Anyway, I liked Agnes’s little rebellious nature and that she tries to stand up to Nanny and Granny, which takes some backbone to even consider doing. I also wonder if she was in Lords and Ladies, the book that had a few girls who were playing at being witches without fully understanding what that entails… so Granny and Nanny thought anyway. I wasn’t much interested in Agnes, but I hope she’ll leave more of an impression in the last Witches book, Carpe Jugulum. “Nanny’s philosophy of life was to do what seemed like a good idea at the time, and do it as hard as possible. What kept me reading, then, was the mystery - the story is somewhat based on The Phantom of the Opera, which I haven’t yet read, but the opera ghost is going around killing people and no one knows how to stop it - and Nanny Ogg, because she’s my favorite witch. So you see, I definitely was not in the headspace to enjoy the story. I was a little annoyed by the story as I read, thinking it spent too much time poking fun at the opera - even though the majority of it, 97% of it, takes place in an opera house. I completed it in March, reading it over eight days, but I was struggling to shake off a reading slump at the time while being extremely busy, so I think that’s why I wasn’t fully invested in the story and wasn’t as entertained by it as I would otherwise be: like when I reread the parts I highlighted before starting on this review and found some quite entertaining and funny enough to make me chuckle a bit. Well, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I thought I would, and I believe it’s because I read it at the wrong time and wasn’t fully in the mood for the story. While there, they get caught up in the drama at the opera house and say a quick hello (<< vastly understated) to Agnes. Bored (that’s what I think), Granny decides that she and Nanny should pay a visit to the publishers in Ankh-Morpork so that Nanny can get her royalties (and also to put Nanny’s name on the cover so that her “gnome de plume,” which is “a Lancre Witch” won’t lead people to assume Granny wrote such things). Also, one day, Granny learned that Nanny published a book, The Joye of Snacks, but is not being compensated for it. It’s all fooling people and being clever! They think they can do what they like!” - Perdita about Granny and NannyĪs for Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the two realize that they need a third witch for their coven since Magrat is off being queen, and Agnes is a strong potential. They think that just because they’re right that’s the same as good! It’s not even as though they do any real magic. Agnes also left Lancre, it seems, to get away from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, who both see witchy potential in Agnes, but Agnes thinks of them as frauds who trick people into doing what they want, so she rebels by refusing to join them. She has a great voice, good enough to be a lead singer, but because she is fat, she’s relegated to the background, to the chorus, and must sing cover for a beautiful, slim girl who better suits the look of a lead singer. Dream), a Lancre citizen, goes off to Ankh-Morpork to become an opera singer. In it, Agnes (who calls herself Perdita X. “Witches are curious by definition and inquisitive by nature.” So there’s going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evenin’s entertainment with murders you can really hum…). And she doesn’t hold with that sort of thing. Opera can do that to a man.īut Granny Weatherwax, Discworld’s most famous witch, is in the audience. This is the Opera House, Ankh-Morpork…a huge, rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a mask and evening dress, with a penchant for lurking in shadows, occasional murder, and sending little notes full of maniacal laughter and exclamation marks. The books are all light, amusing reads.ĭeath, to be precise. The stories all take place on a flat world that lies on the backs of four elephants that stand atop a giant turtle floating through space. These are a subseries of the Discworld fantasy series. I’m steadily working my way through the Witches books.
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