Diana Wynne Jones does so much with The Pinhoe Egg and makes it look so simple and easy. I think that must be her special gift as a writer: exploring dark themes and complex messages within the pages of children's fantasy novels that remain bright and fun despite the darkness and disorder lurking beneath the sparkling adventures. This, the final book in the series, is about two children from very different cultures living side-by-side who somehow manage to be change agents despite everything including their own personalities working against them. It is rife with terrible things like mind control and past atrocities being buried and difference being imprisoned rather than celebrated and torture being chosen as an alternative to murder and religious fanaticism and uncaring adults willing to harm children and towns that revel in their toxic tunnel vision. And it is also a whole lot of light, pleasant fun that is exciting and ends on a a wonderfully positive note.All of the Chrestomanci books have been concerned, one way or another, with the evil that parents and parental figures and family members can do to their young protagonists and to children in general - often for the most banal of reasons. This book takes that theme to next level and widens its scope with whole villages willing to isolate, harm, and raise their children in ignorance in order to achieve their highly questionable ends. It was a bit breathtaking to realize how deep the evil ran. Jones did a particularly canny thing by setting the first 3 chapters, 50 pages worth, within one of these villages. The reader gets to see the rather charming misadventures of a whole clan of eccentric types trying to move their ailing, senile matriarch into a new home while she tries to use the might of her magic to stop them. It was all so funny and human; by the end of the novel, when all the misdeeds had been revealed, I was thankful that these terrible people were given their moments of humanity despite the eventual revelation of their close-minded villainy.Perhaps to counter all of the darkness under the surface of this cheery adventure, Jones really ratchets up the cuteness factor. I'm used to at least one grouchy, adorable cat per novel. Pinhoe Egg has a cat of that sort, and another cat more maternal in nature, a luckless donkey, a wonderfully quirky horse, a unicorn, and most loveable of all, a baby griffin. I just want to say that again: a baby griffin! The scenes featuring the griffin and the horse together were the best sort of cuteness overload.The Chrestomanci books are about how adults can harm children, but really that's only half of her long-running theme - and not even the most important half. They are most concerned with children being given the opportunity to follow their own hearts when deciding how they want to eventually live their lives, and with children learning to trust themselves and finding an inner bravery despite what fate has handed them. Valuable lessons! The series is a marvelous achievement.
I had read a couple of Chrestomanci books about a decade ago (Charmed Life and The Nine Lives of Christopher Chant, I believe) and enjoyed them, but remembered very little about them. Fortunately, this book stands on its own, although it has backstory I know I'm missing.Anyway, it is darling. It starts a little less slowly than the other books of hers I've read (Howl's Moving Castle [still my favorite], Castle in the Air, House of Many Ways, Fire and Hemlock, The Dark Lord of Derkholm), and it also doesn't have that classic DWJ ending that those all share - you know, the one where you think you're following the plot acceptably well, and yes, sometimes little subterranean bits of plot make appearances like they're supposed to be relevant but you completely have no idea why and they're confusing but they go away pretty quickly and you're back riding the surface of the story with no trouble, and then all-of-a-sudden-in-the-last-two-pages-18-storylines-emerge-and-are-all-interconnected-and-resolve in a giant mass of confusion that you have to read twice more before you understand what happened.Was that grammar?The point is, that is both a strength and weakness of her other books, but The Pinhoe Egg doesn't have it, which is kind of nice. I don't remember if the other Chrestomanci books have it.At any rate, the story is fun, I enjoyed Cat and Marianne and Roger and Joe and the rest of the Castle folk, and I thought Marianne's relationships with her extended family were well-drawn if sometimes maddening. Gammer cracked me up every time she was onstage. In fact, she might be the best part of the book.I guess this review spent more space saying what the book isn't than what it is, but the point is, I recommend it!
What do You think about The Pinhoe Egg (2006)?
This is the last of the Chrestomanci books, chronologically, and it's really satisfying: it's set in and around Chrestomanci Castle and features Cat Chant as one of the central characters, with Chrestomanci and the rest of his family making appearances, too, and it also features a new character, Marianne Pinhoe, and her large magical family, who find themselves in a feud with another magical family who are normally their allies. Marianne and Cat are similar: they're both practical and kind, and they're both young people with strong magic who are learning how to trust and use their own strength. There's too much going on, plotwise, for me to want to attempt a summary, but there are so many great bits(view spoiler)[, from Cat's bond with a horse to the arrival at Chrestomanci Castle of a baby griffin to a very sweet reunion between Marianne and her grandfather, who she had thought was dead (hide spoiler)]
—Heather
The one where an entire culture of feuding country witches has grown up under Chrestomanci's nose, but the Castle gets wind of it through the adventures of siblings Marianne and Joe. And Cat hatches a very strange egg.I always have some vague misgivings about these books -- there's something about the ethics of the Chrestomanci universe(s) that troubles me, but I've never been able to put my finger on exactly what it is. Still, I keep reading them because they're lively and funny and quick to read, and this one is no exception. Chrestomanci (with his vagueness and his dressing gowns) is as pleasant as always, it's lovely to see Cat come into his own a bit, and I enjoyed destiny-burdened Marianne and Joe working so hard to be a disappointment. The kidlet thinks this is the funniest thing she ever read, and I hear her upstairs giggling late into the night. (2007 Locus poll: #6 YA SFF novel)
—Res
I am quite sad now that I have finished the Chrestomanci series. There will be no more, and I found the entire series and all the characters within absolutely enchanting (pun intended).I especially loved this book with all the magical creatures and the continuation of Cat Chant's story. The addition of the Pinhoes, especially Marianne and Irene, made this story all the more wonderful. The evil as well as the good made it very exciting to read.I'm sure I will read all the books over and over again when I want to escape to Chrestomanci Castle.I wish there could have been one more book in the series, but alas, I'll have to make up my own conclusions/epilogue.
—Debbie
