Customer Reviews

The Witch Trade

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

 

 

I read this book over the course of a few weeks to my six year old son and he enjoyed it immensely. It is wonderfully well written for a children's book and I enjoyed it very much. It's a shame this book hasn't gotten more attention in the U.S. A great find.

Books from Chicken House are growing increasingly appealing to me, starting with Katherine Roberts' exquisite Spellfall and reaching to this one (and Roberts' upcoming "Crystal Mask"). This is not the best fantasy I've read, but a nice read anyway.

Abby Clover and the curious Spike are washed ashore after a storm. They soon find that they are in strange new surroundings that include witches, shark-infested seas, captives and missing people, and Ice Dust, which is the cause of magic.

They team up with Captain Starlight (huh?) and his albatross Benbow; also Chadwick Street, who is the leader of the Light Witches (why not wizards? I don't know). But as they travel over the shark-y water to the Night Witch fortress, they will have only their wits and a few insufficient talents to defeat a terrible enemy, without the help of the Ice Dust...

I liked this book. My breath wasn't sucked away like the best works of fiction do, and while I found it a pleasant pasttime, I wasn't hungering for more once it was finished.

Perhaps it was the rather lightweight feel of some aspects of it, such as the names: Starlight, Abby Clover, Chadwick Street -- and Spike only brought to mind the blond vampire. Slightly more exotic or indistinguishable names might be better -- these feel rather cutesy. Also the concept of Light and Night witches (wizards?) is far from new. The Ice Dust brings a feeling rather reminiscent of Philip Pullman's Dust as well (though I far prefer Molloy's book to Pullman's!)

The writing is pretty good, fairly descriptive. The characters of Abby and Spike are pretty well-done, as is Benbow the Albatross. I didn't really connect with Starlight, though, and Chadwick Street just annoyed me. I can't say why; perhaps he seemed a little too showy and two-dimensional.

Overall, this is a pleasant read, especially for those who prefer British fantasy to American fantasy. It's not deep, but is a pleasant book nevertheless. Simply do not expect something that will take your breath away.

Abby Clover lived a normal life but that doesn't last forever. One day she and her friend, Spike, meet Capitain Starlight, who tells her about her parents, who disappeared years ago. Soon, she, Spike, and the Capitain have joined forces with the light witches (good witches), who are fighting the night witches (the bad witches). Abby joins the light witches and realizes she will need all her courage to fight the night witch's terrible leader, Wolfbane. I loved the book because it really gives you a picture in your head so you can see what is happening. I feel like I know the characters. I think it is very well written and the author really worked hard on this book.

The Light witches and the Night witches are two completely different groups of people, and they had been fighting each other for thousands of years. The Night witches are a group of merciless, disgusting, and evil creatures, who never take a bath and wanted to dominate the whole earth. They kidnapped many children to make the Ice dust that they found in Antarctica into Black dust, the substance through which a Night witch can perform magic. They also enslaved the parents of Abby and Spike, who tried to free their parents and the kidnapped children from the headquarters of the Night witches in Antarctica. With the help of the Ancient Mariner and Sir Chadwick Street, Abby and Spike got into the headquarters of the Night witches and rescued the children and their parents. Then, they found the leader of the Night witches, Wolfbane. Wolfbane transformed a holy serpent into his own terrible pet, but Abby overcame all the evilness in this serpent with her kindness and the serpent was holy once more. The serpent therefore sanctified the entire headquarter of the Night witches with its holiness and that's when Wolfbane was defeated.
I did not enjoy this book very much. It has a nice cover and all, but its plot is far from interesting. When I am reading this book, it's like the author is just making things up along the way. Suddenly, without any warning, a new character would jump into the story. Things that were never mentioned before and don't make sense would come along with the new characters so that the story will be able to continue. Also, the chapters were poorly titled. I can basically know what's going to happen in a chapter by just reading its title. This book will be much better if the author doesn't let out so much information in the titles of the chapters.
The part that I liked best in The Witch Trade is the journey to the Lost Land. The Lost Land is a place that the Night witches created to contain everything that was ever lost from its owners; things such as coins, papers, teddy bears, etc. The only way to get to the Lost Land is to get lost yourself and think about going to the place. In the Lost Land, if you touch anything that you lost before, you will be trapped there for eternity. In addition, if you want to get out of the Lost Land, you need to make sure that there is someone who loves you very much and wishes you to come back. Even that isn't enough to get you back to the real world. You will also need to have a fairy thread tied to you

This is definately a good book. This book was amazing in all aspects. There are not many books that meet my standards but this is one of them. If you like evil, good, courageous people and a suspensful story you MUST read this book.

First of all, I have to say that this book is my favorite. The author, Michael Molloy, is a wonderful fantasy writer. He uses wonderful word choice. His characters are also amazingly unique.

Second, he makes the story have a straight, main idea plot. Abby Clover is a 'normal' girl that ends up with a new 'scoop'. In the town of Speller, there are Sea Witches. Her aunt ends up adopting a new boy named Spike (Originally Altur). The two of them, along with their strange companions(Captain Starlight, Sir Chadwick, Hilda Bluebell, and some others) go on a strange trip. They have some twists and turns, but at the end, everything goes well. I hope you like this book as much as I did and I would recommend the boook to anyone who has any interest in fiction or fantasy.

Victoria Ceipek

This was an adventure which captured the imagination and allowed us to re-think the boundaries of reality. I've read it many times and find it just as exciting each time. The description and knowledge the author put into the book is amazing. I would definately use this book for long car journeys or when you have a whole day off as you will get so into it you won't be able to put it down. i got really into it and really wanted to find out what happened next so I went straight out and bought the next one...and the next.
Abby and Spike are characters we can sympathise with and when we find out there secrets it's like OMG!!! I just wish the author had done more of this series ( apart from the three).

I'm a big fan of fantasy books and although this book seemed promising, in the end it sucked. The storyline was ok to pretty good but the writing style was terrible! There was bad transitions and the writing was very choppy. Just goes to show that a good idea doesn't always lead to a good product.

This book tries much too hard to be the only fantasy story you ever need to read. The author starts with a couple of
apathetic orphans living in a Brigadoon-like enchanted town of retired Sea Witches, then throws in every fabled
creature from selkies to the Ancient Mariner, inventions from Atlantis, invisibility spells, Light Witches ("good")
and Night Witches ("evil"), modern pollution, and magical Ice Dust from the arctic reminiscent of Philip
Pullman's metaphysical Dust. Everything in this book is derivative and reminiscent of another classic fantasy.
What's worse: no character in the book feels the wonder and awe of all this magical paraphernalia, and no one
seems to care much about what happens, so neither does the reader.