4.5 stars
"Only through penitence and pain is forgiveness possible.
—The Book of Truth, Veraxis, Article 72"
Downside World 301 by Mimi
Well,
you know the way by now... I have to admit I wasn't as concerned about
the world and fact-collecting here. Just waiting for them to finally get
together distracting me from...well almost anything else. But here it
goes.
* Psychopomps were very present here and I
think I figured out the deal.
"Chess
had never known if psychopomps actually came back to life, if they were
for the brief time of their use breathing creatures with pumping
hearts. Seemed they weren’t. They weren’t animals at all, just
reanimated corpses, empty shells full of instinct and magic."
But
then later it's mentioned the animal doesn't need to die in order to
make a psychopomp. But basically the skull is the animals'. It allows
you to summon the physical form of said animal. Then that form hounds
ghosts to the City.
*There are wraiths, too...
"Wraiths.
A witch’s freed living soul, joined with one of the restless undead. A
ghost cranked on living energy, strengthened by magic, its living
partner giving it the ability to do what astrally projected spirits
could do: fly."
Not sure about that, but next to Chess&Terrible...Who cares?
*Still not sure what the Hand of Glory thing is? Chess carries it around and it's connected to magic, so...
*There is an inner organization at the Church-Black Squad. Church law enforcement.
The story
Remember
that unexplained scene in book #2? The one with the seance and the
almost-poisoning? Well apparently it's important here! The witch is
being executed at the beginning, but it turns out she was Bound to a
spirit and that ghost kills someone. At the same time Chess is
contracted by her Elder Griffin. But before she does it she has to make
an oath to the original Elders, which bounds her and kills her if she
breaks the terms-silence and obedience.
Anyway, the bad
conspirators are back, in Downside this time and she must investigate
them with Laura, an obnoxious enforcer (of Black Squad).
At the
same time(you've guessed it) she has to work an angle with the drug
dealer and Terrible. So she can't say anything to them about the job, or
to the Church about what she does for them. So she investigates, almost
gets killed, and of course, pulls through.
Now onto more important things...
Chess&Terrible
This
was such a drama here. I genuinely liked seeing Chess suffer a bit for
everything that happened. And she does suffer and feels guilty. But this
time she knows what she wants and what she feels-and she FIGHTS for it.
She doesn't take pills and screw up other people's lives, she takes
pills and tries to fix them.
There's so much I learned about Chess along the way. Sometimes she lets pain and bitterness overwhelm her...
"You
let people into your life and you ended up getting hurt. Or hurting
them. Either way, the road to pain was paved with other people, and she
wanted no part of it anymore."
"Chess lied to herself every day;
it was just something she did, like taking her pills or making sure she
had a pen in her bag. Little lies, mostly. Insignificant. Of course
there were big ones there, too, like telling herself that she was more
than just a junkie who got lucky enough to possess a talent not everyone
had. That she was alone by choice and that she was not terrified of
other people because they couldn’t be trusted, because they carried
filth in their minds and pain in their hands and they would smear both
all over her given half the chance."
But she doesn't give up
and I really like her for that. yes, for the first time I actually LIKE
Chess. Who knew? And when she was breaking...
"But he’d lied
too. He’d lied, because he’d told her—not in those words, but he’d told
her—that he’d seen something special in her. He’d made her believe, for
that one moment, those two short days between the time he’d made his
little speech and that horrible night in the graveyard, that there was
something special in her. Something good.And there wasn’t. And she’d
hurt him, and she hated herself so much, so much for that, for making
that mistake, for doing that to him, so much she couldn’t stand it
another second, and he could make it stop. He could forgive her or he
could punish her"
...Terrible was there to pick her up. Not
forgive her that easily. Not give in so easily, but one step at the
time. But, IMO, she showed here that maybe, just maybe she deserves
him...
"Once she’d thought he was ugly; he still was ugly,
she supposed. She just didn’t give a shit. He was who he was, and her
heart fluttered in her chest and wouldn’t stop."
Finally figured out some things, I guess...
This
book was definitely the most emotionally poignant so far. It's about
pain and regret and as that quote at the beginning says you can't have
forgiveness without them. It really is what this book's about. And I
loved seeing Chess and Terrible get there.
And, of course I loved Terrible...
“He
lifted his head to look at her. Giving her his eyes, giving her what
was behind them. “You know I do, aye? Love you right, Chessiebomb.”
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