Black Maria
Written by Diana Wynne Jones
Narrated by Ursula Jones
4/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
On the surface, Aunt Maria seems like a cuddly old lady, all chit-chat and lace doilies and unadulterated NICEness!
When Mig and her family go for a short visit, they soon learn that Aunt Maria rules the place with a rod of sweetness that’s tougher than iron and deadlier than poison. Life revolves around tea parties, while the men are all grey-suited zombies who fade into the background, and the other children seem like clones.
The short visit becomes a long stay, and when all talk of going home ceases, Mig despairs! Things go from bad to worse when Mig’s brother Chris tries to rebel, but is changed into a wolf .
Mig is convinced that Aunt Maria must be a witch – but who will believe her? It’s up to Mig to figure out what’s going on. Maybe the ghost who haunts the downstairs bedroom holds the key?
Diana Wynne Jones
In a career spanning four decades, award-winning author Diana Wynne Jones (1934‒2011) wrote more than forty books of fantasy for young readers. Characterized by magic, multiple universes, witches and wizards—and a charismatic nine-lived enchanter—her books are filled with unlimited imagination, dazzling plots, and an effervescent sense of humor that earned her legendary status in the world of fantasy.
Related to Black Maria
Related audiobooks
Not Just a Witch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monster Mission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dial a Ghost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Abominables Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Haunting of Hiram Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomspell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Caravan at the Edge of Doom: Foul Prophecy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shadowsmith Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sorcery & Cecelia: Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grand Tour: Or, The Purloined Coronation Regalia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starfell: Willow Moss and the Magic Thief Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Dog and His Boy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ogre of Oglefort Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret of Platform 13 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mislaid Magician: Or, Ten Years After Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Foxheart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Naughtiest Unicorn and the Ice Dragon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wizard's Promise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Drama and Danger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Scent of Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Song for Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Caravan at the Edge of Doom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wizard and the Wormhole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Children's Fantasy & Magic For You
The Wind in the Willows: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catching Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Wild Things Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mockingjay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dragonet Prophecy: Wings of Fire, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Graveyard Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coraline: Full Cast Production Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Howl's Moving Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Heir (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 1) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Warriors #1: Into the Wild Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden Kingdom (Wings of Fire #3) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The School for Good and Evil: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl Who Drank the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Good and Evil #2: A World without Princes: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cinnamon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fortunately, the Milk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Odd and the Frost Giants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Mermaid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The False Prince (The Ascendance Series, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire #2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Castle in the Air Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Cuentista Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mossflower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadowseer: London (Shadowseer, Book One) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darkstalker: Wings of Fire: Legends, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Black Maria
171 ratings15 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I had read a lot about this book before I read it and to some extent I was expecting to be disappointed. It seems this isn't really anyone's favorite DWJ book. However, I was rather surprised to find that I quite liked it. Not as much as my favorites, but it wasn't nearly as grim as I'd expected. All in all I'd say this is just as good a read as DWJ's other books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As ever it is an intriguing and well-crafted story which has to cram in an awful lot very quickly towards the end. It successfully explores the themes of, claustrophobia in a small community, and the danger of limiting gender roles, indeed for the first part of the book it does not explicitly mention magic at all,
thus allowing the very real sense of psychological abuse to be firmly established first. And my god there's an awful lot of background darkness that just went over my head when I was younger! I can't think of another book, let alone one that is nominally a children's fantasy, which casually mentions the grief induced suicide of a minor character in the closing paragraphs as a throwaway line. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another well crafted story from DWJ in which gender roles are a terrible way to organize a society, never cleaning out your car solves mysteries, and gaslighting will ruin everyones life.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An OK young adult from Jones but not a favorite for me. Told by the journal entries of the young female protagonist, what was to be a few days at Aunt Maria's becomes an unfolding nightmare of social entrapment in a small village. Initially there is no fantasy, then there's appears to be a ghost, then her brother gets turned into a wolf, then things get weird.Jones avoids cliches. There's something new and interesting on each page. But in this book she took no time to create a foundation of the family unit (Mother, daughter, and brother) so there's nothing to emotionally engage with.Good for fans for Jones, not the first thing I'd recommend.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I had read a lot about this book before I read it and to some extent I was expecting to be disappointed. It seems this isn't really anyone's favorite DWJ book. However, I was rather surprised to find that I quite liked it. Not as much as my favorites, but it wasn't nearly as grim as I'd expected. All in all I'd say this is just as good a read as DWJ's other books.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sort of a take on Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, from a YA perspective, and critical of the gender roles forced on everyone. Also critical of the ideas in many magical worlds of "women's magic" and "men's magic".
