Title:

The Witch of Maracoor

Author:

Gregory Maguire

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

January 8, 2024

hat disappointment The Witch of Maracoor turned out to be. The Another Day trilogy started out so intriguingly in The Brides of Maracoor, had some interesting plot points and characterizations in The Oracle of Maracoor but the story thread seemed to be completely lost in this final volume. The biggest question left unanswered was: what was the Fist of Mara? This dangerous relic had been guarded and hidden by the brides for so many years - and it was so desired by the Skedelanders that they launched an invasion to capture it - Maguire might mention the Fist once in this entire book. The reader never learns what the Fist of Mara was, why it was important, or even if it was successfully destroyed. The Fist of Mara is forgotten.

Maguire instead tells us of Rain's wanderings as she returns to Oz. The magical Grimmerie reassembles itself, no worse the wear for having been thrown into the sea, so Rain carries it back to Oz with her. There doesn't seem to be any consequences for Rain trying to destroy the book or returning it. The entire trilogy seems pointless, nothing is accomplished. Maguire has an excellent imagination, he dreams up some interesting events for Rain to encounter - the mysterious cemetery on Ithra Strand, the ship-boarding by the pirates, the weird mermaids that ask Rain to bury one of their dead on land at Great Northern Island, the village of sheep-herding children that have lost their parents, the narrow and dangerous swinging bridge over that chasm - after Rain passes through each of these encounters, they are forgotten and have no effect on Rain or her quest. It is as if Maguire was just creating filler events until he had enough pages to make a novel. There doesn't seem to have been a complete story here; we read about Rain and her adventures, but ultimately nothing really mattered at all.

The most disappointing part for me is that once Rain has recovered her full memories, she turns out to be grumpy, self-absorbed, and irritating. I liked Rain-the-amnesiac in The Brides of Maracoor much better than the Rain-with-her-memories that appeared on these pages. The romps under the blankets with Luckiles seemed out of character from previous Rain. (What was going on Ithra Strand where Iskinaary, then Rain, and finally Luckiles succumbed to a strange lethary that seemed to lead to death - only to have them wake up the next morning without any lasting effect?). It is no wonder that Iskinaary abandons Rain to remain with the village of parentless children.

In The Oracle of Maracoor, a handsome naked god appeared, like a Greek diety, and it seems that the gods would intervene in the affairs of men, yet that is also forgotten. What was that about?

I never got any sense of what the indestructible, seemingly-sentient Grimmerie was doing. It got thrown into the sea, and now that it has been returned to Liir's cottage it is now content??

I expected a different story. I don't know how The Witch of Maracoor should have turned out, but I was unhappy with this rambling tale. I think Maguire can do better. This book has me thinking that I will avoid reading any future works by him, even though this was not a bad book. It just wasn't the right book for me.