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Layla read this book first, and then I started it and recommended it to Scioscribe while I was still reading it, and we finished within minutes and started emailing each other - partly to rave about how good it was overall, and partly to discuss the ending.
It was when we started delving into the ending that an email chain began which ended up so funny that I am reproducing it here. It's spoilery for the ending, but I'm not sure exactly how spoilery as part of what's odd about the ending is how confusing/ambiguous/inconclusive it is on several key points. However, I don't think knowing some aspects of the ending in advance ruins the book at all.
Cut for spoilers. Also some possibly incorrect spoilers.
Liza's parents abandoned her something like five years before the book begins, taking her little sister with them. She was left alone except for her pet pygmy marmoset Mico, who came to her under mysterious circumstances and is the only animal she has ever been able to bond with without having to use her often-deadly power.
She spends most of the book searching for her sister. Toward the end, she finds her sister, but learns that her parents are dead. Immediately after the climax, her mother is suddenly just there. It's later "explained" that her father really is dead, but the person who told her that her mother was dead just misunderstood something.
Scioscribe: Oh, and did either of you see the last revelation about her mom coming?
Rachel: That she was alive after all? NO.
Scioscribe: Alive and a pygmy marmoset, right? I read that sentence like three times to try to make sure I was reading that right. That that's why Liza's marmoset was always friendly towards her and worked with her powers even when they weren't well-developed.
Layla: ... wait, WHAT. I also completely missed that!
Rachel: WHAT. BRB, re-reading.
Layla: Plz quote when you find it.
Rachel: Farther out into the countryside, on a boulder that a passerby might miss, a girl and her little sister sat panting and spent, huddled together at the feet of their mother, a weary pygmy marmoset, and an ancient African man who, during his lifetime, had gone by the name Ago.
This is an Oxford comma mystery. Does it mean their mother is a pygmy marmoset, or that they're huddled at their feet of their mother AND Liza's pet pygmy marmoset AND Ago?
I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
Scioscribe: And then there's the bit afterwards about Ella [the mother] being alive and Oya [a goddess] having guided them back together after so many years apart and Ella "still [being] given to spells of silence."
So I genuinely wasn't sure if the "weary pygmy marmoset" was supposed to modify "their mother," since you wouldn't generally talk about being huddled at the feet of something small enough to slip in your pocket, because it seemed like such a weird, sudden reveal and weird construction, and then I thought maybe that explained the ongoing thing about Liza's marmoset being different from all her other animals AND why her mom would have been thought dead for so many years AND why she would still be all shaken afterwards. And because I've come across things where the "beloved [x] was actually your parent all along" thing comes up.
BUT I DON'T KNOW.
Layla: .... okay, now I LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA.
If anyone ever has an opportunity to ask questions in an author Q&A, someone needs to ask her.
Scioscribe: RIGHT?! I kept rereading it trying to figure out for sure! Because the reintroduction of their mom is so sudden that it throws everything into doubt!
Hang on, now I'm going to find where the marmoset first shows up and see if her mom was still with her at that point, because I can't remember. We will unravel Marmosetgate.
Layla: It's like one of those exchange fics where you run out of time to write the ending you had planned and slam out a few paragraphs before deadline that basically sums up what would have happened if you'd had an extra week to write it.
Scioscribe: Okay, she does actually have Mico at the beginning, before her family leaves her. So her mom isn't Mico unless her mom somehow possessed Mico or killed Mico and took its place. Which I actually wouldn't rule out, so I'm still not sure.
Rachel: Also Liza can shapeshift so it's not THAT out of nowhere. Hmm.
Scioscribe: "Her mother? A pygmy marmoset."
Rachel: Okay, but if her mom isn't Mico, then... her mom just suddenly appeared right after the big battle? Did she teleport???
Scioscribe: It's just "Oya brought them back together and somehow the whole death thing was a big misunderstanding," which is just so weird that I feel like "she possessed Mico and/or shapeshifted into their form" makes more sense and actually explains more. This is definitely the only case I can think of where the simplest answer is marmoset possession.
