Shatter Me- Chapter Seventeen- Shots Fired

Earthlings, forgive me. I should have stopped taking my own bullshit a while ago, but I kept telling myself, and by extension, all of you, that I would be able to sort out my schedule enough to post every other day. Unfortunately, this is simply not possible. I will have to revert to twice-a-week posts. Once again, apologies.

This chapter begins with some more writing I'm actually pleased with. Juliette is outside for the first time in I-forget-how-long, and she's actually responding accordingly.

Warner asks her if it makes her happy, because underneath all that stupid he actually does care about her.
He takes out a gun, which is "not for" her, and they peer over the edge to see the soldiers gathered.

He is still being an ass, however, and introduces Juliette to Sector 45. To Juliette's joy, Jenkins is still alive. Warner makes the soldiers kneel for at least 30 seconds, which is quite a lot considering no one was speaking.

A man named Delalieu comes forward with a report. He'll be important-ish later, so remember.

"Delalieu recites: 'We have a charge against Private 45B-76423. Fletcher, Seamus.'"

Fletcher, who is, according to Juliette, incredibly ginger ("He looks like a gingerbread man") steps out of line.

This chapter ends with Warner shooting him in the head.
Lovely.

Next chapter of The Night Circus will be up before next Monday.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Eight (Cartomancy) - So She Can Even Predict Other People's Love Life, But Not Hers?

Good god, earthlings. I am so, so, so, so sorry. Things have been...interesting, and I've had to do some unfortunate prioritizing. I will try my best to get new posts up at a reasonable time, so at least for this week, expect posts every other day.

This chapter begins with Bailey continuing to wander the circus. This time, he finds his way to Isobel's tent, where she is waiting (by the way, I was able to gloss over two pages of him entering the tent with that one sentence).

He pays an unspecified amount, and Isobel begins the tarot reading. There are another two pages' worth of gloss-worthy writing. Then she begins her interpretation, which I'm, again, just going to quote.

"'You have a journey ahead of you," the fortune-teller says. 'There's a lot of movement. A great deal of responsibility.'"

...

"'You are part of a chain of events, though you may not see how your actions will affect the outcome at the time.'"

And then she gets more infuriating. I mean, seriously, how can she not tell Marco doesn't love her?

"'You're looking for Poppet,' she says.
"'What's a poppet?' he asks.

Ok, I'm done with this. More glossing.

She asks if he's Bailey, and when he says yes, she tells him about Poppet (to him, still the red-haired girl), and then affirms his longing.

"'You will see her again, Bailey. There's no doubt about that.'"

Before departing, he offers Isobel a chocolate. They exchange names, and this chapter ends with Bailey feeling all warm and cuddly inside.

Next chapter, God willing, will be up Wednesday.

Shatter Me- Chapter Sixteen- Oooooooooooooooooh

So, so, so sorry about not having posted. I've been pursuing a project and it's taken up a lot of my time. Not gonna say what it is, but if you really wanted to find it, I'm fairly certain it's not totally impossible.

This chapter begins with Juliette finally being happy about something.

She's digging through the armoire, having resigned to behaving for Adam's sake, and finds something on the shelf behind the dresses Warner loves seeing her in. I'm not even gonna...just, here's the quote.

"My fingers feel their way around the surface and a surge of sunshine rushes through my stomach until I'm certain I'm bursting with hope and feeling and a force of stupid happiness so strong I'm surprised there aren't tears streaming down my face.
My notebook. 
He saved my notebook."

I'm not even gonna be cynical about this. 
And then it gets even better.

"At the very bottom there is a shift. A new sentence not written in my handwriting.
A new sentence that must've come from him.

It's not what you think."

I'm actually happy about this, and it's not even in the hopeless romantic way. Good job, Mafi.

Warner arrives and again shrugs off Juliette caring too much about Adam. He and Isobel should form a club.

With his arm around her waist, they move toward the elevator, and Juliette says something very accidentally important.

"'Your poor mother.'"

She means, of course, that she pities Warner's mother for having to raise her, but there's another very serious meaning behind those three words that we won't get to for a looong time.

Warner, acting understandably for once, is horrified and Juliette doesn't know why.

He doesn't touch her anymore.

