Book Review: The Witches

Book: The Witches by Roald Dahl with illustrations by Quentin Blake

Cover Art by Quentin Blake

Edition: Paperback

Description:

This is not a fairy tale.

This is about real witches

Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There's nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of them. Her grandson listens closely to Grandmamma's stories—but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face-to-face with The Grand High Witch herself!




Rating: 4 stars

Review:

I always thought Roald Dahl had a twisted and fun approach to storytelling because The Witches is a delightfully strange story of a boy and his grandmother's experience with witches at a luxury hotel.

The boy, after being left an orphan following the death of his parents, was staying with his grandmother. She would tell him the most interesting stories about witches. She told him the stories were true and that there were witches all over the world. They go after children and use their magic to make them mysteriously disappear or transform them into unique or various things. The boy was always a bit skeptical of his grandma's witch stories until he had a frightful experience when he was in the backyard. From then on, he was more inclined to believe the stories.

After recovering from a health problem, the grandmother was instructed to take a vacation at a hotel on the coast. A relaxing vacation for the boy and his grandmother quickly turned horrifying when the boy crossed paths with witches. The boy was turned into a mouse and the witches were planning to do the same thing to every child in England.

What I liked about this dark and whimsical story is despite being turned into a mouse, the boy with help from his grandmother had a plan to stop the witches. It was going to be risky but if they could pull it off, they were going to make sure that what happened to him wouldn't happen to other kids. The story shows kids (and all readers) that it doesn't matter if you're young or old, you can fight and make a difference. I thought the boy and his grandmother were both clever and courageous heroes.

The Witches is a classic tale of good vs evil with a little fun, fright and magic thrown in. This was a wonderful and exciting story, I highly recommend giving it a read if you haven't. I would also recommend watching the movie (I watched it years ago before reading the book), it's an amazing adaptation that does a great job of expanding on the story and providing so many extra details including names for the boy and his grandmother. Whether you read the book or watch the movie first, either way you're in for a good story.