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A review by remilauren
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
3.0
House of Many Ways is based in High Norland and revolves around Charmain, a sheltered girl with zero self-preservation skills. Her life is turned upside down when she's forced to look after her Great Uncle William's magical household.
The initial few chapters are dull and annoying, what with Charmain being extremely clueless and messing things up. Then comes along Peter and it gets even more irritable with these two kids trying to butt their heads into some kind of nonsense.
Only when Charmain goes to the Royal Mansion to help with the Library that things get interesting. Now that's because our dear Wizard has decided to grace us with his presence. Being his dramatic self, he appears as a lovely child named Twinkle. He's at the Palace along with Sophie, Calcifer and Morgan to help solve the wealth crisis of this country.
We encounter magical creatures, spells, monsters and what not. But the climax is pretty dull and concludes the plot in a very decidedly expected way. I loved that this time Howl and Sophie were in the picture much earlier and that they were active participants in the story. But this reduced Charmain and Peter to simply exist and watch Howl deal with the monsters. These two characters didn't really add any value to the book. Again, if you go into this book hoping for a true sequel to Howl's, you are bound to be disappointed.
The initial few chapters are dull and annoying, what with Charmain being extremely clueless and messing things up. Then comes along Peter and it gets even more irritable with these two kids trying to butt their heads into some kind of nonsense.
Only when Charmain goes to the Royal Mansion to help with the Library that things get interesting. Now that's because our dear Wizard has decided to grace us with his presence. Being his dramatic self, he appears as a lovely child named Twinkle. He's at the Palace along with Sophie, Calcifer and Morgan to help solve the wealth crisis of this country.
We encounter magical creatures, spells, monsters and what not. But the climax is pretty dull and concludes the plot in a very decidedly expected way. I loved that this time Howl and Sophie were in the picture much earlier and that they were active participants in the story. But this reduced Charmain and Peter to simply exist and watch Howl deal with the monsters. These two characters didn't really add any value to the book. Again, if you go into this book hoping for a true sequel to Howl's, you are bound to be disappointed.