Summary and Reviews of The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber

The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber

The Witch's Boy

by Michael Gruber
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • Readers' Rating (4):
  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2005, 377 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2006, 400 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Michael Gruber has created a world that is at once deceptively familiar and stunningly original, a world of cruelty, beauty, legend, truth, and above all, wonder. Readers will delight in the author's ingenious retelling of classic fairy tales and will marvel at the stunning new tale of a boy raised by a witch, a cat, a bear, and a demon. Ages 11+.

A wondrous journey through the realms of magic

They call him Lump. Ugly, misshapen -- more goblin than human child -- abandoned as an infant and taken in by a witch, he is nursed by a bear, tutored by a djinn; his only playmates are the creatures of the forest, whose language he learns to speak.

But when Lump inevitably stumbles into the human world, his innocence is no match for the depths of people's cruelty, which turns his heart to stone, and fuels a vengeance that places him and his witch mother in deadly peril. Yet these disasters also send Lump on a journey of self-discovery, to realms deep within the earth and far beyond mortal imagination.

In this stunning fantasy debut, Michael Gruber has created a world that is at once deceptively familiar and stunningly original, a world of cruelty, beauty, legend, truth, and above all, wonder. Readers will delight in the author's ingenious retelling of classic fairy tales and will marvel at the stunning new tale of a boy raised by a witch, a cat, a bear, and a demon.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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I was particularly keen to read Gruber's book with the children (aged 9 and 11) because the opinions of the mainstream reviewers are quite mixed.  For example, Booklist gives it a starred review saying 'from the hypnotic mask on the cover to its perfect fairy-tale ending, this astonishing fantasy compels readers onward,,' and the Guardian (UK) describes it as 'a brilliantly woven plot for ages 12-16. However, Publishers Weekly felt that 'the languorous pace and muddled message will likely make it off-putting to teens', and Kirkus thought the main character to be 'one of the least sympathetic characters readers will ever meet in literature' - which isn't a criticism per se, but equally will not have people rushing out to buy a copy!

We listened to The Witch's Boy as an 8 hour audio book read beautifully by Denis O'Hare.  Undoubtedly a good reader can turn literary straw into gold, so part of our opinion is probably colored by the exceptional reading. However, even without this I believe we would have been hooked by this elegantly plotted story that can be understood at many levels, and thus can be enjoyed by many ages - and yes, I can well imagine many teenagers will see a bit of themselves in Lump, and perhaps that's not such a bad thing!  I wholeheartedly recommend The Witch's Boy for young teens and also, as we discovered, it's an excellent choice for family car journeys (most audio books get passed on but we'll be keeping this one to listen to again)...continued

Full Review (354 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

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Beyond the Book



Although Tropic of Night was his first book in his own name, Gruber was Robert Tanenbaum's ghost-writer for many years (they are cousins). However, his credit was limited to a thank you on the acknowledgements page so eventually the relationship dissolved - Resolve (2003) was the last Tanebaum book Gruber wrote.

In 1996 he started to write The Witch's Boy but was unable to find a publisher, so he turned to adult fiction, publishing Tropic of Night and Valley of Bones, which were both well received.  In 2005, almost 10 years after he first wrote it, The Witch'...

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Read-Alikes

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