385bookreviews

[385bookreviews]

1.107.2 The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

SPOILERS

Pages: 279

Time Read: 3 hours and 27 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 4.5★ Dialogue: 3★ Characters: 4★

Genre: Middle Grade Mythological Fantasy

TWs for the book: Ableism, bullying, body shaming, child death, confinement, death, violence, abandonment, alcoholism, animal cruelty, animal death, fatphobia, misogyny, blood, kidnapping, grief, brief mention of cannibalism, murder, fire, toxic friendship, war, injury

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: The summer the events of The Lightning Thief; New York, and the ocean off of Florida.

First Line: My nightmare started like this.

Complete Recap: Percy has a dream of Grover being attacked by a monster in Florida. He wakes shaken, but gets ready for his last day of school. He talks with his mom about going to Camp Half-Blood for the summer, but she says that she has spoken to Chiron and they think it might be better for him not to attend this year. This upsets Percy, but his mom says they'll talk about it after school. Percy arrives for his last day at Merriweather College Prep. He had made a friend this year named Tyson, who was homeless and was only allowed to attend the private school as a community project. The school bully, Matt, tried to pick on Tyson by giving him a wedgie, but Tyson hit him basically across the entire school yard. Matt calls him a freak, and Tyson starts to cry, so Percy stands up for him, causing Matt to promise to obliterate him in PE with the help of some seemingly new, large friends of his. Percy assumes they must be kids on a tour because they are all wearing nametags. In social studies, Matt tears up a picture of Annabeth that Percy kept with him, further provoking him. Once in PE, Matt immediately asks to be captain of a dodgeball team, and picks most of the kids since the rest of them don't want to be with Percy or Tyson. They start to play, and Percy and Tyson immediately get hit with balls thrown by the visiting kids way too hard. One of them addresses him as Perseus, and Tyson says they smell funny, causing Percy to put together that they're monsters. A fight ensues, the monsters throwing flaming bronze cannonballs. Tyson proves to be a lot stronger than any human should be, and also fireproof. Annabeth appears, having been following Percy around invisibly all day and helps to kill the monsters. The principal and some adults finally arrive to see a blown up gym, and Matt immediately blames the whole thing on Percy, so him, Annabeth, and Tyson run away. Annabeth is disgusted by Tyson, and Percy is upset with her for being so rude. She tells him that the monsters were Laistrygonians, a race of giant cannibals. She also says they need to get to camp because she's been having bad dreams, and monsters have been chasing her all the way from Virginia. Tyson takes to the concept of monsters and half-bloods very quickly. The police start getting closer, so they run to the street and Annabeth uses a drachma to call The Chariot of Damnation. A taxi made of smoke, driven by the three Gray Sisters comes to them. They try to reject Tyson a ride, but Annabeth insists. They speed along, and Percy is appalled to learn that the three old women only have one eye that they share between them that they are constantly fighting over. They let slip that they know "the location Percy seeks", and Percy demands that they tell him. They refuse, and so Percy holds their eye captive. They finally give him numbers, 30, 31, 75, 12. He gives them the eye back and they deposit the trio at camp, where they are greeted by Clarisse leading a border patrol group of campers in a fight against two golden Colchis bulls, automatons built by Hephaestus. The bulls break through the magical barrier around camp, which shouldn't be able to happen. Tyson is unable to enter though, but Annabeth gives him permission and he joins the fight, severely denting the head of a bull. When the battle finally dies down, Clarisse is angry at them for interfering. Percy is wondering how Tyson survived the bulls. Annabeth tells Percy to ignore the Mist and take a really good look at Tyson's face. When he does, he sees that Tyson has actually been a Cyclops this whole time. Annabeth says that Cyclops are the children of gods and nature spirits, "mistakes", and that a ton of them live homeless around the country. Clarisse says they need to take the wounded to see Tantalus, the new activities director. They ask where Chiron and Argus are, and Clarisse says they were fired because Thalia's tree had been poisoned, causing the barrier to become weak and the tree to start dying.

Annabeth and Percy make it the Big House just in time to catch Chiron before he's leaving. He says Zeus was angry about the tree he made to house the spirit of his daughter being poisoned, and someone had to be punished, so him and Argus caught the blame. The poison in the tree is something from Tartarus that they can't figure out how to cure, and they suspect Luke is the culprit. Chiron makes Annabeth swear to keep Percy safe, and tells them that he will be visiting his centaur relatives to see if they know how to fix the tree. They go to the dining pavilion for dinner, and are introduced to Tantalus, who is a spirit who had been spending his afterlife in the Fields of Punishment, unable to eat or drink any food. Tantalus is very rude and obviously doesn't care what happens to the camp or the kids. He instructs Percy to go and sit without Tyson while they decide what to do with him. Tantalus announces the restarting of the chariot races, which had originally been stopped due to the number of injuries incurred. Tantalus also suggest Tyson be put in the Hermes cabin, but before that can be decided, Poseidon claims Tyson as his son. For the next few days, Percy argues with the other campers about Tyson being his brother, becoming embarrassed of him. Annabeth talks badly of Tyson, obviously hating cyclops, causing her and Percy to fight and split up for the chariot races. Percy continues to have strange dreams about Grover. This time, they are able to communicate due to the empathy link Grover has created between them. Grover is trapped in a cave on an island in the Sea of Monsters by the cyclops Polyphemus. He has been distracting the cyclops by pretending to be a lady cyclops and promising to marry him when he's done weaving a wedding train. The chariot race is the next day. Tyson and Percy have teamed up since Annabeth didn't want to work with him anymore. The race commences, and they are doing well until they are attacked by a huge flock of Stymphalian birds. Annabeth and Percy fetch Chiron's boom box from the Big House and blast music, causing the birds to flee in confusion and allowing the archers to take them down. Tantalus, who did nothing during the attack, gives Clarisse the laurels and frames Percy, Tyson, and Annabeth as troublemakers who disrupted the race. The three of them are sentenced to wash dishes in the lava pits with the cleaning harpies. Percy tells Annabeth about his conversation with Grover, and Annabeth says he must have the Golden Fleece, which is why the satyrs get lured to Polyphemus and then eaten, never to return from their quest to look for Pan. They realize that the Golden Fleece could cure Thalia's tree and fix the magical borders around Camp Half-Blood. They decide to ask Tantalus for a quest that night at the campfire, hoping he won't dare say no in front of everyone. They explain everything, and Tantalus tries to refuse, but is pressured by the other campers. He finally relents, but chooses Clarisse to be the hero on the quest. That night, Percy goes out to sit on the beach alone and encounters Hermes, who encourages him to go on the quest anyways in the hope that Percy might be able to save Luke. He gifts him a thermos containing the winds from the four corners of the earth, and godly multivitamins that will help him in case he is injured. He also points out a massive yacht sailing by called the Princess Andromeda, telling Percy that that's his ride. He leaves duffel bags with more supplies, and then vanishes. Annabeth and Tyson find Percy on the beach, and they decide to go on the quest anyways. Percy calls three hippocampi and they take them out to the ship, which is eerily quiet and seemingly abandoned. They spend the night in a cabin, but when they wake, it is bustling with mortals seemingly enjoying the cruise. Upon closer inspection though, it seems like they are all under a spell. They hide as monsters walk by, and are planning their escape until they hear Luke's voice.

They try to eavesdrop on Luke, but are caught. Luke admits to poisoning Thalia's tree. He also reveals he knows about the quest to find the Golden Fleece, including the exact coordinates that Percy received from the Gray Sisters, due to his spies at camp. He plans to use the Golden Fleece to finish resurrecting Kronos, who's pieces are in a coffin he carries with them on the ship. Luke instructs one of his monsters to take them down to be fed to the dragon they have on board, but they fight back and manage to escape in a lifeboat, using the thermos of the winds to propel them away. They reach Virginia Beach overnight, and outrun a Coast Guard vessel trying to flag them down, hiding in the marshes. Annabeth takes them to a hideout that her, Luke, and Thalia had set up a long time ago, and Percy sends Tyson out on a meaningless errand of searching for food so he can talk to Annabeth. He returns with powdered donuts from a place called Monster Donut Shop that he discovered hidden away in the marshes. They go to investigate and are attacked by the Hydra. They battle, but they don't have fire to kill it. Suddenly, a steamship manned by a skeleton crew and Clarisse sail into the marsh and fire on the Hydra. They spend the night on the ship, and wake up when they're about to enter the Sea of Monsters. Percy accidentally witnesses Clarisse being scolded by Ares, telling her not to embarrass him. Clarisse orders the captain of the ship to plow forward through Charybdis and Scylla, aiming more towards Charybdis. She is convinced they can use the cannons to kill Charybdis and avoid Scylla entirely, but she is wrong. The ship's engine begins to fail as they are pulled further into the whirlpool, and Tyson runs down to try and fix it. He manages to get the ship more power, but it propels them towards Scylla. The hull of the ship begins to crack, and they prepare to abandon ship. Percy gets snatched up by Scylla, but she drops him when he stabs her. As he falls, he sees the ship explode with Tyson still on board before being knocked out by debris. When he wakes he is on a rowboat with Annabeth. He presses her for details about the prophecy made about him, and all she knows is that something big is going to happen when he, or any other child of the Big Three, turns 16. They quickly find land, a tropical spa looking place. They meet the lady who owns the spa, CC, and she sends Annabeth off on a tour of the place while she speaks with Percy. When she's alone with Percy, she convinces him that he isn't right the way that he is, and that he needs a makeover. She offers him a drink, promising it'll make him into the person he wants to look like, and he drinks, which turns him into a guinea pig. She places him in a cage with a bunch of other guinea pigs who are presumably all of the other men that have come to her island. Annabeth comes back in a new dress, with clean hair and makeup. CC offers for her to stay and learn sorcery from her, and Annabeth puts together that the woman is Circe. Circe tells her to forget about Percy, and she asks to have a minute to say goodbye. Circe leaves her alone, and Annabeth finds Percy's clothes and the bottle of Hermes's multivitamins. She eats one, and then draws her knife as Circe reenters. The vitamin makes her immune to Circe's magical attacks, and Annabeth dumps the rest of them in the cage. Percy and the other men in the cage transform back to humans, and the men, including the pirate Blackbeard, run after her. Percy and Annabeth escape and steal Blackbeard's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, and Percy uses his abilities as a son of Poseidon to make the ship set sail away from shore. Annabeth finally tells Percy why she hates Cyclops so much. When her, Luke, Thalia, and Grover tried to make it to Camp Half-Blood, they were lured into a Cyclops's den in Brooklyn. It kept them separated and confused, mimicking their voices to each other. The delay is what allowed the other monsters to catch up with them on Half-Blood Hill and kill Thalia.

Percy goes to sleep and dreams of Thalia getting sucked into Kronos's coffin. Annabeth shakes him awake to tell him that they're passing the island of the Sirens, and instructs him to stop up his ears and then tie her to the mast so she can hear them. She says the Sirens will reveal to her her fatal flaw, and she wants to know. He ties her up, and then looks away so he doesn't have to see her screaming and struggling to get free. When he looks back though, she had cut herself free with her knife and was swimming towards the island. Percy tells the ship to stay and dives in after her. When he touched her, he saw the vision she had been shown by the sirens: Athena, her dad, and Luke beckoning to her in Central Park, Manhattan in the background having been architecturally redesigned by Annabeth. He breaks her free from the spell by dragging her into an air bubble underwater, and they make it back out to the ship. Annabeth tells Percy that her fatal flaw is hubris, deadly pride. They finally reach Polyphemus's island. It is lush and green thanks to the presence of the Golden Fleece. They see that it's guarded by giant flesh eating sheep, and they also see a lifeboat from Clarisse's ship. They sail around the back of the island and climb the cliff, ending up just above Polyphemus's cave. Clarisse is there, tied above a pot of boiling water, and so is Grover, still disguised in his wedding dress. He tries to convince Polyphemus to wait to eat Clarisse, and Clarisse exposes Grover as a satyr. Grover then manages to convince Polyphemus not to eat them yet, but to go and get mangos from his fruit trees to cook them properly. He agrees, saying he's going to go graze the sheep and then come back and marry Clarisse and eat Grover. He seals them up in the cave, leaving Percy and Annabeth wondering how to get inside since the rock is too big to move. They decide that Annabeth will sneak in invisibly and Percy will ride on the underside of a sheep. He makes it in, and Annabeth, invisible, calls out to Polyphemus as Nobody, the same alias Odysseus used when he stabbed Polyphemus in the eye. Polyphemus throws the bolder he was using for a door and then runs off after Annabeth. Percy frees Grover and Clarisse, and they're about to escape, but Polyphemus captures Annabeth. The three of them attack, and Polyphemus drops Annabeth on her head. Grover grabs Annabeth and makes a run for the rope bridge that separated the man eating sheep from the regular kind. Percy and Clarisse follow, and try to cut the bridge behind them, but Polyphemus manages to make it to the other side anyways. Percy attacks him and manages to take him down, but feels bad and offers to let him go if he gives them the Fleece. He agrees but it was a trick, and he is about to eat Percy until Tyson appears and throws a rock down his throat, causing him to trip and fall down the cliff. He wades through the killer sheep, who don't attack him, and brings the Fleece to them so they can heal Annabeth. Tyson leads the sheep away so they can make it to the shore and call the ship. Polyphemus comes running towards them and they all start to swim out to the ship. Tyson and Percy are forced to stay and fight. Polyphemus throws a boulder and sinks their ship, and they summon hippocampi to travel back to the mainland. When they arrive in Miami, they realize that it's been 10 days. Thalia's tree needs to be healed immediately, so Percy sends Clarisse on a plane back to camp on her own. Just as they are about to go find their own ways home, they are kidnapped by Luke and his monsters and taken back aboard the Princess Andromeda. Percy summons an Iris message to Dionysus, and tricks Luke into admitting that he poisoned Thalia's tree, clearing Chiron's name. Dionysus sends Tantalus back to the Underworld. Percy challenges Luke to a one on one duel, and because he is in front of his subordinates, he can't refuse. Luke beats Percy, but just when one of the monsters is about to eat Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson, Chiron appears with all of his centaur relatives.

When the tide begins to turn in the fight, the centaurs grab the demigods and race off faster than light. They stop at a trailer park where the centaurs stay and make plans to head home. Percy is troubled by something Luke said; he admitted he would have let Percy take the Golden Fleece whenever he was done using it on Kronos. Chiron and Percy discuss the prophecy, and Percy thinks that when he saw the Fates cut the string on his way home from school the previous year, it meant him dying when he turned 16. Chiron says he doesn't know for sure, and also reveals that Kronos is his father, and that's why he was immediately suspected of poisoning Thalia's tree. They arrive back at Camp Half-Blood around the same time as Clarisse, and the Fleece begins to heal Thalia's tree. Hermes appears to speak with Percy again and inquire about Luke, and Percy tells him how bad Luke has been, and that he doesn't think that there's any saving him. Hermes delivers a letter from Poseidon for him, but all it says is "Brace yourself", which angers Percy. The chariot races that had been interrupted are set to go ahead. Tyson built Percy a watch that transforms into a shield. Percy, and Annabeth win the chariot race. Later in the summer, Tyson accepts an offer from Poseidon to go to his palace under the sea and learn to forge with the other Cyclops. Grover wakes Percy in the middle of the night, and they run together up to Half-Blood Hill, Percy thinking that something happened to Annabeth on guard duty. But when they arrive, they realize that the Golden Fleece has worked too well and brought Thalia back to life. Percy realizes that this is why Luke was going to give the Fleece to him, because there are now two children of the Big Three that could fulfill the prophecy and help Kronos bring down the gods and Western Civilization.

[385bookreviews]

1.107.1 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

SPOILERS

Pages: 375

Time Read: 4 hours and 53 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 3.5★ Dialogue: 4★ Characters: 4.5★

Genre: Middle Grade Mythological Fantasy

TWs for the book: Ableism, animal cruelty, bullying, violence, car accident, child abuse, child death, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, misogyny, abandonment, war, classism, alcoholism, death, physical abuse, blood, medical content, grief, trafficking, fire, toxic friendship, injury

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: Early 2000s New York, Denver, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

First Line: Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

Complete Recap: Percy Jackson is in 6th grade and attending Yancey Academy, a boarding school for troubled kids like him. He's almost finished the school year without incident, but his grades aren't great because of his ADHD and dyslexia. The only class he does well in is Mr. Brunner's Latin class, because he encourages Percy to do his best. Him and his class goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for Mr. Brunner's class, accompanied by the nasty old math teacher Mrs. Dodds. On the bus, Nancy, the class bully, throws food at Percy and his best (and only) friend, Grover. Percy almost gets in a fight with her but restrains himself. When they arrive, they go on a tour, and when they go outside to eat lunch, Nancy finally pushes Percy too much. He doesn't remember pushing her into the fountain, but that's what Nancy says happened, and Mrs. Dodds takes Percy into the museum to be talked to. Instead though, she turns into a Fury and tries to attack him. Mr. Brunner tosses Percy a pen that, when uncapped, turns into a bronze sword, and he fights Mrs. Dodds, turning her into a cloud of yellow dust. When Percy goes back outside, Mr. Brunner is still in his wheelchair reading, acting as if nothing is wrong, and they suddenly have a brand new math teacher. When he asks Grover about Mrs. Dodds, Grover has no idea who he's talking about. As exams approach, Percy wants to do well in Mr. Brunner's class, so he really tries to study. When he goes to try and talk to Mr. Brunner one night, he hears Grover in there instead, talking about Percy, the summer solstice, and something called a Kindly One. When they become aware of his presence, Percy hides. When he goes back to his room, Grover is right where he left him, acting as though nothing is wrong. After exams, Percy is not welcomed to come back to the school for the next year, and he is sad about leaving Grover and Mr. Brunner and never being able to stay in a school longer than a year. Him and Grover get on a bus to go home, and Grover tells Percy he needs to protect him, and gives him a card with his summer address. Percy assumes a summer address means Grover is just as rich as the rest of the kids he went to school with and gets upset. As they are discussing this, the bus breaks down and they have to pull off on the side of the road. When they get out, Percy spots a fruit stand, and three women who are knitting the biggest sock Percy has ever seen. One of the women looks directly at him and snips the cord. Grover begins to freak out and forces Percy back on the bus, and the driver gets things going again. Grover begins to ramble about not wanting this to be like last time and that "they never get past sixth grade". Percy asks him if the three women he saw were like Mrs. Dodds, but Grover doesn't answer. He also does a gesture to ward off evil, and when he insists that he walk Percy home from the bus stop, Percy generally just gets freaked out and ditches him once they arrive. When he gets home, he is greeted by his stepfather, who he refers to as Smelly Gabe, getting drunk and playing poker with his friends. He is automatically rude to Percy and makes him give up whatever money he has on him. When Percy goes in his room, it is mostly taken up by Gabe's things. Percy's mom, Sally, comes home, carrying a bag of candy for him from her job at the candy store. As they talk, Gabe demands she come and make him some bean dip. Sally ignores him and says that her and Percy are going to go stay for a bit at their cabin in Montauk, right on the beach, just him and her. Gabe agrees to let them take the car as long as Sally doesn't use any of his money and she makes him a seven layer dip before she leaves. He also makes Percy apologize for interrupting his poker game, which Percy reluctantly does.

Sally and Percy leave for Montauk and get to the run down rental cabin. They make a fire and roast smores, and Percy asks about his dad. Sally describes him as gentle and kind, and she tells him that he left and died before Percy was born. He's confused by this, because he feels like he has a vague memory of his dad. He asks his mom what he's supposed to do for school next year, and his upset by the idea of being sent away again, questioning if his mom just doesn't want him around. She says that that's not it, but that she has to send him away to keep him safe. He thinks about how weird and creepy things has happened to him his whole life, at every school, and considers telling his mom about Mrs. Dodds, but decides against it. Sally brings up that his father wanted him to go to a special summer camp, but doesn't want to send him there because she might never see him again. Percy doesn't press because he doesn't want to see her cry. That night, he has a vivid dream of a horse and an eagle fighting, and when he wakes, they are being hit by a hurricane. Grover comes to the door and knocks, saying he is being chased and asks Sally what she was thinking bringing him here. Sally asks him what happened at school. Percy is too shocked by the fact that Grover spoke ancient Greek, more shocked that he perfectly understood what he said, and the most shocked by the fact that Grover was no longer wearing pants, revealing that he had the body of a goat from the waist down. Sally insists he tell her, so he does, and she ushers them both to the car and they take off. Grover explains that he is a satyr that was charged with protecting Percy, and that Mrs. Dodds and the ladies at the fruit stand were very much so real. The ladies at the fruit stand in particular were the Fates, and the snipping of the yarn signified an imminent death. Sally says they are going to the summer camp that she mentioned, and that everything will be explained later. The car crashes into something, and Sally and Percy escape, dragging Grover's unconscious body with them. They head up the hill towards the camp, but Sally is grabbed by the monster chasing them, the Minotaur, and she evaporates into golden light. Percy is miraculously able to kill the Minotaur with it's own horn, before dragging Grover down towards the big house and passing out. Percy wakes up occasionally, seeing a blonde girl feeding him pudding and a man with eyes covering his whole body. When he finally wakes for good, he is sitting on a deck chair with Grover, a drink that looks like iced apple juice next to him. Grover tells him to take it easy and drink, and what looked like apple juice tasted like warm homemade cookies. Grover gives him the Minotaur horn, and confirms that his mom is gone; they then go to meet with Chiron and Mr. D. Percy is shocked to learn that Mr. Brunner is there, and his real name is Chiron. Mr. D seems greatly annoyed by Percy, especially with how long it's taking him to grasp the truth of the situation: that the Greek gods are real. Percy tries to argue that they're not real, but Mr. D makes a magic wine goblet appear in front of him. Chiron reminds him of his restrictions, and he replaces it with a Diet Coke, saying his father had put him on restriction for flirting with a wood nymph that was off limits. Percy asks who is father is, and he says Zeus, and Percy is finally able to piece together that Mr. D is Dionysus. He leaves, taking Grover with him to scold him for Sally getting vaporized and Percy and him almost getting killed. Chiron explains that the Greek gods followed Western civilization wherever it went, meaning that their territory, including Mount Olympus, are now in America. Chiron gets up from his wheelchair, the human legs there revealed to be fake, and the chair itself actually being a magical container for the rest of his body, which was a horse. Chiron, who

Percy has to get used to being a centaur, gives him a tour of the camp. When they get to the cabins, Chiron explains that each one is dedicated to one of the gods. No one stays in the Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, or Artemis cabins. Chiron takes Percy to Cabin 11, and then leaves him in Annabeth's hands. Cabin 11 is Hermes' cabin, and it is jam packed with kids, those of Hermes and all the unclaimed demigods. Percy also meets Luke, the Cabin 11 counselor. Annabeth takes Percy on a walk and explains that Percy is a half blood, and that his father isn't dead, he's a god. Percy has a hard time wrapping his head around this, but doesn't get the chance to any further since Clarisse, daughter of Ares, walks up. Her and Percy get in a fight, and she drags him into the bathroom to try to shove his head in a toilet. Instead, the water from all the toilets, sinks, and showers comes shooting out, drenching Clarisse and her siblings but leaving Percy dry. Annabeth shows Percy the rest of the camp, and she tells him she's a daughter of Athena. He asks who his father is, but Annabeth says she doesn't know, and Percy might never find out. She also says that something is wrong in Olympus, but Chiron won't tell her what. She desperately wants to go on a quest and was hoping Percy would know something, but he doesn't. Percy goes back to Cabin 11 and Luke has procured a sleeping bag for him. They go to dinner, and offer some of it up to the gods in the fire. Percy spends the next few days going to classes and activities in the camp, getting used to his new life. He shows to be especially talented at sword fighting. On Friday, Grover tells him about the Big Three, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Hades doesn't have a cabin there, but Zeus and Poseidon's are empty because them and Hades agreed to not sire anymore children after World War 2 because the demigods were too powerful. He explains though that Zeus broke the oath and had a girl named Thalia, which angered Hades and caused him to send his worst monsters after her. She died on Half-Blood Hill, and Zeus turned her into the magic pine tree that protects the whole camp. After dinner, it was time for capture the flag, Ares cabin vs Athena cabin. The Hermes cabin sided with Athena. Percy gets stationed near the creek, and Clarisse and the Ares kids immediately single him out. He is losing the fight until he backs into the creek, and the water manages to give him the strength to fight back. Him serving as a distraction allows for their team to win. Percy is mad at Annabeth for setting him up, but she notices that all of his cuts and scrapes heal immediately in the water. Before they can investigate further, a hellhound attacks, going straight for Percy. It's killed, and Chiron says it must have been summoned by someone inside the camp. Annabeth makes Percy step back into the water to show Chiron his healing abilities, when he is suddenly claimed as a child of Poseidon. This immediately isolates Percy from all of his fellow campers, as they're all a bit scared of him, and some are resentful that his presence caused monsters to invade the camp.

Percy is summoned to the Big House, and Chiron tells Percy that he has to go on a quest. Zeus and Poseidon are fighting because Zeus believes that Poseidon has instructed Percy to steal his lightning bolt, and Poseidon is insulted by the accusation. It has to be returned by the summer solstice or war would break out between the gods. Percy goes to see the Oracle in the attic, a dusty old mummy who is very much not alive but is possessed by the spirit of the Oracle of Delphi. It speaks it's prophecy for Percy's quest: "You, shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend. And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end." Chiron speculates that the god in the west who has turned would be Hades, especially since a Fury and a hellhound have already tried to kill him. Annabeth and Grover agree to accompany Percy on his quest. They pack up and are about to head off when Luke stops Percy and gives him a pair of winged sneakers. The sneakers aren't a good idea for Percy, since being in the air might cause Zeus to strike him down, so he gives them to Grover to wear over his hooves. Chiron gives Percy the pen he had given him in the museum. When uncapped, the pen turned into a celestial bronze sword called Riptide. Argus, the many eyed head of security, drove them to the bus stop where they waited. Percy ruminates on his plan to free his mom from the Underworld, and Grover tells Percy the reason Sally was with Smelly Gabe was because his smell disguised Percy's demigod scent from monsters. They finally get on a bus, but once they're on, Mrs. Dodds the Fury and two others of her kind also get on. Once they get into a tunnel, the three Furies start making their way towards the back of the bus. Percy puts on Annabeth's cap of invisibility and sneaks towards the front of the bus past the Furies. When they begin antagonizing Annabeth and Grover, Percy yanks the wheel from the bus driver, causing them to careen around until he pulls off at an exit and everyone evacuates the bus. They fight the Furies, and Annabeth urges them off the bus when they hear thunder. They make it off just in time for Zeus to zap the bus into smoldering wreckage. The trio runs off into the woods to get away from the remaining Furies. They end up stumbling upon Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, and the smell of food lures them to the doors. A Middle Eastern looking woman wearing a headscarf answers the door and immediately takes them in and gives them food. The place was surrounded by a ton of stone statues, all very life like. Grover has a bad feeling and wants to leave, but Annabeth and Percy are too distracted by the food. Finally Annabeth notices something off and encourages them to leave, but Aunty Em asks them to stay for a photo so she can make a new set of statues modeled off of them. When they go to pose, Grover realizes one of the statues is his Uncle Ferdinand. Annabeth tells them to look away just as Aunty Em takes off her head covering, revealing herself to be Medusa. They fight against her, and Percy manages to behead her using the reflection of a glass ball. They wrap up her head, and Percy mails it to Mount Olympus. They leave and camp in the woods for the night. Grover laments about the state of the environment, saying he needs Percy to complete this quest alive so he can get a searcher's license to look for the missing nature god, Pan. In Percy's dreams, he is standing at the edge of a bottomless hole, and is spoken to by a sinister voice. When he wakes, he discovers that Grover, who can talk to animals, has found a missing poodle. They take him back and are awarded $200 for finding her, and use the money to take a train. Percy is all over the news, branded as a runaway vigilante by his stepfather.

The train stops in St. Louis and the trio go to see the Gateway Arch at Annabeth's urging. On their elevator ride up, they are with an unusual woman with an angry chihuahua. When it's time to leave, Grover and Annabeth ride down, leaving Percy with the strange lady and a family. Her chihuahua begins barking, and then turns into a chimera, the lady revealing herself to be Echidna, mother of monsters. They fight, and Percy is poisoned, so he jumps from the Arch to escape and lands safely in the river, the water healing him from the poison. A woman comes to him under the water and tells him to go to Santa Monica for help from his father before descending into the Underworld. When he resurfaces and finds Annabeth and Grover, he overhears the news reporters blaming him by name for the incident, including the massive hole now in the top of the Arch. The trio rush back to the train station to get out of town. The next day, they make it to Denver, as far as their reward money was able to get them. They go to a car wash and use the spray nozzle to make mist and send an Iris message to Chiron, but Luke answers instead. Percy catches him up on everything. They make their way to a diner, and just when the waitress is interrogating them about whether or not they have money, a huge guy on a motorcycle pulls up and sits with them, saying he'll pay. Percy pieces together that he is Ares, god of war, and he has a favor to ask of them. He wants them to go to an abandoned waterpark nearby and fetch his shield for him that he left behind. In exchange, he'll get them a ride to Los Angeles. Percy tries to refuse, but Ares won't take no for an answer and tells them to look in the Tunnel of Love ride. They break into the waterpark, and immediately find the shield sitting in a boat in the abandoned Tunnel of Love ride. Percy and Annabeth go down to get it, but trigger a trap along the way, something Hephaestus set up to catch and humiliate Ares and Aphrodite. A net is formed over the pool, trapping Percy and Annabeth down in it, and a bunch of metal spiders start pouring out. They get in the boat and Grover turns the ride on. Percy causes water to come and fill the pool, washing away the spiders and propelling them through the Tunnel of Love. Cameras start broadcasting them live to Olympus, but they eventually manage to escape, crashing the boat intentionally to catapault them over the gate blocking their exit, Grover catching them to keep them from getting seriously injured. They take Ares' shield back to the diner and he tells them their ride west is on the back of a zoo transport truck. He also gives Percy a backpack with clothes, money, and food. He also tells Percy that his mom isn't dead, but is a hostage in the Underworld. Percy tries to pick a fight with him, but he doesn't take the bait, and the trio are forced to hide on the back of the zoo transport truck. They immediately notice a lion, a zebra, and an antelope, kept in small cages. The antelope and zebra were given ground beef for food, and the lion was given a sack of turnips. They are mistreated and locked away. Percy swaps their food and gives them water, and Grover tells them they'll help more in the morning. They talk, and Grover admits he was the satyr that led Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth to camp, a trip that ultimately resulted in Thalia's death. That night, Percy dreams of Thalia and spies on a conversation someone is having with that thing in the pit. Whoever is in the pit notices Percy's presence, and shows him his mother in the Underworld, frozen in golden light.

When the truck stops and the drivers come to check on/torment the animals, the zebra speaks to Percy, who can understand all kind of equestrian animals thanks to his dad creating them. Percy decides to free the animals, and they also escape the truck, finding themselves in Las Vegas. They wander for awhile trying to find a place to rest, and eventually stumble across the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The doorman offers for them to come inside, and they see a huge place filled with a ton of video games. They are immediately handed a room key and unlimited cash cards to play as much of the games as they want. They all go and clean up, and then take the cards to go down and play. Percy quickly realizes though that some people have been there for a really long time without realizing it themselves. One guy who thinks that he's only been there for two weeks also thinks that the year is 1977. After talking to a few more people who also still think they're in the 1900s, Percy goes and finds Annabeth engrossed in an architecture game. When he tries to get her attention she gets angry with him, but he snaps her out of it by making her think of spiders. They go and pull Grover away from his game as well and drag him out of the casino. Percy had left Ares' backpack in the room, but it had found its way back onto his shoulders anyways. The weather has changed rapidly so they go to a newspaper stand and see that they were at the Lotus Hotel for five whole days, even though it had only felt like a couple of hours, leaving them only one more day to complete their quest. Using the Lotus Hotel cards, they are able to pay a taxi driver to take them the rest of the way to LA. He drops them off in Santa Monica, and Percy wades into the water, taken farther out by a shark that pulls him along. The Nereid that spoke to him in the river in St. Louis comes to him and gives him three pearls that will help them escape the Underworld. They go back into the city and try to find the entrance to the Underworld using an address that they took from Medusa. They see Smelly Gabe on the TV, talking about Percy and pretending to be distraught over losing Sally. Right after, a gang of kids try to mug them, so they hide in Crusty's Water Bed Palace. He welcomes them to hide there, but they quickly discover he is a monster who tries to stretch them to death. Percy is able to defeat him, and they are able to figure out they are only a block away from the entrance to the Underworld. They go into a building packed with ghosts, and talk to the person at the front desk, Charon. He denies them entry at first since they aren't dead, but they are able to bribe him. He loads them on a boat and takes them across the River Styx. They almost don't get into the Underworld due to Cerberus, but Annabeth plays fetch with him and it's enough to get them past. As they try to make their way to Hades' palace, Grover's shoes sprout wings without his command and drag him down a tunnel to the mouth of the gaping pit where Percy was having his dreams. Percy and Annabeth rescue Grover before he goes over the side, and they run away after realizing that he had almost been pulled into Tartarus. They finally make it to Hades' throne room, and Percy asks him to give up the master bolt. Hades is enraged by this accusation, saying he doesn't want a war because the Underworld is crowded enough as it is. He says that Percy stole the bolt himself, and also his helm of darkness. He demands that Percy already has it, even when Percy refuses, and when he opens the bag he got from Ares to prove his innocence, the master bolt is in there already. Hades shows him his mother, who is still alive, but encased in golden light. Percy realizes he only has three pearls, and can't get all of them out of the Underworld along with his mother. Percy tells Hades he will come back and return his helm to him, and they smash the pearls, which make bubbles around them and float them up and out of the Underworld, depositing them in the ocean.

Ares meets them on the shore and confesses to his trick of having had the master bolt and giving Percy the backpack that it would magically appear in upon entering the Underworld. He also has the helm of darkness, although he didn't originally steal either one. Percy challenges him to a fight, and just manages to goad him into it. The police come and try to intervene, but Ares blows up their cars. Somehow, Percy is able to defeat Ares by stabbing him through the heel. Ares curses Percy and leaves, leaving behind the helm. The Furies sweep down, having heard everything, and Percy gives them Hades helm to return to him. They then go to the news reporters, who have twisted Percy's runaway, destructive journey across the country as them all being kidnapped by Ares and trying to escape, and they raise enough money from onlookers to buy a plane ticket home. Percy gambles that Zeus won't blow him out of the sky since he's coming back with the master bolt, which he is thankfully right about. Once they're back in New York, Annabeth and Grover go back to camp, and Percy rushes to the Empire State Building to head up to the 600th floor: Mount Olympus. He goes before Zeus and Poseidon and is able to convince them he is innocent of any wrongdoing, and stop the war brewing between them. Poseidon confirms that thing in the pit that orchestrated this whole event is Kronos. Percy and Poseidon bond, and Poseidon tells him that his mother has been returned home by Hades, so Percy rushes home to see her. Smelly Gabe isn't happy to see Percy at all and wants to call the cops on him. Sally flinches when he raises his hand, and Percy is enraged to learn that Gabe has been hitting her. He says Percy is no longer welcome to stay, and Percy goes to his room to pack his things. He tells his mom to leave Gabe, and she says she'll try. He tells her that all Gabe needs to do is look inside the box that is sitting on his bed, which contains the head of Medusa, and that he won't be a problem anymore. She says she'll consider it. Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood. Grover is appointed his searchers license from the Council of Cloven Elders. Over the summer, he gets a letter from his mother, saying that Gabe has gone missing. In other news, she sold her first stone sculpture, entitled "The Poker Player", and it made her enough money to get a new place and start going to college. On the last day of camp, Percy goes to do some sword fighting in the arena. He is nervous because the line in the prophecy about someone betraying him hasn't come to pass yet. He sees Luke doing some sword training, and he shows him his new blade, Backbiter, double edged with celestial bronze and tempered steel so he can kill both humans and monsters. He suggests that they go into the woods to find a monster to fight, and Percy hesitates, but is ultimately won over by the promise of soda. He tells Percy he's leaving, and that he brought him out there to say goodbye. He summons a scorpion. It crawls up on him as Luke reveals that he works for Kronos and wants to bring down the Olympians. He stole the helm and the bolt, but Ares caught him. Kronos used Luke to convince Ares that a war between the gods would benefit him, and they put the rest of the scheme into motion from there. Percy was supposed to die from the magic shoes dragging him to Tartarus, so Luke is planning on using the scorpion to kill him now to make up for that. Luke disappears, and the scorpion attacked. Percy kills it, but not before it stings his hand. He tries to head back to the Big House, but passes out, nymphs carrying him the rest of the way. When he wakes up, Annabeth is taking care of him in the Big House. Percy tells them what happened, and he asks about the prophecy Chiron received, and Chiron says that he isn't allowed to talk about it. Annabeth leaves, going back to stay with her father, stepmother, and half siblings for the school year. Percy also decides to go back home to his mom.

