The Ogre Downstairs

Not my favourite DWJ book but still holds a nostalgic place in my heart. I do enjoy the character growth a whole lot. The story is fun with lots of great scenes but I think the ending seems a little rushed. As another reviewer has mentioned, the parts where he hits the children are very uncomfortable. Also, weirdly the eBook misses out some of the beginnings and ends of the sentences that use the greek alphabet when compared to the paper version. It made translating it confusing.

This is about blended families. Magical realism drives the plot. It's one of my favourites from childhood, and the first DWJ book which is recognisably in her later style. Two single parents, Sally and Jack, get married. The children don't get on together. The early part of the book is written from the point of view of Sally's children, who find Jack remote and stern, and give him the nickname "The Ogre". The Ogre buys each side of the family a chemistry set to keep them quiet, but the ingredients turn out to be magic. Both sides try to keep an increasingly weird succession of magic events from the other side and both parents. The characters are well-drawn, and she uses the range of their ages well in characterisation. The story is very 1970s— not a problem with details like the vinyl LPs of rock music, for example, but the Ogre's willingness to resort to corporal punishment is startling in the 2020s. There's too much head-hopping, something she later became skilled at avoiding.