This chapter ends with Warner doing some serious cliffhanging.

"'Welcome to your future.'"

Next chapter of Night Circus should be up before midnight on Tuesday. 

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Second-Person Thingy (Reflections and Distortions) - Ok, This One's Just Pathetic

It's time yet again for my favorite part of this book: stupid little anecdotes that only serve to increase the page count. Okay, okay, they're not all bad, but this one certainly is. 

In this little...whatever you want to call it, you wander into a Hall of Mirrors. 

You wander around, and in one mirror, you see...wait, what?! 

"Reflected behind you there is a man in a bowler hat". 

I swear, if that's Marco again...

Though it's not exactly out of character for him.

Anyway, you walk through the trippy hall into a round room, where there are streetlamps reflected in a ring of mirrors forever. 

I get that this looks cool, but literally anyone can do this by putting two mirrors so they're facing each other.

Magical!

Well, that was disappointing. It didn't even take up a full page on my Kindle.

Shatter Me Chapter Sixteen should be up before midnight on Saturday.

Shatter Me- Chapter Fifteen- Let's Just Add Blackmail, Shall We?

This chapter begins with Juliette having another pleasant flashback.

"Why don't you just kill yourself? someone at school asked me once."
Really warms the heart, doesn't it?

She wakes up again in Warner's bed. Better get used to it...or not, because it won't come up for a couple hundred pages.

He's finally allowing her to return to her room, after forcing her to eat some food, and as she walks out, she can see all the soldiers are truly afraid of her, hardly able to hide it. He's still being an ass, so he's all smiley and irritating, explaining that to "protect" her he had to force her to almost kill poor Jenkins.

He gets really, really close to her in the elevator before his mood turns on a dime for what won't be the last time, and he gets even closer before hissing that she's naive and threatening, etc., etc., victimizing himself by saying he's trying to help her. I do love irony, and it's pretty obvious in this scenario. 'You're so naive, girl I'm trying to get you to fall in love with me through beatings and perviness and torture of my own soldiers.' 

It's getting just as tiring to point out Warner's idiocies as it is to point out Hector being a terrible father. Uncomprehending is basically his middle name. 

He tells her to go back to her room (which she wanted to anyway) and, as a goodbye, tosses in some blackmail. Adam's been injured, and he's saying that it will continue unless she behaves.

And yes, this is blackmail. Wikipedia says that blackmail doesn't always include money, just threats unless a demand is met.

This chapter ends with Juliette silently promising to behave for Adam's sake, so Warner doesn't kill him. Well, this was a joy to read.

Spring Break is over. Unfortunately, we must return to the mundanity of the middle class, the monotony of responsibility, the lifelessness of subordination. 

This includes less frequent posts. However, I will try my best to post at least once every two days from now on. Thus said, Chapter Twenty-Eight of The Night Circus, with help of unconventional prioritization, should be up before midnight on Thursday.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Seven (The Magician's Umbrella) - Finally!!/More Pity for Isobel/Rejected

This chapter, this wonderful, plot-furthering chapter, begins with the circus, for once, being closed due to some truly terrible rain. Not that I'd know much about that. Stupid drought.

Celia, umbrella in hand and over head, enters a cafe, choosing to sit with Isobel. Isobel mentions planning to meet someone (Marco, who is in fact, there, poor Isobel), and they talk for awhile before Celia inquires about tarot cards and Isobel offers a reading.

I won't be able to translate the more subtle cards, because I don't have service, but fortunately Isobel is giving the reading for me.

Celia notices that one card is missing, and Isobel waves it off (the Angel, if I'm not mistaken).
After laying the cards and trying to hide her surprise, Isobel explains. I'm just going to quote it.

"'You carry a great many burdens with you. A heavy heart. Things you've lost. But you are moving toward change and discovery. There are outside influences that are propelling you forward.'
....{some non-dialogue}
'You're...not fighting, that's not really the right word for it, but there's a conflict with something unseen, something shadowed that's hidden from you.'
...{more non-dialogue}
'But it will be revealed soon,' she says.
This catches Celia's attention.
'How soon?'
'The cards do not make for the clearest of timelines, but it is very close. Almost immediate, I would think.'
...
'There's emotion,' she says. 'Deep emotion but out are only on the shore of it, still near the surface, while it is waiting to pull you under.'
...
'It's nothing that I can clearly see as good or bad, but it is...intense.'
...
'It almost contradicts itself,' she says after a moment. 'It's as if there is love and loss at the same time, together in a kind of beautiful pain.'"

