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adventurous
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
I am having a really hard time with the Witches sub-series. The main characters of this series seem to be Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magret – they are the protagonists of all but the first Witches book so far, at least. And even though they end up doing interesting stuff, the character dynamics are awful.
I didn’t like Magret in Wyrd Sisters. She was unmemorable and her entire role in that book seemed to be to complain about the older witches. In this book, she was much more memorable – mainly by inspiring pity. She’s been beaten down so much by Granny Weatherwax thinking she’s useless that her self-confidence is completely shattered. She is doing her best by herself but she can’t assert herself around others – not that Granny Weatherwax would let her if she tried.
Which brings me to Granny Weatherwax. There are very few kinds of characters I just can’t tolerate, and one of those is bullies. Granny Weatherwax is a bully. She’s rude, cruel, verbally and emotionally abusive to Magret, believes that she is the only person who is ever right and anyone who disagrees is hopelessly stupid, and will have her way no matter how she has to scheme or manipulate to get it. That’s not even mentioning her xenophobia, which is played for laughs (and failed to get any from me). She is not a good person. She is not a likeable character. And I am finally starting to accept that she must have some major character growth before the Tiffany Aching books because this Granny Weatherwax is mean and cruel.
Nanny Ogg I did like. She’s fun, often grandmotherly, a bit scatterbrained, and not exactly friendly but at least not cruel. Although I really can’t tell if I actually like her for herself but at a more level-headed, less-mean foil to Granny Weatherwax.
Itreally sucks that I struggled with the characters so much, because the plot and settings are actually interesting. The witches travel to a bunch of fascinating places, including Discworld equivalents of real-world places (the Discworld version of the Running of the Bulls was especially entertaining). There was also a fractured fairy tale element as the witches live out some fairy tales with dark and twisted underbellies. It even had some interesting commentary about forcing people to fit into narratives. But I had a hard time looking past the characters (especially Granny Weatherwax’s bullying) to appreciate it.
I really hope the rest of the Witches books are better, or at least that Granny Weatherwax gets some character growth and becomes less cruel to Magret. The ideas are interesting, but they’re overshadowed by the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Bullying, Animal death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Body horror, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent and Child abuse
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