#also feeling a desire to reread the rebel & the redcoats (for the healing from anger and grief) and enemy brothers (for the siblings)

[incomingalbatross]

That response from Hugh also makes perfect sense, yes!

Oh, VERY good point. He does want Paddy to be a younger version of himself, doesn't he... and instead, the closest comparison (as both he and Brendon note!) is Robin. Poor little Robin who never seems to have taken part in the angers and resentments.

YES. Paddy's learned a warped idea of what love and virtue are, particularly as applied to him by adults, and of course he can't work his way through it! He has nothing else to work FROM.

Right, exactly... and these choices of Hugh's are illuminated by his later choices and the explanation of his precise history with Quentin, aren't they. So many of his choices are made out of fear as well as anger, but that means he has no experience in what could happen if he didn't listen to his fear. And when the truth finally comes out, he IS cut off from Brendon, so his fears were partly right! But the secret is that he has to be brave AGAIN, deliberately, and do the right thing without fear. Then he does have his brother back, and can start to heal, even though he's in a pragmatically worse position.

(My changing attitudes to Hugh were a journey, and very well-done writing on Savery's part.)

(And yes, that makes sense. I'd have to study him more to make any specific guesses, but he doesn't seem mentally well. Again, understandable!)

It IS. It just stabs at you over and over again, because children are so powerless! Defenseless against injustice not only practically but mentally, because in a case like this they may not even be able to understand that it is injustice. They can only hurt.

Oh, absolutely! Brendon's been driven into his own patterns and limitations and coping mechanisms, and he's worked so hard to be Good and Responsible and Stable for all the various people relying on him that he's had very little room left for even acknowledging his own damage, let alone actually coming to terms with it.

Oh, that's interesting that it was in first person originally! I do think the switch to third was a good choice for the story.

I came out of this book with a whole-hearted condemnation of Quentin that... probably isn't totally fair in light of the book's larger themes (the first dragon turned out not to be a one-dimensional monster, so should I really assume the second one is?), and it's also only fair to acknowledge that A) the other grownups do seem to think he cares for Paddy and B) Paddy ISN'T a child standing between him and an inheritance, but is his own heir. But at the same time I can't get away from my conviction that this man should NEVER BE ALLOWED WITHIN FIFTY FEET OF ANY CHILD. And certainly, as you say, he managed to hurt Paddy (who is like Robin! Robin, who was killed!) even in that limited window of time.

They are SO young. Exactly. That broke my brain. Hugh was still a teenager when we met him! Brendon is, honestly, barely an adult. Of course they're not okay. They haven't had any kind of time to become okay, not on anything approaching their own terms.

Oh yes, I did catch, and love, that! And I can see that, by the terms and themes of this narrative, things kind of have to turn out better in the future. For one thing, Hugh has broken the cycle, which means Paddy shouldn't have to be trapped in it; for another, the brothers are united with each other and with Paddy for the first time, which should mean they can do more than any of them managed previously. And... I think it was Mary Two who said something about taking your own retribution being wrong because it leaves no room for God's retribution? Which implies that Hugh's choice to let go and surrender his own fight is, by the terms of the book itself, creating space for God's grace and God's judgment to work freely in their situation.

But YES, I would have loved a sequel. This is a story that could have made very good use of a sequel.

Anyway. I love the three Tenthragon boys (and they ARE all boys—even more than I realized when I first called them that). Definitely going to be reading this again in the future. And thank you for your thoughts!

Completely unedited and unexpanded reading notes on Tenthragon Ch. 8-19

Ch. 8

(filled with rage) Mary!!!!

That is all I have to say about chapter 8. This poor BABY. He doesn't understand how rules work! Scaring him doesn't HELP!

Okay wait I do have something else to say, and it's that I genuinely don't know what Hugh was getting at with his hints about Brendan's relationship to Paddy.

The obvious idea is that Brendan is Paddy's father, but then A) Hugh wouldn't hate Paddy if he weren't the Snake's son, right?? and B) Hugh says Paddy IS their cousin, implying he is ALSO something else.

This suggests a relation might be through Paddy's mother's side--was she a relation of theirs? I don't think she could be Hugh and Brendan's sister, though, because I think someone said she lived in China.

*throws up hands*

Ch. 9:

Paddy trying to hide from the Nightmare Guilt lurking in his mind is all too relatable. :(

Wait did Ellen say Hugh TOOK Paddy from his parents? I mean, no names obviously, but the baby mentioned has to be somebody we know and there's nobody else. How does THAT fit in here?

Ellen. Thank you for giving good advice, but also TAKE IT YOURSELF. If it's better to be punished by Brendan than kept in bondage by Hugh (and it IS), act on that? Don't ask the child to braver than you're being.

Ch. 10

Hugh: *tortures a child*

Hugh: UGH why are you always crying

I DO understand that he's replicating what Paddy's father did to him.

…That should really make him LESS surprised by the results.

Ch. 11:

All right, Hugh suffers SOME pangs of conscience. Not enough to actually face what he's doing, but some.

Ugggh this man. Wilfully fighting back against his softer feelings toward Paddy, of course, but I'm also just mad how he assumes Paddy will ENJOY misbehaving or breaking things. Even when Paddy says he doesn't want to! Hugh doesn't listen!

Ch. 12:

"surely you love him well enough to trust him?" That's the WHOLE THING, that's what Paddy can't get to, because he can't tell what's reasonable and what isn't so maybe a person like Brendon WOULD still cut his thumbs off for what he did! Maybe that's a reasonable consequence in Brendon's eyes! He can't piece together that that's incompatible with his love and respect for Brendon. Because he is a CHILD.

