Book Review: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

Good Omens is one of my favorite books. The first time I read it, I loved the jokes about religion and human peculiarities, but now while rereading it, I needed to dive deeper. At first, I panicked not finding the usual pondering that is so typical for Terry Pratchett’s writing and I wanted to put the book down, but soon the book showed there was more than the fast-paced plot and quick jokes; and it felt like coming home. Or like finding an old loved unchanged by time.

There was the question of nature vs. nurture, but what I found fascinating was how Gaiman and Pratchett toyed with the idea that good and evil aren’t so different from each other. That both look at the world with a similarly narrow perspective, black and white, and ignore grays and the rest of the colors of the rainbow because it makes everything simpler. Life isn’t fun without nuances. Also, you cannot understand what is good without the concept of bad and the other way around. And how can you appreciate what you have if you can’t lose it, if it always stays the same, or is always good? Boredom meets life there. But you can forget all that and read the book as a fantastic story written with a joyous glint.

Good Omens is an amazing book, and the characters and the setting are heartwarming and humane. However, the plot gets messy at the end as if there wasn’t an agreement about how it all goes down. But the last couple of pages saves all that “debacle” because it transports you back to those perfect childhood’s summer days where everything is possible.