Fire and Hemlock in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Jun 20, 2008 Mir rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, books, ya, memory

I was disappointed in this when I was 10, but all my friends seem to have loved it so I gave it another try. It makes more sense now, although it is still rather confusing, especially the end. I enjoyed it this time around but it is still not among my favorite or even second-tier favorites of DWJ's books. There were just too many elements that didn't work for me. I didn't like Polly that much as a character, even though I thought her depiction was excellent. I liked the parts about reading and w ...more

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May 30, 2022 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, fantasy, 20th-century

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 ...more

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Oct 30, 2024 Tess rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fantasy, teen-young-adult, magical-realism

I don't know how I feel about this. I started not liking it. Then I got caught up in it, then I was a little bored. then I figured out what must have happened and got really interested again. But the whole last Part was very rushed. and I really dislike how DWJ ends her books. Just ends them. No epilogue, no true great final scene.

So... I'm glad I read it but also am not enamored with it. ...more

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