Mark Reads ‘Lost’ / ‘Realms of the Gods’ Prediction Results!

Oh, hello my fellow Tamora Pierce friends! I’ve got a two-part post for you today. LET’S GET TO IT.

First things first! I want to go over my predictions from the final Immortals book to see how I did:

• Slavery will be ended in Carthak. Okay, no. This wasn’t even addressed. 0/1
• Daine will find out more about her father and her mother. C R Y I N G OH MY GOD, WHY. WHY DID I TYPE THIS. I already miss them. 1/2
• Something happens in the Divine Realms? What was I even doing at this point? 2/3
• THERE AREN’T ANY OTHER PLOTS THAT WEREN’T RESOLVED IN THE LAST BOOK? SHUT UP OH MY GOD. -135/4
• HOW IS THERE ANOTHER BOOK? Because of reasons. -1,000/5
• WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, TAMORA PIERCE? Because of reasons. –life/6
  
• HAVE YOU NO MERCY? Clearly not. -existence/7
• Wait, I thought of something: Kitten will breathe fire. Look, it’s not going to happen, but let me at least try to predict a thing. Goddamn it, even when I tried, I failed. -my dignity/8
• No, you don’t get it, this post has been haunting me for days. I can’t come up with anything else to predict!!! I DON’T GET THIS. I know y’all are super entertained by this, but I swear, I CAN’T THINK OF A PREDICTION. IT HURTS TO READ THIS. -my sense of wellbeing/9
• Wait, Onua will show up again! PLEASE? Oh shit, I got one right! -1,000,000/10
• WHERE IS CORAM AND RISPAH? Can they show up to? Shit, where are they. 
• I’m just stalling at this point. I give up. I give up. DONE. SO DONE.

So, clearly, I did terribly. Terribly. And since I’m not making predictions for Protector of the Small until I’ve started reading it, I also wanted to include another Tortall and Other Lands short story. So, on the recommendation of my friend Fuchsia/dorkyvegan, I read “Lost.”

• AND EVERYTHING WAS NOT OKAY.
• I am so thankful no one commissioned this because there is not a chance in hell I could have ever read this aloud. Nope. Nope. Right at the point where Adria’s father struck her, I had to stop and go walk outside because I’d been triggered horribly. This story is… jesus, I know I have said this a lot. A lot. This story is my story. I was the kid who was bright and exuberant about learning, who often figured things out before teachers did, who had a natural talent for writing and math, and who was systematically demonized for all of those things by my parents and the powers-that-be at school.
• And let me just state this upfront: this story is beautifully rendered, an absolutely empowering tale of how teachers can do a student wrong, of how abuse feels when you’re a child and your own parents are the one hurting you, of what it feels like when you finally find a friend willing to stand up for you.
• Jesus, there are so many tiny signs here that Adria always knew her father was terrible. Her constant shaking. Her impulse to hide as he came into a room. The fear she experienced when she’d done something wrong. She didn’t just worry about getting in trouble; she acted as if she knew she was going to get hurt.
• It’s through this that Tamora Pierce brilliant brings the darkings back, introducing us to a lone darking called Lost. Oh god, how fitting is it that Adria of all people gets a darking with that name? Lost quickly latches on to Adria, acting in her best interest while simultaneously being confused at her behaviors. Y’all, he gets her food when her father punishes her by not feeding her. My mom did that to me a few times, and it’s no wonder I think of food as a goddamn luxury. I know what it’s like not to have it.
• Do you know how huge of a moment it is when Lost doesn’t treat Adria terribly when she expresses her enjoyment of taking walks in the mornings? Adria hasn’t been around someone since Hillbrand who treats her interests and talents with respect. Do you hear my heart shattering?
• And then we’ve got Keraine, who totally lets Adria watch her do equations for her engineering job. Well, it’s a secret at first, which is endlessly adorable.
• All right, here it is, one of the best things Tammy has ever written: “For years she had thought the roaring Father was the false one, the handsome, smiling Father the real one. Suddenly it came to her that the roaring Father was the Father she would always have, the one who waited inside the smiling Father.” I can’t even think of a better way to describe an abusive person than this. It’s so spot on that it made me tear up.
• So it means a lot to me that Keraine, Hillbrand, and the darkings come to Adria’s defense when her father threatens to beat her again. I mentioned that this story was empowering, and here is why: Every time I was abused, I wished desperately that someone would show up to stop it. And to have that positive representation here means a lot to me.
• This story ends with Adria being disowned and going off to live her life for herself. Oh my god, did Tamora Pierce just go back in time and observe my whole life and write “Lost”? I can’t deal with this. It’s so lovely. I ADORE IT SO MUCH.

Mark Links Stuff

– I have been nominated for a Hugo in the Fan Writer category! If you’d like more information or to direct friends/family to vote for me, I have a very informational post about what I do that you can pass along and link folks to!
– I have announced what the next books I am reading on Mark Reads will be, as well as updated y’all on the events, cons, tour dates, GOING TO EUROPE OH MY GOD, and general shenaniganry going on in my life. I have a similar post up on Mark Watches, detailing the next two shows I’m doing as well as the return of Double Features, and I finally explain what happened with my Vimeo account. Check these posts out!
- Mark Reads Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now published and available for purchase! It’s available in ebook AND physical book format, and you can also get a discount for buying the ENTIRE SET of digital books: $25 for 7 BOOKS!!!
- Video commissions are open, and you can commission a Mark Reads/Watches video for just $25!