The Other Doctor and the Girl Who Ran Away by Dave Matthews ISBN: 9780992874407
Series: The Chronicles of Wizard's Thatch #1
Published by STMO Media Group on April 7, 2013
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 136
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What do a Victorian Jewish detective, a thirteen year old girl, a vampire and William Shakespeare -the Bard of Avon - have in common? They’re all acquaintances of the world’s greatest time travelling wizard, Dr Thaddeus Bombay.
Join him on his adventures through "twistory" as he travels through time and goes in search of the truth behind the myths and legends of Wizard's Thatch, a small and insignificant town in Somerset that just happens to be home to the most magical school in the world: The Wizard's Thatch Academy.
The Other Doctor and The Girl Who Ran Away is the first in a series of page turning adventures that introduce you to the largest magical community in the world, the town of Wizard’s Thatch where magic lurks on every corner.
It really is where magic begins….
Characters: 5, I couldn’t tell any of the characters apart, other than Alice being 13 and the MC, and Valeria being the villain whose motivation is to be eeeeeevil.
Atmosphere: 6, I could picture the buildings, because I bought this book from the author in Stratford-on-Avon and, like Wizard’s Thatch, a lot of it appears to be halted in time around the Elizabethan era. However, the emotional atmosphere of the book fell flat for me, with no tension or mood building.
Writing: 5, this really could’ve used an edit. There was shifting tense all over, it was tell-not-show style (I expected some of that, given it’s essentially middle grade novel, but it’s extensive here), and it jumped around within chapters such that I had trouble knowing which “she” was thinking/saying a thing until a name was dropped.
Plot: 5, this story ran like a racehorse, and also included scenes totally irrelevant to plot and character, so I’d say it had a pacing issue. It’s a cute sort of concept, but in need of more polish. The story got marginally better around page 78, where we switch from Alice’s narration and bad dialogue to exposition and the history of magic in the British Isles.
Intrigue: 5, I had to grit my way through this. I wanted to love it, I really did. I bought it from the author himself. He had a bookstore whose upper levels were a museum dedicated to his book series.
Logic: 6, starting on page 80, we get actual intrigue in the plot and a sense that there are rules to the magic at play. Then everything is explained point-blank. The only characters whose motives we know (the Doctor and Valeria) act in accordance with them.
Enjoyment: 6, there’s some cheeky bits and a clever referencing to notable fictional characters, but most of the story was clunky, rushed, and unpolished. It read as a middle grade Doctor Who/Harry Potter fanfic.
*Read for the Orilium Academy Magical Readathon Autumn Equinox
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Okay I fully admit that the author and illustrator’s names being ridiculous are what drew me to this review. I mean bad enough it’s authored by “Dave Matthews” (like my dude, add a middle initial, go by David, literally anything other than Dave Matthews- or maybe that is the plan, figures he’ll lure in a few jam band fans who get confused? Idk) but THEN you have it illustrated by BARRY GIBBS. Like- drop the “s”, and people will legit think DMB and the Bee Gees are teaming up for a new collab and I CANNOT 😂😂😂
Oh right, there WAS an actual book involved, not actually a strange musical duet. I have to ask, how on earth did you come across this!? A bookstore/museum…. owned by Not-Dave-Matthews-Dave Matthews? I am so intrigued by this whole thing hah. Bummer that it was a little rocky (heh, rock-y bwhaha) but honestly this was the best part of my day (which is a sad commentary on my day, but alas) so. Consider it a win anyway.
Ahahahahahahaha! Right?! The author is British, so maybe he’d just…never heard of the musician Dave Matthews? I have no clue there. So, on my honeymoon, we went to Stratford-on-Avon, because I love Shakeaspeare. And the town has this amazing walking downtown with renovated historic buildings that are all tourist place (some fantastic restaurants, pubs, etc as well). I’d read somewhere that you could buy a butterbeer at this book shop/cafe, so I insisted we go there. They did not, in fact, serve butterbeer (apparently they did at one time, but weren’t actually permitted to serve edible things? So stopped doing that), but it was a book store on the ground floor, then two or three levels of museum above (the whole thing was in an Elizabethan house) dedicated to props from the author/owner’s book series. I didn’t know the series at all, of course, but who buys a building and turns it into a museum of their own Universe? I was too intrigued not to check it out. And it was silly good fun! Very atmospheric in the museum part. So after all that, I pretty much had to buy the first book in his series, to understand what was going on. I’d assumed it must be a really good and popular-in-the-UK series, to have granted him enough money to open that place, so I did have some expectations going in.