Ooooh. Sorry to quote all that, but it really is important. Also, there's a chapter I'm counting down to, though not the one in less than 100 pages, a very serious chapter for Celia and Marco, and it's called "Beautiful Pain". I'd forgotten that was brought up. Again, poor Isobel.

Isobel, once she is alone, again finds the Magician card, though Marco is no longer there. Not that she knew he was.

Outside, Celia is distracted enough that it takes her a few minutes to realize that her umbrelle is keeping her completely dry, that's it's not hers.

She turns to see Marco behind her, dripping wet.
"'I believe you have my umbrella,' he says, almost out of breath but wearing a grin that has too much wolf in it to be sheepish."

That's a bit creepy...anyway, standing there, Celia realizes, just as Isobel predicted, that Marco is her opponent, and she laughs.

She then shakes the surprise off and they exchange umbrellas.

He suggests they get a drink, and she almost accepts but for the fact that she is no longer holding a magic umbrella that will keep her dry.
She's still delighted with her epiphany, taking some humor at his expense.

"'Of course you would,' Celia says, returning Marco's grin with one of her own. 'Perhaps another time.'"

She then disappears, to no surprise from Marco.
This chapter ends with him, as is becoming habit for him, staring at the space from which she vanished.

Moving now to Shatter Me Chapter Fifteen.

Finished at 1:28 pm.

Shatter Me- Chapter Fourteen- Yeah, That's Gonna Happen Again

This chapter begins with Juliette waking up in Warner's bed for the first time, but it certainly won't be the last (wink wink nudge nudge).

Of course, she's rightfully pissed, but even more confused by the weird shifts in Warner's personality, from cruel to doting. Don't worry, Juliette, so am I.

He explains that he's being nice because he cares about her. You know the saying: "They care about you, but they don't know how to show it."
Warner is the perfect example of this. He really, really, really doesn't know how to show it.

He starts talking about how they're similar because they like hurting people. He's right, actually, but not about the Juliette in this book. The Juliette in this book takes about a hundred pages to get used to someone being able to touch her, cries when she hurts someone, etc., etc., and that's why it's better, at least for now, that she has Adam instead of Warner looking out for her.

He leaves her in his room, telling her to eat and then sleep. You know, it's really hard for someone to believe you care about them when you let soldiers beat them, force them to torture people, and then lock them in your room. Just saying.

This chapter ends with her falling asleep in his bed...dammit, I already made that joke.

Moving now to The Night Circus Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Finished at 12:55 pm.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Six (The Ticking of the Clock) - Sorry to Hear You're Immortal. That Must Be Hard

This chapter begins with another person interrupting Mr. Barris. This time: Tara Burgess, one of the twins whose contributions to the circus are either monetary, creative, or nonexistent.

For once, someone in this book isn't in the mood to see the circus, but Tara's sister still is.

She's come by, again, not to talk about anything actually architectural, but to talk about how strange the circus is.

She mentions, in an oddly vague way, that no one who is involved in running it has been aging. There's a very good explanation for this, actually, but for now it isn't relevant.

She also mentions that she and Lainie also disagreed as to whether they should follow the circus like Thiessen and his rêveurs.

She is suspecting that things are going on in the circus that few are aware of, and she's right, of course. Mr. Barris knows what is going in, but his neutrality keeps him quiet.

She then begins to get quite dramatic, talking about not knowing if she's dreaming or awake half the time. She also mentions disliking impossibilities, which I guess means she hasn't been around Celia, Marco, Widget, Poppet, or several of the tents very much.

He suggests she consult Mr. A. H-, whom, as we've seen with his own student, probably won't be very helpful.

This chapter, this short chapter that should have just been titled "Foreshadowing", ends with Tara declining dinner and leaving.

Moving now to Shatter Me Chapter Fourteen.

Finished at 12:40

Shatter Me- Chapter Thirteen- What the Hell, Warner!?

