Auri! I am so glad Patrick gave her a moment in the moonlight. During the other books, I would tell my wife how much I enjoyed this girl/woman who would take the inanimate and give them something more. Not quite a life, but a place in the world. It delighted me to read this novelette.
Auri is a confused but very bright young woman. She has a past, and it eats at the edge of her, but for the most part, she keeps it at bay, and we stay in the dark over what it was. Which is fine, that’s not for this tale. Here we get to romp around the understructures of the academy and explore her world and quirkiness and the very strange and derelict structures that exist.
I liked this book. Patrick says it is not for everyone, and I can nod my head to that. It’s a life study of someone who is not quite right, or maybe they are right, and we are all wrong. Regardless, Auri is a treasure, and the way she finds what goes where and the study of those objects makes me continuously smile. I take a lesson from her and want to give gifts that have a bit of magic inside them. I’m not just giving you a pen but a story trapped in a vessel. Not just flowers but a spring smile on the lips of a child.
I hope Auri has a good life and we see more of her. She has some rough edges, and a good part of me wants to see her grow and have a life well lived.