{"id":4417,"date":"2018-01-04T05:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2018-01-01T09:46:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T17:46:12","slug":"mark-reads-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-reads-the-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents’: Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth chapter of The Amazing Maurice<\/i>, Malicia readies herself for a mystery, and Darktan accepts that this town is their deadliest venture yet. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

AHHHH SO MUCH IS HAPPENING ALREADY, I HAVEN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T FIGURED THIS OUT YET.<\/p>\n

Darktan<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear Pratchett is having a whole lot of fun with the heist-like nature of these scenes. Twisted through the Discworld<\/i> lens, though, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just so delightfully strange. These rats devised a complicated system with RATS AS COUNTERWEIGHTS in order to lower Darktan into<\/i> traps, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just the start.<\/p>\n

But rather than geek out over the details of this whole system the rats have, I found myself way more intrigued by the rats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 growing sense of self, by their transformation into something resembling humanity. Despite that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the Change actually happened, since it occurred before The Amazing Maurice<\/i> even started, Pratchett is still managing to put much of the transformation on the page itself. In the first scene with Darktan in this chapter, we watch the disabling of the trap, but we also<\/i> see how he uses his expertise to try and impart knowledge to Nourishing. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to give her wisdom, but the manner<\/i> in which he does is significant. He uses sarcasm. He toys with her specifically so that she knows not to be flippant about traps, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in response to her saying that Little Snapper traps are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153easy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all so very human<\/i>. Darktan has more options available to him due to his newfound intelligence, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating seeing how they manifest along with each rat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personality. The same goes for the second major scene with Darktan at the end of the chapter. Darktan is both a bit of a joker\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe clearly has fun taunting Nourishing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut then he gets deadly<\/i> serious once he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brought to the new, unknown trap that claimed the life of Fresh. And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth: yes, this book is making me feel incredibly sad about rats dying. Fresh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death is also particularly gory, especially for a Discworld<\/i> book. (It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that the rats have multiple conversations about which part of Fresh they can eat. OH MY GOD HELP.) But Darktan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reacton to Fresh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death helps the reader understand how dire<\/i> this situation is. The rats are used to death, but not this<\/i> kind of death. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re also not used to having to think<\/i> about what death means and what might come afterwards. So much has changed for them, and that was BEFORE they ended up in one of the strangest towns imaginable. What the hell is happening in Bad Blintz???<\/p>\n

Maurice<\/b><\/p>\n

I am way into Maurice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parallel journey, since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also adjusting to the change. Aside from turning into one of the shadiest cats ever, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also experiencing guilt<\/i>. Guilt! He feels guilty about eating! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lived with a sizable pack of rats who can all talk to him and think like him. So what happens when he has to eat and his meal happens to be a mouse?<\/p>\n

Oh lord, does he EVER overcompensate. I love how completely uninterested Keith was in this display. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care! He know Maurice needs to eat. Why would he judge? OH GOD, HOW MUCH MORE RIDICULOUS WILL MAURICE GET.<\/p>\n

Malicia<\/b><\/p>\n

I love that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting more of a confirmation of Malicia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship to stories. She is<\/i> obsessed with them, her father is<\/i> concerned about her because of this, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely going to play a part in how this mystery unfolds. I mean, the fact that she even recognizes that this is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153mystery\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to be solved is significant, especially because she immediately begins to project her expectations over reality. She knows exactly<\/i> how this is going to go because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s read all of it in books! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 disconcerting, yes, and I am definitely worried that Malicia will be disappointed to find out that while stories might be based on reality, reality can and often does deviate from these norms and tropes. And to get a little meta here, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I love doing what I do. Talking about tropes, archetypes, narrative structures, and stereotypes allows us to see these patterns both in the media we consume and<\/i> in real life, too! I think they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re helpful, meaningful tools to have!<\/p>\n

So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 how are they going to deal with Malicia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainty? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say it again: What is going on in this town<\/i>?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/qWN29g4UfLM<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"