This chapter begins with Warner continuing to be an idiot.

"'I don't want you to hate me,' Warner says as we make our way toward the elevator. 'I'm only your enemy if you want me to be.'"

Achoo.

He does say something that is both wonderfully and painfully correct, however, about Juliette changing her mind before they step into the elevator, where he gets pervy.

She asks him to tell her his first name (Spoiler Alert: It's Aaron, but he won't tell her that until a very particular moment in Unravel Me) and he responds by asking her to touch him. She refuses, however, and he gets all snappy before asking a soldier that unfortunately is not Adam to accompany her to her room, all while grabbing her arm. It makes me wonder how the soldiers have any respect for him. 

And finally, Juliette decides to do something intelligent. She runs.

They catch her, of course, but it was worth a shot.

Jenkins (the soldier) is forced to grab her arm, and here there's some very interesting premonition.

"I wish it hurt me. I wish it maimed me. I wish it repulsed me. I wish I hated the potent force wrapping itself around my skeleton. 
But I don't. My skin is pulsing with someone else's life and I don't hate it.
I hate myself for enjoying it."

Ooh. Juliette's power is pretty vaguely described in this series, and as the story progresses things get weird.

But we won't get to that for a while.

She gets free, literally kicking and screaming, and Jenkins is seriously messed up, lying on the ground, not moving, etc. 

Warner is stupidly thinking he can calm her down by touching her, which only makes her scream more. 

This chapter ends with him carrying Juliette away (by the way, he has no exposed skin) and her blacking out. Lovely.

I'm continuing now to The Night Circus Chapter Twenty-Six, but we're about to take off, so these won't be posted for a while. I guess I'll time-stamp these.

Finished 12:17 pm.

The Night Circus- Part Two( Illumination): Chapter Twenty- Five (Collaboration) - Sand? You're a Disappointment

Today is the day I return to my actual residence and real life resumes. However, as one last gift to all of you earthlings, I will be posting as much as I physically can today. However, some will not be posted until this afternoon, back-to-back, because of the debacle with planes.

This chapter begins with Marco early for his appointment with Mr. Barris. Whatever it means to make an appointment with an architect I don't know. 

Marco only wants to talk about Celia, as he usually does, and he learns from Mr. Barris that Celia doesn't know he's her opponent. Of course, Mr. Barris hadn't known either, but he promises to remain neutral. He asks if Celia was involved in something called the Stargazer (she wasn't). Before he leaves, he asks for help with something.

It's a tent designed for both Marco and Celia to manipulate. She enters it at some point, finding herself in an artificial desert at night.

Of course, Hector's still hanging unfortunately over her shoulder, and he appears to babble about collaboration and call her a disappointment. Glad to see he hasn't changed a bit. 

Meanwhile, in his flat, Marco is adding to his paper circus (which I assume manipulates the real circus), creating things for Celia to build on. Awww. How Isobel still hasn't been noticing this and/or doing anything is beyond me.

Shatter Me Chapter Thirteen and an unspecified number more posts will be up at some point today.

Shatter Me- Chapter Twelve- Warner, You're Killing Me Here

This chapter begins with Juliette finally taking a thorough shower.

She's mentally soliloquy-ing, with surprisingly few metaphors, about how she doesn't need luxury, that all she wants is to touch someone.

She does this while Adam is in the other room, dammit, and he already knows he can touch her.

Good god, Adam. There are so many more spoilers I wish I could yell (or type angrily while remaining basically expressionless) at you right now!!!

Anyway, she and Adam have a very sparse conversation about Warner wanting her to wear dresses (which is a little weird considering what he wants in their relationship) and her refusing.
He looks at her, all cleaned up, and she mistakes his surprise as possible revulsion (it's the opposite).

Warner is being awful, inexplicably awful, throughout this whole book, and it may very well be Tahreh Mafi's greatest indiscretion. Forget the metaphors, the haphazard dystopia, the grammar. Warner goes through a complete and basically unexplained 180° between now and the end of Unravel Me, and it is not okay. Sure, Juliette's perception changes, but he goes from the pervy and warped antagonist to romantic and justified and amazing. He doesn't have some earth-shattering epiphany or anything of the sort. It's like he's two different people: the sadist and the hopeless romantic, and in the first book he's basically portrayed as his father (who's just as bad as Hector, by the way) and then spends the rest of the series hating his father. It's ridiculous.

