Witchy Woman

Expected Publication:  November 13th, 2012
Witch World (Witch World # 1)
By: Christopher Pike
Simon Pulse
ISBN-13:  9781442430280

Heading off for a weekend in Las Vegas with her friends, Jessie Ralle has only one worry—how to make it through the road trip in the same car with her Ex, Jimmy Kelter. The guy who broke her heart five months ago when he dumped her for no reason. The guy who’s finally ready to tell her why he did it, because he wants her back.

But what Jessie doesn’t realize is that Jimmy is the least of her problems.

In Las Vegas she meets Russ, a mesmerizing stranger who shows her how to gamble, and who never seems to lose. Curious, Jessie wants to know his secret, and in response, alone in his hotel room, he teaches her a game that opens a door to another reality.

To Witch World.

Suddenly Jessie discovers that she’s stumbled into a world where some people can do the impossible, and others may not even be human. For a time she fears she’s lost her mind. Are there really witches? Is she one of them?

Review

 

   So I have read a LOT of Christopher Pike's books in the past and I am very happy that he's decided to write YA books again.  As a reader, it makes me happily nostalgic.  But this book was below par compared to his previous works.  Jessie Ralles is a solid heroine for this series and as a former library page, I loved the fact that she was one in her small town.  I didn't enjoy her pining over Jimmy, her ex-boyfriend (of all of three months), who dumped her out of the blue, cruelly and without explanation.  I also felt like he was using a tired plot device when he had the reason be that Jimmy's previous girlfriend had been pregnant with their baby.  Now Jimmy wants to get back with Jessie because the baby died and he still loves her.  After graduation the two of them and a few of their other friends go on a trip to Vegas, where Jessie meets a guy named Russ and ends up discovering that their is an alternate reality called "Witch World," where there's another version of all of them.  In that world magic exists and to merge your two selves, one of them has to "die."  In Witch World, Jessie and Jimmy have a daughter who exists in place of his son in the other reality.  An evil faction of witches have kidnapped Jessie's daughter AND Jimmy's son for nefarious purposes pertaining to the possiblity of an apocalypse.  Now it's up to Jessie and her friends to convince Jimmy of reality of magic and to get back the children before it's too late.  It sounds like there is a lot of action in this book, but the majority of it is made up of plotting and scheming.  I was kind of put off by the casual way that Jessie had sex with Jimmy and felt like a normal, small-town girl wouldn't have handled things that way.  The book moved very slowly for the first 2/3 and when it finally picked up the pace I was left feeling very ambivalent.  But the cliffhanger ending guarantees that I'll read the sequel!  It was about 200 pages too long, but overall a good start to a new series.

 

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. It will be available for purchase on November 13th, 2012.*