Happy New Year! 1st Review - Witch & Wizard

Friday, January 1, 2010

First things first...the lovely Miss Lucy over at Delightful Reviews gave me this lovely little award/mention! Thank you so much, Lucy!
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
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So, just 10 of the lovely new blogs I've found are...




1. A Bookful of Thoughts
2. Loves to Read
3. StephTheBookworm
4. Elegantly Bound Books
5. Cleverly Inked
6. Lisa & Laura Write
7. A Haunt of Ancient Peace
8. Simple Life and Reading
9. Books At Midnight
10. Amna Writes


Alright, down to business. I just finished Witch & Wizard by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet.



"It's overwhelming. A city's worth of angry faces staring up at me like I'm a wicked criminal. The stadium is fulled past capacity. Hundreds of thousands of curious, uncaring, or at least indifferent, faces...And there are no moist eyes, much less tears. No words of protest. No stomping feet. No fists raised in solidarity. In fact, as the countdown ticker flashes onto the giant video screens, it's looking to be my family's last day. I see my brother, Whit, wondering if there's some last-minute way out of this. I see my mother crying quietly for Whit and me. I see my father, stooped with resignation, but smiling at me and my brother - trying to remind us that there's no point being miserable in our last moments on this planet. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's a lot to cover before we get into the details of our public executions. So let's go back a bit..."


Sounds good, huh? Ok, so Witch & Wizard follows brother and sister duo, Whit and Wisty, in the midst of a New Order led by The One Who Is The One. They're captured by an army in the middle of the night and told they are going to jail because they are a witch and wizard. In this jail, they find out that hundreds of kids are on trial and death row because they bend the rules, or slip up, or make the New Order harder to control. While in prison, Whit and Wisty are judged by The One Who Judges, condemned to death, and somehow run into Whit's dead girlfriend, Celia, who is lingering in the Shadowland. We learn that there are five levels of reality, and Whit and Wisty have been captured to evade the outcome of a prophecy saying this witch and wizard combination will bring down the New Order.

I was so excited to finally read this. Even the inside front cover is ominous, saying the book you are holding is one of the last references to the old order, and all other music, books, etc., have been banned. I guess I thought this might be a cross between Fahrenheit 451 and The Crucible. It wasn't. To be honest, this book was so devoid of emotion, it was almost painful to finish. All the villains - the Matron, The One Who Judges - they all have the stereotypical greasy bad-guy look. I also didn't know Whit and Wisty were actually a witch and wizard. It would have been ok if there had been a process to discover their powers. There wasn't.

On one single page, I count 32 exclamation points, and it was kind of a pattern throughout. Even the number of analogies in the book were overdone. I hate to give bad reviews, especially when I was really excited to read a book, but at best, I'll give this a 2 out of 5, and I'm being generous. The cover, the excerpts, all of it...it's much better than the book actually is. Here's to hoping the eventual sequel is better because, yes, it's a cliffhanger ending.

14 comments:

  1. Congrats on the award, and thanks so much for nominating me! Sounds like this book was a bummer. That is disappointing to hear because James Patterson's books are usually excellent... but his books are always written with someone else nowadays which may be saying something.

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  2. Oh, 32 exclamation points?! Ouch. I've heard some bad things about this book, but that has to be the worst. Great review though, and congrats on the award! :)

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  3. Congrats on your award, and thanks in return! :) Hehe.

    I've never read anything by Patterson but have always heard good things about it...This one, I guess, not so much, lol. Thanks for the honest review!

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  4. Goodluck on your interview tomorrow :) I bet it'll turn out great!

    Aw, and thanks, that makes me so happy! :D I really love your blog, as well. I enjoy being on it every time ;)

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  5. I appreciate your honest review. It reminds me of some of my students, who are novice writers, who load down their writing with exclamation points. Something I reckon they'll outgrow by the time they're about 14 or so. Oh well.

    Congrats on the lovely award!

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  6. The plot sounds very confusing and complicated. Good honest review :)

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  7. Thanks for the award and congrats on getting it yourself!

    Nice, honest review. I was tempted to get this book just because it sounds so good, but I'm happy I didn't. I've never actually read anything by James Patterson, but from his popularity alone, I would have thought that this would have been a decent read. Too bad that wasn't true.

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  8. Thank you.

    You are the first review I have read of this and it doesnt seem like much of a read

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  9. Great first review, it sounds like an interesting book :) Thanks for the award! Have I told you how much I love the name of your blog? Its awesome :)

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  10. Thanks for the heads up Melissa, I appreciate the honesty so I won't have to waste my time on it.

    -Briana

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  11. Thanks for the honest review! I will be taking this one off by huge TBR pile. Don't want to waste my time when I have so many other books to read.

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  12. I'm glad I saw your review for this book. I actually won it on a website last week, still waiting for it in the mail =)

    I admit,the cover is enchanting and strong, I hope I'll like it.

    ~Jannette~ =D

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  13. I have the same feeling of the book =(

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