ghwwjd

** spoiler alert ** I was so looking forward to reading this book (teenage Christopher!!!) but the first person completely threw me. I got used to it by the end of the book, but to begin with I kept trying to translate it to third person in my head (all the while wondering WHY, DWJ, WHY FIRST PERSON). The pacing was slow to begin with, and then everything seemed to happen at breakneck speed in the last few chapters. And I was cross with Anthea when she swans in near the end and is all, "Oh, I knew I should have written and told you the truth, Conrad! Yeah, Uncle Alfred is a big fat liar -- Mother owns the bookshop so we DO have money after all." I completely understand Anthea running off and wanting her own life away from Stallchester, but there was nothing to stop her telling Conrad the facts so that he wouldn't be manipulated. She knew what Uncle Alfred was like. (But then I guess there would be no story.) BUT having said all that, teenage Christopher goes a long way to redeeming this book. He's at that perfect midway stage between young!Christopher and adult!Chrestomanci and it's easy to see how his character is developing. He's so arrogant and smug and utterly hilarious. And the way he talks! "What foresight on my part!" and "Panic ye not, Grant." And the moment when he presses the Shift button ("Dare we, Grant? Dare we?") "looking almost unholy in the coloured lights." And simply deciding that he and Millie "were going to go and live together on an island in Series Five." Utterly adorable, and utterly ridiculous. I sighed. "Anyway, thanks for keeping us on those stairs." Just for a second, Christopher had such a blank, dumbfounded look that I knew he had forgotten to work any magic on those steps. I was glad I had not known while I was on them. "Think nothing of it, Grant," he said airily.

2023-06-19 05:09