Black Maria, by Diana Wynne Jones

[sophia_sol]

I recall reading this book long ago when I was a kid, but it didn't click for me the way the Chrestomanci books did. So I decided to try it again as an adult since sometimes books change dramatically when you come back to them later. But this one, interestingly, has not changed in how I feel about it, even all these years later. Of course, I don't remember any details of what I thought then, but my emotional reaction to the book upon reaching the end feels just the same.

Mig and her mum and brother go visit her aunt Maria, who is singularly awful, and get caught up in the town's weirdness. Is basically the plot of the book. Maria's particular brand of awful is really well depicted, and I liked the family relationships between Mig and her mum and brother. But...idk, the town's magic secret and the men vs women thing and the whole showdown at the end, none of that really worked for me. And I didn't really like Anthony Green, and he became such a huge part of the whole story. Nothing wrong with any of it, I don't think, I just don't personally like it.

So overall, though there's lots to admire in DWJ's writing as always, this one just isn't for me.

Comments

[skygiants]

Black Maria is such a weird book -- I find it really fascinating to kind of watch DWJ try and work out her super messy Gender Feelings, even though I want to fight her about most of them. (I remember reading somewhere in an essay of hers that she found it difficult to write female protagonists because it always got UNCOMFORTABLY PERSONAL and this is a book where you can definitely see that.) And there are bits of it I think are genuinely brilliant: Mig's intensely relatable desperation to be able to think of herself as brilliant and special ("ONLY A GENIUS WOULD USE THE WORD NACREOUS!" is always so funny to me), the creepingly banal horror of stuff like Maria's passive-aggression and the creepy paintings and the muesli scene, the fact that Mig's mum's standard YA-fantasy-parent distance from the plot is actually magic and as soon as the magic is lifted she is all up in there with a vengeance, the sheer joy of the kitten transformation ... it's a bunch of great set pieces strung together on this weird unraveling braid of DWJ's Discomfort With Femininity, and I don't really think it works as a book at all but I keep coming back to it because it's so interesting!

[sophia_sol]

Oh yeah I definitely feel like if I was reading this book in a headspace that has more room for like.....cogent analysis instead of just escape from reality, I would have come out of it with Thoughts about DWJ's treatment of gender in this book. Because she's clearly trying (and failing) in interesting ways!

but I think my favourite thing is how 100% Mig's mom is THERE to do everything she can as soon as she's able to (while still being imperfect, I love how much she doesn't Get the time travel stuff). It's frustrating how many kids' books, in order to be able to tell a story that allows children agency in big situations, have only adults who are either terrible or absent.

[lokifan]

Yeah, I think I've only read that book once? Which is WILD for me.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, the DWJ books I read as a kid and really liked, I reread so much! And not this one.