"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library" - Jorge Luis Borges

Friday, December 25, 2020

Reading: THE WITCHES: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL - Roald Dahl (author), Pénélope Bagieu (illustrator)

Prose (Story): Roald Dahl's beloved bestseller gets the graphic novel treatment (the first time for any Dahl book) to tell the story of what happens when a boy and his grandmother - the boy turned into a mouse, no less - take on a hord of witches, led by the insatiably evil Grand High Witch herself, to try and foil her wicked plans to turn children into rodents thoughtout England ... and around the world.

Don's (Review): Having never read the original novel (though loving, with heart and soul, Anjelica Huston's terrific portrayal of the Grand High Witch in the film version), I was anxious to see how this story would translate to graphic novel form - and indeed, from early on when the chain-smoking granny and her grandson arrive for their seaside vacay, the close bond between the two is evident even as she fills him in on the fact that witches do exist - despise children - and therefore must teach how best to spot one (indeed, Bagieu's artwork very spot-on to the feel and tone of the book, feeling as "Roald Dahl" as the author himself). After accidentally sitting in on a conference room meeting of a whole gaggle of witches, gathered together at the same seaside hotel he and is grandmother are at as if on a convention, our hero is soon discovered and - along with a young girl - changed into a mouse by the cackling old broom-riders, the rest of the film devoted to the two mice-kids trying to get Granny to believe and help them, all while dodging extermination by hotel staff and trying to formulate a plan to stop the witches from making sure that children around the world share their fate. Colorful, charming, and a quick read, the graphic novel had me going strong about two-thirds of the way through, before - in its last act - it felt like the plot was rushed through and things were too-easily resolved, in order to quickly wrap up the book. Unsure if this is part of the original novel's plotting or changes made for the graphic novel version, but while I enjoyed this one a lot, in the end the story just felt tied up too quickly, and in too neat of a bow.  3/5 stars

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