Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Chrestomanci

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Wednesday, June 12, 2024

The Pinhoe Egg (Chrestomanci #6) 4Stars

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Title: The Pinhoe Egg
Series: Chrestomanci #6
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 231
Words: 88K

This is the final Chrestomanci novel, as far as I know. I believe there are some collected short stories, but I will be passing on those. Jones’ story telling ability really goes up and down over this series and it mirrors my experience with the rest of her writings. It’s easy to see why she never became a famous “Go on tv and do interviews for years on end” kind of author. She’s decent and when she hits her stride, she really tells a good story. But there is something that keeps that from consistently happening. So I think I’m done with her as an author now. Ok, on to this particular book.

Once again, I found this quite an enjoyable story. Cat is a great main character and I enjoyed watching him and Marianne (a local witch) begin the growing up process and the self-assuredness that goes with that. My only issue is, and this pretty much applies to the whole series, is that not one adult can be trusted by the children. Chrestomanci is completely trustworthy, but the kids simply don’t trust him because he’s an adult. Even Roald Dahl always had one sympathetic and understanding adult in his stories, even if the children ended up taking care of everything. I really don’t like the message that anyone in authority is to be automatically distrusted. That is a terrible thing to tell children.

Because this was short and Jones really packs things in, it felt like a whirlwind, in a good way. If it wasn’t Cat learning about his own magic, it was Marianne chasing down Nutcase the cat who can walk through walls or Chrestomanci getting trapped by the combined magic of the Pinhoe’s and Farleigh’s or Joe (Marianne’s brother) and Roger Chant working on combining magic and mechanical engineering to create a flying machine. It was fun, crazy and enchanting.

Speaking of Nutcase the cat. All of the Chrestomanci books have showcased a cat, usually ones that are psychically linked to one character or another. That isn’t the case here. Nutcase is just a big tom who goes where he wants, when he wants and eats the same way. He’s a great way to get Marianne running all over the place trying to catch him and he definitely had attitude for the whole book.

I mention this because Mallika is running #ReadingtheMeow2024 this week and this book slips right into that, nice as pie. If you happen to like cats, please check out her Introductory Post from this past Sunday and see all the posts people are including. Apparently, people like cats. Who knew?

★★★★☆

From Fandom.com

Synopsis – Click to Open

The plot revolves around Marianne Pinhoe and Eric “Cat” Chant.

Marianne’s family are witches who mostly live in Ulverscote, 10 miles from Chrestomanci Castle and do not want Chrestomanci finding out about them and preventing them using magic. The book begins with Gammer Pinhoe, Marianne’s grandmother, having a terrific row with the heads of a rival witch family. Afterwards she is unable to speak coherently and the family believes her mind has gone due to old age, though Marianne believes that Gaffer Farleigh cast a spell on her. The family decides to move Gammer into the home of one of her sons and sell Woods House, the family home.

Meanwhile at Chrestomanci Castle Janet and Julia Chant have persuaded Chrestomanci that they must have a horse, whilst Roger Chant gets a new bicycle. Cat isn’t interested in either of these things until he meets the horse, named Syracuse, and discovers that he has a sort of psychic connection with him. As Cat explores the countryside with his new friend he discovers that the roads are bespelled to send him back to the castle, and meets the terrifying Gaffer Farleigh who warns him off.

When Marianne returns to Woods House to look for Gammer’s cat Nutcase she meets Cat as well as Jason and Irene Yeldham who are looking to buy the house. Cat notices that Marianne is easily put down by her relatives so he tells her that she has strong magic. They search for Nutcase in the attics and find a mysterious object to which Cat is strongly drawn. Marianne agrees to let him keep it. Meanwhile, Marianne’s brother Joe, who has been working as a boot boy in the Castle, has made fast friends with Roger and they are trying to invent a flying machine together.