Moving along, he's expecting her to be all happy about being forced to eat with him, being all calm and calling her "love" (kinda reminds me of the creepy mom in Coraline) and she responds with something that she'll end up saying the opposite of.

"'I'd really rather die than eat your food and listen to you call me love,' I tell him."

Well, Juliette, he calls you that at least five times in the course of twenty-four hours in Ignite Me, and it serves both of you pretty well...

Jeez, this is getting spoiler-heavy. Next I'll be talking all about how Adam and Warner have-
Neeeever mind.

For whatever reason, Warner responds to this by shooting some meat. Oh no, so scary. Every soldier in this building, including Adam, could have done that.

Adam pushes some food in front of her, silently begging her to eat it. Warner sees this, and jokes about it. Kind of ironic, considering how he goes ballistic when he figures out that- Okay, I need to stop. No more spoilers.

This chapter ends with Warner telling her to eat, because she needs to look good when she's "standing beside" him. Really? She said she'd rather die that eat some damn good food after being in an asylum where you're fed mush once a day because it was involved with you in some way. Your expectations are stupidly high.

Next chapters of both this and The Night Circus will be up later today.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Four (Rêveurs) - The Good Side of Obsession

So this has happened again. I am so sorry, those of you who believe I can properly schedule. I put off doing the daily chapters this morning because I am by no means a morning person, and I was out quite late. Though, if it soothes at all, I was watching magicians perform, so I suppose you could call it research.

Anyway, this chapter begins with Herr Frederick Thiessen receiving advance information as to where the circus will be, in...Saxony. So they won't go to Germany, but they'll go to Saxony. All right then.

He, of course, spends as much time as possible there, his obsession with the circus growing.

Someone from the city newspaper convinces him in the customary Night Circus way (with alcohol) to publish his journal of observations in the newspaper.

His articles end up in Sweden and Denmark and France and London (awfully specific considering the other places were only by name), and he starts a following. I would call it a cult, but cults have to have principles that are widely considered strange or bizarre. 

The name of this club: the rêveurs. They follow the circus around and alert each other with cards, with Thiessen as their leader. He makes clocks for them as well, and even develops the rêveur fashion: black and/or white and/or grey with a hint of bright red.

This has to be my favorite color scheme ever.

The circus, because the circus knows all, learns of them, and often shows their gratitude by offering food or free admission.

This chapter ends with Thiessen replying to his letters and finding one from Celia, full of observations about the circus and the best clock in the while damn universe. He then begins to reply. Cue beginning of friendship.

Shatter Me Chapter Twelve will be up shortly and next chapters of both will be up later today.
They should be finished early, but I might not be able to release them, as today I'm flying back out to my nonspecific hometown in California.

Shatter Me- Chapter Eleven- Oh, He Will/Ed Sheeran Still Won't Leave

This chapter begins with Juliette being depressing, even for her. The new place is filled to the brim with luxuries, and she starts imagining screaming children and weeping mothers. Oh, this one's gonna be good.

It does prove the corruption of The Reestablishment, though, which, if you've read any other YA, you would already have guessed. 

Adam holds her when she starts to cry, and at least she's stopped lying on paper about wanting to jump his bones.

"I don't want him to ever ever ever ever let go of my body. I wish there were no barriers between us."

Finally. Oh, and don't worry, Juliette. There are only fifty-one pages to go until there won't be (well, except Warner), and Ed Sheeran still won't shut up.

They get to her room, which is nicer than her previous living arrangement by about a factor of 4.

She asks him to leave, and he explains that he's not allowed to leave her alone, that he'll be sleeping in her room.
Oh no. The horror.

He tells her to get ready for dinner with Warner in the bathroom, the only room without cameras. That'll be quite important in a few chapters... Eight to be exact; wait, that's not a few...

She starts crying again (this will also happen a loooot), and this chapter ends with him failing miserably to defend himself before leaving.

