We return to Stina Leicht’s Of Blood and Honey, still waiting to see what fate has befallen
Liam after his transformation into a beast to save himself from his attacker.
Further, people have just spotted Liam’s father, a puca, and his mother
together in suspicious circumstances.
Enjoy!
SPOILERS!
Chapter 7
Home again, Liam finds life difficult to adjust to and Kesh
impossible to forget. He escapes the strain and noise of his mother’s house to
meet Mary Kate, who, since his release, he’s been sleeping with. On the way,
his step-father and her father stop him with Mary Kate. Liam declares that he
intends to marry her if she’ll have him, and his step-father and he almost get
into a fight. But the dark beast inside him threatens to emerge at every step
in the argument until his step-father backs down and storms off. Mary Kate
accepts even though Liam insists on waiting long enough to find a job. When
Liam gets home again, he mother has his things packed in a laundry sack and
informs him that he’ll go to confession.
Reader Comments: Liam is going to marry Mary Kate, yay! He
deserves a little happiness after all he’s been through. Though, I’m terribly
afraid things will not work out for them.
Writer Comments: In a book as dark as this, for many
readers, it’s important to give little doses of relief, the “Honey,” if you
will. Leicht does it here with Mary Kate’s enthusiastic defense of Liam and
agreement to marry him, Liam’s success in driving off his step-father without
resorting to violence, and Mary Kate’s father welcoming him to the family.
Liam goes to confession with Father Murray, but Murray abruptly
halts the confession and, instead, takes Liam home to feed him a hot meal and
help him work past his emotional demons. In the process, Father Murray proves
himself far from a traditional image of a priest. By the end, Liam sleeps
soundly for the first time in months.
Reader Comments: Having been to Ireland, this scene was
particularly nice. Even aside from Leicht taking Father Murray and breaking the
stereotype of a priest, she includes the whiskey and the cursing, both
prominent Irish elements, at least as far as my experience goes.
Writer Comments: This scene is crucial to Liam’s emotional
journey. For all he had to suffer in Long Kesh, to rise to the role of
protagonist, he must also move beyond those horrors or, at least, begin to face
them. Yet Leicht does not dwell. She gives the parts of the conversation and
action that are new, such as Father Murray’s unexpected behavior as a priest,
she summarized and alludes to what we already know. Rehashing the information
would become tedious, so she finds ways to keep the scene interesting while not
repeating.
Chapter 8
Kathleen goes to the graveyard and calls Bran. He comes and
she gives him what Father Murray discovered about the coin: It’s English from
1554 and depicts Queen Mary. She gives a brief history of the infancy of the
war between Protestants and Catholics and who Mary was. Bran isn’t sure how the
information helps, but he thanks her anyway and warns her that he’ll be gone
for some time as his people battle against the fallen.
Reader Comments: I so want these two to end up together.
Patrick, Kathleen’s husband, is an arrogant putz. I suspect that’s exactly what
Leicht wants me to think.
Writer Comments: Here, if the subtitle, “A Book of the Fae
and the Fallen,” is any indication, Leicht highlights her world’s primary
conflict, the war between these two sides with humanity apparently ignorantly
caught in the middle. One of the biggest reasons I had trouble not rushing onto
the next chater in favor of finishing this commentary, is because of all these
conflicts. Leicht weaves them in so thoroughly that there is ever unanswered
questions and worry over one character or another, just as it should be.
I hope you enjoyed Part 4 of our read of Stina Leicht’s Of Blood and Honey. We’ll pick back up
next Monday. Until then, I hope to see you back on Wednesday and Friday for further
forays into books, the speculative, asnd life.
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