James Patterson has started another young adult series, the "Witch & Wizard."

The first is the "Witch & the Wizard" (2009) with co-writer, etc., Gabrielle Charbonnet. The plot development is standard from Harry Potter, the Narnia Series, and others of that genre I have not read. Some of the characterizations and transformations go back as far as the Greek myths.

This repetition is not damaging if the writing skill keeps reader interest in current applications rather than other/past concepts. The first, "Witch & Wizard" is a good read on plot and characterization. If you want a young reader exposed to grim brutality, however, this is the book to read.

When Patterson shifts to Ned Rust as co-whatever, in  the second book of the series, "The Gift" (2010), there is little to recognize, and this is disastrous in a series. The momentum, cohesiveness and character recognition have little to do with Book I. (What happened to Wisty's dog?) A note on the plot, there is hardly any "reprieve of reader emotion" as the plot thunders from one excruciating disaster to another. The cloudy entry into the Building of Buildings that is an important plot event beginning an unending "escape," is just one example of reader mystification.

The reader seeks in vain the  vividness, the humor, the clear characterizations from Book I. But Rust includes page after page of horrific events and developments.

Review by a Gulfport Library patron