In the twelfth chapter of Magic Steps<\/i>, Sandry begins to set in motion the plan to capture the killers. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of death\/grief, depression, body horror.<\/b><\/p>\n
This book is messing me up.<\/p>\n
Joy<\/b><\/p>\n
Pasco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enthusiasm is infectious here, and yet, Pierce immediately reminds the reader through Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narration that this joy of his might me misplaced. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing wrong with Pasco being excited that Sandry and Yazm\u00c3\u00adn may have a way for him to do harrier work as a dance-mage. The problem is that Sandry is concerned that Pasco doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand the risk that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to take. I appreciate that this is<\/i> a worry of hers, though, and that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s addressed so openly in the book as it is:<\/p>\n
Do they really understand how serious this is? Sandry wondered as she set about creating a permanent warding on a room for Pasco and Yazm\u00c3\u00adn to work in. Do they understand that if he touches this net he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even see, the power of his dance combined with the net will eat him up? Should I talk to them about it some more?<\/p>\n
This awareness is necessary at this point because the end result of the unmagic net could easily<\/i> be death. In fact, the odds aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really in favor of Sandry and Pasco, are they? The very nature of unmagic stacks everything against them. And yet, throughout all of this, Pasco maintains a sense of eagerness to finally help out in a significant way. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but worry, too! This book has been so ruthless<\/i>, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unbelievable to suggest things could end poorly for him or for Sandry.<\/p>\n
WHY AM I THINKING OF THINGS LIKE THIS? We all know why<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Funeral<\/b><\/p>\n
I just was not ready for Wulfric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last rites, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I do not feel better about his death, and I feel like I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had any time at all to deal with it. This book\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pacing is so much quicker than I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to, and while that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to its credit, it makes my heart hurt because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Wulfric was just<\/i> alive. How did this happen?<\/p>\n Sandry fought tears all through the ceremony. Tears would just make her weak, she thought, and she had to be strong for the work ahead. They came anyway, as the acolyte set Wulfric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funeral pyre ablaze. Sandry hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realized the duke and Baron Erdogun had come to stand with her until Vedris put his arm around her. She leaned against her great-uncle for a moment, then straightened, and blew her nose. Watching the flames rise around Wulfric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, Sandry made him a promise: she would snap the trap on the killers and their mage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That might just be the saddest play on words in the universe.<\/p>\n Anxiety<\/b><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to ignore how anxious this chapter feels. From Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disturbing unmagic dreams to the scenes where Yazm\u00c3\u00adn pushes Pasco to perfect his dance moves, this whole section of the book is nerve-wracking. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brilliant use of tension and dread in the lead-up to the beginning of the final confrontation. I mean, that note from Lark about the tent being raised made a chill run down my spine because this was all real<\/i>. There was no turning back at this point, you know?<\/p>\n To make matters worse, the climb to the Wehen Ridge sent me into a state, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. The duke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accompaniment? Kwaben and Oama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence? These were indications of the severity of what was about to happen. And as worried as Sandry was about the duke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but see a mirror of her own actions in Vedris. Wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he consumed by his anxiety over her fate? Wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he just as stubborn and caring as she was?<\/p>\n And then Pierce has to go and invoke the Circle of Friendship and ruin me forever:<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been terrified out of my wits before, she thought as they began to climb up the road between Summersea and Winding Circle. Even before the year of disasters \u00e2\u20ac\u201c earthquake, pirate attack, forest fires, and plague \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that cemented her bond with her three friends, she had known trouble.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n You know what this made me feel? An unbearable desire for the other three great mages to be here<\/i>, assisting Sandry and Pasco. I know that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story that she go through this experience using her own power, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make me miss the others any less. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a loneliness to this book that is unmistakable to me because I know what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to have to face something scary and terrible on your own. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that Sandry has no support at all because she certainly does. But from what we see during the actual weaving, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an aspect to this that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s completely solitary, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think you can ignore that.<\/p>\n The Spinning<\/b><\/p>\n HOW DOES THIS BOOK KEEP GETTING MORE MESSED UP THAN IT WAS BEFORE?<\/p>\n He wrapped Sandry in a tight, warm embrace. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you get yourself killed, I shall be very disappointed in you,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said quietly, for her ears alone, and kissed her forehead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nothing like a little gallows humor to break my heart forever<\/i>.<\/p>\n I suppose that prior to reading the spinning scene at the end of this chapter, both Lark and Pasco would be either nearby or in the same part of the tent as Sandry. But as I just said, the spinning sequence had<\/i> to be a lonely one for it to be as effective as it was. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that purely in a tonal sense, though that helps. But once Sandry began the process of spinning up the threads of unmagic, it was clear that its affect on her was one she would have to bear alone. Well, sort<\/i> of alone. I nearly lost it when Sandry realized that Lark had set up the room in the tent to feel like Discipline. THEMATIC FRIENDSHIP.<\/p>\n Rosethorn, Briar, Tris, and Daja were all around her; Lark was in the tent and holding vigil outside with the duke. Winding Circle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mages had done their best to shape this place for complex magics. In putting forth so much time, effort, and power, they had as much as told Sandry that they believed in her.<\/p>\n I expected the unmagic to try desperately to get inside of her. I did not, however, expect it to behave, more or less, like Sandry had depression. It was difficult for me to see anything else in the descriptions of its emotional toll on her. As someone who has had depression for most of his life, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hard for me to recall feeling like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153letting go, lying back, and resting without a thought for tomorrow.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While my depression doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t often manifest as apathy, that is still an aspect of it at times. However, all of the horrific imagery? The waking dreams? The tendency for Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind to imagine the worst of everything around her? That<\/i> is what my depression and anxiety does. That<\/i> is how it feels.<\/p>\n Now, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if this was intentional or not, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want this to come off as some sort of posited theory that unmagic = depression. I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go that far, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that helpful to say that depression is nothing more than the absence of magic. There are real-world implications to metaphors like this. But it helped me understand the text; it allowed me to understand the emotional and mental state Sandry was in here by filtering it through my experience. Ultimately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that a lot of us do when we read. We imbue a text with our experiences, sometimes so much so that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult to separate the two. I personally enjoy when a text allows me to do something like that! As difficult as it was to read most of this because WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of Sandry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story. Her connection to the people around her matters<\/i>, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what makes this so frightening. The unmagic uses that connection against her.<\/p>\n And in the end, she is able to shove it all away. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the unmagic beat her this way. At least for the moment, that is. The chapter ends right as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about to create the net that Pasco will dance, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cruel. I NEED TO KNOW MORE.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bF1YqRMJo3E<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a> In the twelfth chapter of Magic Steps, Sandry begins to set in motion the plan to capture the killers. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[477,491,490],"tags":[482,250],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emelan","category-magic-steps","category-the-circle-opens","tag-mark-reads-emelan","tag-tamora-pierce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","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=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often. My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
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