House of Night, Untamed, Chapter 27:
Everyone is excited to see Grandma Redbird, and Jack gets to meet her for the first time! While everyone else fusses over Zoey and her scary brush with the Raven Mockers, Jack makes an excellent first impression:
“I’m fine.” I threw a furtive look to where Jack was babbling something at Grandma about how much he liked lavender. “Because of your help, I’m fine.”
Zoey is fine, and Jack likes lavender. There are a lot of positive developments right off the bat this chapter.
Grandma still thinks Stevie Rae is dead, so now it’s time to explain about the red fledglings. Every other chapter of this book is just reiterating the plot to another character. Jack goes to get a glass of water for Grandma, and I bet he’s going to miss a crucial piece of information that wasn’t revealed to him before, and then there will be a whole chapter dedicated to telling Jack this other crucial piece of information.
Grandma and the gang discuss strategies for making sure Neferet can’t read their minds. Apparently Neferet can read into different levels of people’s minds. Who knew.
“Then she won’t think to look any deeper,” I finished. “But Neferet underestimates us. I don’t think she’d make the same mistake with you, Grandma. She already knows you follow the Cherokee ways—that you’re in touch with the spirit of the land. She might look deeper into you no matter what is buzzing around in the front of your mind.”
“Then I will have to clear my mind and practice the meditation skills I have been using since I was a girl.” Grandma’s smile was confident. “She cannot force herself into my mind, not if I block her first.”
I get that Zoey’s friends are going to try to think about “shoes” and “boys” while they’re around Neferet, but surely she would also be really suspicious and just take an extra few minutes to dig around a bit deeper if it’s not that difficult for her.
Once Grandma is up to speed, Jack confirms that he’s got the camera all set up in the morgue. So everyone watches some cool morgue footage together. Grandma also confirms that Zoey’s gut has been right all along and they definitely 1) should film the morgue 2) not trust Neferet 3) reveal the red fledglings at the next ritual. I’m glad to know there’s no mystery about whether or not our character is making the right calls.
Anyway, everyone says their goodnights, and Grandma gives Aphrodite some things to protect her tonight – like a dream catcher! A fucking dream catcher.
Oh wait, wait, I spoke to soon, there’s more:
“And one more thing.” Grandma turned back to her bag, searched a little while, and then brought out a gun. “Shoot those mother fucking Raven Mockers.”
Aw man, you go grandma!
…
I’m just fucking with you, here’s what really happened:
“And one more thing.” Grandma turned back to her bag, searched a little while, and then brought out a pillar candle that was a creamy white color. “Light this on your bedside table while you sleep. I spoke protective words over it last full moon and let it soak up the rays of moonlight all that night.”
THIS IS BULLSHIT.
Aphrodite leaves, and Grandma announces she’s going to go into town and have lunch. This feels like a bad idea, but she seems pretty set on it. Before she can go, A RAVEN MOCKER APPEARS AT THE WINDOW.
I couldn’t move. I was frozen by its mutated red eyes—human in the face of a terrible bird—a creature that existed only because of ancient rape and evil.
I like that rape had to be described as “ancient”. I guess if it was modern-day rape it wouldn’t have had quite the same impact.
Grandma has to tell Zoey to call wind, so Grandma can blow some blue powder at the Raven Mocker. It is super effective.
Grandma warns that the Raven Mocker is close to its physical form, which means Kalona is getting stronger. She also gives Zoey some words of encouragement:
“Do not fear,u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya. The demon’s father will find that today’s women are not so easy to subdue.”
…So I guess House of Night was about feminism all along.