Witch and Wizard

Witch and Wizard is a dystopian fantasy novel written by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet that feels like a mix between Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars. Like Harry Potter, there are the young protagonists that have magical abilities that they’re unaware of until one day when they come under extreme pressure. Unlike Harry Potter, though, the protagonists, a brother and sister, seem to have had a nice and loving family, but the family is separated once the authorities show up to the family’s home and accuse the kids of being a witch and wizard. The Lord of the Rings similarity comes from a dark overlord antagonist looming in the background whose name is something like The One Who is the One, also a Harry Potter similarity. The Star Wars similarity comes from a spunky rebel group fighting to save their world from dark forces.

Conclusion

The book is fine. It’s fine. I didn’t feel compelled to continue with the story, but it was adequate. It’s a story. One noticeable aspect of the book is the dialogue. I watched one review online to refresh my memory of the book, and the reviewer, a young kid, thought that the way the teenagers spoke in the book wasn’t realistic. I recall having the same feeling, but I thought that maybe the book was older than I thought and that was just how young people talked back then or maybe, this was the conversational style of a culture that I was unacquainted with. Apparently, it was neither.

Overall, the book was fine, nothing spectacular. 

Why I Chose this Book

I think that one day, I was looking for a fantasy novel to read and came across Witch and Wizard on rbdigital.com. I was a little bit skeptical about reading this book, though, because I saw that it was written by James Patterson and from what little I know about him, fantasy and science fiction aren’t really his specialties. But, I guess that’s why he worked with a co-author. Once, I heard that a famous author, not sure if it was Patterson or not, will write an outline of a book and a co-author will basically fill it in with the story. Of course, the big-name author gets most of the credit for writing the book, again, not sure if this was Patterson or not, but I thought about this when reading Witch and Wizard. Maybe James Patterson wanted to try his hand in the fantasy genre and wanted to catch some of the Harry Potter wave. The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, was published in 1997 and Witch and Wizard was published in 2009. Anyway, Witch and Wizard’s book cover was interesting and James Patterson is a well-known author, so I gave it a try.