I maghi di Caprona

EDIT: Of all the reviews I've done this is the least liked! There are even books I have got more likes for rating than I got for reviewing this one :) This is the second Chrestomanci book I've read to my daughter Celyn - there seems to be some confusion about the order of the books, but they appear t Leggi tutto

another splendid entry in the Chrestomanci cycle! this wonderful little series about multiple dimensions, magic, and the trans-dimensional authority on magic known as the "Chrestomanci" has been a real light in my life whenever i open up a new book. what a lovely and pleasing breath of fresh air. The Leggi tutto

This was the first book by DWJ that I ever read. I stumbled on it by accident in the library when I was a kid, and it was the kind of book I would stay up all night reading and then feel sad when I got to the last page. (I still read like that sometimes, but it's pretty rare to find books I can be t Leggi tutto

Loads of fun, but the weakest of the Chrestomanci series for me. Jones leaned a bit too heavily on tropes (e.g., feuding Italian families; stock characters) which made the plot predictable, though perhaps less so for younger readers. There was also a bit of worldbuilding which wasn't well-developed

I thoroughly enjoyed this – great fun, with a lovely magic system and strong characterisation.

This was cute but hard to connect with. Where some of DWJ's other books employ a tight POV, this one has such a broad lens -- beginning with the entire city of Caprona and the Montana family, and then switching off vaguely between Tonino and Paolo -- that I never felt terribly invested in anyone's f Leggi tutto

I felt a bit weird when reading this. Jones isn't Italian, is she? but when reading many of the scenes involving the families, the heavily-sprinkled Italian dialogue and the operatic dramatics, I found myself wondering again and again if it straddles the line between "Parody of large passionate Ital Leggi tutto

(2020 re-read) Again, everything I've said in my other re-read reviews applies. Something that struck me this time round: this novel seems to contain one of the few examples of effective parenting and nurturing families in DWJ's books: two families, in this case. Which brings us to the disfunction th Leggi tutto