[385bookreviews]

2.7 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

SPOILERS

Pages: 442

Time Read: 8 hours and 50 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4.5★

Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance

TWs for the book: Abandonment, addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, drug abuse, emotional abuse, grief, mental illness, su*c*dal thoughts, su*c*de attempt, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, domestic abuse, gaslighting, injury, misogyny, panic attacks, physical abuse, prostitution, sexism, s*xual content, SA, s*xual harassment, war, biphobia, blood, child abuse, confinement, cursing, death, death of a parent, fire, kidnapping, violence, vomit

POV: First person

Time Period/Location: 1698-2016; Mostly set in New York City and France

First Line: A girl is running for her life.

Adeline LaRue (Addie): I've heard critiques of Addie that she is shallow, only leaving a mark of herself and not doing anything substantial. But is art not substantial? She inspired hundreds of artists over 300 years, and was a spy in World War II, contributing in a more impactful way by doing so. I think it was really interesting to have the discussion of if she was still human, and I enjoyed her wit and her stubbornness.

Luc (The Darkness, Lucifer): Luc was the "shadow daddy" trope, but in an actually morally gray way. I feel like when books try to do this trope they make it more of a guy who is good but has to make hard choices than actually morally gray characters. The ambiguousness of whether or not Luc truly loves Adeline is really what I have been missing, and I loved him as an antagonist.

Henry Strauss: Henry came off as whiny at times, but I really could connect to him and his struggle with mental illness and feeling like no matter what he does, he's not good enough for anyone. I think particularly with his interactions with Bea, he was able to learn that he doesn't need to be perfect and totally adored by everyone in order to be worthy of love, care, and attention.

Storyline: I found it a little bit annoying to continually flash back and forth between the modern day and the past, but I can't tell if it would be as impactful if VE Schwab had done it any other way. The back and forth is the only reason this lost a star from me. I've heard a lot of people complain about there not being as much detail about what she did in the past and the history she experienced, but that's not what this story was about.

Representation: Bea is black and a lesbian. Robbie is gay, and Henry and Addie are both bisexual.

Summary: I definitely understand why there was so much hype around this book, I really enjoyed VE Schwab's writing style and can't wait to read more from her. It was poetic, but not overdone in the way that I find, for example, Ava Reid's writing to be, and a lot of the repetition of statements and one off lines were equally impactful. I loved the fact that this wasn't just a good vs evil type of story, and that Addie wasn't really in love with Luc or Henry, avoiding the insta-love trope and the usual plot of the "shadow daddy" trope. There was a lot of nuance here, and it made for a really great story that subverted my expectations, as I went in thinking this was purely a romance when it was more of a magical realism injected historical fantasy.

Quotes: -"What is a person, if not the marks they leave behind?" (p.15) -"…Adeline has decided she would rather be a tree, like Estele. If she must grow roots, she would rather be left to flourish wild instead of pruned, would rather stand alone, allowed to grow beneath the open sky. Better that than firewood, cut down just to burn in someone else's hearth." (p.31)

Complete Recap: March 10, 2014: Addie wakes up in Toby's apartment. She knows he won't remember her when he wakes up, so she takes a moment to make tea and play the piano. He eventually stumbles out, not remembering her like she predicted, but they work on the song together. They have both been working on the song together for awhile, he just has no memory of her once he wakes in the morning. She leaves, and goes into a store to change her clothes, walking out without paying since she has no money and the clerk didn't remember her walking in. She leaves behind a wooden ring that fell from her pocket. 1698: Addie goes to Le Mans with her father so he can sell his woodworking. She views the city through a child's lens, seeing a magical place. 1703: Addie talks with Estele, her neighbor, and the old woman tells her about the old gods of the forest, and teaches her how to pray to them, sacrificing things that she values in order to gain their favor. She believes in this over the Catholicism that is present in her town. 1707: Now 16, Addie has fully taken to praying to the old gods to keep boys away from being interested in her. She doesn't want to get married and then live and die in Villon. She draws herself an imaginary boyfriend with dark curly hair and green eyes and uses him to keep her thoughts entertained. March 10, 2014: She has moved through the world alone for over 300 years at this point. She can't keep any possessions, earn money, or rent a place to live, so she wanders from place to place, stealing what she needs, even though things like starvation and cold won't kill her. An old man sells his dead wife's book collection out on the corner, and Addie takes one of the books to read for the day. She also snags some food and coffee. July 29, 1714: Addie is 23, too old to wed, but a man named Roger loses his wife, and her mother and father don't give her a choice but to marry him. The day of her wedding she runs away into the woods and prays to the old gods, but doesn't realize that the sun has gone down, and she has prayed to a god of the dark. When he appears he takes the form of the stranger she has conjured up in her mind. She offers him the wooden ring her father carved for her, but he disintegrates it, and says he will only do a deal for her soul. Addie isn't quite sure what she is asking for, but she says she wants to be free and live her life on her own terms. The darkness agrees. She passes out, and when she wakes up she tries to go back home, but her mother and father don't know her, and Addie can't even say her own name. She goes to Estele, but the old woman doesn't remember her either, and every time she closes the front door and opens it, she forgets Addie all over again. March 10, 2014: Addie cons her way into a movie theatre to see a film. On her way out, she returns the book she snagged from the old man's table and leaves a muffin for him. Then she goes to the Alloway to see Toby perform, but she decides that she doesn't want to go through the same routine of seducing him that night, and leaves. She goes to James St. Clair's apartment, a young famous actor that she had befriended awhile back. He, of course, doesn't remember her, but he's out of town so she helps herself to staying in his place. While sipping some wine, she realizes that the wooden ring has found its way back into her pocket.

July 30, 1714: Addie wakes up in her best friend Isabelle's barn. Isabelle, just like the rest, doesn't know her, but is kind to her and tries to care for her. She leaves Addie holding her baby and steps out to talk to her husband, and when she returns she once again has forgotten and is frightened by her presence, so she leaves. She goes to bathe in the river, and Isabelle happens upon her again, but when she leaves to get Addie some clothes, thinking she is a woman travelling alone who has been robbed, Addie leaves. She steps into her father's woodshop one last time, and tries to write him a note, but the ink disappears. So she takes one of his wooden birds and begins her journey to Le Mans. She walks until her feet bleed, but when she pulls off her stolen boots to check them, they are completely healed. March 11, 2014: Addie leaves James' apartment and goes to the Met to see a wood sculpture carving of a bird. A French man was inspired to make the piece after finding Addie's wooden bird on the ground in Paris. July 31, 1714: Le Mans is nothing as she remembers it. It's crowded and dirty and people are rude to her. She tries to rob a pack off a horse, but is caught by the stable hands. She stabs one in the leg and runs away, and once she is out of sight, they forget she was there and the man's wound heals instantly. The stab wound in her shoulder that she received during the scuffle takes a little bit longer. She immediately leaves Le Mans, deciding instead to go to Paris. March 12, 2014: Addie stumbles across a bookstore called The Last Word. She goes in, and the clerk Henry, asks if she needs anything, but she brushes him off. She goes to walk out of the bookstore with the book, but Henry chases after her, baffled that she blatantly tried to steal in front of him and that it was an old Greek copy of The Odyssey at that. Addie assumes the door didn't close in time for him to forget her, and offers the book back, but he lets her keep it. Henry goes back into the store, and waves off his friend Bea's concern. A girl named Emily is waiting there, asking to go out with him, but he refuses, saying he has plans. He closes the shop as he is the only employee, running it for a wealthy older woman named Meredith while she travels the world. He feeds Book the cat and then leaves with Bea to go and see their friend Robbie perform. Everyone they great on their way into the theatre seems very interested in Henry, but he just ignores it. Bea and Henry congratulate Robbie after the show and head out with him to an after party. While at the party, Henry hooks up with one of the girls from the show. Addie tries to go back to James' apartment, but he is home now. She snags some Chinese food from a distracted delivery driver and goes to sit on the roof of a building that another of her former lovers lives in. While she sits and tries to read, Sam comes up with her friends. She uses the same pickup line on Addie that she used the first time, and they share a cigarette. When Sam and her friends leave, Addie goes to sleep in the lawn chair. August 9, 1714: Addie has arrived in Paris, but she isn't much better off there then she was in Le Mans. She tries to rent a room with what money she has, but the woman forgets her and kicks her out. She also drops the wooden bird, causing the wing to chip. She tries to steal some food from a merchant, but she is caught, and forced to pay, which wastes the last of her money. She tries to spend the night in a church, but they are full, so she is forced to go down to the docks to prostitute herself. During her time there in Paris, it once got so cold that she fell asleep on the street, and she would have died if the darkness hadn't made her immortal. She woke up though in a cart of other dead bodies, and discovers shortly afterwards that she lost her wooden bird in the pile.

July 29, 1715: Addie is in a rented room with a man, and he thinks she is going to sleep with him. She, however, has other plans, and drugs him to sleep so she can have the room mostly to herself for the night. Just when she gets comfortable, the darkness appears before her. She attacks him, and yells at him for not answering her summons she had been making all year. She accuses him of tricking her, but he says she didn't even know what she was asking for, and that he deals in souls, not granting wishes. He asks her if she is ready to give up her soul and she refuses. March 13, 2024: Henry meets with his younger sister Muriel for breakfast, where she talks his ear off before he has to leave for work. Addie wakes up on the roof to Sam checking on her. She takes her back down into her apartment, and Addie lies about being a new neighbor. While she's there, Sam paints a picture of her, an abstract of a night sky with seven stars, like Addie's seven freckles. She tells Addie about another painting that she had sold, and only Addie remembers that the painting was based off of her. Addie leaves, and goes back to The Last Word to try and get a different book. July 29, 1716: Addie pretends to be a lady's maid to get into a clothing shop. When the man steps away to get her something, she hides, and he closes up the store with no recollection of her. When she's alone, she tries on different clothes and eventually leaves once she has found something that suits her. As she walks, the darkness comes to her again and offers to walk with her. She asks him to change his form and he refuses. He offers to take her soul again, trying to wear her down, but Addie refuses. March 13, 2024: Addie goes back into the bookshop and tries to convince Henry to let her exchange the book, saying a friend bought it for her but she already has a copy. He refuses, saying he remembers her from yesterday. Addie is shocked, and Henry recounts the entirety of yesterday's events to prove a point, and orders her out. Addie goes, but he is the first person to remember her in over 300 years, so she goes and sits on the stoop of the shop. When Henry comes out to ask what she's doing, she apologizes and asks to take him for coffee. She can only afford one coffee with the money she stole from James, so she orders and sits down with him. The barista calls the name she gave, Eve, so Henry thinks that that's her name. He gets up and orders a hot chocolate for her so he isn't drinking alone. They get to know each other, although Addie tells him that she is a talent scout when he asks what her job is. He asks her what she sees when she looks at him, and she gives him a deep answer, saying it looks like he cares a lot and is lost in life. He gets up, and she thinks he is going to leave, but instead he asks if she's hungry. July 29, 1719: The marquis and his wife are out late playing cards with friends, so Addie is staying in the marchioness's rooms for that night. She eats chocolate and plays dress up. And then the darkness comes. She tells him to go away because she won't be giving up her soul, and he acts offended, saying it's their anniversary and that he is only inviting her to dinner. At this he pulls the bell for one of the maids, and Addie tries to rush out for fear of being caught but her stops her. Her and the rest of the house staff is bewitched by the darkness into thinking they are supposed to be there, and he tells the maid they will dine in the salon. They eat together in silence until Addie asks for his name. He tells her to call him whatever she called the man she used to draw, so she decides to call him Luc. It used to be short for Lucien, but she thinks it can be short for Lucifer now. They once again argue the specific terms of her curse, and she decides that she will live forever, and never give him her soul. March 13, 2014: Henry and Addie go bar hopping together, gradually getting to know one another better. They say goodnight, and Addie is able to finally say her real name to him for the first time in 300 years.

July 29, 1720: Addie has made her own makeshift home for herself in an abandoned house, and sets out dinner for her and Luc's anniversary, but he never comes. July 29, 1724: Luc hasn't visited Addie in four years. She walks through Paris dressed as a man, intending to have a picnic on the roof of Notre Dame. A man bumps into her, causing her honey jar to shatter, and when he gets closer to apologize, he realizes she is a woman. He doesn't out her though, and takes her into a cafe where only men are allowed. The man tells her his name is Remy and introduces her to coffee for the first time. Voltaire walks into the cafe, prompting Remy to show her one of his books. Addie ends up liking him so much that she invites him along to the picnic she planned for herself. March 15, 2014: Time drags as Addie waits for the planned time she is to meet up with Henry again. She goes into the shop finally and meets Bea, and then her and Henry go to a speakeasy arcade hidden in a laundromat. Afterwards, they go to see a movie, but Henry gets restless when he learns that Addie has already seen it, and steps out to get some air. He tells Addie he feels like he is constantly running out of time, and she decides to take him somewhere new. July 29, 1724: Remy and Addie climb to the roof of Notre Dame. They eat together, and when Addie tries to tell him her true story of what happened to her, he immediately forgets it all, so she has to edit it down to the basics. He walks her "home", although she has just picked a random house, and he begs to see her again, so she offers to walk him home. They sleep together, but when they both wake some time later, Remy has forgotten her and their night together, and pays her, mistaking her for a prostitute. On her way out, she steals his book. March 15, 2014: Addie takes Henry to The Fourth Rail, a hidden underground club. They drink and dance wildly, losing themselves in the music. They kiss in the rain and go back to Henry's apartment to have s*x. July 29, 1724: Addie is distraught over her encounter with Remy, and on her way back to the room she calls home, Luc finally appears. He taunts her and tries to convince her to give up her soul once again but she refuses still. He disappears, and Addie goes to sit on the roof of a building while the sun rises to try and read the book she stole from Remy. March 16, 2014: Addie wakes up to Henry making coffee; he still remembers her. He finds her wood ring on the floor and Addie panics when he picks it up. They talk, and Henry realizes he's late for work, so they agree to meet up at a food truck at six. Addie asks to stay behind to take a shower and he agrees and leaves. When he is gone, she searches through his apartment to try to find clues as to why he remembers her. She finds an engagement ring in a drawer wrapped in a blood stained handkerchief, an old watch, photos he took and of him and his family, and a ton of abandoned hobbies, yet nothing to clue her in on why he's special. At six, they meet at the food trucks. Addie notices that Henry has a long exchange with a woman running one of the trucks, and when she asks about it, he says that he reminded the woman of her son. Addie feels like he's withholding something. Henry gets a call from Bea though, reminding him to be at the dinner party he's throwing. He forgot to get dessert, so Addie takes him to a bakery that's just closing. She converses with the man in French and says she's a friend of his daughter, so he lets them come in and buy desserts. Henry offers for her to come to Bea's dinner party, and she hesitates but ultimately agrees to go. Henry fills Addie in on the dynamics of his group: Robbie is his ex boyfriend, Bea is a lesbian and had a former fling with a married college professor, and he has an ex girlfriend named Tabitha that he proposed to, but she rejected him. When they arrive, Bea doesn't recognize Addie, of course, but Bea's girlfriend distracts them. When Robbie arrives, he is slightly rude to Addie.

July 29, 1751: Addie manages to gain the favor of a noble lady that runs a salon so she can socialize with people. She sees Remy while there, and he is now older. Luc appears though, and points out to everyone that Addie "stole" one of the lady's dresses, even though the lady had given prior permission. March 16, 2014: The dinner party goes well. Addie thinks things will go wrong when Elise, Bea's girlfriend, goes to the bathroom and comes back, but she doesn't say anything. Robbie continues to act rude to Addie, and finally gets pissed off and leaves to go smoke, along with Bea's roommate Josh, so Addie makes a quick exit. Henry follows her though, and they talk about how Robbie is still in love with him, even though he was the one to end the relationship back in college. March 17, 2014: Addie and Henry wake up together again. He tells her the shop is closed today, even though she knows it's not, and they go out to get breakfast. While there, they run into Robbie, and he is rude once again, him and Henry almost getting into a fight. As they leave, Henry is confused about why he didn't remember her, and for the first time ever, Addie tells him her story. July 29, 2014: Addie returns to Villon. Her father's workshop is crumbled, but her mother is still alive. She, of course, doesn't know Addie, and Addie doesn't know what to say to her so she leaves. March 17, 2014: Henry begins to laugh after hearing Addie's story, and she is terrified he will think she's insane, but he begins to laugh, and tells her that he remembers her because Luc cursed him too. September 4, 2013: Henry struggled with depression and addiction most if not his entire life. He feels as though time is speeding by him too quickly. He was with Tabitha for two years, but when he finally decided to propose, she said no, because she couldn't see herself spending the rest of her life with him. He goes to get drunk with his friends, but they accidentally let slip that they knew she was going to say no to the proposal. He leaves and buys a bottle of vodka, but shatters it on the way home, cutting his hand. He takes some pills and sits on the steps of his building when Luc appears, and asks him what he wants. Henry says he is tired of not feeling like enough and wants to be happy. Thinking that the man is a hallucination, and not believing in souls, Henry makes a deal. March 17, 2014: Addie and Henry speculate why they cancel out each other's deals. Addie says that they don't, he is everything she wants like everyone else automatically sees him as everything they want, but not because of direct influence but because he knows her. Henry says his curse his for a lifetime. March 18, 2014: Addie goes to work with Henry, and they talk about famous authors that Addie has met. Henry tries to take a photo of Addie but the camera blurs and is unable to capture her. September 5, 2013: When Henry wakes up, he has a watch on his night table that says "Live well" on the back. Henry is confused, as he was sure the meeting with Luc was a hallucination. His sister Muriel comes over though, and has nothing but compliments for him, which is unlike her. When he goes to the coffeeshop, the barista that never notices him is unusually interested and writes her number on the cup. When he goes to work, all of the customers are more than happy to let him help them, and even when he messes up a recommendation to a woman, she just buys both books and reassures him. Bea and Robbie come in, and seem to act normal. Bea is angry about her adviser denying her dissertation proposal again. They drink together, and his friends reassure him about his breakup. March 18, 2014: Bea comes into the bookshop, and Henry introduces her to Addie for the third time. She says she was just at an interactive art exhibit, and so Henry has Bea cover the store while he takes Addie there.

September 5, 2013: Henry collects all of Tabitha's stuff in his apartment and puts it in a box before heading to a bar. The bartender flirts with him and gives him shots on the house. A woman at the bar also is interested, but Henry gets overwhelmed and goes to the bathroom. While there, a man offers him c*ke, and since he has just realized that the deal he made was real, he accepts. When the man tries to come onto him though, he leaves the bathroom, only to bump into a married couple that offer for him to come home with them, which he accepts. September 7, 2013: Henry is enjoying the positive attention he is getting from everyone. When he goes into the coffeeshop, Vanessa asks why he didn't call. He says he should have, and has her put her number directly into his phone. As he's leaving, he bumps into the dean that told him to drop out of his PhD program. He offers him a job on the spot to be a teacher, even though Henry never even got his PhD and Dean Melrose is the one who told him he didn't belong in the program. When he goes to open the bookshop, Bea is there, and begins to tell him about her new idea for a thesis. She shows him three works done by different artists in different time periods of a mysterious woman with seven freckles. Henry points out that it won't get approved. March 18, 2014: As Henry tells the story of Bea's failed dissertation idea to Addie, he realizes the mysterious woman with seven freckles drawn throughout time was her. She says yes, and explains how she's managed to leave her mark on the world although seemingly unable to. September 13, 2013: Henry goes home for Rosh Hashanah, and expects his parents and older brother to be just as disappointed in him and judgemental as they are, but they are also affected by Henry's deal. They all have a lovely evening, and they all make sure to tell Henry how proud of him they are. March 18, 2014: Addie and Henry go through the art exhibits, Sky, Voice, and Memory. September 19, 2013: Henry goes on a date with Vanessa, the barista. She thinks he's great, and he likes her, but anytime she compliments him or laughs, her eyes are covered with a white mist, showing Henry that this is all only due to the deal he made. A week later though, he is still seeing her, and Robbie and Bea tell him that they don't like her. That night, she wakes him up to tell him she loves him, even though it's only been a week. He doesn't say it back, not feeling the same way at all, and goes to take a shower. When he comes out, he smells burning, and runs into the kitchen to realize that Vanessa has set all of Tabitha's things on fire in the sink. He puts out the fire and orders Vanessa to leave, but she breaks down sobbing and begging him to stay with her. He concedes a little bit, but still makes her leave. October 23, 2013: Bea, Robbie, and Henry get together to watch horror movies for Halloween. When Henry goes to get the popcorn out of the microwave, Robbie follows and kisses him. Henry stops him though when he notices the fog over Robbie's eyes, and he can't give Henry a straight answer about why he's in love with him. November 14, 2013: Henry runs into Tabitha again, and because of his deal, she wants to get back together with him, saying she made a mistake. It's painful, because this is what he wanted, but he refuses her, knowing that it won't be real. December 9, 2013: Henry goes to talk to the dean about the job he offered, but is shocked to learn it is a tenured teaching position he is unqualified for. He says he'll think about it, but goes back to the bookshop and gets drunk, realizing that no interaction he has with anyone will be real, genuine, or earned ever again. December 31, 2013: At a New Years Eve party, Henry is making out with a guy, but his eyes are frosted over like everyone else's, and Robbie sees them kissing and storms away, so Henry rejects any further involvement with the guy. He goes and sits outside, and Bea joins him, and for the first time, her eyes all mist over when she begins talking about him.

March 18, 2014: When him and Addie reach the last art exhibit, it is one where people can paint on the walls. When Addie tries, the paint disappears. Henry puts her hand over his so she can use him to draw again, and to write her name. She is ecstatic to make this discovery, and rushes them home and asks him to begin writing down her story. July 29, 1764: Addie goes to the church graveyard to see her father's grave, and is shocked to find out he died the year after she left Villon. Estele has also died, and was buried in the middle of the cemetery, which she would have hated, so Addie goes and gets an oak sapling and plants it by her grave. She goes to stay in Estele's broken down old house. Luc appears, and tries to make Addie feel guilty for leaving Estele to die alone. Addie hits him, and he lashes out, making her old and withering, saying he had been too generous to give her eternal youth as well as eternal life. He asks for her soul again, and again she refuses, and he leaves, and Addie returns to her youth. July 29, 1778: Addie has left Paris to go to Fécamp and see the sea. Luc appears to taunt her and ask again for her soul. He takes her to a church, where they discuss religion, and he shows her what a soul looks like. He offers to let her see her own, but she refuses him once again. March 23, 2014: In an effort to show her something in New York she has never seen before, Henry takes Addie to a subway station, and shows her that there are two places in the wall where they can hear each other speaking while being no where near each other. July 29, 1789: Paris is a warzone thanks to the revolution. Addie wanders through the chaos dressed as a man, but she is caught by a group of other men. Luc steps in and saves her, teleporting her to Florence, Italy. He leaves her there. April 6, 2014: Addie tells the story of July 29, 1789 to Henry, and he is baffled that Luc left her in Florence. She says he had been trying to break her by stranding her in an unfamiliar city where she didn't speak the language, but she loved Florence, and adapted. They are at lunch, and when the waitress walks away, Addie suggests they leave without paying, which angers Henry, and they fight. Addie has never had anything permanent, so she worries she has ruined their entire relationship, but Henry reassures her. July 29, 1806: Addie wakes in an artist's home in Venice. She usually wakes to men not remembering her and being ashamed in the morning, but Matteo is drawing a rough sketch of her. Luc appears later that night, and she sends him away again. March 26, 1827: Luc finds Addie that year in an art gallery. He realizes she has slowly been making herself the subject of art pieces and inspiring different creators. She calls him out about him continuing to visit her and watching her all the time, saying he is lonely too. This angers him, and he transports her to Beethoven's apartment in Germany, where it is time for him to give up his soul to Luc. He refuses, and Luc becomes a terrifying void monster and rips his soul from him. Addie is now scared of Luc, and he sends her back to London. May 15, 2014: Addie and Henry bring Book the cat home from the bookshop. He tries desperately to snap a polaroid photo of her, but it doesn't work. July 29, 1854: Some other family with little boys has moved into her family's old house. The tree Addie planted over Estele's grave has grown and now shelters her. Luc appears when she goes to Estele's old house and taunts her once more, but Addie still refuses him. June 13, 2014: For Henry's birthday, the pair go with Robbie and Bea to see a concert. They of course don't know her, and Robbie acts sullen with her. Toby, Addie's old fling, takes the stage, and he sings the song that she helped him write. She gets emotional and leaves the venue, and Henry goes out to comfort her.

July 29, 1872: Addie rides a train, on her way to Germany. The conductor comes by to get her ticket, and she says she left it in her room. He follows her back, but she doesn't have a room so she picks one at random. Luc is in there, and Addie pretends to be his wife, and Luc procures a ticket for her. He then teleports her to Munich to see an opera. Addie is mesmerized by it, but feels upset when she finds out some of the performers have made deals with Luc as well. July 4, 2014: Henry and Addie are at Robbie's New Years Eve party. Addie thinks she's finally cracked the code to get Robbie to like her off the bat instead of be jealous of her. Henry seems distant the whole night, but he tells Addie that he's fine. That night, in the bath, Henry asks her when the last time she saw Luc was, and she says 30 years ago, after a falling out. December 31, 1899: Addie has found an abandoned cottage in England that she has fixed up and temporarily made her own. Luc comes to her, finding her playing out in the snow. When she wonders why he's there, he speaks back to her words she had said to him years ago: "I saw an elephant, in Paris." He was thinking of her when she wasn't there. He tries to take her somewhere to celebrate the new year, but she refuses, saying she doesn't know if he will bring her back. They instead sit at the fire and talk, and Addie falls asleep. When she wakes Luc is gone, but he has draped a blanket around her shoulders. July 29, 1914: Addie goes to visit Estele's grave, but the tree she planted for her has been struck by lightning and destroyed. Luc appears, and he apologizes for the tree being gone. He takes her to Paris, and Addie never sees Villon again. In Paris, they drink wine on a patio. Luc finally admits to her that she was right years ago, and that him and her are alike. He gives her back her father's wooden ring that she offered to him the night she sold her soul, and says that all she has to do is put it on and he will come to her. Luc warns her that there is a war coming, and that she should leave Europe before it starts. He offers to transport her, but she refuses. A week later though, she boards a ship for New York. July 29, 2014: Henry gets Addie a donut with a candle for her 300th year after making her deal. Addie tells him that they probably shouldn't be together on that day, just in case Luc decided to appear and discover that she has found a way to circumvent her curse. Henry insists she not let Luc ruin their day, and that if she wants to be alone come nightfall, he'll oblige. She agrees, and they go to the beach. On their way back home on the subway, Henry tells her he loves her. Addie doesn't know if she loves him, but she says it back anyways. July 29, 1928: Addie is in a masked speakeasy in Chicago. She hasn't seen Luc since 1914, him waiting for her to put the ring on and her stubbornly refusing to lose the game they were playing. At the bar, the bartender gives her a glass of champagne and nods towards a booth, where Luc sits. She taunts him about losing the game, but he says he owns the speakeasy, so technically she lost. She says she didn't know, and he admits he was tired of waiting, preferring her company to humans. She argues that she is human, but he insists that she's not anymore. This angers her, and when he says she is his, she says she'd rather be a ghost, and goes back to dance, eventually leaving the speakeasy altogether.

July 29, 2014: Addie and Henry take a nap together, only intending for five minutes, but when they wake it is already dark outside. She searches the apartment for Luc, but he is not there. She decides not to let him ruin anything for her anymore, and wakes Henry, saying he can stay. They go out to eat and dance, but when they go to the bar and order two beers, the bartender gives Addie champagne instead. Addie tries to get Henry to leave, but everyone in the restaurant freezes as Luc appears. Addie begs Luc to leave her and Henry alone, and he says he has no intention of separating them since Henry doesn't have much time left. When Luc leaves, she asks Henry what he meant. September 4, 2013: Henry was never on the steps of his apartment when he made the deal with Luc, he was on the roof ready to jump off and end his own life. He was fine with a year because he wasn't planning on living much longer anyway. July 29, 2014: Addie leaves the restaurant and tries to summon Luc with the ring. He appears, and she begs for him to undo Henry's deal. He tells her to spend the night with him tomorrow to celebrate their anniversary and he'll consider freeing Henry. She goes home to Henry, and he tells her that he has 35 days left. The watch he had received from Luc had been counting down to his final moment. November 23, 1944: Addie tried to go and be a spy in World War II, but was caught by German soldiers and imprisoned. She uses the ring to summon Luc, and he frees her and drops her back in Boston before disappearing. July 30, 2014: Henry begs her not to leave and go with Luc, but she is determined to do anything to try and free Henry. Luc comes to the door and escorts her downstairs to a private car. She tells him her rules: she won't leave the city, and she won't teleport with him. April 7, 1952: Addie is in Los Angeles, and has been seeing the same man for awhile, over and over again like it's the first time every night. Luc interrupts and sends the man away, stepping in to have dinner with Addie instead. He then takes her to a club so she can see Frank Sinatra perform, who is also someone he has made a deal with. They dance together, and Luc says he wants her, and she says he only wants her as a possession. They kiss, and then leave to sleep together. Between 1952 and 1968 Luc and Addie are together, but Addie tells herself that it is just s*x, not love. July 30, 2014: Luc takes her to a restaurant where it is just the two of them. He says he loves her, but Addie says he is incapable of loving anyone but himself. She says if he loved her he would have let her go by now, but he disagrees, saying love is selfish. She begs him again to free Henry but this angers him and they leave. July 29, 1970: Luc confesses his love for her in a bar in New Orleans. She says he doesn't love her, and he gives her a key to a house that is now hers. They go out on the town, and Luc gifts her a jacket, the same one she has with her in the present day. Luc tells her to go home, but she follows him instead, and sees him take the soul of an older woman. July 30, 2014: Luc asks Addie where she wants to go as they walk. She asks which skyscraper has the better view, and he takes her to one of his clubs on the 84th floor of one, where rich and privileged people spend their time. Addie asks Luc again to let Henry go. He is agitated, but Addie admits that she is no longer human. He tells her then to choose someone there on the roof to lose their soul in Henry's place. Addie chooses someone at random, which surprises Luc, but he doesn't follow through, and teleports her. May 1, 1984: Luc and Addie talk in their bedroom, and she asks him again to let her go. He says he can't, but he can bend the rules, and all she has to do is surrender to him. This enrages Adeline as she realizes that all of this was a trick to get her to give up her soul. In a rage she yells and knocks over candles, and eventually this causes the house to burn down.

July 30, 2014: Luc has teleported her into Central Park. He says he'll agree to what she wants if she dances with him, and she does. He confesses that he lied back in New Orleans, that he did truly love her and it wasn't a game. But he also confesses that Henry was placed in her path by him intentionally so she would give up on love and realize she was meant to be with him, and that he never intended to free him from his deal. She tells him she does not love him, and he tells her to go and be with him then until he dies, because then all that will be left is her and him. As she walks back to Henry's place, she sees a newspaper reading August 6, 2014, meaning Luc had kept her for longer than she had known. She runs back to Henry and apologizes profusely and he begs her to give up on trying to save him and she agrees. They spend all of August together. One night they go upstate to sleep under the stars, and Henry asks Addie if she would make the deal again if she had to go back and choose and she says yes. Henry tells Bea and Robbie he is going to go out of town for a bit, and asks Robbie to feed his cat and Bea to work at the bookshop. They don't know he is saying goodbye. September 4, 2014: On Henry's last day, him and Addie stay in bed for most of it, holding each other. Addie tells him stories, not of July 29ths but of other times in her life. Henry doesn't write any of them down but she tells them anyways. They get up to eat, Addie still telling him stories, before they decide to go and get a drink at the bar. When it is time for him to go, they go up onto the roof. The watch stops ticking, but nothing happens, and Addie begins to talk. September 1, 2014: Addie gets up from bed with Henry and goes to the bar. She spins the ring, and Luc appears. She admits that human love is not what she thought, not elaborating further on the fact, and asks him again to not let Henry die to prove his point. He says he can't end a deal, but she says he can bend it. She asks him to bend her deal, let Henry go while remembering her. Luc asks if she is about to offer up her own soul, and she says no, because Luc no longer wants her soul, he wants her. So she tells him to free Henry, and she will be with him for as long as he wants her at his side. He agrees, and the new deal is struck. September 4, 2014: Henry is distraught that she has done this, but Addie is at peace with it, and tells him to live a good life and to find people that see and love him for who he is. September 5, 2014: Henry wakes in his bed and reaches for Addie, but she isn't there. He goes to check the notebooks, and everything is still written there. She is gone, but he remembers her. March 13, 2015: Bea has just gotten done reading the manuscript that Henry had written, titled The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Bea doesn't like the ending of the story, but Henry couldn't write an ending without knowing what truly happened to Addie. Henry publishes the book, but doesn't put his name on the cover, because it is Addie's story. February 3, 2016: Addie is in London with Luc, and sees the book telling her story in the bookstore. Henry has written in the dedication, "I remember you". Addie delights in the fact that Luc agreed to the new deal she had made, in which she would be by him for as long as he wanted her at his side. She knows he is fickle and will become annoyed with her eventually, and then, she will be free.

[385bookreviews]

1.190.2 Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler

SPOILERS

Pages: 406

Time Read: 8 hours and 29 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4★

Genre: Adult Dystopian

TWs for the book: Ableism, addiction, adult/minor relationships, blood, child abuse, classism, colonization, confinement, death, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, fire, forced institutionalization, gaslighting, grief, gun violence, hate crimes, homophobia, injury, kidnapping, lesbophobia, mass shooting, mental illness, brain injury, miscarriage, misogyny/sexism, murder, outing, p*d*ph*l*a, physical abuse, police brutality, pregnancy, racism, r*pe, religious bigotry, mental breaks, self harm, SA, s*xual harassment, s*xual violence, slavery, su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, su*c*de, torture, trafficking, violence, abandonment, child death, chronic illness, cursing, death of parents, death of spouse, drug abuse, excrement, genocide, gore, medical content, panic attacks, war, vomit, abortion, alcohol, antisemitism, islamophobia, cannibalism, incest, infertility, infidelity, deportation, dysphoria, stalking, xenophobia

POV: First person

Time Period/Location: California, Oregon, and Washington from 2032-2090

First Line: They'll make a god of her.

