{"id":4490,"date":"2018-03-20T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4490"},"modified":"2018-03-18T07:29:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T14:29:59","slug":"mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-15-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/03\/mark-reads-games-wizards-play-chapter-15-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;Games Wizards Play&#8217;: Chapter 15, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the first part of the fifteenth chapter of <i>Games Wizards Play<\/i>, Kit and Penn face Irina; Matt debuts the greatest t-shirt of all time. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Young Wizards<\/i>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Seriously, few things are more upsetting than having someone you respect express how disappointed they are in you. SO WELCOME TO THE OPENING SEQUENCE IN CHAPTER FIFTEEN, WHICH IS ONE LONG EXAMPLE OF THIS VERY THING. Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>so uncomfortable<\/i>, and much credit to Duane for introducing us to a new side of Irina: <i>utterly pissed<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an overwhelming scene, in part because Irina absolutely dunks on these two, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fucking <i>funny<\/i>. And I get that this is a very serious thing, but holy shit, she destroys them.<\/p>\n<p>Rightfully so, though! I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even considered this angle:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You could have done serious damage to the convention center.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I said in the video, I was more wrapped up in the fact that Kit seemed to have <i>truly<\/i> hurt Penn. But yes!!! What if that force field had not held? What if the convention center had gotten damaged, and how the <i>hell<\/i> were these wizards supposed to cover that up to prevent the exposure of wizardry to the greater populace? Ugh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, there are just so many angles to this that make Kit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Penn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fight <i>even worse than I thought it was.<\/i> But look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big fan of YA books addressing how messy and emotional and immature teens are. I think we, as writers of stories for kids and teens, have a responsibility to be honest about this sort of stuff! So while I can yell at Kit and Penn for COMPLETELY MISREADING THIS SITUATION and GROSSLY EXAGGERATING THEIR RESPONSE, I am glad it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that Duane can show these kids making terrible mistakes and then show that <i>the world has not ended.<\/i> Oh, things are messed up, uncomfortable, and awkward. But things aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t <i>over<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Which is not something I understood as a teenager. Like many teens, everything that happened to me was the worst thing that had happened in the history of humanity. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to suggest that some of what I went through <i>wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> intensely serious; I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to minimize my own experience, you know? But without an understanding granted to me by age or time, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put things into any sort of context. If I messed up something, or if I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the best grade on a test or a paper, I assumed my whole life had been ruined.<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ridiculous. Yes. Which is the point! Teens come to ridiculous conclusions because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a volatile, messy time in our lives. So what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interested in at this point is what path is ahead of both Penn and Kit. How do they right what has been wronged? How does Kit repair his relationship with Nita, and how will this affect his wizardry in the future? The circumstances have granted them an easier and less intense punishment than they otherwise would have gotten. So, will they take advantage of this and grow, or will they continue to make the same mistakes?<\/p>\n<p><b>Preparations<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna work through the confusion I brought up at the end of the video for this part of the chapter. Look, it is entirely possible that I forgot how this is to work, and once I get to the final games themselves, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll remember it. But what exactly are these people watching? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing each of the five finalists will have their wizardry tested live, but how exactly does that work? I imagine that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be contained, so as not to harm the spectators. Oh god, I just had a thought: Is Penn going to have to work on a sun LIVE IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE? Holy shit, won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he freak out? WAIT, NOW I AM HAVING OTHER REALIZATIONS. Will Mehrnaz be able to <i>see<\/i> her family from the competition space? Could she, like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. not????? That would be great!!!<\/p>\n<p>So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nervous going into this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a complicated framework in place, both in terms of the logistics of the competition and the emotional journey these characters have been on.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, I am eternally grateful for Matt and his truly perfect shirt, and I REALLY WANT ONE MYSELF, IT PERFECTLY DESCRIBES ME AND MY AESTHETIC.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/3mFx-s-NZRk<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>My YA contemporary debut, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markoshiro.com\/blog\/2017\/9\/22\/i-am-proud-to-announce-my-ya-contemporary-debut-anger-is-a-gift\">ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><strong>If you&#8217;d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/ey636\">sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the first part of the fifteenth chapter of Games Wizards Play, Kit and Penn face Irina; Matt debuts the greatest t-shirt of all time. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards.<\/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-4490","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\/4490","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=4490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. The path to wp-cache-phase1.php in wp-content/advanced-cache.php must be fixed! -->