House of Many Ways

I'm supposed to be not buying books this year (I have a pile of books TBR a mile high as well as my multiple library memberships), but I couldn't resist adding this to the cart when I was buying a different book for my daughter (yeah, I know, any excuse). I hadn't read this particular Diana Wynne Jones title before. House of Many Ways is a sort of sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, though it centres on a very relatable character called Charmain, who would rather curl up with a book than do anything else.

It's so much fun to curl up with a Diana Wynne Jones book and allow her to pelt you with all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff -- purple insectoid lubbocks, houses in multiple dimensions, a shabby and bookish royal family, a sweet little dog, a missing and mysterious 'Elfgift', delicious cakes -- and relax in the knowledge that they will all be woven together into a satisfying and logical plot with not a word out of place.

I raced through this story and enjoyed every minute, especially the parts where Charmain is working with the King to sift through the ancient royal archives to figure out where all their money has gone. And it was lovely to see Sophie and Calcifer again, though Howl appears in a very (intentionally) irritating disguise as an annoyingly cloying toddler called Twinkle, rather than his usual dashing self.