SURPRISE!

Ok, this is my last blog of 2025. I know I can’t make up my mind.

With December and Christmas fast approaching, I want to see if there are any Christmas books I could read in the next 3 weeks. (That was my timetable.) 

All the Christmas stories that I could think of were movies. Home alone, any number of movies with Santa Clauses in the name, The Christmas Carol, The Grinch.

Umm, these last two caught my interest, but then I thought the Christmas Carol might be tricky, and my mind can’t handle that at the moment. The Grinch Stole Christmas? That’s a kids’ book, written like a poem, right? Im not sure if I feel comfortable reading and analysing a poem right now. 

I texted my friend about Discworld books again! 

Probably getting tired of my hundred questions on this series by now, haha. I ask him if there was a Christmas story within the Discworld… world. (Whoa, I’m defiantly not thinking straight!) 

And he said there was, and the book was called HOGFAHTER.

This time, I went straight to the audiobook.

Once again, I was super happy once I saw the front cover, and I was the ‘scary’ face of my favourite character in those books, ‘Death’. (I’ll find a picture >>)

(editing notes: im not sure how to move this picture to the correct position??? is driving me NUTS in edit!!!)

The audiobook has new covers, and the front cover features a large image of Death’s face, wearing a red hoodie with white velvet trim, the kind Santa Claus often wears.  

(Oh, btw, im fully aware that I’m jumping ahead to book 20, but I think these are standalone books? So I should be able to jump in with zero problems, right? ) 

I start the audiobook and……

It starts with a LONG few chapters of a group of assassins? 

I was….. confused! I thought I started the wrong book for a second.

That took me off guard a little. This group of assassins is meeting up with ‘Mr Teatime’, a mean-looking man with one glass eye and one tiny eye, who offers money to ‘eliminate’ the ‘fatman’. Which they all accept, and this is when we learn that one of Teatime’s goals is to find a way to ‘destroy’…  soul cake duck?? Sandman and even Death himself.

(Later, you do get a mention of Jack Frost and Tooth Fairy, and I can help myself and think of the movie Rise of the Guardians.) 

This poses an interesting question throughout the book. Is it possible to eliminate Death? My dumb brain thinks no? But I had that in the back of my mind. 

Then you get introduced to Suaszn, the granddaughter of Death. Trying to cope with a normal life.

……

(I think it’s the same chapter?) Then shortly after you get a pov of a rat about to take cheese from a mousetrap, it doesn’t go well. Then there’s the introduction of:

Death of Rats:

The Grim Squeaker!

Haha, I was laughing at this introduction. The book even says that if a rat gets eaten by a cat, Death Rat has to come out and get him. How would that work?   

Then a man in a red coat walks into the room, has a drink, and takes a bite of the food left. That all of a sudden, he speaks in the same low growl voice of Death. For some reason, Death has taken up the job of ‘Hogfather’. 

I could’ve easily missed something here, but in this introduction, do we get any details on why we see Death playing the role of Hogfather?  

Anyway, after Death finishes with the house he’s in, he returns to his slay, with four pigs in front, and tries to fly off. He tries calling them names and orders them to fly. But nothing is working! Growing frustrated, his sack suggests something, and Death tries shouting out: 

 APPLE SOURCE!

The pigs freak out and start flying off!

😀

I just realised what I mostly remember in scenes with Death…. later on, he spends a lot of pages sitting down and asking people what they want for ‘Christmas’, but instead of asking for something that probably won’t come true. Death takes their request literally! So someone asks for a pony, and of course, Death magically puts a pony in the family’s small apartment kitchen! :D.

Later, Death and Susan meet, and it’s clear they have some “family” issues to sort out. (I don’t remember this in Mort, so is this a plot point in ‘Reaper Man’ or ‘Soul Music’?) 

…….

I must admit there is a part of the story where Susan goes off to find out what happened at the Hogfather meeting and runs into a ‘super computer’. And I got super lost, and I can’t remember parts of that storyline.

Or

I was just enjoying being in the moment!

My ears start working again when (I think), at the end of this story plot, you get to the castle, and you meet up with the tooth fairy, who plans to use the teeth for something. The audiobook for the toothfairy sounds so evil, old hag witch that gave me the chills.

……..

After the book’s climax, Death and Susan discuss the human need for fantasy and belief.

“You saying humans need… Fantasies to make life bearable.”

“……. NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN.  ……..”   

Please read the book to get the whole exchange. I can’t do the speech justice.

That’s the part that stands out to me. 

I won’t go into too much detail here, but my personal life is so dull and boring that sometimes I need books and movies (also games, but that’s getting more difficult to find great single-player “offline” games nowadays)… to make things a tiny bit more fun!

  That’s only one quote, but this book is FULL of great quotes!

I may have missed the middle part of the story, but I REALLY enjoy this book. It was a joy to listen to. And the end conversation between Death and Susan was SUPER INTERESTING! 

That’s all for my first thoughts on the book. im not sure what else to say. (at the time im writing this, im still a tiny bit ill) So my head is still all over the place at the moment!

As always, I’ve reviewed the first 8? Dicsworld books. If you are interested in my thoughts, please explore them. (if you want to, of course.)

Im slowly reading the book in order, so my next book is… book 8: GUARDS GUARDS, which I believe is book one of the ‘The City Watch’ series? Kinda excited to meet a new set of characters.

When I eventually read 19 books, I will be happy to revisit this book again!

Ok, that’s all for this review!

Hope you enjoy the Christmas break!!

🎅💀