If you like: The Raven Boys, Doctor Who, Patricia McKillip, Neil Gaiman, fantasy role playing games, King Arthur
Hexwood is an impossible book for me to recommend.
Put aside that it's out of print, one of the few books by Diana Wynne Jones that hasn't been digitized, and if you do manage to get a used copy, the cover design is probably going to be horrendous.*
The plot is so twisty, if you don't throw the book across the room in frustration, then you're going to have to read it multiple times.
Jones made a bold choice with a disruptive narrative that needs to be fit together like a puzzle to figure out what the heck is happening.
I love it. It's full of surprises. I can also understand how it could drive people crazy.
There's enough King Arthur influence to help you follow along, but it can also be used to upend your expectations.
So take a moment to look at the dedication ("For Neil Gaiman"), before tackling the first three chapters that jump between sci-fi and high fantasy and Present Day.
It wouldn't work if Jones didn't have a talent for creating characters who are likable, even when they're messing up.
In fact, a big factor in the plot is that people make a mess of things. From the heroes to the villains, everyone makes mistakes from ignorance or pride or fear. But they've been sent into a paradigm that only those who learn from their mistakes can win in the end.
There are a lot of characters in Hexwood, which is part of the puzzle. Almost no one is who they seem. Imaginary people are real, real people are imaginary, and maybe a chart would help in keeping everything straight.
Ann lives in the Present Day, where the woods near her house starts behaving strangely. It becomes immeasurably deep, and what was once a clump of trees now has a waterfall and castle and river.
She meets a magician who wakes up from a spell. Deciding he doesn't want to go against those who imprisoned him, he creates a boy from the magic of the woods, intending to let the boy grow up and kill his enemies.
I did say people had to make mistakes and learn from them, right? And Anne hears voices in her head? And did I mention that there's stuff going on in outer space at the same time? Or maybe not the same time, because time is only a perception of the mind, and like I said, nothing is as it seems in this book.
If all of that didn't scare you off, this could be the book for you. Jones is adventurous in her storytelling. Even if you stumble across some holes, you have to respect how well she pulls off the impossible.
There’s also something familiar about it, though, for anyone who was reading YA fantasy back in the ‘90s.
And for fans of Maggie Stiefvater (Maggie Kelley, I’m looking at you), Hexwood is on her Goodreads recommended list.
*I first read a copy from Willard Library, but it was eventually culled from the collection. The owner of Mitten Word in Marshall ordered a used copy for me. It couldn't have been more than $5.
"Hexwood" by Diana Wynne Jones; Greenwillow Books; 1993.
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