Next chapters of both this and The Night Circus should be up tomorrow. Spring Break is, unfortunately drawing to a close, so around Monday, the frequency of uploads will return to my patented "Says-Two-Per-Week-But-Then-Ends-Up-Doing-It-Every-Other-Day" method. It's been fun.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Three (Atmosphere) - Watching Him Watching Her

This chapter begins with Celia being antisocial, sitting backstage while the other performers live their lives.

Tsukiko comes along, suggesting that Celia accompany her to a "social engagement", a Circus Dinner. 

I'm not exactly sure what Morgenstern is saying here, but I'll do my best.

"'See that they set an additional place for dinner,' Chandresh says to Marco, before taking her on a spin around the took to make sure she had met everyone."

I don't know if it's Chandresh or Marco that doesn't remember whatever it is they're not remembering. I choose to believe that it's Marco, pretending not to remember Celia to avoid her suspicion.

There's some extraneous waxing about who is there, and their babble about "atmosphere". It may seem lazy of me to skip all this, but really, it's not worth it.

She slips out into the hall when she sees some movement. It's Hector, of course, who can't for the life of him leave her alone.

He continues to fume, all (paraphrasing here): "Don't trust anyone. Stop fraternizing. Nyeh." 

After she tells him to leave her alone, Marco catches her attention from the doorway, as hr has arrived to tell her that dinner is beginning.

They have a little snippet of conversation about libraries libraries, during which Celia sees Marco smile for the first time. 

Celia spends the dinner observing the relationships between people, which is pretty low on the creepy scale considering Marco.

They start talking about...corsets...and Marco ends up having to take notes on it. 

"'Miss Bowen's corset is duly noted, sir,' Marco replies, and the laughter bubbles over the table again."

Oh, I'm sure it is.
He then smiles at her before retreating.

There's something about Tara that reminds Celia of her dead mother. I say dead only because I had to remember that after forming theories.

After things wrap up, Celia thanks Tsukiko for the invitation, and Tsukiko responds with a quote that has been highlighted 2,839 times.

"The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones,"

I can't say I necessarily agree. I mean, I can think of some unexpected things that are pleasurable for one party that are both illegal and immoral...

Anyway, Marco and Chandresh talk afterwards about Celia, and Marco has to dodge around admitting that he thinks she's beautiful before Chandresh leaves. 

Then, he watches the place she was standing. Not even her, just where she was. He's getting really desperate now.

This chapter ends with Hector watching Marco watch where Celia was

Shatter Me Chapter Eleven will be up before midnight and next chapters of both will be up tomorrow.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-Two - 100 Pages? Somebody Shut Ed Sheeran Up

This chapter begins by continuing the slow death of Isobel and Marco.

He appears quite unexpectedly in her tent while the circus is in Paris. Instead of greeting her, like your typical significant other, he angrily asks why he was not told about the Wishing Tree, a tree full of candles, the perfect opposite/compliment to Marco's Ice Garden.

He can immediately tell it is Celia's, explaining that he can "feel it". Isobel has, by some cruelty, has failed as of yet to pick up on his growing devotion to Celia.

He tiredly explains that he cannot tamper with her (though they both end up doing that, in a good way), that the point is to "tip the scales" in their respective favors. 

They wax a bit about watching Celia, which is a little less creepy than it sounds, before Marco leaves to go watch Celia perform. As he he leaves, Isobel says, "'I miss you,'" though he either doesn't hear or doesn't care (personally, I think it's the latter). My god, Isobel, how did you get hired as a fortune teller? You can't even read your own conversations to tell that Marco is in love with someone else! If he wore a sign proclaiming in neon orange, saying: "I am in love with Celia Bowen", would you even notice?!

Wait, wait. This chapter ends with her maybe figuring it out.

"From the Marseilles deck she draws a single card. She knows which it will be before she turns it over. The angel emblazoned on the front is only a confirmation of her suspicions."


Apparently, the Angel, or Temperance, symbolizes the coming together of opposites. Well, at least she knows now...surprise?

You might be wondering about the title of this chapter.
I've been counting down until Adam and Juliette stop dancing around each other in the Shatter Me review.
So I decided to count the pages until Marco and Celia do so as well, and it's not good. 100 pages, twenty-six chapters to go. Sigh. Spotify (where the Ed Sheeran part comes from) is certainly not helping.