Rachel: If her mother wasn't a marmoset, then why DID Mico attach himself to Liza when no other animals did?
Scioscribe: Exactly! This has to be Occam's marmoset. I just feel like nothing else makes as much sense. Maybe the marmoset was already one of Ella's guiding animals, so Mico was her companion before she took over completely.
Layla: OCCAM'S MARMOSET
Layla: I still can't believe that "her mom was a marmoset all along" makes more sense than the alternate interpretation, and yet.
Scioscribe: Over half of this email chain is now us trying to figure out if the heroine's mother was secretly her pygmy marmoset all along.
Rachel: I feel like if that wasn't intended, an editor should have caught the grammatical ambiguity, especially in a context where the heroine's mother could absolutely have been her pygmy marmoset under a false name.
Scioscribe: Agreed. Also, I love the "under a false name" here, like she had forged papers declaring herself Mico.
Layla: Clearly the next logical step in her mom's marmoset-related Xanatos gambit.
Scioscribe: "Great book. GREAT book. We just have a few questions re: the ending. Like--what the fuck?"
Rachel: It's a common issue in horror/dark fantasy but one generally isn't left asking the question "Was her marmoset her mother?"
Layla: Yeah, I basically thought of it along the lines of Stephen King's weaker endings until we got to analyzing the extreme levels of WTF going on here.
It's still a good book but the editor must have been asleep for the last few pages.
Rachel: The nice thing with this sort of WTF ending is it doesn't retroactively ruin the book at all. It's still 90% excellent, 10% Mom or Marmoset.
Layla: Yeah, agreed. Great book. Bizarre ending. "Mom or marmoset" may be the gold standard for ending WTFery.
Scioscribe: 10% Mom or Marmoset is a phrase I hope to use again. And yeah, it really doesn't hurt the book--I think partly because it's not a bad ending, it's just a confusing one, so it's not like anyone's characterization is irreversibly damaged or anything.
Rachel: And we know Liza got a long life and a family and her mom/marmoset back.
***
Anyone want to make me a "Mom or Marmoset" icon?
It was when we started delving into the ending that an email chain began which ended up so funny that I am reproducing it here. It's spoilery for the ending, but I'm not sure exactly how spoilery as part of what's odd about the ending is how confusing/ambiguous/inconclusive it is on several key points. However, I don't think knowing some aspects of the ending in advance ruins the book at all.
Cut for spoilers. Also some possibly incorrect spoilers.
Liza's parents abandoned her something like five years before the book begins, taking her little sister with them. She was left alone except for her pet pygmy marmoset Mico, who came to her under mysterious circumstances and is the only animal she has ever been able to bond with without having to use her often-deadly power.
She spends most of the book searching for her sister. Toward the end, she finds her sister, but learns that her parents are dead. Immediately after the climax, her mother is suddenly just there. It's later "explained" that her father really is dead, but the person who told her that her mother was dead just misunderstood something.
Scioscribe: Oh, and did either of you see the last revelation about her mom coming?
Rachel: That she was alive after all? NO.
Scioscribe: Alive and a pygmy marmoset, right? I read that sentence like three times to try to make sure I was reading that right. That that's why Liza's marmoset was always friendly towards her and worked with her powers even when they weren't well-developed.
Layla: ... wait, WHAT. I also completely missed that!
Rachel: WHAT. BRB, re-reading.
Layla: Plz quote when you find it.
Rachel: Farther out into the countryside, on a boulder that a passerby might miss, a girl and her little sister sat panting and spent, huddled together at the feet of their mother, a weary pygmy marmoset, and an ancient African man who, during his lifetime, had gone by the name Ago.
This is an Oxford comma mystery. Does it mean their mother is a pygmy marmoset, or that they're huddled at their feet of their mother AND Liza's pet pygmy marmoset AND Ago?
I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
Scioscribe: And then there's the bit afterwards about Ella [the mother] being alive and Oya [a goddess] having guided them back together after so many years apart and Ella "still [being] given to spells of silence."
