Title of the book: Hogfather
Author: Terry Pratchett
Series: Yes - Discworld
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Humour, Science Fiction Fantasy, Young Adult, Children, Adventure
Short summary of the story: Susan is a duchess, so one of the few employment opportunities open to her is being a governess. While she doesn't need to work, she wants to be her Own Person and hold down a Real Job.. She desperately wants to be Normal, which is something that a person whose grandfather is Death might find difficult. She finds out that she is a really good governess, and discovers it's almost normal to be 'normal'. Then this story begins. It involves the wizards, the Death of Rats, Mr. Teatime, The Auditors and many many others. The Hogfather is missing and Death (Susan's grandfather) goes on the rounds, to make sure that the sun will come up the next morning. However, there is one thing that Death cannot do, but his granddaughter (who really isn't normal) is well up to the task.
Good points / bad points: This is such an incredibly satisfying book. I sort of laughed at the synopsis that Goodreads had because ... it's almost impossible to write a summary of the story! It's incredibly involved, but very logically so, with a wonderful (and some not so wonderful) cast of characters. An intricate story set in Discworld, it's full of Mr. Pratchett's humour and satire.
Goodreads has this to say about Hogfather:
Susan had never hung up a stocking . She'd never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn't that her parents didn't believe in such things. They didn't need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn't.
There are those who believe and those who don't. Through the ages, superstition has had its uses. Nowhere more so than in the Discworld where it's helped to maintain the status quo. Anything that undermines superstition has to be viewed with some caution. There may be consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. When those consequences turn out to be the end of the world, you need to be prepared. You might even want more standing between you and oblivion than a mere slip of a girl - even if she has looked Death in the face on numerous occasions...