Next chapters of both should be up tomorrow.

Shatter Me- Chapter Ten- Good God, What Did I Sign Up For?!

Before we begin this chapter, there is something that must be said. And yes, I am posting this extra chapter before The Night Circus. Deal.

I have just finished rereading Shatter Me, and I must say: Earthlings, we are in for so much more emotional manipulation than I have said. Tahreh Mafi spends the first book making you join Team Adam and then spends the rest of the trilogy convincing you that you were an idiot for joining Team Adam. There a few chapters in Unravel Me and Ignite Me, two in particular, that I won't even be able to summarize. I'll just have to quote them in their entirety. In Shatter Me, though, during most of the romance between Adam and Juliette, I'll be warning everyone not to get too attached. It's not easy.

With that out of the way...

This chapter begins with Adam leading Juliette away from her future lover. It's obvious him saying her name still greatly affects her, but she refuses to take his hand.

Instead, he puts his hand on her back to guide her, and this also has a pretty serious effect on her. He tells her they're going outside, something she hasn't done for the better part of a year.
She's so amazed by the experience of being outside that she doesn't even get to metaphor.

She's brought back when Adam touches her, and now that there's no one else around, he can finally stop being an ass.

"'Are you okay?' His eyes surprise me. They're the same ones I remember, blue and bottomless like the deepest part of the ocean. His hands are gentle so gentle around me."

She continues lying to him about not wanting him to touch her. They go for a pleasant tank ride, and Juliette continues to silently spout exposition about The Reestablishment like a damn fountain. I'm not gonna bother to go over it. It's a carbon copy of every overpowering government in every dystopian YA novel, so believe me when I say there's no new information.

The tank ride ends at a building much larger than the asylum.
When she gets out of the tank, Adam is holding her waist, and she continues to pretend she doesn't like it that way. This is going to continue for another...nine chapters!? Are you kidding?!

Sigh...this chapter ends with them entering the building, where, after 54 pages I promise she'll stop being so stupid.

The Night Circus Chapter Twenty-Two will be up later today and next chapters of both will be up tomorrow. It's getting more difficult to keep writing on my phone like this. I think my fingers are suffering from cello withdrawals.

Shatter Me- Chapter Nine- Pretty Pretty Please Will You Torture People?

This chapter begins with Warner...well, I'll just quote it.

"'You are kind of a pet project of mine.' Warner smiles to himself. 'I've studied your records for a very long time.'"

Warner, you know I'm rooting for you, but just...

...Anyway, he goes on to explain that he put Adam with her as a cellmate to prove that she was able to interact with people.

He toys with the idea that Adam would be permanently supervising her, an idea she pretends to hate. Of course, Adam's still looking like an idiot in the corner.

Fortunately, he still does care about her, so it's very fortunate...for several reasons, that he's put in charge of her.

I'm skipping some rather useless dialogue, by the way, so if that matters to you, sorry. The main point: Warner wants Juliette to torture people for him, and he threatens to kill her if she doesn't. Not that he would, of course, he's in love with her already.

This chapter ends with him tossing Adam some gloves so he can touch her (even though he doesn't actually need them), touching her face a bit with his own gloves (even though he doesn't need them either), and then telling Admam that she's "his charge now."

I plan to post the next chapters of both this and The Night Circus later today. Enjoy it.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty-One (Chaperoned) - It's Just Magic. No Biggie

Warning: today I return to Las Vegas. Things may fall out of the nice limbo they have been in while I've been in Arizona.

This chapter begins with Celia babysitting Poppet and Widget. Because of their...odd...lifestyle, the twins spend most time running around a massive "backstage", supervised whenever they leave.

She isn't usually assigned to watch them, but like most everyone who visits or is entangled with Les Cirque de Reves, they are fond of her. 

Of course, because she is drawn as much to Marco as he is to her, she spends quite a bit of time in his lovely Ice Garden. By this point, you think she'd at least ask Chandresh whose tent it is, considering she spends the majority of her free time there.

However, she is in charge of two energetic children (which sounds redundant), and they aren't willing to walk as slowly as she is. They ride the Carousel a few times and Widget demands popcorn in that childish way that they thankfully grow out of quite soon.

