Warning: Extremely Long Review and Childhood Storytelling

When I was ten or eleven, I was sitting in the playground at summer camp, minding my own business and reading this book, when one of the playground supervisers came and asked me what I was reading. When I showed it to him, his eyes got wide and he took the book from me. Then he went to the trash can and started ripping it up, page by page. And he washed his hands afterwards, "to get rid of the filth." It was a library book. He was just going on and on about how young children shouldn't read about witchcraft because they might want to become witches, etc. etc. If you've read the book, you know that Dahl doesn't exactly idealize witches. Well, when my dad came to pick me up, he let this guy have it (yay Dad!) and I got a popsicle. So the story ends well, but I always remember this incident when I see this book. And because of that, this book is what I think of when I consider censorship and how detrimental it is to our society. I barely remember what happens in The Witches, but I love it simply because of what it represents to me.

3,5/5

Me ha parecido una historia entretenida y muy divertida que he leido con una sonrisa en la boca, al ser una novela corta y de capítulos cortos se lee muy rápido, como todas las novelas infantiles de Roald Dahl está ilustrada por Quentin Blake. Aunque me ha gustado, siguen siendo mis favoritos del autor su novela Matilda y su relato La cata.

La historia comienza cuando un niño tras la muerte de sus padres va a vivir con su abuela a Noruegapero por las condiciones estipuladas en el testamento de sus padres, tienen que irse a vivir a Kent y seguir yendo al colegio allí. Pero cuando llegan las vacaciones de verano van a pasarlas a un hotel de Bournemouth, y allí sin querer descubre que hay una convención de brujas y que planean deshacerse de todos los niños de Inglaterra.....¿cómo? Tendrás que leer esta novela si quieres saberlo.

This is a magical treasure. Frightening…but chock full of whimsy and rhyming and lessons on love and life.

“It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.”



Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❗❗May contain some spoilers.❗❗



This won't take long, don't worry. I know I'm 24 years old and probably outgrew children's books but I JUST DON'T CARE. They are AWESOME and relax me.

I liked it. I really did. It's an entertaining story that children could definitely enjoy. There's a reason Roald Dahl is still so famous years after his death. I liked the plot, the rhyming, and the fun fonts of words that were emphasised. I found the art adorable, as well, perfect for children (and cool adults). I liked that all his books have the same illustrator (the editions I have, anyway - I don't know about previous editions).


However, there was some very questionable content in the book. It is deeply offensive to bald women AND women in general. There should be NO story where the grandmother insists that her UNDERAGED grandson should smoke cigars and shower only once a month. Not that her bedtime stories were any better but...I guess those are actually important to the story and very true. Also, why is every adult in this thing an asshole?!?! Seriously...ALL OF THEM. The witches I get. They're inherently evil, children-hating creatures. What's LITERALLY every other character's excuse????


I also heard some reeeally bad things about the author, Roald Dahl, which diminished my excitement over catching up with his works, but I don't know how much it matter since he's dead now. Many would chalk all this (Dahl as a person and the content of his stories) up to his generation, saying it's just the way it was back then, but I don't think that's a valid excuse. Just because an author was very famous in his time, doesn't mean everything he's done should be excused or glorified.


Aaaanyway, the story and plot weren't bad, someone definitely should rephrase some parts of the book, but the rest was pretty good. I guess I would recommend this, but I'd be more comfortable with it if some content was changed (I doubt that can/will be done, though).

I've noticed for years and years that critics love to say that Roald Dahl is "spinning in his grave" over some such filmic adaptation of his works. I'm a curious type person so I had to look up what the hell was in his grave, anyway. He was buried with pool cues, his typewriter and pencils (backup?). Guess he'd need to hustle his way past the pearly gates? I'm kidding! Don't dance on my grave. (Gosh, real critics are so harsh.) If he's spinning I guess there's plenty in there to make lots of racket.
The movie wasn't that bad. Okay, the American kid was a weanie and the special effects were cheesey. But Anjelica Huston was scary and oversexed. That was kinda awesome.
I was a Dahl fanatic as a kid. We read most of them as school assignments, but not The Witches for some reason. Maybe 'cause they want to do bad things to children. (Hold up, Trunchbull of Matilda did nasty things to kids! Ah, but she had administrative permission, which fooled yet more administrative permissors into permitting their administrative permissions for further kid terrorizing. Only the ones who read, mind, like Matilda. Reading Matilda.) Anyway, it was funny and gruesome and nasty and I loved it. It still holds up to adult nasty senses of humor.


Dance, dance, dance!

When I was a child I used to watch The Witches (1990) many times, because I loved the movie and it was supposed to be my favorite one so far. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember almost anything about the story, except one scene, which is like a vivid memory indeed – I remember saying to myself: “It’s just a movie, don’t be scared” while I was seeing the witches eating the soup around the long table and suddenly… sorry, I’m getting scared again.

