Black Maria

Mig and her brother Chris are forced to visit their old Aunt Maria in Cranbury during their Easter vacation. Aunt Maria is sickeningly sweet and very manipulative. But things are odd in Cranbury. Men are zombies and the women seem to control everything, with Aunt Maria being the "queen bee". At first, Mig doesn't really believe anything magical can really be going on. But when a ghost appears and Chris is turned into a wolf, she can't deny it any longer. Something bad is happening and it seems Aunt Maria is at the very center of it all. Can Mig stop her in time?

Despite the plot being less original than Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy, I think this is actually my favorite DWJ book so far. There was just the right amount of show more paranoia, terror, sarcasm and silliness. It created a perfect mixture that I just couldn't get enough of. I loved Mig. Her secret thoughts the reader is privy to were hilarious most of the time. Chris was also a great character. His dark humor had me in stitches.

The plot was a bit predictable, though. It's the only downside to the book. People visit a small town that is not all it first appears to be. Eventually they learn all the dark stuff that's going on and set the town to right. It's a fairly common plot, but it's still entertaining and DWJ does it justice, so I'm not complaining. Much, anyways ;-)

This is definitely a book I'll be purchasing at some point. It is of reread quality. In fact, writing this review has actually made me want to go back and start reading the book all over again :) show less

Another well crafted story from DWJ in which gender roles are a terrible way to organize a society, never cleaning out your car solves mysteries, and gaslighting will ruin everyones life.

Mig (Naomi Margaret) and her brother Chris (Christian) Laker have gone with their mom to visit Aunt Maria in Cranbury-on-Sea. Maria is not actually related to them but rather is related to their father by marriage. But their father's car went over a cliff on his way to Cranbury and so now they feel obliged to pay a visit even though they always have a miserable time there. But will Aunt Maria's wheedling and "managing" drive them all crazy? And was that Mig and Chris' old car that they just saw in town -- the one that supposedly went off a cliff with their dad inside? And why are there twelve creepy old ladies that all flock around Aunt Maria and seem to know what is happening in the house without being told? This is a story of magic show more and the complicated relationships between men and women, adults and children.

What I liked most about this story was Mig -- a strong but cautious girl who is entirely believable. The family dynamics between the two siblings and their mother was familiar and really well written. I also liked the dysfunctional relationship between their parents. Mom and dad were in the process of getting a divorce when he died and so we don't see a grieving mother. We see a woman who doesn't know quite how to feel and who still holds some anger that her husband left her for another. I guess that's something that I like about Diana Wynne Jones in general. She wasn't afraid to put realistic relationships into her books and I think it's evidence that she held the intelligence of young readers in high regard.

I do wish that the magic of Cranbury had been explained and expanded a bit more. I'm still not entirely sure how it works and wouldn't have minded this book being about 20 pages longer. But I still really enjoyed this story on second read and will pick it up again sometime -- even though Maria's machinations give me goose flesh!

http://webereading.com/2012/03/dwj-march-aunt-maria.html show less

Mig, who writes stories and keeps a journal to document her experiences, tells how she, her brother Chris and their mum, are spending the Easter holidays at the home of aunt Maria who lives by the sea. Their father, who had left to live with another woman, has recently been killed in a car accident while on the way to visit the aunt.

It soon becomes apparent that Maria is a master manipulator and loves nothing more than to have Mig and her family dancing attendance on her. And she is a queen bee with a coterie of women that the two children nickname the Mrs Urs. The men of the community are mostly non entities governed by their wives, the Mrs Urs, and the only children are kept in an orphanage. Mysteries surround the disappearance of an show more Anthony Green, son of a woman who is now mentally disturbed, and it eventually transpires that his disappearance is linked with that of Aunt Maria's daughter.

Chris tells Mig that a ghost is waking him every night and trying to communicate, an occurrence which later turns out to have great significance. Chris' sarcasm and refusal to obey the aunt and her minions eventually brings retaliation from Aunt Maria who, as well as befuddling with words, turns out to have the power to turn others into animals. Mig and her family have unwittingly been caught up in a magical power struggle along gender lines in the town and to resolve their predicament, she will have to secure help from outcasts and solve mysteries including what happened to her father.

A very entertaining story with unusual characters including some truly villainous ones, and rather wacky fantasy elements. The only thing that keeps it from 5 stars is that the ending is a little rushed and also it ends up being a kindly male wizard who resolves matters rather than Mig herself. So I would award it 4.5 if half marks were allowed on Goodreads. show less

An OK young adult from Jones but not a favorite for me. Told by the journal entries of the young female protagonist, what was to be a few days at Aunt Maria's becomes an unfolding nightmare of social entrapment in a small village. Initially there is no fantasy, then there's appears to be a ghost, then her brother gets turned into a wolf, then things get weird.

Jones avoids cliches. There's something new and interesting on each page. But in this book she took no time to create a foundation of the family unit (Mother, daughter, and brother) so there's nothing to emotionally engage with.

Good for fans for Jones, not the first thing I'd recommend.

Sort of a take on Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, from a YA perspective, and critical of the gender roles forced on everyone. Also critical of the ideas in many magical worlds of "women's magic" and "men's magic".

This is not one of my favorite DWJs, but I'm fascinated by her exploration of gender roles. Her stories often have a character who is the most evil sort of traditional woman, but Aunt Maria is probably the most explicitly detailed of these. I consider Jones a feminist, but she is definitely not an old school celebration of all things women feminist. She's a small l liberal feminist, who finds gender roles responsible for a lot of repression and misery.