I Read What?!

So in our first two chapters of Shapechangers, we had two genocide-apologist racists get captured by a very rapey racial stereotype. Let's see how these next chapters go.



In this chapter, we join Alix as she feels a strange touch on her mind. Carillon's asleep and they're alone in the tent except for the wolf, Storr, who is keeping watch. Alix realizes that she can talk to the wolf, and that makes her think she's going crazy. He states cryptically that he's seeking something (presumably telepathically) but can't tell her what.

Wow, it's good to see that Finn's wolf shares the same concern for consent that Finn does.

Anyway, Storr leaves and we have a moment of sentimentality when Alix looks at Carillon, along with some acknowledgment of the class issue:

She looked longingly at Carillon's unmoving form a moment, wanting to smooth the hair from his hot brow, but she kept herself from it. Such intimacy, if it ever occurred, would have to begin with him. She was too far from his rank to initiate anything.

That would make courtship very awkward. And possibly adds a little context to the way he immediately said he wasn't asking her to be his mistress last chapter. (It had seemed very abrupt.)

So anyway, Alix decides now is a good time to slip away from the camp, since they are nonsensically unguarded. I mean really? You guys have the heir to the throne in your possession and you're not going to guard him?? It's not like his uncle is presiding over a brutal genocidal regime targeting you! So anyway, we get some more cultural stereotypes and some contradictions:

She was no shadow-wraith like the Cheysuli, but she was forest-raised and could move with little noise. Carefully she eased past the last tent and entered the clustered trees.

Needles and twigs snapped beneath her feet, digging painfully into her flesh. Alix bit her lip against the sharp, nagging pain and went on, ignoring the fear in her soul, A shiver coursed down her body as she moved through the silent forest. She longed for the warmth and safety of her father's croft and the hot spiced cider he brewed.

It is for Carillon, she whispered silently. For him. Because a prince has asked me. Irrationally she nearly laughed aloud. But he does not have to be a prince to bid me serve him. I would do it willingly.

Alix, you're not giving him a blowjob here. You're ESCAPING. I'd like to think you'd have the brains to try that regardless of what Carillon said. The stakes are actually much higher for you here. Finn only wants to ransom Carillon back to his uncle (which seems pretty reasonable all things considered), he wants to rape you.

Fear was still the primary element in her soul, but so was her wish to do as Carillon asked. She was fair caught in the trap that bound so many women.

What does this even mean?

So anyway, Alix proves that her claim of being able to move silently in the forest is as bullshit as the rest of this when she hears a twig snap. There's a wolf watching her. She realizes that it's bigger than Storr, with red fur, and its yellow eyes held a gleam of invitation.

Hence the "shapechanger" part of the title.

Finn returns to human form, reminds her that he told her that she wouldn't be able to escape. She seems more horrified by the fact that he can shapeshift than by the fact that her escape was thwarted. Finn explains that the shapeshifting is part of the lir bond. Once bonded with an animal, they can take its shape at will.

Alix shouts "Shapechanger" as an insult, and I feel like that's really not creative as a racial slur. I mean, it's what they do? Also, I still want to bond with a whale.

Finn goes on a slight tangent here, stating that that's what Homanans call them, but they're not sorcerers or servants of the dark gods. They leave that to the Ihlini. Alix finally does something halfway intelligent and runs away, "seeking only to escape the man, the demon, who was everything Carillon had said"

Seriously?

I mean, look, not to defend Finn here, as the man is really vile. But THIS is what proves Carillon right? Not the abductions, rape threats, or the way he keeps calling you "mei jha"? A guy from a race called "shapechangers" can turn into a wolf. This totally vindicates your boyfriend's genocide apologia.

Anyway, she doesn't hear anything behind her when she runs, but figures she wouldn't because "a shapechanger would hardly make noise as he stalked his prey". Then she trips over a log and gets tackled from behind. Finn kneels over her to taunt her a little, and is as gross as ever:

"I have said before how much trouble I have gone to get you, and to keep you. At least let me have some repayment for it."

His fingers touched the cut on her face and she winced. "You did not need to run from me, mei jha."

She shivered. This man becomes a wolf at will. She looked at his hands for signs of the wolf-mark. Finn grinned at her with a man's teeth in a wolfish leer.

"When I wear a man's shape, mei jha, I am all man. Shall I prove it to you?"