The Witches by Roald Dahl is definitely a book that reminds me of my childhood, and whose reading was a delightful and lovely experience, despite my previous experience with the movie.

Honestly, I enjoyed almost everything inside this novel; some characters such as the boy and his grandmother were lovable and charming. On the other hand, The Grand High Witch was a horrible, wicked “person”, but at the same time, I have to admit that she was my favorite character in the story.

The only chapters that I didn’t really enjoy so much were the last two ones, perhaps I felt this part as though it was not the best ending for the story; it also was a little bit disappointing and underwhelming. Even so, this wasn’t a big problem for me because I certainly loved the way the author introduced us to the witches and how they take part in the novel.

Ultimately, I believe Quentin Blake’s work, whose illustrations are quite adorable and beautiful, is always necessary in a Roald Dahl book because it’s a perfect complement and it helps you to be fond of the story. Bravo!

n  “It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.”n

Classic Roald Dahl, The Witches is the story of a boy and his Grandmamma who encounter witches in the South of England while on holiday. It’s typically funny yet dark, witty and surprisingly touching - especially the relationship between boy and Grandma. I did find it very difficult to seperate the story from the wonderful movie with Angelica Huston, which doesn’t do any disservice to the story as it brought back a tone of nostalgia.

My only gripe is how short this is. The pace is relentless with no let up for character development, meaning everything sort of skims the surface and it ends rather abruptly. That said, I love this story so much. It’s just deliciously unique, with a dash of scary.

i am made up of unpopular opinions.

i know people are said to be, like, 75% water or whatever, but i think all the parts of me that are supposed to be good old H20 are actually exclusively hot takes.

it seems i have been put on this earth to be a chaos agent, a disruptor, an annoying figure and ruiner of mornings.

but here i am to say: children's content is the scariest content.

i don't get frightened at horror movies, and i find adult thrillers often silly and indulgent, and i can walk down streets at night with earbuds in without a fuss.

but give me a creepy children's book and i'm sleeping with the lights on.

part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago

Hmm... While this was a childhood favourite (at least, I think it was - maybe it was the movie I liked? I swear I've read it before!) I'm not really enjoying the reread. I find it a bit dull and silly. So I'm going to just mark it as read and leave off a rating.

2.5 stars, I suppose. While a cute, quick read, this was definitely less advanced than much of his other work. It blazed through the build and climax incredibly quickly and easily, leaving no tension at all. The ending was endearing, and the relationship between the grandmother and her grandson were the most heartwarming of all.

پسر نوجوانی همراه پدر و مادرش به نروژ می‌رود تا مادربزرگش را ببیند. پدر و مادرش بر اثر یک حادثه رانندگی فوت می‌کنند و مادربزرگش سرپرستی پسرک را به عهده می‌گیرد. مادربزرگ برای پسرک داستان‌هایی از جادوگرها تعریف می‌کند و نشانه‌هایی می‌دهد که چگونه می‌شود یک جادوگر واقعی را شناخت. زمانِ باز شدن مدرسه‌ها می‌رسد و بر اساس وصیت والدین، آنها مجبورند به انگلستان برگردند. یک روز پسرک به طور اتفاقی جادوگرها را از نزدیک می‌بیند و درگیر ماجراهایی می‌شود...
داستان روان و جذابی داشت و خواندنش لذت‌بخش بود. هر چند پایان‌بندی‌اش را زیاد دوست نداشتم اما 5 ستاره می‌دهم به خاطر لذتی که از خواندنش بردم. با اینکه برای کودک و نوجوان نوشته شده اما آنقدر جذابیت دارد که آدم‌ بزرگ‌ها هم از خواندنش لذت ببرند. حتی در ژانر ادبیات کودک و نوجوان نیز اتفاق‌ها و ماجراهای داستان متفاوت با آن چیز کلیشه‌ای است که از این ژانر می‌شناسیم.
پ.ن:
وقتی این کتاب و قبلش هکلبری فین را می‌خواندم به این موضوع فکر می‌کردم که چرا در دوره‌ی نوجوانی کسی ما را با کتاب‌های جذابی مثل این آشنا نکرد و آیا کسانی هستند که این کتاب‌ها را به بچه‌های امروزی معرفی کنند. شاید توی بعضی از مدارس در تهران و خانواده‌ها کمی وجود داشته باشند اما به نظرم هنوز نیاز شدیدی داریم به ترویج کتاب‌خوانی و معرفی کتاب‌های خوب، به خصوص برای بچه‌ها.
http://choobalef.blog.ir/1395/03/01/%...

Finally! After all the ups and downs, I finally re-read a book by Roald Dahl (my favourite author from my childhood) and end up liking it just as much! I was honestly losing hope for this. This is a surprisingly creepy, funny rollercoaster of hilarious adventures, plot twists and straight absurdity from the good ol' crazy Roald! Absolutely delightful.