By Sir Terry Pratchett

 Now we move on to the penultimate book in the Witches series.

“Death. To be precise. And plenty of it. In unpleasant variations. This isn’t real life- its worse. This is the Opera House. Ankh-Morpork…a huge, rumbling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely familiar evil mastermind in a mask and evening dress, with a penchant for lurking in the shadows, occasional murder, and sending little notes full of maniacal laughter and exclamation marks, Opera can do that to a man.

But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld’s most famous witch,is in the audience. And she doesn’t hold with that sort of thing.  So, there’s going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening’s entertainment with murders you can really hum….) And the show MUST go on.”

This is a parody of Phantom of the Opera in specific, and the opera in general. I didn’t like this one as much as others. I realise this because I have only seen 1 opera, and it wasn’t Phantom of the Opera. So, if Phantom is your thing, you may like it more than me.

 In this story, I have 3 thoughts I would like to talk about.

Firstly, Walter Plinge and Salzella as the Opera Ghosts. So, as I said earlier, I have never seen Phantom of the Opera, but I have done some research and now I have some thoughts. In the Phantom of the Opera, Eric is doing all this because he was born physically different, and he believes that no one would ever accept him. But in Maskerade, there are two Opera Ghosts, one Walter Plinge, who we see as a critic that demands a specific box, and the other, Salzella is murdering people to cover his theft. The fact that Sir Terry did not include even a reference any of it to this feels like Sir Terry Pratchett wants to write the book about opera without covering all the background stuff.

Secondly, The Joy of Snacks. In horror, there is a maximum. If you want to make a monster scary, don’t fully describe it because there’s nothing as scary you could create than the thing the reader will make up in their heads.  On that same note, we only know that The Joy of Snacks has a lot of sex in it, and for some reason, makes you want to check a ruler. This leaves everything to the imagination.

Thirdly, Agnes Nitt/Perdita X. Dream. Full disclosure, we have met this character before in the previous book, if you didn’t remember or if you are not reading along. She was one of the young witches in Lords and Ladies. In Maskerade, you can see Agnes wants to have a normal life as a singer in the opera and not be a witch. But throughout the book, we can see all the ways that she would be a perfect witch. From what Sir Terry would go on to describe, second thoughts. Also, here is something interesting in this book. There is a discussion about whether she will be a singer or a witch. If you have read The Shepherd’s Crown, you have seen a quick glimpse of her during her singing tour.

Thank you for reading this, and until next week.

 Happy reading to all and to all a good night.