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    Black Maria
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    Black Maria
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    Black Maria
    Ebook244 pages3 hours

    Black Maria

    By Diana Wynne Jones

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    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?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateDec 6, 2012
    ISBN9780007440191
    Unavailable
    Black Maria
    Author

    Diana Wynne Jones

    DIANA WYNNE JONES was born in August 1934 in London, where she had a chaotic and unsettled childhood against the background of World War II. The family moved around a lot, finally settling in rural Essex. As children, Diana and her two sisters were deprived of a good, steady supply of books by a father, ‘who could beat Scrooge in a meanness contest’. So, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable quest for good books to read, she decided that she would have to write them herself.

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    Reviews for Black Maria

    3.5/5

    167 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I 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.
    • 4/5
      I 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.
    • 3/5
      Sort 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".
    • 4/5
      Another 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.
    • 3/5
      An 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.
    • 3/5
      Perhaps 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.
    • 4/5
      I 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.*
    • 3/5
      Black 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).
    • 3/5
      Black 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.
    • 4/5
      This 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.
    • 4/5
      Mig 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 :)
    • 4/5
      One of the few DWJs I have read only once. A tough read.
    • 2/5
      Not one of my fave DWJ books but i like the concept of the wolves and magic.
    • 3/5
      unfortunately 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.