The severity of message is mitigated somewhat by the few mentions of age or maturity. The final suitor might be considerably older (and pairing with one of the younger sisters). One is clearly 15, and another appears to have been highly educated (although still young). The age of the men is more indeterminate. Both of the younger two daughters seriously consider marriage in the book though there are some hints that the marriage will have to wait until they are older. The age of the middle daughter seems to be closer to the youngest. This is compounded by the fact that the girls are all teenagers, the oldest is 18, the youngest 14. The subtle message that saturates this book is that girls should be pursuing a romantic interest. The book, in large part, is about three daughters that are romantically pursued by various men (and worried over by their eldest sister). Dianna Wynne Jones's novel contribution to the genre seems to be that she turns many tropes on their head: the man, for instance, is the one that gets perfumed and prepares for hours in the bathroom. Romance: This is a romance as much as it is a fantasy. Those can be divided into two areas, romance and magic. My concern in reading this with my daughter were the more subtle and steady messages throughout the book. These all are very minor incidents in the story one could easily read and miss them entirely. There is also a holiday where alcohol is widely available and it implied that women are playfully and desirably pursued in the festive atmosphere. One of the main characters does get smashingly drunk, the ill-effects the morning after does, however, serve as a minor warning to young readers. The few violent scenes are cartoon-like in that they only vaguely describe injury or are more slapstick in nature. There are few expletives (d-, thrice) and a moderate number of assorted euphemisms. On the face of it, it seems appropriate for middle-to-late elementary school-age children. As other reviewers have noted, this is a light-hearted, whimsical, meandering fantasy tale.
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