There is trouble at the Castle when Chrestomanci disappears. No one will listen to Cat when he tries to help so he goes off to find Chrestomanci by himself. On the way he meets a mysterious man with a unicorn in the woods. Chrestomanci has been trapped behind a magical barrier and it takes all of Cat’s strength as well as Chrestomanci’s to get free. There is trouble in Ulverscote as well, and it appears that someone has put an ill-chancing on the Pinhoes. Marianne becomes convinced that the Farleighs have done it, but only because Gammer Pinhoe has been setting terrible spells on them. She tries to tell her family but no one will believe her, and she gets into a fight with some righteously angry Farleigh girls. Then her father finds out that she gave Cat the mysterious object, which was a griffin egg, and is very angry.

Marianne flies to Chrestomanci Castle by broomstick at night to ask for Joe’s help, but finds Cat instead. She tells Cat everything, and asks him to help. She also meets the griffin Klartch who hatched from the egg. Cat promises to find a way to help, but struggles to think of anything. They agree to meet at Woods House the next day. On his way Cat meets Gaffer Farleigh who is very angry about Cat getting through the misdirection spells and threatens to shoot Klartch. Cat stops him, but then Roger and Joe’s flying machine appears in the sky and Gaffer Farleigh shoots at that. Cat turns Gaffer Farleigh into a stone tree and sends him away.

Cat takes Marianne to the mysterious man in the woods, who turns out to be her grandfather, Gaffer Pinhoe, who she had believed was dead. He tells them that there is a barrier keeping all the magical creatures trapped, and Cat and Marianne pull it down together.

The story ends with a battle between the Farleigh and Pinhoe families which is stopped by Chrestomanci, who was injured when Gaffer Farleigh shot at the flying machine. Chrestomanci takes away the Farleigh family magic and makes a deal with the Pinhoes that they can keep their magic if they allow his staff to study dwimmer. Marianne and Joe agree to go to Chrestomanci Castle to be educated and teach Chrestomanci about dwimmer.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Conrad’s Fate (Chrestomanci #5) 5Stars

Title: Conrad’s Fate
Series: Chrestomanci #5
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 209
Words: 78K

Another fantastic entry in the Chrestomanci series. When she wants to, Jones can write these dynamic, wonderful, life filled characters that make you want to cheer them on. Conrad was such a character. He’s a plucky young lad who runs into Christopher Chant, the Chrestromanci we all know in this series. And Conrad holds his own against Christopher. Not in an antagonistic way, but in a friendly way, the way two young men should as they are growing up in a world where they don’t hold all the cards.

If all the Chrestomanci had been as good as this and “The Lives of Christopher Chant” then maybe this series would be known today. Sadly, Jones can’t seem to be consistently upbeat and happy in her stories and that inconsistency is what has kept me from whole heartedly recommending this middle grade series. When it is good, it is good but when it’s bad, it’s really unpleasant.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia:

Synopsis – click to open

Conrad Tesdinic lives in Stallchester, a small town in the English Alps, a mountain range present in Series Seven worlds where the British Isles are still connected to the European mainland. Conrad’s father is dead; his sister Anthea has left home to go to university; and his mother, Franconia, is an eccentric feminist author whose books are sold exclusively in her brother’s bookshop. She and Conrad live with her brother, Uncle Alfred, over the bookshop.

In the mountains high above Stallchester lies Stallery Mansion, home to the Count and his family. Uncle Alfred tells Conrad that someone up at Stallery Mansion is “pulling the possibilities” – that is, shifting the parameters of the world just a little, in order to benefit themselves to the detriment of the rest of the world. This is later referred to as a “probability shift.” From the affluence of Stallery, it is obvious that this person is making a great deal of money by doing so. In the town, only small details change – the colour of the postboxes, the titles of books – but Uncle Alfred is certain that someone at Stallery is reaping far greater benefits from the shifts. Uncle Alfred and his Magician’s Circle tell Conrad that he is going to die within the year unless he kills the person pulling the possibilities. This person (unnamed by any) is apparently someone Conrad should have eliminated in a past life. To kill this person and set things right, Conrad will need to infiltrate Stallery Mansion in the guise of a domestic servant, and then summon a Walker. The Walkers are magical beings who come on command and give the caller what they need for their particular situation. Conrad is told that the Walker will give him an item he needs to defeat the nameless foe.