I don't think you can quite understand how infuriated I was when I first read this book at age 14, and still am. Finn was my FAVORITE CHARACTER in book 2. One of my favorites throughout the entire series. And I can't even say this book ruined him, because this book came first!

Why is it necessary that the first fantasy Native American that we meet in this series is a gross, leering rapist? It's not like Finn is meant to be the villain of the piece! Because, surprise spoiler, he's not! If anything, he's the comic relief contrast to the actual romantic lead that we'll meet later. (...who has his own problems.) He doesn't need to be this disgusting!

The main events could still have happened without these gross rape overtones: Finn's a member of a persecuted race who found the heir to the throne in a moment of vulnerability. He captures Carillon, because why the fuck wouldn't he? He takes Alix too, because she could always run for help, and the Cheysuli need to prepare before they're able to take on the royal army. He could still be attracted to her, but tone it down a little. Keep a roguish flirtation without the implication that he doesn't care about her consent.

It would have worked fine! (I'm pretty sure that's how the events of book 1 were described in book 2 anyway.)

So anyway, Finn tells her that he'd watched her for some time: he'd spotted her when on a raiding mission and found "prey of another sort."

Then we get some lovely rape apologia:

His knees were on either side of her thighs, holding her prisoner. He bent over her until his lips were nearly touching her face.

"Shaine's soldiers have slain nearly all of us, mei jha, and they have not spared our women. What is a proud race to do when it sees its own demise? We must get more of us on the women we have, and take others where we can, even if they be unwilling.*'

Her mind flinched from his words, denying them even as she heard the ring of truth in his voice. The Mujhar's purge had begun twenty-five years before. She had grown up knowing the Cheysuli must die, for all she believed the Mujhar's actions unfair in the wake of what her father had said. But now she was faced with a shapechanger who spoke of force, and she was more than willing to forsake her principles to win free of him.

Her fingers on his arm were no more than a feather touch, instinctively seductive. She saw sudden wariness in his eyes and the intensity in his body poised over her.

"Must you make the tales of your savagery and bestial appetites true?" she whispered. "Must you so readily prove to me you are no better than the demon-spawn others name you?"

She heard the "ring of truth in his words"? REALLY? REALLY? And we see how fucking warped this narrative actually is. Because, right now at least, it's hard to argue with her. The ONLY Cheysuli we've met is an unrepentant rapist. We've seen nothing, yet, to indicate that Finn's behavior is at all aberrant for them. I'd like to think it is, but given his reaction when Storr interrupts AGAIN, I'm not sure about that.

Storr's comment by the way is: "You should not" and "She is not for you".

I mean, we're supposed to believe that the qu'mahlin is unjust (and of course the genocide is), but it's awfully funny that we're supposed to just accept these people's word that Lindir went willingly with Hale. Because, as Finn shows, rape and abduction are beyond these people.

I realize it's unfair to use one bad apple to criticize an entire race, but thus far we haven't met ANY other Cheysuli! There's been nothing to show us otherwise. Hell, she didn't even have to show us other Cheysuli people to show us they're not like Finn. She could have, I don't know, had Storr go "Hey, dude, stop raping people in general!" That would have been a good way to show us that Finn's not a good representative of his culture.

But no. Storr can't possibly actually care about people in his own right. That would take away from the implication that Alix is "special". (...because hearing the wolf speak isn't special enough in its own right.)

So anyway, Finn demands to know who she is and why his wolf would speak out against his rapey tactics. (He holds her by the throat when he does it. Without pressure. But still. Charming.) And Alix tells us her backstory. It's somewhat repetitive but with some new info:

She's a croft girl. Her dad was the arms-master. He left the service a year before Alix was born. She's seventeen.

(Finn by the way has to be at least twenty-five, based on something we learn later in a few pages. It doesn't really change anything: a rapist is a rapist. But I might have been more willing to get past some of this if he were young too.)

Finn lets her go and asks her what she knows about the qu'mahlin. She tells him the version she heard from her dad: that Shaine's daughter Lindir broke a betrothal between Homana and its neighbor Solinde, which was supposed to ally them after years of warfare. She ran off with Shaine's liege man, Hale.

Finn confirms that, stating that Hale took Lindir into the forests because she asked him to, because she wanted to escape her marriage. And again, I would be more comfortable accepting this version of events if it didn't come from the dude who kidnapped Alix to be his mistress.