And then we get a glimpse into some unexplained magic. We never figure out who can and cannot use magic, whether it's genetic or intelligence based or just luck of the draw, etc., etc.

Poppet comments to Celia about not wanting a "nice lady to die," to Celia's justified confusion.

She tells Celia that she saw it in the stars, and that Widget can see things on people.

"'Places they've been,' he says. 'Stuff they've done.'"

Celia, who is taking this well, asks Widget to read her.
He begins, but stops, claiming she "made it go away." 

She has a little mental soliloquy about the bonfire before turning back to the twins. She tells Poppet to tell her if anything important turns up in the stars.

This chapter ends with Celia offering to give them lessons, and thankfully her interpretation of the word "lessons " is very different than her father's.

Shatter Me Chapter Nine will be up later today, and God willing, next chapters of both will be up at a reasonable time tomorrow.

Shatter Me- Chapter Eight- Adam, You Bastard!!!/Enter Guy #2

This chapter begins with more of Juliette glossing over important things. This time? 48 hours of unconsciousness.

She wakes up after two days in a room marginally bigger than her previous hellhole, and doesn't even have time to metaphor before a soldier is forcing her somewhere else.

And then, there's Adam, who's become the devil.

"Adam is pointing a gun at my chest." 

This is a weird bit of plot that I'm not sure is actually going to be resolved, so...

Moving on from...this....Adam the bastard, in a turn of irony, leads her to the person she's going to leave him for: Guy Number Two, whose wonderful name (Warner, not gonna say his first name because it won't come up for a couple hundred pages) is unfortunately associated with hatred for now.

Juliette's reaction to seeing him is decidedly better than her reaction to Adam.

"He's beautiful."

But still, he's the one in charge of all those soldiers.

"I hate him."

The feeling is, for about another book and a half, unfortunately shared by me and most people who didn't read the wiki and ruin it for themselves.

He shames her a bit before turning to Adam, who is quite deferential to him considering how they treat each other in Ignite Me. But we'll get to that later, much, much,  later.  Juliette, though she is hating both of them, is apparently enjoying the eye candy, and I can't say I blame her.

"Adam says nothing. He doesn't look in my direction. His body is erect, 6 feet of gorgeous lean muscle, his profile strong and steady. The same arms that held my body are now holsters for lethal weapons."

Juliette asks if Warner is going to kill her, which of course he isn't because he loves her in the way Marco lobes Celia without knowing her.

This chapter ends with Warner proposing some unintentional torture.

"I manage to lift my head.
'I have a proposition for you.'"

Next chapters of this and The Night Circus will be up tomorrow.

The Night Circus- Part Two (Illumination): Chapter Twenty (Tasting) - Not Enough to Make a Better Title

This chapter begins with the best clockmaker in the damn universe returning. 

On holiday in France, Herr Thiessen is told of a clock at a circus's gates that is reminiscent of his work. I wonder what circus it is?

Upon joining the crowd outside the gates, he is pleased to see that the best clock in the whole damn universe is doing well. 

When he tells the woman at the ticket booth that he made the clock, she gets all jittery and refuses his money, and gives him the circus's business card along with his ticket.

Herr Thiessen, as I forgot to mention earlier, loves fine wine, and a tent he visits called Drinkery is the reason for the name of this chapter. 

He doesn't enter very many tents, but like most people, he absolutely loves the circus by the time he leaves. He returns twice, this time paying. 

Obsessed, he writes a very long letter to Chandresh about how much he loved it, and is disappointed when the letter he receives doesn't include the circus's location. Of course, there won't be Internet for another hundred years or so, so unless the circus decides to come to Germany, he has to fulfill his addiction another way.

His clocks begin to resemble the best clock in the whole damn universe, and according to Morgenstern, the wild cat tamers managed to get their hands on some snow leopards. It's a good thing the EPA won't be founded for a long time, either (about eighty years).

This chapter ends with Thiessen underestimating his ability to make the best clocks in the whole damn universe.

"Though he fears he never does the circus justice in these clockwork tributes."

Shatter Me Chapter Eight should be up before midnight, and next chapters of both will be up tomorrow.