Biggest shout-out to @pixie-in-trebleland, who wrote the following chapter summary! I appreciate your help so much, seriously. As a reminder, I was hoping that other people would write these instead of me because I didn’t want to tell you guys what the take-away should be or what’s important or unimportant. It’s up to you to tell each other what you’ll all need to know to 1. understand the upcoming story and 2. learn and remember how to help our puppets. Here’s Tianna’s take on Chapter One - if you wanted to write a summary too, that could help us get an even more complete picture, but seriously this is awesome. You did a wonderful job and I love how you talk about them. Thanks a million, pixie!
These summaries are for newcomers to be able to jump into the story, for those who had trouble following the whole story to get a fuller picture, and for those who have been here all along (including me haha) to remember what’s come before.
Chapter One Summary by pixie-in-trebleland
We are first introduced to a set of twins known to us as Trickshot and Doktor (Chase and Schneep) who are keeping watch. Your cameras flicker to life and, from this point forward, you are able to interact with the duo, and the others. As our little camera crew asks Trick and Dok some questions, Anti and Red (Jackie) appear with an unconscious Marvin slung over Red’s shoulder. Doktor and Trick are excited at the fact that they are now a pretty little set of brothers. It is then explained that Marvin is to be Red’s twin, and that his name is now Blue (a cute kind of pairing to Red’s name!). While the boys fuss over Marvin and Red who is injured from the fight, we are told a little about Dapper (Jameson) who spends his time alone upstairs. Marvin awakes later on to his brothers, horrified at the amount of abuse that Anti has put them through. They no longer remember who they were before Anti kidnapped them all, that including their real names or anything of their personalities. Now, Marvin realizes, his brothers are nothing but shattered fragments of who they used to be. Enraged and very emotional over the entire situation, he confronts Anti about what he’s done, and Anti attempts to use his Power on Marvin, just as he did with the others. Marvin catches on and Anti leaves him alone in the basement, amused at the fact that Marvin is not as weak as he appears to be. Marvin rejoins the others and tries to care for them as he usually had in the past, only being pushed away and attacked by the others. Towards the end of the first bit, Marvin attempts to see Dapper, only to get punished by Anti.
The second part of the chapter opens with Marvin being kidnapped by Anti and quickly punished for attempting to approach Dapper, who is forced to live alone in the attic. Red is beyond excited and anxious to see what the outcome will be of the punishment. At the same time, Red is coming to realize just how attached he is becoming to Marvin, who Anti promised would become his twin. All while this chaos is happening upstairs, Dok and Trickshot are staying out of the way in hopes that punishment will not fall on them. At the end of the day, Anti has already attempted to hypnotize Marvin to make him behave and break like the others. However, the hypnosis has made Marvin -and his magic- unstable...unstable to the point in which Red needs to restrain him to keep any more flowers from growing through the floorboards! Meanwhile, there is an incident that happens with Trick and Dok that causes Trick to grab his twin by the throat, sending him into a fit of confusion. In his own unstable state, Dok attacks Trick, but the two attempt to quickly make up after he returns to his somewhat normal self. Dapper still remains alone, but sits in the attic and watches the Northern Lights overhead. It is here where our camera crew sees that the time traveller is not as broken as the others. His personality has become an amalgamation of who he was and who he now is, showing us that Anti’s power isn’t as strong as it appears to be.
The next part of this chapter was totally my favourite bit, so bear with me if I ramble on! The fourth part is this beautifully fluffy part where Anti lets Trick, Dok and Dapper are allowed out on the town to get supplies. They’re given extra money, too, to pick up little gifts for each other (YAY!). With all the fun going on, they return home, only to see that Red and Marvin have been “reset” by Anti. By reset, I mean that their memories are gone and all, but they are now inseparable. Joined at the hip. Dapper is starting to go a little nuts, and Dok is punished because of it. Anti blames him for Dapper losing his marbles and sends Trick out to get a new medication, no matter the cost. Trick steals the anti-psychotics and returns home. Meanwhile, Blue is starting to remember who he was before Anti and plans to break free, until he sees Anti wearing Dapper’s body.
The chapter is starting to come to an end as police come up the hill to find Trick for his crime. Anti goes to stop them in his gigantic puppy form and attempts to lead them away from the home in order to protect his brothers. While Anti is away, Marvin sees an opportunity to run and does so, but not without fighting off a resistant Red first.
As for the ending, Mod adds: fleeing to the beach with a stunned Doktor in tow, Blue is cornered by Anti, who has possessed Trick despite Trick’s fear and trauma about possession. Dapper, having seen a possible future where Anti kills Blue on this night, comes down to the beach to stop it. In the ensuing fight, Dapper stabs Anti to protect Blue and Dok manages to calm Anti’s fury, convincing him that he will have to take Blue willingly or not at all. In the end, Blue allows himself to be taken back to the house and hypnotized deeply, convinced to stay by... well, that’s not my place to say.
Honestly, y’all should probably just read Chapter One of AmLaet on your own. Papa Frank leads us through a brief discussion of family in the Bible (both idealized and otherwise), the relationship between family and the Trinity, and the takeaway for modern families. It’s fourteen and a half pages with really wide margins, very approachable, and definitely worth reading and meditating on, but it doesn’t lend itself well to snappy quote harvesting.
February Book of the Month: P.s. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern
Initial Thoughts and Chapter One Summary
Initial Thoughts:
When I first started reading P.s. I Love You I wasn’t sure what to expect, it had been a while since I had seen the movie and even if I could remember much about the movie, movie adaptations are never as good as the book, so that wouldn’t have done me much good anyway.
I think I mostly wanted to get through the book so I could watch the movie again, isn’t that silly? The first few lines of this book draw you right into the story, as soon as you start reading you are dragged into Holly’s world and her story; I like books that move that quickly in the beginning, leaving no time for you to want to put it down.
Chapter One Summary:
Please note: This is a full summary of Chapter One, there are spoilers.
Chapter One
Chapter One begins with Holly hugging a sweater that we assume belonged to her husband, Gerry, who has passed away. Holly is grieving, thinking of all the good times, the bad times and of how she will never have any of those times with Gerry again.
Then we learn that Gerry had a brain tumour, which started out as headaches and finally a trip to the doctor where the sad, horrible truth was revealed. Gerry died at the young age of thirty, leaving his wife alone and longing for him, loving him still.
Holly’s grief is overwhelming, as is her loneliness; Holly thinks about more memories, getting sadder and sadder, she thinks Gerry wouldn’t be happy to see her this way. Eventually she falls asleep, a restless, fitful sleep.
Holly is awoken the next morning by a phone call from her mother, her mother called every morning to make sure Holly was handling things okay; Holly’s mother tells her she should go outside to get some fresh air, as if that will fix all of her problems and make the grief go away.
Before hanging up the phone Holly’s mother tells her there is an envelope waiting for her at her house. Holly isn’t worried about it, she doesn’t think the envelope is of any importance until her mother tells her that above her name on the envelope it says “The List”, intriguing Holly a LOT more.
And so begins the story.
End Chapter One.
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Are you reading along with me this month? I hope you are!