So I genuinely wasn't sure if the "weary pygmy marmoset" was supposed to modify "their mother," since you wouldn't generally talk about being huddled at the feet of something small enough to slip in your pocket, because it seemed like such a weird, sudden reveal and weird construction, and then I thought maybe that explained the ongoing thing about Liza's marmoset being different from all her other animals AND why her mom would have been thought dead for so many years AND why she would still be all shaken afterwards. And because I've come across things where the "beloved [x] was actually your parent all along" thing comes up.
BUT I DON'T KNOW.
Layla: .... okay, now I LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA.
If anyone ever has an opportunity to ask questions in an author Q&A, someone needs to ask her.
Scioscribe: RIGHT?! I kept rereading it trying to figure out for sure! Because the reintroduction of their mom is so sudden that it throws everything into doubt!
Hang on, now I'm going to find where the marmoset first shows up and see if her mom was still with her at that point, because I can't remember. We will unravel Marmosetgate.
Layla: It's like one of those exchange fics where you run out of time to write the ending you had planned and slam out a few paragraphs before deadline that basically sums up what would have happened if you'd had an extra week to write it.
Scioscribe: Okay, she does actually have Mico at the beginning, before her family leaves her. So her mom isn't Mico unless her mom somehow possessed Mico or killed Mico and took its place. Which I actually wouldn't rule out, so I'm still not sure.
Rachel: Also Liza can shapeshift so it's not THAT out of nowhere. Hmm.
Scioscribe: "Her mother? A pygmy marmoset."
Rachel: Okay, but if her mom isn't Mico, then... her mom just suddenly appeared right after the big battle? Did she teleport???
Scioscribe: It's just "Oya brought them back together and somehow the whole death thing was a big misunderstanding," which is just so weird that I feel like "she possessed Mico and/or shapeshifted into their form" makes more sense and actually explains more. This is definitely the only case I can think of where the simplest answer is marmoset possession.
Rachel: If her mother wasn't a marmoset, then why DID Mico attach himself to Liza when no other animals did?
Scioscribe: Exactly! This has to be Occam's marmoset. I just feel like nothing else makes as much sense. Maybe the marmoset was already one of Ella's guiding animals, so Mico was her companion before she took over completely.
Layla: OCCAM'S MARMOSET
Layla: I still can't believe that "her mom was a marmoset all along" makes more sense than the alternate interpretation, and yet.
Scioscribe: Over half of this email chain is now us trying to figure out if the heroine's mother was secretly her pygmy marmoset all along.
Rachel: I feel like if that wasn't intended, an editor should have caught the grammatical ambiguity, especially in a context where the heroine's mother could absolutely have been her pygmy marmoset under a false name.
Scioscribe: Agreed. Also, I love the "under a false name" here, like she had forged papers declaring herself Mico.
Layla: Clearly the next logical step in her mom's marmoset-related Xanatos gambit.
Scioscribe: "Great book. GREAT book. We just have a few questions re: the ending. Like--what the fuck?"
Rachel: It's a common issue in horror/dark fantasy but one generally isn't left asking the question "Was her marmoset her mother?"
Layla: Yeah, I basically thought of it along the lines of Stephen King's weaker endings until we got to analyzing the extreme levels of WTF going on here.
It's still a good book but the editor must have been asleep for the last few pages.
Rachel: The nice thing with this sort of WTF ending is it doesn't retroactively ruin the book at all. It's still 90% excellent, 10% Mom or Marmoset.
Layla: Yeah, agreed. Great book. Bizarre ending. "Mom or marmoset" may be the gold standard for ending WTFery.
Scioscribe: 10% Mom or Marmoset is a phrase I hope to use again. And yeah, it really doesn't hurt the book--I think partly because it's not a bad ending, it's just a confusing one, so it's not like anyone's characterization is irreversibly damaged or anything.
Rachel: And we know Liza got a long life and a family and her mom/marmoset back.
***
Anyone want to make me a "Mom or Marmoset" icon?