Sunshine Book Club Week 6

[accidentallymel]

In which there is a visit with a vampire and we meet the goddess of pain. Okay, so there's a lot of other things that happen in this part, and you are absolutely welcome to discuss any part of them, but those are the two things that stick out to me the most in this part (I keep wanting to say chapter, which, NO, self, this book is not divided up

Comments

[biggersandwich]

It's so hard to tell because on one hand, I think it's increasingly clear that there have been partnerships between humans and vampires before, they've just been well hidden because vampire politics are so much more complicated than is generally guessed. On the other hand, they're still not common enough that Con has any real idea what he's doing, and he's the one who knows this is even possible, so it's still kind of a giant deal!

She's super unsettling! I wonder if this is more magic-user politics that haven't really filtered into the general population because she has to be a registered magic-user if everyone knows that she can troll, doesn't she? I find it hard to believe that there could be two separate conspiracies to smuggle Others into SOF, though that would certainly be interesting.

[accidentallymel]

Right? I think there's something there - obviously "everyone" knows that humans and vampires don't get along, in the same way that "everyone" knows that partbloods can't get into SOF. I think it's interesting that Rae still thinks that she's doing something revolutionary - I mean, obviously it's still pretty revolutionary, but there's evidence that it's not quite as revolutionary as she thinks it is.

I wonder that as well! It feels a little bit like we just don't get enough information about her to discern her motivations (ergo why I would really, really like the SOF focused sequel). I just - is there a reason why she's so nasty? And universally disliked by Pat and his team? She does have to be a registered magic user - hmmm. I wonder if she's maybe not all that strong, and obviously she knows about Rae's dad, and there might be some resentment there, that this. . . person gets all that power that she patently doesn't want? I don't know, like I said, I feel like we just don't know enough about her to guess at her motivations.

[biggersandwich]

I wonder if she's still thinking of it like the interactions between the vampires and the government, which everyone knows happen, but behind layers and layers of security and obscurement to prevent magical influence? I can understand how she just can't conceive of it happening any other way, even if that's not what Con sounds like he's saying to me

[accidentallymel]

Hmmm, that might make sense. I'm still not sure how the government and the vampires communicate but it manifestly does happen - and then there are vampire interviews? Which, clearly there is some level of interaction there, but you sort of forget about that when Rae's freaking out about their alliance (or at least, I do).

The goddess of pain does sound like a fairly strong practitioner, I agree - and I like the idea of the parallels, with Rae and Con as "us-on-the-right-side" and the goddess and Bo as. . . not, but there's just not enough information given (unless she's also secretly in league with vampires?? Watch my conspiracy theories spiral out of control).