Title: The Last Witch
Author: James Bibby
In: The Mammoth Book of Dark Magic (Mike Ashley)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Humour, Magic
Dates read: 26th April 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2004
5th sentence, 74th page: Paul stared at it in fury for a few seconds and came within an ace of hurling it against a nearby stone wall.

Little Sarah is the Last Witch. And all she wants to do is help. But when a reporter gets hold of the story… things might begin to change.

I can’t imagine being the last of my kind. It just seems like a horribly tragic way to be, a completely tragic existence. One that totally plucks at the heart strings. And yet, Bibby’s version of the last witch and the travels that the young girl goes through are kind of funny. Seriously witty and thoroughly enjoyable.

What I enjoyed most about this short story was the ending. The idea that the human race is still evolving, and magic is just the next logical step. And from two young people, the future version of humanity is about to evolve. It’s a nice little theory and a great way to end a story that was really quite funny. I’m not even sure why this story was in a collection about dark magic…

This is a fantastic short story, filled with this sense of hope, laughter and light. Not what I expected to find towards the end of a collection called The Mammoth Book of Dark Magic. But it fit in incredibly well. There was a little darkness and twistiness to the tale. But not much, so it helped to uplift the rest of the collection.

<- The Walker Behind

Last Rites ->

Image source: Hachette Australia