Storyline: This book was really hard to get through. While there aren't very many graphic, on page descriptions of violence, the psychological aspect of it all is hard to grapple with. It was definitely interesting going from Parable of the Sower and only getting Lauren's perspective to suddenly having her daughter's view of her as a manipulative cult leader who abandoned her and sacrificed her family for Earthseed. It definitely made you ponder whether or not Lauren was a good person, and there was no clear answer at the end, leaving you to draw your own conclusions about her.

Representation: Lauren is bisexual, Allie is a lesbian, and Marcos is gay. There are many characters ranging across all races and with numerous disabilities.

Summary: While the first book was important and relevant to our time, Parable of the Talents was even more terrifying with its social commentary and the light it shines on zealous Christianity. A hard read, but definitely worth it.

Quotes: -"We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they turned into crises." (p.4) -"It seems inevitable that people who can't read are going to lean more toward judging candidates on the way they look and sound than on what they claim they stand for. Even people who can read and are educated are apt to pay more attention to good looks and seductive lies than they should." (p.16) -"Interesting that they fear Edward Jay Smith's supposed incompetence more than they fear Jarret's obvious tyranny." (p.22) -"Beware: At war or at peace, more people die of unenlightened self-interest than of any other disease." (p.77)

Complete Recap: The book opens with writings from Lauren's daughter, sometime in the future after Lauren's death. She doesn't feel fondly of her mother, and doesn't believe in Earthseed. She is going through her writings to try to understand her after her death, and also some of her father's writings. The next entry is some of Bankole's entries, and he talks briefly of "the Pox", short for the apocalyptic time of 2015-2030. Lauren's daughter (later revealed to be named Asha) remarks that her father seems to have wanted to protect her mother, but that Lauren was too focused on her goals and didn't want to be protected. September 26, 2032: Lauren and the rest of Earthseed celebrate Acorn's 5th year anniversary. She has had a dream in which she is back in a church service in her living room. Her father is preaching, and she is sitting between her brothers, Keith and Marcus, to keep them from fighting. Keith disappears, and is replaced by Lauren's mother, who died giving birth to her. She remains facing forward so Lauren can't fully see her face. She hears her father recite the parable of the talents from Matthew, and her mother disappears. Then everyone disappears until Lauren is left alone in the ashes of the burned down house. She wakes alone in her bed. The Dovetree farm, a family near them that grew weed and brewed alcohol, was attacked and everyone was killed except for two of the women and three of the children. Bankole is up treating them. Lauren wonders what and who caused the attack, as crime had been decreasing in recent years. Aubrey, one of the surviving women, had told Lauren that the men were like soldiers, attacking uniformly, killing and burning their things, and that they all wore black tunics with white crosses on their chests. Lauren suspects that this is the work of the most recent presidential nominee, Andrew Steele Jarret. He is a Texas Senator who started his own church called the Church of Christian America, and preaches that people committing what fits into his definitions of sin are at fault for the state of the country. His followers carry out burnings of "witches", which basically means anyone who isn't a part of the Christian American church. Asha's Notes: She lists all four children, four men, and five women who started Earthseed: Lauren and Bankole, Harry and Zahra, Travis, Natividad, and Dominic, Allie and Justin, and Grayson, Emery, Doe, and Tori. She talks about how they built the place up and learned trades, and Lauren taught those who didn't know how to read and write. Lauren also insisted on schooling for the children, and Bankole was gradually able to gain the trust of those in the surrounding area and treat those outside of the community as well. Asha never got to meet her father.

September 27, 2032: Lauren and three others from the community go out to an abandoned house to scavenge some agave for the community's thorn wall. When they arrive, an armored housetruck opens fire on them, and later on some other people wandering by. They hide, and are about to escape, but they hear a child crying, and Lauren runs around the truck. She finds a man, woman, and teenage boy all badly beaten, shot, and unconscious, a sleeping little girl, and a crying little girl. They comfort the children and drive the housetruck back to Acorn. Bankole immediately begins to try and save the woman and the boy, but the man is already dead. September 29, 2032: Bankole is angry with Lauren for risking her life to get the housetruck. He wants them to move out of Acorn and into a proper town so they can be safe, but Lauren refuses to abandon Acorn or Earthseed. Bankole's Writings: Bankole doesn't believe in Earthseed himself, and he is worried by Lauren's determinedness to stick with it. Asha's Notes: Asha criticizes Earthseed and once again expresses her disbelief in any religion. She says that Lauren's middle name, Oya, was the Orisha of the Niger River, bringer of great change. October 4, 2032: Krista Noyer, the woman they found in the housetruck, died. Dan Noyer Jr., her son, will recover. October 17, 2032: They hold a funeral for Krista and Dan Sr. Noyer now that Dan Jr. is well enough to attend. Kassia and Mercy, the two little girls, are well enough. They are now a community of 67. The Noyer family was attempting to make the trip from Phoenix, Arizona up to Alaska, which seceded from the USA, in the housetruck. Krista, Dan Sr., Dan Jr., 15, Kassia, 7, Mercy, 8, Nina, 12, and Paula, 13, had parked their truck to let it charge in the sun. Dan Sr., Krista, and Dan Jr. were shot by a group of men. Kassia and Mercy hid in the truck, which was impossible to get into once locked. Nina and Paula were r*ped and abducted. Dan Jr., also shot, managed to drag his parents into the truck once Mercy and Kassia opened the doors, before succumbing to his injuries. They were like that for three days until Lauren and her little group found them. The group gets in touch with people they know to keep on the lookout for Nina and Paula. The children bury their parents' ashes with along with oak tree seedlings. Bankole's Writings: Bankole ponders about the redwood trees dying due to climate change. Asha's Notes: Asha describes her father as a loving pessimist, and her mother as a reluctant optimist. She says Lauren "worked hard at seducing people" and that if all she had done was start Acorn and not Earthseed, she would have been admirable. October 24, 2032: The community holds a Gathering to welcome Adela Ortiz's baby. Travis proposes using the housetruck to expand their businesses, and the community debates on it and ultimately votes to. Lauren discusses Earthseed with Dan, as he has a lot of questions about it, and she comforts him when he breaks down about his parents and sisters.

November 7, 2032: Despite their isolation, Lauren does her best to keep up with the events of the world. Alaska, now its own country, makes an alliance with Russia and Canada. Kenya and Tanzania are at war, Bolivia and Peru dispute their borders, Pakistan and Afghanistan start a religious war against India, Spain and China both are in civil war, Greece and Turkey are about to go to war, and Egypt and Libya are already at war. Three years prior, Iran and Iraq had launched nuclear missiles at each other, but that hadn't happened again. A rich boy in Texas ran away from home and ended up becoming a slave to a pimp, forced to do what he was told by wearing a slave collar that delivered pain without ever harming the body. The boy's father paid a lot of money to have him found, and that is the only reason this modern day slavery was even making it into the news. Life was found on Mars, further reaffirming Lauren's Destiny. The space program is almost completely privatized now thanks to President Donner. The first baby born of an artificial womb was born healthy in Australia. Jarret won the election. November 14, 2032: Lauren discovers she is pregnant after two years of trying. December 5, 3032: Christian America announces they will be opening homeless shelters and orphanages. December 17, 2032: Five of the group, Bankole, Lauren, Dan, Travis, and Natividad go to Eureka to get supplies. They then go to a squatter settlement called Georgetown to follow up on a lead about Nina Noyer. The George family owns and runs a complex of several businesses, and the matriarch, Dolores, called in the tip. Lauren brings fruit for her, and she points Lauren to a pimp named Cougar. He takes Lauren out to see the children for sale, and the girl that is supposed to be Nina. It isn't her, but Lauren is shocked to see her brother Marcus, alive and for sale. She buys him immediately, and they return back to Acorn. Marcus is submissive and quiet, seeming to not believe his circumstances. Bankole works on him and he had three infections and burn scars covering his body. Dan Noyer runs away on his own to try and find his sisters. Asha's Notes: Asha takes note how different Lauren and Marcus were. He hated the chaos and she embraced it. Asha says that they were both zealots in their own ways.

December 18, 2032: Dan hasn't come home, and they leave notes with people they know to keep an eye out for him as well as for Nina and Paula. Marcus slept through the night without making a run for it, and joins Lauren for breakfast. She tells him that Harry and Zahra are alive, and confirms that Marcus' former girlfriend when they lived in Robledo, Robin, is dead. Marcus confirms that Cory, Bennet, and Greg are dead for sure. Men from the town of Halstead come to ask Bankole to help them, as they experienced an earthquake that destroyed several homes and killed their doctor. He leaves to help them. Marcus tells Lauren what happened the night their neighborhood burned. Him, his brothers, and Cory were all gunned down by the arsonists. He was shot but not killed, but the rest of his family had bullets put through their heads. Then they were grabbed and tossed into a burning house. Marcus was burned and shot, but managed to escape, and lay out on the yard. He was rescued by a man and his wife, also with the last name Duran like his mother Cory. They nursed him back to health and squatted in Robledo for four years. Marcus used to preach to the other squatters, and they saw him as sort of a pastor. But with new government officials in place, they led a huge police raid to clear out the squatters and burn/knock down the homes and buildings they squatted in. The Durans went missing, and Marcus wasn't able to find them again. His first night walking north on the freeway he was jumped, r*ped, and then sold to a pimp, going through three of them and wearing a slave collar the whole time before Lauren bought his freedom. She tells him about Earthseed and how they came to be there, he accuses her of starting a cult, saying he had heard a local politician publicly denouncing them. After their conversation, she takes him to see Harry and Zahra. December 19, 2032: Lauren's brother requests to be called Marcos Duran instead of Marcus Olamina. He tells her he's not the same person he was. December 22, 2032: Bankole returns from Halstead and tries to convince Lauren to move there, as they've offered him a job and a house, and her a job as a teacher. She continues to refuse. January 16, 2033: Bankole and Lauren go to visit Halstead, staying with the family who's house they would be taking over if they decide to move there. The family there now is moving to Siberia to start a better life. Once their back home, Bankole and Lauren don't talk much. Marc tells her that she should go, and is a fool for not. Grayson, Zahra, Jorge, and Diamond all question Lauren about whether or not she is leaving, as Marcos told everyone that she was. January 20, 2033: Jarret was inaugurated, giving a fire and brimstone sermon as his speech. February 6, 2033: Marcos decides to give his own sermon at the Gathering, attempting to convince everyone that the real, Christian God never changes. Lauren warned him beforehand that the group would ask questions and debate, picking apart his sermon, but Marcos is confident in his abilities. This is exactly what the group does to him though, even those like Zahra who don't necessarily fully believe in Earthseed, and this breaks him down a bit. February 19, 2033: President Jarret means to start a war to get Alaska back in the union. February 28, 2033: Marcos tries to speak at the Gathering for the third time and continues to get picked apart, but he is gaining confidence, questioning the Earthseed Destiny and calling it nonsense. March 6, 2033: Marcos leaves Acorn, along with the Peralta family. The Peralta family agrees with President Jarret's idea for war and a draft, but Lauren suspects that they just want to disassociate themselves from the "cult" in case things get bad.

March 17, 2033: Dan Noyer came back with his sister Nina. Zahra spotted the two of them running up to the camp, seemingly being chased, and shortly the five pursuers with guns revealed themselves. She sends out a warning and Harry, Lauren, and Bankole take the housetruck to gun down the intruders. Zahra asks where the two others she saw went, and after a search, they find Dan and Nina. Both are injured, beaten, and had been r*ped. Nina says she got pregnant but had a miscarriage. March 18, 2033: Bankole tried his best to save Dan but he died. Nina says that her older sister Paula is dead. Asha's Notes: Asha writes that her Uncle Marc would have never made it at Acorn, and left due to his political and religious disagreements. She wonders to herself if her mother even really paid attention to being pregnant with her. During this time, the group acquired another housetruck and began to have flourishing business, which allowed Lauren to dream about starting more communities and naming them after plants. July 22, 2033: Two days prior on July 20, Lauren gave birth to her daughter Larkin Beryl Ife Olamina Bankole. She shares a birthday with both Lauren, and Lauren's father. Bankole is thrilled. July 24, 2033: Larkin is Welcomed into the community and Harry and Zahra are made her godparents.

July 30, 2033: Bankole and Lauren discuss moving again, and the purpose of Earthseed. Lauren finally convinces him to stay and Bankole finds the motivation to try to build up Acorn into a more modern and sustainable place for the sake of his daughter. September 26, 2033: The same people that raided the Dovetree farm, Jarret's Crusaders, raid Acorn with seven tanks known as maggots. Lauren sends out a signal for everyone to run, but they are surrounded, and all hit with a paralyzing gas. Men take Larkin away from Lauren and dump all of the women into a room at the school, and all of the men into a different one. While they're still paralyzed, the men put slave collars around their necks. Lauren learns later that Grayson Mora had refused to be a slave again, and used the housetruck to fire on the men and the maggots, damaging some. As they rained fire on him, he rammed the housetruck into one of the maggots, causing an explosion and killing him. Lauren checks in with the women of the group. Justin had been taken from Allie. Adela's baby, Emery's sons, and Noriko's children had also been taken. Tori and Doe Mora, now 14 and 15, were in the room with them. Nina Noyer was there but Mercy and Kassia were either taken by the men or ushered into hiding by the woman who was taking care of them, May, as she wasn't there either. Several other women all had their children taken. Catherine's husband Vincent hit his head on a rock as he fell from the gas, and she says he is dead. Teresa Lin decides to dive out the open window, but immediately begins screaming from the pain the slave collar is inflicting on her for leaving the boundaries of the room. No one came to get her, and she screamed and passed out repeatedly all night. Diamond discovers someone dead, and Lauren is horrified to realize it is Zahra, her best friend. Zahra was very small for a grown woman, and Lauren suspects the gas was too much and killed her. When they wake in the morning, they see their captors building a fence around the compound. Lauren instructs the women to go along with what they're told to do, and to gather as much information as they can. She tells them to be prepared for the inevitability of r*pe. In the afternoon, a man finally comes and tells Allie and Lauren to get Teresa's body. When Lauren mentions that Zahra is also dead, she is lashed with the collar. When Allie tries to help her up, she is also lashed. They carry the bodies out and are forced to dig graves for them in rocky soil. The other women and the men are brought out to watch, and Travis, Lucio, and Ted also began to dig graves. Before the bodies were fully buried, they made everyone parade by the open graves to see their dead. Harry learned of Zahra's death, and Lucio of Teresa's. On the men's side, Vincent, Grayson, and Bankole all died as well. Lauren is knocked unconscious by the slave collar for trying to kill one of the men with a pickaxe.

Asha's Notes: Asha writes that she misses Acorn, even though she has no memory of ever being there. She confirms that Zahra was killed by the gas, as it will harm anyone small who isn't given the antidote. Asha was given it along with the other children after they were taken from Acorn. November 24, 2033: It is Thanksgiving, which gives Lauren time to document what's been happening. The children are still missing, and they've been told by their captors that they've been given away to be raised in good Christian American homes. The group has been doing whatever is told of them, including praising God and testifying. Regardless of this, they are tortured and underfed. They are not allowed to mix between men and women, and they claim that none of them are properly married. This doesn't stop the men from r*ping the women, the first being Diamond. When Emery Mora was taken away to be r*ped, she killed the two men and then killed herself. Lauren suspects Emery would have killed more, but because of the collar, she couldn't leave the cabin, and the master control unit for all the collars was being kept in one of the maggots. All of the women were tortured for what Emery did. The Crusaders expanded the area, what they started calling Camp Christian, now bringing in people off the streets to be "reeducated". They are worked like slaves to expand the building they are held captive in, and are forced to burn all of their books, papers, and sentimental items. Thankfully, all of their legal documents and Lauren's writings are stashed away in hidden caches in the mountains. Lauren is able to have a whispered conversation with Harry out in the fields and he says that when they tried to lash Bankole to make an example of him, he had a seizure and died. Asha's Notes: Asha was taken to a reeducation camp where she was cared for in the nursery before being adopted out to Christian American parents. They renamed her from Larkin to Asha Vere, her namesake being a Christian Dreammask character who saved people from heathens. She became Asha Alexander after being taken in by Madison and Kayce, a couple who had been displaced from Seattle during the Al-Can war, the war Jarret started against Canada to get Alaska back in the union. They didn't love her, but took her in out of duty. December 4, 2033: The Crusaders mostly leave them all alone on Sundays, which is when Lauren writes. Mary Sullivan, a girl from one of the neighboring families that was also rounded up, starts sleeping with Allie. One woman that was a squatter has been enjoying tormenting the other women, but the Earthseed women held her captive for a night and used her own collar to torture her, and she leaves them alone now.

December 11, 2033: More strangers have been brought in. Some of them are sharers, but the Earthseed sharers have kept from revealing their weakness. One of the new people is a man named David, wanting to go by Day. He had been staying a homeless shelter run by Christian America, and when a few others robbed the place, him and all the other black men were accused based off race and snatched up. He was charged as a vagrant and was supposed to work for 30 days, but it had been two months and they had no intention to free him. He says that most people don't know about the camps. December 25, 2033: Lauren was r*ped twice. Because she is a sharer, she experienced not only her own pain, but also her r*pist's pleasure. She resolves to stop bathing and make herself as undesirable as possible to keep it from happening again. Asha's Notes: She writes that Lauren's entire record of 2034 was lost, and she only has the 2033 and 2035 writings. By speaking to people that were there at the camp during 2034, Asha learns that there was an escape attempt led by Day and that no one from Earthseed participated. Most of the rebels were killed, and Day was hung. Even though the people of Earthseed dropped to the ground the second everything started, everyone was punished by working 16 hours a day for three days straight doing intense physical labor. Tori and Doe Mora accidentally revealed themselves as sharers, and were r*ped more often than anyone after being discovered. During the time this all happened, it was illegal, but there were loopholes in the law and a general lack of awareness and attention that allowed it to happen anyways. The Al-Can war came to nothing, Alaska got to keep its independence and a bunch of people died for no reason, which killed Jarret's popularity. Asha's adopted parents still loved him, even though the bombings in Seattle had killer their daughter Kamaria, who Asha grew up being constantly compared to. Kayce always seemed bitter towards her, while Madison, her adopted father, took every chance he could since she was young to feel her up. February 25, 2035: Earthseed begins to plan a rebellion, even if it will cost them their lives. Allie is suffering from brain damage after a the Faircloth sisters outed her and Mary Sullivan for being gay at a church service. Mary died from the torture from the collar, and Allie is left not able to talk and being very slow. The Faircloth girls are given a room separate from the other women and are allowed to just work in the kitchen. They make the food worse for the other women. Cristina, Noriko, Tori, and Doe are made to often visit a cabin and they believe the master control unit for the collars is there, so they plan to destroy it if they can the next time they are forced there. February 28, 2035: A landslide happens during a storm, destroying the cabin that had the master control unit and a maggot. Everyone escapes and kills the Crusaders there, and the men and women from Earthseed reunite, grab what they can, and run after burning the place to the ground. Asha's Notes: The Crusaders divided up the siblings of Earthseed when they split everyone up. It worked for some but not for others. The Faircloth boys were split up; one became a Christian American preacher and the other rejected it. One of the Castro children committed su*c*de. Asha fully grew up with the Alexanders. They didn't love her, but they tried to turn her into a good Christian American, sending her to a CA school for her whole life. She learned to make herself quiet and unnoticeable and stay out of the way.

March 4, 2035: Earthseed escapes into the mountains and rests for the night in a cave where one of their caches was hidden. The hand and foot prints of Tori and Doe's brothers, Adela's baby, and Harry and Zahra's children were there as well. Harry and Lauren fell asleep sobbing with each other, as did Travis and Natividad and Tori and Doe. Lucio and Adela slept together, as did Jorge and Diamond, Michael and Noriko, and Aubrey and Nina. Lauren announces that the group must separate off into smaller groups and leave each other. There are protests to this, but it is ultimately agreed they have a worse chance of being spotted all together, and set up a rendezvous point in a redwood forest. Doe is pregnant, and Natividad and Travis agree to take her and Tori with them. Adela (who is also pregnant), Lucio, and Lucio's sister form a group. Nina, Allie, Harry, and Lauren join together. They gather the rest of their supplies from the other caches and hold one last gathering before splitting off. Lauren and her group decide to go to Georgetown, and Allie begins talking again. Asha's Notes: Asha writes that her first memory was of find a doll in her backyard when she was three. Kayce smacked her for touching it, and burned it in the backyard and made Asha watch. She still has panic attacks upon seeing dolls years later. March 28, 2035: Harry works for the George family, Allie cleans up around the George's businesses, and Lauren teaches children who to read and write and sketches portraits of people. While walking back to her hotel room one day, she is stopped by a beaten boy that turns out to be Allie's son Justin. He escaped his abusive Christian American home and had been trying to find his way back to Acorn. Lauren very lightly explains to Justin that Bankole is dead when he asks, and then gently tells him that Allie has some amnesia still. She remembers her son though, and they are reunited. The only information Justin is able to tell them about the other kids is that their names have been changed and that the siblings were split up. Lauren tried to go to the police about Larkin, but that was ultimately useless. Harry leaves and goes south alone on rumors of an orphanage where the kids might be being held. Allie plans on staying in Georgetown and Nina is in love with one of the George boys. April 8, 2035: Lauren departs from Georgetown, disguised as a man and on her own to try and find her daughter April 15, 2035: Lauren is in Eureka doing house and yard work for people in exchange for meals or a place to sleep. She ends up sleeping in the park some nights. May 13, 2035: Lauren made herself visit the Christian America shelter three times. The first time she is panicky and isn't able to pay any attention to anything. The second time she goes in, the man who comes to preach at them after their meal is her brother Marcos. He talks about his heathen sister without realizing she is in the crowd of men he's talking to. She leaves a note asking to speak with him. May 14, 2035: Lauren talks with her brother. She tells him what happened to Acorn and Larkin and begs him for help to find her. Marcos is in denial about Christian America doing this to children and hits Lauren before walking away. June 3, 2035: Lauren goes back to the CA center dressed as a woman this time, hoping to leave a message with Marcos. The woman informs him that he has moved to Portland, and a guard stops her to give her a letter addressed from him. He tells her that she should join the church to try and get her daughter back. On her way back from the CA center she is attacked by two men and stabs one of them, causing her to flee town and go back to Georgetown. Asha's Notes: Asha writes about her life as a teenager. She dealt with being groped by Madison, punished for writing out a simple Dreamask scenario that wasn't about God, and punched a girl in the jaw so hard she broke it. Kayce talked about her behind her back relentlessly.

June 10, 2035: Allie manages to convince Lauren to take a 19 year old girl named Len up to Portland with her. She was kidnapped and pimped out but when she escaped and tried to return to her rich parents, they had moved to Alaska without telling her. She is also a sharer, and although she is spooked when Lauren notices it about her, she ultimately agrees to go with her. Asha's Notes: Asha left the Alexander home when she was 19. She tried to stay in the CA church but everyone thought she was a prostitute, leaving home on he town without being married, so she left that too. She was living with a single mother and nannying her kids, and then decided to go and see Reverend Marcos Duran speak. While there, a woman comes to get her, and takes her to Marcos, who tells her that she is his niece and that her parents are dead. Marcos takes her in from then on. June 19, 2035: Lauren and Belen stop at a woman's house, located far off the road. It is a nice house with land and a garden that the older woman tends on her own. She is wary of Lauren and Belen at first, but ultimately agrees to let them do some work in her garden and around her place for a few days in exchange for food and a place to sleep. Lauren gradually works on converting her to Earthseed, and realizes that she is bisexual. She ultimately convinces the woman to look after any children that Lauren might bring her, and her and Len move on. Asha's Notes: Asha was able to go to school thanks to Marcos, and lived in upstate New York at one of his houses and worked to make Dreamask scenarios. Marcos was gay but couldn't have a relationship with a man due to his religion, so he never married or had kids. As Earthseed gained popularity as a cult, Asha asked Marcos about it, but he told her to stop looking into it. She didn't though, and did a lot of research, thinking that they were very selfish for wanting to go to space with everything going on on Earth. July 29, 2035: Lauren and Len stay in Portland, gathering followers and staying with nice people. Lauren speaks with Marcos again, but he is cruel and refuses to believe what she says about the church. Allie and Justin come up from Georgetown to live with them in Portland. September 30, 2035: Lauren sends for Natividad and Travis, having found people to house them. Her and Len are beginning to be invited to preach at people's homes, and also offered money and resources. November 13, 2035: Lauren convinces Harry to come north with the three orphans he has picked up on his travels. Earthseed: The First Book of the Living is made available online for people to read. December 30, 2035: Lauren has been invited to speak at conferences, being flown on planes and travelling around the country to do so.

Asha's Notes: Earthseed spread across the globe, and Lauren spent her whole life travelling across to all of the different communities. When Asha was 34, she decided she wanted to meet her and began to do more research. She discovers that Lauren spoke out about what happened to Larkin. CA sued her, and she countersued, and they ended up paying her off, but she hadn't been able to find her because CA had destroyed all of the records to cover their own asses. Asha puts the pieces together and realizes that she is probably Lauren's daughter and calls Marcos. He asks her to wait till she gets home, but she goes to Red Spruce, the community Lauren was resting at to meet her. Everyone refuses to let her see Lauren at first, claiming she's resting, but Asha finally gets ahold of her aide, Harry's adopted son, Edison Balter. He brings her to Lauren and they do a DNA test to confirm that she is her daughter. They talked, and Lauren is enraged to learn that Marcos had been hiding Asha from her this entire time. This makes Asha upset because she loves her Uncle Marc. They exchange life stories, and Asha feels as though Lauren didn't try hard enough to find her. She lets slip that Marcos had found her when she was two years old but had left her alone until she was older and this enrages Lauren all over again. Asha decides she wants to leave and Lauren begs her to keep in touch. She goes home and talks to Marcos and he says he felt alone and didn't want to share her with Lauren. Lauren never saw or spoke to him again. Lauren lived to be 81, just in time to see the first shuttles leaving earth. Justin was on the ship, as well as one of the Faircloth boys, the Mora girls and their children, and the living remainder of Travis and Natividad's family. July 20, 2090: Lauren describes seeing the shuttle leave with Harry and the children of her friends. Her and Harry's bodies will be buried on whatever new planet her followers discover. Asha doesn't come to the launch because she's caring for Marcos after another heart transplant. Lauren says she'll never forgive him for stealing her daughter from her.

[385bookreviews]

1.190.1 Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

SPOILERS

Pages: 329

Time Read: 6 hours and 57 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 3.5★ Characters: 3★

Genre: Adult Dystopian

TWs for the book: Violence, death, gun violence, murder, fire, r*pe, child death, death of a parent, slavery, blood, cannibalism, s*xual violence, animal death, grief, drug abuse/addiction, injury, gore, child abuse, racism, physical abuse, trafficking, classism, torture, police brutality, body horror, domestic abuse, adult/minor relationship, war, s*xual content, p*d*ph*l*a, abandonment, kidnapping, misogyny, incest, cursing, mental illness, pregnancy, hate crime, emotional abuse, su*c*de, mass shooting, religion (Baptist Christianity), religious bigotry, colonization, vomit, confinement, chronic illness, excrement, xenophobia, genocide, panic attacks, alcoholism, homophobia, ableism, parentification, mentions of infertility and abortion

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: California, 2024-2027

First Line: Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession.

Lauren Olamina: Lauren is a little bit of flat character, not showing much emotion throughout the book. This doesn't detract from the story though and makes sense in the context that you're reading her diary entries. She definitely comes across older than she is, but also with the same "know it all" attitude of any teenager that age. She felt very real to me. I didn't understand why she had to end up in a relationship with a 39 year age gap though, that was uncomfortable to read about.

Storyline: Blake takes a very dark view of humanity in this book, with abundant r*pe, robbery, murder, torture, drug use, p*d*ph*l*a, and cannibalism. I definitely don't agree that humanity would devolve to this level, however, given the eerie parallels to nowadays, this book definitely makes you sit with the content and wonder if things will actually get that bad, and what we can do to prevent this bleak and horrific future.

Representation: Almost everyone in the story is either Asian, black, or Hispanic. Lauren, Grayson, Doe, Tori, and Emery suffer from hyperempathy syndrome, a disabling delusional disorder.

Summary: This book was a scary read, and (spoiler) Parable of the Talents is even scarier. The parallels of Octavia Blake's dystopian 2024-2027 to our current 2024-2025 is a little too close to home, and really forces you to consider where we are heading, not just as a country but as human beings. I really liked Lauren's religion, Earthseed, and the whole concept of God being Change. I definitely recommend everyone read this, but be mindful of the wanton violence and numerous mentions of adult and child r*pe.

Quotes: -"All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change." (p.3) -"There are over 700 known dead so far. One hurricane… That's nature. Is it God? Most of the dead are the street poor who have nowhere to go… Is it a sin against God to be poor?" (p.15) -"God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But God exists to be shaped. It isn't enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that's the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak--too poor, too hungry, too sick--to defend ourselves. Then we'll be wiped out." (p.76) -"Embrace diversity. Unite--or be divided, robbed, ruled, killed by those who see you as prey. Embrace diversity or be destroyed." (p.196) -"'Your God doesn't care about you at all,' Travis said. 'All the more reason to care about myself and others...'" (p.221) -"The universe is God's self-portrait." (p.315)

July 20, 2024: Lauren Olamina has a dream. In her dream she is trying to teach herself how to levitate in her room, but a fire engulfs her. She is suddenly then transported to her yard when she was seven years old, taking down laundry from the clothesline with her stepmother. She tells Lauren that when she was young, you couldn't see nearly as many stars from all the light pollution, but now cities like that don't exist as much anymore. July 21, 2024: Today is Lauren's 15th birthday. She doesn't believe in God anymore, but her father is a preacher, so her and her brothers agree to be baptized. While he usually held church in the living room of their house for their small, walled in neighborhood, he arranged for them to go outside the walls to the only church left standing for the occasion. They ride bikes, armed with guns, passing tons of street poor people, starving, dirty, and drug addicted. It hurts Lauren to see injured people, as she has a delusional disorder called hyperempathy syndrome. This allows her to feel others' pain and pleasure just as much as they do. When they arrive at the church, built like a fortress, Lauren, her brothers, and some other kids from the neighborhood are baptized. July 30, 2024: An astronaut on Mars, part of a crew trying to create a colony there, dies. The price of water goes up again, costing more than gasoline. The last TV in the neighborhood at the Yannis house finally dies. August 3, 2024: Lauren and her father discuss space. She thinks it's worthwhile to try and find new life and travel to new planets, while her father views it as a waste. Lauren laments the fact that the astronauts last wish, to be buried on Mars, won't be honored. August 12, 2024: One of their neighbors, a very judgmental and religious woman, Mrs. Sims, shot herself. Thieves had come over the wall awhile before her death and had stolen all her valuable belongings and food, and also r*ped her. The community had rallied to take care of her, but not long after, her son, daughter-in-law, grandkids, brother, nieces, and nephews all died in a house fire. Lauren wonders how someone who had based her entire life off of a religion that claimed you would go to hell if you killed yourself could do such a thing. August 17, 2024: Lauren can't get over the deaths of Mrs. Sims or the astronaut. She tells about the religion she has created, with the core tenet of "God is Change". Rather than God being a conscious being imposing his will upon humanity, she believes that the only constant in the universe is Change, so that must be God, and all humans must shape God for themselves. November 6, 2024: A new president is to be elected. He plans to stop the government space program, allowing it to be sold off to private companies. He also plans to repeal minimum wage, environmental protections, and worker protections.

February 1, 2025: Three year old Amy Dunn started a fire in the Dunn's garage. Everyone came running to put it out, as no one can afford the fire department fees. Lauren feels bad for Amy. Her mother was impregnated by her uncle at 13, and her nor anyone else in the family pays any attention to her. Lauren tries her best to look after her since no one else will. Cory, Lauren's stepmother, teaches the neighborhood children as an alternative to school, and Lauren asks if she can start early, since Lauren is in charge of the kindergarten age children anyways. February 19, 2025: Mrs. Sims cousins, Wardell Parish and Rosalee Payne inherit her house. They aren't pleasant people and accuse people in the neighborhood of ransacking Mrs. Sims house after she died. Lauren's father explains that she was robbed not long before her death. February 22, 2025: Lauren's father and her best friend Joanne's father take some of the younger people in the neighborhood out to practice shooting in the hills nearby, including Lauren, Joanne, Joanne's cousin and boyfriend Harry, Lauren's boyfriend Curtis, Curtis' brother Michael, Aura Moss, and Peter Moss. The Moss children's father has three wives, and created his own religion, running a mini cult in his own house. After doing some shooting, they notice a dog watching them. Joanne is startled and aims her gun, and it runs away. Aura sees the same dog, but screams and panic fires her gun at it. When Lauren's father goes to investigate, he doesn't find a dog, but the corpses of a woman and her two children, partially eaten. As they begin the return journey home, Lauren's father shoots a dog that gets too close. It doesn't die, and Lauren is put in pain by seeing the injured dog, so she shoots it dead. March 2, 2025: It rains for the first time in six years. March 4, 2025: Amy Dunn dies. Lauren had just walked her home from school that day, sharing an orange with her in the rain. She went out wandering at night and was hit by a stray bullet through the neighborhood gate. March 5, 2025: Lauren and Joanne talk about Amy's death, and Lauren tries to tell Amy that she believes things will only get worse. She worries that a hoard of the street poor will eventually get fed up and overrun the neighborhood and they'll have to survive on the outside. She tries to encourage Joanne to be prepared, saying the neighborhood in general needs to be more prepared, and gives her a book about plant life. March 6, 2025: The rain stops. Lauren wonders how many more years it will be till they see rain again. March 8, 2025: Lauren gets in trouble with her father for scaring Joanne. Joanne told her mother, her mother told her father, and then her father told Lauren's. Joanne made it sound like Lauren was trying to convince her to run away, but Lauren explains to her dad everything she actually said. He tries to make her promise not to talk about any of that again, but she refuses, wanting to know why they shouldn't be prepared. He agrees that they should, but doesn't want her scaring people. He tells her to start teaching her kindergarteners about plants, go and learn martial arts from someone, and that he will bring up her idea about emergency packs at the next meeting, March 9, 2025: Joanne apologizes to Lauren after church, saying she didn't mean to get her in trouble. Lauren forgives her and they remain friends, but Lauren loses some trust in her. March 12, 2025: Thieves break into the neighborhood and steal food from their gardens. Lauren's dad sets up a neighborhood watch system to have people patrolling at night. Him and Cory argue over this, as she doesn't want him to get hurt out on patrols. March 29, 2025: The thieves returned to steal some of Richard Moss' rabbits, but they were scared off by two of the people out on patrol when they fired their guns. Cory and Lauren's dad argue again.

April 26, 2025: Lauren decides to call her religion Earthseed. June 7, 2025: Lauren assembles a survival pack for herself. Her father won't let her have a gun though. She asks him if he ever thinks about going north and he says no, since all of the states have armed and guarded borders, and tons of people everyday are also flooding north for the same opportunities. June 19, 2025: Tracy Dunn disappears. June 20, 2025: Lauren turns 16. She writes in her journal that "The Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars". July 26, 2025: Tracy hasn't been found. Another girl in the neighborhood, Bianca, is pregnant. August 2, 2025: The group goes out for target practice again. They find a mangled corpse this time, and Aura Moss decides she's done going shooting. Lauren's 12 year old brother Keith had begged to go with them, but was denied because he wasn't 15. While they were out, Keith ran away from the neighborhood. He took Cory's key to the gate with him. Lauren's dad is about to go out and look for him when they find him bloody and beat on the kitchen floor, having been robbed and the key also stolen from him. August 3, 2025: Keith is forced to confess his wrongdoing to the congregation that Sunday. August 17, 2025: Their parents bought Keith a new BB gun for his birthday to try and appease him and keep him in the neighborhood. This fails, as he leaves again, taking the gun with him. August 28, 2025: After days of searching and Cory being distraught, Keith comes home. He has clean new clothes this time, and his BB gun but their father destroys it before beating Keith up. October 25, 2025: Keith leaves again, this time taking Cory's gun. November 3, 2025: Keith returns with a wad of cash for Cory and chocolate for Gregory and Bennett while their father is out of the house. Then he leaves again, saying he's making a ton of money.

