In the third part of the first chapter of The Book of Night With Moon, NOTHING I EXPECTED TO HAPPEN ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Feline Wizards.
Well, this is gonna be real different from the Young Wizards books, isn’t it? Frank talk of sex, way more violent, EXPLODING RATS WHAT THE HELL.
Let’s talk, cousins.
Urruah
Oh, I am going to LOVE this character, aren’t I? Urruah is written with such distinction that he stands apart from pretty much everyone in this book. Hell, and the Young Wizards world, too!!! He’s gruff, arrogant, he overreacts, he enjoys fighting for the sake of it, he’s deeply flawed, and OH LORD HE IS SO ENTERTAINING. We meet him here as he’s fighting a dog over a mouse. When there is ACTUAL NON-MOUSE FOOD JUST FEET AWAY FROM HIM. He fought that dog out of pure spite, y’all, and I deeply respect him for that???
I’m gonna have so much fun with this. SO MUCH FUN.
Underground
I’m fascinated by infrastructure and the ways cities work. I remember when I found out that there were still old, unused tunnels beneath Los Angeles from the old streetcar line that had been out of commission for decades. I love photos of it, and I’ve watched countless videos of urban explorers who managed to get inside some of them. I eventually went through training with the Metro in LA to get certified to enter some of the subway tunnels, and BOY, THAT WAS REAL COOL, TOO. So, just from that perspective, I 100% want to explore the tunnels underneath New York City, meaning that I am VERY entertained by what I get to read. If lots of this book is set underground, I’m going to be very, very pleased, because this dramatic, tense scene was an absolute delight to read. And terrifying! So terrifying! Because y’all, you do not fuck around with trains.
But these cats have to because of the awful possibility that is presented to them: if they don’t close the gate, a commuter train is going to plunge into… well, THEY DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW. And that’s not even counting the bizarre effect that the murder creature had on the rats, who attack the three feline wizards in a panicked frenzy. (I’m making an assumption here, but I believe that’s what actually happened. They were already in a terrible state because of that thing, and this is why they were all in one place and so vicious.) Y’all, what the hell is going on?
The Gate
Despite having read about gates in practically every Young Wizards book—and with varying detail—I still found the climactic end of this chapter to be super exciting. First of all: CAT’S CRADLE. I’M SO MAD, THAT IS SO BRILLIANT, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME. Anyway, with that out of my system, I just wanted to applaud how physical the ending scene was. It works so well because we get a sense of what these feline wizards have to do every day and why their job is important. I suspect that’s because Duane wrote this book assuming that someone had not read the Young Wizards book, so we get a compacted but intense explanation of gates, the existential dread they can conjure, and the vital work that these gate wizards do. But as someone who has read Young Wizards, this scene was a thrill. I know just why it’s creepy that someone opened that gate to a void. This sets up a mystery in ONE CHAPTER, and y’all, I’M READY. GIVE IT TO ME. LET’S DO THIS.
https://youtu.be/nBOMtAnBiww
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