Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

 

My friend has recommended the books by Terry Pratchett to me many times in the past few years, and for some reason I never got to reading them. A few weeks ago, I was just looking for a new book when she suggested I read Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I decided to read it, and I am glad I did.

Wyrd Sisters is set in Discworld, a magical world on the backs of four giant elephants standing on a turtle. The main characters of the book are three witches named Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick that form a coven together. The plot starts when the king dies and his baby son is left with the three witches. They give the baby away and plan to continue their normal lives. However, neither the witches nor the kingdom itself like the new king, and the witches decide to break their rule of not meddling.

I really liked the characters in the book. There are many different characters, and the book gives the perspective of each of them. I thought the characters were stereotypical in some ways but there was at least one attribute that each character had that did not fit the stereotype. I really liked this because I thought that the ways in which the characters were stereotypical made the story seem like a classic fairy tale while the ways in which they were not kept the story unique and interesting. One example of how the characters were both stereotypical and not stereotypical was the witch Nanny Ogg. When you think of a witch, you might imagine an old woman in a pointed hat bent over a cauldron with a cat at her feet. Like the witch you might imagine, Nanny Ogg wears a pointed hat and owns a cauldron and a cat and a broomstick. However Nanny Ogg also lives in a regular looking house and she has many children that often visit her, which might not be characteristics of witches that typically come to mind. Another example of such a character is the duke’s fool. The fool looks, dresses, and behaves like a stereotypical castle fool, from the bells on his clothes to the way he speaks, yet he is not as happy as he might seem and longs to do something other than be a fool for the rest of his life.

In addition to the interesting way each character behaved, there were also many different types of characters. While the focus of the book was on the three witches Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, and Magrat Garlick, many other characters are introduced and narrate the book for a short section. As a result, I knew what each person was thinking which gave me a better understanding of the plot. It also helped me get a sense of the land the book is set in. It was a magical land that I knew nothing about before reading the book, so getting a sense of what type of people lived there and how they acted made the land come to life in my imagination. There was a wide variety of characters in the book, from the dwarf Hwel that writes plays to the dead former king to a storm that longs to impress the world. Each character is related to the main plot in different ways and amounts. Some of the characters just add little details to the plot but I still thought they offered a new entertaining point of view. Even though the storm was only mentioned on a few pages, it was one of my favorite characters. 

Another detail I really liked about the book was the use of asterisks. The book had many asterisks with extra details explaining background about the world to clarify points that were mentioned. I really liked this because I thought it was an interesting way to add information without disrupting the plot of the story too much.

Overall I really liked the characters in the book and the style of the book and I would recommend Wyrd Sisters.