Rating: 
Summary: Tam Lin, or Tom Lynn?
Review: "Fire and Hemlock" is one of the newly reprinted books by Diana Wynne-Jones, and definitely worth a read. This is one of those books that so easily could have turned into cheeze, or a mediocre modern-fantasy tale devoid of magic. Instead, virtually every word and event is permeated with subtlely fantastical elements. The tale starts when nineteen-year-old Polly, looking at a "fire and hemlock" picture, suddenly remembers her old friend Thomas Lynn -- the problem is, how could she have forgotten him? And why doesn't anybody else remember him? Shifting back in time, we are shown how the preadolescent Polly wandered into a funeral, and met the quiet, mild-mannered Lynn there. He remains a presence, through letters and occasional meetings, all throughout her teenage years. The two play a fantasy game through their letters -- but then Polly starts seeing it reflected in reality. To make things worse, Lynn's strangely sinister ex-wife seems to have a strange power over him. But what it is? Who is she? And how can Polly free Lynn before it's too late? This is, in places, not an easy book to read; not everyone in it has a happy ending, and Polly's life is in some ways not a happy one. We see her seesawing between her paranoid mother, who believes that everyone is trying to keep secrets from her (almost to the point of mental illness); her father, who seems absorbed in his stepfamily; and her kindly grandmother who is one of the few stable points in her life. Jones never downplays the real pains of adolescence; there is no cheap "teen angst" here. Rather, we have Polly growing and maturing, recognizing the harsher parts of reality. One of the most striking parts of the book is when we are shown how shallow and pathetic one of Polly's former friends is, someone who previously seemed bright and vivacious. Her embarrassment when coming to her father's, her shock when her mother ships her out, and her intermittent feelings of loneliness and playfulness are all well-drawn and excellently written. With a minimum of effort, Jones provides good "atmosphere" for the supporting characters as well, especially Lynn. He's actually present in relatively little of the novel, but his presence permeates it. The grandmother is nice, as are the friends -- both past and present -- of Polly's; they range from being shallow and petty to quieter, but more loyal. This book is not as humorous as some of her other novels, though there is a sly jab at Tolkien imitators in one of the letters from Lynn. There is also some slightly more mature material, in a VERY mild joke by a slutty classmate, and the reference to a friend of Polly's briefly running off with a businessman. That, and the no-happily-ever-after vision of divorce. Why four stars? Well, because I simply could not understand how things happened at the climax. I reread those last chapters six times, and was no closer at the end to understanding what the heck happened there. It is, however, outstandingly written. The descriptions are lush and full of magic. Fans of multilayered fantasy, "Tam Lin", and a solid coming-of-age story will want to check this out.
Rating:
Summary: "But Aye She Grips and Holds Him Fast..."
Review: "Fire and Hemlock" is possibly Diana Wynne Jones's most complex and subtle novel, and it's certainly not for the younger readers who've enjoyed her most famous work, the "Chrestomanci" novels. It is most basically described as a retelling of the Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer ballads, set in 1980's England over a nine-year period. Needless to say, it is dense and complicated, filled with hidden meaning, metaphor and symbolism where two threads of life are wound together to make an intricate whole.
Told predominantly in flashback sequences, we begin when nineteen-year-old Polly Whittacker is packing to go to college when her memory begins to stir. Her recollections of a book and a picture on the wall are not as she remembers them, and only when she concentrates and really begins to think does she realise that she seems to have two sets of memories - one of a mundane school life, and one that is filled with the mysterious and supernatural: all centred around a man named Tom Lynn.
She begins to re-follow this thread of her life, beginning with her meeting with Tom Lynn when she accidentally joins a funeral at the grand Hunsdon House held by the strange Leroy family. Pursuing the strange friendship, Polly and Tom make up stories where they exist as superheroes named Tom Piper and Hero and meet many times to discuss this sense of reality they dub `Nowhere'. But something strange begins to happen - these stories of theirs have a way of becoming true, and it all seems to have something to do with Tom's sinister ex-wife Laurel and her designs for Tom and Polly.
Throughout this however, Polly also must deal with the somewhat crazy exploits of her school-friend Nina and the selfish actions of her divorcee parents: the negligence of her father and the utter self-delusion of her mother who blames everybody but herself for her problems. Also is the attentions of two young boys - the sulky Sebastian and the roughish Leslie, both of which have links to the Leroy family and their grim family heritage.
