A review by ianbanks
A Hat Full of Sky (Discworld, #32; Tiffany Aching, #2) by Terry Pratchett

5.0

Tiffany heads off to her first job to find out more about what the Feegles call, "the Hagglin'." A parasitic telepathic creature known as a Hiver is attracted by her use of magic and tries to possess her.

First up, I really enjoyed this: it's a great story with lots of terrific characters, moments and ideas. The Feegles play a smaller part in this but are more effective for it. It's just... just...

... There have been YA/ child protagonists in Discworld before: Mort, Esk, Carrot, Teppic, Susan. I don't know why the Tiffany stories have to be branded as YA when she is no different to some of these others (Actually, I do know why: those other characters got their starts before Harry Potter). What we have in the Tiffany stories is something tonally different to what has gone before and comes after. Which is great because it shows that we can get heaps of different types of stories out of this setting. It also shows what a wide range of character and mood Sir Terry had.

But it's a very YA story: there are some lessons about maturity and growing up shoehorned into the plot, or rather, made more obvious than they would be normally. Characters have a bit less of their usual shades of grey and the main character comes across as a little more special than she might normally in a "regular" entry in the series.

I love it because it's a great book, but I dislike some of the choices made because it's felt that there has to be a separate series for kids.