#but she's also not the kind of person who'd care about that sort of collateral

[soath]

This episode makes me wonder if there are TWO Breach avenues. One being run by Saskia/Hieronymous/et al which is targeting high Caenum service workers with nowhere else to go but the flexibility to disappear with little repercussions... and one being orchestrated by Kozma Laszlo which is inciting more high level political figures to defect and aiming to destabilize the Trust itself rather than just sneaking away a few unfortunate souls. It's possible both were being run out of Midst too; through the Black Candle cabaret and another in one of Laszlo's businesses. The moon mining operation seems like a possible hub and covering up evidence of her collusion would add an additional motive for the Baron to destroy it.

[e-b-reads]

saw the post you reblogged ft. diana wynne jones' enchanted glass and was curious what you thought about its framing of aidan's real parentage, which i found to be... tonally very weird?? [spoilers to follow, in the outside chance you were mentioning the book without having finished it!] like, i'm absolutely not opposed to the depiction of creepy/predatory &c dynamics in fiction, even YA; but the last-minute revelation that andrew's beloved grandfather had sex with, and what's more got pregnant, a troubled teenager a good half-century his junior, who'd been entrusted into his care for 'sorting out,' and then on top of all that failed to disclose his role in this ethical shitshow (as per the letters in chapter twelve) to the girl's parent, whose confidant he remained? pretty seriously jarring imo! and then for the only intradiegetic reaction to be andrew's sputtering “well, i’ll be—!” twice, after which the book promptly ends...? i mean, andrew's admittedly a bit of a buffoon, so it's not out of character that he'd duck away from really engaging with a development like this, but. just struck me as an awfully lead balloon to drop on your readers, particularly young ones, without any real in-text acknowledgment of just how heavy it is! anyway, the casual addition of that twist really colored my overall reaction to the book, so seeing you give it a thumbs-up made me wonder if you had any thoughts on that particular aspect. either way, happy hammocking! :)

First, it is probably safe to assume I’ve finished any DWJ book I blog about b/c I have read all those I can get my hands on! (So there’s a few I haven’t read, but not many.) Which does segue into my general response to this, which is that I guess I just discovered DWJ at the right age (Charmed Life at age 10 was the first) to, idk, imprint on her? in such a way that I go into every book of hers determined to love it, and then kind of deal with any qualms as they come. I don’t expect other ppl to do this! But it is both a nice thing for me—any time I read something new-to-me by her, I know I’ll enjoy it, even if I don’t know quite what I’m getting—and possibly makes me not the best person to rec them to others. (I do rec them to others anyways, but I try to be choosy about it!)

more specific response to the rest of this under the cut b/c it got quite long (and also has Enchanted Glass spoilers)

To be specific about Enchanted Glass, I do really like it, probably partly just because (as has been overstated by now) I like her voice; also I like that the humans (as opposed to “them who can’t use iron”) are themselves a force to be reckoned with (OK, so some can use magic, but they’re still definitely human, and I’ve read a few human-vs-fae books where any humans who don’t have some fae ancestry are just collateral damage); I also like that the sides aren’t actually quite as simple as humans vs. fae. BUT I do kind of need to process that ending every time I read. I do wish there was more there, that the characters spent a little more time w/ the revelation. I think that Andrew’s response is pretty Andrew-y of him; particularly, I think he’s been feeling vaguely guilty about claiming Adrian as a relative when he isn’t much of one, so his first reaction is self-centered relief that this part is true after all. And he does at least wonder briefly about what to tell Adrian, so you know (hope?) there will be more considering/processing. But it does sour me on Jocelyn as a character (to put it mildly), and tbh, skimming over some of the end bits, I’m not sure that’s what DWJ intends. It’s possible the reader is supposed to put the onus on Adrian’s mom and decide she seduced this way older man who just sort of succumbed to her. Which (hopefully obviously) I think is some BS; like if you’re sixty or whatever and a 17-y-o you’re responsible for comes on to you, just don’t sleep w/ her?! I wonder if yr also supposed to assume she slept w/ Mr. Brown too, and Jocelyn assumed the kid really was his (Brown’s) and not Jocelyn’s, so that’s why he never came clean…still not great. (Maybe if DWJ wrote the actual interactions themselves, she’d be able to make me, NOT absolve Jocelyn, but sympathize(?) w/ him more, but I’m not sure. And she didn’t, she wrote a kid’s book.) Which also makes me wonder, b/c I read this book for the first time in…maybe high school, but possibly I was a little older than that. So I have no idea what I wld have thought as a younger kid, and I do agree w/ DWJ (from essays/interviews) that kids can handle stuff in books that adults don’t expect, but also agree w/ you that, at least to close-to-adult me, this was a somewhat jarring tone shift at the end of the book, and it might possibly be a bit much for a young reader.

So yeah, the kinda flippant “it’s weird” in my tag was definitely meant to convey some of all this, but I do still love the book myself (without necessarily expecting others to) b/c of all the other stuff in it. Like I saw your post abt Power of Three a little while ago and…I haven’t read it myself in quite a while (it’s one I don’t own) and I hope I wld have picked up on the squidgyness of the fat phobia myself on my next reread, b/c when I read your post I was like “oh…yeah that does happen and I can see now it’s not great;” but I also expect to read it again someday and still enjoy the parts I enjoyed before. idk. I think part of my reaction to all DWJ books is like…I have friends irl who I don’t always agree w/ about everything, but I still like and respect them and we can still talk about the things we disagree on. Well, published authors aren’t that, they are putting out a polished product for ppl (sometimes children!) to consume, but I spent such a foundational, awkward time in my life “getting to know/spending time w/” DWJ via her books that she is still like my friend in the little juvenile corner of my mind that loves her, and I will always give her books more of a pass than I will other ppl’s.