Alix, understandably, asks what this has to do with her. Finn says it doesn't, it has to do with him: his race is almost destroyed, and he has the daughter of a witness to the very beginnings of the qu'mahlin in his hands. He calls it tahlmorra or destiny. (specifically: "what is meant, will happen, and cannot be gainsaid, for it is in the hands of the gods") He references a prophecy.

"Prophecy," she muttered in disgust, weary of his attitude and hinted-at knowledge. She looked at the patient wolf. "What has Storr to do with me?"

See, this is the sort of thing that bugs me about Alix. And it's not Alix's fault of course, it's Ms. Roberson who's writing her. But Alix's emotional reactions really don't seem to fit the severity of her circumstances. She's been ABDUCTED! Finn keeps sexually harassing her! She's been told she'll never see her home or father again! These are fucking terrifying circumstances! But yet, she only tries to escape because she promised Carillon. She's disgusted, understandably!, but also "weary" of her captor, and seems more annoyed than anything else.

Ms. Roberson is a good writer, and earlier had some great moments establishing Alix's emotional baseline. But this is bad.

Here is more bad:

Finn scowled. "I cannot say, but it is something I would learn. Now." He fixed her with a baleful glare. "Why does he keep me from you?"

She glared back. "That I cannot say, shapechanger, save to compliment his actions."

He startled her by laughing. Then he got to his feet and reached for her, pulling her up. She stood stiffly, wary of him, ignoring the provocative appraising look in his eyes.

Storr yawned. I think she is not as frightened of you as she would have you believe, lir.

Finn smiled at the wolf, then looked back at her. His dark brows rose. "Are you so brave, mei jha? Do you dissemble before me?"

Alix slanted a reproving glance at the wolf. "He knows me not at all, snapechanger. Do not listen to him."

"To my own lir?" He laughed. "If I forsake Storr, I forsake my soul. You will learn that, soon enough."

So isn't this a lovely bit of fucking bullshit?

We've got more emotional inconsistency. She's "wary" of him, understandably! But apparently able to "ignore" the "provocative appraising look in his eyes". Look, I know there are many ways that a person might respond to sexual threat and harassment. There is no wrong reaction. But I find it very hard to believe that a girl in Alix's situation, subjected to the kind of threats that she's been subjected to, would be able to IGNORE that kind of thing.

We also get Storr, who was originally the closest thing we had to a sympathetic character, blithely dismissing Alix's understandable fear as being a masquerade. Because rapists never pretend the victim really wants their attention.

Anyway, Storr tells Finn to back off: he doesn't understand Alix, and she doesn't understand what's in her blood.

Alix reacts first, repeating "my blood?", which makes Finn realize that she can hear Storr. He realizes that means the story is true, he asks Storr if he has the right of it, and Storr says "Can you not see it for yourself?"

Finn explains what we've all figured out (and to be fair, is said on the back book cover): that Alix is half Homanan and half Cheysuli. Even then, of course, Alix is special: women don't take lir or speak to them.

(Honestly, it doesn't sound like it'd be very much fun to be a Cheysuli woman: none of the cool powers, and having to deal with attitudes like Finn's.)

Anyway, Finn tells her she's Cheysuli, even though she's grown up lacking in their "wisdom and customs". He even tries to be comforting, stating that "they're the children of the Firstborn, who were sired by the old gods" and that the Homanans are nothing in comparison.

Alix tries to insist that she's not a shapechanger, but Finn says she is, or Storr wouldn't offer her protection. Because Storr doesn't care if Finn rapes foreign women. Finn continues to be gross:

"I am not a demon," Finn said, affronted. "Nor is Storr. I have said what I am, and what he is, and—by all the old gods!—what you are. Now, come with me."

She wrenched away from his reaching hand. "Do not touch me!"

Finn glared at her. "Your blood has saved you from my attentions, meijha, for a time. Do not seek to anger me. or I may renew them."

Alix stiffened as he took her arm and led her through the trees.

This is actually even more gross than you might think, for reasons we'll see shortly.

Anyway, Finn brings her to a tent set in a circle of stone, and she notices a large hawk perched on a staff in front of it. Alix is immediately impressed, thinking that a man with a lir like that must be powerful. Finn tells her that the hawk is Cai, and they're in front of his brother's pavilion: he's clan-leader, and needs to be told about this.

