Fire and Hemlock
Yay! This is great -- a DWJ community! I've been reading her stuff since long before Harry Potter made children's/YA fantasy cool again, and I currently have 24 of her books sitting on my shelf (thank goodness for used bookstores on the Internet!). It's t hanks to her and not to high school poetry classes that I can recognize "Go and catch a falling star..." Do I have a favorite among her books? Well, if you held me down and told me I could only keep three of them, I'd have to say Fire and Hemlock, Charmed Life, The Spellcoats, Howl's Moving Castle....oh wait, that's four, but surely you won't force me to rack my brains and try to decide which one to evict from my list?
And since the intro to this community did suggest it....can I start a discussion on a question that's been plaguing me since I first read Fire and Hemlock in high school -- specifically, what *is* an Obah Cypt? How was it used to make Tom's bargain with Laurel, and what does Granny mean when she says to Polly (after Polly touches it), "You may have voided the charm, but that's no need to kill him"? OK, I admit I may not be the most astute reader (um, yes, I was surprised when I found out who Venturus was), but I forced a friend of mine who's an English major and children's book writer/editor to read the book, and she couldn't explain it to me either.
There are hosts of other things about Fire and Hemlock that baffle me, as much as I love it, but I think I should just start small for now. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts -- nice to meet you all!
And since the intro to this community did suggest it....can I start a discussion on a question that's been plaguing me since I first read Fire and Hemlock in high school -- specifically, what *is* an Obah Cypt? How was it used to make Tom's bargain with Laurel, and what does Granny mean when she says to Polly (after Polly touches it), "You may have voided the charm, but that's no need to kill him"? OK, I admit I may not be the most astute reader (um, yes, I was surprised when I found out who Venturus was), but I forced a friend of mine who's an English major and children's book writer/editor to read the book, and she couldn't explain it to me either.
There are hosts of other things about Fire and Hemlock that baffle me, as much as I love it, but I think I should just start small for now. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts -- nice to meet you all!