In the thirteenth chapter of Magic Steps<\/i>, NO. NOOOOPE. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of drug addiction and child death.<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna start this by saying that I am often irritated by the need for people to denigrate YA fiction as being childish or immature. That also manifests in the strange way that some people will praise certain YA fiction because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently the only YA that actually deals with important stuff. Most of the literature I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading these days, even on my own, was intended for a younger audience. So why is it that at 31 years of age, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still drawn to narratives that are for people much younger than I?<\/p>\n
Well, first of all, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that YA is only<\/i> for young adults. Anyone can derive meaning and substance from works of literature regardless of any sort of intended audience. Again, I find it derogatory to assume that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no blurring of the lines between these different ideas or perspectives or age groups. I could write a novel about how many professional or official science fiction\/fantasy groups and communities look down upon YA as being frivolous or not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real literature.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any coincidence that many of these same people decry the ways in which popular SF\/F works are challenging what is considered canon, or how shit like gender or sexuality or race affect our understanding of what we love. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to suggest that young adult books are necessarily more<\/i> progressive, as I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have nearly the amount of evidence to back up a statement like that. But in the works I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read for this site? In my own life? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen more of a willingness to dispose of or subvert tropes. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read books that I consider intensely progressive and groundbreaking. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve read works that have touched my life in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unparalleled to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll call for lack of a better term \u00e2\u20ac\u201c adult fiction<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I often hear the claim that young adult works are inherently about identity, since the protagonists are in that tender period of life where most of us try<\/i> to figure out what sort of person we want to be. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I disagree with that, but I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimately reductive. Identity issues are (UNSURPRISINGLY) important to me, of course, and I have definitely written extensively in the last six years about that. That was a huge part of my love for Harry Potter<\/i> and The Hunger Games<\/i> and PRACTICALLY ALL OF THESE BOOKS BY TAMORA PIERCE. But I think that there are issues far removed from identity that appear in young adult works \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and are in Magic Steps<\/i> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that perfectly demonstrate why this massive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153genre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is so important. (I hesitate to call all<\/i> YA a genre. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more of an umbrella term, no?)<\/p>\n
I opened this review like this because I wanted to give some important context for what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m about to say. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to give the impression that I believed in this notion that YA lit is saccharine or meaningless or unimportant. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue in a heartbeat that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the opposite. What I wanted to say about Magic Steps<\/i>, though, was that it dealt with mature and upsetting issues without hesitation, something that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not necessarily expect from a book geared towards a younger audience. (And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you can see the struggle I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m having typing that shit out. I<\/i> know that the world of YA has tackled any number of upsetting and uncomfortable issues and has done so for a long time.) The story here is about murder. Assassination. Drug addiction. Duty. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relentlessly upsetting and visceral, and while Pierce doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t linger on the gory details like many \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d fantasy authors might do, this is still immensely disturbing.<\/p>\n
But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not disturbing for the sake<\/i> of it being shocking or obscene. Sandry faces an evil here that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fully human, perhaps only comparable to the pirate invasion in Tris<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book<\/i>. Sure, the portrayal of drug addiction could be more nuanced; addiction doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lead to murderous rampages, though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to note that both Nurhar and Alzena killed plenty of people before they decided to take dragonsalt themselves. And what these people have done in the name of the Dihanurs is monstrous, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve exploited and manipulated a mage through the man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s addiction to dragonsalt, which they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only made worse over time. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve murdered countless people, including a newborn child. They have consistently treated humans like nothing more than foliage in the jungle, something to be hacked away thoughtlessly.<\/p>\n
And unfortunately, none of that is unrealistic in our own world.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amidst all of this that Sandry and Pasco complete their duty, both of them rising to the occasion and beautifully so. Pasco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dance was nerve-wracking until he actually started it, and then, like Sandry, I was transfixed by his skill and mastery. Of course<\/i> he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d perfected the dance, and of course<\/i> Yazm\u00c3\u00adn had made the dance more complex and powerful. In hindsight, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I even should have been worried. This is what Pasco does well; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he wants<\/i> to be good at, especially since it allows him to still pursue harrier work.<\/p>\n
What I should have realized? That he wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept being asked to leave once his part was done.<\/p>\n
And now, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tension that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all over this book. The trap that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s set by Vedris and the others is obviously working, since we get to see things from Alzena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective. She and Nurhar have fallen for the bait. But the scenes from her point of view aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t simply to confirm that the plan worked. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance for Pierce to get inside the head of a murderer, something that I found bold and frightening. Again, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to view YA fiction as something closed-off or childish, but I was still blown away by lines like this:<\/p>\n
Every instinct clamored for her to go after the old man. Her Dihanur masters had taught her that as one of her first lessons: take the weak and easy prey first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and this:<\/p>\n
A killing today would improve her mood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is the sort of casual depravity that these killers practice, made worse by the dragonsalt. Ultimately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my worry. With Pasco hidden from sight, I am concerned what might happen if the Dihanurs discover him. Their magic is much more powerful than his. What if he touches unmagic? What if the mage spots him? Lark nearly<\/i> spots him, but Sandry has no idea how close he is.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m scared. SO SCARED.<\/p>\n
The original text contains use of the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NACDZ2u3aY4<\/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>
\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.
\n<\/b>– Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a> I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the thirteenth chapter of Magic Steps, NO. NOOOOPE. 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-3329","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\/3329","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=3329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}