Should you read Witch & Wizard by James Patterson?

Witch and Wizard is the first book in a series about two young teenagers and their adventures in a world that has been taken over by an evil new government. I was excited when I saw that my Nook was offering this book at the low price of one dollar. I am always up for a good bargain and a good story so I downloaded it immediately. The book tells the story of a brother and a sister, who are taken away from their parents and then quickly, and unfairly, sentenced to death for being a wizard and a witch. The brother and sister believe the charges to be ridiculous as they assume they are no different from any other kid until, during their imprisonment, they unexpectedly display signs of having special powers. Their powers combined with assistance from another realm help them to escape and they then discover the world has been taken over by a new, evil, kid-hating government. The two main characters also learn that their parents are in hiding from this new government. Not only are they dealing with their newly discovered powers, the existence of other realms, and trying to find their missing parents, but now they are also involved in a revolution led by other children to help save the world.

I am unsure if my twelve year old self might have better related to the characters in this book; however, my older, adult self, found the characters flat and somewhat annoying. I wanted to like them and get involved in the story, but the characters did not seem to have much depth to them to help bring them to life. The book goes back and forth between the sister and the brother narrating the story from their own perspective. I felt the sister was always trying a little too hard to come across as funny and sarcastic. These little sarcastic comments throughout the story make up the majority of her personality. I had trouble relating with her character. She adores her brother completely, bravely faces a death sentence, and embraces her new powers a little too nonchalantly. Her entire personality seemed a little oversimplified. The brother's perspective was also dull and did not add much to the story. His character did provide a bit of an awkward and uninteresting romance between himself and his girlfriend, who had recently been turned into a ghost, but somehow that didn't even add any attachment to the characters. The main aspect of his personality is that he is athletic and good looking and strangely this was mostly described by his sister. The story is filled with horrid adults and other non-interesting children that fill in the story line, but did little to add that needed "something" to help me get into the story. The author places the characters in one dangerous and hopeless situation after the next, but somehow I was never anxious for them and did not have much motivation to continue reading. I am definitely not an author and probably could not even come close to describing why this book was so uninteresting, but in my opinions, it definitely lacked whatever it is that makes a story come alive and attach you to the characters.

The characters in this book did not appeal to me and I believe this kept me from enjoying this book and wanting to complete the series. I typically have a hard time putting a book down, but this short novel actually took me some time to finish. All of the events that these characters went through were so over the top that I had trouble getting caught up in the characters' peril and feeling any sort of anxiety or that "must keep reading" feeling you get when you are dying to know what happens next. I am certain that there is a crowd out there who appreciates and loves this story for what it is, but I am not among them. I had a hard time getting into the story and probably would not have shed a single tear if one of the characters had not made it out of there alive. I had been excited to see that one of my bargain-priced books was from James Patterson and had high hopes for the story. It quickly became clear to me as I began reading, that this book was aimed for a much younger reader. I have previously enjoyed other books, such as the Harry Potter series, that were aimed at children and still found them extremely entertaining. This book, however, did not provide that level of entertainment for me. The plot seems like it could have been exciting, but without feeling any sort of connection with the characters, it read more like a simple and somewhat ridiculous children's story. I know this author appeals to a lot of people and I will still check out some of his other books, but I'll avoid this particular series. I am unsure if the preteen reader might enjoy this series more than I had and I would feel comfortable enough to pass the book along to one if I knew any. The book definitely has an adult versus kid theme to it, but for the most part it seems fairly harmless. Some violence is mentioned by the evil adults, but the book does not focus on the gruesome details. My daughters are still having trouble reading the Biscuit books so I am unable to use them as test subjects:) I am always interested to see what other people thought of the books I have read so if you come across this hub and feel I am missing something or completely off base, please feel free to comment.