Sarah's Reviews > The Wee Free Men

Tiffany Aching, aged nine, is the only member of her large family with a jot of curiosity about the outside world. For generations without counting, the Achings (also spelled Aikens, Archens, or Akins) have tended sheep in the Discworld backwater known as the Chalk. Nothing interesting has happened in the Chalk for all of recorded history.

But that's about to change. A parasitic fae world, made of selfish magic and dream fragments, is connecting to the Chalk. Monsters not seen in centuries are dropping up in fields and rivers. Tiffany is the only human aware of them, and thus the only defense against them.

So when Tiffany's perpetually sticky, candy-obsessed toddler brother, Wentworth, is left unattended for a few minutes and abducted by the cruel and selfish Faerie Queen (pronounced "Quin" by most of our cast) only Tiffany can save him. She finds allies in the Nac Mac Feegle - a cheerfully violent tribe of six-inch-high, blue-skinned brigands with thick Scottish burrs - and a talking toad (view spoiler)[who was once a human lawyer. (hide spoiler)] She enters Faerie armed with nothing but an iron skillet. Sam Gamgee and Rapunzel approve.

Content Advisory
Violence: The Feegles will attack anything, including but not limited to faerie queens, sharks, sheep, giant squid, whiny twelve-year-old boys, housecats, and each other. This is always played for laughs. There is no actual death or gore shown.

There's an unsettling flashback of the Chalk people burning down the house of an elderly suspected witch and killing her cat.

Sex: Tiffany's older sisters enjoy springtime on the farm because they get to watch the young men working with their shirts off. Tiffany is baffled. She's equally baffled by her uncle's fondness for a chewing tobacco logo that features a nude female figure if you look at it from a certain angle.

When Tiffany is declared temporary kelda (matriarch) of the local Feegles, she fears that she'll have to marry their chief, Rob Anybody (yes, that's his real name), as dictated by tradition. He's just as scared as she is, due to the considerable difference in age and size. They figure a way out of it, don't worry!

Language: The Feegles' favorite word is "crivens!" , a fairly obvious euphemism.

Substance Abuse: The Wee Free Men are always hammered and proud of it. Tiffany bribes them with something called Special Sheep Linament, which is said to put hair on one 's chest. All the adults in Tiffany's family chew tobacco.

Nightmare Fuel: Literal. In Faerie live blobby, faceless creatures called dromes, who absorb human thoughts and build dreams from them. Usually the human gets trapped in the dream and starves, while the drome drains the life from them.

The Quin is a shapeshifter with no settled form. At one point Tiffany notices that her enemy's eyes "don't move as if she sees through them" *shudders*

Politics and Religion: Pratchett's suspicion of religion is not manifest in this book but occasionally crops up later in the series.

While the word "witch" is frequently used, the witches in this universe have little in common with real-world witches, or even Harry Potter witches. The trappings we associate with witches - incantations, potions, summoning of spirits - are almost nonexistent here. This is just a group of women who do the right thing because somebody has to. Their main goal is keeping the peace and protecting the powerless, and unlike many fictional witches, they don't hate men. In the case of Nanny Ogg, they really, really...don't hate men.


Conclusion
The Wee Free Men was my introduction to Pratchett and Discworld, but despite being his fortieth book set there it was easy to jump in.

It does owe a bit to the great older-kid/YA adventure stories that came before, particularly Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, The Snow Queen, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Wrinkle in Time, and Labyrinth.

But these similarities are in the bones of the story, not displayed on its facade. The imagery is often familiar, but the tale itself has a unique viewpoint and message.

For instance, if you put all the villains of the aforementioned stories in a police lineup, the Quin would stand out. She's not a bellowing dullard like the Queen of Hearts, nor is she consumed with hubris and power-lust like Jadis. She's much more personal than IT (L'Engle's mutant disembodied brain, not King's demon clown) and much smarter than Smaug, who has the mind of a worm after all. As for Jareth, he's an antihero, not a villain, and has a human emotional life beyond the capabilities of someone like the Quin. If anything she's a more active Snow Queen, a shallow malignant force who feeds on discouragement and falsehood.

Tiffany wins by being grounded in her home soil. Unlike the majority of the protagonists on the influence list, she does not come from money. She's grown up among life and death and beauty and decay as only a farm kid can. She wants to travel and learn, but she's no Belle looking down her nose at the other villagers either. Tiffany is probably better adjusted than most adults.

And those crazy Feegles. My imagination would be a sad place without their brainless bravery , huge hearts, eternal loyalty, and love of kebabs.

I am happy to report that there are four more books about Tiffany and Co. A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I Shall Wear Midnight are just as good as this one, albeit darker. I haven't read The Shepherd's Crown yet.

This book is recommended for everyone 14 and up, but especially if you need a break from mainstream YA melodrama and/or books that idolize the Fey Folk.