Has anyone here read Fire and Hemlockby Diana Wynne Jones? If so, could anyone tell me what the heck happened?

:grumble, grumble. Stupid oblique references:

Sheryl, it's one of those much-debated mysteries. The best I can do is that since they can only be together No Where, that means they must be together Some Where, so it's a happy ending. No, this makes NO SENSE AT ALL. It's one of those books that is so great up to the last page that you forgive it anyway.

Betsy,

Well, that's only part of what i didn't get. What exactly was the awful thing Polly did that caused Tom to be forgotten? I know that Tom and the grandmother had a discussion, but that doesn't explain why Polly keeps talking about What I Did.(Capital letters implied)

Ok, even though I have never read the books, I read the white font. And I have a question. Are the names Polly and Tom a coincidence, or is it some weird homage to Louisa May Alcott's The Old Fashioned GIrl?

I read Son of a Witch right after it came out, and I had to make myself finish it. I hated it. More specifically, I hated Liir. There were some characters I liked, but they just sort of drifted in and out of the story. This makes sense because it seemed that Liir just drifted from plot point to plot point. I would have prefered a less passive character. For a character who managed to accomplish things, he seemed to have a remarkable lack of agency that I found infuriating. I wish I could remember specifics, but I tried to push it out of my mind as I read other things.

I like Wicked overall, but there are things that I found distracting. I loved Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I don't think it's Maguire's style that I objected to, just the story he chose to tell. Also, to be fair, I am extremely attached to the original Oz books, so maybe I am instinctually reacting to his interpretations of my 'verse.

How 'bout now? Have you all read it now???

Hee. No, not yet. I changing from one book to another. Right now I am reading Wicked, American Gods, and Anyone But You.

I didn't care much for the book Wicked (although I want to see the musical), but it was the kind of "didn't care much" that translates to "I might like this if I read it at a later date and knew it was going to trash my childhood vision of Oz."

Next up in my TBR pile are "Julie and Julia," "Anansi Boys," and a couple of Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks.

justkim, I felt the same way. THere were som many things that were just left open. Like, the guy Liir saw carrying The Grimmerie, how did the page of The Grimmerie come to be where Liir found it? Who the everloving FUCK was Yackle? Just some prophet? And what possible good came from 3000 birds buzzing the Emerald City? And what the fuck about Nor? She just turned into some freakish Brad Pitt Seven Monkeys character ?

He really really dropped the ball. I loved then ending, as in, the last little bit. As in, the last sentence. Because being the Elphaba lover I am, it's nice to know she's living on and hopefully, the baby will be more like her Grandmother than her father, I hope.

Sheryl, Gosh. I haven't read the book in 20 years (oog) so all I remember is the frustrating ending.

Yes! That's it exactly!

Edited to add: The whole part about the dragons just seemed so random and not a part of any Oz I ever knew. At least it provided an answer to the murders.