This week’s book club reading—chapters 40-46 of The Monster in the Hollows—was hard. If you struggled through the Phoobs chapters from North! Or Be Eaten, you probably felt your heart twisting as you read this section, too. But as Artham said in the Phoobs, “This story will end well. I don’t know how, but things will be made right.” And as always, if you need to process this week’s reading, come over to the forum, and we’ll process together.
This excerpt is a short one, but it captures well the great sorrow and trepidation in these chapters.
The branches of the great tree no longer brightened the room with leaves and dangling fruit—the limbs were bare, and the room was cold and gray. Even with the great hall crammed full of people and fires lit in the four hearths, a chill haunted the chamber. The only color seemed to be the dry, rusty smudge of Nia’s handprint on the tree.
—From chapter 44, “The Case Against Kalmar.”
What passage stood out to you this week? Whether you’re reading along with us or from another section of the series, post your excerpt in the comments! And then come on over to the forum for some bibes and conversation.
This is a hard section, but I find it even sadder now that I am rereading the book and understand more fully all that is going on. I had trouble choosing a section this week because so many have spoilers in them, but here is what I picked.
The cell was featureless and dark. A faint light filtered down through a grate near the ceiling. Janner didn’t poke around for more than a minute before he knew there was no hope of either communication with his family or of escape, so he sat on the damp floor and waited. His eyes drooped, and he felt the weariness of the long night seep into his bones. With his arms still tied behind his back, he curled up on the floor and went to sleep, thinking, for some reason, about his father, Esben, and the picture of him on a sailboat, handsome and young with his face to the wind.
That last line really gets me.
Yes, *sniff* a heart wrenching scene indeed, Madame. However, it is one of the best!