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Perhaps not one of her finest but a welcome re-read nevertheless. I like the way that it is clearly highlighted at the end that those who think men and women are intrinsically different, 'never the twain shall meet' are not in the ascendant.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I was expecting a bit of a Mary Poppins vibe, but I was pleasantly surprised by something different. I might have had different expectations if I'd known this was also titled *Black Maria.*
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Black Maria is a book that left me decidedly nonplussed. It’s a story about power, manipulation and gender roles, and the setting is uneasy and surrealistic. A school-aged girl and her family go to visit a manipulative aunt who makes a bewilderingly successful attempt to take over their lives. It reminded me very much of Spider Mansion by Caroline MacDonald, which I read about 15 years ago and also didn’t like. Despite my distaste, I do concede that Jones has been quite clever (as usual).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Black Maria is probably not one of her better works, although it may be that I'm the wrong age to get the message in the right way - it felt very much like I was being hit over the head with the elements of the story, and the gender politics (very much the feeling I get when reading some of the Sherri S Tepper). I do like the fact that the main character is female, teenaged, *and* has agency. Yes, she gets other people to help her, but it works. I found the attitude of the mother very frustrating, but I could sympathise. I found it difficult to find something coherent to say about this book, which is partly because of the book itself - there just isn't quite enough there to grab hold of.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is not one of my favorite DWJs, but I'm fascinated by her exploration of gender roles. Her stories often have a character who is the most evil sort of traditional woman, but Aunt Maria is probably the most explicitly detailed of these. I consider Jones a feminist, but she is definitely not an old school celebration of all things women feminist. She's a small l liberal feminist, who finds gender roles responsible for a lot of repression and misery.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mig and her brother Chris are forced to visit their old Aunt Maria in Cranbury during their Easter vacation. Aunt Maria is sickeningly sweet and very manipulative. But things are odd in Cranbury. Men are zombies and the women seem to control everything, with Aunt Maria being the "queen bee". At first, Mig doesn't really believe anything magical can really be going on. But when a ghost appears and Chris is turned into a wolf, she can't deny it any longer. Something bad is happening and it seems Aunt Maria is at the very center of it all. Can Mig stop her in time?Despite the plot being less original than Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy, I think this is actually my favorite DWJ book so far. There was just the right amount of paranoia, terror, sarcasm and silliness. It created a perfect mixture that I just couldn't get enough of. I loved Mig. Her secret thoughts the reader is privy to were hilarious most of the time. Chris was also a great character. His dark humor had me in stitches. The plot was a bit predictable, though. It's the only downside to the book. People visit a small town that is not all it first appears to be. Eventually they learn all the dark stuff that's going on and set the town to right. It's a fairly common plot, but it's still entertaining and DWJ does it justice, so I'm not complaining. Much, anyways ;-)This is definitely a book I'll be purchasing at some point. It is of reread quality. In fact, writing this review has actually made me want to go back and start reading the book all over again :)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One of the few DWJs I have read only once. A tough read.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not one of my fave DWJ books but i like the concept of the wolves and magic.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5unfortunately I have the American version which is why it is called Aunt Maria instead of Black Maria, as presumably calling police cars Black Marias is not common slang in America. Anyway, although this is not my favourite DWJ book, like anything she writes, it is still about a thousand times more inventive, affecting and engaging than many books written by people who think they are terribly serious and God's gift to literature.