DWJ readalike!
Aug. 5th, 2018 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraWeave A Circle Round, Kari Maaren. Norton (Nebula YA) finalist but lost to Art of Starving.
Let's do this in stages. If my recommendations sometimes work for you, and you like Diana Wynne Jones, I am recommending this one, and I think it's the kind of book that's fun to read while knowing absolutely nothing about it (except that it's YA that someone thought was Norton-eligible, obviously, although there are ways that it feels more like upper-middlegrade, and as a further tone/content data point I'm planning to suggest it to Junie).
If you would like at least a couple of hints from the first couple of chapters about what you might be getting into here, mysteeeerious neighbors! and a woman who gives something to the protagonist and says "never tell me I gave you that!"
And if you would like still more of an idea of what this book might be like or why you might like it, here's a probably-not-complete list of Diana Wynne Jones books that I think are being referenced or homaged here: Deep Secret, Ogre Downstairs, Homeward Bounders, Archer's Goon, Eight Days of Luke, Tale of Time City, Howl's Moving Castle, Hexwood, Fire and Hemlock, and possibly The Game, although honestly I can't remember a thing about The Game except that going by its wikipedia page I think I read it once. But whatever. The rest of these all actually occurred to me while I was reading it, I just went and looked in her bibliography to see if there was anything that jumped out at me that I had missed, and was like "what even is that one".
There is a very particular kind of pleasure in reading a book written by someone who has clearly read and loved so much by this author I also love, like a series of high fives in which we agree that all three of us (Diana Wynne Jones, Kari Maaren, and The Reader, by which I mean me, since I am the reader when I am reading) are awesome. I know Professional Authors Hate Being Compared To Fanfiction but it was in fact very much like reading a really great DWJ fanfic, if someone decided to pastiche elements from ten different books into one story, and I have the same sort of desire to write a long comment going "eeeee I see what you did there". (I just did a search in the Goodreads comments for "Jones" and it was fun to see which books other people wanted to compare it to.)
Btw, for people who have not probably accumulated at least thirty reads of those ten books (adding up, I mean... although can that be right? Averaging to three, if there's some of them I only read once and some that are Howl's and F&H??) - anyways, ignoring my dubious estimating, , My best guess is that even if you haven't read much DWJ this is still a really fun book, just in a somewhat different way. I promise that if anyone hasn't read much or any DWJ and wants to share their reaction to Weave in the comments I won't reply saying "YOU HAVEN'T READ ANY DWJ??". There are several books on that list I only read as an adult, and at least one more I only *liked* as an adult. ...Junie, it occurs to me, has not read any DWJ, and is thus the perfect test subject for this investigation. (I know, I know, how has she not, but she went through a phase of resistance to my book recommendations. I think she's come around now that she's reading so fast she's having trouble keeping herself in things to read next though. Muahaha, my day has arrived.)
Let's do this in stages. If my recommendations sometimes work for you, and you like Diana Wynne Jones, I am recommending this one, and I think it's the kind of book that's fun to read while knowing absolutely nothing about it (except that it's YA that someone thought was Norton-eligible, obviously, although there are ways that it feels more like upper-middlegrade, and as a further tone/content data point I'm planning to suggest it to Junie).
If you would like at least a couple of hints from the first couple of chapters about what you might be getting into here, mysteeeerious neighbors! and a woman who gives something to the protagonist and says "never tell me I gave you that!"
And if you would like still more of an idea of what this book might be like or why you might like it, here's a probably-not-complete list of Diana Wynne Jones books that I think are being referenced or homaged here: Deep Secret, Ogre Downstairs, Homeward Bounders, Archer's Goon, Eight Days of Luke, Tale of Time City, Howl's Moving Castle, Hexwood, Fire and Hemlock, and possibly The Game, although honestly I can't remember a thing about The Game except that going by its wikipedia page I think I read it once. But whatever. The rest of these all actually occurred to me while I was reading it, I just went and looked in her bibliography to see if there was anything that jumped out at me that I had missed, and was like "what even is that one".
There is a very particular kind of pleasure in reading a book written by someone who has clearly read and loved so much by this author I also love, like a series of high fives in which we agree that all three of us (Diana Wynne Jones, Kari Maaren, and The Reader, by which I mean me, since I am the reader when I am reading) are awesome. I know Professional Authors Hate Being Compared To Fanfiction but it was in fact very much like reading a really great DWJ fanfic, if someone decided to pastiche elements from ten different books into one story, and I have the same sort of desire to write a long comment going "eeeee I see what you did there". (I just did a search in the Goodreads comments for "Jones" and it was fun to see which books other people wanted to compare it to.)
Btw, for people who have not probably accumulated at least thirty reads of those ten books (adding up, I mean... although can that be right? Averaging to three, if there's some of them I only read once and some that are Howl's and F&H??) - anyways, ignoring my dubious estimating, , My best guess is that even if you haven't read much DWJ this is still a really fun book, just in a somewhat different way. I promise that if anyone hasn't read much or any DWJ and wants to share their reaction to Weave in the comments I won't reply saying "YOU HAVEN'T READ ANY DWJ??". There are several books on that list I only read as an adult, and at least one more I only *liked* as an adult. ...Junie, it occurs to me, has not read any DWJ, and is thus the perfect test subject for this investigation. (I know, I know, how has she not, but she went through a phase of resistance to my book recommendations. I think she's come around now that she's reading so fast she's having trouble keeping herself in things to read next though. Muahaha, my day has arrived.)
