Comment

Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Skokie Public Library.
May 03, 2018DBRL_KrisA rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
This book was very confusing to begin with, and that confusion returned every so often. I read Wicked quite a while ago, so I assumed at least some of my confusion was because I'd forgotten what had happened in that book. But after reading a summary of the first book, I was still confused. And the more of Son of a Witch I read, the more I realized the confusion was because of the way the story is written. Maguire's characters don't know the whole story, so Maguire's readers don't either. The first part of the book is written in an alternating third-person point of view, with several different storylines, and it's not until about a third of the way in, when these storylines start connecting, when we start really understanding what's going on. Add to that Liir's lack of interest in figuring out anything, or even just caring about anything, and it makes for slow going. He rarely actively pursues any course of action; instead, he kind of falls into different situations that kind of seem to accidentally lead him toward where he needs to go. As other reviewers have said, the actual real action doesn't start until the final third of the book. Without spoiling the ending, there is very little resolution. Yes, Liir does end up helping some of the people/Animals he and others - I'm looking at you, Dorothy - had promised to help. But there are several major plot points left unresolved - I'm assuming to be written about in the next book.