DWJ: Time of the Ghost
May. 17th, 2006 11:50 pmI've just read Dianna Wynne Jones' Time of the Ghost. Has anyone else?
For some reason I had the impression it was more of a children's book, like Wilkin's Tooth, but that's not at all how I found it. Certainly it's not very complicated, but:
* It was eerie. Several DWJ are a bit, but this was more so.
* The which-character-turns-out-to-be-which, which happens every book, was well done. Not overcomplicated, but unsettling all the way through.
However:
* I just didn't engage with it at all. I didn't really enjoy any of the characters, and didn't find it funny, and it felt kind of dingy and pointless, and I had to struggle to keep reading until I got 3/4 of the way through.
I think if I reread it I'd engage a bit more, knowing what the people are like from the start, and find more humour not worrying as much about the bad stuff; but then it probably wouldn't be nearly as eerie another time when you know what's going to happen.
But I feel like this is an abrupt jump sideways, and books halfway between this and most of her others would be REALLY good, but she just didn't write any in that area.
For some reason I had the impression it was more of a children's book, like Wilkin's Tooth, but that's not at all how I found it. Certainly it's not very complicated, but:
* It was eerie. Several DWJ are a bit, but this was more so.
* The which-character-turns-out-to-be-which, which happens every book, was well done. Not overcomplicated, but unsettling all the way through.
However:
* I just didn't engage with it at all. I didn't really enjoy any of the characters, and didn't find it funny, and it felt kind of dingy and pointless, and I had to struggle to keep reading until I got 3/4 of the way through.
I think if I reread it I'd engage a bit more, knowing what the people are like from the start, and find more humour not worrying as much about the bad stuff; but then it probably wouldn't be nearly as eerie another time when you know what's going to happen.
But I feel like this is an abrupt jump sideways, and books halfway between this and most of her others would be REALLY good, but she just didn't write any in that area.