A review by mysimas
Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

A cozy fantasy adventure most of the time, but at some points it gets distinctly unpleasant with its fatphobia and general disrespect for women. In a scene towards the end where a man demands a princess’s hand in marriage in exchange for doing the right thing and helping her, the princess is bloody grateful because she thinks she is too ugly for any man to be interested in her. What the actual hell?? (The whole scene was actually terrible, the princesses treated like cattle.) And the way the fat nieces of Abdullah’s relatives were treated was simply disgusting. Also the main romance was a bit flimsy too, Abdullah barely interacted with his love interest and seemed more infatuated with his idea of her rather than with her as an actual person as he could hardly know her — but I’m willing to forgive this as it is a common set-up in fairy-tales, and this story after-all builds on fairy-tales.

I guess I’m still willing to give this three stars because the whole concept of a cloud castle was beautiful, the writing was good, I did enjoy the slight similarities to Bartimaeus with the djinn themes, and most of the story was nice and feel-good, though never as inspired as the first book. But I really am disappointed that a woman author would ever write women like this…
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