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A review by l_nolastname
House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones
3.0
3/5
This book was cute if a bit rushed. I'm also not sure if my bootleg copy was janky or if the story jumps around in chapters thirteen through fifteen. As I read those chapters I chalked it up to magic!, but after reading chapter sixteen I realized that perhaps my copy was out of order. Regardless it couldn't have happened to a better story since magic! can easily explain away the inconsistencies within the narrative. Any other book and it would have spoiled the story.
This book was the third and final installment to the Howl's Moving Castle Trilogy and by far the shortest book. The previous two books were twenty-one chapters long, and the absence of those five chapters were defiantly felt. Chapter sixteen was nothing more than a long wrap up with a side of bunny murder in front of a toddler; quite uncouth if you ask me.
I think if Diana Wynne-Jones had written five more chapters then not only could we have been shown rather than told of the big reveal, but the dynamic between Chairmain and Peter could have been fleshed out more. Great Uncle William could have returned home, if only for a moment before heading out to the castle. We could have learned more about the Kabbolds and their history. And there would have been more time to hide the easter eggs for the Elfgift not just to hide them better, but to hide them at all!
And since the books are relatively stand alone stories with returning characters, you can skip this one and not be any worse for it.
*Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer appear in this book.
This book was cute if a bit rushed. I'm also not sure if my bootleg copy was janky or if the story jumps around in chapters thirteen through fifteen. As I read those chapters I chalked it up to magic!, but after reading chapter sixteen I realized that perhaps my copy was out of order. Regardless it couldn't have happened to a better story since magic! can easily explain away the inconsistencies within the narrative. Any other book and it would have spoiled the story.
This book was the third and final installment to the Howl's Moving Castle Trilogy and by far the shortest book. The previous two books were twenty-one chapters long, and the absence of those five chapters were defiantly felt. Chapter sixteen was nothing more than a long wrap up with a side of bunny murder in front of a toddler; quite uncouth if you ask me.
I think if Diana Wynne-Jones had written five more chapters then not only could we have been shown rather than told of the big reveal, but the dynamic between Chairmain and Peter could have been fleshed out more. Great Uncle William could have returned home, if only for a moment before heading out to the castle. We could have learned more about the Kabbolds and their history. And there would have been more time to hide the easter eggs for the Elfgift not just to hide them better, but to hide them at all!
And since the books are relatively stand alone stories with returning characters, you can skip this one and not be any worse for it.
*Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer appear in this book.