okay i tried to take it as slow as possible but i finished wundersmith and hollowpox over the course of two days and now i'm halfway through silverborn
and i'm obsessed with the evolution of morrigan's view of ezra
in general i love how this series and especially this book presents characters as complicated and messy and real and how the narrative itself loves them for it
morrigan finds out her mother was a traitor and that makes her more real than being a perfect angel
morrigan herself is making, frankly, terrible choices through this whole book but they are so understandable and exactly the choices a teenager would make in those circumstances and they're in character and believable and the story flourishes around that rather than it feeling frustrating
and ezra! who started off as kind mr jones who gave her hope, became the nightmare she was trying to escape, is still the shadow she won't ever free herself from, loves nevermoor exactly like she does, used to be the little boy in her ghostly hours, and is the best teacher she's ever had
ezra isn't a character we love who has complicated traits nor is the narrative trying to redeem him
he's a murderer and a monster and an unflinching one at that, discusses and creates genocide for a quick buck and he killed every last one of his friends
he also gives morrigan nothing but informed decisions (as opposed to jupiter who tries to protect her, which is a whole other post, but in short i think jupiter is also very understandable at least in the first few books because morrigan was raised knowing exactly what was going to happen to her and maybe she doesn't need information that will only worry her and he can give her a bit of a childhood but also she's growing up and he needs to understand that)
he has a conscience, he feels guilt in the hollowpox hospital wing, he loves nevermoor in its' wildness and freedom and would rather never return than allow it to be destroyed
this is just. such an excellent exploration of the beauty and humanity of complexity.
