Welcome to my feature, Pastime Pleasures, posted every other Friday. Today is the turn of The Ragwitch by Garth Nix.
Here I will look at books that have given me great pleasure in the past. These are books I can read over and over again. The only rule is that the book must have been published five or more years ago.
Ok so I chose this one mainly because I thought it would fit in with Halloween and all…
This book creeped me out as a child and for a couple of weeks after reading I removed all my teddies and dolls from my room. Before I would have been really excited if they had come to life but after this book I was terrified of this fact. What if they were evil? And wanted to take over the world?
Also I really didn’t want to be possessed by a demonic rag doll, like poor Julia. I was extremely sure at the time that I would not be as heroic as Julia or Paul. If they were out of me room at least someone else would be possessed and I could run. Yep my instinct is definitely set on flight mode rather than fight mode.
Despite the good v evil conflicts being clear, the choice being made by Julia and Paul – mere children – are neither easy or straightforward. Choices that an older person may have struggled with.
The RagWitch is one of Garth Nix’s earlier works and, unfortunately, you can tell. But this doesn’t stop his genius and ideas coming through. The RagWitch is definitely a creepy read.
Leave a Reply