Are there such things as evil, demonic dolls that consume your essence, your very soul? (And no, this is not about Furbies. And for those of you that had previously forgotten about those, you are welcome.) But what if there were such toys, or at least just one? Well, in the mind of Garth Nix there exists such a creature of pure evil. The Ragwitch.Paul and Julia are on holiday and are strolling along the Australian shore when Julia finds a rag doll. She loves it. Paul thinks it is evil and he is right. Julia is already under the control of the Ragwitch. Even though Paul tells Julia to throw the doll away, it does no good. Julia, completely consumed by the Ragwitch, enters into a new world, the Ragwitch’s world, and Paul follows her. He must save Julia.I really liked the other novels that I read by Garth Nix and I thought that this would be the same quality of writing. I was wrong. While not horrible, The Ragwitch was not great. Nix does do a great job of creating a new world and using a mix of traditional and new mythology to enrich that world. However, I didn’t buy the characters. These two children are forced into new worlds, Julia is in the mind of the Ragwitch, and Paul is in her old kingdom, and they don’t freak out one bit. I am 26 years old and if I suddenly found myself trapped in someone’s mind or surrounded by strange people and weird creatures, I would not be all calm and collected and think things like “Oh, what a strange forest, I must explore it.” No, I would start screaming or crawl up into a ball and suck my thumb. So why don’t these two young kids at least get scared? They don’t and that is not realistic.Also, Paul barely thinks about his sister after he enters this new world, in fact he goes fishing and relaxes for three days. The kid has no urgency until people start dying.Another thing that made the story sub-par was the use of time-lapse or “ellipses”. I don’t think I wanted to know every single detail of what was going on in the story at all times, but there really seemed to be some holes. I don’t like it when in mid chapter there is a sentence like “Three days later and after a lot of sleeping…” That doesn’t make for smooth reading.I found this in the horror section of the library, but it wasn't really scary, even for ten year olds. There is violence and war scenes, but there are hardly any graphic details. So, this book would be fine for 10 +.Nix is an excellent writer, but this isn’t his best work. I still strongly recommend his Abhorsen trilogy.I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars.http://yabooks.typepad.com/blog/2010/...
The Ragwitch is the oldest of Garth Nix's books that I have read to-date.I thought it was a good story. You can see his fingerprints all over it. Though there is a clear "good" and "bad" side in the conflicts in this book, the choices faced by the protagonists are neither clear-cut nor easy. Nix's tendency toward the use of horror tropes in his fantasy were also evident.The villain of the piece is the Ragwitch, a horrible creature who once devastated an entire kingdom before being forced out of that world, and into the body of a rag doll. Julia and her brother Paul find the rag doll in our world, and unwittingly set the Ragwitch free to cross back over to her home world by possessing the unfortunate Julia.Paul shows that he has more brotherly love than foresight, and is able to use the Ragwitch's own ritual to follow his sister. He soon learns that things in this new world are not much like his own, and that he will have to complete a dangerous quest to be able to help his sister and the new friends he has made along the way.At the same time, what remains of Julia is trapped within the body of the Ragwitch - her own body perverted into a horrible, unkillable doll's body. She does her best to resist the Ragwitch from where she is.Between the two of them, Julia and Paul are the kingdom's best hope.My only real complaint about the book was the feeling that Paul's quest was a bit too easy, once he found what he was looking for. It was somewhat anticlimactic, but not horribly so.
What do You think about The Ragwitch (2004)?
Not a brilliant book, but not a terrible one either -- you can definitely tell that this was Garth Nix's first published novel, because he hasn't quote honed the storytelling skills that make Sabriel such a fantastic read. Everything about Ragwitch is just a little stilted, from the names of the villains (Really? I'm supposed to be scared of something called a Meeper?) to the stereotypical characters (Helpful knight! Wise but confusing sage! Angry water lord!). The one thing I will say for this book is that, despite the back cover description, this isn't a boy-saves-girl questing novel. Sure, Julia is stupid and managed to gets her soul sucked out her eyeballs by a demented rag doll. But when it comes down to it, she's the one who needs to defeat the Ragwitch. Paul doesn't have the guts to do it, because it would mean destroying his sister. It's Julia who must accept her own death (at age, like, ten) and hurl herself on the sword, thus destroying her possessor and saving the world. Girl power! And we'll just ignore the fact that the publishers apparently felt the story wouldn't sell unless it was "Paul himself" who has to go sally forth into battle, alone.
—Monica!
As it says, I started but did not finish this. I picked it up at the library because I was looking for more Nix after finishing the Old Kingdom trilogy. It's hard to believe that they are by the same author, although as others have written, this is his first published work. Mediocre is the word I would use to describe it. Despite the length, it really is written for older children or younger teens, and not just because of the age of the characters. The writing style is very direct and literal. Everything is explained, numerous times. I only read about 30 pages, and in those 30 pages we are told twice that Julia is the one who makes the decisions, while Patrick follows her. To be told once was too much. We should have been shown. Every action is recorded, even when the dialog and subsequent actions make it clear what had happened. For example, when Julia first finds the nest, she asks, "What's this nest?" Then we are told that she had been exploring the top of the midden. Ya' think? The Ragwitch's dialogue sounds like a parody of a bad horror film -- "And she is mine, ALL MINE!" It's too bad that the writing style is so mediocre, because the ideas behind the book are innovative and unusual. The world that Nix creates shows a lot of promise, but I just can't trudge through the turgid prose, particularly when the ending is entirely predictable.
—Suzanne
An interesting YA novel about a sister and brother, Julia and Paul. Julia accidentally wakes up the Ragwitch, an ancient evil being from another world. The Ragwitch takes over Julia's body, something Paul notices but their parents miss completely, and then takes Julia to her home world. Paul, usually the one to follow Julia, sneaks into the other world in an attempt to rescue Julia.The story alternates between Julia, who is stuck inside the mind of the Ragwitch, and Paul, who is trying to find a way to free his sister and help the people of this world who aren't used to fighting and wars.This book probably only deserves 3 stars, the whole concept has been overused in children's tales, but I love Garth Nix and it held my attention (despite being rather predictable) so it gets 4. Yay for subjective rating systems!
—Elizabeth
