woweewhoa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Moderate: Alcohol, Death, and Misogyny
vaguely_pink's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Alcoholism
Minor: Police brutality, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Body shaming, Confinement, Drug use, Fatphobia, Torture, and Cursing
_al's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence
Minor: Ableism, Sexism, and Vomit
bluejayreads's review against another edition
4.5
- There were Death and Albert trying to get the hang of delivering toys on Hogswatch night (and making some distinct social commentary about class and wealth disparity in the process).
- There was an absolutely off his rocker assassin doing … I’m not entirely sure what. Tooth fairies were involved. Somewhere in my disjointed reading experience I missed exactly what he was up to.
- There was Susan, who I actually quite enjoy now that she’s an adult. She is completely Fed Up With This Bullshit, and she may not be able to escape the supernatural nonsense but she can and will hit it with a fire poker. I hope she gets to be a bigger player in future Death books because adult Susan is fantastic.
- Then there were the wizards. The bounce in and out of the other characters’ stories, and they’re also doing their own stuff. There’s a bit of musing about the nature of belief and sentience – and also a couple computer programmer jokes – with Hex (Ponder Stibbons’ computer-like invention), and a very weird subplot about Archchancellor Ridcully’s new bathroom. I’ll be honest, I do not at all understand the point or purpose of the bathroom plot.
It’s entirely a coincidence that I picked up the holiday-themed Discworld book around the holidays, but it was fun. There were some musings on the nature of holidays and their traditions, what it means to believe and how belief affects the world, and how different the world looks through the eyes of children, plus mentions of holiday gift-giving as an illustration of wealth inequality and the ancient and significantly-less-cuddly roots of most treasured traditions. And if you wanted to call this book Death and his Granddaughter Susan Save (Discworld’s Version of) Christmas, that would also be valid.
Even reading it in fits and starts, making it unnecessarily confusing and at times hard to follow, this is probably my favorite Death book so far. I can only imagine how much more I would have liked it if I’d been able to read it straight through like normal. I’m really hoping the rest of the Death sub-series is like this, because I had a remarkably good time with this book.
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Ableism and Death of parent
Unrealitynialiversuch's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Violence, Vomit, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death
jessthanthree's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Death
Minor: Animal death
miriam_mal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Minor: Death and Animal death
ladythana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Death
ageckocalledachilles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture
rorikae's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Auditors want to disrupt humanity and to do this, they employ an assassin to kill the Hogfather. But when their plan goes awry, Death steps in to take up the mantle and make sure everyone receives their presents on Hogswatch night. As he travels around the world, his granddaughter Susan is pulled in to help figure out what is happening and how it can be stopped.
Like all of the Discworld books, 'Hogfather' is infused with wit and heart in equal measure. I love the premise of Death having to take over the job of who is essentially the Discworld version of Santa Claus. Where this book fell flat for me was in the middle section. The beginning was engaging and the ending had a lot to say about how humans use belief and the purpose that folklore holds in our lives. The middle was unfortunately a huge slog. I think this story is hurt by the number of perspectives we are jumping frantically between. We follow multiple different characters (at least 4 at a time if not more) and these sections take up only a few pages before we are hurtled along to the next piece. This made the story feel somewhat jumbled and we never spend enough time with one plotline for it to fully feel fleshed out. This is really unfortunate because the story points and the larger pieces that Pratchett is musing on are really interesting and his commentary makes you think.
The ending did save it for me in some respects but it was a lot to get through to get there. I love the ultimate message of this story and what it has to say about belief and the stories that humans tell themselves. This is also the first Discworld book that I've read out of order so I wonder if that had any part in why it was a little bit less enjoyable for me. I will definitely be going back to reading in order after this experience.
I hope to return to this book in the future around the holidays and potentially to check out the adaptation. I wouldn't recommend this as a first experience with Discworld but I do feel that it plays an important part in the wider story (at least as I can see so far).
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Animal death, Alcohol, and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping