The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek the six magical Signs that will enabee the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.

BBC podcast version, enough of a taster to want to read properly next year.

The story of Will Stanton and The Old Ones is an enthralling, snowy Christmas quest full of cryptids and dark magic. Definitely a fun read! My only criticism are the week female human characters, which read more like nuisances than anything else.

This felt like a low-detail story about an old, sacred mythology, which is great, except it also needs characters with agency, and maybe a plot. Will has no agency–things happen to him and the world around him, and occasionally he knows what to do because Old Ones have Knowledge, but there's no decision making in order to address obstacles. Similarly, the plot feels preordained. It has no agency in its shaping. This is just How Things Go in the old story.

I recall liking it as a kid, but never being super into it. That's sort of how I feel now, but I like it less.