Well, I'm done with
Children of God.
*whew*
This lady can sure write some books, eh? Draining stuff!! She obviously meant the two as one big book, which she says in the interview at the end.
***SPOILERS***
Two things surprised me as much as anything in a book has ever surprised me:
-Sophia is alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!! And boy doesn't she break the Prime Directive!!! LOL! Even little things about her are so good to read, like when she looks into a reflective surface after some months, and is startled to see that she, herself,
isn't a Runa. After months of seeing nothing else, she forgot!
-And Emilio being kidnapped. I'm pretty sure I've never been more angry at a fictional character than I am at the two Giulianis and Danny. I'd gladly beat them to within an inch of their lives. Carlo even considered killing his ex-wife and child, so Emilio would have less reason to want to return home!! There are no words...
And then there's things like this, right from the beginning:
The man saw her as she stepped into the room, and he wiped his face on his sleeves. "What's the matter?" she asked, coming closer. "Why are you crying?"
Don Vincenzo started to say something, but the man shook his head and said, "It's nothing, cara. Only: I was remembering something - something bad that happened to me."
"What happened?"
"Some...men hurt me. It was a long time ago," he assured her as her eyes grew round, afraid the bad men were still in the house. "It was when you were very small, but sometimes I remember it."
"Did anyone kiss you?"
"Mi scuzi?" He blinked when she said it, and Don Vincenzo stood very straight for a moment.
"To make it better?" she said.
The man with the machines smiled with very soft eyes. "No, cara. No one kissed it better."
"I could."
"That would be very nice," he said in a nervous voice. "I think I could use a kiss."
She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. Her cousin Roberto, who was nine, said kissing was stupid, but Celestina knew better. "This is a new dress," she told the man. "I got chocolate on it."
"It's still very pretty. So are you."
"Cece had babies. Want to see them?"
The man looked up at Don Vincenzo, who explained, "Cece is a guinea pig. Having babies is what guinea pigs do."
"Ah. Si, cara. I'd like that."
He stood, and she went to take his hand so she could bring him outside, but remembered about the machines. "What happened to your hands?" she asked, pulling him along by the sleeve.
"It was a sort of accident, cara. Don't worry. It can't happen to you."
"Does it hurt?" Vincenzo Giuliani heard the child ask, as she lead Emilio Sandoz down the hall toward a door to the backyard.
"Sometimes," Sandoz said simply. "Not today."
Their voices were lost to him after he heard the back door bang shut. Vincenzo Giuliani stepped to the window, listening to the late afternoon buzz of cicadas, and watched Celestina drag Emilio to the guinea-pig pen. The child's lace-pantied bottom suddenly upended as she leaned over the wire enclosure to grab a baby for Emilio, who sat smiling on the ground, black-and-silver hair spilling forward over high Taino cheekbones as he admired the little animal Celestina dumped in his lap.
It had taken four priests eight months of relentless pressure to get Emilio Sandoz to reveal what Celestina had learned in two minutes. Evidently, the Father General observed wryly, the best man for the job can sometimes be a four-year-old girl.
And he wished that Edward Behr had stayed to see this.
Incredible writing!!!!!