The Witch and Wizard Series by James Patterson

Witch & Wizard, 314 pages

"It begins - or ends? - like this...

It's overwhelming. A city's worth of angry faces taring up at me like I'm a wicked criminal. The stadium is filled past capacity. Hundreds of thousands of curious, uncaring, or at least indifferent, faces...

And there are no moist eyes, much less tears.

No words of protest.

No stomping feet.

No fists raised in solidarity.

In fact, as the countdown ticker flashes onto the giant video screens, it's looking to be my family's last day.

I see my brother, Whit, wondering if there's some last-minute way out of this. I see my mother crying quietly for Whit and me. I see my father, stooped with resignation, but smiling at me and my brother - trying to remind us that there's no point being miserable in our last moments on this planet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's a lot to cover before we get to the details of our public execution.

So let's go back a bit..." -Book Jacket

Witch & Wizard: The Gift, 340 pages

"Listen to me.

We don't have much time.

They call my sister and me a witch and a wizard. We're considered wanted criminals. Your so-called enemies. But I need you to trust me when I tell you that THESE ARE THE WORST OF TIMES and that the best of times are little more than a distant memory.

Imagine that all the things you love most in the world - and probably take for granted - are now banned. Your books, music, movies, art...all snatched away. Burned. That's life under the New Order. Now, with every waking breath, we have to fight for every freedom we have left. EVEN OUR IMAGINATION IS AT RISK.

But if you're one of the few who've escaped the N.O.'s clutches, you need to hear our story. So when we're gone, there's someone left to spread the word. Someone to fight the good fight.

AND SO WE BEGIN..." -Book Jacket

Sounds pretty good, right? On the back of the Witch & Wizard James Patterson wrote, "This is the story I was born to tell. Read on, while you still can..." If this was the story Patterson was born to tell, he probably should have told it better. This series is not even on the same planet as other dystopian novels such as The Hunger Games. It had potential but it wound up feeling so hastily written that it wasn't good. The characters are flat and one-dimensional and I wound up not really caring about them. Wisty is a whiney girl who bursts into flames when she gets upset. She's supposed to have "The Gift" and The One Who Is The One (what?!) wants it. Whit was more likable, but still lacking in substance. The author co-wrote these books with two different authors and there was a noticeable difference in writing style. The story jumped from place to place, was under-developed, and sometimes left me confused. I wound up skimming the book sometimes just to finish it. The chapters are very short (like 2-3 pages short) and are constantly switching point of view. The Gift leaves you hanging, but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to even care.

The one thing (and maybe only thing?) I enjoyed about these books was the "Excerpts of New Order Propaganda" at the back of each book. It was entertaining to see how Patterson changed the names of real-life musicians, artists, and authors and then banned their materials. It's kind of like a puzzle figuring out who he's referencing and some of them are pretty funny.