by Diana Wynne Jones
Recommended by Neil Gaiman
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Starts with a striking, comic premise (a hulking Goon in the kitchen) and keeps a brisk, mischievous tone as ordinary suburban life collides with seven controlling siblings who run the town. what works best is clever, character-driven scenes, wordplay, and sly satire of petty power; its useful part is readable oddness and a voice that delights in the eccentric. The main limitation is uneven pacing and occasional tonal leaps that make the middle feel digressive for readers seeking tight plotting or modern realism.
This summary and audience guidance are AI-generated from the book's description and its recommendation history, last updated June 2026. Recommendations, quotes and sources elsewhere on this page come from published material and are not generated.
"Face the facts! This town is run by seven megalomaniac wizards!" When Howard Sykes comes home to find a giant thug the Goon in the kitchen, life turns upside down. Archer, one of seven siblings who control everything in their town from electricity to the police, has sent the Goon to collect the two thousand words Howard's father owes him. Su...
Difficulty:hard
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View available editions on AmazonWhy recommended
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Teen & Young Adult, Adult, and Most Recommended Books.
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Neil Gaiman
“She was the best writer of magical children's fiction of our generation. I don't know if this is the best of her novels, but it's my favourite.”
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Consider The Republic by Plato. Recommended by 13 sources.
“Plato stages an extended Socratic conversation that moves from concrete questions about justice into broad proposals about an ideal city, the structure of the soul, and what counts as reality and knowledge. Reading alternates brisk question-and-answer snippets with long, cumulative demonstrations that reward careful attention and annotation. Main value: a wealth of thought experiments for testing political and ethical intuitions. Main limitation: repetitive refutations, long policy sketches and dense metaphysical passages can feel abstruse and slow; patience and some philosophical background help.”
Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
