I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

"So, witches had to keep one another normal or at least what was normal for witches. It didn't take very much: a tea party, a singalong, a stroll in the woods, and somehow everything balanced up, and they could look at advertisements for gingerbread cottages in the builder's brochure without putting a deposit on one." (p. 53)

Tiffany Aching is a witch and a rather young one at that. She does all the dirty business witches are expected to do (births, salves, tending to the weak) and not much of the dirty business witches are thought to do (spells and general wickedness). But when the ghost of a witch hunter is unleashed into Tiffany's world and the "rough music" dances him out of darkness and into the hearts of those who "make room for the evil," Tiffany must find the courage and skill to destroy him and reunite her village in the face of unspeakable evils and the kind of fear and ignorance that tears people apart.

"I Shall Wear Midnight" confirms that I need to be reading more Terry Pratchett. Several years ago I enjoyed a book he co-authored with Neil Gaiman called "Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch." I don't know why I didn't immediately pick up another of his books right then and there. Oh yeah. It's because I started reading more Gaiman. Which wasn't a bad bet. But it's nice to know he wasn't the only one running the show with "Good Omens." Pratchett is insightful and funny and neither of those words do justice to the delight it is to read his work. Dad, start with "Good Omens" and see what you think, since this one is in the YA vein. But it's good stuff. A genuine pleasure.