Charmed Life
Ratings10
Average rating3.8
An elegant stranger appears on seedy Coven Street and collects the two Chant orphans -- Gwendolen, a powerful young witch, and Cat, her brother. The stranger, known as "Chrestomanci," delivers the children to the grandeur of Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.
These can be read in the order published, or the author has suggested a different reading order, found here: https://www.howtoread.me/chrestomanci-order/
Series
Featured Series
6 primary books9 released books#1 in Chrestomanci
Chrestomanci is a 9-book series with 6 primary works first released in 1977 with contributions by Diana Wynne Jones.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I didn't get this book at all. Winner of awards, recommended profusely online and described as “subtle, funny and smart” by no less than Neil Gaiman... I found it tiresome, bland and rather vacuous. There are nice touches - Gwendolyn making the stained glass windows come to life, for one - but everything feels rather sketchy and unplanned. Things happen for no reason to partly drawn characters without any sense of narrative drive. It's wishy washy.
I should add I bought this for my nephew and thought I'd dip into some non-Rowling children's fiction before I gave it to him. Maybe I'm too old and it's something that grabs you when you're young, but to be honest I'm not sure I want to give it to him now, I'm not sure he'll thank me for it!