Hm, the sister lived in Other Thragoness all her childhood and Hugh refuses to say any more. Some evidence she could be Paddy's mother, then.

Oh NO poor BABY (he was caned)

Ch. 13:

Hugh: Hm. Why does hurting my baby cousin/nephew feel bad. Why am I trying to make him feel better. Why CAN'T I make him feel better by just pressing a button and magically turning off all his hurt feelings, it's like my actions have consequences

Ah yeah, Hugh's got a point, doesn't he? The "telling Brendon" threat isn't just empty, it's more likely to end HIS world instead of Paddy's.

Hugh: Well, having recreated my childhood trauma, I guess I'll recreate the consolations we got as well! Please don't examine any of this too closely (SUCH a mess)

And he literally HAS a way out of this self-created trap. Brendon wants to tell him Paddy's here! He is asking for an opportunity! And Hugh decides to keep going with the layers of lies instead.

"Hugo mio" aw that's cute

"DON'T TELL ME HE'S LIKE ROBIN I DON'T LIKE THOSE IMPLICATIONS"

"You would like him yourself if you knew him." OOF

Ch. 14:

Can't believe Paddy told Hugh he was "mean" for the first time ever and it was over Hugh's teasing him with a glimpse of "the baby"

(Also that Paddy's immediate reaction to hearing the baby was in the house was "Brendon doesn't like it better than me?" <3)

Brendon's a knight for the costume party. Of course.

Hugh speaking well of Quentin is…a lot. But also OW the blatantly awful things lying BARELY under the surface of what he tells Paddy--and that is the best he has to tell! It's just All Awful! 

Of course, this isn't sustainable either. But give Hugh credit, he has very little practice thinking about other people's emotional welfare. He's trying not to be actively cruel here!!

Ch. 15:

Oh no, baby. :( Progress with Hugh is good but a barrier between him and Brendon is BAD. Unfair to both of them.

Ugggh, ANOTHER unjust adult in his life. Just what Paddy needed.

"Did you enjoy living at Victoria Lodge?" "Why, was I meant to?"

NO

Brendon is his world! And yet he believes Brendon might cut his thumbs off! THIS is why little children are so vulnerable!!

He's HURTING HIMSELF ON PURPOSE to make a chance for Brendon to take care of him. HONEY

Oh the ESSAY. The best thing Miss Prince ever did was send Brendon Paddy's essay.

His mostly-dead relatives are his imaginary friends. I can't believe Paddy actually brought MORE Gothic to Thragoness.

His imaginary dad is just a version of Brendon who approves of him AUGH

He's REENACTING THE RING ABUSE AS A PRETEND Brendon get this child some better occupations

Ch. 16:

No Brendon not like that

…The flipside of the problem is that Brendon ALSO doesn't get that Paddy loves HIM. Because Paddy doesn't TRUST him and Brendon is misdiagnosing the symptoms (and doesn't have confidence he CAN do a decent job with Paddy)

Hugh. Hugh. I GET that you can't cope with Brendon's feelings being hurt either, but it doesn't help to yell at Paddy without actually explaining what he did wrong, and it ESPECIALLY doesn't help when this whole thing is your fault

(Though tbf, Paddy HAS been hiding his problem from Hugh. And Hugh doesn't want to see anything unpleasant unless it's put directly in front of him, so)

Hugh is such a WILD mixture of growing self-knowledge and complete blindness to Paddy. "Not that YOU would know anything about living in dread of discovery, of course"

Ch. 17

Ah yes the WORST POSSIBLE PERSON to catch Paddy. SURE WHY NOT.

All three of the Tenthragon boys are having the WORST DAY IMAGINABLE.

Incredibly impressive, though, what coherent characters both of these brothers are even filtered through Paddy's POV.

Oh Brendon. Buddy. I understand what you're doing, and Hugh literally asked for it because he can't achieve emotional honesty to save his life, but DON'T.

Ch. 18:

Okay, I did not give Brendon enough credit. I mean, I still suspect he doesn't know how MUCH he means to Hugh, but he's putting more even thought into this than I thought.

Paddy loves Hugh too. :( It shouldn't have been his job to learn to understand Hugh, but he has a bit anyway.

He's writing LETTERS to Hugh.

No one is entirely happy and everyone concerned here misses each other and it doesn't CHANGE anything

Oh, the mysterious sister is here?? She's here with her husband???

Auggggh the Snake is HERE.

UGGGGH the sleeper command to "obey Brendon" at the beginning of the book came from HIM? Of course it did. Lifelong expert in frightening children.

Hey. Hey Hugh. Thanks for stealing Paddy when he was a baby.

Ch. 19:

…Oh. Somehow I did NOT place that all the tragic Tenthragon deaths probably weren't accidents.

…Really should've picked up on that.

Oh GOLLY. (Quentin getting legal and financial guardianship over Hugh.)

Hugh telling the whole story in third person because he can't deal with actually TELLING Paddy.

I repeat: even if it wasn't Hugh's intention, the arrangement he put into place ended up being probably the best outcome possible for Paddy.

…I'm sorry, are you telling me that Hugh is STILL NOT A LEGAL ADULT. CURRENTLY.

I knew he was young, but…

That's what you DO miss when POV is filtered through a nine-year-old.

(Brendon might still be in his twenties himself, then. He probably is. OOF he has had WAY too much on his shoulders for WAY too long.)

(He IS in his twenties. He's I think twenty-five?? What an INCREDIBLY good adult he's been.)

Noooo, Brendon, Paddy DOES deserve to know. He's already in the middle of this, he should get to navigate it with some understanding of what he's seen.

Oh, all right, if Hugh didn't want it read then it's fine. Hopefully Paddy can wait a bit to understand his family fully.

Dread.

It ends THERE?