| 1 | * The Cunning Man, especially when he tries to leap out of a copy of his old book. |
| 2 | ** It's also his terrifying use of mob psychology: he makes people turn against witches and anyone who is "other". He makes people think the old thoughts, the stupid thoughts, the thoughts of a hag kidnapping children, casting curses, and being in league with monsters. Tiffany is not only the granddaughter of the Chalk's revered Granny Aching, but has saved many of their lives and worked ceaselessly to help every person on the Chalk. Yet the whole Chalk turns against Tiffany without any proof, based only on twisted rumor that has a bare seed of truth behind it. Worse, the Cunning Man's poison fuels Roland sending his soldiers to destroy the Nac Mac Feegle's mound, children, and kelda, which would have ended with the Feegles slaughtering every person on the Chalk in vengeance. It's an unsettling and disturbingly-accurate mirror of too many RealLife examples to count, and that makes ''I Shall Wear Midnight'' the scariest book of the four. |
| 3 | ** Perhaps even worse is the language used to describe him. Pterry's writing can be uplifting, heartwarming, and beautiful, but when he wanted to he could leave you feeling like you needed a long bath for your soul. The Cunning Man is one of the most acute examples of this. He doesn't make your skin crawl, he makes it turn and ''run.'' |
| 4 | ---> A man with no eyes, no eyes at all. Only two tunnels in his head... |
| 5 | ** And what's ''even'' worse is that the witches themselves aren't immune to the HatePlague. He doesn't just make normal people turn against witches, ''he can make the witches turn against each other''. |
| 6 | * Amber Petty's miscarriage. She's ''thirteen''. |
| 7 | * The rough music: For the sake of peace and quiet, the people of the chalk will put up with a certain amount of Mr Petty's domestic abuse, but after causing his daughter's miscarriage, only a lot of quick thinking by Tiffany stops the mob from lynching him. |
| 8 | * The book manages to turn the MoralityPet trope into one of these. Every inmate in the Tanty is given a songbird as a pet, and men who have committed unspeakable crimes often care for their birds gently and lovingly. Truly heartwarming... until the warden of the Tanty points out a piece of FridgeHorror: if seemingly evil people are capable of kindness under the right circumstances, ''[[GrayAndGreyMorality what are seemingly kind people capable of under the wrong ones?]]'' |
| 9 |
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