June 25, 2026: Keith comes home again. He actually sits and talks with Lauren while she makes him dinner. He tells her that he has a room with some guys who have a lot of stolen technology, but because he can read and write and they can't, he helps them to use it or sell it. He also reveals that he killed and robbed a man early on when he set out. July 20, 2026: On her way home from Curtis' house, on her 17th birthday, Keith finds her and gives her a wad of cash as a birthday present. Lauren says she'll give it to Cory. August 26, 2026: Lauren's parents go downtown to identify Keith's body. August 29, 2026: Keith's skin was peeled off and his eyes were burned out of his, showing signs of having been tortured for days. Lauren doesn't cry for him at all, saying he was sociopathic and he probably would have gotten worse as he aged. October 17, 2026: Another robbery occurred, this time into someone's house, which resulted in the Quintanilla's grandmother being killed. This marks the 7th break in since Keith died. October 20, 2026: A company called KSF buys a town called Olivar and turns it into a company town with armed guards, where all of the citizens are employees, not paid much but given housing and food. Cory wants to move there, but Lauren's dad says it's just modern day slavery and refuses to consider it. October 24, 2026: Joanne's family applies to move to Olivar. Lauren realizes the big invasion of people she thought was going to destroy the community is actually gonna be a slow dismantling as people try to find better lives. October 31, 2026: Lauren decides to go north to find a better life once she turns 18. November 14, 2026: The Garfield family is accepted to move to Olivar. Joanne's boyfriend/cousin Harry won't go with her. November 17, 2026: Lauren's father doesn't return from his job at the college that morning. November 18, 2026: Lauren and a few others go into the canyons where they usually practice shooting to search for her dad, dead or alive. They find a dismembered arm that could belong to her dad, but they aren't sure. November 22, 2026: Lauren's father is still missing. The fingerprints they took from the arm weren't his. December 19, 2026: The neighborhood holds a funeral for Lauren's father, even though they still don't know what happened to him. December 22, 2026: The Garfield family moves away to Olivar. They are collected in an armored truck with armored guards, employed by KSF. Cory talks to the guards about what it's like to live there, seriously considering the move now that Lauren's father is gone. Lauren meets with Curtis afterwards to have s*x. He wants to marry her, and she hesitates because he doesn't know about her hyperempathy syndrome yet, or Earthseed. He wants to leave and go north, and Lauren tells him they will after her family is settled into not having their father around. December 24, 2026: The night before someone set fire to the Payne-Parrish house. Wardell Parrish was the only survivor, his twin sister and her five children burning to death with the house. They suspect it was someone who took the drug Pyro, a pill that makes you need to watch things burn. While the neighborhood rushed to help Wardell and try to put out the fire, several houses were robbed, including Lauren's. December 29, 2026: Cory takes over Lauren's father's job at the college to make ends meet. Lauren begins to run the school in her absence. December 30, 2026: Wardell Parrish goes to live with family.

July 31, 2027: Bald people covered in paint and addicted to Pyro crash through the gate of the neighborhood and burn the place down, indiscriminately killing, r*ping, and looting. Lauren manages to escape. Lauren loses track of Cory and her brothers. Thankfully she has a gun and her emergency pack, and spends the night in a broken down shed. Lauren goes back to the neighborhood once it's daylight. No police or firefighters have come. She picks through the remains of her burned down house and salvages what she can, including money that was buried in the backyard. Richard Moss was killed, along with Harry's grandfather and little cousin, who had also been r*ped. She sees Curtis' brother's body, but not Curtis, and a handful of other people she had known her whole life, dead. She leaves the neighborhood, and manages to run into Harry, Joanne's ex-boyfriend, and Zahra, Richard Moss' youngest wife. Her daughter had been killed, and she claims to have seen Cory and Lauren's brothers killed as well. Zahra had been caught and someone tried to r*pe her before Harry saved her, which resulted in a concussion for him. Lauren takes them back to her shed to let Harry rest and so they can eat and decide what to do. August 1, 2027: Harry is on the mend, and Zahra reveals she was one of the street poor until she was 15 and her mother sold her to Richard Moss. The three of them agree to go north together as a group. August 2, 2027: Harry and Zahra gather supplies, and then begin their trek on foot up the 118 freeway. Only the right lane is free to traffic, the rest of the inner lanes being taken up by vendors and travelers. They eventually go off the highway and set up camp in a hill away from everyone. Lauren has cut her hair and is travelling as a man, since she is tall enough. People tried to join them at their fire, but they shooed or scared them all away. Harry is upset about this, but Zahra and Lauren insist that they can't trust anyone. Lauren takes the first watch and begins writing in her journal, and Zahra asks her to teach her to read and write. After her watch, Harry wakes up to replace her. Lauren wakes up a bit later to Harry being attacked. One man was already dead. She smashes the attacker over the head with a rock, which in turn disables her for a moment. When she realizes that the guy is still alive, she grabs a knife and slits his throat. They strip the bodies of clothes and possessions and drag the bodies down to some trees. She decides to tell them about her hyperempathy syndrome and gives them the choice to leave or stick with her. They both decide to stay, although Harry is wary of her after she so easily killed a man. She also opens up and shares verses from Earthseed with them. August 3, 2027: A large forest fire starts, and the group stays aware of it as they travel, worrying that it will jump the freeway. They find a spot to rest, but then eventually move when Harry finds a better one. Zahra and Harry have s*x that night, which wakes Lauren, and she scolds them for not keeping watch. August 4, 2027: The group stops at a commercial water station to fill up. Someone steals water from a woman with a baby, and Lauren trips him. She gives the water back to the woman and her husband. The couple stays near them on the road and camps near them as well. August 5, 2027: They come near the ocean and decide to camp down by the beach so they can bathe in the water. Lauren invites the family to come camp with them, but they don't accept, suspicious of the offer. That night, dogs came and tried to steal the family's baby, and Lauren goes over and shoots the dog. August 6, 2027: After making camp that night, the family finally decides to join their group, father Travis, mother Natividad, and baby Dominic. Travis and Natividad used to be servants for a rich man and his wife. They are heading up to Seattle, and agree to travel with Harry, Lauren, and Zahra. Lauren shares some Earthseed verses with them.

August 8, 2027: The group continues their journey by travelling up the beach. Lauren gradually converts the group to Earthseed, starting with Travis, who is immensely curious about it. August 27, 2027: An earthquake hit during their walk on the highway. Someone starts a fire in a town, and all the walkers begin to flock towards it to scavenge and burn and loot. The group continues on, coming across an older man pushing a cart. He walks along with them, wanting to get ahead of the desperate people looting and burning the town. Him and Lauren immediately connect over their Yoruba last names. As they walk, they hear screaming, and see a run down old house collapsed in on itself during the earthquake. Two women are trapped beneath, and the group works together to get them out. As they walk back to the highway, they are attacked. Lauren stabs her attacker, and three others are killed by Harry. They strip the dead men and Lauren changes clothes, and they continue on. Allie and Jill are the two women who they saved. Allie is aggressive, asking if they're a cult, but ultimately they agree to travel with them. Bankole, the older man, also agrees to travel with them. They stop at a store in a town they come across, and Bankole convinces them to invest in a rifle for hunting and long range shooting. August 28, 2027: The group has to change course due to riots and unrest in San Francisco, so they decide to go on I-5. August 29, 2027: That night they are all awoken by a gun fight on I-5 near their campsite. They all stay down till the shooting stops, and Lauren goes to find Bankole, who has disappeared. She finds him on his way back to camp with an orphaned three year old boy named Justin. They get him to settle down, and they all try to go back to sleep, Lauren kissing Bankole before they laid back down. Justin becomes attached to Allie, and she eventually takes charge of him on the road. Jill tells Lauren that they were s*x slaves, pimped out by their own father. Allie used to have a baby, but their father killed him in a drunken rage. They ran away, and burned his house down on the way out. August 30, 2027: The group makes it to the San Luis Reservoir. A lot of people are camped there but they find a place that's out of the way. Lauren and Bankole go off to talk. They debate about Earthseed some, and he tells her his wife died from robbers beating her five years ago. She manages to guess that he is a doctor. They have s*x, and she tells him she's 18 afterwards and he's appalled given that he's 57, but he admits he doesn't want to let her go. September 9, 2027: The group has continued their journey along I-5. During their walks, they saw a dog wandering with a child's arm in its mouth, and a group of children, one of them a pregnant girl, roasting someone's leg over a fire. Bankole reveals that he was travelling to get to some land that he owns where his sister and her family live. He tries to convince Lauren to marry him and leave the group, but she refuses, saying she'll only come with him if he agrees to take the whole group in. He relents, and before she agrees to marry him, she also tells him about her hyperempathy syndrome. He is surprised she managed to conceal it, and says he still wants to marry her. September 10, 2027: Two people, a woman and her daughter, snuck into camp last night and laid down on the ground and slept near them. When Lauren awoke and confronted them, they immediately curled up on the ground and said they would leave. Lauren offered to feed them, and the group convened about whether they should stay. They ultimately decide to keep them and move on. Lauren scolds Jill for not paying enough attention on watch. The mother's name is Emery, and her daughter is Tori. They were essentially slaves to a company and they were on the run, having escaped after Emery's two sons were sold away.

September 12, 2027: Tori attracted another little girl, Doe, on the road, and Doe's father Grayson. He very obviously doesn't want to travel with them, but he also doesn't want to separate Doe from her new friend, and he seems to connect with Emery. Lauren guesses that him and Doe are also former slaves. September 17, 2027: Tori and Doe go off with Emery to go to the bathroom. The group suddenly hears screaming, and Lauren and some of the others run over to see a big bald man trying to snatch Tori away from Emery. Emery is fighting back, and when he finally manages to shake her off Lauren shoots him. They get in a gun fight with the rest of the man's gang. Grayson grabs Doe and runs off. Lauren is skimmed by a bullet, and Jill is shot and killed while trying to shield Tori. When Lauren comes to from her wound and the pain of dying with those around her, she realizes that Emery, Tori, Grayson, and Doe all have hyperempathy as well, sharers as Lauren calls them. They move on, and Grayson agrees to stay with and protect the group. Allie is distraught over her sister's death, and Lauren comforts her. The group is overwhelmed by the smoke from a massive forest fire, but they manage to outrun it without any injuries. September 26, 2027: The group finally arrives at Bankole's land, only to find that the house has been burned down with his sister and her family inside. October 1, 2027: Bankole goes to the police to try to find out what happened to his sister, but all they do is harass him and steal his money. There's a well with fresh water, and the group ultimately decides to stay and build an Earthseed community.

[385bookreviews]

1.66.3 The Excalibur Curse by Kiersten White

SPOILERS

Pages: 345

Time Read: 5 hours and 37 minutes

Overall Rating: 3.5★ Storyline: 3.5★ Dialogue: 4★ Characters: 4★

Genre: YA Mythological Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, death, sexism/misogyny, multiple su*c*de attempts, colonization, war, su*c*dal thoughts, grief, toxic relationship, infidelity, xenophobia, self harm, blood, vomit, kidnapping, injury, gore, death of a parent, murder, gaslighting, abandonment, body horror, fire, animal death, s*xual harassment, child abuse

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The continent of England in the fictional city of Camelot

First Line: Once, not so long ago, Guinevere had ridden surrounded by armed soldiers and marveled at her power.

Guinevere (Nimue): Guinevere overall had a lot of great character development throughout this series. I really enjoyed her as a main character. I wasn't expecting her origin to be both from the Lady of the Lake AND the original Guinevere, so that was an unexpected and kind of dark twist. The fact that Guinevere lost her magic in the end, however, absolutely enraged me, I hate that trope so much.

Arthur: This book really made me not like Arthur I'm going to be honest. He made up for it and obviously had the excuse he was under Merlin's control, but the fact that he just went full colonizer rubbed me the wrong way.

Mordred: I'm so glad Guinevere didn't end up with Mordred, they had some chemistry but it just wasn't right. He also started to get on my nerves with his melodramatics.

Lancelot: I'm so annoyed that Lancelot was mostly absent from this book. Her and Guinevere had such good chemistry in The Guinevere Deception, and then it faded in The Camelot Betrayal, and I really feel like it should have come back stronger in this book.

Morgana (Morgan le Fay): Another thing that bothered me was really not getting much more of Morgana. She was such an interesting character with a lot of potential, but I feel like all of that potential was given to Mordred.

Storyline: I really did enjoy this book the most out of the three. It was entertaining and fast paced, and didn't have any side quests or what felt like filler episodes like most of The Camelot Betrayal did. However, this book went from a 4.5★ to a 3.5★ with that ending. Lancelot was set up to be a love interest in book one, the tension was gone in book two as her and Guinevere argued most of the time, and then she was largely absent from book three, with her and Guinevere never truly speaking and resolving the hurt feelings between them. And then when I think they will be together at the end (because Guinevere is connected to her and her alone by love and because she expresses wanting to kiss her in one of their shared dreams), Guinevere thinks to herself that her and Arthur can one day be properly husband and wife?? That really pissed me off because then she proceeds to hold hands with both Arthur and Lancelot. Was White going for a poly situation, because I don't think so? The other thing that really set me off was Guinevere losing her powers at the end. Sarah J Maas does this to her female characters and it makes me so angry every time, why can't they keep their powers and their magic? Why do they have to conform now that their power has served its usefulness. I also wish Merlin and Morgana were expanded upon as characters.

Representation: Brangien and Isolde are lesbians and in a relationship. Guinevere and Fina are bisexual, and it is implied that Lancelot also has romantic feelings towards Guinevere. It is implied in the second book that Sir Tristan is aroace, although I don't know if his connection with Nectudad was supposed to be interpreted as romantic or not near the end. Brangien is implied to be Asian, and Sir Tristan is black. Sir Bors has a withered arm.

Summary: Although I wasn't happy with the ending, I did really enjoy this trilogy. I know some complaints said it was slow, and plot wise it can be, but I found the characters engaging enough that I didn't even notice. Guinevere is one of my new favorite FMCs. I just wish the ending had been a bit clearer and her Lancelot were canon.

Complete Recap: Guinevere is in the clutches of Morgana, Mordred, and King Nechtan, who is being controlled by the Dark Queen. They are traveling north to bring her to the Dark Queen, as she has wanted her this entire time. They sleep during the day and travel at night. The first time they stop Mordred instructs her not to sleep, as the Dark Queen would be able to access her mind. As they ride that night however, Guinevere drifts off and meets Isolde in her dreamspace. She assures her that she is as safe as she can be, and gives her information about her location. Guinevere begins to get close with Fina, Nechtan's younger daughter and a warrior herself. They are attacked by another tribe, and Guinevere has a chance to escape, but Mordred and Fina are in danger, so she picks up a bow and arrow and defends them instead of running. In doing so, she realizes that she has the real Guinevere's muscle memory. Mordred warns Guinevere not to talk to Morgana, but Guinevere wants answers, so when they stop because of a storm, she goes to see her, Fina and Mordred following. Morgana tries to magically connect Guinevere to Merlin, first seeing where the emotion of passion leads her. Guinevere goes into Mordred's mind, where she feels his despair at having betrayed her and lost her trust. He tries to fight against Morgana to release Guinevere, but she restrains him with roots. When Guinevere comes back to herself, she insists they try again, and Morgana tries family. Guinevere splits off into three, first seeing Brangien scolding Ailith in the kitchen for being too concerned about the magic shield around the city. She sees where Guinevere left her crown on Arthur's bed and moves it before Arthur can return and see it. She then goes to Lily, who is visiting with the common people of Camelot with Isolde. The last person she sees for family is Dindrane. She is meeting with her stepson, Lionel, and she is instructing him to guard Princess Lily, hoping that she can make a match out of the two of them. Morgana is frustrated and argues with Fina and Mordred. Finally, she tries duty, but instead of taking her to Merlin, it takes her to Arthur. He is standing in the aftermath of a battle. He tried to come and get his son, but it was a trick and a lie that he was still alive, and him and his knights were ambushed instead. He suspects Guinevere to be in danger, but decides to prioritize Camelot, and take over the entire island, starting with the south.

The strength of the magic causes Guinevere to stop breathing, but Mordred revives her. Nechtan and Nectudad, his eldest daughter, are there, and Morgana is telling him Arthur's location and what he is doing. Fina takes Guinevere back to her tent and they get drunk, realizing too late the wine Fina stole from Morgana is actually the truth potion. They end up spilling all of their secrets, Guinevere sharing that she is a changeling and can do magic, and that she has feelings for both Mordred and Arthur, and Fina sharing she does not agree with her father listening to the Dark Queen and that she will help Guinevere escape. Mordred comes in, and Guinevere questions whether or not she can trust him, so he drinks some of the truth potion as well. He tells her that he was coming to Camelot to warn her, not take her, but he was tricked by Morgana. He realized after he raised her that the Dark Queen has been corrupted from being incorporeal for so long, and that's why he had been trying to save the wolves in the forest before Guinevere burned them. He tells her he plans to get her out and away from the Dark Queen. That night, when she dreams, Lancelot is there, but so is Mordred. They fight, and Guinevere is annoyed that they are paying her no mind. Mordred instructs Lancelot on how to beat him and discloses their location and information about Nechtan's forces. Guinevere wanders around the forest they are located in in her mind, and stumbles upon what looks to be herself but with brown eyes, floating dead in a pond. She runs back to Mordred and Lancelot, and he tells her not to explore her own mind like that as it can hurt her to force memories of her past. The next morning, without consulting Mordred, Fina retrieves Guinevere's pouch from Morgana's tent, and gives it to her along with clothes. She says she will leave her least favorite guard to watch her and then distract her father, sister, Morgana, and Mordred. Guinevere promises to get word to Arthur as soon as possible that she is safe so that way he does not come and attack Fina and her people. When she is gone, Guinevere changes and uses a knot to command the guard to take a horse and ride south, to trick them into thinking it is her. She then travels northwest on foot, planning on cutting down south to Camelot once she is far enough away. But not before she gets the answers she's looking for.

On her way, she comes across a group of people, adults and children, wounded. They tell her it was the Saxons, and she uses her cloak to bind wounds and her magic to burn away infections. They give her food and point her in the direction of a lake. She goes, and despite her fear, walks in. She slips and begins to drown, but Mordred saves her, bringing her to a cave and laying with her for warmth. She says she was trying to summon the Lady of the Lake, but Mordred tells her that was foolish because she is not an omnipresent being, and is usually just around Camelot. When they enter her dreams again, Lancelot is there ready to fight Mordred. Guinevere tells Lancelot to tell Arthur he doesn't need to march north. When Lancelot leaves to return to her post, Guinevere asks Mordred to kiss her. He refuses, since he doesn't want her to just kiss him in the dream and then ignore him in real life. They both wake, and she kisses him and they are together. In the morning, they talk about leaving Camelot and the Dark Queen behind, living just the two of them, free. Mordred takes them to a nearby forest and tells her he fell in love with her the second day of knowing her. Guinevere realizes she doesn't have a moment she fell in love with Mordred because she isn't in love with him. Morgana possesses Mordred, and does the connection magic to her again, this time using the word love. This connects her to Lancelot. She waits by a fire by the secret passage, and fans the flames as she sees Arthur off in the distance. He comes to meet her, and Lancelot explains everything that has happened, readying herself for Arthur to break the barrier and to go fetch Guinevere. Arthur refuses, still set on taking the north as well, and tells Lancelot she cannot leave Camelot because the magical barrier must remain. Lancelot is enraged, but complies. Guinevere wakes up back in her own body, Mordred asleep next to her. She realizes she needs to warn Lancelot that Morgana has just seen all of Arthur's plans, and goes to sleep so she can meet her and Mordred in her dream. They argue about what to do, Lancelot wanting to leave Camelot but also not wanting to break her vows to Arthur. Guinevere gets overwhelmed and walks through the forest alone. She comes upon the pond again, and this time, throws herself into it. Suddenly, she is experiencing the Lady of the Lake's memories again. She sees the Lady, Nimue, split herself in two, creating Nynaeve the one who trapped Merlin in the cave. She feels Nimue longing for a human life. Then she is experiencing the real Guinevere's memories, of her childhood, her father, her sister, and being sent to the convent. When the real Guinevere was at the convent, she would go out into the woods and shoot. When she went to follow an arrow, she discovered a lake. She cries at the lake, and the next night, her path is illuminated by lights. There is a boat there, and she gets in and rides it to the middle of the lake. She sees her reflection, once again having brown eyes. Then her reflection changes to a strong and confident version of herself, standing with Arthur, her eyes now an ever changing blue like the current Guinevere's. Merlin meets her on the shore, disguised as an old woman. He tells her that the man she saw is Arthur, and asks if she wants to become the person she needs to be to be his wife. She agrees, and for seven days, Merlin tasks her with things. She lays still on the forest floor to attract a doe to her before killing it, and lets Merlin trace knots into her skin with the blood. He then leads her into a cave, strips her, and submerges her into the water. She realizes too late she's been deceived, and Nimue drowns her, meaning to possess her. When the Guinevere comes to, Merlin is examining her, realizing that Nimue and the old Guinevere have both disappeared and yet also combined to create something new. Merlin alters and erases her memories, and tells her she will be queen of Camelot anyways like Nimue requested.

Guinevere comes back to her dream, no longer in a forest but floating in a void, despairing and distraught. Mordred and Lancelot try to comfort her, but she insists she is an abomination possessing the real Guinevere, that she is not real, and that she needs to get out of her body so the real Guinevere can have her life back. Lancelot says she is leaving despite Arthur's orders, and instructs Mordred to meet her at the coast. She comes out of the dream before Mordred does, and quickly throws a sleeping knot on him before he can wake. She steals his horse and rides back to Nechtan's camp, seeking Morgana. Mordred catches up with her right as she arrives, and makes it appear as though he had caught her and brought her back. Morgana knows this is a lie, but she covers it up anyways. Guinevere tells them that she has failed and Arthur is coming anyways, and Nectudad worries about Saxon invaders in the north. She takes most of their force and Mordred to fight the Saxons. Guinevere meets with Morgana alone, telling her what was done and begging her to bring the real Guinevere back. Morgana tells her only the Dark Queen can do that, so Guinevere agrees to go with them to the Dark Queen. They arrive at the Green Man's chapel to find a magical forest, teeming with life. The Dark Queen, merely an amalgamation of beetles and moths, sits on a tree throne, rotting the ground beneath her. Guinevere shows her memories to the Dark Queen, and she thanks her for showing her, and then says that she will expel Guinevere from her body, but only in order for her to possess the body, not for the real Guinevere to be free. Just in time, Arthur sweeps through the forest and kills Morgana with Excalibur. The Dark Queen runs away. When they leave the forest, Nechtan is dead, and a soldier is about to kill Fina when Guinevere stops them. She falls asleep, and upon waking, frees Fina from her bonds and brings her to her tent. Her and Arthur argue about several things, including her bringing the real Guinevere back, Mordred's loyalties, and whether or not he should fight Nectudad. Ultimately it is decided that Fina will come to Camelot to be one of Guinevere's knights, and Arthur will leave men under Sir Tristan's watch up there in the north. Brangien meets with Guinevere in a dream and tells her that Lancelot has been imprisoned for trying to leave the city, and they argue about this as well. Eventually Arthur uses Lancelot as a threat: either Guinevere stays as she is and Lancelot is pardoned when they return, or Guinevere tries to unmake herself and Lancelot is tried for treason. He also tells her that King Leodegrance, her and Lily's father, is dead.

They arrive back in Camelot, and Guinevere and Arthur hand in hand step through the barrier and free the city. On the ferry crossing of the lake, the boat is obliterated, and Nynaeve tries to drag Guinevere under. Arthur unsheathes Excalibur to send her away, and Fina saves a drowning Guinevere. They make it to shore and Arthur reassures his people, Brangien rushing to help Guinevere. Back in her rooms, she is surrounded by Lily, Dindrane, Isolde, Fina, and Brangien. Arthur comes to get her to speak with her privately, and she demands to know where Lancelot is. He says he freed her, but as punishment he sent her north to help Sir Tristan. Guinevere is enraged, but there is nothing she can do about it. Guinevere goes about trying to start a new fashion trend of covered wrists yet exposed arms in Camelot. Lily comes in and says that Arthur is having a meeting with Sir Bors and Lionel. Guinevere is once again angry, knowing what the meeting is about, and brings Dindrane and Lily with her to go interrupt it. She tells Arthur that he will be making big decisions like this with her, and with the women that the decisions affect. They then tell Lily that her father is dead, but she is not upset. She says that her brothers should not rule Cameliard, and Arthur agrees. Him and Guinevere say they want Lily to rule, but in order to be respected she will need to marry. They suggest Lionel, and Dindrane and Sir Bors can go with her to help. Everyone agrees. After the meeting, Guinevere tells Lily the truth about her identity. Lily isn't angry, and agrees to support her in whatever decision she makes about bringing the old Guinevere back. Guinevere convinces Arthur a council of women need to be in charge of certain things like divorce. She tells Arthur that Dindrane has been housing Blanchefleur because Sir Percival beats her and cheats on her.

After spending the day with her friends, Guinevere tries to use Excalibur to unmake herself. She fails, and spends the night with Arthur, as Brangien will no longer allow her to be alone. A messenger comes to Camelot from the north, bearing a letter from Sir Tristan and Nectudad both. They say the Dark Queen has begun to infect people, including Arthur's host, and they are coming south with the Dark Queen's army behind them. They ask Arthur to meet them at the forest without his men but with Excalibur. Mordred contacts Guinevere in her dreams. He tries to lie to her, saying everything he did was to manipulate her, but she sees right through it. He warns her that he is about to be possessed by the Dark Queen and begs her to stay with Arthur. Guinevere runs to tell Arthur, saying they need to save him, but he refuses to do anything to help Mordred. Guinevere wants to free Merlin, but Arthur refuses that as well, saying Merlin told him to allow him to stay imprisoned in the cave. That night, she tries to sneak out and leave the city but Brangien catches her, so she resolves just to go outside. She is startled by Lancelot, who has climbed up the castle wall. Fina and Isolde reveal themselves as well, and they formulate a plan to deceive Arthur and free Merlin. Guinevere also requests Lily's help. The next day, at the tournament where Fina and Lionel are to be knighted, Fina demands to fight Lancelot. Instead of following the rules, she knocks Lancelot out with a blow to the head. Fina and Sir Gawain carry Lancelot back to her rooms, and Lily begs Arthur to stay at the tournament so Lionel can be knighted and they can be married. When they arrive, Fina, Lancelot, and Guinevere prepare to leave, Brangien being sent away to get help, thinking Lancelot to be truly injured. Isolde steals Excalibur from Arthur's rooms, not having taken it with him so as not to make Guinevere sick. Lancelot, Fina, and Guinevere go to the alcove where she hid Lily once, and they jump down the hole and into the water below. Nynaeve immediately attacks them, but Guinevere is able to control the water and Nynaeve. She tells her Nimue isn't coming back even though she tried. Nynaeve ushers them on a current out to the shore, and begs Lancelot to unmake her with Excalibur. Guinevere tells her that if she keeps the Dark Queen out of Camelot, she will unmake her upon her return. Nynaeve agrees.

Sir Tristan, Nectudad, and ten soldiers, both from Camelot and from the north, come out of the woods. Arthur's soldiers begin to rush to meet them. Guinevere makes them all step in the lake to prove they're not infected, and they all do except one soldier. She is infected, and tries to infect Sir Tristan, but he dives under the water, and Nynaeve drowns the infected soldier. Sir Tristan stays with two men, one northern and one from Camelot, to greet Arthur's approaching forces, while Guinevere, Lancelot, Fina, Nectudad, and the rest of the soldiers go to free Merlin. Guinevere uses her own magic to age the stone, and then Lancelot uses Excalibur to break it open. Just then, a possessed Mordred comes out of the woods, with an army of possessed people behind him. They choose to fight instead of submit. Lancelot gives Guinevere Excalibur and tells her to go find Merlin. They then begin fighting, alongside Arthur who also appears. She runs into the cave, but is stopped by the Dark Queen. She tries to convince Guinevere to join her, but she uses a knot to trap her in place. Merlin comes around the corner, delighted that things are happening that he has not foreseen. He commands Guinevere to give him Excalibur. She pushes all her memories and sorrow and pain and guilt into Merlin to try to humanize him, but it doesn't work. He talks with her, putting her under his sway with his words, but when she touches Excalibur, it clears her mind, and she kills both the Dark Queen and Merlin. Excalibur begins to unmake Guinevere as well, but Lancelot and Arthur save her. She awakes to find all the possessed people free from the Dark Queen's influence, including Mordred. She also finds that her magic is gone. Arthur apologizes to Guinevere, realizing now that Merlin is dead that he was under his magic sway all along. Mordred apologizes to Arthur, and he forgives him, but tells him he can't stay. Mordred decides to go to Avalon, where Rhoslyn is. He gives Guinevere one last kiss and leaves. Nectudad and Arthur make an alliance. Some of the northerners stay in Camelot, including Fina, who really does want to be a knight, and Sir Tristan and some of the men from Camelot choose to go north. Arthur gives Nectudad his blessing to unite the tribes. Lionel and Fina are knighted, and Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot burn Merlin's body together.

[385bookreviews]

1.66.2 The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White

SPOILERS

Pages: 368

Time Read: 6 hours and 8 minutes

Overall Rating: 3.5★ Storyline: 3.5★ Dialogue: 4★ Characters: 4★

Genre: YA Mythological Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, death, blood, murder, kidnapping, misogyny/sexism, mentions of r*pe, fire, physical/domestic abuse, injury, deadnaming, gaslighting, abandonment, emotional abuse, su*c*dal thoughts, confinement, animal cruelty, alcohol, self harm

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The fictional city of Camelot

First Line: Guinevere's room was dark, night more a cloak than the bed curtains she never drew.

Guinevere: You really feel bad for Guinevere this whole book, as the weight of not knowing who she is really hits her, and everytime she tries to do something good, bad things happen as a result. Her conflicted feelings about Mordred and Arthur's conflicted feelings about her, on top of hurting both Lily and Lancelot's feelings, and her guilt over Hild and the dragon, really compound on each other to make her story a lot more tragic than you thought in the first book. The only thing that really aggravates me about her is her touch magic, she touches people like Morgana and Mordred, and yet things still get past her. I know there still needed to be surprises and betrayals and that's hard to do when you have a character with that kind of ability, but it was still frustrating.

Morgana (Morgan le Fay): I am so interested to see what her deal is and what her true intentions are, because she is definitely not what she was portrayed to be for almost two entire books.

Lancelot: I feel like Guinevere and Lancelot had a lot more romantic tension in the first book that I was expecting to increase in this one, but instead it kind of fizzled out and we were back to Mordred vs Arthur.

Storyline: This book lost a half star from the first one for me because most of this book felt like filler content for the actual plot. Don't get me wrong, I definitely still enjoyed it, and all of the events we experienced definitely helped to further develop Guinevere's character, along with everyone else (although Arthur still feels a bit flat). But you were definitely still left wondering the whole book what is actually going on, without getting any real, concrete answers about much of anything.

Representation: Brangien and Isolde are lesbians and in a relationship. I said in my post for the first book that based off fan art and my understanding of her appearance, Brangien is POC, and upon reading this book, if I'm reading correctly, I believe she is intended to be East or South Asian. Tristan is the only black character in the book, and it is implied that he is aroace. Sir Bors has a withered arm.

Summary: I am enjoying this book series so far, it definitely is very YA but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's an easy read and I'm excited to finally get some answers in the last book as honestly I'm not sure what the deal is. I thought for sure that Guinevere must be the daughter of the Lady of the Lake, I had put that together after the scene in the first book when Merlin gets shut in the cave, but now Guinevere might have been the real Guinevere all along? Also, this might just be me so if anyone has any insight into this I would really appreciate it, but these books kind of take a strange pro-industrialization stance? Obviously they are not in any kind of industrial era during this time, but it seems to me the side of "good" and "humanity" is one without magic and nature, and "good" characters like Arthur don't seem to think there can be any kind of coexistence. There is definitely some nuance, but I'm hoping the third book will really round that out and the conclusion isn't just "magic is gone forever, the end". That will be very disappointing.

Complete Recap: Guinevere experiences someone else's dream. She isn't supposed to be able to dream because she is sacrificing them so Brangien can see Isolde. Troubled, she goes to Arthur for comfort. Since it is harvest time, she has taken up the duty of ensuring things are prepared for winter. Her and Lancelot ride the perimeters of the land, not only to be thorough but also to check for the Dark Queen's magic encroaching on their land. She finds a wild forest growing where it shouldn't have been, and uses an iron knot of magic to infect the soil and stop it from being able to grow further and destroy their fields. Sir Tristan goes and retrieves Arthur, and they burn the forest down and send Guinevere and Lancelot home, which frustrates her, but she can't stay because being in the presence of Excalibur will hurt her. She goes home to meet with Sir Gawain to check the silos of grain, and then begins her walk home with Brangien. They discuss Dindrane's upcoming marriage to Sir Bors, and how they will have to travel to her father's manor for the wedding. She also tells Brangien she will have to take her dreams back so she can figure out what's going on. They go and meet with Dindrane for several hours to discuss wedding plans, and then go home, where Brangien prepares to have one final dream with Isolde before Guinevere takes her dreams back. Guinevere decides not to sleep, fearing the dreams to be from the Dark Queen, and goes outside, only to find Lancelot on guard. They sit together, and she uses magic to see that Arthur has beat back the forest, but she is sickened upon viewing Excalibur.

The next morning she goes to meet Arthur upon his return, and he jumps in the lake and swims with his knights, starting up a cheer for Guinevere for discovering the threat. She goes to view the knights in training at the arena later, mostly to help have a distraction for Brangien so she won't just be mourning the loss of her dreams with Isolde. She notices that Lancelot is apart from the other knights, and that one of the new aspirants won't listen to her because she is a woman. The other knights reject the newcomer for disrespecting Lancelot. On their way back to the castle, a pretty blonde girl with freckles like Guinevere runs up and hugs her, calling her sister. Guinevere is confused until she realizes that the real Guinevere, the one who died had a younger sister named Guinevach, and that this must be her. She feigns sickness and quickly excuses herself, as she knows nothing of the real Guinevere's past. When she gets to her rooms, she calls for Lancelot and Arthur, both who appear. She immediately thinks that the Dark Queen must be behind Guinevach's sudden appearance. Arthur is more of the mind that it really is the real Guinevere's sister, and that Merlin changed Guinevere's shape somehow to make her look identical to dead Guinevere. Guinevere and Lancelot set up more magical protections around Camelot, making sure to also cover the back of the mountain the castle is on so they won't be caught off guard from behind. Lancelot suggests to Guinevere that the dreams might be coming from the Lady of the Lake, and further, that she might not have sealed away Merlin because he took Excalibur, but because he took Guinevere from her. Guinevere then begins to wonder if she is the daughter of the Lady, and that Merlin made her so afraid of water so that she would never find her. Arthur goes to dinner and unsheathes Excalibur around Guinevach, but she has no reaction. This does nothing to assuage Guinevere's fears though, and after deciding to scout the southern lands and place more magic, Arthur and Guinevere make plans to leave early for the wedding and send Guinevach home.