Upon being hired, Conrad soon finds that he is not the only one snooping around the mansion. He befriends his fellow servant-in-training, Christopher “Smith” (really Christopher Chant), who is searching for his friend Millie. Together, they discover that Millie is trapped in a Stallery of an alternate universe, caused by the shifts in probability. Conrad and Christopher must discover who is causing the probability shifts, rescue Millie, and figure out what to do about Conrad’s so-called “black Fate,” all while dealing with the imperious Mr. Amos, the mansion’s butler, and his exacting tasks for trainees.

Millie is eventually freed and brought back to the real Stallery. She and Conrad try to work out what to do next. Gabriel De Witt, the current Chrestomanci and guardian of Millie and Christopher, arrives at the castle at the request of this England’s king, hoping to figure out what is causing all the probability shifts. He reveals that Mr. Amos is actually the Count of Stallery and the person responsible for pulling the possibilities. Mr. Amos is also Conrad’s uncle; he bought off his younger brother Hubert (Conrad and Anthea’s father) by buying the bookshop for him to run. It is also revealed that the count, countess and others are actually frauds, posing as the aristocracy so that Amos can run Stallery without interference. Uncle Alfred is also exposed as a greedy fraud who had manipulated Conrad merely to get his hands on Stallery’s millions. After this is all sorted out, Gabriel takes Millie and Christopher back to their world. Conrad joins them for seven years of magical training.

In the final part of the book, Conrad reveals that he became Christopher’s best man at his wedding to Millie and continued living at Chrestomanci Castle for several years. However, he could no longer stay away from his homeworld and returned to be the agent of the Chrestomanci.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Lives of Christopher Chant (Chrestomanci #4) 5Stars

Title: Lives of Christopher Chant
Series: Chrestomanci #4
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 241
Words: 88K

Now why can’t DWJ have written the rest of the Chrestomanci books like this one? This was fun, engaging, lively, with just the right amount of drama and even the badguys weren’t unpleasant jerks. They were just bad. Here’s a longer quote from the book that encapsulates the “feel” of the book.

“The trouble was, school had also taught him that girls were a Complete Mystery and quite different from boys. He had no idea what books girls liked. He was forced to consult Oneir, who had an older sister.
“All sorts of slush,” Oneir said, shrugging. “I can’t remember what.”
“Then could you come down to the bookshop with me and see if you can see some of them?” Christopher asked.
“I might,” Oneir agreed. “What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll do your geometry tonight as well as your algebra,” Christopher said.
On this understanding, Oneir went down to the bookshop with Christopher in the space between lessons and tea. There he almost immediately picked out The Arabian Nights (Unexpurgated). “This one’s good,” he said. He followed it with something called Little Tanya and the Fairies, which Christopher took one look at and put hastily back on the shelf. “I know my sister’s read that one,” Oneir said, rather injured. “Who’s the girl you want it for?”
“She’s about the same age as us,” Christopher said and, since Oneir was looking at him for a further explanation and he was fairly sure Oneir was not going to believe in someone called the Goddess, he added, “I’ve got this cousin called Caroline.” This was quite true. Mama had once shown him a studio photo of his cousin, all lace and curls. Oneir was not to know that this had nothing whatsoever to do with the sentence that had gone before.
“Wait a sec then,” Oneir said, “and I’ll see if I can spot some of the real slush.” He wandered on along the shelf, leaving Christopher to flip through The Arabian Nights. It did look good, Christopher thought. Unfortunately he could see from the pictures that it was all about somewhere very like the Goddess’s own Anywhere. He suspected the Goddess would call it educational. “Ah, here we are! This is sure-fire slush!” Oneir called, pointing to a whole row of books. “These Millie books. Our house is full of the things.”
Millie Goes to School, Christopher read, Millie of Lowood House, Millie Plays the Game. He picked up one called Millie’s Finest Hour. It had some very brightly colored schoolgirls on the front and in small print: “Another moral and uplifting story about your favorite schoolgirl. You will weep with Millie, rejoice with Millie, and meet all your friends from Lowood House School again . . .”
“Does your sister really like these?” he asked incredulously.
“Wallows in them,” said Oneir. “She reads them over and over again and cries every time.”
Though this seemed a funny way to enjoy a book, Christopher was sure Oneir knew best. The books were two and sixpence each. Christopher chose out the first five, up to Millie in the Upper Fourth, and bought The Arabian Nights for himself with the rest of the money. After all, it was his gold sovereign.”
~page 65

