Customer Reviews

Ragwitch

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After reading Sabriel and Shade's Children, I was hungry for more Garth Nix. When I came across The Ragwitch, I bought it immediately. It wasn't nearly as involving as Sabriel and Shade's Children and even lagged in areas, even though The Ragwitch seemed to be an amalgam of these two books. The Angarling and the Meepers reminded me strongly of Myrmidons and Wingers. The Ragwitch was just an Overlord in an indestructible body. The main characters (Julia and Paul) were vividly developed, but not really very sympathetic. A few chapters of Paul's whining was more than enough. At the end, I was left unsatisfied, especially by the Deus ex Machina (i.e. the Patchwork King). I would have preferred an ending more along the lines of those of Nix's other books.

This is probably Garth Nix's most uneven book, which still puts it a notch over the majority of fantasy out there. While not as textured or carefully developed as Sabriel, it is nevertheless engrossing and convincing, and -- yes, indeed, far better than almost every kids-get-sucked-into-fantasy-world-to-battle-evil.

We open to see Paul and his sister Julia, playing on a beach where Julia finds a rag doll embedded in enormous black feathers and a bunch of sticks. Though Julia seems thrilled with the doll, Paul immediately gets "bad vibes" from the doll -- and hears a sinister voice calling it the "Ragwitch." Within minutes, Julia is taken over by the doll, and begins a transformation into an enormous living version of the Ragwitch -- a malevolent creature who surpasses C.S. Lewis' White Witch.

The Ragwitch escapes into another world, and Paul follows her. Julia is trapped inside the Ragwitch's mind, constantly hearing the Ragwitch's voice and seeing/hearing what she does. Upon arriving at her destination, the Ragwitch summons her hideous army of unnatural, distorted creatures. They begin to attack the innocent people nearby -- including an old witch who has a strange effect on the Ragwitch. Julia gains unexpected allies locked within her enemy's memory: the witch Lyssa, attacked by the Ragwitch; Mirren, a king that the Ragwitch locked into a shambling animalistic form; and a mysterious red-haired woman who may be the key to helping defeat the evil hordes...

Paul refuses to give up on his sister, and learns from a peculiar old hermit that he must gain the help of the wild magic Elementals -- Fire, Water, Earth and Air. The problem is that all four may or may not choose to help him. He must also deal with the rather eccentric Patchwork King, the keeper of all magic...

Perhaps the book's biggest flaw is the beginning. While we come to know and like Paul and Julia over the course of the book, we leap straight into the finding of the Ragwitch without knowing much about the characters, their background, their family, etc. An introductory chapter might be nice. And since there was a gap of a few years between the writing of two parts of it, the style of it seems to flow more easily in the second half than the first. The dialogue also is a bit stilted in the beginning, but grows easier as the book progresses.

Anyhow, the Ragwitch herself is horrific. My initial reaction was "Raggedy Ann meets the Exorcist", but frankly after a while I stopped thinking about the idea of a sentient rag doll, and focused on the sadistic evil of her. Yet at the same time, we are given a glimpse of the person that the Ragwitch once was (well, before she got a body of "indestructible cloth") and how she became the monster that she is. The Elementals are sufficiently different in temperament, from the crabby Water to the kindly Earth to the flamenco-dancing Fire. We don't get to know Paul as well as Julia, since Julia does a great deal of introspection, while sometimes it felt like we were focusing more on what Paul was doing than on Paul himself.

This is definitely a YA book, as many sections of it will be horrifying for younger children. Oroch, for example, is a pretty creepy character -- Nix doesn't tell us what he looks like under his bandages, but the implication is enough. We also get a girl possessed by an evil creature, massacres of humans and assorted battles (not graphically shown).

Nix also displays a fantasy tactic that he used later in Sabriel, and which he does extremely well: the mix of high fantasy and more modern things, such as the hot-air balloon, and the various foodstuffs that the Patchwork King conjures. This is not an easy thing to do convincingly, but Nix does it in rare style. He also managed to pull off an ending that a lesser author might have fumbled.

This book is not as textured as Sabriel or its sequel. But it is nevertheless an effective fantasy with a dash of horror. Well worth the read!

Julia and her brother, Paul are two perfectly ordinary children who happen to discover a ragdoll in a midden heap. Julia is sucked up into the mind of the ragdoll who is really a powerful and evil witch. When Julia and the ragwitch disappear through a ring of fire, Paul bravely follows them. From then on, "Ragwitch" follows the ancient fairy-tale structure of children versus evil---a `Hansel and Gretel' story where the witch actually devours one of the children. Garth Nix adds a ferocious edge to Paul and Julia's adventure. I never knew what was going to happen next.

Both children actively oppose the ragwitch, although Julia's situation is far more horrific. She is wired into the ragwitch's nervous system while the evil, old sorceress shambles from atrocity to atrocity.

(Actually, I grew fond of some of her minions, called the Stone Knights. If you've ever seen the movie, `Monolith Monsters' you'll be able to figure how the Knights pounded into combat).

Once Paul is transferred to ragwitch's original world through the ring of fire, he suffers more than his share of perils, including a battle or two. He finally finds friends and sets out on a quest to locate each of the four Elementals, Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. If he can talk a good line, they might help him defeat the ragwitch and her destructive minions.

This is my favorite part of `Ragwitch.' The Elementals are not the usual clichéd characters found in other fantasies I could mention. The author expends lots of imagination on them---I was never certain whether Paul was going to succeed in his quest, or die trying.

It isn't every boy who gets to meet Mother Earth, while digging for potatoes.

