Februarys final big read

I chose to reread The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett. Check it out over at goodreads. I have so much emotion bound up in this book. It's Pratchetts last, and as with any loved thing, I'm not ready for it to be over.  I laughed, I cried, I laughed while crying, I made undignified noises and a pile of snot and tear filled kleenex.  I basically started crying at the dedication and stopped at the end of the book.

This book is about the ending of things, and moving beyond endings to to fill the spaces left behind. Tiffany Aching finds herself with big boots to fill as she steps up as the official  unofficial head witch. Witches don't have leaders, but if they did, that leader was Granny Weatherwax, who chose Tiffany to take over after her death. Tiffany also takes on the discs first male witch apprentice. She is juggling two steadings (areas that she personally attends to as a witch), a long distance relationship, the loss of a mentor and a bunch of fairies trying to take over the world.

Pratchett writes his fairies beautifully. They are not the tiny colorful sprites of Disney. In an earlier book, he describes them thusly: "Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder. Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels. Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies. Elves are glamorous. They project glamour. Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment. Elves are terrific. They beget terror." Pratchett uses the terms fairies for his Tiffany Aching books, which are young adult books, and Elves for his adult discworld books.

This book was actually left unfinished, and was lovingly turned into a full novel by Rob Willkins. You can definitely see it in comparison to Pratchetts other work. It is stretched thin in some places and some spots are oddly flat. It is still an amazing novel. It is in the running for the Carnegie medal, which is the oldest running award for children's books in the United Kingdom .

I love this book. I loved it when I first read it and I shall love it equally 50 years from now when I reread it for the final time. I deeply recommend it, as I do all of his books. 10/10