I laughed my head off at that. And rest of the book had that fun tone as well. Yes, there was some really dangerous things going on and Christopher wasn’t in the best of circumstances and he doesn’t always act like a good boy, but the thrust of the novel was all that was good instead of focusing on the unpleasant and nasty, as was done in Witch Week. This is what I want from a middle grade story.

I think it helped that Christopher is going to be the next Chrestomanci and how it turns his world upside down and inside out. Chrestomanci, as a position, is front and center and you can see how the responsibility of it weighs down on both the young and the old. But nonetheless, each bearer takes it up at the proper time and does their duty. Ahhhh, that’s good stuff! Responsibility, putting others above your own self, protecting the weak and helpless, facing down evil, people NEED that in their fiction, especially nowadays. And kids? It’s essential, sigh.

Anyway, this was the best Chrestomanci book so far and it showed just what a splendid writer DWJ could be when she wanted. Highly recommended.

★★★★★

From Wikipedia:

Click to Open Summary

The novel tells the story of Christopher Chant’s childhood in a magic filled Victorian style era. Although both of his parents are powerful practitioners of magic, the two are constantly at loggerheads; his father (an enchanter, the strongest type of magic-user) is entirely devoted to his work, to such a degree that the young Christopher is afraid that he would not recognise him should the two meet in public. On the other hand, his mother (a sorceress, the second-strongest type of magic-user) is a social climber, and is apparently only married to his father for his social connections. Christopher finds solace in his uncle Ralph, but due to his travelling job they rarely see each other.

The only escape that Christopher has is through his dreams, in which he is able to escape to other worlds. While he is not the only person with this ability, seemingly no one is able to do it so easily as he. Christopher is able to bring items with him into the real world, and after one of his many nannies discovers his hoard of items and accuses him of stealing, he tells Uncle Ralph of his power. Uncle Ralph is intrigued by this and has Christopher go on a ‘test’ to see what he can bring back. In the place between worlds, which takes the form of a valley, Christopher meets Tacroy who is supposed to guide him on his uncle’s orders, however the two discover that whilst Tacroy is projecting his mind there Christopher is physically going into the other worlds; something which is impossible.

Christopher and Tacroy go on several of these trips, and on one to World 10 they get separated. Christopher meets ‘The Living Asheth’ a girl his age who is a vessel for Asheth, the Goddess of her world. He makes a deal with her for one of her magic temple cats, Throgmorten, but as she helps him escape he is speared by one of her many guards. After waking up in his bed with Throgmorten, Christopher accidentally causes a curtain rod to fall down and spear him through the heart, although he survives. This experience prompts his parents to send him to a boarding school where Christopher forgets to travel in his dreams because he enjoys it so much. Several ordinary months go by and Christopher decides to become a professional cricketer whilst his parents divorce. His friend accidentally hits him in the head with a cricket back, killing him. He wakes up confused in the morgue, where he then falls asleep in the hospital. The current Chrestomanci named Gabriel De Witt visits him, but disbelieves claims of him being an enchanter. Christopher’s father takes Christopher to several witches and discovers that a silver coin Ralph insisted he always carry on him was stopping him from doing magic.

Chrestomanci realises Christopher is a nine-lived enchanter and brings him to his castle to train to be the next Chrestomanci. He absolutely hates living there and disobeys all of the rules even actively going against them. He returns to travelling with Tacroy for his uncle and returns the deal with The Living Asheth; giving her a series of books about a girl named Millie at boarding school. The two become close friends and she insists he call her Millie instead. Christopher dies multiple times during these trips and always wakes up in his own world only to die in freak accidents similar to the prior ones. Millie discovers that when she grows to old for Asheth to use her she is going to be sacrificed to her. Christopher sacrifices one of his lives so that Millie can travel to his own world to hide.

