Black Maria

Mig and her brother Chris are forced to visit their old Aunt Maria in Cranbury during their Easter vacation. Aunt Maria is sickeningly sweet and very manipulative. But things are odd in Cranbury. Men are zombies and the women seem to control everything, with Aunt Maria being the "queen bee". At

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first, Mig doesn't really believe anything magical can really be going on. But when a ghost appears and Chris is turned into a wolf, she can't deny it any longer. Something bad is happening and it seems Aunt Maria is at the very center of it all. Can Mig stop her in time?

Despite the plot being less original than Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy, I think this is actually my favorite DWJ book so far. There was just the right amount of paranoia, terror, sarcasm and silliness. It created a perfect mixture that I just couldn't get enough of. I loved Mig. Her secret thoughts the reader is privy to were hilarious most of the time. Chris was also a great character. His dark humor had me in stitches.

The plot was a bit predictable, though. It's the only downside to the book. People visit a small town that is not all it first appears to be. Eventually they learn all the dark stuff that's going on and set the town to right. It's a fairly common plot, but it's still entertaining and DWJ does it justice, so I'm not complaining. Much, anyways ;-)

This is definitely a book I'll be purchasing at some point. It is of reread quality. In fact, writing this review has actually made me want to go back and start reading the book all over again :)

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This is not one of my favorite DWJs, but I'm fascinated by her exploration of gender roles. Her stories often have a character who is the most evil sort of traditional woman, but Aunt Maria is probably the most explicitly detailed of these. I consider Jones a feminist, but she is definitely not an

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old school celebration of all things women feminist. She's a small l liberal feminist, who finds gender roles responsible for a lot of repression and misery.

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Black Maria is probably not one of her better works, although it may be that I'm the wrong age to get the message in the right way - it felt very much like I was being hit over the head with the elements of the story, and the gender politics (very much the feeling I get when reading some of the

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Sherri S Tepper). I do like the fact that the main character is female, teenaged, *and* has agency. Yes, she gets other people to help her, but it works. I found the attitude of the mother very frustrating, but I could sympathise.

I found it difficult to find something coherent to say about this book, which is partly because of the book itself - there just isn't quite enough there to grab hold of.

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unfortunately I have the American version which is why it is called Aunt Maria instead of Black Maria, as presumably calling police cars Black Marias is not common slang in America. Anyway, although this is not my favourite DWJ book, like anything she writes, it is still about a thousand times more

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inventive, affecting and engaging than many books written by people who think they are terribly serious and God's gift to literature.

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Not one of my fave DWJ books but i like the concept of the wolves and magic.

One of the few DWJs I have read only once. A tough read.

I was expecting a bit of a Mary Poppins vibe, but I was pleasantly surprised by something different. I might have had different expectations if I'd known this was also titled *Black Maria.*

Perhaps not one of her finest but a welcome re-read nevertheless. I like the way that it is clearly highlighted at the end that those who think men and women are intrinsically different, 'never the twain shall meet' are not in the ascendant.

Sort of a take on Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives, from a YA perspective, and critical of the gender roles forced on everyone. Also critical of the ideas in many magical worlds of "women's magic" and "men's magic".

I had read a lot about this book before I read it and to some extent I was expecting to be disappointed. It seems this isn't really anyone's favorite DWJ book. However, I was rather surprised to find that I quite liked it. Not as much as my favorites, but it wasn't nearly as grim as I'd expected.

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All in all I'd say this is just as good a read as DWJ's other books.

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An OK young adult from Jones but not a favorite for me. Told by the journal entries of the young female protagonist, what was to be a few days at Aunt Maria's becomes an unfolding nightmare of social entrapment in a small village. Initially there is no fantasy, then there's appears to be a ghost,

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then her brother gets turned into a wolf, then things get weird.

Jones avoids cliches. There's something new and interesting on each page. But in this book she took no time to create a foundation of the family unit (Mother, daughter, and brother) so there's nothing to emotionally engage with.

Good for fans for Jones, not the first thing I'd recommend.

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Another well crafted story from DWJ in which gender roles are a terrible way to organize a society, never cleaning out your car solves mysteries, and gaslighting will ruin everyones life.