In the second half of the fourth chapter of A Wizard of Mars<\/i>, EMOTIONS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can I just state that I really adore Nita? She has grown so much from the first book in this series, and what happens in this chapter is a great reminder of that. The way she goes about reasoning with Dairine while also satisfying her father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s concerns is mature as hell, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t claim to have EVER been that mature at her age. Maybe mature in different ways, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story for another time.<\/p>\n
What I want to focus on is the challenging thing that Duane has set up for us. While the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153main\u00e2\u20ac\u009d plot of this book is probably going to cover what the wizards have found on Mars, this is still a significant subplot. Duane crafts Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization in this chapter with grief in mind. I can see some similarity to how she reacted to her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death earlier in the series, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an exact comparison. Here, Dairine is far more rude. She deliberately tries to get a rise out of Nita when Nita interrupts her during her training session with Nelaid. (We now have confirmation that she is pursuing a new form of wizardry and perhaps replacing Roshaun\/Nelaid or assisting Nelaid.)<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classic Dairine, yes. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been rebellious and spiteful to an extent. But it almost felt over-the-top, at least if you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consider the context of why she was behaving as she did. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why it was so jarring AND BRILLIANT that Nita didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take the bait and instead disarmed Dairine with this:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d let him know what you were going to do first, you might have been in less trouble than you are now. Now you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a mess to clean up. The least you can do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nita said as Dairine opened her mouth to say something angry, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is let me help you get out of it so you can get on with business.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Seriously, SHE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO CUNNING HERE. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that word to imply that this is shady or that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being underhanded. Nita simply adapts her strategy in a way that acknowledges their situation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both of them have wizardly pursuits that they prefer to be dealing with \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while also setting up a system by which their father can feel like he still knows what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going on. Dairine continues to resist, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dairine for you. She thrives<\/i> off independence, so the idea that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to be held accountable for her location and her actions feels tantamount to a personal betrayal.<\/p>\n
But what other solution could there be? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thirteen. Should she be allowed to run about the galaxy and shirk all her Earthly responsibilities, too? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why Nita is brilliant for also<\/i> threatening to tell Tom, who has the power to ACTUALLY GROUND DAIRINE. Nice move!<\/p>\n
So while some of this is a mild power play, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also ONE OF THE MOST EMOTIONAL SCENES BETWEEN THESE TWO. I honestly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect Nita to bring up the uncomfortable subject of Roshaun, and certainly not in his palace<\/i>. BUT THEN DAIRINE WENT AHEAD AND DID IT. Oh my god, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all:<\/p>\n
But suddenly her sister was hugging her hard, her face buried in Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vest. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, wow,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Dairine was saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153oh, wow<\/i>, I was so scared, I thought that he\u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then I thought I was crazy; it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make any sense. But if you saw it, too, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not, not<\/i> dead, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n
Nita was bemused, but for the moment the safest course seemed to be to just hang on to Dairine while her sister got herself under control. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201cwhile very much hoping it actually was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M NOT OKAY, IF THAT MATTERS AT ALL. NOT AT ALL.<\/p>\n
And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Nita\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scene with her father! Because why not put me on an emotional rollercoaster in half of a chapter<\/i>! I respect so much that even the adult in this scenario is struggling with the complications of the events from the previous book. Harry is trying his best to manage running a household and raising his daughters and<\/i> keeping a successful business going. That means he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to mess up, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad he apologizes for his abruptness towards Nita. LOOK, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M A BIG FAN OF HEALTHY, CONSTRUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS IN YA, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS.<\/p>\n
I am overwhelmed, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n
I am thrilled to confirm that I will be a Guest at CrossingsCon 2017! Badges are now available, so COME HANG OUT WITH ME THIS SUMMER<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
http:\/\/youtu.be\/Xw2RmP8B9hU?a<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
-\u00c2\u00a0Please visit my new site for all announcements<\/a>. If you’d rather not have to rely on checking a website regularly, sign up for my newsletter instead<\/a>! This will cover all news for Mark Reads, Mark Watches, and my fiction releases.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the second half of the fourth chapter of A Wizard of Mars, EMOTIONS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[530,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-wizard-of-mars","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261","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=4261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}