Guinevere and Lancelot go to the southern border, and Guinevere sets up magic that will kill anyone with intents to harm her that try to cross into the land. Lancelot swims down the river to place the magic rock on an island in the middle of the river, but Guinevere begins to regret it and tries to go after her. She is stopped by wolves possessed by the Dark Queen. Guinevere begs them to leave her alone, but when they don't, she is forced to use fire magic and burn them to death. She begins to return back to where Lancelot had left her, and bumps into Mordred. He is sad the wolves have been killed, saying he was there to try and cure them of the Dark Queen's influence. She crosses the line of her magic, and tells him about it, as she doesn't want to see him killed. He steps forward anyways, saying he means her no harm, and nothing happens. She tells him to go away and he does and she returns to Lancelot. She meets with Arthur upon her return, and she tells him about the wolves and the magic but not Mordred. Upon returning back to the castle, Guinevach tries to see her again, but Guinevere rejects her, telling her she is too busy and that she needs to return to Cameliard. Guinevach is angry and distraught and runs off. They leave the next day for the wedding, planning on meeting up with the rest of the wedding party on the road. They camp in the woods, and Guinevere awakes in the middle of the night. She is talking with Lancelot when they sense someone in the woods. Guinevere and Lancelot subtly wake everyone and they jump up ready for a fight, but the man recognizes Lancelot and scurries off. While traveling the next day, Brangien, who was supposed to be with the rest of the wedding party, comes riding frantically on her horse to catch up with them. She tells them that King Mark won't be at Dindrane's wedding because he is putting his wife, Isolde, on trial for witchcraft. She is frantic, thinking Isolde probably tried to do magic to see Brangien in her dreams without Guinevere's help and was caught. Arthur is confused, because he thought Tristan was in love with Isolde. Tristan and Brangien explain that Brangien was Isolde's handmaid, and they were in love. Tristan was his uncle King Mark's knight, and he was tasked with finding King Mark a new wife. He found Isolde and arranged the marriage, but he also discovered Brangien's secret plan to make Tristan and Isolde fall in love and then pretend to be dead using a potion so that Isolde could move on and be happy. Tristan convinces her otherwise, but they are spied upon and King Mark tried to have them executed. Isolde begs mercy and they were banished, and fled to Camelot for safety. Guinevere begs Arthur to allow her, Lancelot, Tristan, and Brangien to go on a quest to save Isolde, and he agrees, as long as they are at Dindrane's father's manor in time for the wedding. They agree, and rush to the coast to catch a ship. They find a girl named Hild who speaks enough English to understand them and agrees to ferry them down to King Mark's castle. Guinevere gets on the ship but is overcome by panic, and Brangien puts her to sleep for the two day journey.

When they arrive, Guinevere notices that the dragon she saved from Sir Bors is nearby. They plan for Guinevere to go in pretending to be a servant, go to Isolde, give her a potion that will make her appear dead, and then they will hide down by where King Mark's former wives are interred in the cliff by the sea and steal her. Lancelot doesn't like this plan, but Brangien could be recognized, so she goes in alone. She gets lost immediately, and when a guard stops her, she begins wailing about it being her first day and being lost. He leads her back to the kitchens, and she subtly follows where he's going. He spits vehemently on the floor outside of a door, and she assumes that's where Isolde is and uses magic to get in. Isolde begins to panic upon seeing her, but Guinevere shows her a flower Brangien gave her as a sign that she is there to help. Guinevere gets the bars off the window and tells Isolde to jump into the tree, but before she can, King Mark barges in. Isolde jumps anyways, and King Mark begins to choke Guinevere to death. She uses her touch magic to force her way into King Mark's mind in a blind panic, and he releases her, but she erased his entire mind in the process. In order to cover her tracks she lights the castle on fire, and then drags King Mark out and begins wailing about Isolde being dead after lighting herself on fire and trying to kill King Mark. She manages to make it out of the castle and get Isolde from the tree, and they run to meet the others. Brangien and Isolde have an emotional reunion, but Lancelot is aghast at Guinevere's injuries and worried that Arthur will dismiss her for allowing Guinevere to get hurt. They go back to Hild, and she says that she will take them closer to where it is they need to be, but asks them to meet with her brother and his men to ask if they want to work for King Arthur. Brangien puts her to sleep for the journey on the ship, and when they arrive, Guinevere cuts the connection to the dragon, as she only kept it to lead him away from King Mark's burning castle so they wouldn't think that he had burned the castle and try to hunt him down. They go to meet with Hild's brothers and his men, but the ringleader, Ramm decides to hold Guinevere at ransom. Lancelot tries to fight, but they are outnumbered, so Guinevere tells them to go away and where to meet her, and they leave. Once alone in a shack, she uses the dragon tooth to summon the dragon again. Hild comes in and begs her forgiveness, saying she didn't know Ramm would be with them. Guinevere forgives her and tries to convince Hild to leave with her. Hild tentatively agrees, but when the dragon attacks, she runs to try and save her brother. Guinevere hops on the dragon's back, and they escape until the dragon's leg gives out from a spear. She uses her magic to communicate with the dragon, and he only came because he thought she would go to sleep with him that last winter. She gives him back the tooth and runs away, but succumbs to her injuries and passes out.

When she awakes, she thinks she is still dreaming when she finds Mordred fixing her dislocated shoulder and tending to her wounds. Since she thinks it is one of the dream she has about him, she begs him to kiss her, but he refuses, and tells her she is not like Merlin when she begins to lament about the dragon. He lights a signal fire for Lancelot and then leaves. Lancelot finds her, and when she comes to she realizes that Mordred wasn't a dream, but she once again doesn't say anything about him to Lancelot. They meet up with Arthur and his men again. He wants to make camp immediately to learn what has happened to Guinevere, but Guinevere insists they continue the hour to Dindrane's father's manor, as the wedding party has already arrived. Upon arrival, Dindrane is angry with Guinevere for leaving early and leaving her alone to deal with Blanchefleur. Guinevere is apologetic, and tells Dindrane that she can wear her jewels to the wedding and that she will sing her praises to her family to make them jealous. Dindrane drags off Brangien and Isolde, who is now posing as one of Guinevere's lady's maids. Alone in their rooms, Guinevere tells Arthur the truth of her adventure, minus Mordred. Arthur is angry with her for her actions, and points out that any time anything happens to a man in King Mark's kingdom, their women will be accused of witchcraft. He leaves to deal with something, but then when he comes to bed that night he is no longer angry and tries to comfort her. The next day, Guinevere spends time sewing with the women of Dindrane's family. They are very judgemental, so Guinevere spins a story about Mordred and Sir Bors battling for their chance at Dindrane's hand, and Mordred losing is what caused him to be banished from the kingdom.

That night, Guinevere dreams of Mordred again. When she wakes up next to Arthur, who is also still awake, she kisses him, but he doesn't kiss her back. She is mortified, and asks him why. He says that she is his best friend, and that he doesn't want to rush anything. He also is afraid of being like that with anyone because his mother died in childbirth, and his former love Elaine did as well, along with his son. He does kiss her finally, and Guinevere decides to be patient for his sake. Dindrane is married, and Arthur puts more effort into paying attention to Guinevere. When he inevitably does have to leave her to talk with the men, she dances with Dindrane and Brangien. Arthur says they will leave for home the next day. Arthur, however, ends up having to stay there with his knights to talk alliances with people, so he sends Guinevere home. When she arrives in Camelot, however, she is shocked to see that Guinevach is still there. She instructs Dindrane to spy on Guinevach and get as much information as she can from her, and to have Lancelot question her lady's maids and Sir Gawain to discover why she did not leave the city as instructed. Since Arthur is away, she rules in his place, holding meetings about the harvest festival and land and other mundane things. Guinevach interrupts the meeting, forcing Guinevere to announce her as her sister. Guinevach declares that everyone can call her Princess Lily, and seemingly tries to undermine Guinevere during the meeting. After the meeting, Lancelot and Guinevere go to try and search her rooms but are caught by her lady's maid, Anna. Anna is friendly, and Guinevere's touch magic doesn't reveal anything insidious. Guinevere has another dream that night of the Lady of the Lake, this time in embrace with the Dark Queen. When she wakes, Lancelot asks if she is alright. She says yes, and says she dreamed of the Lady again, back from when Camelot was new. Lancelot says that the Lady made Camelot, and Guinevere is shocked, as no one new where Camelot had came from or who built it. Lancelot then confesses that when she was an orphan, the Lady of the Lake saved her and gave her food, helping her get strong so she could kill Uther Pendragon. When she finally went to do it though, the Lady revealed that Arthur had already pulled Excalibur, and instructed Lancelot to return her kindness. Lancelot assumed this meant serving King Arthur, and then, when they met, Guinevere. Later, Brangien theorizes that since the Lady made Camelot, Guinevere's touch magic could be pulling the Lady's memories from the stone itself. Guinevach tries to see Guinevere but Brangien rejects her. Guinevere prepares to go and hold another meeting, but when she arrives, she finds Guinevach already has held the meeting and resolved everything to do with the harvest festival. Angry, she goes to sit beyond the lake and wait for Arthur to come home.

She goes to the combat arena to see Lancelot train, but when she arrives, Guinevach is also there, sitting in Brangien's spot. She tries to remind her of things their father used to say, criticizes how close Lancelot is to Guinevere, and tries to get her to shoot a bow and arrow with her, claiming Guinevere is very good at it and wanting her to teach her. Guinevere takes all of this as Guinevach trying to reveal her as an imposter, and she refuses to give her a lesson. Arthur appears and decides to humor Guinevach, and then escorts her to a play while Guinevere follows with Anna, angry. Arthur tries to convince Guinevere that Guinevach really might be just the real Guinevere's sister, acting like the fifteen year old she is, but Guinevere is still convinced something is amiss. She goes to sit outside, but Anna is in the alcove she usually went to with Mordred. Anna suggest Guinevere talk to someone older and wiser about her problems, so her and Lancelot go to see Rhoslyn the next day at her village. When they arrive, however, they find her and her girls frantically packing. They say they've been threatened by the men nearby. They have until nightfall to leave, but the men attack sooner. Guinevere helps shield the children while Lancelot and the others fight, but then Mordred appears to also help in the fight. Afterwards, Mordred tries to question her about their last encounter and about why she did not tell Arthur about encountering him, but she walks away. Ailith, a girl at the camp, asks Guinevere if she will allow her to come back to Camelot with her so she can be with her lover. Since she was banished for magic when she was a child, Guinevere just brings her back on the ferry, not bothering to disguise her in any way. She finally decides to confront Guinevach. She holds her hand to ensure she is telling the truth, and asks her why she is pretending to know her. Guinevach breaks down, revealing that she really is Guinevere's sister, and that she ran away from home to come to Camelot, and she is angry with Guinevere for not coming back for her like she promised and trying to send her back to their abusive father. She says she only undermined Guinevere to try and prove her usefulness and has been trying to marry one of the knights so that way she never has to leave. Guinevere is appalled with herself and apologizes profusely to Guinevach, who truly wants to be called Lily. She tells her that something happened while she was at the convent that erased most of her memory.

The harvest festival finally arrives, and Arthur teases Guinevere for her paranoia about Lily. Anna keeps her company as Arthur goes off to do the farming tournaments, starting a strange conversation, wondering what would happen if she left, and if she truly belongs there. Guinevere internalizes the sentiment and begins to wonder about such things herself. She goes back to the castle to change, and then her and Lily return to the festival and watch the knights compete in the games. Lily stays to watch Sir Gawain, and Anna brings Guinevere some spiced wine and leads her to a bench, Lancelot standing out of earshot to be respectful. Ailith comes up to them to say hello to Guinevere and show her a chicken she caught, and then addresses Anna as Morgana. Before Guinevere can process, the wine making her feel strange, Anna, who has actually been Morgan le Fay the whole time, presses a knife to her. The wine was a potion to make Guinevere tell the truth. She asks Guinevere what she is, and she tells her immediately that she is a changeling, that the real Guinevere died. Morgana tells her that she is the real Guinevere, because no magic to alter memory has touched Lily. Guinevere asks if she is there to kill Arthur because she tried to kill him when he was a baby, but Morgana tells her that is a lie and tells her the true story. Her and Arthur's mother Igraine discovered that Morgana was pregnant with the Green Knight's child, and she arranges to have Morgana sent up north and then come back years later a "widow" to explain the presence of the child. Morgana didn't go north though, she went into the woods and lived with the Dark Queen and the Green Knight. She gained magic while there, and when Mordred was old enough, she was about to leave to go back to her mother when the Dark Queen warned she was too late. She used her magic to see Uther and Merlin conspiring to change his shape so he could sleep with her without her knowing. Merlin prevented her from seeing the future of Arthur and everyone else, so she left to find Arthur to make sure he didn't end up in Merlin's clutches. But she was too late for that as well, and Arthur was lost to Sir Ector and Sir Kay. After she finished telling her story, Morgana tries to convince Guinevere to leave with her, but Arthur begins to walk up, so Morgana promises to tell Guinevere the truth if she finds her. After Morgana walks away, Guinevere is momentarily too stunned to speak, but finally manages to tell Arthur that Morgana was there. Him and his knights immediately go after them, and Lancelot escorts Guinevere and Lily back to the castle. When the sisters arrive at the hallway before Lily's rooms, however, they find a man standing there. He says he is Hild's brother, and that she is dead, so he says he has to kill Lily to make it even. Guinevere and Lily run, and Guinevere hides her in a secret chamber beyond a pillar on the outside of the castle. The man comes to try and kill her, but Lancelot kills him first. Guinevere pulls Lily out of the chamber before swinging in herself, staring down at the hole in the floor and hearing the rushing water beneath it. She contemplates throwing herself down the hole, like the Lady of the Lake did in her memories. Lancelot stops her.

Arthur and Guinevere fight over Mordred and Morgana's intentions, but come to know solid conclusion. Arthur returns to the harvest festival on Guinevere's instructions, and her and Lancelot remedy the awkwardness that has been between them. The next morning Arthur takes her to a secret herb garden at the top of the mountain for a picnic, and he tells her he's ready for them to make things work in an actual relationship, but leaves before she can answer him so that way she has time to think. At dinner later, she is about to give him an answer, when he receives a letter that the his and Elaine's son who he thought was dead is actually alive. He gathers his knights and leaves Camelot immediately. At first Guinevere is happy for him, but then when she thinks about it, she realizes that the only people that knew about Elaine's baby were her, Arthur, Malegeant, and Mordred. She realizes the letter must be a trick to make Arthur leave Camelot. She sends pages after him, and, in order to protect the granaries, leads Lancelot out of the secret tunnel in and out of the castle and uses both of their blood to make a shield protecting the city. Lancelot tries to usher her back inside, but Guinevere deceived her. Lancelot needs to stay inside the city, and Guinevere outside of it, or the barrier breaks. Lancelot begs her not to do this, but she does, turning to leave to go free Merlin and demand answers of him. Mordred rides up instead, and tells her that the note to Arthur about his son was not his doing, but rather Malegeant's men. He takes her to an approaching army of Picts, led by King Nechtan, who is clearly under the control of the Dark Queen. Morgana also meets up with them, and since they have Guinevere, which is what the Dark Queen wanted, they turn around and leave.

[385bookreviews]

1.66.1 The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

SPOILERS

Pages: 337

Time Read: 5 hours and 58 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4★

Genre: YA Fantasy Mythology

TWs for the book: Blood, kidnapping, violence, death, injury, sexism/misogyny, animal death, self harm, gore, murder, fire, abandonment, s*xual harassment, war, mentions of s*xual violence, vomit, religious bigotry, alcohol, gaslighting, infidelity, death of a parent, excrement

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The fictional city of Camelot

First Line: There was nothing in the world as magical and terrifying as a girl on the cusp of womanhood.

Guinevere: I really enjoyed Guinevere as a main character, and I liked a lot of her snippy one liners, and responses to people. One thing that bothered me about her though is that I wish she had been more curious. She has missing memories and unanswered questions, and I know we'll probably get answers to them later in the series, but if I was her I definitely would have been more concerned about the memory gaps than she was.

Mordred: I really liked Mordred and was honestly rooting for them to be together. At first I thought he would be evil, but White did a really good job convincing me that I was mistaken, but come to find out he was evil anyways. And honestly, he wasn't even really evil, but definitely working against Arthur. I enjoyed that Mordred adds a layer of nuance to the magic vs no magic debate, as he points out that magic is just nature, and men wouldn't be eradicated, they just wouldn't be able to progress.

Storyline: While I was skimming back through the book to write my review, I realized that there was a lot of filler dialogue and slower scenes than I originally took notice of. The pacing to me was really good because even during the slower scenes, it was still engaging because I was enjoying the characters so much.

Representation: Sir Tristan is the only person described as being POC, although with some fanart I've seen Brangien may also have been and I missed it. Brangien is in a long distance dream relationship with another woman, Isolde. Guinevere and Lancelot definitely have some romantic tension (I think they're end game, there's no way she gets with Arthur for real and Mordred is off the table now). Sir Bors has a withered arm, but still fights as one of Arthur's knights.

Summary: I really enjoyed this book, it was a great way to start off the year. There were some things that weren't perfect but didn't bother me too much, such as getting the POVs from the Dark Queen and the Lady of the Lake throughout the book, which kind of spoiled who the real villain was in the story. But overall I loved this book and will be reading The Camelot Betrayal next!

Complete Recap: A girl is transported through the woods by armed guards and her handmaiden, Brangien. They are taking her to be wed to King Arthur of Camelot, because they believe that she is Princess Guinevere. But they don't know that the girl they have with her is a fake, because the real Guinevere died. She is really the daughter of Merlin, and she is tasked by him to protect Arthur from any magical threats. As they travel, they come across a forest that wasn't there before, and see that it has devoured an entire village and all of the people in it. They hurry along, but when they come to a stream to cross it, Guinevere is deathly afraid of the water. Mordred, Arthur's nephew, has to hold her as they cross. When they arrive to Camelot, Guinevere is distraught to see that the castle is built into a mountain with two waterfalls on either side, flowing down into a huge lake that must be crossed in order to get to the castle. She also arrives to a large festival being held in her honor, and she meets Arthur, who is handsome and very sweet to her. As they walk through the festival, they come across a puppet show describing Arthur's life and ascension to the throne, but Guinevere notes how they left any mention of magic out of the story. When it is time to go into Camelot, Arthur and Mordred take Guinevere through a secret tunnel around the lake so she doesn't have to get on a boat. On their walk, Arthur mentions Merlin, but Mordred reminds him not to talk about him since he banished Merlin and all magic from Camelot.

Arthur and Guinevere are married, and Guinevere has to navigate the rules of the court, as well as the wives of Arthur's knights, with the help of Brangien. At last, her and Arthur are finally alone, and they begin discussing what she needs in order to protect him magically, as he had known that that was her true purpose there. She wards his room, and as she leaves through a secret tunnel connecting their rooms, she erases her true name from her own memory. The next day, Brangien takes her out into Camelot, showing her the manors where the knights live, the aqueducts, and eventually the stadium where tournaments take place. They see the patchwork knight fight, and Brangien explains how eventually the patchwork knight will defeat enough aspirants to fight Arthur's knights. If they defeat more than three, then they become one of his knights, but if they defeat all of them, then they get to fight King Arthur himself. Guinevere is immediately suspicious of this, wondering with the skill and stillness of the patchwork knight if they are actually a fairy. They return to the castle, and Guinevere immediately sneaks out again wearing a disguise. She follows the patchwork knight, who meets with a woman outside of the arena before heading down a street. They remove their mask, but Guinevere is unable to see their face before they immediately begin scaling down the cliffside. When she returns, she meets with Arthur and presents her theory about the patchwork knight being a fairy. He dismisses it, however, telling her that the swords in the arena are all iron, and they would not be able to hold it if they were. They make plans to make permanent warding with iron knots. When she goes to bed that night, the Dark Queen, previously thought dead, uses a moth to try and see into Guinevere's dreams, but she pulls away afraid of her instead.

The next day they go to the market. Brangien and Mordred accompany her, and she meets Sir Ector and Sir Kay, the knights who raised Arthur. They also see the animals and she is kind to a peasant child. This causes Mordred to notice that Guinevere is probably not what she seems to be. They then meet back up with Arthur and she orders iron threads to be made by a smith, disguising her intentions by saying she is going to put them in her hair. That night, she spells them, which requires her blood and takes a lot out of her, but is much more permanent than the temporary thread, hair, and spit knots she had been weaving before, and is now able to ward the whole castle from any magical threats. After doing the magic, she slept for two days, causing rumors and gossip to spread around the castle. When she wakes, she also gets her period for the first time, and she thinks she's dying until Brangien explains things to her. She tells her she is going to sleep, but actually sneaks out to spy on the patchwork knight again. They meet with the same woman as before, and she tells the knight to give it to "the girls". Guinevere sees the knight's face, but they are completely human. On her way back, she bumps into the woman with the packages and is able to steal a rock off of her, one of the rocks she had been giving the patchwork knight. They are immediately back to the top of her suspect list when she realizes the rocks have magic.

Her and Mordred grow closer when she accidentally stumbles upon his secret spot the next day. She accompanies him down to the court he is presiding over in Arthur's absence, and there is a woman in a cage named Rhoslyn. She is the same woman with the magic stones, and she is accused of witchcraft. She admits it, saying she was just trying to heal her niece. Mordred is forced to banish her anyways, and Guinevere decides to follow her. Arthur's soldiers leave her in the forest over the border, laughing to themselves. Men from another country immediately appear and try to kill Rhoslyn, but the patchwork knight appears and takes them all down, and they ride away. Guinevere is disappointed and finds her way back to Camelot. The next day, Brangien tells her she needs to start visiting the ladies of the court and fulfilling her queenly duties. As she begins to advise her on who to visit first so as not to offend anyone, Guinevere decides to visit Dindrane, Sir Percival's sister, first. Dindrane is horrible and spiteful, and wanted King Arthur for herself, so Brangien protests. But Guinevere sees that she is treated horribly by Blanchefleur, Sir Percival's wife, and likes that Dindrane will speak her mind instead of being fake, so they call on her. She only has cramped quarters off to the side of the house that connect to Blanchefleur's room. She immediately tries to snidely insult Guinevere, but she just laughs and tells her she hopes they will be good friends, and then invites her to go to the chapel with her. This makes the other ladies jealous, but Guinevere is glad to have made a new friend, and she makes sure to visit Blanchefleur last of all the other ladies. After the events of the day, she uses her knotting magic to try and feel where magic is coming from in the city. She senses it the most from where Rhoslyn disappeared into the woods. She goes into the city, and manages to find more magic stones, but is unable to determine what they are for.

Arthur, up north for a meeting with the Picts, sends for her. Mordred and Brangien go with her, and on the ride there, she learns that the wizard who helped Uther Pendragon impregnate Igriane with Arthur by disguising himself as her husband was Merlin. She feels immediately betrayed, and wonders what else he is keeping from her, especially since some of her memories are gone. They spend the night in a camp, and the next day, Arthur, his knights, and Guinevere leave to meet with the Picts. While there, Malegeant, a treacherous former knight of Arthur's, shows up and leers at Guinevere and interrupts the entire meeting. He says that they are on his borders as he has purchased land from two feuding lords. The next day, Arthur sends the rest of his men away to guard Camelot against Malegeant, and Arthur, Guinevere, and his knights plan to go through the forest to get home. While there, they are attacked by wolves, and Sir Tristan, Brangien's close friend, is attacked saving Guinevere. He immediately gets an infection and begins to die, so while the other knights are busy fighting off the wolves and guarding the camp, she uses fire magic to heal him. Mordred sees her do so, but doesn't say anything. Arthur had instructed her not to do this, so as not to risk her position as queen, and he is angry with her when he realizes she did it anyways. They manage to make it out of the woods otherwise unharmed, and Arthur leaves while Guinevere goes back to Camelot. Before he goes he makes her promise not to pursue Rhoslyn until he gets back.

Every night after she returns to Camelot, she is forced into a deep sleep, and realizes someone is using magic on her. She wards herself, and sits up to find a handkerchief with knotting magic sewed into it, made by Brangien. She gets up to go to the sitting room where Brangien usually stays, and sees her embracing Sir Tristan and sobbing. She tells him she will try again, and goes to the bath and tries to scry. Guinevere interrupts, saying she is doing it wrong, and Brangien immediately begs for mercy, trying to say she bewitched Sir Tristan and that he really knew nothing about her magic. Guinevere reveals she has been doing her own magic, and says she won't say anything. When she came to Camelot, Brangien had told Guinevere that her and Sir Tristan had left their home country because Sir Tristan had been in love with his old uncle's young bride, Isolde. However, when Brangien admits they had been trying to scry to see Isolde, Guinevere realizes it is actually Brangien who is in love with her, not Tristan. They agree to keep each other's secrets, and Guinevere does knot magic so Brangien and Isolde can meet together in their dreams. This takes away Guinevere's own ability to dream, but she sacrifices it for her friend. The next day, as they walk through town, they hear that Sir Bors is hunting a dragon. Guinevere immediately leaves with Brangien and Sir Tristan to find the dragon before Sir Bors does, so Guinevere can see if the dragon is being controlled by an evil force. They ride after him, Guinevere using magic to eventually track down Sir Bors. He is about to kill the dragon when Guinevere uses Brangien's sleep handkerchief to put him to sleep. She uses her touch magic to talk to the dragon. He is not being controlled by anything, and is the last of his kind, dying anyways with the fading of magic. She lets him go, and alters Sir Bors' memory of the fight, making him think he killed the dragon but was also coated in guts and pissed and threw up on himself as a result so he won't want to revisit the memory.

Arthur returns, and Guinevere tries to convince him to get rid of her as queen so she is free to hunt down Rhoslyn. He begs her not to go, and she reluctantly agrees to stay. As they are talking, she accidentally brushes up against Excalibur and is immediately violently sick. The next day, they go on a hunt. They ride through the woods and arrive at the camp, and while the men, minus Mordred, go off, the ladies stay behind. Mordred begins to drop hints that he is in love with Guinevere, so she gets up with Brangien and takes a walk in the woods to look for magic supplies. While out there, they are found by a wild boar, that seems to want Guinevere dead specifically. She leads it away from Brangien, and thinks she is about to die when the patchwork knight saves her and kills the boar. Guinevere is shocked to discover the knight is actually a woman named Lancelot, and is about to help treat her wound when she is bit by a spider with the same venom as the wolf that bit Sir Tristan. She goes unconscious, and wakes to a group of women sucking the poison out of her wound, each taking a bit so none of them are affected. She heals Lancelot, and learns that Rhoslyn is taking care of a colony of women there, and that the patchwork knight has been helping them with supplies and keeping them safe. With this new revelation, and the presence of this poisonous magic, Guinevere decides it's time to see Merlin. Her and Lancelot race through the forest to try and get to him, but when they arrive at their old cabin, it is abandoned, and not at all how she remembers. She spells a bird to lead her to Merlin, but comes across a magical barrier before a cave. She undoes it, and rushes to see Merlin. He frantically tells her to get out of there, and that she can't be there. He implores Lancelot to take her away, and she does and they hide. The Lady of the Lake comes and finds Merlin due to Guinevere breaking the magic barriers, and she is angry because he stole something from her; Guinevere assumes it's Excalibur. The Lady of the Lake seals the cave shut with Merlin inside. After she leaves, Lancelot and Guinevere try to get to him but are unable, so Lancelot takes her back to the hunting party, where everyone had been frantically searching for her. Arthur says that Lancelot will have a tournament against the knights for her bravery, unknowing still that she is a woman. He then takes Guinevere aside and she tells him what happened to Merlin, and is desperate to get Arthur to help her free him. He refuses, and pulls out a letter from the old wizard. It admits they both lied about Guinevere being there to protect him, and that she is actually there to be protected by Arthur, as all of the magical attacks have been directed towards her, and Merlin knew that the Lady of the Lake was coming for him. She is heartbroken by this revelation, and begins to wonder what her purpose is, and who she really is.

Upon arriving back to Camelot, Guinevere goes through the motions of being queen, unsure of what else to do with herself. When she finally speaks with Arthur, she questions why he married her instead of having her come to Camelot as a servant or a relative. He admits it was selfish and he wanted to get the Picts and the other kingdoms off his back about marriage. He begs her to stay and be his queen, and she agrees, and he gives her the responsibility of arranging Lancelot's tournament. Mordred takes her and Brangien to a raunchy play in the city. The night before the tournament, Lancelot climbs the castle walls and knocks on Guinevere's window and they meet in secret, Lancelot talking about how nervous she is. Guinevere comforts her, and she departs. The day of the tournament arrives, and Guinevere is disappointed to see Mordred waiting to escort her instead of Arthur. She hoped that things would be different since their conversation, and Mordred pries at her about her unhappiness. Guinevere arrives at the tournament to find a distressed Dindrane. She is anxiously awaiting Sir Bors to step on the field, to see if he will wear her token and signify that they are courting. Arthur has asked Mordred to abstain from the fights, as Mordred always defeats the aspirant knights and Arthur actually wants to fight Lancelot. Lancelot easily defeats Sir Tristan, Sir George, and Sir Gawain, meaning she will officially be one of Arthur's knights. But she continues and defeats Sir Percival and Sir Bors, allowing her to fight Arthur. He unsheathes Excalibur as he goes before the crowd, and Guinevere becomes sick and faints at the sight of it. Recovering as he puts it away, the fight between Arthur and Lancelot begin. They are equally matched to each other, and the fight concludes when they both land a killing blow on each other at exactly the same time. The revels begin after the fight, and Guinevere and Brangien excuse themselves to her tent. Brangien leaves to get her food and drink, and Mordred comes in, saying Brangien has been waylaid by Dindrane. He confesses his love for her and they kiss, but Guinevere ultimately rejects him out of loyalty to Arthur. He leaves, and she plans to go find Arthur and kiss him, to see if she has the same spark with him she has with Mordred, but she is kidnapped by a man.

She awakes in a hovel to find Malegeant to be her kidnapper. He hits her, and asks her to answer honestly if Arthur loves her and will risk Camelot to come and save her. She says that he cares about her, but he will not risk Camelot for anything. He says that's unfortunate, and begins to pry her about the location of the secret tunnel into Camelot. She refuses to tell him, and he drags her out to reveal that they are over a river, and holds her over the water. He says when he comes back he will throw her in if she doesn't cooperate. She goes in and uses some of Merlin's beard hairs to contact him in her dreams. He tells her to go away as the Lady of the Lake will find her, and tells her she needs to fight like queen now, not a witch. She awakes disheartened, and resolves to throw herself into the water to stop Malegeant from learning what she knows. She tries to trick the guards into letting her out, and when one of them leaves, she throws a bowl of piss in his face and throws herself out the door and towards the river, but Lancelot is there and catches her. She then carries her across the river and they escape on horseback. Lancelot explains that Arthur forbid anyone to come after her once he knew it was Malegeant, but Brangien had used magic to find her, gone to Mordred, and Lancelot and Mordred had come to get her. Lancelot also says that she was discovered to be a woman right when Guinevere was noticed to be missing, so she had been dismissed with no conversation. Guinevere resolves to fix that once she gets home. They meet up with Mordred and realize they're being pursued by Malegeant. They resolve they need to kill him, but if any of them were to do so it would start a war. Mordred says Guinevere needs to wake the trees, because if the trees kill Malegeant, then no one can blame Camelot. He takes her to a fairy circle, and she uses her blood to wake the trees. She struggles to control them and they attack, killing Mordred's horse and injuring Guinevere. When Malegeant arrives tho, she gains control and kills him and his men. But the trees won't go back to sleep, and something is stirring beneath her feet. Mordred announces to her that the Dark Queen is rising thanks to her, and introduces her to Guinevere as his grandmother. She is shocked and betrayed, saying he can't be a fairy, but he explains that he is half fairy, mother being Morgan le Fay, Arthur's older sister, and father being the Green Knight. Lancelot tries to fight Mordred while Guinevere tries to put the trees back to sleep, but Lancelot is defeated and Guinevere begs for her life. That is when Arthur appears and kills the trees with Excalibur. Mordred holds Guinevere hostage, and tells Arthur if he wants to get past them and kill the Dark Queen he can, but in doing so, Excalibur's presence will unmake Guinevere. Arthur sheathes his sword, and Mordred kidnaps Guinevere, saying they can finally be together and that she doesn't have to suppress herself in Camelot anymore. Guinevere wants to be with him, and kisses him one last time, before burning him with fire and riding the horse back to Arthur. She agrees to stay his queen as long as Lancelot can be her knight, and they return to Camelot.

[385bookreviews]

2.27 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

SPOILERS

Pages: 171

Time Read: 2 hours and 27 minutes

Overall Rating: 5★ Storyline: 5★ Dialogue: 5★ Characters: 5★

Genre: Philosophical Fiction

TWs for the book: Racial slur (G word used against Romani people), racism (against Romani and Arab people, brief), war, violence, islamophobia, sexism, alcohol, animal death, death, injury

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Spain and Africa, sometime during the 1700s.

First Line: The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought.

Summary: My summary doesn't at all do this book justice. There is a lot of wonderful, meaningful dialogue and I highly encourage you to read this book, as I believe a lot of people could find meaning in it.

Quotes: "I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise." (p.13) "People say strange things, the boy thought. Sometimes it's better to be with the sheep, who don't say anything. And better still to be alone with one's books." (p.22) "...whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth." (p.24) "If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now." (p.87) "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream." (p.118) "It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil... It's what comes out of their mouths that is." (p.119) "You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love... The love that speaks the Language of the World." (p.124) "One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving." (p.126) "Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there." (p.132) "The boy reached through to the Soul of the World, and saw that it was a part of the Soul of God. And he saw that the Soul of God was his own soul. And that he, a boy, could perform miracles." (p.157)

The story begins with a prologue about the alchemist reading an alternate version of the story of Narcissus.

Complete Recap: Santiago is a shepherd, wandering the plains and fields of Spain with his sheep. He went to seminary as a child, being trained to be a priest, but he told his father he wanted to travel and his father gave him three gold coins to buy his sheep. Ever since, he spends the night wherever he can find shelter, and uses whatever book he has with him as a pillow. That night, he sleeps in an old, broken down church with a tree growing up through the center of the building. He has another of his recurring dreams, that a child comes to play with his sheep and then transports him to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. Santiago goes into a village the next day to get a thicker book and a haircut. While there, he consults a Romani woman (referred to throughout with the G word and Santiago is afraid of her due to negative stereotypes). She tells him that he needs to go to Egypt and find the treasure, and when he does, come back and give her one tenth of what he finds. Santiago is disappointed that there isn't a deeper meaning, and goes outside to read his new book, making plans to take his sheep to the town where he met a merchant girl the year before who had taken an interest in him. While he sat and tried to read, an old man sat with him and began saying strange things, claiming to be Melchizedek, the king of somewhere called Salem. Santiago was annoyed, but the old man told him the names of Santiago's parents, the girl he had a crush on, and other private details about him that no one but he should know. He decided to sit and listen and to tell the old man about his dream. The old man explains that everyone has a Personal Legend, and it is Santiago's Personal Legend to go to the pyramids of Egypt and find the treasure. He tells Santiago to bring him one tenth of his flock of sheep, and he will tell him about how to find the treasure at the pyramids of Egypt. Santiago considers this thoroughly, but ultimately decides to sell the rest of his sheep to his friend and take the old man six sheep the next day. In exchange, the old man, rather redundantly, tells Santiago to go to the pyramids of Egypt, and to watch for the omens. He gives him a black stone and a white stone, called Urim and Thummim, and tells him to use them to help him make decisions, but not to rely on them.

