3 out of 4 stars
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Double Trouble, Judith E. Webb’s first book of the Which Witch Is Which? series, is a comedic fantasy for young adults that follows Lisa and her aunt Harriett on a crazy yet memorable trip to the past. Flying taxis, whippersnappers, imps, enchanted rings, and witches galore pop up throughout this novel, and Lisa can never really be certain about what is real and what is not.
The story begins with a teaser into the past, year 1612. Elderly twin witches, Amaris and Clovis, have tracked down another witch from the future and make plans to lure the young witch to them so that they may obtain her powers. Their enchanted letter to the future arrives at the home of Lisa, who watches as the letter delivers itself directly to her aunt Harriett. Extremely paranoid and terrified of anything involving magic or witchcraft, Lisa tries to get her aunt to explain to her what has happened, but her aunt denies anything that could be magic related.
In response to the letter, Harriett drags Lisa along with her to offer aid to her sister, Esmeralda, whom Lisa had previously thought was dead. Although they immediately encounter a creepy witch and a bewitched taxi that takes them back in time four hundred years, Harriett insists on more logical explanations. Now trapped in the seventeenth century, regardless of what Harriett says, Lisa must rely on an “imaginary” creature to keep her and her aunt out of trouble as they try to escape from the perils that await them – witches, witch hunters, and evil cats.
I have to admit, it took me a while to warm up to this book. It started off interesting with the evil witches, but I was a little skeptical once the main character Lisa was introduced. Lisa has a tendency to talk nonstop. Even when she is not talking, her internal monologue does not shut off. This was made obvious from very early on in the story, and I found her to initially be a bit of a nuisance. Additionally, the story takes place in England, but Lisa clearly uses American English vocabulary words (e.g., trunk, cell phone, and hood rather than boot, mobile phone, and bonnet, respectively). I’m not sure if this was intentional or not (it never actually says if Lisa is English or American, just that the story takes place in England), but it seems a shame that the author put in so much effort to create such a realistic 1612 setting, only to have it all voided by an unrealistic vocabulary from the present.
However, all of these “annoying” bits of the story take place at the beginning of the book, and as I continued reading, I found myself getting more and more immersed in the story. Lisa’s endless chatter became a nonstop platform for laughter; the conversations between Lisa and her aunt, who is extremely dense yet probably a genius in disguise, had me chuckling almost every time they spoke to each other. And because this is a very dialogue dense story, I was chuckling quite a bit. As a matter of fact, most of the characters were entertaining at minimum, and all of the main characters had me snorting back laughter at one point or another. By the time I had reached the conclusion of the story, I had mostly gotten over all of those things from earlier on that had me questioning the quality of this book.
I give this story a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. There were a handful of typos scattered throughout the story, but it was really more of the American/British English vocabulary that detracted from the book for me. The story itself was funny and makes for a nice, quick read. The ending of the book is also excellent, and I am now curious to know what happens in later books in the series. I would recommend Double Trouble to those who enjoy young adult novels involving witches or magic.
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Double Trouble
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