Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Date read: March 1, 2017

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy (Contemporary)

Age: Juv. Fiction/YA?

Year pub: 1989

Pages: 100

Illustrator: Mark Zug

Fave character: Wild Robert… sometimes. 😉

Source: Library

Notes: Read in honor of March Magics (2017)

What if a mysterious magical being who had been asleep for 350 years, woke up in modern times, found the castle of his former home turned into a tourist attraction, and decided to make mischief? That’s Wild Robert for you! Heather has a lot to put up with when she accidentally summons him into her tourist-crammed day… Shenanigans ensue!

Quite short read (100 pages including illustrations and large print; I read it in a sitting) and a very fun way to kick off March Magics/Diana Wynne Jones March 2017! 🙂

I’d never read this one before. It made me think a little bit of Eight Days of Luke, and maybe a dash of Howl’s Moving Castle for one tiny reason. DWJ once again blends fantasy, history, modern times, humor, strangeness, and fascinating characters in a bizarre but heart-capturing read.

It’s not all fun and pranks though… there’s a deeper mystery and something sinister behind all of this, and the reveal twisted my heart and made me feel bad for poor Robert! I was conflicted about this strange impish character — he definitely keeps you guessing. 😉 He’s a fascinating mystery, I guess you could say.

It was quite enjoyable, and I loved the twist at the end about who Robert is! 😀

It stopped rather before I wanted it to… I could have read another two or three hundred pages on this!! So at first I was sliiightly disappointed about that, but at the same time it works perfectly, ending at just the right place to let the imagination wander free about what might happen next… 😉 So I’m happy with it. 🙂 DWJ always leaves you wanting more!

(It almost made me consider wanting to write a fan-fiction continuation, I wanted to know so badly. The idea of fan-fiction almost never crosses my mind. Heehee.)

Great fun! ^_^

Time for a look at the books on my nightstand this month and at what I’m up to for #MarchMagics!

(Nightstand Books is a monthly meme created by DJ Edwardson and Jenelle Schmidt.

March Magics [formerly DWJ March] is a celebration of the works of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett, hosted by Kristen @ We Be Reading.)

Non-March-Magics-Nightstand

I’m currently working through Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, and King’s Blood by Jill Williamson — both of which are not for the faint of heart! (Or at least not for the faint-of-arm since they are large.)

Mansfield Park is… interesting. It’s the last Austen I haven’t read and in a sense I’m enjoying it (especially comparing it to Cinderella a little) — though in another sense I’m spending a lot of time absolutely loathing Mrs. Norris and the Crawford siblings and… most everyone else besides Fanny and Edmund. XD

King’s Blood is quite enjoyable so far — I missed Trevn and Wilek so much and didn’t realize it until I started reading! I don’t have much to say on it yet because I’m still reading, but I’ll have a full review of it up on my other blog when I finish. So far an excellent book and I can’t wait to finish!

Not pictured are a couple of beta-reads of books for friends, which I need to make some time for… Reading critically with an eye for editing and feedback takes a lot more effort than regular reading! But I’m looking forward to these. 🙂

IF I can (not sure if it will happen) I would love to be able to have time to read Dragonfriend by Marc Secchia which is this month’s bookclub read for the Fellowship of Fantasy… I enjoyed last month’s read (The Firethorn Crown) and this one looks fun, I just don’t know if it will take priority and if I’ll find the time… SO MUCH TO READ. (It’s an e-book, and I tend to have so many other things to do on my computer — beta-reading, writing, internet — that e-books don’t get read very often unless they’re for review. But we shall see!)

March Magics Nightstand

I actually read most of these last week already! I had a cold so I curled up with some DWJ books and a Terry Pratchett while I recovered, in honor of March Magics, and it was delightful. 🙂 (I should have been beta-reading at the time… but that requires editorial thinking and my brain was not up to that kind of level at the time while I was sick.)

Library acquisitions, I read Aunt Maria and Wild Robert by Diana Wynne Jones, both for the first time! Greatly enjoyed those — it’s always SO MUCH FUN getting to read DWJ books I’ve never read before! 🙂

I also read my second-ever Terry Pratchett book, Mort, for the first of the Pratchett read-alongs for March Magics. I enjoyed it muchly! (It was a timely library-sale conquest… which included a whole batch of Discworld books!)

Perhaps I shall do a mini-reviews post for these soon?

I re-read The Pinhoe Egg (final Chrestomanci book), also for the March Magics readalong (rather early because I couldn’t help it!), thereby finishing my re-reading-aloud of the Chrestomanci books. CHRESTOMANCI’S THE BEST! ❤

I also finished reading Howl’s Moving Castle for the 5th time and still found things I’d never noticed before. HOWL IS THE BEST! ❤ (I know I just said that about Chrestomanci. Hush. Both are true in their own ways. ^_^)

I’m still hoping to re-read Year of the Griffin (for the readalong on the DWJ Goodreads group) and if I can make time, I’d also love to read at least Reaper Man and possibly Soul Music for the March Magics continuing Pratchett readalongs, but we shall see!

I always plan for more books than I have time to read, unfortunately, and I’m very busy this month… However, I’ve already had some great March Magics fun so I’m happy with that even if I don’t get to any more. 🙂