Sense Thieves (2) - Pushed by Corrine Jackson
And now to part 2 of 3 of the Sense Thieves Triology - Pushed (in German Touched - Die Schatten der Vergangenheit, in French not released). I heard it as a German audio book. Originally published 2013.
Remy's life is as perfect as can be: She has a family, a boyfriend and friends, a safe haven... everything she ever wished for. Only that her safe haven isn't going to stay safe forever. Because Remy is special, even in supernatural terms. To protect her loved ones, Remy decides to visit her grandfather and find out more about the Healers. But the trip proves as a deadly mistake: When Remy and Asher are kidnapped, her love proves to be too mortal to survive... Remy has to find a way to untangle the net of lies around her grandfather and take revenge, with no other ally than the brooding Gabriel. That is, if Asher really is dead...
W.O.W. The style has improved a lot. The characters and their relationships got even deeper than I thought possible. Apart from one tiny mistake (Lucy has black hair, not red one) without fault. And the ideas are original.
Okay, let's go into more detail here. The book is, on a stylistic level, better but additionally a little more brutal than the first part. Torture, aftermath and stuff.
But to the characters and their relationship: Asher really turns out a little controlling. It's like he wants to be Remy's everything, her knight in a shining armour. But Remy doesn't need this, she doesn't need a knight or a guardian. She can decide for herself what she wants in life and she is strong enough to reach her goals. Only Asher doesn't seem to see that, neither does Lucy. I can so understand why Remy flips out whenever someone tells her to not do this and to heal or not heal someone. And she's right. It's her gift, she's paying the price, so she has to be the one making the decision. And if the others don't like it, it's their problem.
But on the other hand, I get Asher's and Lucy's perspective as well. They see Remy as someone damaged – or someone who's spiraling towards damage. They want to protect her. Especially because she's so altruistic that she's forgetting to take care of herself – which is not very good. Because, if you don't do it, who else is going to take care of you? But they go the wrong way. They try to rule her – it's like in this movie with robots and Will Smith (I forgot the name) where the main computer tried to imprison the humans in order to protect them – because humans have a tendency to fight each other.
Spoiler:
Well. This ruling etc. leads me to her her grandfather. Damn, that man is so twisted, a fanatic. Really sucks. But still a credible character, fanatics do exist, whether we want them to or not.
Back to Asher. I'm sorry for what he endured in the hands of this Alkais-asshole (still credible, but I hate him nevertheless). But I think his reaction is a little over-the-top, not from the author's side, but from his. It's egoistical. He didn't even think about that Remy and Gabriel really thought he'd died and saved him as soon as they knew that he wasn't and where he was kept. He doubts their... well, he doubts that they actually have hearts. He suffered a lot – I get it – and probably makes Remy responsible. Which makes sense as well, on a psychological level. And he hates Gabriel for being there for her when he can't. He's torn between loving Remy and resenting what she did for him. What he asked her to do. But he doesn't get that the people who actually hurt him are not Remy and his brother, but the bad guys.
His poor, poor brother. Gabriel hasn't deserved any of what he has to suffer. He sure as hell hasn't deserved how Remy treats him. She doesn't really try to hurt him most of the time, but hell, reading her mind after that really must have sucked for him. Especially hearing time and time again, that she could never love him. Ouch! Poor guy. Plus, he really has developed, or rather: We see a different side of him. He's always been there for Remy, even before Asher and the kidnapping. And she knows this. She actually trusts him and his judgement a lot more than Asher's – she just didn't realise it. But look at the scene in which she discovered her predatory side and flipped. Whom did she call? Not the Ghostbusters, and not Asher either. Gabriel. Who makes her laugh? Gabriel. I can't imagine a single situation in which Asher ever really tried. Who gets her hurt and what it's like to never trust and to be responsible or to feel responsible for things that you have no control of? Gabriel. He's so cute: keen on protecting her from the outside and keen on making her stronger. When she gives up, he makes her fight. But he still lets her make decisions about her life. And does the right thing. He's really a good person and he does stand back for his brother, even though he doesn't want to. If I didn't know how the story would end, I would be welling in pity for him.
As for Lottie... she's hard to understand in this book. She's much more forgiving than in the first part. In the beginning, I thought she was unrealistic. That in forgiving Remy she did something out-of-character. Because why would she forgive Remy, even though she's the reason why her brother was tortured? Doesn't seem very Lottie-ish. But then I thought about it. Lottie saw in the first part how much Remy did to protect the people she loves, especially Asher. And now Remy was the one to ride Asher into shit, but she was also the one who brought him out of it. WITHOUT Lottie's help, by the way. Asher's sister couldn't help him under such short notice. She didn't even know! She gave up on her brother. And Remy, who is not part of the family, didn't. She was there, rescued and healed Asher from his deadly wounds, even though she took over every single wound herself. I think that Lottie has a bad conscience. She might not actually like Remy that much, because she still endangers her family, but she feels so bad she couldn't help Asher (and for what she did in the first part) that she simply can't hold a grudge against someone who helped her brother. And Remy did make him happy.
In brief:
In the end, that makes stars for style, characters, content, ideas and Gabriel's facets and the changing relationship between him and Remy. So... looks like another SOA, doesn't it?
Prequel:
Sequel: