Diana Wynne Jones is compulsively rereadable and I somehow end up returning to at least some of her mind-bogglingly wonderful work once a year. Usually after my brain has decided that it would like to stop either reading non-fiction or taking chances on new books.
The former was at fault this time - it has been weeks since I read a book that I wasn't either a) teaching or b) interested in for research reasons. So this Friday night, my brain had enough.
Hexwood is brilliant and part of why I love rereading it is that the plot is so perfectly intricate that, even when I remember most of the book, I'm still startled and amused and pleased by how it manages to work itself out in the end. I've read it several times now and you would think I would remember all the puzzle pieces by now, but Jones is so fiendishly clever that she still manages to surprise me.
I also wonder just how she managed to come up with her blend of fantasy, science-fiction, silliness that is both fantastically new and reassuringly familiar in every book. I'm not sure if this book is the ideal introduction to her, but it's everything a DWJ book should be.