Reviews with content warning for Murder - Witches Abroad

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Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

2 reviews

crufts's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is Book 12 of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, or the 3rd book about the Witches.

Although you can read the book alone, I would recommend reading at least one of the previous Witches books (Equal Rites or Wyrd Sisters). See my review of the previous Witches book here.

Young witch Magrat Garlick receives absolutely no respect from her coven sisters, who are the cheerfully obscene Nanny Ogg and the severe and upright Granny Weatherwax. Magrat doesn't know who she is or what she's about, and is constantly trying to "find herself".

But everything changes when fate drops a powerful artifact into Magrat's hands: the wand of a Fairy Godmother, Desiderata. Desiderata's dying wish is for Magrat to do what Desiderata could not: to travel to the distant city of Genua and save her young goddaughter from an undesired arranged marriage.

Can the coven witches save the day and prevent this warped "happily ever after"?

There was a lot to enjoy about the novel. For starters, I adore the main characters and their banter. The witches are delightful in every scene and bounce off each other like firecrackers. They spark off many of the book's jokes, which are lightly sprinkled throughout the text. Practically every interaction the witches have with the world is laced with humour, such as how they reacted when meeting a strange new witch in the form of

Mrs Gogol

The themes of the book were intriguing and easy to follow. Ideas such as the mirror magic were sown well at the opening of the book, so that when they came to a head at the end of the book and the metaphorical became literal, it all made sense.

I also liked how "story" appears in the book as a natural force like gravity or magnetism, to be exploited or disrupted by the characters, or else unwisely ignored. It was a fun way to poke at how human beings are so invested in story structure and proper endings, no matter how unnatural these may be in real life.

Conflict was maintained throughout the book through the multiple different layers of antagonists. There were some mini challenges during the

flight to Genua

, then there was the Big Bad

Lilith

, but there was also minor antagonists like

Mrs Gogol with her plan to rule the city

. All of these differently-flavoured antagonists helped build a story with real stakes.

Similarly, it was very satisfying when (for example) Granny Weatherwax uses her headology and smarts to confront these antagonists. Her success feels authentic and deserved, such as when she cleverly defeats

Mrs Gogol by taking advantage of Gogol's own voodoo powers

On the negative side, huge swathes of the

travelogue sequence

could be cut with zero impact to the rest of the story. I actually found this section amusing and illustrative of the witches' characters, I just wished there were more callbacks to this section from the rest of the book, or something else to make this section feel necessary for the story's conclusion.

I also didn't like how arbitrary the witches' magic felt at times. For example,

they can transform Greebo the cat into a human, but they can't defeat Lilith by transforming her into an animal? And what about Granny Weatherwax's ability to mentally paralyze people, which she uses on a lumberjack man? Why didn't they all use more magic directly against Lilith?

Also, Granny Weatherwax is characterized as using headology whenever possible. So it felt underexplained when she eventually gives in and

decides to use magic to solve problems. Yes, of course she could change her mind, but why? It would have been good to explain why she was going back on such a strong personal conviction

I was also left confused about

Mrs Gogol's status in Genua before the death of Baron Saturday. She refers to Emberella being "our" daughter, so does that mean she was the Baronness, or the Baron's consort, or what? This was never clarified and left me wondering how Mrs Gogol could have remained alive in the city after Saturday was murdered by Lilith

. It was also unclear whether

the glass shoe perfectly fitting Nanny Ogg was just a coincidence, or if this had been specially contrived by the witches

Overall, I greatly enjoyed the novel and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Witches characters. However, I think the audiobook version could be even better as the Discworld actors typically do an amazing job with the Witches' voices.

Content Warnings

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

While it was funny at times, many of the jokes have not aged well such as the rape jokes centered around Greebo. I also wish Pratchett had done more research on the Vodou religion as this book is full of stereotypes.

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