This is the second book in the Circle Opens series, but this review contains no spoilers for the previous book.
Blurb: Plant mage and former thief Briar Moss is traveling abroad with his teacher when he comes across a street girl with powerful stone magic. Evvy needs a teacher, and Briar can help. But Evvy’s magic has also attracted the attention of the city’s gangs. Briar once believed gangs offered protection, but he and Rosethorn may be the only protection Evvy can trust as gang warfare breaks out. Swept into the bloody conflict, Briar must decide whether he's ready to take the final step away from his former life.
I guess I just really like Briar? Because both books that focus on him have been the ones I've rated five stars so far in my journey through the Emelan universe.
Actually, I think what makes Briar's books so good is that they tend to focus on classism and this dichotomy Briar has of growing up on the streets but then abruptly joining this part of society that is respected and sometimes feared. He's always reconciling his past with his present and it shapes how he sees the world.
Also his relationship with Rosethorn is everything. Like when he wants to be scary so he immediately jumps to channeling Rosethorn? Or when she grouches at him and his internal (and external) monologue is just "yeah she loves me". Or when he sees her interacting with Evvy and is reminded of how it was just like this when she first became his mentor. I love it all and could cry at any moment.
ALSO ALSO, Evvy's amazing. She keeps cats and talks to rocks and snarks back to Briar and can take care of herself! And watching Briar go from "no way am I going to be this kid's teacher" to "touch my student and I will end you" is truly the most enjoyable experience. Enjoy turning into Rosethorn, buddy.
The ending of this book was probably my favorite part of the series to date. Watching Briar unleash the full extent of his powers to wreck havoc is inspiring.
So now to take a break and complain a little bit.
Why does Briar have pretend to be disgusted by "girly things"? We know he absolutely loves and respects his foster sisters and female mentors, but he's still always mentioning the girls getting ~silly ideas~ or ~being emotional~ as ridiculous girly things he would never do. And it's sort of a loving teasing, but it's also sort of like Tamora Pierce thought to herself "what do fourteen year old boys think about? How silly girls are? Yeah my fourteen year old boy better be like that too". It felt a little like she fell back on standard tropes for how a young, snarky thief boy should think that don’t feel as original as the rest of Briar's character.
I will give credit for the part at the end of the book, where Briar talks to Rosethorn and admits that he used to think Tris was weak for waking up with nightmares about the deaths she caused but now he understands because he gets them too. That moment was really great and made his earlier comments more like set up to a moment of character development, in which a boy who's internalized parts of toxic masculinity realizes it's ok to need comfort. But frankly it didn’t feel like enough to make it an entire development arc, so those earlier comments felt sort of lopsided and unnecessary.
To wrap up with some other little things I loved: Briar constantly being dragged into being healer when he's always like "BUT I'M A PLANT MAGE", his moving vine tattoos, the fact that he thinks about his foster sisters a lot, and again everything about when he goes all Ultimate Plant Mage on their unsuspecting asses.
