Reviews

Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones

cobaltbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Diana Wynne Jones is always an inspiration for her twisting plots and lovingly imperfect characters and Hexwood is no exception. It's got despots and magic and robots and memory-fuckery, and while reading I was struck by the style of mildly removed perspective that it's written in, a style I have not seen continued in recent decades of sci-fi/fantasy novels, despite it's great use for a large cast of characters. 

duriangray's review

adventurous dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

tatertots709's review against another edition

4.0

This book should have been very confusing. After all, it deals with a time-skewing magical field, layer upon layer of deception, and people who are not who or what they think they are for most of the book. Yet at the end, a surprisingly touching, magical, and coherent story emerges. The end is, in fact, far less confusing than many Diana Wynne Jones's books.

chrisscorkscrew's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One of my favourite all-time books.  It is strange and deep and full of winding plot threads.  There is no other book quite like this one.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death and Racism

bmahaffy's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I wanted to like this book. The concept is really cool and it almost makes it. 7 found it confusing though and I almost walked away from it.

I think some of this was intentional, which makes sense because the plot calls for some of that on the part of the characters. But I felt bewildered at times and wondered if I had missed things and kept going back to try to figure out what was going on. The author needlessly wrapped the mental confusion, which was cool, in temporal confusion; that really didn't help. I don't think it added to the story.

On top of all that, the eBook edition I was reading was full of edit problems. Missing punctuation. It made the whole confusing thing even more so.

wawhale's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

bookishlybeauty's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious fast-paced

4.0

lyraparledor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Made absolutely no fucking sense, with bouts of brilliance here and there. A full-fledged convoluted mindfuck. God I love Diana Wynne Jones and her baffling writing.

nita022002's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

applegnreads's review against another edition

4.0

Her books are simply amazing. How does she write a story with so many little twists that make sense when they happen but you didn't quite see them coming?