The Witch and Wizard series falls under the young adult category, where my reading interest usually lies. Having heard about Patterson being such a prominent author, I decided to pick up these books in good faith. Horrible mistake. The plot centers around a brother, Whit, and a sister, Wisty, that have magic powers in a suddenly (with almost no explanation) dystopian universe.
The central theme is that children have all the imagination and that they are the future in a dystopian world. Literally almost all of the adults are useless and/or evil. I could almost hop on board with all of that. The explanation of why this was happening was shoddy at best until book two or three, but if that was my only issue I think I could get over it. Unfortunately, it was not my only issue with the series.
Then there is the actual descriptive writing of this series. Besides lacking consistency on more than one occasion, the description was much too sparse for my liking for a novel. This noticeable occurred for the first two novels. I don’know if it had anything to do with the sub-authors that helped write the book, but it was bad. After half of the first novel I wanted to put it down, but couldn’t because I have to finish every novel I start. After a while it just became this mildly amusing annoyance. I finally reached the end of book three, considered that a satisfactory ending and ended my self-induced torture.
While the story line had an interesting concept and could be used to raise the self-esteem of children, I think anyone used to reading novels with descriptive events or with a higher standard in mind for what they read will find this series disappointing.
Many reviewers here are dead on (particularly from Goodreads and Amazon). The story line held great potential, but was written poorly. It was reassuring to find other readers thought the same thing I did – that this was not a finished, edited novel. The dialogue between the characters was overly cliche and sometimes horribly predictable. There were even spelling and grammar issues! One review really nails it on the head: “In a trite and oversimplified manner, we learn that our political system crumbled overnight and was replaced by the New Order.”
Manga Adaption
Have you read the Witch and Wizard series? Would you recommend it?
You think our political system can’t change radically overnight? Didn’t see Jan. 20th, 2017 coming huh? Makes this series almost prophetic.