The Ragwitch

A young-adult High Fantasy novel by Garth Nix, which should tell you a few things all by itself.

Ten-year-old Paul and his sister Julia are on vacation at the beach one day when they find a shell midden on the shore. When they climb it, they find a crow's nest with a creepy little ragdoll in it. Paul distrusts it immediately, but Julia is entranced, and brings it home, where their parents don't seem to be able to see it. The next morning, Paul hears someone moving around, and follows the sound out to find his sister, possessed by the doll, building a strange blue fire on top of the midden. She freezes him helplessly in place, then jumps into the fire and disappears. Paul rebuilds it and follows Her through, determined to rescue his sister.

So begins a quest to stop the Ragwitch and save his sister (and maybe the world he finds himself in on the side). Throughout, the narrative switches between Paul's journey and Julia Fighting From the Inside despite the Ragwitch's attempts to control her mind.

Despite the fact that it hits pretty much the whole checklist of standard high fantasy plot devices, it still manages to make them all work in original ways and create a world that seems a lot bigger than what we get to see of it.


 * Action Survivor: Paul really wants nothing to do with all of this excitement and adventure.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind
 * The Beast Master: Though Leasel the hare is not exactly a great fighter, other Friends of Beasts have more Badass companions like very large dogs, wedge-tailed eagles, and boars.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: The Ragwitch.
 * Black Magic
 * Creepy Doll
 * The Dragon: Oroch
 * Dying as Yourself:
 * Elemental Powers: The gifts from, well, the Elementals.
 * Enemy Within: Inverted.
 * ~Everything's Even Worse With Sharks~: The Water Lord tends to send them out when he's feeling especially grouchy.
 * Evil Is Not a Toy:
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A lot of the names in Yendre sound suspiciously Welsh or Gaelic.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Being imprisoned in the Ragwitch's mind.
 * Fighting From the Inside: Pretty much all of Julia's plotline consists of this in some form or another.
 * Friend to All Living Things: The appropriately-named Friends of Beasts.
 * Gaia's Vengeance: What kicked the North Queen out before she became the Ragwitch.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: She's an Evil Overlord Omnicidal Maniac.
 * Gotta Catch Em All: Paul has to get the help of all four Elementals: The Master of Air, the Water Lord, the Fire Queen, and the Earth Lady.
 * Grand Theft Me
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: No, not Julia picking up the ragdoll; that was bad luck and Charm Person. Rather,
 * Night of the Living Mooks: The Glazed.
 * Omnicidal Maniac: The North Queen and her minions killed every living thing they could find during the time when she ruled the country and sowed fields with salt.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: Pronouns used to describe the Ragwitch are always capitalized. Apparently She is so scary that even the narration feels the need to give Her Her due respect.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Quigin, who constantly gets distracted trying to talk to animals.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Oddly enough, our world is the can; while the North Queen was too powerful for them to destroy, she could be weakened and locked in another universe where she wouldn't be able to cause so much trouble.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Basically the job description of a Friend of Beasts.
 * Trapped in Another World