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A review by lizshayne
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I have read this book so many times as a child; less recently as an adult as I've taken up reading all the things for fun and profit.
And I've always loved it. Diana Wynne Jones ruined me very early on for most other authors doing "magic in the real world" books because she's just so INTERESTING in a way that so few authors consistently managed.
Also the way she's so elegant with descriptions. Her characters never use comparisons beyond what they have access to, and yet everything is delineated so clearly. And the way that bleached/washed out is both a description of the experience of shame, but also the description of being taken over by another person. Literally everything about it is exquisite.
I've loved this book in so many ways - for the plot, for the relationship, for introducing me to Tam Lin - but this is the first time I've read it as a parent.
Holy hell, DWJ is brutal when it comes to parents in her books. I'd forgotten that, reading it as a child. The worst part is that she never exaggerates - the simple selfishness of every single one of the adults is the least fantastic part of the books. It also sets up an interesting parallel between Tom and Polly, both needing to claw their own way out of very different but equally vampiric families. It's practice for Polly, but you can't help but wonder if Laurel comes out looking better than Ivy (and noticing, of course, the name parallels and Reg=King.) Polly can do what she does because she's done it.
This book is so crunchy in all the best ways and finding all these new ways of seeing it is a delight.
Still actively swearing at the ending, though. And I suppose I always will.
And I've always loved it. Diana Wynne Jones ruined me very early on for most other authors doing "magic in the real world" books because she's just so INTERESTING in a way that so few authors consistently managed.
Also the way she's so elegant with descriptions. Her characters never use comparisons beyond what they have access to, and yet everything is delineated so clearly. And the way that bleached/washed out is both a description of the experience of shame, but also the description of being taken over by another person. Literally everything about it is exquisite.
I've loved this book in so many ways - for the plot, for the relationship, for introducing me to Tam Lin - but this is the first time I've read it as a parent.
Holy hell, DWJ is brutal when it comes to parents in her books. I'd forgotten that, reading it as a child. The worst part is that she never exaggerates - the simple selfishness of every single one of the adults is the least fantastic part of the books. It also sets up an interesting parallel between Tom and Polly, both needing to claw their own way out of very different but equally vampiric families. It's practice for Polly, but you can't help but wonder if Laurel comes out looking better than Ivy (and noticing, of course, the name parallels and Reg=King.) Polly can do what she does because she's done it.
This book is so crunchy in all the best ways and finding all these new ways of seeing it is a delight.
Still actively swearing at the ending, though. And I suppose I always will.