Book Review of Witch by Christopher Pike
Author: Christopher Pike
ISBN: 0-671-69055-8
Publisher: Archway Paperback
Type of book: Witch, supernatural, suspense, revenge, gifts, sacrifice
Year it was published: December 1990
Summary:
Julia is a young woman with extraordinary powers. She has the ability to heal people with her touch. She also knows things that are happening in far-of places when she looks in water that has sunlight shining on it. She comes from a tradition of witches—good witches. But before Julia's mother died, she warned her daughter never to look in water that had moonlight shining on it.
Unfortunately, almost by accident, Julia does. What she sees is a vision of the future, a scene in which a young man she doesn't know is shot in a hold-up and dies in her arms. Only later, when Julia attends a football game at school, does she meet the young man.
He is her girlfriend's new boyfriend.
Julia immediately falls for the guy, but it is an ill-fated love. He does not belong to her, and he is supposed to die. Or does he have to die? Julia doesn't know if her vision of the future is set, or if it can be changed. She doesn't know why the gunman in her vision evokes such hatred inher, and why she feels she must destroy him at all costs. But using the supernatural powers at her command, and risking her own life, plus the lives of her friends, Julia will find the answers to all these questions —at a terrible cost.
Characters:
The characters strike me as flat and uninteresting. Either I'm beginning to be disenchanted with Christopher Pike novels or the book was really that bad. I felt that the character of Julia reminded me of some kind of Mary Sue type character, while other characters couldn't hold my interest. There's of course the overweight friend that loves the heroine; the best friend of the girl that's dating a guy she truly likes, and a talented yet seemingly "disgusted" boy that's an extraordinary tree carver.
Theme:
In all honesty I haven't learned anything from reading it. The book isn't as interesting as it sounds by the way.
Plot:
This is written in third person narrative from multiple point of views; that of Amy, Julia and Randy. It's also implausible because I don't understand how she could have changed from an angel to a devil just because the friend was shot, or or that she seems to be without reason or intelligence while with Jim. And all this occurred because of an accidental peep at the water with moonlight!? Don't get it. If you want a similar but better written book, then try Eternal Enemy where consequences are felt and understood.
Author Information:
Christopher Pike wrote 30+ novels mainly for young adults, the most famous or well known one is The Last Vampire Saga, Final Friends and Remember Me, and his real name is Kevin McFadden. One of his books, Fall Into Darkness was created into a movie. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a website, but there is a fan club that is devoted to him. (http://www.christopherpikefanclub.com/ )
Opinion:
I have to admit that although this is my second reading of the book, I still found it as bad as the first time I read it. Everything happens way too quickly in the story and I found myself not caring about any of the characters or whether or not they survived. The story is unbelievable in more ways than one and very little was resolved. I wanted for the ending to be slightly different than it was and am wondering what is the point of inclusion of some characters? The ending before the epilogue is very sweet and I kind of wish the entire book would have been like that instead of unbelievable and frustrating.
1 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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