Review: Witch & Wizard

Witch & Wizard by James Patterson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's hard to say how I actually felt about this book, but to be totally honest, I would file it under the short, fun, sweet, and witty category. Basically, it's something that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, but not something that I would boast about to friends unless they also wanted something short and fun to amuse themselves with.

The only reason I started reading Witch and Wizard in the first place was because it came to me from the library's e-book waiting list alert. I had put myself on the waiting list for this book out of curiosity one day and had forgotten about it; then I got the email alert and decided to go ahead and check the book out for 21 days and hope to have it read within that time frame. Well, apparently 21 days was a lot more than I really needed to finish this particular book. I knew that I was going to be done by the time I hit 50% after four hours.

This book is written in a very simplistic fashion as a first person narrative through the eyes of two different narrators: fifteen year old Wisty and her eighteen year old Whit. Brother and sister chronicle their tale of how they came to be a witch and wizard in a suddenly changed society, taken over by some whack-job who calls himself "The One Who Is The One" (which amusingly reminds me of those strange names I come up with for role-playing games whenever I can't think of something cooler, so I settle with stuff like "That One Person" or "That Other Guy").

While I'm not a big fan of first person narration to begin with, there are certain instances where it works and I enjoy it just fine. In this book, I'd say that it was fine; HOWEVER, there were certain points where the flipping back and forth from Wisty and Whit almost got confusing. Pretty much there were times when I had to conscious remind myself who's POV I was reading from in each chapter, though since the chapters were short, those moments of confusion were short-lived and usually settled themselves pretty quickly when the name of the other sibling was mentioned.

The story line requires quite a bit of willingness for suspension of disbelief, especially since the groundwork of this newly formed dystopian world is still in the making. But I don't mind it too much since the readers are learning about the new screwed up world that seemed to practically fall in overnight at the same pace that Wisty and Whit are learning about it. The magic system is still a bit sketchy and the ending drifts on a cliff hanger, so it seems that it's a must that you start reading the second book when chance allows. Of course, somehow, the ending also seems to give you leeway for not needing to IMMEDIATELY seek out the second book. At least for me, I can wait it out for the next available e-book library copy on yet another waiting list.

While not the best written book ever, the book DOES accomplish what it sets off to do with enough wit and humor to make me giggle and laugh out loud. I enjoy following a set of characters with a great sense of the laughs and both Wisty and Whit have their own dry sarcasm and strange humor that I can totally relate with.

I will look forward to the next book, but I'm not going to trample anyone to get to it. It was really just a fun, light read (which reminded me of Japanese manga at times); so I can say that I really DID enjoy it.



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Review: The Sweet Far Thing

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I really wanna give this book a score between "It was Okay" and "I liked it" because I can't say that I actually liked this last book of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, but I can't particularly say that I didn't like it either. It's one of those things where the anticipation over-weighs what you actually end up getting from the book; I liked the trilogy as a whole, but I'm not saying that it was the best thing I've read since I first picked up my bookworm mission, and the concluding book to this trilogy really DID lose a LOT of steam halfway through. About 70% into the book and I suddenly felt like I just wanted everything to conclude right then and there and quit dragging the story out until it's bitter end.

Nonetheless, there is very little I really want to say about The Sweet Far Thing; it proved rather consistent in character development and progression. The writing style remained up to par, and I DID find myself wanting to know how the story would end even though a lot of things became rather predictable very quickly. Basically, the ending twist was NOT exciting to me because I had already guessed it; no harm and no disappointment, but a little bit of hope diminished that I'd be surprised. What I'm saying is, that while I approve of the ending, I'm not completely satisfied. It's a very safe, very smooth conclusion and I know that it fits in well with the story; but I personally would have preferred something different. That's just me.

Anyway, I have enjoyed the trilogy, and while it took a bit of time for me to even get into the book, once I finally figured out what was going on in the Gemma Doyle world and the story started to take it's course, I was hooked. Ms. Libba Bray does have very good penmanship, and I especially enjoyed her characters of Gemma, Ann and Felicity, the teachers (of course, I also got pretty annoyed with them as well, but at the very least they weren't all Mary Sues out to save the world; defining character flaws are always welcome... though sometimes the character flaws might have gotten out of hand and got some grumbling from me).



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