To get the most out of "Fire and Hemlock" you must be a patient and careful reader - I'd even go so far as to say it's necessary to read the book twice to fully understand it. There are so many details and plot threads that it's difficult to keep track of them all, especially when you consider all the action is melded with a different set of memories that Polly must sort out in her mind as the book goes on (not counting the range of stories that she and Tom make up!).
The characters are as usual wonderfully and vividly created and interact realistically with each other. Polly's grandmother in particular is a woman worth knowing, but the flamboyant Nina, the sullen Sebastian and the sad, haunted Tom are also beautifully presented. However, the one character I couldn't really warm up to was Polly herself - for reasons more instinctive than reasonable, I just couldn't really like her that much, and I'm afraid I'm not really sure why.
"Fire and Hemlock" is also the author's most descriptive book - usually she doesn't bother to much with details, but in this case she takes the time to carefully lay the setting, resulting in an evocative and interesting atmosphere whether it be the spookiness of Hunsdon House or the sterile cleanness of Polly's father's apartment.
The main problem with this book is that it is incredibly complicated: even after three reads I'm still a little baffled as to how and why certain things happened - the last chapter in particular is very ambiguous and unsatisfactory in its wrap up concerning Polly and her relationships with the other characters. Although she does explain certain mysteries, they are usual explained in just a few sentences which are easy to miss or not understand properly. This is rather frustrating since it's a beautiful novel which deserves to be savoured and understood - yet it's extremely difficult to do just this thanks to the lack of cohesiveness.
As a sidenote, this novel along with "Howl's Moving Castle" are Diana Wynne Jones's favourite works - with that in mind it pays to read it carefully. All in all, it is one of DWJ's most challenging books, but ultimately one of the most intelligent, intriguing and rewarding.
Rating: 
Summary: Superb, magical, wonderful - all Diana Wynne Jones traits!
Review: *IMPORTANT NOTE: Fire and Hemlock is available in my local bookshops and has been since last year, there are a stack of newly published copies so I am sure some will be out in the U S soon!* Like most of Diana Wynne Jones' books "Fire and Hemlock" has to be read several times in order to understand it fully. The book is distinctly truthful, Polly's life is not perfect with her parent's divorce and Ivy's selfishness but like most young children she forges forward in her own way "got to keep the adrenalin flowing". Her view of Mr Lynn is one of the most wonderful parts of the book. You view Mr Lynn the way she does as she grows up until most wonderfully towards the end of the book she sees him as he is. It is true- as a child I saw 12 year olds and so on as fairly well grown! As you grow up you become closer to 'grown ups' in terms of maturity if not age. The way the story is made to fit the ballad of Tamlin is also lovely, and adds to the poetic motion of the story. The friendship that springs up between Mr Lynn and Polly, the stories and letters, and brief magical visits- it all comes to a satisfying peak. There are undoubtedly "baddies" and "goodies" in the book but Wynne Jones as always leaves us slightly uncertain.."did they deserve that?" I wondered at the end. She always leaves me thinking when I finish her books, I admit to still being a little puzzled even now about the end of the book, and a little sad..you will understand why if you read the book. However if you think about Nowhere and Where Now? and Here Now...you will eventually realise there are loopholes everywhere. I choose to believe and Polly and Mr Lynn found one of those :). I hope I haven't spoiled the book for anyone, and I do recommend it as one of DWJ's best books, which I would say *is* designed for a slightly older audience. It may remind you in some ways of the end of "Archer's Goon" also by DWJ when Howard realises a few home truths.
Rating:
Summary: Full of Atmosphere
Review: A beautiful, wonderful and powerful story. This tale is full of atmosphere, tension and crackles with magic. Polly is a marvelous, almost larger than life fictional character, expertly drawn, as, indeed, are all of the characters in his book. Diana Wynne Jones is a true sorceress of words.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: A fascinating story of memory and magic and loss. Polly has two sets of memories: one which makes sense and one which makes no sense. It's easy to see which she believes to be the right ones, but somehow she keeps getting pulled back to her childhood. I gave this book such a low review because I've read it a gazillion times and I still have no idea what happened at the end. Very dissatisfying ending to a very interesting book. It's still worth a read though: maybe you can come back and post a review and tell me what happens at the end?
