Kat with a K

Demon's Lexicon Discussion: Chapter Four

Here we go to chapter four! And if you've already read both books, you can read a new excerpt from The Demon's Surrender here. Enjoy!

Chapter Title: "The Goblin Market"

Oh, Alan, making Nick go to school even though he doesn't want to, and sacrificing his own education to support the family even though he wants to be in school. It's things like this that really show that Alan is the parent in this situation. (But I really hope he gets to go to college eventually.) And then Alan gets Nick a sword for his birthday. How adorable, in a slightly terrifying way!

One of the things I love about this series is that Alan is a young male feminist, and we get one of the wonderful little moments that show that in this chapter, when he's lecturing Nick about "speaking of women with respect."

What do you think of the mystery behind Alan's disappearance at Christmas the year before? And it seems Nick's line for girls he'll tolerate is drawn at "girls who make Alan lie to him." Interesting.

We learn some history of the Goblin Market in this chapter - and I, for once, would be happy to read an entire book of history of the Goblin Market - and one thing we learn is that it's named for a Christina Rossetti poem, which you can read here.

This particular Goblin Market is in Tiverton, partially because of the Prayer Book Rebellion. Among other issues, this dealt with languages and which languages were allowed for worship. Are there hints of the demons having to use the humans' bodies and voices in the story of the Cornish being forced to pray in English? (I am stretching things a bit, I know.) Also, the "Kill all the gentlemen" slogan has echoes of the "Kill them all" plan in the book.

Nick drops a few more hints here about maybe having a little magic - "If people had known Nick's mother was a magician, if they had known how Nick's talisman hurt him, they would have called it magic." Do you think Nick's secretly a magician? Does he just suspect? Does anyone else know?

Nick likes to think that he can see through pretense, and here he points out both that the Market people are likely to have some magic, much as they deny it, and that the Market is about business as much as it's about helping people. Personally, I'm glad, because the economy and sociology of the Market is fascinating.

At the end of the chapter we meet Merris. What do you think of her? I love the line "Her currency was power," and that the most powerful person around happens to be a woman.

And then at the VERY end of the chapter we meet Sin, who is one of my favorites. We'll meet her properly in the next chapter, but for now it's worth noting that Mae's reaction to Sin is positive, and that Nick is pleased by this.

Favorite Quotes:

"Remember, just be yourself and everyone will love you!" - Alan to Nick

"[Nick] threw out the words like a challenge. He'd found that was the best way to start things, since it always ended up that way in the end."

"Alan put his thin shoulder supportively behind Nick's and did not say a word, which was how Nick liked things best."

"People were good at being blind."

"No wonder Alan's little crush was so persistent. Nick hadn't realized [Mae] was a big nerd."

"Do demons have disco fever?" - Jamie