Christopher discovers that Chrestomanci is investigating a smuggler named ‘The Wraith’ who somehow manages to bring illegal items from other worlds. Chrestomanci reveals to every person in the castle that their close friend Mordecai Roberts was working for the Wraith, and Christopher is shocked to find Mordecai is actually Tacroy. Tacroy pretends not to know Christopher and reveals to him that his uncle is the Wraith. Ralph manages to kill Chrestomanci by taking his lives and scattering them across worlds so nobody could find him. Christopher uses Throgmorten to trap Ralph before Millie is able to subdue him. Millie discovers that Asheth is too vain to actually give a mortal girl magic and she is in reality one of the most powerful enchantresses in existence.

Learning that Mordecai is enchanted to work for Ralph, Christopher and Millie travel to world 11 which is a mysterious place that only has one timeline. Christopher and Millie are both able to outwit the ruler of World 11 and free Mordecai, who willingly becomes a servant of Chrestomanci. However, Christopher sacrifices another one of his lives. Christopher’s parents reveal to him they are getting back together, but this time for love, and Christopher decides to continue living at the castle with the newly revived Chrestomanci and Millie. However, as Christopher attempts to travel he discovers he no longer can, as he only has two lives remaining.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Thursday, February 01, 2024

Witch Week (Chrestomanci #3) 2.5Stars

Title: Witch Week
Series: Chrestomanci #3
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 185
Words: 73K

I have heard the question “Why isn’t DWJ as famous as JK Rowlings” punted about over the years. It might seem like a legitimate question, but I think this book answers it quite aptly.

Namely, this was a scary book for kids about bullies, meanness and very unlikeable people. None of the beautiful people are nice, none of the adults (except Chrestomanci, when he shows up for the last 10%) are decent and even the main characters are some really nasty pieces of work. Some of this might be VERY true to life and some kids might be able to identify with it all, but that’s not the goal. It’s not enough to just identify with a character, but to have characters that your readers want to emulate to be better people. This is DWJ’s failure in this book.

Until Chrestomanci shows up and begins setting things aright, I was questioning why DWJ even bothered to write this and why I was continuing to read this. While I know intellectually this so called “Chrestomanci Series” really isn’t, I do wish that that DWJ had made more of an effort to weave him into the overall story instead of making him such a small part. It’s as lame as calling Jubilee from the X-Men a real superhero (she can throw sparkles or something from her hands, whooooo).

I guess I will have to change my expectations for the rest of the series but if I come across any more that are as unlikeable as this, I’ll just stop this series and start in on my next middle grade read, the Westmark trilogy by Lloyd Alexander.

★★✬☆☆

From Wikipedia:

Click to View Synopsis

Witch Week is set in an alternative modern-day Great Britain, identical to our world except for the presence of witchcraft. Despite witches being common, witchcraft is illegal and punishable by death by burning, policed by a modern-day Inquisition.

At Larwood House, a boarding school where many of the children of executed witches are sent, a note claiming “Someone in this class is a witch” is found by a teacher. This launches an internal investigation of the more unpopular students at the school (Nan Pilgrim and Charles Morgan), who are gradually coming to terms with the fact that they are witches. Mayhem gradually ensues as magic is used to make birds appear in the classroom, to rain shoes, to curse a classmate into having his words always be true, and other pranks. When the magic gets totally out of control, one of the students runs away, leaving notes that blame the witch for controlling him. The headmistress of the school calls in an Inquisitor to find the missing student and locate the source of the trouble.

Four more of the students flee the school and two seek help from an “underground railroad” system that is known to save witches by sending them to a world where they are not persecuted. Instead they are given a spell to summon unknown help and all five students converge where they are able to use it, summoning the enchanter Chrestomanci. He and the children conclude that their world diverged from 12B (ours) by a particular historical accident. They work to outwit the local inquisition and to merge their history, thus their world, with ours. It turns out that most of the schoolchildren are witches and all must lose any such powers by revising history in that way.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Magicians of Caprona (Chrestomanci #2) 3.5Stars

Title: Magicians of Caprona
Series: Chrestomanci #2
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 167
Words: 63K

I enjoyed this as much as the first book even though Chrestomanci is not a main character and barely appears at all. Jones tells an engaging story of two rival magical families whose problems are solved by the children in the family. Yet Jones in no way denigrates the adult members of the family. That is an easy “out” for an author to elevate her children characters by tearing down the adults and Jones has no place for that kind of thing in her story, for which I am very thankful.