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: A fascinating story of memory and magic and loss. Polly has two sets of memories: one which makes sense and one which makes no sense. It's easy to see which she believes to be the right ones, but somehow she keeps getting pulled back to her childhood. I gave this book such a low review because I've read it a gazillion times and I still have no idea what happened at the end. Very dissatisfying ending to a very interesting book. It's still worth a read though: maybe you can come back and post a review and tell me what happens at the end?
Rating: 
Summary: Spare Me
Review: A friend of mine bought this book shortly before we went on vacation, and I read it twice in one weekend. To make a long story short, I disliked it intensely.
Long familiar with the story of Tam Lin, in its classic incarnations and in more modern forms, I could not warm up to "Fire and Hemlock". Tom's character was amusing and I liked him, and the other members of his musical group, just fine. They had good senses of humor and good heads on their shoulders and some measure of talent. If Diana Wynne Jones had put just half of the excellent personalities of the supporting cast into Polly, the book may have been worth my trouble.
Polly was dull and sentimental. I couldn't for the life of me find the great love between her and Tom Lynn that the story hinges on. The confusion between Polly's two sets of memories was just that...confusion. It wasn't even well-done confusion or mixed time, like that employed in "Hexwood", a story in which Ms. Jones actually pulled off the magic and metaphysics with a likable heroine and a plot that eventually made sense.
The ideas behind "Fire and Hemlock" were good. Polly was terrible.
Rating:
Summary: not for the simpleton
Review: Aparently many people consider this novel to not be her best work,but i thinki it is my favorite, and i'm workingon reading all of Jones' stuff. this book does require the reader to use their minds, and not be the average village idiot, you dont nneed to figure out the end as much as people think you do, she igves you all of the nessisary info to put it all together. if ur trying to decide whearther or not to read this, base it on past history, if you've ever seen donnie darko, and hated it because it didnt makes sense, or was confusing, dont read this book, but if you like to challenge your mind, and consider possibilites that are not average, expand your horisons and read something that aperently the normal boring person cant comprehend.
Rating:
Summary: A mix of great and muddled
Review: Diana Wynne Jones is a writer who deserves to be better known and more widely read in the USA, and this is surely her most complicated, subtle book. It is not a young child's book nor a read-aloud one; and it is not for the person looking for a straight-ahead story of sorcery and adventure. It is the sort of book that needs a reader who is willing to do some of the work: for example by not just rushing by the quotes at the head of each chapter but reading them and thinking how they might relate to the plot; noticing how the book is structured and taking that as a hint; and so on. Read the other reviews and see how much those who did loved the book -- even though they were still confused by the ending. In my opinion, Jones has asked too much of her readers. There is work that the reader just can't do (or I couldn't) to fill in the gaps. This would be a better (but longer) book if she had filled in some of the gaps; made some of the emotional transitions more understandable; given explanations for some of the weird things that are never explained. (Like: is the picture really changed, or is it Polly's perceptions that are changed?) And there's no word for the ending but "confusing" and that's hard to forgive in a writer as good and as experienced as Jones. It reads to me as if she had a deadline and just finished the dang chapter somehow to get it out. The imagery is baffling; the rules of the contest are baffling; the final result is baffling (is Laurel still alive? Can Polly and Tom now be friends or not? is Leslie free now? &c.) and there is no emotional payoff, no resolution of the emotional tension between Polly and the other characters. Despite this, I give it 4 stars because of all the really good things in it. Polly is a gallant and clever person to live with. There's lots of subtle humor (like Polly at age 11 setting out to make herself a hero). The whole issue of how Polly deals with her flawed and unreliable parents is told with immense sympathy and power. And so on. Just don't expect to understand the ending...
Rating:
Summary: Enduringly beautiful
Review: Diana Wynne Jones is an uber-talented writer and I consider this to be her best book. It is amazing: complex, and intellectually provoking, but full of heart. I once heard it compared to an onion, and indeed, I keep discovering new layers each time I read it. The story is a remarkable weaving of the Scottish ballad "Tam Lin," with the modern-day story of Polly Whittacker and her strange friendship with the cellist Thomas Lynn. The novel is divided into four musical "movements," and a coda, which is a reflection of the important part that Tom's string quartet plays in the story. But those are just a few layers of it. I am distressed to hear that "Fire and Hemlock" is out of print. If you can possibly lay your hands on it, read it! But I recommend ANYTHING of Diana Wynne Jones's highly, especially "Charmed Life," "Dogsbody," "Hexwood," and "The Time of the Ghost
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