but I knew it was good. I read it again, starting it yesterday the 29th and finishing today the 30th of Jan, as part of the Dymocks reading challenge for ‘a book that makes you nostalgic’. I was obsessed with this book for months after I read it and would draw hemlock everywhere. So yes it does make me nostalgic of the time where I was in love with this book. The review I originally wrote has been deleted which is a shame, I would have liked to compare it to now. Reading it a second time I probably enjoyed it less (perhaps due to knowing the ending or due to my mental state right now) and i’m still confused about many aspects of it. Time shifts mid sentence sometimes. But it’s beautiful. Diana Wynne Jones is a master writer. The relationship is problematic, but I still love it. It’s one of the times where I can’t concretely give evidence for why I love the book, it’s just the general vibe. It’s such an interesting tale of nine years of a girl growing up, intertwined with the magic that is Mr Lynn, Thomas the Rhymer, Tam Lin.

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theteaisaddictive's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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effectordinary's review against another edition

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Okay, coming back to this, I cannot believe I read 400 pages of this to find out that, yes, the romantic vibes I was picking up between a child and her adult companion who was secretly using her to free her from a fae enchantment were intentional????

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