Series: The Wolves Chronicles
by Author Joan Aiken
Is Underground (1995)
I love the Edward Gorey cover. Aiken and Gorey go together perfectly well. Aiken and Gorey sounds like the name of some sort of weird and gothic medical drama, sort of like House, if House investigated talking warts and haemogoblins and phantom limbs where you have an extra pair of hands doing un...
Midwinter Nightingale (2009)
Unless there is another Aiken book that starts with a boy meeting an annoying girl on a train, I've actually read this before, although I don't remember much about the plot. You'd think an evil werewolf, a missing king, and wantonly murdered cat would be memorable, though, wouldn't you? Maybe I s...
Dido and Pa (2002)
I first read this book (this entire series) fourteen years ago. Since then, it's been one of my favorite books of all time and Dido Twite one of my favorite characters. Dido and Pa is the Silver Chair of the Wolves Chronicles. It's darker, more complex, and it asks some very good questions. Most ...
Nightbirds on Nantucket (1999)
Man, I love these books. The Wolves of Willoughby chase is really good, and deservedly a classic, but where's the love for Dido Twite? Most people I know don't realize that this was a series (the connection to 'Wolves' is a loose one). I love the little spitfire. Anyway, these were so much fun th...
The Witch of Clatteringshaws (2015)
Alas and alack, if Midwinter Nightingale felt underdeveloped, this is sadly undercooked, almost a short story. Nonetheless, Aiken's wit and invention are present on almost every page, just not the energy and not the proper momentum that a book featuring plots about Dido's search for a new heir to...
The Cuckoo Tree (2000)
Despite being labeled "Wolves, #6" this was the fourth Aiken wrote; I think that discrepancy threw me when I came back to these books after having devoured them as a child. Not surprisingly, her writing style changed over the years, and it shows in these later Wolves books. (Or why there's still ...
Black Hearts in Battersea (1999)
Young Simon comes to London at the invitation of his old mentor, but when he arrives his mentor is nowhere to be found. What Simon finds instead is a wicked plot to overthrow King James, and only his wits and unlikely friends can help him save the dayand himself. Black Hearts in Battersea is tho...
The Stolen Lake (2005)
This book explodes like a firework in the brain, or perhaps like one of the thirteen volcanoes that encircle the misappropriated lake of the title. The ideas, the plot, the situations go beyond the merely outrageous and into the sublimely wonderful. This is a masterpiece of children's fantasy, an...
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (2000)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is best read when young, or by those with the ability to tap into their inner girl.I enjoyed the evil impostors who gleefully inflict child abuse. 'Wolves' is best read by kids who love to feel a bit of self-pity and delicious horror.Bonnie is a bit of a simpering t...