[Review] The Witches - Roald Dahl

Title of Book : The Witches
Author : Roald Dahl
Publisher : PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama
This Roald Dahl classic tells the scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven-year-old boy who has a run-in with some real-life witches! "In fairy tales witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch." Witches, as our hero learns, hate children. With the help of a friend and his somewhat-magical grandmother, our hero tries to expose the witches before they dispose of him.


Another Roald Dahl's book that I bought in the book fair. The back cover said that The witches is NOT a fairy tale. It's about real witches, which are described as children hater creatures with bald head, sharp nails, and they don't have toes. Yuck! The story follows a boy, whose grandmama knows everything about witches. They used to live in Norwegia, but then moved out to England. While having holiday in a hotel, they encounter a group of witches disguising as a 'prevention of violence against children' association. Those witches actually were having a conference which discusses about how to get rid children all over England fast. That's where the adventure begins.
The description of the witch queen is quite disturbing. In The Witches world, witch is described as a disgusting creature while most of other stories describe witch as a woman with magical power. There's a disturbing scene when the boy goes to the hotel's kitchen. The waiter told the cookers that an old lady who ordered steak couldn't chew the meat because the meat was too tough. So all the cookers spit on the meat to make it less tough. Yuck. The boy's attempt to prevent the witches' plan is thrilling and exciting. I'm not sure if I want to read this as a child ...


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