Most of this story is told through the eyes of Tonino and Paulo, brothers. The issue for me was that Jones would switch viewpoints from paragraph to paragraph and it became very confusing for me to keep track of whose eyes I was looking out of. I felt like it could have been written for easier comprehension, especially as this is aimed at the tween and early teen crowd. Other than that, I don’t have any complaints.

Family, food, magic, love and adventure, with a wicked enchantress making life tough for everyone. What more do you really need in a story?

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Click to Open

Caprona is a city-state in the Italy of Chrestomanci’s world (World Twelve A), which never united as a nation-state. The houses of Casa Montana and Casa Petrocchi, both renowned for being powerful magician families, have been feuding with each other for generations. The city has begun to lose its “virtue,” and the states of Florence, Siena, and Pisa intend to take advantage of this by uniting to conquer Caprona. The only way to save the city is if the true words to the Angel of Caprona, both a hymn and a powerful spell, can be found and read aloud.

The story is told through the eyes of the young Tonino Montana and his brother Paolo. They are both members of Casa Montana, one of two spell-houses in Caprona, the other being Casa Petrocchi. The two spell-houses are deadly rivals; the two families are both convinced that the decline of Caprona is all the fault of the other spell-house, and refuse to work together under any circumstances.

Tonino is, unknown to himself or the rest of Casa Montana, a talented enchanter; however, he is unaware of his ability, and prefers to spend his time reading. Paolo is more outgoing and friendly, and does better at school. When representatives of both houses are called to the Duke of Caprona’s palace, they both go. Whilst there, they meet members of the Petrocchi family for the first time, and they also encounter the Duchess, a powerful woman who appears to be the true ruler of Caprona.

During the book, Tonino is kidnapped and finds himself held hostage with Angelica Petrocci and whilst the two houses blame each other, Tonino and Angelica have to put their differences aside to escape. Meanwhile, Paolo teams with Renata Petrocci in order to save their lost siblings.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Charmed Life (Chrestomanci #1) 3.5Stars

Title: Charmed Life
Series: Chrestomanci #1
Author: Diana Jones
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fantasy
Pages: 195
Words: 70K

While I thoroughly enjoyed this, I can see why it didn’t take off like a certain young wizard with a scar on his forehead. Cat doesn’t start off as the main character and even when he’s pushed to the forefront by circumstances, he is a very passive guy and just lets things happen to him. I thought his older sister was going to be the main character, but she turns out to be a main villain and is so bad that she’s willing to sacrifice her brother for her own ends. That’s some bad family dynamics right there.

Chrestomanci is a magician of great power with a wonderful wife and two children Cat’s age and he’s the obligatory powerful good adult in the stories. While The World of Howl books are still middle grade, they are ostensibly about the adults. Here, the children are the main characters. That changes the dynamics of the story. Part of that is that Jones allows her children characters to BE children, to think and act like children, which means they do some really stupid things even when they are trying to do the right thing. At times it was very frustrating for me, as an adult, to watch Cat do exactly the wrong thing but it fit so I just gritted my teeth and held on. And it all turned out ok in the end, as good middlegrade fantasy should.

When I posted the Currently Reading & Quote post last month, the humor hit me just right. The Howl books were semi-humorous and I enjoyed them, but I wasn’t sure if it would work in another series. While not exactly a laughathon, the humor displayed in the CR&Q post was indicative of what the story contained as a whole and it really worked for me. I didn’t give this the “humor” tag because everything wasn’t funny (like say, the Discworld books were meant to be) but there was humor interwoven so nothing was too drear and dark.

On a final note, the synopsis behind the details code is almost 1600 words. Read at your own risk. I know I wouldn’t!

