In the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Briar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book<\/i>, Briar finds that his mentor and teacher needs support as well. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Circle of Magic<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of disease.<\/b><\/p>\n
My body was not ready for this.<\/p>\n
This is the hardest of the\u00c2\u00a0Circle of Magic<\/i> books to read because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so quickly uncomfortable and grim. As the blue pox spreads throughout the city, this feels less and less like it can be stopped. Even if we accept at this point that the pox spreads through water, what can these people do? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure there are preventative measures they could take, such as boiling all water that one uses for bathing or cooking or drinking or cleaning, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also POURING DOWN RAIN OUTSIDE. Everyone would have to stay indoors at all times??? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disastrous! Of course, since the entirety of this chapter takes place indoors at Urda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House, we get an inside view of how brutal this disease is, particularly in how quickly it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spreading.<\/p>\n
Of course, one of the biggest reasons this chapter is so emotionally exhausting is because Pierce takes the horror of this epidemic and makes it extremely personal. Rosethorn discovers that someone who worked at Urda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House sold off nearly all of the supplies that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been bringing there for the last year and a half. A PLEASANT DISCOVERY, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. And yet, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utterly unsurprising that someone would take advantage of the charity of others. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no room or time to seek revenge here; they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to refresh the stores as quickly as possible to counter the affects of the blue pox. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something Pierce doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let us forget. The pox is spreading fast. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ruthless, and now, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaching districts that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t poor. (How much you wanna bet that the city officials will suddenly care about the blue pox now that the rich are getting it? OH, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M PREPARED FOR THAT EVENTUAL TWIST.)<\/p>\n
So Briar and Rosethorn settle down for this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153long, dull, thankless chore,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which involves them using their magic to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153become the queen tree.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I am only now realizing how much foreshadowing there is in this plot, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. These two have to become a stronger power in order to refresh the stores of magical herbs, bringing them back from near death so that the rest of Urda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House can help combat the blue pox. WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH WHAT BRIAR HAS TO DO WITH ROSETHORN. Oh my god,\u00c2\u00a0I understand a thing<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fun when that happens! The renewal is an important part of helping curb blue pox, but we then see how Rosethorn\u00c2\u00a0herself<\/i> needed a renewal, too.\u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking about this all calmly, as if this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t one of the most heartbreaking things Tamora Pierce has written, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only way I can address this without becoming a mess. Look, I think this is a bold moment to include in a YA novel, particularly since adults are not often portrayed in vulnerable ways in this genre. (Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re\u00c2\u00a0never<\/i> portrayed that way, of course.) But within the context of Briar and Rosethorn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship, her emotional break is the only time Briar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever thought of her as\u00c2\u00a0needing<\/i> anyone or anything else. And he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t criticize her for feeling this way, nor does he make any sort of comment that would poke fun at her for behaving as such. No, when he comes out of a magical trance to find her weeping, he experiences an immense wave of sympathy and sadness for her:<\/p>\n To hear her apologize for a fit of weeps just as the girls did nearly broke his heart. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never guessed how much of himself he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d tacked to Rosethorn, who feared nothing and nobody.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pity her for the sake of it; he finds out that she misses her home and her friends and her students and a world where she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not pulled in a million directions. She misses Discipline, so what does Briar do?<\/p>\n He brings Discipline to her<\/i>.<\/p>\n Through Tris (whose sober reaction tells me ALL I NEED TO KNOW about her awareness of how serious this situation was), Briar gets his\u00c2\u00a0shakkan\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>and a number of plants and herbs brought to Urda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House. (Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have another moment of heartbreak for that point where Tris sadly remarks that she probably won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get to see Briar. SHE CARES SO MUCH FOR THAT LITTLE GOOBER, OH MY GOD.) When he puts these plants near, Rosethorn, she renews:<\/p>\n After a minute or two color returned to her skin, changing ashen to cream. Her lips bloomed from white to pink. Her hair, which had looked brown over the last few days, developed a chestnut glow.<\/p>\n It was like she was dead, he realized with a shudder. Like she was dead, and somehow brought back to life.<\/p>\n Lord, I AM SO MOVED BY THIS PASSAGE. Little Briar, who never had a soul care about him, gave his mentor\u00c2\u00a0life<\/i> again. He did it because he cared deeply about her, because he knows she is vital to the survival of this place, and because he knows she would do anything for him. MY HEART IS GOING TO BURST FROM THE EMOTIONS I AM EXPERIENCING.<\/p>\n It just sucks that Briar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hope and joy is crushed so quickly after this. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still so young, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trapped within a quarantined house that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to be horrifying him on some level. To be surrounded by so many sick people without a single one being cured yet must be a terrible thing to experience. I suppose there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a small light at the end of the tunnel, since Flick appears to be getting better. But a fever\u00c2\u00a0can\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>come in waves, you know? I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust this until she\u00c2\u00a0actually<\/i> gets better. And for now, Briar is still stuck in that house, away from his friends and his home and his dog. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 distressing, to say the least. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SCARED.<\/p>\n http:\/\/youtu.be\/jQ5SA-anpIM?a<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n -\u00c2\u00a0Please support the CrossingsCon IndieGogo to help get a Young Wizards convention started in 2016<\/a>! If the fundraiser reaches $7,000, I’ll be the Guest of Honor. FOR REAL.<\/strong> In the sixth chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Briar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book, Briar finds that his mentor and teacher needs support as well. 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":[487,478,477],"tags":[482,250],"class_list":["post-3143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briars-book","category-circle-of-magic","category-emelan","tag-mark-reads-emelan","tag-tamora-pierce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143","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=3143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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