In the fourteenth chapter of Magic Steps<\/i>, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not okay. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Circle Opens<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For blood and gore, ableism<\/b>.<\/p>\n
I really should learn that saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This turned out so much worse than I thought,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is an exercise in futility because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 jesus christ, Tammy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books consistently destroy me. And somehow? This honestly feels like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the most horrifying thing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever read from her. I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird to say because THE SKINNERS. And the child soul machine. And all of Beka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books. And I need to stop now because y<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all get it<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unbearable horror to what unfolds here. Part of it is because Pierce has spent an entire book showing all of us that Alzena and Nurhar are without a moral molecule in their bodies, and that means that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no doubt in the reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. We know for a fact that they will murder absolutely anyone. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no convincing them otherwise because their goal is singular: kill all of the Rokats. In order to achieve that end? Anyone else is collateral damage, simple as that. So when this happened, I instantly felt my stomach drop:<\/p>\n
She started for it, but stopped when she felt Nurhar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand on her arm. She couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have seen it if he had pointed, so he turned her chin until she saw the corner beside the hearth. A slice of cake hung in midair. Crumbs dropped from it as an invisible mouth took a bite.<\/p>\n
I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly something Pasco would do, no? He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a child. He was still learning how to be responsible with his powers, and his decision to hide in Durshan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kitchen was deeply irresponsible. It is also precisely<\/i> what a twelve-year-old boy who just discovered he could make himself invisible would do. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so heartbreaking, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
AND I HAD NO IDEA HOW BAD THIS WOULD GET<\/i>. Because look, Pasco getting captured? An awful fucking situation. I knew that it was possible that he could be killed. How many others had died at the hands of the Dihanurs? Pierce had clearly demonstrated that she was going to be ruthless with this book, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like this was an impossibility. And then we learn just<\/i> how depraved Alzena and Nurhar have been this whole time:<\/p>\n Looking at the mage, Sandry realized why she had thought he was sunk into a pool of unmagic that day at Rokat House. He had no legs. His coarse breeches were folded and pinned around stumps that ended at mid-thigh. He clutched the dragonsalt pouch tightly with both hands. He was dark-haired and sallow, terribly thin.<\/p>\n He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Pasco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s age, thought Sandry in horror. She hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realized that at their first meeting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A child. These two monsters used a disabled child for their assassination mission. They got a fucking child addicted to dragonsalt so they could wipe out an entire family. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever been anything this fucked up in her books and now I worry that I just guaranteed that something worse will be coming in the future. G R E A T.<\/p>\n And thus, we get the big confrontation between Sandry and the Dihanurs, and it is nothing like I expected. Even though I was<\/i> worried about Pasco, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine that this would be such an agonizingly slow and calculating scene. Aside from the cuts that Alzena put on Pasco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no violence here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like watching a chess match between two people who are well aware of who has the advantage. The worst part is that Sandry knows exactly<\/i> what Alzena is capable of, so as she sets out to try and reverse the power dynamic of the situation, she has to be cognizant of every single move she makes:<\/p>\n If she let them go to save Pasco, who else might they kill before they stopped existing? Would they even keep their word not to kill him? They had to like what they did, surely, to do so much of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like she can expect them to be truthful. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect them to lay low. They have nothing to lose anyway because death is imminent for them. So she manipulates by feeding right into Alzena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sense of superiority. She acts as helpless as humanly possible:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just \u00e2\u20ac\u201c please, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hurt Pasco. Please don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d If she pleaded, she knew, they would think her weak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not<\/i> weak because she had a secret weapon: she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d tied her own magic to Pasco long ago. I was shocked at the suddenness of her actions, even though I understood that Sandry had<\/i> to be quick. She had once chance to pull Pasco free of the net before the unmagic swallowed the three others up. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what happens to the boy mage, who is almost instantly<\/i> turned into unmagic thread as soon as Sandry yanks Pasco free.<\/p>\n And then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fucked up forever.<\/p>\n Now the Dihanurs were dragged across the room, their flesh battling the magic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pull. It bulged between the strands of darkness that were being drawn from them; the unmagic cut into them like silk threads as it twined onto the spindle.<\/p>\n Sandry held Alzena\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes with hers. She could see when the woman knew what must happen if this were not stopped.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was Nurhar who asked, not Alzena.<\/p>\n Sandry shook her head.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She refuses. Even though there was a slight chance she could have saved them, I think Sandry, in that moment, realized that it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worth it. Why work hard to save the lives of two people who have so carelessly regarded other lives? Why save the life of someone who was going to kill Pasco? And why risk it for so little of a return? What sort of justice could be gained from keeping these two alive?<\/p>\n This is not the same Sandry as the one we met in the beginning of The Circle of Magic<\/i>. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with that. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like this tarnishes her character, but it certainly makes her more complex. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever forget an experience like this. (Obviously, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also referring to the gory horror that comes after this, which I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quote for the sake of those who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deal with gore.) How will she change? How will she view the world after something so revolting?<\/p>\n Lord, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a mess.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/DZBmgaXtSf4<\/p>\n The original text contains use of the words \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crazy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/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 fourteenth chapter of Magic Steps, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not okay. 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-3333","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\/3333","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=3333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3333"}],"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.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
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