27 MORAY PLACE

A Frey and McGray fanblr.

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Holy moly youse!

I’ve finally been reading The Sign Of The Devil, I’m on chapter 40 now and my gast is flabbered and I am flabbergasted!

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So, it’s been a while…

Hello everyone!

I wish I was here with some better news, but this last year been a rough one. I can’t even remember when I said I was going to start reading ‘Sign of the Devil’ but I know it was a while ago.

So TLDR of it all is last May I lost my best friend of nearly 11 years, my wee bun, Kirby. It was very sudden and not the ending I wanted for him. I also found out that losing him was my first full blown experience of grief (I’m no stranger to losing people, but this was the first one that I felt). On top of all this, I’ve got some sort of sleep issue, it started with me falling asleep on the toilet, and has now progressed to where I can fall asleep anywhere, at work, on the bus, etc, which has made reading difficult, because anything that might relax me, makes me sleepy, and off I go. I’ve also been injuring myself, for example a month ago, fell asleep on the toilet, and fell face first into the stool and bust my mouth open (my teeth nearly went through my lip), I’ve also fallen asleep and called over just walking. The GP thinks is sleep apnea, and I’ve got tests to do etc so we’ll see.

But, finally, I am making a start on book 7. I’ve technically read one page and started to fall asleep (not a testament to the writing ofc).

Also as a side note, I got my dad into the series and he’s now read it all. We’ve been on an ebook binge and we’ve been clearing out our physical books and replacing them.

But here we are, book 7. Of course I shall let you know my thoughts either during or after :)

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So, I finally have my hands on ‘The Sign of The Devil’. A bittersweet moment, as I have been a fan of the Frey & McGray series since ‘The Strings of Murder’ when I first saw it in Sainburys when it came out, and has now replaced another series, which shall remain nameless *cough*Miss Peregrines*cough* after a terrible, terrible film adaptation. I’m going to reread all the books now (now I’ve finished the last book I was reading, Museum of Extraodrinary Things, if anyone’s curious, it was pretty good). I’m going to go into the little mental notes I’ve made while reading when I finish each book on here. 

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Amy ‘Pansy’ McGray Headcanons

Let’s start off the headcanons with arguably the driving force for the series, as without her and the tragedy, the subdivision would never exist, beware, some spoilers for the later books, but I’ll add spoiler before those, so, without further ado, I give you, my Amy ‘Pansy’ McGray headcanons:

I don’t think Pansy was ‘possessed’ by the devil before the tragedy, not sure what caused her to snap, but I don’t think it was supernatural, I think it was more likely some sort of mental health condition, maybe psychosis?

I also think she said ‘Tis the devil’, as of course, mental health was not as much of a thing then, and if you were mentally ill, you were insane, so she probably fed the culture of the time of people thinking mental health was caused by a demon, or the devil,

Pansy’s behaviour since the tragedy I think is related in some way to PTSD, or something similar to do with trauma, and McGray’s constant visits to her at the asylum are a reminder of what she did, and what happened.

Joel Ardglass murdering the nurse near the beginning of book 2 has added to Pansy’s trauma, the rooms are next door to each other, and asylums at that time weren’t known for being calming and relaxing places, so the screams from the fellow inmates will likely trigger thoughts of that trauma with Joel,

Before the tragedy, Pansy was definitely a daddy’s girl, James would have done near anything to keep his daughter happy, though I don’t think she was 100% spoilt,

If the tragedy had never happened, I think Pansy would have become quite a forward thinking young woman, and possibly been quite scandalous with her ideals,

If Frey still ended up in Edinburgh without the tragedy happening and Elgie came too, I could see Pansy and Elgie getting on like a house on fire,

SPOILER FOR BOOK 4 - Dr. Clouston threw the bottle of loch water away because he believes Pansy has been through enough with Adolphus’ obsession with the occult finding a cure for her, and I don’t think Clouston believes her condition is due to the occult,

Pansy, if the tragedy hadn’t happened, would turn many a young man’s eye, and you know if any of them messed about, they could expect a broken limb or two from McGray,

SPOILER FOR BOOK 6 - I think that there is some sort of relationship between Caroline and Pansy, I’m not sure what kind of relationship, but the end of book 6 got me thinking when she went to visit her. Maybe Caroline feels some sort of kinship with Pansy?

SPOILER FOR BOOK 6 - I thought the inclusion of Pansy again with the witches was interesting, and the fact that Pansy was able to get them the clue about Marigold shows she can make some progress, how far that progress would go is a different story.

SPOILER FOR ALL BOOKS? - I think in the end, Pansy will never be herself again, certainly not the Pansy pre tragedy. I think Oscar has planned her ending, with possibly her dying, or not being cured. I remember him asking on twitter a few years ago how fans would feel if Pansy was never cured.

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A wee update

Hello!

Long time no post, eh?

Whoops, life has kind of been happening, and I forgot all about this so..

