Witch & Wizard (Witch & Wizard, #1)

by James Patterson

The world is changing - the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now kids are disappearing. For fifteen-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside-down when they are hauled out of bed one night, separated from their parents, and thrown into a secret compound for no reason they can comprehend. The new government is clearly trying to suppress life, liberty, and the pursuit of being a normal teenager. Imprisoned together and condemned to death, Wisty and Whit begin exhibiting strange abilities and powers they never dreamed of. Maybe there is a reason they were singled out. Can this newly discovered witch and a wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents - and maybe the world?

• ISBN10: 0099525356
• ISBN13: 9780099525356
• Publish Date: 1 January 1999
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 14 April 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Imprint: Arrow Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

James Patterson was one of my childhood autobuy authors, mainly because of the Maximum Ride series. So, when I saw Witch & Wizard at a bookstore about 11 years ago, I bought, read and loved it enough to buy the rest of the series. After rereading, I can't take this book seriously. 

The characters are flat and unmemorable and have little to no character development. The only interesting character aspect is Wisty's dark sense of justice. Whit doesn't have a personality and Byron's change in character came out of nowhere. The dialogue is cringy and unrealistic.

The villains are one-dimensional and absurd, especially the main villain, The One Who Is The One. Every time I read his title, I felt like laughing because it's so bad. 

The chapters are short and while this makes for a fast-paced read, the format doesn't work because the story keeps on cutting off. The plot is predictable and more action-driven, but it's poorly constructed. 

I love stories about witches, wizards and magic and while there isn't a lot of magic or depth to the world, the magical aspects are intriguing. However, there's no explanation for the fantasy or dystopian aspects and I'm hoping that the world and the magic will be explained more in the rest of the series. 

Witch & Wizard is poorly-written. It's so silly, but it's also slightly entertaining when it's viewed as a satirical take on the wizard genre. I couldn't take this book seriously and I didn't even try to. 

[Kim Deister]

I am an avid James Patterson fan, especially the Alex Cross novels, and Witch & Wizard is a definate departure from his usual works. The dystopian plot line was centered on a world in which the entire political and social systems that we know have collapsed. The New Order has taken control, destroying anyone and everything in their path that doesn't fit neatly into its highly structured and dictated system. Any creativity or departure from what is perceived as "proper" by the New Order was grounds for immediate imprisonment, even execution, no matter the age. The plot line was fascinating; the total control the New Order wielded was intriguing. Whit and Wisty are the heroes of the story, completely unaware of who and what they are until their lives are torn apart by the New Order. The action was well-paced, keeping me fully engaged. The development of the characters, however, is what kept me wanting more. They were entirely believable as real people, extremely likeable. The story was told in the first person by Whit and Wisty, each chapter being dedicated to one or the other. I liked that differing viewpoint as it kept the story lively. The language used was humorous, appropriate for the age of the first person narrator of the chapters. It was a creative way to blend humor with an otherwise bleak, dystopian story. The story began and ended with essentially the same scene, a cliffhanger for the next installment. I would have thought that ending the story with the same questions that I had when I started would leave me frustrated at the end, but that was not the case. The "meat of the story" in between made that scene clearer, changing it from a teaser at the beginning to a jumping off point at the end. I am definately looking forward to the next book!

[wyvernfriend]

The story is split between Whit and Wisty Allgood a brother and sister who live in a totalatarian state that bans almost everything, except what's approved and whats really approved is the cult of The One. The One who is The One is the head of this group and he has strange power over people. Power that he's abusing. With strange powers of their own the two are coming to the fore under pressure.

The twins seem to have a lot of power without a lot of backlash to themselves, they seem to accept the powers easily without any fear or wonder and their voices don't seem to be all that different (their stories are told in alternative chapters). My favourite part of the book: the ending piece where they have an extract from the manual condemning previous music and fiction with thinly disguised books from our world. I found the characters largely overpowerful and without depth.