In the second part of the first chapter of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On Ordeal: Ronan, Jr.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ronan heads to school, unaware of the battle raging inside of him. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Young Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of racism\/xenophobia (specifically anti-Black\/anti-African)<\/b><\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly shocking to Young Wizards<\/i> fans that Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style has gotten long-winded in these last few novels\/stories. She writes as if she wants us to slowly edge into her worlds before she then shoves us off every metaphorical cliff imaginable. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE BEEN TRICKED SO MANY TIMES, OH MY GOD.) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an obvious benefit to that in the middle of this chapter, too, since the long internal narration for Ronan allows us to appreciate all the hints towards the Champion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true intentions. (Plus, I just love<\/i> the bickering asides. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so entertaining!)<\/p>\n
It is a little<\/i> slow for me at times, though, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m having a similar feeling to what I experienced at the opening of Mamvish\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story. How many of these details matter? Is Ronan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s routine as he walks to school important? What role will Pidge play in the coming drama? I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget that the Lone One wants to inflict a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153worst-case event\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on Ronan, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m expecting that exact thing to happen.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Reading is an act of faith on the part of the reader, and we put ourselves in the hands of author, trusting them to guide us through this journey. So that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trusting the process, even if that process is a bit sluggish at the moment. All the little hints towards the presence of the Lone One and the One\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Champion helped keep this feeling more urgent than it otherwise would have been, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now wondering if I just flat-out missed clues in the first section of this chapter.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What I did immediately appreciate about this is how much we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Ronan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head, more so than we were in Mamvish\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ordeal. Like the first part of this chapter, we get a sense for his anxieties and worries, what occupies his mind, what his day is like. In the midst of this, his mood swings about, each time a tiny glimpse of the war inside his body between these two immense powers. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty cool that this manifests as an ordinary teen angst, too. Well, not just angst<\/i>, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some heavy shit here, like this:<\/p>\n And sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supposed to be God that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behind it all<\/i>, Ronan thought, the writing and the rewriting too\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true, then He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made an incredible mess.<\/i><\/p>\n Not just of that: of nearly everything.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n WELL, SHIT. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interpret this as a sign that if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> believe in God, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing the work of the Lone Power. Duane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been real careful not to value any faith (or lack of one) above another in this world. Instead, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about the kind of negativity that surrounds this sort of thought. Notice that it leads Ronan to thinking about other uncomfortable shit, like his future in Ireland, the possibility of going on the dole, and the challenges of trying to just live<\/i>. That<\/i> is the sort of entropy that the Lone One thrives on, the cascade of negativity that sucks the life out of people.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I would qualify what Ronan starts to witness at the end of this chapter as part of that entropy, too. The teasing and bullying is dispiriting, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also violent<\/i>. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to make physical contact with someone to enact violence on them. Notice the way Maurice holds his own body as people say racist shit about him. This stuff has a powerful<\/i> affect on a person, all without having to lay a single hand on someone. But what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m most interested in seeing is whether Ronan does<\/i> anything about it. Being a bystander to racism can be damaging, too, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve certainly felt hurt and<\/i> cut ties with people because they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak up to defend me while seeing shit go down.<\/p>\n So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ronan gonna do?<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/Z6K0rFqK1-o<\/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 part of the first chapter of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153On Ordeal: Ronan, Jr.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ronan heads to school, unaware of the battle raging inside of him. 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":[542,510],"tags":[513,511],"class_list":["post-4551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interim-errantry-2","category-young-wizards","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-young-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551","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=4551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}