Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

10 reviews

petitemass15's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

erebus53's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Terry Pratchett has a stab at satirising opera in his own version of the story of the Phantom.
I do find it funny that he has a Frank Spence like character (given that he is played by Michael Crawford who has also sung the part of the Phantom of the Opera).

This is technically a Witches story though there is some crossover with the Watch, and a cameo from the Librarian.

All the characters behave as they ought.
I think it's a bit naff that we lean so hard into the fatphobia in this offering, but the plot is a solid whodunnit.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

woweewhoa's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bookgraham's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review

Go to review page

3.75

Granny Weatherwax is a pretty neat character idea, but she’s also my biggest frustration with the Witches subseries. She’s mean, passive-aggressive, won’t admit she’s wrong, and determined to make people do what she thinks is best for them regardless of their opinions on the matter. Luckily for my enjoyment of this book, Granny is slowly starting to get a little bit better, and Agnes, the third protagonist along with Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, is even more fed up with Granny than I am. 

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have decided that Agnes should become their third witch now that Magret has escaped from under Granny’s thumb. Agnes, though, hates the very idea, and instead takes her spectacular vocal talent to Ankh-Morpork to become an opera singer. Granny and Nanny come up with an excuse to follow her there and interfere. Also the plot of Phantom of the Opera is going on, complete witha mysterious black-suited mask-wearing opera house “ghost,” murders, and a gorgeous lead singer named Christine (although this Christine can’t actually sing). 

Agnes is prodigiously fat, and though this doesn’t bother her in the slightest, there is a lot of fatphobia from others and some of the humor is based around fatphobic jokes. Although there is quite a bit of actual humor, as well. It’s definitely not as funny as some of the other Discworld books, but I think it’s the funniest of the Witches books so far. 

There’s not really anything here that I would call a main plot. There’s the whole Phantom of the Opera thing, which mainly becomes a whodunit mystery trying to figure out who is the opera house ghost so they can stop him from murdering people, Agnes trying to find where she fits into the world of opera, Granny doing her best to meddle in everything (with Nanny cheerfully along for the ride), and a very bizarre subplot about an Ankh-Morpork-born opera singer pretending to be a foreigner and really hating how everyone goes out of their way to feed him foreign food that he doesn’t like but requesting the Ankh-Morpork food he does like would blow his cover. No, I’m not sure what the point is supposed to be either. 

Though I can’t say I’m a particular fan of how things worked out for Agnes in the end, overall this was a solid book. It kept me interesting, it made me laugh, I liked Agnes a lot, and Granny Weatherwax’s more enraging aspects were toned down. It’s not my favorite Discworld book, but it’s definitely not my least favorite, and it may be my favorite of the Witches books so far. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I love the characters, and the set-up, and the snarky-but-loving digs at the theatre. (And the snarky-but-not-so-loving digs at publishing.) This book is a "Phantom of the Opera" retelling in the Discworld fashion, which is to say it's somewhere between a true retelling and a parody, but that gives the book enough familiarity to make the new bits even more fun. This is quite possibly my new favorite Discworld book.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sockandkey's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jessthanthree's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

vanadiumbean's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I love Discworld and I love the Witches series. This has the humor vital to any Discworld book, and Nanny and Granny are up to their usual hijinks. The mystery is also compelling; I was trying my best to work it out right up to when things got revealed. I also really enjoyed the character of Agnes, as best I could around some of the kind of nasty fatphobia surrounding her in this book. That, in addition to the ableism around another character and the use of the g slur made it hard for me to enjoy this book to its fullest potential. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rachellyeah's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Would have been five stars if not for the fatphobia and body shaming.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...