In the twelfth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Tris<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book<\/i>, this is the most explosive chapter yet. HAHAH GET IT? :: lays down and curls up forever :: Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Circle of Magic<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For mention of fatphobia and discussion of warfare<\/b>.<\/p>\n
WHAT A CHAPTER.\u00c2\u00a0WHAT A BOOK<\/i>. The more I think about this, the more impressed I am with\u00c2\u00a0Tris<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>and the way it has unfolded. I made a point near the end of my reading of this chapter that I simply did not expect something this\u00c2\u00a0massive<\/i> in the second book of this series. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still sticking to that because I think it was a bold move on Pierce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part to move the story in this direction. AND I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT THIS,\u00c2\u00a0ABSOLUTELY NO ONE IS SURPRISED<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Kids<\/b><\/p>\n
Pierce doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give us an answer to the question posed within this chapter:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treating us like children,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sandry commented rebelliously as the four sat on the floor around the topmost step.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00c2\u00a0are<\/i> kids,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Briar reminded her.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re mages, are we kids?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d demanded Tris.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This line? Utterly and wholly blurred by the end of this chapter. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I can barely wait to see how the Discipline adults are going to react to this.<\/p>\n
Refusal<\/b><\/p>\n
I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to ignore how much anger and rage plays a part in what happens here, and because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the case, I feel like Pierce validates what this feels like. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a revenge story for Tris, sure, but for all four of them? This is an angry refusal to have their home taken away. As they eavesdrop on the adult\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversation downstairs, they learn that matters are so terrible that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been ordered to evacuate all the children to Summersea. The notion is so offensive to Sandry that she nearly spoils everything due to an outburst. And Tris \u00e2\u20ac\u201c bless her heart \u00e2\u20ac\u201c spells out exactly why this is not okay to them:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pirates killed my favorite cousin. Now they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to drive me from the only place I ever felt welcome,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tris said very softly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m done with being pushed around by the likes of them!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Simply put, this is truly the only home all four of these characters have ever had, and so they resolve that they must disobey their charges and fight back. Well, yes, Tris does this all on her own because\u00c2\u00a0no one<\/i>, not even her friends, could have stopped her. But before that happens, they openly discuss how to combine their powers to get past the magical barrier. This discussion is then made reality moments later after Daja, Briar, and Sandry catch up to Tris AND THE CIRCLE OF FRIENDSHIP IS ACTIVATED.<\/p>\n
However, let me just talk about Tris for a moment. This passage was gut-wrenching to read:<\/p>\n
Tramping through the grass beside the wall, she worked her feelings to a fever pitch. Emotions were the key to her power to damage things, weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? She remembered her parents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 faces when they told a perfect stranger at Stone Circle Temple that they no longer wanted her. She remembered Uraelle taking her books when the chores weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done as well as she demanded, and dormitory girls taunting her about her looks. She remembered Winding Circle boys who called her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fatty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and made pig noises at her.<\/p>\n
I\u00c2\u00a0am<\/i> curious to see if Pierce will have one of the adults address Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior towards the guards, since it was probably VERY MUCH against policy to pin one to a wall with magic<\/i>. But aside from this possibility? Pierce doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use a bit of the space within the text to invalidate Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rage. Tris takes these ugly, traumatic experiences, and she re-purposes them into something constructive and powerful. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing to me, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. She finds that with the proper motivation, she\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i> control herself, her emotions, and her powers. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perfect or able to defeat the pirate fleet all on her own. No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a flawed approach, but one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rectified once her friends show up.<\/p>\n
AND THEN SHIT GETS REAL.<\/p>\n
Circle of Friendship<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never get over this, I swear.<\/p>\n
These beautiful, beautiful souls work together. They bond together. They meld their magical powers with each other, and they do something that NONE OF THE ADULTS COULD DO. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no cynicism or futility here at all, and I think that definitely plays a part in it. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t concerned about the limits of their power; they all believe that when unified, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more powerful than they could ever be apart. And they believe this wholeheartedly! There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only this brief moment of hesitation:<\/p>\n
Closing their eyes, the four joined as they had once done in the middle of an earthquake, to become on. Daja was not sure that she liked such closeness. Briar felt the same way. Sandry brushed them with soothing warmth, reminding them that it was just for the moment, then turned her attention to the moon-pale wall that she had built.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just for that moment, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re unsure about the closeness, and then SANDRY BINDS THEM WITH\u00c2\u00a0KINDNESS<\/i>. Excuse me while I remain\u00c2\u00a0utterly inconsolable\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>over here.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this union that the four of them break through the barrier that\u00c2\u00a0the entirety of Winding Circle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mage population was unable to touch. Each of them uses their unique abilities to discover a flaw in the design, but then they join together to destroy it. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating to me how\u00c2\u00a0fluid<\/i> this is. They know when to work as one and when to split off. Even when they do split off, they are constantly aware of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on around them, eager to find anything they can do to weaken the pirate force. Briar focuses on stopping the forces heading towards the shore, and Daja busily disassembles numerous ships by pulling metal parts out of them.<\/p>\n
What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unspoken about all of this until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explicitly mentioned in Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV, though, is death. Daja is killing people, as are Sandry and Briar. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re much more used to death. But Tris isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. This is still so new and scary to her, and yet, she channels her rage and fury at the flagship, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 christ, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
The ship blew up in a spray of flame and smoke. Tris flinched, though her magical body couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be hurt by flying debris. Burning corpses flew by, making her quail. Chunks of burning wood and red-hot metal rained down; sails caught fire. A length of flaming mast speared a lesser galley, crunching through its aftercastle. That ship exploded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Tris did this. She did it without any hesitation.\u00c2\u00a0Holy shit<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wg2-isYRz0g<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
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\n– I will be at quite a few conventions and will be hosting numerous events throughout 2015. Please check my Tour Dates\/Appearances page often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the twelfth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book, this is the most explosive chapter yet. HAHAH GET IT? :: lays down and curls up forever :: Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Circle of Magic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,477,483],"tags":[482,250],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-circle-of-magic","category-emelan","category-triss-book","tag-mark-reads-emelan","tag-tamora-pierce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}