"The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol 1" +

[fiefoe]

So far, I have read "Charmed Life", "The Lives of Christopher Chant", and "Conrad's Fate". The 1st one perhaps showcases the adult Christopher best; I was too busy keeping track of lives left to the future Chrestomanci in the 2nd book; and the 3rd one works fine as an audiobook.

Diana Wynne Jones teaches us that the only thing you can count on is evil relatives.

• Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person.
• "And it's a pity too that I've no right to open your letters. I  hope you don't get many, or my conscience will give me no peace."
• "Mary's beside herself this morning," Roger said. He winked. For a moment there were two Marys, one real and one vague and ghostly.
  
• "Creeping antimacassars!" said Janet.
• "I warn you," said Mr. Saunders. "That is the most spoiled dragon in the world." <> "I'm the only dragon in the world," the dragon said smugly.
• For half an hour after that the hospital was in total confusion, while everyone tried to catch a five-foot corpse clothed mostly in a flying sheet, which raced up and down the corridors shrieking that it was missing cricket practice.
• Dr. Pawson's teeth were brown, and they lay higgledy-piggledy in all directions, like a fence trampled by cows.
  

__ the thinness of one's soul; giddy stairs; looking like a wet week; get off your hambones
__ newspaper screws; eldritch; football rattle