Santiago sails to Africa. He doesn't speak Arabic, and is confused and scared by the strange customs there. He tries to order wine but it is forbidden, so he gets some tea. Someone comes up to him who speaks Spanish, and offers to show him where to go to cross the Sahara desert. His new friend takes his money to count it, and begins to lead him through the market. Santiago stops to admire a sword, and when he turns, his new friend is gone, along with all of his money. He despairs immediately, but uses Urim and Thummim to see if the old king's blessing is still with him. He pulls the white stone meaning yes, but when he tries to ask if he will ever find his treasure, both stones fall to the ground out of a hole in his pouch. He sleeps in the empty market square, and is awoken in the morning by someone going to set up their tent. He wanders around, and then helps a candy seller to set up his tent. He gets a piece of candy as a thanks, and, as he wanders around afterwards, he realizes that him and the man didn't speak the same language, but had communicated anyways. He wanders up the hill and comes upon a crystal merchant, and offers to clean all of his crystal in the window for him if he gives him a meal. The man didn't answer him so Santiago cleaned the crystal anyways, and the man took him out to eat, saying he would have done so regardless because the Qur'an tells him to feed the hungry. He offers Santiago a job, but tells him that he won't make enough money to cross the Sahara in a day. He offers to give him enough money so he can go home, but Santiago decides to work for the man anyways.

After 11 months, Santiago had helped the crystal merchant to make the shop very successful. He had enough money to sail home and buy more sheep, and the crystal merchant had enough money to visit Mecca as he always dreamed of. He tells the crystal merchant it is time for him to go back to Spain, but the crystal merchant tells him he knows he isn't going to Spain, just as he knows the crystal merchant is never going to go to Mecca. Santiago decides just to see if he can join a caravan to go across the Sahara. When he arrives he finds an Englishman who sees Urim and Thummim and recognizes them immediately. He explains that he is an aspiring alchemist, and is going to an oasis in Al-Fayoum to try and find a master alchemist that has achieved turning metal into gold. They leave with the caravan and begin crossing the desert. The Englishman reads his books along the way, and Santiago watches the desert. They eventually challenge each other to do the opposite of each other, but neither of them learns very much. On their way, Bedouins appear to warn them about tribal warfare in the desert. The journey becomes tense, but after some time, they manage to arrive at the oasis, where they now must stay until the war is over. The Englishman immediately tasks Santiago with helping him find the Alchemist. Santiago firsts to talks to a woman, who says she doesn't know anyone by the Englishman's description, and warns Santiago that she is married, and not to talk to anymore women wearing black because it means they are married and it is improper. A second man claimed they were looking for a witch doctor and spoke the Qur'an at them before moving on. A third man said that there is someone very powerful living at the oasis, but advises that he won't see anyone unless it is under his own circumstances, and that they should leave the oasis once the war is over. Finally, an unmarried young woman named Fatima comes to the well, and Santiago falls in love instantly. She finally tells them that the Alchemist lives to the south, and the Englishman takes off to find him immediately. When Fatima comes back to the well the next day, Santiago tells her he loves her and he wants her to be his wife. This shocks her and she leaves, but they begin to speak and become closer every day when she comes to the well. Eventually, she reciprocates his feelings, but says that he must continue his journey to the pyramids to find his treasure. She explains that she is a desert woman, and desert women are accustomed to their men leaving for long periods.

Santiago is sad cause he wants to stay with her, and goes into the desert to clear his mind. He sees two hawks fighting, and has a vision of tribesmen attacking the oasis, even though it is forbidden. He goes to see the camel driver from the caravan, and he advises him to take his vision to the tribal chieftains. When he is finally permitted to see them, he tells of his vision and advises that everyone in the oasis carry weapons, which is also forbidden. After some bickering, the leader finally tells him that he will be payed a gold piece for every man they kill, but any weapons that go unused and therefore become damaged by being out in the sand all day will be used on him. When Santiago leaves the tent, a horse rides up and the man on it, with a falcon on his shoulder and a sword in his hand, angrily demands who read the omens to foretell this event. Santiago says it was him who reads the omens, and explains how he did so. The man on the horse explains that he had to test Santiago's courage, and tells him if he lives to tomorrow, then to come and find him. Santiago then realizes as the man rides south that that was the Alchemist. The next day, everyone carries weapons, and tribesman attack but are immediately thwarted. Santiago is awarded his gold and becomes the counselor of the oasis. He goes to see the Alchemist, and they eat and drink together. The Alchemist tells him to sell his camel and buy a horse. The next day he does so, and then goes to see the Alchemist again. They ride out into the desert together, and the Alchemist instructs Santiago to find life in the desert. He does so by allowing his horse to lead him to a place where there are holes in the rocks. The Alchemist pulls out a poisonous snake from one of the holes, but entraps it in a circle in the sand. He then tells Santiago that he will take him to the pyramids. Santiago refuses, wanting to stay with Fatima, but the Alchemist tells him that he will lose his gift for speaking the Language of the World if he does so, and he will eventually lose his position as counselor and Fatima will always wonder if he hates her. They return to the oasis, and Santiago says goodbye to Fatima.

They travel for a long time, and are eventually captured by one of the warring tribes. The Alchemist gives the chieftain all of Santiago's gold, and says that Santiago is an alchemist who can turn himself into the wind and blow away their camp. The chieftain says that he has three days to do so or they will be killed. Santiago is distraught as he most certainly doesn't know how to turn himself into the wind, but he spends the three days contemplating how. The day of, the chieftain and his commanders gather around to see him turn himself into the wind. Santiago converses with the desert, then the wind, then the sun, and then finally God himself, and manages to turn himself into a wind and cause a windstorm. They are released, and make it to a monastery three hours from the pyramid. They go in, and the alchemist turns lead into gold. He gives a quarter of it to the monk, keeps a quarter, gives a quarter to Santiago, and gives the last quarter to the monk to give to Santiago in case he loses the first quarter. Then Santiago sets off alone to go to the pyramids. He comes to the exact spot he saw in his dream and begins to dig. Some men come along and beat him, thinking he is hiding something. They take his gold piece, and then one of them tells him that years ago he had a dream of buried treasure in the abandoned church in Spain Santiago first had his dream at. Santiago goes back to the monastery to get his other piece of gold and sails home to Spain.

He goes back to the church and digs up a chest of Spanish treasure from an old war. He remembers that he must give one tenth of it to the Romani woman, and smiles as he plans to go back to Fatima.

[385bookreviews]

2.29 Darkness on the Edge of Town by Adam Christopher

SPOILERS

Pages: 413

Time Read: 6 hours and 7 minutes

Overall Rating: 2.5★ Storyline: 2.5★ Dialogue: 3★ Characters: 2★

Genre: YA Thriller

TWs for the book: Death, gun violence, gang violence and culture, mental illness, PTSD, blood, kidnapping, murder, alcohol, serial killer, injury, war, government experimentation, drug use, car accident, ritualistic murder, mind control, fire, police brutality, NYPD glazing, classism, racism, cult, su*c*de/attempted su*c*de, psychosis, abandonment, smoking, sexism

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: May 17, 1977-December 25, 1977 New York; December 26, 1984-December 27, 1984 Hawkins, Indiana; Set between Season 2 and 3 of Stranger Things.

First Line: Jim Hopper tried to kill the smile he felt spreading across his face as he stood by the sink, arms immersed in hot, soapy water, watching through the kitchen window as the snow fell outside in huge, fist-sized clumps.

Jim Hopper: Hopper was frustrating to read about at times with all of his blustering and the tough guy act he tries to pull with Special Agent Gallup. All of the scenes with him and Eleven felt dull and repetitive, especially with his repeated thoughts about "not wanting to talk about Vietnam cause he isn't ready" and worrying that Eleven is too young or not mature enough to keep hearing the story the entire book.

Rosario Delgado: Delgado comes across like a badass only to be used as the damsel in distress for Hopper to rescue and that was incredibly infuriating to me.

Lisa Saregeson: This entire character was incredibly frustrating as we are introduced to her officially with a lot of exposition of her backstory that was completely unprompted. She was essential to Saint John and his background and the story, and yet we never find out what he wanted from her, or what occurred while he was her patient, or what she knew about him. She felt like she just ended up being there to move the plot along and be a dramatic death in a climactic moment.

Storyline: At it's core, this book is just plot for the sake of plot. All of the characters felt hollow and like they were only there to move the plot forward. Information is glossed over for what feels like the sake of page numbers, and there are a lot of conversations and inner dialogue that feel repetitive and redundant. It also took me a bit to get into the story itself because I simply had a hard time caring, most likely because this was just a filler book for Stranger Things; I thought I would enjoy it but I didn't.

Representation: Rosario Delgado is Cuban American, and Martha and Leroy are black. Members of the Vipers are described as being of all races. I personally can't speak at all to how things like race or gang culture were handled in this book, but I feel like there were some things lacking. Also, Hopper and Saint John have PTSD from Vietnam, but the way it is shown that Hopper is strong and put together and got over it while Saint John became "delusional" also didn't feel like the best way to represent that as well.

Summary: While it kept me entertained enough to get through it, this book really wasn't for me. It was like reading fanfiction to be honest, and not good fanfiction either. I think the fact that I knew what happened with Hopper and his family was also unincentivizing. The murders that started the entire story ultimately fell by the wayside, and the exact source of Saint John's abilities were chalked up to an MKUltra experiment and some drugs, which not only did I see coming from a mile away, but was also never expanded upon. The entire dismissal of Lisa as a character was incredibly frustrating, and Delgado doing all that work just to end up being bait was also a let down.

Complete Recap: Hopper and Eleven get snow in post-Christmas day 1984. With her friends not responding and the TV not working, Eleven goes snooping and finds a box with case files from Hopper's time as an NYPD homicide detective. She manages to get Hopper to agree to tell her the story, saying he knows about her life but she doesn't know a ton about his.

July 4, 1977, Hopper and his wife Diane have taken their daughter Sara to her friend's birthday party. The rich family hired a magician as entertainment for the parents, another parent named Lisa. She reads Diane's fortune and claims she sees darkness engulfing the city. Hopper is angry at her for trying to scare his wife but Diane says it's ok and they leave with Sara as the party ends. When they arrive home, Hopper's partner detective, Rosario Delgado, calls and says there's been another murder. Eleven makes Hopper go back to May 17, 1977 and explain how Delgado came to be his partner. He tells her about how Delgado was the first woman on the force, and that he had been promoted quickly, causing some of the other detectives to dislike him, so they made a good pair. Back on July 4, 1977, Hopper leaves his wife and daughter to go and view the newest crime scene. A man is found in a cluttered apartment, lying dead on the bed, with five stab wounds and carvings in his chest making a star. This is the third murder they've encountered like this, and realize they're dealing with a serial killer. Each time a victim is killed, they are found with a white card with a black symbol inked onto it. The first two were a cross and a circle, but the third is 3 wavy lines stacked on top of each other. The next day, Hopper and Delgado pour over the cards and pictures of the crime scene, but Hopper is interupted when Captain LaVorgna calls him into his office to tell them they're off the case. Hopper is angry, and even more so when a man in a suit, Special Agent Gallup from a mysterious government organization comes in to take the case from them and show paperwork proving that the latest victim, Jacob Hoeler, was an undercover special agent, giving them jurisdiction over the case. Hopper goes and meets with Delgado while the feds clear out their desks of all relevant casework. They make a plan for Hopper to cause a scene and Delgado to steal the paperwork that had Jacob Hoeler's addresses on them.

They meet again afterwards, and Hopper agrees to go to the second location, and Delgado goes to reinvestigate the scene of the crime. Hopper finds an empty apartment with nothing but a cot and a ton of classified file boxes. When he goes to look into them, he hears someone enter the apartment. He catches them by surprise, but it isn't an agent like he was expecting, and the intruder escapes even after Hopper chases them. By the time he returned to the apartment, the classified files are gone, and the only thing left for him to get clues from are an empty notebook with the indentations of the previous page pressed into the paper. Delgado has better luck at the crime scene, where she runs into the super of the building. He says how three boys in army jackets came knocking on Hoeler's door the week before the murder, and Delgado finds receipts and notes with addresses to community centers where AA meetings are held.

The next morning, before Hopper and Delgado get the chance to talk, Captain LaVorgna calls Hopper into his office and says he is needed downstairs to interview an informant wanting protection. Him and Delgado exchange information and then he goes downstairs to conduct the interview. The boy is barely an adult, and looks to be strung out on some sort of drug, barely cooperating to answer any questions. Hopper is about to leave when the boy, Leroy Washington, waves around a white card with black ink on it, another in the murder set. This time the symbol is a five pointed star like the ones carved on the victims. He begins talking about darkness enveloping the city and Satan coming to sit on his throne in New York, and that "the Saint" was going to make bad things happen. Hopper leaves him in a cell to sober up and goes back upstairs. Him and Delgado converse again, and she says she filled in Hoeler's notebook page with pencil, revealing that he had written the word "Vipers", and underneath it were the names of a bunch of gangs that no longer exist. They end up deducing that Jacob Hoeler and Special Agent Gallup are part of a gang busting task force, and that it ultimately was for the best that they took over the case so other peoples' covers weren't blown. They agree to tell LaVorgna tomorrow about what they found, Leroy Washington, and the new card, but Delgado tells Hopper to take the day since he looks exhausted.

Hopper takes Diane out to see Star Wars and they get egg cream afterwards. They joke and talk and Diane mentions that Hopper looks more relaxed, and he admits he's a little relieved that he feels like he can let go of the case now. When taking off his jacket, he drops the five pointed star card, and Diane says she recognizes it as a Zener card, something Lisa had in her magic act at the birthday party. When they get home, Diane calls Lisa and puts Hopper on the phone so he can ask his questions. Lisa was busy, but they agree to meet the next day. Hopper comes into work the next day and calls downstairs to see if Leroy has sobered up. They let him know that someone has released him on accident. Hopper is enraged, but Leroy calls him not long after, saying they need to meet up because he's in danger. Hopper leaves a note for Delgado to go meet with Lisa about the cards instead of him, and goes to get Leroy. When he arrives at the address, Leroy is no where to be found. Hopper waits, buying a new pack of cigarettes in the meantime. As he goes to poke around the phone booth, a mail truck comes up and five men hop out and kidnap him. He is knocked out, tied up, blindfolded, and dumped in a mailroom, and not long after, so is Leroy. Delgado goes to meet with Lisa, who is actually a decorated criminal psychologist. She explains her backstory, and her work at the Rookwood Institute where she attempted to rehabilitate prisoners for release into the real world. She left due to lack of funding and now works as a part time magician and does similar rehabilitation classes for people at community centers for a charity. She says that the Zener cards were made to try and test for telepathy and clairvoyance, and that there is one more symbol they haven't seen yet, which is the square. Delgado gives Lisa a ride to a community center, which was one on Jacob Hoeler's list of addresses. Special Agent Gallup reveals himself as Hopper and Leroy's kidnapper. He threatens them, saying that they must go undercover in the Saint's group, the Vipers, or he will have Hopper jailed and his family ruined. Hopper and Leroy agree. They plan for Hopper to be implicated in a double homicide that he will later be cleared of when the operation is done, and to then have Leroy take him into the Vipers as a disgraced cop looking for a place to belong. Before he disappears entirely, he goes home and naps, changes clothes, and then meets with Delgado to let her know that he did not commit the crime he's about to be accused of and that he has to go undercover. He also asks her to look out for Diane and Sara. Delgado, of course, agrees.

Leroy takes Hopper in a beat up old station wagon to the Bronx. On their way, they are stopped by three boys and a girl standing in the road. The girl, Martha, is Leroy's sister. They smoke weed in the car and Martha has them stop at a tech store that they plan to rob. Before they go in, Martha gives Hopper a pill that he spits out later, but not before some of it dissolved. They rob the store, and Hopper, high off the weed and the pill, attacks the store owner. They leave and head to a huge warehouse complex in the Bronx, and Hopper is introduced to the gang, and then after that, Saint John. Saint John believes that him and Hopper share a special connection due to them both having been in Vietnam, and welcomes him into the ranks, assigning him to Leroy and Lincoln's crew.

Delgado is in the office when the news about Hopper's supposed crime breaks. She goes to interview Diane, but when they interrupted by LaVorgna, Delgado slips her an address. LaVorgna then makes Delgado take a week of paid leave because she is too close to the situation. She takes this time to meet with Diane and tell her as much as she knows. After that, Delgado visits all of the community centers on Hoeler's list. She discovers that the first two victims were leaders of military support groups, and that Hoeler had been visiting them. She goes again to see Lisa at her support group meeting, but she didn't recognize the names of the first two victims, or the picture of Hoeler. Without knowing it, Delgado brushes by Saint John as he enters Lisa's meeting. She goes home and calls Special Agent Gallup to begin reporting her findings to him. At the end of her meeting, Saint John starts offering to help stack chairs, and Lisa agrees until she notices the Vipers jacket. She tells him to leave but he offers her a job, giving her the address of the warehouse in the Bronx if she is interested. Whenever she arrives home, she gets a call that she has been let go from the charity for financial reasons, and she impulsively decides to go the warehouse. She is surrounded by two men and a bunch of people on the roofs, but just when they're about to grab her, Saint John walks out and welcomes her to the Viper warehouse.

Saint John orders Hopper, Leroy, and Lincoln to go to a veteran's support group, and Hopper gets a lot off his chest. He does finally get agitated with Leroy though, and loses his cool, demanding more information. Lincoln begins to grow suspicious of Hopper, and they return to the warehouse. Hopper tries to open one of the crates they are moving, but Lincoln grabs Hopper's gun and aims it at him. Martha intervenes, telling Lincoln to go see Saint John, and squares up to Hopper with a crowbar. Saint John gives Lisa the tour of the warehouse, and, to demonstrate his abilities, orders a gang member to kill himself with a screwdriver. Lisa stops him, and wants to leave but continues to follow Saint John up to his office. She sits down at a table and finds herself unable to move, and Saint John reveals himself to be one of her former patients at Rookwood. Lincoln interrupts to tell him that Martha and Hopper are about to fight. He goes down and halts the impending fight, bringing Hopper back up to the office, but he is enraged to discover that Lisa has escaped. Hopper offers to search with Leroy and Lincoln's crews. He manages to find Lisa first, and she explains why she's there. He says he'll send Leroy to sneak her out, and that she has to go see Delgado. He sends Leroy, and then sneaks around Saint John's office, stealing plans, and finding the classified files that were in Hoeler's apartment. He then goes to the roof after hearing commotion up there. Gang members stand gathered around Saint John, all robed in white while he was robed in black. He does some prayers to Satan, and then Leroy drags Lisa forward. He uses his mind tricks on her, and she jumps off the roof of the building to her death. Hopper yells, and Martha grabs him and they both run, escaping the warehouse as the entire city is plunged into complete and total darkness from a blackout. They take Leroy's old station wagon and drive through the Bronx, where several buildings are on fire, some people are having a street party, and they have a few close encounters with a couple other gangs, causing them to eventually abandon the car and go on foot. They are hunted down eventually by seven Vipers, and they chase them through the park on motorbikes. Hopper manages to steal one from them, and him and Martha escape. They make it to where there are finally some police officers, but they are immediately arrested due to Hopper supposedly being a wanted criminal. The van they are loaded into, however, takes them straight to Special Agent Gallup in Times Square. Hopper hands over Martha and the paperwork he stole, and takes a motorcycle straight home to see his wife and kid. When he arrives, Delgado, who had been there guarding them, had left to go to the Rookwood Institute to find Hopper, since their neighbor Eric had seen the Vipers and all their guns marching on it. He contacts Special Agent Gallup over the radio, and tells him he is going to Rookwood to save Delgado and Leroy. He sneaks in, and finds Delgado unconscious on a pentagram, with Saint John standing over her with a knife. Leroy and another gang member, Rueben, restrain him, and he is drugged and knocked out. When he wakes, he is unable to move despite not being physically restrained, and Saint John explains that when he was a soldier in Vietnam, the CIA did experiments on him and he helped to do experiments on others to make them super soldiers. He believes wholeheartedly it was during this time that Satan was calling for him, and that call was reignited when he met Lisa. He tries to mind control Hopper into killing Delgado and then himself, but Hopper manages to break free and fight off Rueben, Leroy, and then Saint John, stabbing him in the shoulder. Leroy tries to fight off the drugs, but ends up shooting Hopper in the shoulder. Delgado is alright, and Saint John dies, and they wait for the cops to find them. Martha and Leroy reunite, and Hopper goes home to his family.

Delgado and Hopper are welcomed back to the precinct with open arms and cheers. In 1984, Eleven is satisfied with Hopper's story and it's conclusion. The last chapter describes Hopper's Christmas in 1977 with Diane and Sara.

[385bookreviews]

1.45.3 Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

SPOILERS

Pages: 390

Time Read: 5 hours and 44 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 4.5★ Dialogue: 4★ Characters: 4.5★

Genre: YA Dystopian

TWs for the book: Death, war, violence, child death, blood, murder, grief, torture, injury, su*c*dal thoughts/attempted su*c*de, fire and burns, gun violence, mental illness, panic attacks, gore, alcoholism, medical content/trauma, addiction and drug use, body horror, police brutality, genocide, confinement, classism, physical abuse, emotional abuse, self harm, kidnapping, forced institutionalization, child abuse, death of a parent, death of a sibling, vomit, slavery, mass shooting, psychosis, gaslighting, animal death, abandonment, toxic relationship, chronic illness, disordered eating, fake miscarriage, pregnancy, brief mentions of forced underage prostitution

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: Set one month after the events of Catching Fire in District 13, District 12, District 8, District 2, and the Capitol.

First Line: I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather.

Katniss visits the remains of District 12 alone. Most of the people didn't make it out and the street is littered with bodies. Her mental state isn't good, and District 13 only agreed to let her make this trip so that way she would be the Mockingjay publicly for them and be a symbol of the rebellion. Her old house was destroyed, but the Victor's Village remains. She goes to get some of her things, and also grabs Buttercup, her sister's ornery cat. When she goes up to her room, President Snow has left a genetically enhanced rose in a vase. This frightens her, and she leaves and goes back to 13 in a hoverplane. 13 is run strictly, the entire population basically a functioning military. Katniss chafes against the schedules and trainings and uses her mental disorientation as an excuse/reason for her absences. When her and Gale arrive back, they go to Command and see that Peeta, who was captured by the Capitol, is doing an interview with Caesar Flickerman. He says he had no knowledge of the rebel plot, and calls for a ceasefire between the districts and the Capitol. Everyone in the Command room immediately begins calling him a traitor. Katniss runs away. After talking with Gale and Prim, she decides that she will be their Mockingjay, but with conditions.

The next morning she goes to Alma Coin, the President of District 13, and lays out her demands. She wants to be able to go above ground and hunt with Gale, Prim gets to keep her cat, Peeta and the other victors are automatically granted immunity for all of their actions before they are rescued, even if they harm the war effort, and she gets to kill President Snow. She also demands that Coin publicly announce this to all of her people. After deliberation, she agrees. Plutarch and his assistant, Fulvia, both Capitol defectors, give her a sketchbook of Cinna's, where he designed the Mockingjay suit for her. They tell her they have the actual thing, and lead her downstairs for a surprise. The surprise, however, ends up shocking everyone. Plutarch had Katniss' prep team rescued, but they were being kept in dungeons in 13, shackled, starved, and beaten, for stealing a bit of extra food. Plutarch orders them freed, and Katniss takes them to the hospital to see her mother. After her and Gale hunt in the woods, Coin makes her announcement to District 13 about Katniss' demand to pardon the victors. She also threatens though, that if Katniss doesn't follow directions, the deal is off the table.

The next day, Katniss' prep team remakes her. She goes to see Beetee, and he has designed new bows for her and Gale. She puts on her suit and goes into a studio where they try to film a scene for one of their "propos". It is a massive flop and Haymitch, now sober, reappears to tell her so, and then calls a meeting with a lot of people from District 12. Everyone gives examples of moments when Katniss inspired them, and Haymitch uses that to make his point that she can't be fed lines, that she has to be on the ground, in the action in order to get spontaneous material. Everyone agrees on this and they fly her to District 8, where bombing from the Capitol has just ended. Katniss goes in and meets with the wounded, talking with them and encouraging them. Just as they are about to leave, the Capitol begins bombing again. They try to hurry Katniss into a bunker, but her and Gale abscond to the roof and begin shooting down Capitol planes. When they come back to the ground, the hospital has been bombed and everyone in it killed. Katniss, at the prompting of Cressida, a film director from the Capitol, gives an impassioned speech letting the districts know that she is alive, and that the Capitol must fall. Then she collapses and is taken back to District 13.

The propos are a hit, and while Katniss rests in the hospital, kept company by Finnick, another interview of Peeta plays. Even though it had only been five days, Peeta has deteriorated significantly. In the interview, Peeta urges Katniss to stop the war. Finnick tells Katniss not to tell anyone that they've seen it, and to her shock, no one informs her about it, not even Gale, which causes them to fight the next day. The propo team has Gale and Katniss go back to District 12 to talk about the bombing and their lives there. Back in the Victor's Village, Katniss kisses Gale, but he tells her she only notices him when he's in pain and stalks off. When they return to 13, Peeta is on TV again, urging the districts to stop fighting. Suddenly, Beetee breaks through the airwaves in the Capitol and puts Katniss and the propos up on TV. This rattles Peeta, who is in an ever worse condition, and he manages to warn the people of District 13 that they'll be "dead by morning". This results in him getting beaten. President Coin decides to heed his warning and evacuates the population into the bomb bunkers. This gives them 10 minutes of extra evacuation time, which saves Prim and Gale's lives as they went back for Buttercup. The Capitol bombs them for three days, but no one dies and the damage is minimal.

Katniss realizes that Snow is using Peeta to break her down. Coin and Plutarch want her and Finnick above ground immediately to film a propo letting the country know that they are safe and alive. When she gets up there though, the ground is littered with Snow's artificial roses, and both her and Finnick have a breakdown and end up back in the hospital. When they wake up, a team has been sent to rescue Peeta, Johanna, and Annie. Gale has also gone on the mission. Katniss is desperate to do something to help, so Haymitch instructs her and Finnick to go and get footage above ground and tell a story or something so Beetee can use it to distract the Capitol. Katniss tells the story of how she met Peeta for the first time, but Finnick begins a long tale of how he was forced into prostitution at 16 by President Snow, and all of the horrible, nasty secrets he knows about the wealthy Capitol citizens. Lastly, he talks about the secrets he knows of President Snow's, revealing that he uses the roses to cover up the scent of blood that comes from sores in his mouth he got from drinking poison. He poisoned all of his political enemies in order to stay in power, and drank from the same glass to avoid suspicion, but the antidotes weren't always perfect.

They all return from the mission alive. Johanna is tortured, and Annie is overjoyed to see Finnick. Katniss runs to see Peeta, but he immediately tries to choke her to death, bruising her throat badly. They later inform her that Peeta's memories of her have been altered using tracker jacker venom. That he thinks she's a mutt made by the Capitol and that he has to kill her. They try to eventually use Delly, a friend of Peeta's from 12, to get him to calm down and open up, but Peeta reacts negatively when he hears that his family is dead and he blames Katniss for all of it. Katniss can't handle being in 13 anymore, and they send her to District 2. She spends awhile moving around 2, hunting with Gale, and listening in on meetings as they try to figure out how to get into and take control of the Capitol's mine, the Nut, which is all buried inside of a mountain. Gale finally proposes the plan that instead of capturing it, they bury the people inside except for one entrance, and then capture whoever escapes. Katniss is appalled by the idea but President Coin approves it anyways. They station Katniss in the square to announce the defeat of the Nut and apprehend any survivors that manage to escape. Just when they think no one is coming, and Katniss is about to give her speech, armed and wounded survivors come pouring out of the train station. Katniss runs towards one wounded man but he aims a gun at her. She talks him down, but is then shot by someone else in the field. She wakes up in a hospital back in 13, missing a spleen and with some bruised ribs from the bullet impacting her suit.

Finnick and Annie get married. Katniss wants to be sent to the Capitol to fight but they refuse to let her until she does three weeks of training. Her and Johanna both do this, rooming and training together, but only Katniss passes the final challenge and is able to go to the Capitol with a sharp shooting squad, including Gale and Finnick, Boggs commanding them. Before they leave though, Coin informs them that they will be the "Star Squad" and only be doing the minimum required to shoot propos, not seeing any actual combat. Katniss is ok with this because she plans to sneak off and kill Snow and then herself. When one of the twin Leeg soldiers is accidentally killed during a propo, Coin sends Peeta to be her replacement. He is immediately put under heavy guard, and Boggs and Katniss speculate that Coin sent him there to kill Katniss. The next day, they go to film a propo but it goes wrong, with the Capitol directly setting off traps in order to kill them. Boggs' legs are blown off, and Peeta tries to kill Katniss, resulting in Mitchell's death. They are chased into a building to escape a toxic, oily black wave that threatens to smother them. Boggs transfers clearance of the Holo, the map showing where all of the Capitol's pods are, to Katniss. After he dies, Jackson, Boggs' second in command, demands she give her control. Katniss refuses, saying she's on a special mission from President Coin to assassinate President Snow. Jackson doesn't believe this, but Cressida backs her up, and they continue on, eventually ending up in the underground of the Capitol, being guided by Pollux. They quickly realize they are being hunted by mutts that are tracking Katniss specifically. While trying to escape, Messalla is melted by an orange ray of light, and Jackson and Leeg stay behind to try and slow down the mutts. Finnick, Homes, and Castor are killed by the mutts, and Katniss blows up the Holo to kill the rest of them and prevent them from following. With only five of them left, Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Cressida, and Pollux, they make their way to an underwear shop owned by a woman named Tigris, a friend of Plutarch's. Katniss is disturbed by the woman's appearance, surgically modified to look like a tiger. Tigris hides them in her basement, and they eat, regroup, and plan their next steps.

As the rebels begin encroaching closer on the center of the Capitol, more refugees begin filing in, and the Peacekeepers begin to assign people to other's houses. When it's announced that President Snow is going to be allowing refugees into his mansion, they make a plan. Cressida and Pollux leave, Gale and Katniss leave, and then Peeta leaves alone to be there to cause a diversion if necessary. On their way there, rebels attack, and the Capitol begins setting off pods and shooting into the crowd, disregarding their own citizens' safety. Gale is captured and tells Katniss to shoot him, but she hesitates and he is dragged away. Just as she makes it to the mansion, she notices children all grouped in front of the mansion in a pen. A Capitol hoverplane drops parachutes, and the children reach up to grab them thinking they are gifts, but they're bombs. Half of them detonate, and then rebel medics from 13 rush in to help. Katniss sees Prim and yells her name, but the rest of the bombs go off. Prim is killed and Katniss is caught on fire. She wakes up in a hospital again, suffering major burn wounds and having to receive skin grafts. Coin has taken over as President, and the rebels have won. Katniss is sent to temporarily live in the mansion, with Haymitch to look after her since her mother is busy working and grieving. She has lost her ability to talk, and becomes addicted to the morphling they give her, until one day, she goes to the greenhouse. Guards try to stop her, but Commander Paylor tells them to let her in. She goes to find a white rose to pin to Snow's lapel before she executes him, when she finds him sitting right there. He tells her that Coin bombed the children and the rebel doctors, and she realizes that it was one of Gale's traps that he designed. She is disgusted with him, and after a cold goodbye, they don't see each other again. The day she is supposed to execute Snow, her prep team comes to dress her, and Effie Trinket, still alive, comes to escort her. First though, their is a meeting with Coin of all the remaining victors. She proposes there be a final Hunger Games held with Capitol children. Peeta, Annie, and Beetee vote no, but Enobaria, Haymitch, Katniss, and Johanna vote yes.

Katniss aims her bow at President Snow, ready to take him out, but she shoots and kills Coin instead. She tries to take her nightlock pill as the crowd converges on her and Snow, but Peeta stops her. The soldiers take her and lock her in her old room in the training center. Over the course of weeks, she attempts to starve herself to death, but before that can happen, Haymitch comes to get her and says they're going back to District 12. Plutarch tells her on the plane ride that Snow was either killed by the mob or choked to death on his own blood. Paylor was made President, and Plutarch is now in charge of the airwaves. They had a trial for Katniss and determined that she was just mentally disturbed and traumatized, so she is given leave to go back to 12 as long as she talks to her psychologist on the phone. When she arrives home, Greasy Sae comes over with her granddaughter every day to make her eat two meals. But Katniss doesn't move from in front of the fire. After awaking one morning to the sound of shovel, she runs outside and sees Peeta planting primrose bushes in her front yard. This finally prompts her to pull herself together. She goes into town, where some people are beginning to cart away the dead and try to rebuild. She learns that Madge and her whole family are dead. She goes into the woods, but feels sick and goes back home. When she comes back, Buttercup has returned, all the way from District 13. Him and Katniss grow closer as Katniss finally allows herself to mourn Prim's death. Annie gives birth to her and Finnick's baby, and Katniss and Peeta get closer again by making a memory book of all the people they have lost.

Years later, Peeta and Katniss have children, and, while still struggling with nightmares, are happy together in 12.

[385bookreviews]

1.45.2 Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

SPOILERS

Pages: 391

Time Read: 5 hours and 54 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 5★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4.5★

Genre: YA Dystopian

TWs for the book: Death, violence, blood, murder, graphic injury, grief, child death, gore, alcoholism, police brutality, torture, war, animal death, classism, panic attacks, mental illness, su*c*dal thoughts, drug addiction, medical content, body horror, physical abuse, gun violence, child abuse, confinement, fire, emotional abuse, medical trauma, vomit, fake pregnancy, death of a parent, slavery, genocide, gaslighting, kidnapping, self harm, eating disorder, bullying, mass shooting, disability, ableism, PTSD, allusions to p*d*ph*l*a

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: Set 6 months after the events of The Hunger Games. District 12, District 11, the Capitol, and the 75th Hunger Games arena.

First Line: I clasp the flask between my hands even though the warmth from the tea has long since leached into the frozen air.

Katniss visits the woods the first day of the Victory Tour her and Peeta must take all around Panem. Gale isn't with her, as he is now an adult that is working in the mines, and his only free day is Sunday. She stops by and gives Gale's mother food, and visits their old house, abandoned since they moved into the Victor's Village. She stops by Haymitch's house, where he is passed out drunk on the table. She dumps water on him to wake him, and when she encounters Peeta, they're cold to each other. Upon going back home, she finds a Capitol official in her house that leads her to the study, where President Snow is waiting to speak with her. He explains that last year's Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, is dead for allowing her and Peeta to live, and that her actions were seen as rebellious. He threatens her, saying she must convince the nation that she isn't a rebel, just a silly girl in love, or her family, and Gale and his family will pay the price. Snow tells Katniss he knows about Gale kissing her awhile back.

Her prep team arrives shortly later, and they dress her, and she films a small interview with Peeta where they continue to pretend to be in love. They leave on a train, heading first to District 11. On the Victory Tour, they are to visit all the districts, and then meet in the Capitol, and then end the tour in their home district. On the train, she warns Haymitch of what Snow told her. She stresses about it throughout the trip, and ends up snapping at Effie and leaving the train. Peeta comes to comfort her, and they end up deciding to be friends, both apologizing for how they've been acting. Peeta shows Katniss his paintings, which are graphic images from their Games.

They arrive in District 11, and give a speech to the district and to Rue and Thresh's families. Peeta promises one month of their winnings to the families every year, and Katniss gives a speech about Rue and Thresh. An old man in the crowd does the mockingjay whistle and raises his three fingers to her, and the rest of the crowd does the same. This prompts the Peacekeepers to drag the old man out of the crowd and shoot him in the head, along with several others. Haymitch, Peeta, and Katniss go in to the attic of the Justice Building where Katniss tells Peeta everything about President Snow's threat. Peeta is enraged that her and Haymitch kept this from him.

