Aunt Mariah

What an awful woman she was, that Aunt Mariah!

And I can't help but feel a teeny bit guilty saying that- and that's not because I'm under her spell (or at least I hope not!) The way Aunt Mariah would make her demands by not suggesting them was brilliant, but reminded me of my grandmother so much. As soon as we met her, when she talked about "camping out" because of not having the nice silverware out, I felt like I was slapped over the face with how much it reminded me of how my own grandmother would say little things like that! Luckily, my grandmother isn't a wicked lady like Aunt Mariah and as far as I know she hasn't turned anyone into an animal. Either way, I was hooked.

I loved all the characters in this book, and how well defined each of their personalities were- my favorite being Aunt Mariah. A sweet teddy bear and the vicious Queen Bee. I really identified with Mig's personality. She was strong lady and tried her best to please, but had a sharp tongue when she needed to. She was definitely no Ms. Urs.

I enjoyed the way Diana Wynne Jones portrayed the witches in this book. I'm so used to either the ugly, cackling wicked witch or the sexy possessive witch that I was pleasantly surprised to find these awful witches hiding under the rouse of perfect little old ladies. It's such a bizarre take, because the little old lady persona would be the last thing identified as witch like. But I realized along with Mig that further on in the story Aunt Mariah and her friends were just as awful as any wicked witch, even if they pretended to be cute little ladies eating cake all day.

I found the men vs. woman witch theme to be a bit confusing though. What I understand is that the men and woman witches lived by a set of rules and oversaw certain things specific to their genders, and after Anthony Green was buried the town became unbalanced. What I don't really understand though is if it was being implied that all the woman witches were bad?

Aside from that, I thought this was a great book. From some searching around on google, I found out that this book was turned into a play. I'm curious to know how it transitioned into theater, because I wasn't able to find any videos online.