Anyway, I should have my Pansy headcanons going up soon, and I also wanted to share my thoughts on Oscar’s now, not so recent tweets about the future of the series.

I am of course heartbroken the series is effectively coming to an end. I know Oscar didn’t say the door was closed forever, but I think after book 7, the chances of us getting another main series book is pretty slim, though I can understand why. 

Oscar has pretty much written a book a year for the last 6/7 years for the series, I’ve been reading them since the very first book came out, so I’ve been here for a long time. I myself have started writing my own book, and from my experience, it’s a very long, and sometimes draining process, how Oscar managed to research, plan and write so many books in so little time is baffling to me, anyway. 

I am now wondering how the series is going to end, Oscar has said he’s dropped a few hints along the way, and he’s had the ending planned from near the start. I have a few theories, which are, I think a main character might die (if it’s McGray, I’m coming for you Oscar, you did this to me in Fever of the Blood, not again mate..), I don’t think Pansy will be cured (more on that in my headcanons), or I think the division will be shut down. I remember seeing Oscar tweet about how fans would feel if Pansy was never cured, or if a main character died, so that’s partly where I’ve got my thinking from. 

All in all, I’m super gutted the series is coming to a close, these books have fast become my favourite series, replacing Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (I could rant for hours on how the series was incredibly ruined by the film, how I think Ransom Riggs is a lil ***** for simping to Tim Burton and letting him ruin the series, but we ain’t got time for that so).

Frey and McGray will always live on in some ways, especially for me, I’ve planned for the longest time of doing my own little fan fictions of Frey & McGray, like I have one in mind for when Frey went to spend Christmas with his family in the first book, what did McGray do on his own in Edinburgh? Let me know if fan fictions would be something you’d like to see here! I might also re-read all the books again in preparation for book 7, so if you want me to do reviews or whatever on them, let me know about that too!

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Ohh, would you look at that!

Well, the blog is looking shiny and classy, because I’ve sorted out the theme! It should also be a lot easier to navigate too, I’ve used the same theme as my writing tumblr, dandelionthoughts.tumblr.com (shameless plug!)

So, as you can see in the sparkly new upcoming posts tab, my headcanons for Pansy are what’s coming next, so stay tuned!

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A History With Frey & McGray

I’ve always been a big reader, and at a young age my reading level was very high, and to find a book series I can get lost in is a rare thing, there was another book series I was mad about, but for reasons I won’t go into (mainly because I could rant about how much it annoyed and disappointed me for hours) was spoilt by a film adaptation. I’m a big believer of the visual media, be it film, or tv, stay as true to the source books as possible, and it’s a big worry of mine if the Frey & McGray series ever gets turned into a series, or film, would it get spoiled? Anyway, I digress, let me tell you how I became obsessed with the series.

Our story begins in 2015, I distinctly remember browsing the shelves in the book section of my local Sainsburys, now I'm not normally one to judge a book by it's cover, but I saw the cover of the first Frey & McGray book, 'The Strings Of Murder', and I fell in love. I usually read the blurb, and the first few pages to get a grasp of whether I'll like the book. I read the blurb, and I instantly wanted to know more, so I read the prologue, and again, I wanted to carry on reading, and so I bought it, and I haven't regretted it since. The series has fast become my favourite series, I did have another, but that was spoilt due to a film made of it, which in my eyes has rendered the sequels from the first book useless. The second Frey & McGray book was released a year later, 'A Fever Of The Blood', and reading the synopsis on Amazon, I saw that it was set at Pendle Hill, not far from where I live, and a place I have been countless times. As you may know Pendle is synonymous with the Lancashire Witches, one of which, Alice Nutter, I am  (according to my father's cousin) related to by marriage some where along the line. Needless to say, I was ecstatic about it being set so close to home, and I was delighted to have something in common with Frey's maid, Joan, she came from my hometown. Not that there's much to be proud of in my town, but to know someone, even fictionally, who is such a strong character is from my town, was great. The third book was announced, 'A Mask Of Shadows', and when I saw the news on twitter, I said 'I screamed like a banshee', and the author, Oscar, tweeted back saying it was funny I mentioned that. The third book told the tale of prophecies from a banshee, during the time Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Bram Stoker were in Edinburgh with their rendition of Macbeth. Of course, I’ve also bought and then read books 4 & 5 multiple times.

For the first 3/4 books the fandom for the series was very small, and I wasn’t sure it even existed, and slowly I’ve started to notice more and more people loving the books, which is amazing, which is partly why I decided to start this blog. I have so many headcanons, and thoughts and theories on the books, and characters, which I can’t wait to share with you all! But for now, enjoy some photos I took when I visited Edinburgh for a separate reason, and had to, of course, squeeze in some Frey & McGray sightseeing!

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Coming Soon...

I’ll start adding stuff soon!

Not new to the fandom, but new to being active in it 😬😬