They continue on with their tour, but notice that some of the crowds in the districts push back against the Peacekeepers. Worried about what else they can do, and realizing this is never going to really end, Peeta and Katniss decide to get engaged on live television. When President Snow comes to congratulate them, he shakes his head at Katniss, signaling that they failed in their mission. This at least gives Katniss a sure answer. At the party later that night, Plutarch Heavensbee, the new Gamemaker, asks for a dance with Katniss. He shows her his watch, which has a secret mockingjay symbol on it. At the end of the tour, back in District 12, Katniss goes to see her friend Madge, the mayor's daughter. When she stops by the mayor's office to say hi, the TV is on, showing rebellion in District 8. She is shaken, and decides that they have to leave.

The next day she goes into the woods, all the way to the lake and the abandoned shack her and her father used to spend time at. Gale follows her there, and she explains about the president's threat and that they need to get their families and leave. Gale is elated and tells her he loves her, but she doesn't reciprocate, and he withdraws, becoming even more irate when she says she's bringing Peeta and Haymitch. When she finally lets slip that there's an uprising in District 8, he says that they need to stay and fight. She begs him to run, but he just leaves without her. She goes back to the Victor's Village to get Peeta, and they begin walking to town. He agrees to leave with her, but he doesn't think she'll actually do it. Then they hear someone being whipped in the square. They now have a new Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread, and when Gale went to his house looking to sell a turkey he shot to Cray, the former Head Peacekeeper, he was apprehended and whipped. Darius, a Peacekeeper they were all friendly with, tried to intervene but was knocked out. Gale is unconscious, having been whipped over 40 times. Katniss runs in front of his next hit and gets whipped across the face. Haymitch, Peeta, and Purina, another Peacekeeper, step in and stop the whipping and any punishment from coming to Katniss. They carry Gale to see Katniss' mother, where she treats his wounds and Katniss'. While Gale is unconscious, Katniss kisses him, causing him to wake up. She tells him that she isn't going to leave now.

A blizzard hits and the mines shut down for two weeks, causing the district to go into starvation. They try to help who they can with her mother's healing skills and by giving food away. The Hob has been burnt down by the new Peacekeepers. Katniss avoids the woods for awhile, even though the electric fence hasn't been turned on, but she gets restless and goes out by herself. She takes a bag of food so her mother and Prim think that she is handing out food. She goes back to the lake, and encounters a woman and a girl dressed as Peacekeepers. The woman, Twill, holds out a cracker with a mockingjay on it. They sit down together and explain that they're runaways from District 8 where an uprising is in full swing. Twill was a teacher and Bonnie was her student. They also worked in the textile factories together. They had made a plan of escape to coincide with the start of the uprising, which was successful at first, but the Capitol bombed the buildings that had been taken over, including the factory, killing Twill's husband. They ran, and they were on their way to District 13 when they had to stop because Bonnie twisted her foot. They say the people of District 13 survived underground, and the Capitol leaves them alone because they had nuclear weapons, not graphite mines like Katniss had learned in school. She thinks this is ridiculous, but gives them all of her food and shows them how to hunt. She parts ways with them and heads home, but the fence has been electrified. She climbs a tree and uses a branch to go over the fence, but the 25 foot fall causes her to break her foot and injure her tailbone. She barely makes it home, stopping on the way for some candy and bandages to make it look like she was running errands. When she enters, two Peacekeepers are waiting for her, and have been for hours. They ask where she's been and she gets into a fake banter with Prim, Peeta, Haymitch, and her mom about where she's been for the day. The Peacekeepers are irate, clearly having expected her to get trapped in the woods, and they leave, but not without telling her the fence will be on 24/7 now, and they instruct her to inform Gale. After they leave, her mother puts her on bedrest for her broken foot. During her rest, she watches TV, and they show news footage of a supposedly smoldering and radioactive District 13. But in every clip, there's a mockinjay's wing in the corner, and Katniss discovers that they've been reusing the same footage over and over and aren't actually going to District 13.

Katniss does her photoshoot for her wedding, trying on six different dresses. When they gather around the TV that night for mandatory viewing, she discovers that the Capitol people have been voting on which dress she'll wear. After that broadcast, however, President Snow appears to read the card stating what the twist to the Games will be this year since it's a Quarter Quell. For the 25th Hunger Games, the districts had to vote which children had to go. For the 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch's Game, double the amount of tributes had to go. The President reads off the card, stating that as a reminder that even the strongest in the districts can't overcome the Capitol, the tributes in the 75th Hunger Games will be chosen from the Victors. Katniss being the only female victor in District 12 guaranteed her a spot in the Games. She flees the house in panic and tries to run into the woods, only to be stopped by the fence. Awhile later she ends up in an empty victor's house. After she pulls herself together, she goes to see Haymitch to get him to promise her that he'll help Peeta win. They get drunk together, and Katniss stumbles home. She's hungover the next day, and when she goes to Haymitch's house, Peeta informs the both of them that they will be completely sober from now on, and that they're going to train for the Games like the Careers do.

The Reaping comes around, and Haymitch is chosen, but Peeta volunteers to take his place. Thread doesn't allow them to say goodbye to their families, and they are put on a train to the Capitol. On the way there, Peeta and Katniss watch the 50th Hunger Games and see how Haymitch won, and inspect their competition. When they arrive, Cinna dresses Katniss for the opening ceremony, where her and Peeta going to wear flames again. Finnick Odair, the District 4 tribute, lightly taunts and flirts with Katniss. After the ceremony, Haymitch introduces them to the District 11 tributes, Seeder and Chaff. Chaff kisses her straight on the mouth, but Seeder hugs her and tells her that Rue and Thresh's families are safe. When they get in the elevator, District 7's Johanna Mason strips naked in the elevator. Katniss is irate by the time they get to their room, feeling like she's being mocked, which Peeta informs her that she kind of is. When they arrive in their rooms, she discovers not only the redheaded Avox girl she had last Games, the girl she had seen get captured in the woods outside of District 12, but she also has a new Avox: Darius.

Haymitch tells them they need to make allies ahead of time, so in training her and Peeta split up and size up their options. Katniss only ends up connecting with the old woman from District 4, Mags, and Beetee and Wiress, two absentminded nerds from District 3. She gains the respect of all the tributes finally after they see her shoot. When it comes time for their private sessions, neither her nor Peeta know what to do. She goes after Peeta, and sees a rug covering the floor and smells cleaner. She decides she doesn't really care anymore, and upon seeing Plutarch, she ties a noose around a training dummy and hangs it, painting "Seneca Crane" on the front of it. Later on, Peeta tells her that he painted a picture of Rue on the floor, covered in flowers, and that's why they tried so hard to cover it up. They both receive training scores of 12 to make the other tributes wary of them.

The next day, Katniss and Peeta spend the day on the roof having a picnic and relaxing. That night, Cinna comes to get Katniss ready for the interviews. President Snow insisted that Katniss wear her wedding dress onstage. Cinna is angry with this, but he made alterations, and tells her she needs to spin. All of the tributes are angry during their interviews, speculating, crying, and calling for a change to the Games. When it's Katniss' turn, she can barely even say anything over the audience. When she spins, her dress goes up in smoke and turns her into a mockingjay, complete with wings. During Peeta's interview, he drops a false bombshell: that Katniss is supposedly pregnant. The audience goes wild and they immediately try to shut down the show as the audience calls for the Games to be cancelled. Before they shut out the lights, Peeta and Katniss get all of the tributes to hold hands together. Back in their rooms, they say their goodbyes to Effie and Haymitch.

Cinna and Portia get them up the next day, and they fly to the arena. Cinna helps Katniss get dressed, and she says goodbye and gets in the tube to take her up into the arena. Her plate doesn't move though, and Peacekeepers rush in and beat Cinna bloody and drag him out. Katniss is then put in the arena, where they're all standing on their platforms in a circular lake of salt water. The gong rings and Katniss swims for the Cornucopia. She gets their first and grabs her bow and arrows when Finnick appears, she almost shoots him but he's wearing Haymitch's gold bracelet and says he's her ally. They go and get Peeta, who can't swim. They also get Mags and then run into the jungle.

They struggle to find a fresh water source, and during their search, Peeta hits a force field and his heart stops. Finnick revives him, and they eventually stop and rest. A sponsor sends them a spile to tap into the trees and get fresh water, and they go to sleep. During Katniss' watch, a poisonous fog rolls in, and they run. It causes their skin to blister and their nerves and muscles to not work. Finnick carries Peeta and Katniss carries Mags but eventually her legs give out. Finnick can't carry Peeta and Mags, so Mags walks off into the fog and instantly dies. The three of them manage to make it down to the water, which helps heal their blisters. When they go back into the jungle to get water from a tree, they are attacked by a horde of monkeys. One is about to jump out and kill Peeta, but the girl from District 6 jumps in front of Peeta and saves him, which results in her own death. Down on the beach, after getting some rest, they spot Johanna, Beetee, and Wiress stumbling out of the jungle covered in blood. Finnick immediately runs to Johanna, and she explains how they got caught in a blood rain, and the man from District 7 hit the force field and died. Wiress is in a catatonic state, wandering around repeating "tick tock" over and over. Johanna gets angry and shoves her over, and when Katniss tells her to leave her alone, Johanna slaps Katniss and goes into a rage about how she only got Beetee and Wiress for her. They help patch up Beetee, and Katniss cleans Wiress off. Later, when everyone is sleeping, lightning strikes a tree twelve times. Between that and Wiress repeating "tick tock" over and over, she figures out that the arena functions like a clock, with some new horror in each new wedge every hour. They leave and go to the Cornucopia to get more weapons. They send Wiress to wash off a coil of wire that Beetee had been carrying around, and try to plan their next moves. Wiress is killed by Gloss, the District 1 male tribute. Katniss shoots him and Johanna kills Cashmere, the District 1 female tribute. Brutus from District 2 throws a spear at Peeta, but Finnick blocks it and takes a knife to the leg from Enobaria, also District 2. The island with the cornucopia suddenly starts to spin, and the District 2 tributes escape. Katniss has to swim out to get the wire from Wiress' body before the hovercraft comes for her, and Finnick swims out to get Beetee, now disoriented and not knowing which wedge they should go in, they make their best guess and head back to the main beach. Finnick and Katniss go into the jungle to get water, and Katniss hears what sounds like Prim screaming. She runs into the woods only to find a jabberjay and shoot it. Finnick runs up and hears Annie, his girlfriend, and runs off. Katniss finds that jabberjay and shoots it as well. Katniss tries to reassure Finnick that it's just a trick, but he tells her that jabberjays copy, meaning they must be torturing Prim and Annie. Another jabberjay begins to sound like Gale, and they run back towards the beach, but are trapped by an invisible wall. After an hour, they are free to go back to Peeta, Beetee, and Johanna. They reassure Finnick and Katniss that they're in the final 8, and that's when the Capitol does interviews, so they probably just distorted audio from the interviews.

Beetee makes a plan. At 10, a wave rushes down from the segment and soaks the entire beach. His theory is if he takes his wire and wraps it around the lightning tree, then at midnight when the lightning strikes, if the wire is run down to water, it'll fry the Careers, who will hopefully be out on the beach once they're gone. They agree to do this and put their plan in motion. At 11, they go and wrap wire around the tree. Finnick and Peeta stay to guard Beetee, while Katniss and Johanna run the wire down to the water. On their way, the wire is cut, and Johanna knocks Katniss in the head and cuts out the tracker in her arm. She then runs away, leading Brutus and Enobaria after her. They see Katniss wounded and bloody and leave her for dead. Katniss makes her way back up to the tree. Beetee is laying injured and unconscious on the ground, and has a second bit of wire wrapped around a knife near the force field. Katniss decides to blow the arena up and kill them all, and wraps the wire around her arrow. The dome around the arena explodes when the lightning strikes the tree and she looses the arrow. A hovercraft comes in and grabs her body. She wakes up in a hospital bed across from Beetee, who is hooked up to a ton of machines. She rips out her IV but is then knocked out again. She wakes up again restrained and then knocks herself out again. The third time she wakes up she grabs a syringe and goes down the hall. In a meeting room, Plutarch, Finnick, and Haymitch are conversing. Katniss bursts in, and they disarm her and explain that there's been a rebel plot all along, and everyone was in on the plan except for Districts 1, 2, 5, 9 , 10, Peeta, and Katniss. Katniss is the symbol of the rebellion and Beetee had been trying to break the arena and get them out before Brutus and Enobaria attacked. They then explain that Annie, Peeta, Johanna, and Enobaria have been taken captive by the Capitol. Katniss attacks Haymitch, and she's sedated again. Finnick tries to apologize to her but she won't hear it. The last time she comes to she's with Gale, who is injured in the arm and burned in the face. He tells her that Prim and her mother are safe, but the Capitol firebombed District 12 into nothing.

[385bookreviews]

1.45.1 The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

SPOILERS

Pages: 374

Time Read: 5 hours and 58 minutes

Overall Rating: 4★ Storyline: 5★ Dialogue: 4☆ Characters: 5★

Genre: YA Dystopian

TWs for the book: Death of a parent, child death, murder, violence, gore, animal death, blood, injury, fire, burns, grief, classism, alcoholism, physical and emotional child abuse, discussions of war, torture, medical content, amputation, confinement, su*c*de attempt, vomit, police brutality, mental illness, su*c*dal thoughts, panic attacks, slavery, discussions of cannibalism, body shaming, starvation, hallucination, body horror

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: A future version of North America known as Panem; District 12, the Capitol, and the 74th Hunger Games arena.

First Line: When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.

In the future version of North America, Panem, Katniss wakes up on the morning of the Reaping. Every year, the Capitol requires a boy and girl tribute from each of the twelve districts to be randomly selected to fight in the Hunger Games. This keeps the districts obedient and in line to prevent another uprising, like the one that resulted in District 13 being destroyed. Living in the poor Seam of District 12, Katniss and her friend Gale have taught themselves to go beyond the fences and hunt and forage for food. While on their hunt that morning, Gale suggests to Katniss that they should run away from the districts and the Capitol, as he is angry about the Reaping, and worried that one of their names will be drawn. In order to get more rations for the year, Katniss and Gale each have their names in the running more than once. Katniss is appalled by Gale thinking they should run away, as they both have families to support. He lets it go.

Katniss makes her way home to get ready for the Reaping. It's her 12 year old sister Prim's first Reaping, and she tries to reassure her that since her name is only entered once, she has the least possibility of being chosen. They dress up in their nicest clothes and go to the town square. Prim's name is drawn by the Capitol woman meant to escort the District 12 tributes every year, Effie Trinket. Katniss immediately volunteers to take her sister's place, a shocking and unheard of thing to do in District 12. The people remain silent when Effie tries to get them to applaud, lifting three fingers in salute to her for her sacrifice. The only other living District 12 tribute, Haymitch, is drunk out of his mind and takes a nose dive off the stage, and Effie moves things along by selecting the boy tribute, Peeta. After her father died in a mining accident and her mother slipped into depression, Katniss and her family were slowly starving to death. She found herself behind Peeta's family's bakery. After attempting to dig through their trash bins and being shooed away by Peeta's mother, Peeta burned some bread intentionally, took the beating from his mother, and tossed it to Katniss. This gave her the motivation to begin hunting and keep going, which kept them from starving or going to an orphanage due to their mother's neglect. Katniss is uncomfortable with Peeta being her fellow tribute as she feels like she owes him.

They are taken back into the building and people come to say goodbye to Katniss. First Prim and her mother come, and she promises Prim she will try her best to win and forcefully tells her mother to not let Prim starve. Shockingly, her next visitor is Peeta's father. He's a quiet man and doesn't say much, but gives her cookies, sits with her, and promises Katniss that Prim won't go hungry. Madge, the mayor's daughter who she sells strawberries to, comes in. She gives Katniss her gold mockingjay pin to be her token in the arena. Gale is her last visitor and they embrace, saying that they should have run away when they had the chance. After that, Peeta and Katniss are put on a train with Effie and Haymitch and begin their journey to the Capitol. They are given tons of lavish foods that they've never had before, and their rooms are full of clothes. On the journey there, Peeta and Katniss struggle to try and get Haymitch to mentor them, as is his job, but he is surly and drunk. They finally agree to do as he says, as long as he stays sober enough to instruct them.

When they arrive at the Capitol, Katniss is given a makeover by her prep team, all three tittering and oblivious Capitol citizens, and then she meets her stylist Cinna. He is level-headed and calm, and a lot unlike Effie and the prep team, so Katniss likes him almost immediately. Cinna and Portia, Peeta's stylist, collaborated to make sure that they made an impression with their outfits for the opening parade. Their costumes are stunning, made even better by the fake fire used to illuminate them like burning coal. This gains them a lot of approval from the crowd, and the other tributes are immediately jealous. Over the next three days, Katniss and Peeta train with the other tributes, being sure not to reveal their actual skills: archery and strength. When it's time to go and show their skills to the Gamemakers to receive a scoring out of 12, Katniss is the last tribute. The Gamemakers are bored, and when she misses her first shot with the bow and arrow, they rapidly lose what little interest they had left. Enraged, Katniss fires an arrow into an apple in the pig's mouth the Gamemakers had gathered around. Surprisingly, this causes her to receive a high score of 11.

During the televised interviews, Peeta confesses his crush on Katniss. Between this and him asking to train separately after their scores, Katniss is angry and attacks him. She apologizes, but later, when they talk on the roof, they argue again. The next morning, she is seen into the arena by Cinna, who gives her back her mockingjay pin. When the gong goes off, she is going to run to the Cornucopia against Haymitch's advice, but Peeta distracts her so she misses her chance. She wrestles someone for a backpack and escapes with it and a knife thrown at her by a Career.

Katniss spends the rest of the day getting as far away as possible and trying (yet failing) to find water. At night, she ties herself up in a tree to sleep, but someone nearby starts a fire. The Careers come to kill the person by the fire, two boys and three girls from Districts 1, 2, and 4. Shockingly, Peeta is also with them, supposedly leading them to Katniss. When Katniss finally finds water the next day, the Gamemakers throw a surprise wall of fire at her, chasing her away from her new water source and closer to other tributes. She gets burned on her leg trying to escape, but also manages to find another water source. After some rest, the Careers manage to find her and chase her up into a tree. They try to go after her but can't climb as high as her, so they sleep at the bottom of the tree to wait her out. Katniss spots Rue, one of the District 11 tributes, in a tree nearby. Rue points out a tracker jacker nest above Katniss' head. She contemplates what to do, either ignore it or cut it down on the Careers and Peeta. Thankfully, she gets a gift from a sponsor in the form of burn cream that helps her leg. She warns Rue she's going to cut down the tracker jackers, and then makes her way up. She is stung several times but succeeds. The Careers run for the lake but Glimmer doesn't make it. This allows Katniss to steal her bow and arrows. The venom begins to take over, and she's not sure if she hallucinates Peeta telling her to run. She runs, and then passes out from her hallucinations and the venom.

Once she comes around and treats her wounds, Katniss encounters Rue. They form an alliance, and make a plan to destroy the Careers' food supply. Rue will set fires to distract them from their stash, and Katniss will destroy it. They part ways and Katniss finds that they have stashed all of the food and supplies from the Cornucopia in a big mound. Only one boy from District 3 guards it, so Katniss wonders what has been done to protect it. She sees Foxface, another tribute, use a complicated foot path to reach the supplies and steal some. Katniss realizes that the mound is surrounded by landmines, and shoots an arrow to break open an apple bag and set off the mines. The explosion causes her to lose hearing in one ear. She runs to find Rue but she's not at their meeting place or responding to the Mockingjay whistles. Katniss eventually hunts her down, right as the boy from District 1 stabs her. She kills the boy, and sings Rue to sleep as she dies. In a moment of tenderness and sadness, Katniss surrounds Rue's body in flowers. That night, the Gamemakers announce that two tributes from the same district can both win the games.

Once day comes, she immediately tracks down Peeta, wounded and dying, painted in camouflage by the creek. She gets him cleaned up as best she can, but his wound is infected. They find a cave to shelter in, and Katniss decides to play into the star crossed lovers act for sponsors, which works, and they get some soup. Peeta quickly begins to deteriorate due to his infection. The Gamemakers announce a feast at the Cornucopia, as the remaining tributes, Cato, Clove, Foxface, Thresh, Katniss, and Peeta, all desperately need something to keep surviving. Peeta and Katniss argue about her going. Haymitch sends her some sleeping medicine to knock Peeta out, and she goes to the Cornucopia. Foxface grabs her bag and runs. Katniss goes for it, but is attacked by Clove. She taunts her and tries to kill her, but after she makes a comment about Rue, Thresh comes out of no where and kills her. He asks Katniss about Rue, and Katniss begs him to make it quick, but he lets her go and steals Cato and Clove's backpack. Katniss makes it back to Peeta, and the bag contained medicine to keep him alive. They are trapped in the cave for several days while it rains heavily, and they enjoy food from Haymitch in the meantime. When the weather clears up, they go out to hunt, but split up because Peeta is too loud. Katniss runs back to find Peeta when he doesn't respond to her whistle. She finds him and is angry he left, but he says he was just collecting berries. They notice some food missing, and as Katniss inspects the berries, they hear a cannon and see Foxface's body being lifted away. They quickly make a fire to cook their food before Cato comes and then make their way to the lake. After waiting awhile, Cato comes running by in a full suit of armor, being chased by mutts that look like the dead tributes. The three of them end up on top of the Cornucopia. Cato takes Peeta hostage, who is bleeding out from a mutt bite to his leg. Katniss shoots Cato in the hand and he falls to the mutts, who drag him into the Cornucopia. They stay on top of the Cornucopia all night as the mutts rip up Cato, but he doesn't die because of his body armor. Katniss finally shoots him to put him out of his misery and to save Peeta. The mutts leave and they go down to the lake to accept their victory, but the Gamemakers announce that the rule change has been rescinded and only one of them can win. Peeta rips his tourniquet off and tries to die, but Katniss suggests they both die by eating the poison berries that killed Foxface. Before they can do it they are both announced to be the winners. On the hovercraft that takes them, the doctors fight to save Peeta's life. Katniss is knocked out and wakes up in her room in the Capitol awhile later. Haymitch tells her that she is now a target to President Snow and the Capitol because she embarrassed them. Her and Peeta reunite on television where they rewatch the games, and Katniss learns that Peeta has had his leg amputated. They are able to go home, but on the train ride back, Katniss reveals she only was playing to be in love with him for sponsorships. Peeta is heartbroken.

[385bookreviews]

2.113 It Was Just Another Day in America by Ryan David Ginsberg

SPOILERS

Pages: 162

Time Read: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Overall Rating: 2.5★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 2★ Characters: 3★

Genre: Short Stories and Poems

TWs for the book: A Million Times Over Again: Death of a grandparent Amber's Son: Child death, war, violence, military A Baby is Born: Pregnancy, birth, medical content, abandonment, debt, classism, ableism Tommy Longhorn, Planet Explorer: Death, blood, child death, mass shooting, death of a parent The Termination Bureau: Graphic abortion, baby death, gun violence, mentions of CSA and incest, pregnancy, abandonment, police brutality, ableism Dinner and a Show: Cannibilism, elitism, classism, war, death, bombs It Was Just Another Day in America: School shooting, child death, police and military, guns, blood, bullying A Portrait of the Artist in 2022: N/A Poems: Su*c*de, existentialism, depression, anxiety, Tr*mp, politics, school/mass shootings

POV: Various

Time Period/Location: America in different alternate dystopian timelines

First Line: For ten years I have walked circles around this village, looking in on villagers who have never once looked out at me.

Stories: I really enjoyed Ginsberg's stories, even though some of them were deeply unsettling. The metaphors and dystopias he uses to convey his political points and thoughts on the current state of our country are a bit on the nose, but they definitely put things into perspective. It Was Just Another Day in America, The Termination Bureau, A Baby is Born, and Dinner and a Show seem extreme, but it also makes you wonder, if things continue as they are, will it get to that eventually? I really would like to see some of these short stories expanded upon more, as they gave off a Ray Bradbury vibe.

Poems: I did not care for Ginsberg's poems nearly as much as I enjoyed his stories. I enjoyed I Keep Slipping, Our Youth, Sacrilegious, and Mr. America, but the rest felt a little bit like unstable ramblings, especially with the author openly contemplating su*c*de in several of them. He refers to his wife with varying degrees of unhealthy reverence and sees her as too good for him. His political poems are a simpler rehashing of the concepts he wrote about in his stories. This ultimately dropped the book down to 2.5 stars for me.

Summary: This was a quick and easy read that I definitely don't regret, but I did have a little bit of higher hopes for. While I can understand the concept as an author to be seen and recognized for your work, the constant rehashing of feeling miserable with life and his writing going no where (not just in his poems but also in A Portrait of the Artist in 2022) felt repetitive, hopeless, and almost whiny. I don't feel as though I was the target audience here, as I'm sure a cishet man might relate better to the concepts and emotions he was trying to convey. I did greatly enjoy the stories however, and if he fleshed one of those out into a novel, I would definitely read it. This book also had a few typos. While most books seem to nowadays, between that, overall structure, and the content of his poetry, I feel as though an editor would have greatly benefit him.

Complete Recap: The book opens with a poem entitled Mr. Gatekeeper, a metaphor for the author being allowed to share his stories and poems with others.

This is followed by two different introduction notes where the author introduces himself before the short stories segment of his book.

A Million Times Over Again is about girl named Hannah recounting how as a child she used to ask everyone where they thought we came from. Everyone had varying answers, until she asked her Nana. While she knits, Nana recounts the tale of how the Universe and Souls came to be, how Souls had Soul-mates, and then how they were torn apart by an evil force that invaded the Universe. She goes on to tell how the Souls would take over humans in order to search for their Soul-mates, over and over again for forever. At the end, Nana tells her that they are each others Soul-mates, and years later, when she dies, Hannah knows that she will find her again.

Amber's Son is set in an America where children of any age can go to war. The characters in this story have no names, and are only referred to as the son or daughter of their mother. Amber's son signs up for the military at 12 years old, fed lies about glory and fun and whiskey and patriotism. His mother has no choice but to sign off on it, and six days later he is sent to a far off desert to fight in a squad of other children, the youngest being only 8, and the oldest only 17. They invade a village of other young children and Amber's son kills eight of them before being shot and killed himself. This story changes your view from soldiers being sent off to war, to someone's son or daughter being sent to kill someone else's son or daughter in a meaningless conflict demanded by an uncaring government.

A Baby is Born paints a picture of the ultimate capitalist hellscape where corporations literally own you. Maybelline is at the hospital alone, without her husband as he can't take time off of work to be there for the birth of their baby. She is consistently harassed by "Recruiters" who try to get her to sign away her and her baby's lives to various corporations in order to fund her birth. She had to sign herself to three additional companies in order to cover just the cost of seeing a doctor, which is $25,000. Before she is allowed to see the doctor, while she is in active labor, she has to sit through hours of pitches from Recruiters and even the doctor before she is seen or treated. She has no choice but to have her baby born in one of these birthing centers, or her baby will not be considered an American citizen. Additionally, her and the baby have to be signed away to enough corporations to cover the cost of the birth itself, which is $2 million. Amber has already lost two babies by not having enough money, because if you can’t pay, your baby is taken and sold. After signing up her baby to 48 corporations, she is finally allowed to give birth, but she isn't allowed to hold her baby until examinations are done to determine that the child will even be a functioning member of society. When they finally give her the child back, they inform her that their name will be chosen by the company that purchased the right to do so.

Tommy Longhorn, Planet Explorer tells the story of an alien who travels the universes and lives among whatever newly discovered species has been found to determine whether or not they can join the Confederation of the Cosmos. He comes to Earth, leaving his wife and four children behind, and lives disguised among the humans for a decade. The day he is supposed to leave, he goes to the mall to get souvenirs and Christmas presents for his wife and children, but is gunned down by a mass shooter.

The Termination Bureau takes the crown for the most uncomfortable and disturbing story in this collection. In the state of Florida in a dystopian America, people are allowed to either sell their babies to the state before they're born for whichever reason they wish. If the babies have intelligence potential, they are sent to special academies. If they have strength potential, they are sent to become laborers. If they have loyalty potential, they are sold to corporations. Babies that don't have any of those things are put on podiums in an all white room, and shot in the head by a police officer. A 13 year old girl, impregnated by her father, comes in to request to sell her unborn child to the state. She is denied, as she doesn't have her father's permission to sell it. The Moral Advisor reads her the law which states that children are a man's property, and women are only incubators who have no right to sell a man's property, regardless or r*pe or incest. She has to give birth to the baby, keep it, and raise it for the next 18 years, or she must spend her life in prison. The girl leaves, and proceeds to go into the alley around back and perform a coat-hanger abortion on herself. The Moral Advisor calls the police, and they brutally handcuff her and throw her into the back of a police car.

Dinner and a Show is set in another alternate reality, with nine of the richest, most elite men in the world, having dinner in Malibu where they praise the virtues of capitalism while every country in the world is at war with each other. Tom Edison, the first ever trillionaire, eats the dismembered arm of one of his factory workers who died of heat stroke. Jean Dirt, the most famous and charismatic actor, eats roasted eyeballs. George Adams, an influential and dangerous investor, eats some of the most expensive food you could think of. Yukio Sing, the spoiled nepo baby inheritor of the Kingdom of Diamonds, eats lion meat and human bone broth mixed with blood. Norm Wolff, the number one news anchor in the country who does nothing but lie for money, eats nothing but fried foods covered in sugar. Ashley Morrison, former CEO of the biggest oil company, eats the meat and eggs of endangered animals. Tomas Marquez, a real estate investor, eats food with ingredients taken from all over the world. Scott Anderson, the former President of the United States that started the Great War to End All Wars, eats food made to look like an American flag. Finally, our narrator, prolific author Theodore Doerr III, eats a human brain. They finally go out on a balcony that overviews a battlefield while they mindlessly discuss the ever changing political affiliations of the countries fighting in the war. Two armies go out on the battlefield to meet each other, one side American and the other side either Tanzanian or Japanese, the men no longer know who they're even fighting. A massive bomb is dropped on the battlefield and when the smoke clears, both armies are completely dead. The men cheer regardless.

It Was Just Another Day in America shows little Jasper going off to school in his bulletproof vest. He is bullied by the other kids relentlessly, and has only one friend, Bryan. The pair are sat away from the rest of the class as the teacher has no other way to stop the bullying. The children have their things and themselves scanned and searched before they can enter the school, and when they go out to play, they are surrounded by police, military, helicopters, and guard towers, all holding guns. In the middle of class, an alarm goes off, and the children run to get into their individual bunkers, the teacher wielding a gun and not allowed to go into her own bunker until all the students are in theirs. Several students forget their passwords, but the teacher isn't allowed to know the codes because some other teacher used them to slaughter her entire class. Jasper gets into his bunker. When he is let out two hours later, the bodies are gone but the blood is still there. His teacher and several of his classmates were killed, including Bryan. Class continues for the day with a substitute teacher.

A Portrait of the Artist in 2022 tells a simple and short story of an Unknown Writer who goes to Hollywood Boulevard to try and become famous for his book. At stall 43,222 he does dramatic readings of his story. Everyone passes him by and no one takes copies of his book. He packs up his things, and prepares to do it all again the next day.

Ginsberg's Poems explore themes in his own life, such as existentialism, depression, anxiety, su*c*de, and his relationship with his wife; as well as political topics he covered in his short stories.

[385bookreviews]

2.279 Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

SPOILERS

Pages: 368

Time Read: 4 hours and 43 minutes

Overall Rating: 5★ Storyline: 5★ Dialogue: 5★ Characters: 5★

Genre: YA Thriller

TWs for the book: Violence, gun violence, gore, injury IN DETAIL, murder, blood, transphobia, outing, deadnaming, F slur, police brutality, death, fire/fire injury, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, classism, hate crimes, medical content, addiction, drug withdrawal, child death, grief, vomit, car accident, death of a parent, bullying, homophobia, torture, physical abuse, cursing, toxic relationship, toxic friendships, alcohol, mental illness, ableism, panic attacks, dysphoria, child abuse, emotional abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, s*xual harassment, chronic illness, misogyny, body shaming, kidnapping, p*d*philia

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: Twist Creek County, West Virginia in 2017.

First Line: When the sheriff of Twist Creek County--and all those other sons of bitches, the Baldwin-Felts agents and bloodthirsty strikebreakers--finally caught my great-great-grandfather and dragged his ass up from the mine to make a spectacle of his execution, they killed him by hammering a railroad spike through his mouth.

Transgender socialist Miles Abernathy lives in Twist Creek County, West Virginia. His great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, led a strike against the coal mine companies and tortured the sheriff's son for leverage. When he was caught, the sheriff executed him by driving a railroad spike through his mouth. This started a blood feud between the Davies family and the Abernathy family. Having just completed his junior year of high school, Miles sneaks out to go to the graduating party in the woods. But he hates social events, and he isn't going to celebrate. He meets up with his childhood friend Cooper O'Brien. Miles stole pictures that his dad took the night of the accident that killed Mrs. O'Brien that incriminate Sheriff Davies as being the one that ran them off the road. Cooper takes them and agrees to show his dad to maybe finally bring the Sheriff to justice. While they are talking, Noah Davies, the sheriff's son, and his two friends Eddie and Paul come to interrogate them about what they're doing. They lie, and Miles starts to walk home through the woods. Noah, Eddie, and Paul catch up with him though, and take a video of them beating and torturing Miles almost to death. Cooper finds Miles and brings him to the hospital. When he wakes up in the hospital, he sees the ghost of a coal miner shaking him awake. He has extensive injuries and experienced massive internal bleeding that caused him to need surgery.

Before he had departed for the party, Miles had sent an email to both of his parents coming out as trans. He brings it up to his mom, but she doesn't take it very well and doesn't want to discuss it. Sheriff Davies comes in while Miles' mom is out of the room, and threatens Miles into staying quiet about Noah and his friends beating him up. Miles tells him that with his head injury, he doesn't remember what happened. Miles eventually goes home and begins his recovery, periodically still seeing the mute ghost of the coal miner. Cooper checks up on him and their friendship begins to return, Miles even coming out to him as trans. Miles does get stir crazy and refuses to let the attack haunt him, so he goes to pick up his check from the restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. His boss tells him that he has the whole summer off and gives him extra money, saying she has temporarily hired someone to take his place, but just for the summer. Miles walks out the back door, and contemplates going back in to return the extra money, when Eddie walks out the door and reveals himself to be Miles' replacement for the summer. They get in an altercation, Miles breaking Eddie's nose and trying to threaten him to delete the video of his attack. Eddie is afraid at first, but realizes he has the upper hand with his connection to Noah and Sheriff Davies. This angers Miles further, and he tries to reach for Eddie to hit him, but Eddie backs away, slips on the gravel, and hits his head, which kills him instantly. Miles is mortified, but knows what Sheriff Davies will do to him and his family if the accident is discovered, so he drags Eddie's bodies behind the dumpsters and calls Cooper. Cooper comes immediately and helps Miles clean up the scene and they take the body. They dump Eddie's body down the old mineshaft where no one will ever go looking because of the structural instability. They then go back to Cooper's house where Miles takes a shower and Cooper helps him shave his head so his hair is more even after the head wound stitches. Cooper and Miles share a somewhat tender moment, and when Cooper leans in to kiss him, he reciprocates, logically deducing he must have a crush on Cooper because that's what he's supposed to do. After they kiss, Cooper says, "We've already killed one of them. What's a few more?" Miles is disgusted and angered by this notion and they fight before Miles leaves and goes home.

