{"id":4602,"date":"2018-07-06T05:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=4602"},"modified":"2018-07-01T08:41:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T15:41:29","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-4-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2018\/07\/mark-reads-the-book-of-night-with-moon-chapter-4-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Book of Night With Moon&#8217;: Chapter 4, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second part of the fourth chapter of <i>The Book of Night With Moon<\/i>, cats. Performing. Operas. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re welcome! Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Feline Wizards<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>REHEARSALS. THEY HAVE REHEARSALS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. This is perhaps the most surprising \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing thus far in this book, though I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that it <i>counts<\/i> as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thing? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more that the toms are imitating something humans do because they find it intriguing and compelling. (Am I right to assume that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using one of the structures humans have constructed in Central Park?) I LOVE PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Anyway, there are a number of fascinating details here as the plot plods forward. This felt a little slow, I admit, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still pretty early into the book and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a patient reader. The discussion about the Tenors was neat, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a dated reference. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even remember the last time I <i>thought<\/i> about the Three Tenors! They were really popular when I was a kid, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been ages since they were relevant. I related more to Rhiow than was probably necessary:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Rhiow simply began saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that interesting,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and anything else she could think of, so as not to let on how wildly boring all this was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>LOOK, I DEEPLY RELATE TO THIS. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite care about this because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really my interest? Once the story got back to there being something <i>wrong<\/i> with the oilspill timeslide, though, I WAS READY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s yet another clue that the mysterious stranger at the opening of this book has brought some dark shit with them into this universe. But what does it mean? Who is responsible? Ultimately, the Lone Power, yes, but THERE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S MORE TO IT, I KNOW THIS DEEPLY. This is coupled with the mystery of Arhu, who has arrived in these cats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lives right as the darkness settles in. Again: no coincidences in wizardry, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <i>gotta<\/i> be important that the Powers put Arhu here at this particular time.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I know I said this before, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so cool that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting a look at a young wizard but from the perspective of an adult wizard. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this disparity that Duane toys with, like when Arhu is trying to describe what wizardry is to cats who have been practicing it for years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not really a dynamic we saw in the <i>Young Wizards <\/i>books, but it works really well within the text here. Rhiow and the others are doing more than acting as mentors; they have to dispel rumors, stereotypes, and myths that pass through the larger cat community in order to raise Arhu into a responsible wizard. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great example of that happening:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whatever it is, I can take it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Arhu said fiercely. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a survivor.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Saash shook herself all over, then sat down and scratched. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, very soft-voiced. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We get a lot of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsurvivors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in wizardry. Mostly they die.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>WELL. <i>WELL<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a grim reality, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important that Arhu know this! The adult wizards all know how true it is that what they do is dangerous and risky, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also <i>necessary<\/i>. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of work done here by Rhiow, Saash, and Urruah to help Arhu as best as they can. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great moment where they urge Arhu <i>not<\/i> to speak so that humans can understand him, which helps to explain why wizardry is largely a secret. I love, though, that Arhu is so inquisitive, that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop asking questions no matter how complicated the answers are. And they <i>are<\/i> complicated! Wizards have powers, but there are limits\u00e2\u20ac\u201dboth literal and metaphorical\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto those powers, which frustrates Arhu.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But more than anything else, this section of chapter four is about <i>community<\/i>. Arhu is now part of a small one with the three other cats, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an even larger one. Wizardry is everywhere! And that means that eventually, Arhu is gonna meet wizards from other species, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna have to accept it. I want to see Arhu interact with Carl and Tom, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and I imagine it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen at some point. SHOW THIS FEISTY CAT MAKING MISTAKES, THAT WOULD BE GREAT. Hopefully with less talk of The Three Tenors? THANKS<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/l_XPGc0AT3Y<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>My YA contemporary debut, <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/AngerIsAGift\">ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\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 second part of the fourth chapter of The Book of Night With Moon, cats. Performing. Operas. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re welcome! Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Feline 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":[547,548],"tags":[513,549],"class_list":["post-4602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feline-wizards","category-the-book-of-night-with-moon","tag-diane-duane","tag-mark-reads-feline-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602","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=4602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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