Witch Week

The journey through the Chronicles of Chrestomanci continues. I don't have any memory of reading Witch Week before, and it's possible I might have started it but not continued, because honestly I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy it for the first few chapters. It really only picked up about two thirds of the way through when Chrestomanci appeared. 

Witch Week is set in a world very similar to our own, but where witches are outlawed and burned on 'bone-fires' when they're discovered -- unfortunately it seems that witches are extremely common. The school where the action takes place is so very unpleasant, and the atmosphere of threat is so strong, that I was on edge for a long way into the book, and it took me a while to warm to the characters. I think this is a book I'd enjoy much more on re-reading, and now I know that it ends well I won't be afraid to revisit it in the future (strangely, Book Grocer sent me an ad for Charmed Life today! Do they know what I've been reading? But then they should be aware that I've already bought it.)

The premise for Witch Week is strong, but the actual mechanics of the set-up felt a bit -- vague? Not as firmly conceived as I've come to expect from Diana Wynne Jones. Also, according to the internet, I'm not the first person to think that David Tennant would make a perfect Chrestomanci, which is chastening, but hey, great minds think alike and all that.