And Finn finishes revealing what we already know: Alix is the daughter of Hale and Lindir. He says she can ask Storr, and she is skeptical understandably. (Though she seems more aghast at the fact that she's taking the word of a wolf as opposed to taking the word of her captor.) We're told that the lir are kin to the old gods and know many things. Though not that rape is bad, apparently.

Finn tells her to wait there and calls her a new name "rujholla", which means sister. And here's a reveal that actually IS a bit surprising: Hale was Finn's father too.

...which means of course that when he said: "Your blood has saved you from my attentions, meijha, for a time. Do not seek to anger me. or I may renew them."

He actually meant that SHE IS HIS SISTER. (Also, I dunno, maybe the rujholla moment would have been more significant if he'd used it then too? Y'know, when he knew she was his half-sister?) Also, "don't piss me off, or I'll start harassing you again, but this time incestuously?"

--

I'm really inclined to stop here, as I feel like I've bitched enough for two lifetimes, but hell, the next chapter is about three pages, and introduces the last major important character: Duncan. Finn's brother, and Alix's ACTUAL love interest. (He's Finn's maternal half brother, so he and Alix aren't related. And I'm really annoyed at the book for making me have to clarify that.)

So anyway, in Chapter Four, we start with Finn motioning Alix into the tent. If I hadn't spoiled the fact that Duncan is Alix's actual love interest, I think the description would have given it away:

First she saw only the torch in the comer, squinting against its acrid smoke. Then Alix's eyes fell on the seated man who held a compact bow in his hands. Transfixed, she stared at his hands; firm and brown, long-fingered and supple. Slowly he smoothed fine oil into the dark wood, rubbing it to a gleaming patina of age and richness. As she stared he put aside the bow and waited.

He was much like Finn, she saw. recognizing characteristic features of the Cheysuli race. But there was something more in the bones of his face. Promised strength, calm intelligence and the same inherent command she saw maturing in Carillon.

He rose smoothly to his feet and she saw he was taller than Finn; long-boned and less heavy. His face was wide-browed with a narrow nose. with the same high cheekbones and smooth planes as Finn's- Like his brother he wore a sleeveless jerkin and leather leggings, but his gold armbands bore the sweeping image of a magnificent hawk, lined with odd runes.

That's three whole paragraphs to say "like Finn, but hotter."

Duncan asks Alix what happened to her face, and she attributes it to a tree limb. She also calls him shapechanger, in a "purposefully rude tone". I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, she's a captive and has no obligation to be nice. On the other hand, she's a captive, and pissing off her captors is kind of stupid.

Also, Duncan is kind of a dick too:

Something glinted in his eyes as she used a purposely rude tone. For a moment she was very afraid.

This man is more subtle than Finn, she thought apprehensively, and far less predictable.

He released her chin. "How did a tree limb come to desire the taste of your skin?''

She slid a look at Finn, who remained exceedingly silent. But the other man saw the exchange and laughed softly, surprising her. It also drew quick resentment from her.

...so it's apparently cute that your brother abuses your prisoners, dude?

Alix asks if he intends to "force her" like Finn wanted. And this section is interesting:

He studied her solemnly. "I force no woman. Did Finn?"

Alix gritted her teeth. "He tried. He wished to. The wolf would not allow it."

"The lir are often much wiser than we," he said significantly.

Alix was shocked as she saw dark color move through Finn's face. For a moment her perception of him altered through the eyes of his older brother. Alix saw him as a rash young man instead of a fierce, threatening warrior. The image surprised her.

Okay, on one hand, I'm glad to hear that Duncan isn't a rapist. And that he's not offended by the question, because this isn't really a good time for a #notallmen reaction. On the other, I am really not a fan of the way this minimizes Finn's conduct.

At the youngest, Finn is twenty-five, as that's when Hale ran off with Lindir. (...well, I suppose that Hale could have banged Finn and Duncan's mom during the eight years in which Hale and Lindir were together in the forest, but I feel like we're supposed to see that as a love match.) That's a grown adult.

When Alix calls him shapechanger again, Duncan tells her his name and says that calling him by it won't make her accursed. Alix wants to know what they want of her, since she's a prisoner. Duncan says that she's of the clan and that he'll have to convince her. This scares Alix, but Duncan "smoothly reached out and caught her arm." He tells her that if she stays, he'll answer all of her questions.

Duncan does win me over just a little by not taking his brother's shit:

His eyes flicked to Finn. "Leave her with me. You had best tend to Carillon."

