{"id":4598,"date":"2018-07-02T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2018-07-01T08:39:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T15:39:29","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Book of Night With Moon’: Chapter 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third chapter of The Book of Night With Moon<\/i>, Rhiow takes a journey to a strange location. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Feline Wizards<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I liked this! It felt a little long and wandering for a bit in the middle. I had a hard time grasping what was happening on the page, and Rhiow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transition from being in the station to the Downside was jarring. But I suppose it has<\/i> to be; this is more than just her going beneath Grand Central. She travels both in space and<\/i> time to deal with the gates, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen before. That<\/i> is what made this chapter so cool to read.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all these glimpses of a larger, more detailed world that are satisfying. For example, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that human wizard we meet briefly early in the chapter, whose name we never get, but whose responsibility<\/i> is introduced to us. I love that idea, that there are thousands upon thousands of wizards all over Earth, commuting to deal with errantries that are big and small. Here, a wizard is off to deal with an oil spill, which won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just be cleaned up, but seemingly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153erased\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from the collective conscious of humanity. Well, at least the non-wizard component, that is. How many other crises are managed by wizards? How often do the Powers That Be dispatch wizards to deal with the complications on Earth? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that wizards often deal with local issues more than ones outside their home planet, and I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THEM.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond that, chapter three deals mostly with Rhiow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trip to the Downside, to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153roots,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so to speak, where all these gates are anchored. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a surreal sequence, too, because Rhiow steps through a gate and IS INSTANTLY TURNED INTO A GIANT BLACK CAT. The transformation here is deeply unexpected, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s captivating. You become more primal<\/i> here, more like your true self. Or more like the essence of your spirit? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not directly spelled out but shown<\/i> to us, both in how Rhiow transforms and how old Manhattan looked, long before humans were a part of it, long before there were even cats like Rhiow. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a gorgeous scene, one that reminded me of our trip to an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153alternate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manhattan in the very first Young Wizards<\/i> book. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know whether that is intentional or not, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where my thoughts went first.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, the Downside was an unexpected treat, and it was a WEIRD one, too. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand how something so ancient and so experienced<\/i> could be manipulated as we see here. Rhiow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s travel to the Downside is not all that helpful for her. She knows that someone or something other<\/i> than wizardry tempted Arhu, but she isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any closer to discover what happened to use that gate and then left it wide open into a void. I do think this was some foreshadowing for us, though:<\/p>\n

The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153roots\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the spell structure, of course, went farther down\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 much farther, into the endless, tangled caverns, down to the roots of the Mountain, the heart of this world. But that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t somewhere Rhiow would go unless the Powers That Be specifically ordered it. They never had, during her management of these gates, and Rhiow hoped they never would. Ffairh had gone once and had described that intervention to her, in a quiet, dry fifteen-minute monologue that had given her nightmares for weeks.<\/p>\n

WELL, OKAY. I mean, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want that to happen because YIKES??? But also: IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GONNA HAPPEN, ISN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T IT. And now I want to know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all the way down there! There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something awful, right??? IS THAT WHERE THIS THING CAME FROM.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m scared.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\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":"