★★★✬☆

From Dianawynnejones.fandom.com/wiki

While on a summer outing with their parents, Cat and Gwendolen Chant are orphaned when the ferry their family is riding crashes. The two siblings are among the few survivors; Cat believes this is because Gwendolen is a witch, so she can’t drown, and Cat himself clung to Gwendolen. The town sets up a trust fund for them, and they are taken in by Mrs. Sharp, a kindly older woman who lived downstairs from them. Mrs. Sharp is an Certified Witch, and she senses Gwendolen’s innate talent. They go through the siblings’ parents’ belongings and find three letters from Chrestomanci, which Mrs. Sharp barters to Mr. Nostrum, the necromancer next door, for magic lessons for Gwendolen.

Gwendolen excels in her studies and becomes the darling of the neighborhood, who dote on her and give her presents. Cat takes violin lessons to balance Gwendolen’s magic lessons, but his playing is horrible and Gwendolen turns his violin into a cat the neighborhood adopts and calls Fiddle. A Fortune-Teller reads Gwendolen her fortune and predicts she’ll rule the world someday if she goes about it the right way. Miss Larkins, the neighborhood favorite before Gwendolen, tries to predict Cat’s fortune out of jealousy. She goes into a trance, and a man’s voice tells Cat how glad he is to have found him, but that he must be more careful: four are gone already, and he’s in danger from at least two directions. That evening, Gwendolen writes to Chrestomanci.

Soon after, Chrestomanci himself comes in person and expresses a wish to have Gwendolen and Cat come live with him in his castle. Gwendolen is exultant, believing she’s off to rule the world; Cat, who loves his home in Wolvercote, is morose. They set off a week later by train in grand style and travel to the far countryside, where they’re greeted by a man named Michael Saunders, who introduces himself as their tutor. Michael drives them from the platform to Chrestomanci Castle, where he brings them through a side door and hands them off to the housekeeper, Miss Bessemer. That evening they dine with the Family and meet Chrestomanci’s wife, Millie, and their children, Roger and Julia.

Next morning, Cat and Gwendolen begin lessons with Roger and Julia. Gwendolen and Julia get into a small magic duel over breakfast, after which lessons commence. Cat, who is left-handed, does as usual and pretends to be right-handed when Michael isn’t looking, and Gwendolen shows she knows next to nothing about anything that isn’t magic. Michael loses his temper when he discovers Cat writing with his right hand, and dismisses them both from the schoolroom before lunch so Roger and Julia can have their magic lesson: Chrestomanci, he says, has forbidden them both from learning magic for the time being.

Gwendolen, feeling she’s not begin given the attention she deserves, grows steadily more and more furious and determines to make Chrestomanci notice her. On Wednesday, when they get their pocket money and a free afternoon to go down to the village, Gwendolen visits a seedy magic provisions supplier named Mr. Baslam to buy magic ingredients and some illegal dragon’s blood. During dinner, she summons ghouls to loom at the windows, but Chrestomanci merely asks the butler to close the curtains.

Gwendolen declares magical war on Chrestomanci and casts one problematic spell after another as the days pass, but still no one acknowledges even that. She receives a letter from Mr. Nostrum, only to find that Chrestomanci already opened and read it, to her further fury. Her feud with Julia turns into a second war when she turns Julia’s skirt to snakes during supper. On Sunday, when the go to church, Gwendolen bespells the figures and saints in the stained glass windows to run from pane to pane, causing mischief and raising a disturbance among the congregation. Chrestomanci still pays her no mind, but Millie is furious.

That Wednesday, Gwendolen’s dragon’s blood arrives in time for Chrestomanci’s dinner party. The children eat dinner separately and are told to stay in their rooms. Gwendolen obliges and returns to her room, where she uses her dragon’s blood to grow insects to monstrous sizes, summon skeletons, and conjure the same ghouls from before, and send them all to interrupt the party. Chrestomanci and Michael force their way into her room before she finishes; Chrestomanci boxes Cat’s ears for not interfering, and Michael spanks Gwendolen and strips her of her magic.