I can't remember how I would have handled this horror-fantasy mixture when I was under the drinking age. The book certainly veers toward the gruesome edge of Young Adult fantasy ---think of it as `Hansel and Gretel' on steroids.

As Nix's first novel, this book is astounding. The story is new and creative and takes the readers through a magnificent journey through the mind of The Ragwitch, the villain of this story. The characters are fun and inventive, and the land is created with clear imagination and thought. Each page provides readers with magic and mystery, as they unravel the secrets of the Ragwitch's realm, while striving to stop her from her evil intentions. I would suggest this book mostly to a younger audience, from around 8-13, though I was 15 when I read it and I love the story, along with all of Nix's other books. He is definately a new author to discover.

The "Abhorsen" trilogy by Garth Nix is one of the best sets of fantasy books out there, and so when my reservation for "The Ragwitch" *finally* came through at my public library, I sat down fully expecting another exciting, original, fascinating story. And I got it...kind of. Though I was aware it was aimed at younger readers than the target audience of the "Abhorsen" trilogy, I was a tad disappointed by Nix's tale in comparison to many of his other books - though this is unsurprising considering this is one of his earliest published works.

Julia and Paul are two holidaying siblings, when Julia uncovers a strange ragdoll on top of a sinister beach-midden. Julia is transfixed by the macabre little doll, and to her brother's horror she is consumed by its evil and sucked through a ring of fire into another dimension. Despite his fears, Paul follows. From there, the children's paths divide: whilst a disoriented Paul tries to find his bearings and allies in a medieval realm, Julia finds herself deep within the Ragwitch's mind as she summons up her dormant armies once more.

Finding a range of unusual friends, including a boy who can talk to animals, a young girl who can breath underwater and a wise man more interesting in gardening than helping, Paul seeks out the four elusive and dangerous Elementals of the land in the hopes that they can give him aid in the realm's war against the invading Ragwitch.

Meanwhile, Julia is waging her own battle inside the Ragwitch's mind, aided by a humanoid Rowan tree that has purposely allowed herself to be consumed by the Witch and the former King of the land that is also trapped within her memories. Together, they go in search of the last vestiges of the Ragwitch's humanity, which may hold the key to defeating her from within.

Nix's impeccable style and imagery is in top form; he can effortlessly invoke woods, valleys, mountains and landscapes to create a beautiful, three-dimensional world that one thoroughly enjoys exploring along with the protagonists. Likewise, I believe he is Tolkien's equal when it comes to creating character and place names that resonate with a deeper sense of sound and meaning: Yendre, Cagael, Anhyvar, Rhysamarn, Lyssa - all invoke the feeling of history and culture that other fantasy books often do extremely poorly.

He is also a wonderful monster-masher, whether it's the gruesome Ragwitch herself, the winged Meepers, the Stone Angarling Knights or the terrible Gwarulch - these creatures would look great on the big screen... are there any movie-producers reading out there?

However, "The Ragwitch" falls short on several levels. First is the abruptness of both the beginning and end: we are given hardly any time to get to know the children before they are whisked off into the next realm, and the end is swift and short with many an unanswered question and thread left hanging. Throughout the course of the story we are brought a bit closer to Paul and Julia, but never to any of the other characters: Sevaun, Leasel, Cagael, Deamus, the May Dancers - they may be portrayed as honest, worthy people, but they don't actually contribute much (if anything) to the course of the story. I read the book carefully once, and then skimmed through it a second time, and still couldn't find any point in Leasel's continual presence throughout the book. Without even giving us a reason as to why these characters exist, I could never really bring myself to care about their fates, nor that of the land they were fighting for.

Furthermore, Nix counts on quite a few of the typical fantasy cliches and stereotypes in the telling of his story, least of all is the "two kids get sucked into magic world to battle against evil". The Ragwitch is an evil creature that was defeated once and has now risen again (like Voldemort and Sauron and legions of other "dark powers") and Paul's quest gets rather predictable quite fast: find the four Elements and get their gifts to the shadowy Patchwork King (who fixes the problem rather too easily for my liking).

Yet despite all this, "The Ragwitch" is a good read, especially if you're new to the writings of Garth Nix - from here you know it just gets better!

I absolutely loved the triology of "Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen", so I bought this book with great expectations. And to be honest, my impression after the first few pages was "oh dear.....". The reader is immediately plunged into the story, without any opportunity to undertand the central characters. This is a real shame, as this would have made the story of their growth as human beings even more enchanting. However, I continued, and although not up to the standard of his later works, Nix's lively imagination is portrayed richly in an interesting and unusual storyline. To anyone interested in purchasing this book, I would highly recommend that they do. Not simply because it is a good read, but it is invaluable in showing Nix's growth as an author.

Don't get me wrong, this is a good first novel, but its really not up to the standard of his later work. This is a fairly standard work of fantasy, children-get-entangled-by-evil-and-have-to-escape which, while it hints at the great imagination Nix shows in later work, doesn't really follow through. If you're looking for more of what you found in the Sabriel series, don't, because he's a better writer than that, but I'd recommend Shade's children if you're looking for a stand-alone instead of this.

This is one of my favorite books! It has style and imagination! I am 13. I recommended it to all of my friends and they loved it, too! It's truly unique!!!

Please read this remarkable book

Regardless of what some think of it, this novel is one of those novels that you refer to a friend and the spread the word and finally a lot of people have read it throughout the school. This was the first book I read by Nix and it will remain the best, because of what I asked the minute I finished it, "Is there a sequel?" But you don`t have to believe me; read the book yourself.

I liked this one - not quite as good as Sabriel. Garth Nix makes me remember being a 12 year old and staying up late to finish Ray Bradbury, Ursula Le Guin, Patricia MacKillip. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I just did.