Finn smiled crookedly. "The princeling sleeps, rujho. The earth magic has removed his cares for a time." He straightened under the silent command. "But I will see to him, for all that. Tend her well, rujho; she was gently reared."

The thing that's frustrating about this book is that there are things that Ms. Roberson does really well as a writer. When she bothers to try, she has an amazing way of carrying across a character's fundamental emotional nature. In this scene, there's a very palpable sense of Duncan's strength and authority. He's calm and grave, but intense rather than serene. Even Finn had a few moments, where I felt like the personality that she actually intended to portray came through (the laughter, for example, when she says that she compliments Storr's actions), as opposed to the disgusting rapist. Alix and Carillon's interaction, before the genocide apologia, felt believable for a young girl in love with a fundamentally decent man who is way above her station.

But then there's everything else.

Anyway, Duncan and Alix talk. One thing that comes up is Alix's racism: she claims that she as raised to fear the Cheysuli. Duncan notes that her father, Torrin, was a faithful and honorable man. He doesn't believe that he would have raised Alix to believe the lies, even if Shaine said otherwise. Duncan gets to be a dick for a moment here:

He sighed. "It will take much time. But first you must believe Hale is your father. Not Torrin."

Her chin rose stubbornly. "I cannot accept that."

Duncan scowled at her, suddenly very like Finn. "Foolishness has no place here. Will you listen?"

Dude, this is a BIT of a shock to the girl. Alix says she'll listen, but thinks that she doesn't have to believe it. She gets the sense that Duncan could hear her unspoken words, but he just continues with the story.

For once, we don't get the same rehash of Hale and Lindir. Duncan actually tells us something new: namely that after Hale took Lindir away, Lindir's mother died. Shaine took a second wife, but the woman miscarried three times, then had a stillborn child. She was barren after that, and Shaine blamed Cheysuli sorcery for all of it.

He notes that Shaine's decree even touches his granddaughter - Alix. Alix freaks out at that realization. Initially I didn't get why, since she's already had this moment. But the end of the chapter makes it a little clearer why she reacted that way.

Anyway, Duncan says that she can ask Cai to back him up. Cai apparently speaks with a golden tone in Alix's mind. Hah, even Duncan's lir is hotter than Finn's.

Duncan offers to finish the story another time, but Alix insists "wildly" that he continue, and Duncan does:

Basically, Hale was killed by Shaine's troops, and Lindir, pregnant, went home to her father to beg for shelter. It might have worked: if Lindir gave birth to a boy, then Shaine would have an heir. But it was a girl, and Lindir died. And Shaine ordered Alix to be left to die in a forest.

She asks how Duncan knows the story, and he says that it was told to the shar-tahl, who is the clan's priest-historian, and keeps all the rituals and "tends to the words of the prophecy".

She wants to know more about the prophecy, since Finn "speaks of little else." Well that, and sexual harassment. Duncan says that it's not for him to talk about it, and the priest will speak with her when it's time.

Alix finds she believes Duncan, and his love interest status is made even more obvious when she states "hollowly" that he is her brother like Finn. It's a bit quick to be disappointed by that, Alix. Though admittedly, right now, Duncan does seem like the most tolerable in a bad set of options, being only a dick, as opposed to a racist or rapist.

Duncan clarifies that he and Finn share a mother. Hale is his foster father, as his own died when he was young. Alix doesn't understand how Hale can have taken Lindir when he already had a family. Duncan clarifies:

Hale being Shaine's liege man is a Cheysuli thing involving hereditary service to the Mujhars, and that before the purge, every Mujhar had a Cheysuli liege man, so Hale spent most of his time at court. Lindir, as a child, used to tease him. And then she grew up. Duncan notes that unlike the Homanans who hide their "light women", Cheysuli have wives and mistresses and "honor them both".

Duncan seems unbothered by the fact that Hale left his mother, stating that men and women have the freedom to take whom they choose, when they choose. Except y'know, Alix doesn't actually want to choose anyone.

Alix would rather be Homanan, but Duncan states that she's half Cheysuli, which in their clan counts as whole. He doesn't present this as an optional thing.

Then Alix puts something upsetting together: when Lindir didn't have a boy, Shaine chose his brother's son as his heir: Carillon. Which means they're cousins! Oh no!

Um, Alix, honey. I've read eight books of this terrible series and there is a SHIT TON of cousin-fucking in it. You're probably fine.