5.30.2014 | Friday

The Fire

Item: The Fire
Rating: 3.5
Author: Kim

category: Book Reviews
tag(s): young adult
0 Comments

title: The Fire
author: James Patterson
series: Witch & Wizard #3
published: 5 December 2011
genre(s): dystopian, fantasy, sci fi
pages: 374
source: bought
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | StoryGraph | Goodreads

rating:

the blurb

Whit and Wisty Allgood have sacrificed everything to lead the resistance against the merciless totalitarian regime that governs their world. Its supreme leader, The One Who Is The One, has banned everything they hold dear: books, music, art, and imagination. But the growing strength of the siblings' magic hasn't been enough to stop the One's evil rampage, and now he's executed the only family they had left.

Wisty knows that the time has finally come for her to face The One. But her fight and her fire only channel more power to this already invincible being. How can she and Whit possibly prepare for their imminent showdown with the ruthless villain that devastated their world-before he can truly become all-powerful?

In this stunning third installment of the epic Witch & Wizard series, the stakes have never been higher--and the consequences will change everything.

my review

I have enjoyed this series, told from the alternating points of view of Wisty and Whit. The two are leading the Resistance against The One Who is The One and the bleak world that he and his regime have created. Just about everything that is beautiful and soul-stirring has been stripped away… books, art, music, any kind of creative expression.

I love the story line behind the series, the idea that it is kids that have to save the world. This book lacked a little for me, though. It doesn’t seem like a lot of progress was made in the quest to end the reign of the one. Whit and Wisty spent much of their time apart and the Resistance is missing, and I can’t help but wonder if that missing dynamic was part of it. There also seemed to be too much missing between the end of the second book and the beginning of this one. Neither Whit nor Wisty have made a lot of headway with learning how to use their powers and that has kind of slowed the pace of the story.

All of that being said, I did enjoy the story. It just wasn’t my favorite of the series thus far. The series isn’t over, with the next book already out and a fifth due out later this year.

Things to love…

The premise. I like the idea of kids as the creative force and saviors of the world.
The fast pace. The action was fast, even if the story itself wasn’t advanced too much.

Things I wanted more/less of…

More progress with their magic/the story.

Even if it wasn’t my favorite, it is important to the series and necessary to build upon the world of Witch & Wizard.

About James Patterson

It is no surprise that in January, 2010, The New York Times Magazine featured James Patterson on its cover and hailed him as having “transformed book publishing,” and that Time magazine hailed him as “The Man Who Can’t Miss.” Recently, NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams profiled Patterson’s prolific career, AARP named him one of the “50 Most Influential People Who Make Our Days a Little Brighter,” and Variety featured him in a cover story highlighting his adventures in Hollywood.

In 2013, it was estimated that one-in-five of all hardcover suspense/thriller novels sold was written by James Patterson, his books have sold over 300 million copies worldwide, and he holds the Guinness record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers of any author. And his success isn’t based solely on thrillers like the perennially popular Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club and Michael Bennett series. Patterson is now also the current bestselling author in the young adult and middle grade categories.

He’s been called the busiest man in publishing, and that’s not just because of his own books. For the past decade, James has been devoting more and more of his time to championing books and reading. From the James Patterson Pageturner Awards, to his website ReadKiddoRead.com, to his College Book Bucks scholarships and his regular donations of hundreds of thousands of books to schools here in the states and troops overseas (see interviews on Fox & Friends, The Dennis Miller Radio Show and CNN.com), Patterson has passed on his passion of books and reading and supported those who do the same. Jim personally funded a major ad campaign re-printing a recent opinion piece on CNN.com about how it is our responsibility to get our kids reading. The ad has run in the New York Times, The New Yorker, and USA Today. Those ads are a call to action to parents to make their kids reading a top priority; and were featured by USA Today here. Patterson believes that we cannot rely on schools, teachers or the government to get our kids reading; only parents can make this crucial change in the reading habits of our kids. Here are links to some interviews on his first-ever dual lay down (two books, one for parents and one for kids, in one day): AOL’s You’ve Got, NBC’s “Today Show” with Hoda and Kathie Lee, USA Today and Family Circle, NBC’s “Today Show” with Al Roker, as well as an interview with AARP.