Soon after, Miles realizes that he has become reliant upon the opioids he was prescribed in the hospital, just like Mr. O'Brien is and like his father used to be. He quits cold turkey and spends time going through withdrawals. During which he finally is able to go out and see the ghost without him disappearing. After looking through old pictures he realizes that the ghost is Saint Abernathy, and he can't speak because of the railroad spike down his throat. Saint reveals to Miles that he was also trans, and leads him and his dog Lady to the burned down movie theatre where he was executed, and hands Miles a railroad spike. Miles then takes this as a sign to fight for his family and get his revenge, and texts Cooper that he's willing to move forward with the murders. He goes home, but his dad is awake. His dad begins to make an effort to use his new name and pronouns, and Miles is forced to confess his opioid withdrawal. The next morning, his mother is enraged that Miles didn't say anything about the drugs, and demands he has to start going to therapy. Miles refuses, and they argue until Sheriff Davies shows up to inquire about Eddie. They tell him they know nothing, and then Sheriff Davies asks where Miles is going to go to therapy once he sees the brochures. Miles chooses one at random, and once the sheriff leaves, his mom tells him that he is going.

The next day, his mom drops him off at a church for group therapy. He leaves halfway through out of anxiety and goes into the alley next door. A person comes out of the door to a restaurant, and Miles doesn't recognize them, but the person, Dallas, does. Dallas is their old friend from before the accident. When Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, Miles' father, and Dallas were run off the road by Sheriff Davies, Dallas sustained a lot of burns and injuries, and Dallas' parents blamed Miles' father and family. They moved away and had no contact, but Dallas is back, living with their brother and his wife Amber, who is autistic. Dallas' brother and Amber have their own restaurant/bar that is entirely socialist and run by the workers, right under Sheriff Davies nose. Miles is glad to see his friend again, and also talk to another trans person, but is scared to be seen in the bar. Dallas says that on the Fourth of July, the biggest holiday in town, they would be throwing a "Fuck the Fourth" party to counteract it and call out Sheriff Davies. Miles rejects the invitation, but him and Dallas swap phone numbers, and he gives them Cooper's number.

Miles and Cooper meet up to plan the murders, deciding to use Miles' father's gun to shoot Paul on the Fourth of July when his parents are out of town. While they are talking in Cooper's convenience store, Paul and Noah turn up to harass them, further settling their decision. Miles spends the night with Cooper and they get drunk and make out. Miles then decides to also make a difference in another way, and goes back to the bar to speak with Amber. Amber tells him they are going to be handing out pamphlets with evidence of Sheriff Davies' and the police departments' corruption. Miles gives them copies of the pictures he gave to Cooper.

The night before the Fourth of July party that the Davies plan and throw every year, Cooper and Miles took the gun and drove up to Paul's house. The plan is for Cooper to shoot him, and then they would clean up and dump his body in the mineshaft like they did with Eddie. They arrive, and find Paul in his father's processing plant in the garage, skinning a dear. He says he knew that they had killed Eddie the whole time but that Noah didn't believe him, and he tells them to get it over with. Cooper chickens out and lowers the gun. Miles and Paul talk, and Paul talks about how he really doesn't have it any better than the Abernathy's. Sheriff Davies bought out his parents' land and makes them pay rent to him, and takes most of their wages, and Noah had threatened to kill Paul because Paul said he wanted to leave town. Miles feels for Paul, and agrees to spare his life and just make it look like they killed him if Paul leaves town that night. Paul agrees, looking relieved, and asks to grab some stuff, when Cooper regains his nerve and shoots Paul in the jaw, removing the entire lower half of his face. Miles is appalled, and Cooper insists that they leave Paul to bleed out on the floor. They run, but on the drive back Miles makes Cooper pull over so he can throw up. They fight about Cooper shooting Paul like that, and Miles trying to let Paul leave. Cooper becomes more and more deranged, shaking Miles and deadnaming him. Miles tells him to leave him there as he was going to have Dallas pick him up. Cooper leaves and Dallas and Amber race to come pick him up, not knowing what's wrong. Miles goes nonverbal and begins having a meltdown. When he gets to their house, he wants to shower but dreads the prospect of the sensory experience. Amber gives him some things to help and tells him he might be autistic like her. He spends the night in Dallas' bed with them, but Cooper keeps blowing up his phone, demanding to speak with him and leave Dallas' house so he can come get him, worried that Miles will snitch.

In the morning, Amber and Dallas take Miles home, and he returns the gun to the safe. Later in the day his family comes to the house to prepare to go to the Fourth of July party together. Cooper comes in, saying he is Miles' boyfriend, and quietly threatens Miles to keep his mouth shut. They walk to the party, where Dallas and Amber are handing out pamphlets with evidence of Sheriff Davies' crimes and advertising the Fuck the Fourth gathering. Cooper sees the pictures on the pamphlet and is enraged, and Miles' dog Lady has to come between them. He leaves, and Noah and Sheriff Davies get up on stage and announce Paul's death. Then they announce that they'll be giving out a citizen award to Miles, since he bravely recovered from a hate crime and for being a pillar to the transgender community. This outs Miles to the entire town and also to his grandparents, aunt, and uncle. They all quickly leave the party after telling Dallas to go home now. Once they arrive back home, their aunt and uncle are enraged and leave. Miles' grandparents, however, accept him and are enraged on his behalf. They discuss what they should do, and they decide that it's time to fight back, and go to the Fuck the Fourth gathering. They do the next day, and while his mother and father discuss what to do with Amber and her husband, Dallas and Miles enjoy the punk band performing, talk about trans issues and about Miles potentially being autistic and aromantic, and marvel at the fact that so many of the towns people showed up. A girl who's father was imprisoned by Sheriff Davies and a mother who's son was killed by him share their stories, and Miles decides to be brave and stand up on stage, showing off his still disfigured face and head and tells everyone finally that Noah Davies and his friends did this to him and that the sheriff threatened him and his family in order to cover it up. At that exact moment, Sheriff Davies walks in and starts demanding that people leave. Amber refuses and demands he leave, and Miles' mother and father start ushering him and Dallas towards the back door. Finally, Amber throws water in his face, and he pulls out his gun and shoots her. The crowd turns into a riot, and Miles' mother shoves him and Dallas into the kitchen and locks the door. They contemplate what happened to Amber and how to get back in, but then Noah enters, covered in blood, and lights a Molotov cocktail, setting the place ablaze. Miles and Dallas run outside, where people have finally started to come out, including his mother and father, Amber's husband, and Amber, who was shot in the shoulder. They drive back to their house separately. When Dallas, Miles, and his father arrive back at their house, they find Cooper's body, cracked open and gutted on their porch. The rest of them arrive, they call Miles' grandparents, and Mr. O'Brien to see the body of his son. Miles' mom takes care of Amber's shoulder, and Miles fesses up to him and Cooper killing Eddie and Paul. No one is really surprised, as the Davies and Abernathy's had been killing each other for years. They decide that enough is enough, and when Noah texts Miles to end this permanently by meeting him alone, they decide for them to meet in the abandoned mineshaft. They plan for Miles to trap Noah, and then use him as a negotiation tool to convince Sheriff Davies to leave town.

Miles goes down into the mineshaft with the gun. Noah meets him there and taunts him, saying that they'll leave his family alone forever if he agrees to go with him and his dad. He also tells Miles about how he tortured Cooper, gutted him like a deer while he was still alive, and Cooper confessed everything. Miles lets off a warning shot, and Noah attacks him. They fight, and Noah gets the gun, but Miles pulls a knife out and kills him with a stab to the neck. He leaves the mineshaft and tries desperately to call his family, but is then shot in the head by Sheriff Davies, taking out his eye. The Sheriff kidnaps him, and takes him to the abandoned movie theatre to hammer a railroad spike into his mouth, just like his ancestor did to Saint. Saint manifests in front of Sheriff Davies to distract him, just as Miles' family shows up, and Lady attacks the sheriff, ripping chunks out of him. By the time they recall Lady, the sheriff is dying, so Miles' grandpa shoots him in the head. The rest of the town witnesses it, but they all grab shovels and tarps to help them bury the body and hide the evidence.

Time skips forwards a bit to the town holding a meeting to decide what to do to ensure the corruption of the town ends. Miles is missing an eye now, and him and Dallas are in a queer platonic relationship. A state trooper shows up, but everyone at the meeting clams up and refuses to give any answers about Sheriff Davies.

Miles Abernathy (Sadie Abernathy): I love Andrew Joseph White's protagonists because they always feel so real. I, of course, connected with Miles due to his autism, but also due to his humanness in general. He's no where near perfect, making mistakes and even plotting murder, but he's also just a kid, doing his best in a near impossible situation. I also appreciate him showing different presentations of autism with his characters, between Nick in Hell Followed With Us, Silas and the gardener in The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Miles and Amber in Compound Fracture, you get different perspectives of people that live with the same thing, and for me as an autistic person, I am able to see different aspects of myself represented in each character. This also applies with Benji from Hell Followed With Us, Silas and Daphne from The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Miles and Dallas from Compound Fracture in how they all view their trans-ness differently and have different journeys with it.

Cooper O'Brien: I really wasn't expecting at first for Cooper's character to become so twisted, but you watched him spiral into a sort of madness in real time with Miles. He became wildly unpredictable, and anticipating his actions was a source of anxiety while reading (in a good, thriller kind of way). You almost became just as scared of Cooper as you did of Noah and the sheriff by the end.

Storyline: I finished this book in one sitting, staying up WAY past my bedtime because I just needed to know what happened. The plot kept you on your toes the entire time, even in the calm moments, because you had no clue when some kind of chaos or calamity was about to descend. The plot twists were genuinely brutal, especially with the vivid descriptions of the gore these teenagers were inflicting upon each other. The sheriff was written to be especially enraging and evil, a well done villain. You feel the characters' rage alongside them as the story progresses.

Representation: Miles is autistic, aromantic, and transgender (FtM), and ends up in a queer platonic relationship with Dallas at the end. He is also left disfigured in the face and head after the attack, and later on completely blinded in one eye when he is shot by the sheriff. Dallas is a burn survivor, and is disfigured because of it. They also are plus sized, have ADHD, and are queer and nonbinary. It is undetermined if Cooper is queer, or if he just sees Miles as a girl despite him coming out. Amber has autism. Miles' boss is described as visibly queer, but nothing is specified or confirmed. Miles' great-great-grandfather Saint Abernathy is trans and gay. Miles describes there being several queer people at his school, including a he/they lesbian, a queer girl, and a gay boy. One of the musicians in the punk band is a trans woman. Miles, his father, and Mr. O'Brien all struggle with opioid addiction.

Summary: Once again, Andrew Joseph White has written a masterpiece. His books have the incredible ability to suck you right into the story, making you feel like you're there and experiencing these events with the characters, and, for fellow trans and autistic people, at times it can even feel like you're the protagonist yourself. No characters are overlooked, and it feels like everyone in the story grows and develops, not just the protagonist.

Quotes: "...parents seem obsessed with performing their grief about a child's transition."-Miles Abernathy (p.66) "We've already killed one of them. What's a few more?"-Cooper O'Brien (p.102) "It's like everyone knows there's something off about me, and they don't like it, and they don't quite know what to do about it."-Miles Abernathy (p.149) "I wish Cooper had gotten to know the version of me that's going to exist one day."-Miles Abernathy (p.333)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.3 Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 477

Time Read: 11 hours and 16 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 4★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4★

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Violence, murder, death, addiction, incest, body horror, mental illness, war, su*c*de, drug use, possession, psychosis, colonization, self harm, sexism, drug abuse, torture, kidnapping, grief, religion/religious bigotry, adult/minor relationship

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Nine years after the events of Dune Messiah; On Arrakis and Salusa Secundus.

First Line: A spot of light appeared on the deep red rug which covered the raw rock of the cave floor.

Nine years after Paul Muad'Dib walked off into the desert, Stilgar guards Leto II and Ghanima, Paul's young twins. He contemplates how things in the Imperium got to this point, and if he should kill Leto and Ghanima to put an end to House Atreides and the pre-born. He ultimately decides against it.

Leto and Ghanima prepare to meet their grandmother, Lady Jessica for the first time. Alia, the current Regent of the Imperium, says she will meet her and Arrakeen and bring her back to Sietch Tabr to meet the twins. Leto and Ghanima discuss amongst themselves that Alia has become an Abomination, possessed by one of her past lives. Alia flies to Arrakeen and muses over why her mother has come to see her, suspecting ulterior motives. Jessica returns, and in a grand entrance to the people of the city, has her men, Gurney Halleck, and Stilgar capture people in the crowd to interrogate them. Alia is enraged she acted without her permission, but Jessica ignores her and talks to two of Alia's priests. One of them, a man named Javid, gives her pause. She notes that he hates the Atreides, and that Alia is involved with him, despite being married to Duncan Idaho. Jessica desires to go to Sietch Tabr immediately to meet her grandchildren, but is delayed by the pomp and ceremony of Alia's priests.

On Salusa Secundus, Irulan's sister, Wensicia of House Corrino, plots to have two Laza tigers kill the Atreides twins by gifting them specific robes the tigers will track. Her Bashar, Tyekanik, is opposed to the idea, but she commands him to obey, and to convert to the religion of Muad'Dib in order to persuade her son Farad'n to willingly become Emperor when her schemes fall into place.

Leto struggles with prescient dreams about an abandoned sietch called Jacurutu, and him and Ghanima both intensely fear becoming Abomination like Alia.

A mysterious blind figure known as the Preacher begins to appear in the city, preaching heresy against Alia and the Golden Elixir. Everyone begins to speculate that this man is actually Paul Muad'Dib, and that he didn't die when he wandered into the desert nine years before.

Alia recalls her possession. She cut off her ancestors' memories and pushed them down and away, not communicating with them or viewing them like the twins did. This left her susceptible to all of them overpowering her. To prevent this from happening, she allowed the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to have partial possession of her. He commanded her to use the Bene Gesserit ways to stay eternally young, something highly forbidden, and he also commanded her to sleep with Javid.

Leto and Ghanima allow themselves temporary possession by the memories of Paul and Chani, and they seek advice from them. They conclude that they must follow Paul's Golden Path, the one he saw in his visions and ran off into the desert to escape.

The Preacher visits Farad'n on Arrakis to interpret his dreams. He refuses to tell Farad'n his interpretation, but reveals that Tyekanik bargained with the Preacher, who wanted to hear Farad'n's dreams in exchange for him commanding Duncan Idaho to come to their side.

Alia plots to abduct Lady Jessica and make it seem as though House Corrino was responsible, and Leto warns Jessica of this, and also tells her to cooperate with the abduction. Leto also warns Stilgar not to trust Alia, and that he sees three paths in his visions: that he will die outside of Sietch Tabr, that he will marry Ghanima, and that he will kill Jessica. Stilgar is highly disturbed by this conversation and tries to ignore it. Alia tells Duncan to kidnap Jessica, and he sees for the first time that she is possessed. He agrees anyways, and leaves.

Alia requests for Jessica to sit in the morning council to hear the supplicants. Alia says for Jessica to take the first petitioner, who is a musician who is in Arrakeen on a pilgrimage. He was jumped and had his money stolen and he appeals to be given money to return home. Jessica asks where he intends to go, and he says he intends to go to House Corrino. Jessica knows this is somehow a trap from Alia, and asks him to play music so she can decide what to do with him. He improvises a song and Alia becomes offended when he compares her to a death-spirit. Jessica allows him to go to House Corrino. Then a Fremen Naib, a former member of Paul's Fedaykin, appeals to them about how the terraforming of Dune is killing the sandworms and the spice trade. A priest runs forward insisting he be removed for wanting to appear under false pretenses. Alia silently commands the priest and he tries to shoot and kill Jessica under the guise of trying to kill the Fedaykin. Jessica and the man, Ghadhean, duck out of the way, and Ghadhean delivers a deadly blow to the priest. Jessica commands two servants to save the priests life so he can be questioned, but another member of Alia's court kills the priest before that can happen. Jessica accuses Alia of attempting to kill her, and calls her out for being possessed by the Baron. She then escapes with the help of Ghadhean and some other Fedaykin in the room. They hide her in an abandoned sietch, and Duncan Idaho comes to take her to safety, but actually abducts her and takes her to Salusa Secundus and House Corrino, defying both Alia and Lady Jessica in favor of the orders of the Preacher.

Leto and Ghanima know that House Corrino has sent animals to hunt and kill them. They sneak out into the desert at night and plot to make it seem as though Leto was killed so he might go find Jacurutu and lead humanity down the Golden Path. The Laza tigers find them, and they hide in a crevice in the rocks. They use the poisoned tips of their crysknives to kill the tigers by swiping their paws with them, but Ghanima is injured by their claws. Leto leaves on a sandworm and heads south, while Ghanima hypnotizes herself into believing that Leto is truly dead, and she won't believe anything else until he sees her again and says the words "Golden Path" in one of the ancient languages they both speak. She makes her way back to Sietch Tabr and sees a Fremen man and woman talking in the secret exit. The man has a control panel for the Laza tigers. Ghanima kills him with a poisoned needle, and takes the woman hostage.

Duncan and Jessica arrive on Salusa Secundus. Farad'n is displeased by the scheming of his mother, which Jessica and Duncan take advantage of. They make a deal that Jessica will teach Farad'n in the way of the Bene Gesserit, and she will also announce that she is there of her own free will so Alia cannot make it seem as though she were kidnapped. Farad'n banishes Wensicia, and then they begin to plot a marriage between Farad'n and Ghanima. Duncan tries to kill himself for some reason, and then disavows himself from the service of the Atreides.

Leto arrives at Jacurutu, but is caught by a Fremen named Namri, father of Javid, and Gurney Halleck. Gurney Halleck is under orders by Lady Jessica to make Leto undergo the spice trance, and to kill him if he shows signs of becoming Abomination.

Alia has Ghanima in her possession and tells her that she is going to marry Farad'n. Ghanima adamantly refuses, saying she will kill him for the death of Leto. Alia and Irulan try desperately to convince her, but she continues to refuse, until Alia agrees to let Ghanima kill Farad'n when they are betrothed. Irulan is appalled and tries to talk both of them out of it, but it is the only way in which Ghanima agrees.

Namri's niece Sabiha is assigned to guard Leto during his trances. Leto hypnotizes her and she falls asleep, allowing him to escape the sietch and hide out under the sand in the midst of a storm. Jacurutu was the old abandoned sietch of the Cast Out, a group of Fremen that stole others' water, but the Cast Out were still alive and weren't living there, so he travels further south.

Duncan returns to Alia, who is disappointed in him, but commands him to go back to Sietch Tabr to help guard Ghanima, who has returned there with Stilgar and Irulan. Duncan goes, but dodges the escort of one of Alia's guards, as he deduces that Alia was meaning for him to die on the trip there.

Leto encounters the Cast Out harvesting spice, and demands he be taken to their sietch, Shuloch, which is nothing more than a ramshackle village. There he discovers Sabiha, who was sent there as punishment by Namri for letting Leto escape. He goes out at night and covers his skin with sandtrouts, the first form of the sandworms. They engulf him and becoming a living stillsuit that make him much more powerful and more fast. He escapes Shuloch and makes a mission of destroying the qanats of the sietches to try and set back the terraforming by generations. Back in Jacurutu, Namri reveals to Gurney that him and his son Javid have been working for House Corrino. Gurney kills him and flees Jacurutu.

Months later, Leto, who has gained the power to control the sandworms and become nonhuman due to his bond with the sandtrouts, confronts the Preacher and his child guide. He kills the guide, and forces the Preacher to reveal his true identity as Paul Muad'Dib. Paul tries to talk Leto out of following the Golden Path, but Leto refuses.

Duncan tries to convince Stilgar to put Alia to a Trial of Possession. Stilgar insists upon him and his sietch remaining neutral. Javid walks in and Duncan kills him, forcing Stilgar to kill Duncan. He then remembers some of Leto's words to him about not trusting Alia and protecting Ghanima, and he takes his sietch and flees into the desert. Alia enlists one of Stilgar's former sietch members to hunt him down.

Leto and Paul find Gurney Halleck hiding out at a different sietch and bring him back to Shuloch with them. Gurney is stunned to see Leto's transformations and Paul alive. Stilgar tries to meet with the man assigned to hunt him down to work out a treaty between him and Alia, but Alia's other soldiers kidnap Ghanima and Stilgar kills the other Fremen.

Alia plans for Jessica and Farad'n's arrival for Ghanima's betrothal. She gazes out of her window, and sees the Preacher approaching. He gathers the crowd and she sends her priests down to grab him and bring him to her, and plans to have him enter at the same time as Ghanima, because she has figured out that he is Paul. Farad'n and Jessica arrive and come to watch the Preacher, but a mob breaks out in the street below. The priests try to grab Paul, but he is stabbed to death. Alia is enraged, and reveals to Jessica and Farad'n that that was Paul. The doors burst open and Leto comes in dragging Ghanima behind him. He says the words and Ghanima breaks from her hypnosis and asks him if their plan worked. Alia demands to know about the plan, and her and Leto fight, him throwing her around like a doll with his new super strength. He gives her two options: Trial of Possession, or she can throw herself out the window. She becomes fully possessed by all of the lives within her, mainly by the Baron, but she is able to fight them off long enough to throw herself out of the window.

Leto is crowned Emperor, and he makes Farad'n his Scribe. The Naibs swear fealty to him and worship him as the embodiment of Shai-Hulud. He speaks with Farad'n privately with Ghanima, asking him for his Sardaukar forces. Farad'n doesn't want to give them up, but Leto says that he will. He also says Farad'n will not be marrying Ghanima, but that he will marry her, and that Farad'n will secretly father the Atreides line going forward as Leto is no longer able to reproduce. Farad'n tries to argue, but Leto insists this will happen, and that he will rule for 4000 years and create a Golden Age, but all of his subjects will be weak and subservient. He renames Farad'n as Harq al-Ada, the historian that has been writing most of the passages throughout the book.

Leto II Atreides (Desert Demon/Ari/Batigh): Leto was definitely an unsettling part of the book. He says a lot of odd things before he starts taking spice, but afterwards, his chapters kind of drag on and on with a lot of his musings and movements through the world. Like with Paul, you think that he is trying to do the good and right thing, but after he takes the spice, he is sucked onto this Golden Path, and, because he is young and pre-born, he doesn't have the power to resist like Paul did.

Ghanima Atreides: She is my favorite character in the book and I really enjoyed all of her scenes.

Duncan Idaho (Hayt): Once again I am confused about a lot of Duncan's motive and actions in the ending of the book, if anyone has any clarification about this feel free to message me!

Stilgar: I really like how we got more of Stilgar's perspective in this book, seeing him question his loyalty and make certain connections. The twins, particularly Leto, really manipulated him, and it was interesting to see how in the first chapter he questioned killing the twins and in the last chapter he questioned if he should have done it when he had the chance.

Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife/Coan-Teen/Abomination/Womb of Heaven): Alia's descent into madness was really interesting to watch. I feel like we never got to see Alia's true personality, which makes sense because she never had one. She tried to create her own sense of self to the point of her own detriment.

Storyline: I really enjoyed this book the most out of the first three. The second half of the book was quite a bit slower because a lot of it was Leto high on spice in the desert, but I liked the short chapters and the switching of the perspectives. It does get a little confusing with the weeks and months that pass with only vague mention, but it wasn't too much of an issue.

Quotes: -"Government and religion united, and breaking a law became sin. A smell of blasphemy arose like smoke around any questioning of governmental edicts. The guilt of rebellion invoked hellfire and self-righteous judgements. Yet it was men who created these governmental edicts."-Stilgar (p.6)

-"The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you."-Leto II (p.83)

-"Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself--a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred."-The Apocrypha of Muad'Dib (p.117)

-"The past may show the right way to behave if you live in the past, Stil, but circumstances change."-Leto II (p.133)

-"What other function did the priesthood serve than to deny individual will?"-Stilgar (p.139)

-"It's beautiful, but it's not art. Humans create art by their own violence, by their own volition."-Duncan (p.143)

-"To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror; to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror."-Jessica (p.154)

-"Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders."-The Spacing Guild Manual (p.171)

-"Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack."-Jessica (p.172)

-"If you put away those who report accurately, you'll keep only those who know what you want to hear... I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections."-Jessica (p.181)

-"Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interest of the ruling class--whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy."-Bene Gesserit Training Manual (p.221)

-"But one learns from books and reels only certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things."-Farad'n/Harq al-Ada (p.245)

-"Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name? Whence comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation?"-The Preacher/Paul Muad'Dib (p.262)

-"To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."-Leto II (p.314)

-"But the evil was known after the event!"-The Preacher/Paul Muad'Dib "Which is the way of many great evils."-Leto II (p.406)

-"The child who refuses to travel in the father's harness, this is the symbol of man's most unique capability. 'I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey my father's rules or even believe everything he believed. It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be."-Leto II (p.449)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.2 Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 282

Time Read: 5 hours and 52 minutes

Overall Rating: 4.5★ Storyline: 3.5★ Dialogue: 4.5★ Characters: 4★

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Death, war, violence, pregnancy, drug use, murder, injury, infertility, death of a parent, addiction, drug abuse, grief, colonization, genocide, adult/minor relationship, su*c*de, ableism, body horror, fire, incest, child death, psychosis, abortion, miscarriage, racism, slavery, cursing, cultural appropriation, classism, confinement, execution, religious fanaticism, religious bigotry

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: 12 years after the events of Dune; On Arrakis/Dune

First Line: What led you to take your particular approach to a history of Muad'Dib?

The book begins 12 years after the events of Dune with a historian named Bronso of Ix being interrogated by a member of the Qizarate, Paul Atreides' religious order. Bronso is to be executed for committing blasphemy, while he argues that Paul committed religious sham in order to bring the Empire under his control.

Princess Irulan, Paul's wife, conspires on Wallach IX with Edric, a mutated Steersman of the Spacing Guild, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and a Tleilaxu Face Dancer called Scytale. They plot to remove Paul as Emperor. The Bene Tleilax play a grand part in their plan, as they took the body of Duncan Idaho and made him into a ghola, a remade being that has the body of the deceased person but none of the memories. Irulan reveals that Chani hasn't been able to get pregnant because she has been putting contraceptives in her food.

When Irulan returns back from Wallach IX, she demands Paul give her a child. Paul refuses, but Chani tries to make a case for it.

Scytale shapeshifts into Duncan Idaho to go and see a former Fedaykin warrior who is part of the conspiracy against Paul. Him and his son have kidnapped the daughter of another Fedaykin at Scytale's request. Scytale kills them both and takes the girl.

Paul welcomes Edric into his household, and he brings with him the ghola of Duncan Idaho, who has been turned into a Mentat/Zensunni philosopher with metal eyes called Hayt by the Tleilaxu. Paul and Alia, now 15 years old and a priestess to the people, are shocked by his arrival. Edric insists Paul take Hayt as a gift. Hayt discloses to Paul that Edric intends him to destroy Paul, but he doesn't know how. While he shows mannerisms of Duncan Idaho, he refuses to hold any of his memories or be the man that they once knew. Paul permits him to stay. The Reverend Mother was found aboard the ship that carried Edric, Hayt, and Scytale (disguised as a servant). Paul had banished her from Arrakis so she is placed under immediate arrest. Irulan visits her in her cell, and she reveals that Chani has changed her diet so she can't be drugged with contraceptive anymore, and that Paul has repeatedly denied Irulan's requests to have a child. The Reverend Mother says that Paul and Alia must have a child then to preserve the Atreides bloodline, and that if Chani becomes pregnant Irulan must find a way to abort the baby or kill Chani. Irulan protests and almost refuses, but the Reverend Mother gives her no choice.

The body of the girl that Scytale took from the Fedaykin is found in the desert. Alia and Hayt investigate, but find no clues as to who she is. They head home, and Alia tries to figure out if any of Duncan Idaho remains in Hayt. When they land back in Arrakeen, Hayt kisses her.

Paul is haunted by his visions as he searches for a way to end the Jihad. The only path he sees is for him to disengage, but he can't figure out how to. He meets with the Reverend Mother and makes her an offer: they can have his genes, and he will allow Irulan to be artificially inseminated by him (which is an atrocity to the Bene Gesserit), in exchange for Chani and his children's safety, as she is pregnant. The Reverend Mother insists she must discuss this with the Bene Gesserit before she accepts.

Scytale shapeshifts once again and becomes Lichna, daughter of Otheym, the Feydakin's daughter he killed and left out in the desert. Paul immediately knows that "Lichna" is a Face Dancer, but he feels he must act out exactly what has happened in his visions, as it is fate. Scytale (as Lichna) tells Paul he must go to Otheym's house, as he has a list of names who are involved in a Fremen conspiracy against him. She insists that Chani go with him, but he refuses. He has her confined and put under guard, and then goes to Alia's temple to be met by his guide. A Fremen leads him to Otheym's house, and he is greeted at the door by a dwarf, which goes against his vision. Otheym is immensely sick, and him and his wife are now poor due to the cost of medics. Otheym explains that the dwarf, Bijaz, is a Tleilaxu creation that has imbedded in his memory the names and locations of the scheme against Paul. They urge him to take the clearly prescient dwarf, and Paul leaves, knowing what is about to happen. An atomic hits Otheym's house, and burns out Paul's eyes along with all of his soldier's and guard's eyes. Paul, however, uses his prescience to "see", and he is further deified by his followers.

Korba, a member of Paul's Qizarate, is brought before the other Fremen Naibs and Alia, and is accused of treachery against Paul. He denies it, but Paul appears and reveals that the conspirators stole the atomic weapon from him, which was illegal for him to possess. He is sent back to his cell, and Alia was able to determine which of the Naibs were on Korba's side, further weeding out conspirators.

Hayt goes to interrogate Bijaz, and Bijaz traps him using vocal cues. He reveals that him and Hayt were made by the Tleilaxu together, and puts a command in him that when Paul tells Hayt the words, "She is gone," Hayt is to attempt to kill him. He also reveals that this is intended to see if Duncan Idaho's memories return to him, which if they do, then it will be the first successful attempt to return former memories to a ghola, and they can then use this to try and bribe Paul by offering to bring Chani back to life if he gave up everything and lived in exile. Bijaz then forces Hayt to forget the conversation.

Alia overdoses on spice in an attempt to look into Paul's future but is unsuccessful and is saved by Hayt.

Chani, Paul, Bijaz, Hayt, Stilgar, Alia, Irulan, "Lichna", the Reverend Mother, Edric, and the rest of the court go to Sietch Tabr for Chani's birth. Paul knows what is about to happen, but he stands outside. Hayt discovers that Bijaz has put a command phrase in him and he goes to tell Paul. While they talk, a Fremen comes to tell Paul that Chani is dead but his twin children are alive. He is shocked by the fact that there are twins, even though Chani told him about them, as he only saw his daughter in his future visions. He tells Hayt, "She is gone," and Hayt begins to fight the urge to kill Paul. He tells him to run, but Paul refuses, knowing he will resist. Hayt then remembers everything and becomes Duncan Idaho once more. They go to see the babies and Chani's body, but Paul's prescience begins to fail and he starts to go truly blind. Alia, distraught, brings in "Lichna", who has now revealed herself to be Scytale. Scytale holds a knife to the babies as a threat to Paul, saying the Tleilaxu will restore Chani and he will let the babies live, but only if he gives up his throne and CHOAM holdings and lives in exile. Paul then is able to use the eyes of his infant son, who is fully conscious, to see Scytale, and he kills him with a throw of his knife. Paul tells them to take Chani's body away, and names his son Leto II (not to be confused with his eldest son that died in Dune who was also named Leto II). He names his daughter Ghanima, which Stilgar's wife Harah insists is a bad omen. He then goes to his room, where Bijaz confronts him and Duncan and makes Scytale's offer again. Paul tells Duncan to kill Bijaz before he succumbs, and he does. After this, Paul is fully blind and unable to use his abilities anymore. As is Fremen custom, he banishes himself to the desert. Stilgar executes Edric and the Reverend Mother, and Irulan renounces the Bene Gesserit and vows to raise Paul's children. Alia mourns the loss of Chani and her brother, and begs Duncan to love her, which he says he does.

Paul Muad'Dib Atreides (Mahdi, Lisan al-Gaib, Emperor of the Imperium, Usul, Kwisatz Haderach): I loved Dune Messiah because it used all of the foreshadowing of Paul's fate from Dune. Paul's story is not heroic, but tragic, and while his internal battle could be a struggle to understand at times, it still all came together in a beautiful, heart-wrenching ending.

Chani (Sayyadina, Sihaya): While her death was awful, I loved what Frank Herbert did with Chani in this book and with her relationship with Paul. While everyone says that Chani in Dune is madly in love and blindly follows Paul, I think this book definitely gave her more of her own personality. She is practical and headstrong, and, especially when she is described from Paul's perspective, you can see how much he truly loves and respects her and her opinion.

Duncan Idaho (Hayt): Duncan/Hayt was such a strange part of the book for me, especially as everyone including himself was confused on his identity. He spouted a lot of mysterious vague dialogue throughout, and his relationship with Alia definitely raises some eyebrows.

Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife, Abomination, virgin-harlot): Alia was also an odd character for me, as she is supposed to be an adult in a child's body and yet she acted like a child a lot of the time. I feel like the way she was described and the way she actually was were very conflicting, although I am sure that is part of the whole point.

Storyline: This book was largely dialogue, which could be tedious but I definitely did still enjoy it. While I wish we had gotten to see Paul's Jihad, getting a feel for how it went and how their worlds are now 12 years after the fact is almost like a puzzle. I definitely wish some things had been left out, like Paul and Stilgar walking in on Alia naked, the plotting of incest by Irulan and the Reverend Mother, and Duncan and Alia's adult/minor relationship.

Representation: Scytale is asked if he is a man or a woman, and he says that all Face Dancers are "Jadacha hermaphrodites", meaning that they can be whatever sex they wish to be. The term hermaphrodite is definitely outdated, but I was surprised that there was a gender fluid character who used he, she, and they pronouns throughout a book written in the 1960s.

Summary: I think that this book was essential in driving home Frank Herbert's intention with the original story of Paul Atreides. Dune and Dune Messiah were both broad critiques of capitalism, imperialism, climate change, genocide, colonialism, and, most obviously, religion as a means to control the masses.

Quotes: -"Have you considered what it meant for Alia to be born into this universe, fully cognitive, possessed of all her mother's memories and knowledge? No rape could be more terrifying."-Bronso of Ix (p.3)

-"You think Muad'Dib is yours because he mated with Chani, because he adopted Fremen customs. But he was an Atreides first and he was trained by a Bene Gesserit adept. He possessed disciplines totally unknown to you. You thought he brought you new organization a new mission. He promised to transform your desert planet into a water-rich paradise. And while he dazzled you with such visions, he took your virginity."-Bronso of Ix (p.4)

-"Muad'Dib's Qizarate missionaries carried their religious war across space in a Jihad whose major impetus endured only twelve standard years, but in that time, religious colonialism brought all but a fraction of the human universe under one rule."-Bronso of Ix (p.8)

-"A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation."-Scytale (p.22)

-"The Fremen are civil, educated, and ignorant... They're not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous."-Scytale (p.25)

-"Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of a weapon is religion when it becomes the government?"-Edric (p.110)

-"...to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.130)

-"I think what a joy it is to be alive, and I wonder if I'll ever leap inward to the root of this flesh and know myself as I once was. The root is there. Whether any act of mine can find it, that remains tangled in the future. But all things a man can do are mine. Any act of mine may do it."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.133)

-"If you need something to worship, then worship life--all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"-Paul Atreides (p.255)