A review by jdemster
The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr. Willy Wonka by Roald Dahl

4.0

I was reading this to my son as his first book, and reading something out loud gives it a different dimension for someone I think. I've read C&tCF a couple times before and have always been a big fan. The story is well crafted and is Dahl at the height of his mastery over whimsy and morality while continuing to hold together as a coherent tale. TGGE sadly does not have the same characteristics. Especially reading this one out loud (I'd read this one only once before) you realize what a tangled mess it is. There's little dynamic to the story as it runs at a thousand miles an hour, and there's really no thread through. It's a few adventures that happen to need the elevator to take place. It's still classically Dahl, and his ability to maintain his character consistency amongst the strangeness of the story is admirable. And the imaginativeness of the adventures goes back to Dahl's talents. But it's just not as good a tale as its predecessor. There are many better examples of his writing. I still give this book 4 stars, but mostly on the back of C&tCF. Probably better to just read that one and stop there.