I Shall Wear Midnight (review)

In this final episode featuring Tiffany Aching, now a full witch, and her constant companions, the boisterous and irrepressible Mac Nac Feegles, our intrepid heroine continues to have a bit too much for one (admittedly brilliant and able) girl to handle. Now sixteen, Tiffany spends her days performing the duties expected of the area witch, from visiting old women and removing their pain, to handling a dicey situation involving a beaten child, to saving all of the locals' mostly ungrateful selves on a regular basis. The recent witch animosity isn't entirely the residents' fault, however, as an evil spirit, obsessed for centuries with witch hunting, has found an in through the quiet insecurities and jealousies of ordinary folk and has tainted their views. Though Tiffany has plenty of witch allies from earlier adventures who would help, this is her problem, and she handles it with the exact mix of aplomb, bravado, and reluctant admissions of gaps in her skill that she's used in approaching danger before. The Feegles, still able to handle battle and liquor better than any full-sized man, are a bit less present than in the earlier volumes, but their long-standing relationship with Tiffany is richer than ever. Tiffany herself is deeply engaging as she often stumbles through new situations with a keen sense of justice but the relatively sparse tools of an inexperienced young witch. At once touchingly poignant and uproariously hilarious, this novel is a splendid goodbye to a batch of characters who will be missed by readers who still must admit that, with this fourth volume, their stories have been well and thoroughly told.