In the second half of the sixth chapter of Games Wizards Play<\/i>, Dairine meets with Mehrnaz to discuss her wizardry. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I WILL FIGHT A WAR FOR MEHRNAZ FARRAHI.<\/p>\n
I am guessing that a lot<\/i> of you figured that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d project all over this character, since elements of her characterization invoke things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written about myself many times before. I grew up as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gifted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d kid who doubted himself, despite that I was<\/i> talented. I simply couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see it. Now, Duane hides the reason why Mehrnaz is the way she is, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have much of a guess, at least not a substantial one. When we meet her, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bubbly, kind, excited, and practices a bit of hero-worship with Dairine. But here, in her home in Mumbai, Dairine discovers SO MUCH MORE ABOUT HER, and I adore<\/i> the way she is coming together before our eyes. As I read this chapter, I was impressed at Mehrnaz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proficiency, at her creativity, at her CLEAR FUCKING DOMINANCE of geomancy. And look, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like there have been a ton of geomancers in this series! I think we only heard about it maybe once prior to this?<\/p>\n
Point being: I am not an expert at this, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a new concept within Young Wizards<\/i>, and yet Duane makes it clear that Mehrnaz is incredible<\/i>. So where does the conflict come, then? Initially, I thought that it might be due to Merhnaz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idolization of Dairine. I could see that being a compelling interpersonal conflict. But then this happened:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time this got into other people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s minds, too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice of you to say that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mehrnaz sat down on a nearby hassock and looked out across the spell diagram the way someone looks across a landscape they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re only visiting but would like to live in. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one problem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She sighed deeply. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to happen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an inversion of Penn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization, sure, but it also felt so striking to me because it came virtually unprompted. Why would she say something like that? Why would she insult herself or devalue herself immediately<\/i> after Nita complimented her?<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the only moment like this in the chapter, either. And I enjoyed that Dairine picked up on it so quickly, too! Dairine is not<\/i> one to view herself as powerless or without hope, and it makes me think that the Powers sent her to Mehrnaz on purpose. Mehrnaz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s esteem is so very, very low, and that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just develop out of nowhere, does it? Dairine realizes that!!! Someone or something in Mehrnaz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life has helped convince her that there is a reason she won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it to the Culling. I have vague theories at this point, and I say this as someone who had a controlling, restrictive, and abusive parent: there is probably someone in Mehrnaz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s family who has helped make this a reality. RIGHT??? Someone criticizes her, or tells her that her contributions aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worthy, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M PREDICTING THAT WE WILL MEET THAT PERSON.<\/p>\n Am I jumping to conclusions? Oh, probably, because THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING. But I have a little confidence because of what Duane has written. Dairine is VERY observant, perhaps more so than anyone else in the series. She picks up on the odd vibe from Mehrnaz, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spelled out through Dairine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts. So, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suspect that Duane did this as a red herring. SOMETHING is going on here. BUT WHAT IS IT???<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/MvTVSjoM2eQ<\/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":" In the second half of the sixth chapter of Games Wizards Play, Dairine meets with Mehrnaz to discuss her wizardry. 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":[533,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-wizards-play","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441","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=4441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}