Classic Roald Dahl - every bit as whimsical and somewhat creepy as you'd expect.

Representation: Black and Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Physical assault and injury, blood depiction, animal cruelty, death of animals and parents from a car crash mentioned
Score: Six points out of ten.

I saw an adaptation of The Witches on the library shelf and I considered reading it. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem like an intriguing read. However, when I checked the reviews, they were mixed—some were positive, others were negative. When I closed the final page of The Witches, it was only okay.

It starts with the first person I see, an eight-year-old boy, whose name remains undisclosed, living with his grandmother. The boy wants to hear the story about the witches, and his grandmother details a comprehensive explanation of them. The protagonist goes into a hotel and unknowingly stumbles upon an entire conference of witches. They plan to exterminate all children (I don't understand why) by lacing candy with a formula transforming them into mice. The witches even used one child as an example, so she teams up with the boy to foil the witches' plan. I have gripes with this version of The Witches. The art is okay, but the text is challenging to follow, since it doesn't abide to any logical structure. The pacing is tedious at around 300 pages, and the plot is too simplistic, which would be perfect for a younger audience than me. Perhaps I'm too old for this one, but if I read this one three years earlier, I would've delighted myself in reading it. The concluding 100 pages have more action, but the denouement is bittersweet as the counterattack succeeds, turning all the witches into mice, but the boy is also affected. ( )

Magic

My only problem with this book is that it is too short. ( )

I read this entirely by accident and then just couldn't put it down, which is ridiculous because I have seen the film and knew exactly what was gonna happen. Still, I quite enjoyed the read, it's got a beautiful language and a much more consistent plot than e.g. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A few things still bothered me though:
- What happened to William and Mary the mice? It appears they've been completely abandoned
- I liked the "happier" ending of the film. It shows that not everything is as borderline-good-and-evil as the witches in this book.
- Two somewhat religious mentions would make me worried that children will put too much truth into them. I doubt the book has the power to indoctrinate children, but I would still prefer it if children's books such as this were free from such things. ( )