| $@%&! level: Low (unless “Crivens!” counts) “Bedroom” level: None Violence level: Medium-Low (Nice use of the skillet, though) Back Cover: “There's trouble on the Aching farm: monsters in the river, headless horsemen in the lane—and Tiffany Aching's little brother has been stolen by the Queen of the Fairies. Getting him back will require all of Tiffany's strength and determination (as well as a sturdy skillet) and the help of the rowdy clan of fightin', stealin' tiny blue-skinned pictsies known as the Wee Free Men." |
You could say the Feegles are Scottish, except that they aren't. I mean, obviously they aren't Scottish, because Scottish people aren't generally six inches tall or able to fall out of the sky, land on their heads, and get up and walk away from it. But the Feegles aren't even based on Scottish people, not really. What they're based on is the idea of Scottish—you know, the kilt, the accent, the love of drinking and violence, the blue tattoos and bright red hair. If you took the typical Scottish stereotypes and enhanced them (and shrunk it down to tiny-sized), you'd get the Feegles. I bet that's probably offended some people and caused them to talk about racial profiling. All I can say to that is to be glad that at least you're not the vampires (who generally come across as German or Eastern European of some sort).
Okay, so enough about the characters, right? I should talk about the story. Except that the story is really just an excuse to spend time with the characters. Still, okay, it's a rescue quest into a magical kingdom, which means the normal rules don't always apply. Or actually very rarely apply. And the fact that things don't work when they should (and do work when they shouldn't) is pretty much what makes Tiffany angry enough to win. I guess if you've entered dreamland, the thing to do is to remember just whose dream it is (and be sure it's yours).