Next morning, Cat wakes up and goes to Gwendolen’s room, only to find that Gwendolen has disappeared and left an exact look-alike in her place. This strange girl, Janet, comes from a parallel world that has no magic and is much more modern. Terrified of what Chrestomanci will do or say when he discovers what Gwendolen has done, Cat and Janet agree to keep the switch a secret. Janet relies on Cat as struggles to pretend to be Gwendolen, and they both must deal with the messes Gwendolen has left behind: a spell turning the maid Euphemia into a toad, twenty pounds owed to Mr. Baslam for illegal dragon’s blood, an outstanding feud with Julia, and a secret plan of the Nostrums in which Gwendolen and Cat are both involved.

Janet and Cat resolve to run away to Janet’s world, where Janet promises Cat he can live with her and her parents as her brother. As they make their plans, Janet discovers a matchbook tucked among Cat and Gwendolen’s parents’ belongings and deduces the nine matches held inside are Cat’s nine lives. Cat, in disbelief, attempts to prove her wrong by striking one of the matches. Before Janet can stop him, Cat erupts into flames, and Janet does the only thing she can think to do: call for Chrestomanci. He arrives immediately and douses the fire, then explains to Cat that he did, in fact, have nine lives, but now he only has three. Cat realizes it was Chrestomanci’s voice he heard Miss Larkins speaking with back in Wolvercote.

The next day, Sunday–two weeks after Gwendolen and Cat arrived at the Castle–Cat and Janet stay home while the rest of the Castle Family and staff go to church. They take the opportunity to filch a bit of dragon’s blood from Michael Saunders’s workshop, then sneak into Chrestomanci’s garden, which serves as a gateway to other worlds. At the center there is an arch, and when they sprinkle a bit of dragon’s blood before it, its middle become window-like, displaying an image of Gwendolen as queen in another world. She notices them, but before Cat and Janet can escape to Janet’s world, the Nostrums appear in the garden using Cat’s signature from one of his school essays to teleport to his exact location. They are followed by more witches and warlocks, many of whom Cat recognizes from Wolvercote, and once they’re all arrived, the Nostrums summon Chrestomanci.

Chrestomanci appears instantly, and immediately the Nostrums seize upon him and bind him with silver, his weakness, preventing him from using magic. They immobilize Cat and tie him to the stone before the arch, revealing that their plan with Gwendolen is to kill an innocent child–Cat–before the arch, breaking Chrestomanci’s magic and opening the way to other worlds. But before they can kill Cat, Janet vanishes, and Gwendolen appears in her place. Gwendolen reveals to the Nostrums that Cat has nine lives and recounts what she did with some of them, explaining that they’ll have to kill him several times; this infuriates the Nostrums, because it means Cat is a powerful enchanter in his own right, and to kill him they’ll first need to discover his weakness. Before Gwendolen offers to leave so they can use her double, Chrestomanci tells them the cat, Fiddle, which Gwendolen had turned from a violin using one of Cat’s lives, is in the garden. All the witches and warlocks set off through the maze-like garden to search for the cat, leaving Chrestomanci and Cat alone at the center.

Cat is shocked and heartbroken by his sister’s betrayal and at how very little she cares for him. Chrestomanci galvanizes him to action, telling Cat how to use his magic to break them both free of their restraints. Cat manages to free Chrestomanci just as they’re discovered, and Chrestomanci holds the returning witches and warlocks off and begins to summon the Family and Castle staff. Cat realizes Gwendolen is using his magic against them, preventing Chrestomanci from summoning Millie. He takes his magic back and joins in the battle as Millie arrives.

The Family round up the members of the conspiracy, but Gwendolen escapes and seals herself off from the rest of the world, dragging Janet back into the garden in her place. The Family holds an impromptu picnic in the garden. Chrestomanci explains that they brought Cat there to train him as the next Chrestomanci, but they didn’t know if Cat knew of his magic or not, or whether he was just as amoral as his sister, which was why they’d kept him out of the loop. He offers to find a way to send Janet back to her world, but Janet says the double who replaced her was happier there than in her own world, and Chrestomanci admits that the rest are just as better off in their new worlds. He and Millie offer to adopt Janet and let her remain at Chrestomanci Castle as their legal ward.

– All of My “Diana Jones” Reviews