Review of "Witch & Wizard The Fire"

Review of "Witch & Wizard The Fire" by James Patterson and Jill Dembowski (2011) is the third of the "Witch & Wizard" series ("Witch & Wizard" and "The Gift" precede it).

 

This series is under a general heading of "Readers of all Ages"but it is listed with other books aimed at a younger audience. This series audience seems to be for young adults with the chief characters in middle to high school.

 

A caveat is that Patterson and Dembowski present a constant violent reading diet to young adults of grisly descriptions and events throughout the book. Examples: "horror"; "blood" by the buckets splashed all over the characters, the bodies, and the environment; "pustules"; "hot and oozing mess"; "eyes puff as blood leaks into them"; "burning at the stake" (with full descriptions of smells, and visuals); "vomit and blood"; "rotting flesh"; "rotting flesh, mass of decaying arms, slimy flesh, decay, gagging stench"; etc.

 

You get the idea.  But remember, young readers are reading page after page after page of blood, gore, and decay that somehow, miraculously,  is supposed to result in the With and the Wizard leading the populace into a new and better society.  An oxymoron plot device if there ever were one.

 

This said, this third volume, in contrast to the second (The Gift" with Ned Rust) that started from nowhere and ended there, is clearly plotted with echoes of characterization from Volume 1 that resonate for some humorous  characterizations, at times, as well as what I assume is Patterson's contribution in the emotional responses of particularly the Wizard that have their own resonances to Patterson's Alex Cross series.

 

Review by a Gulfport Library patron.