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***Spoilers for Fool’s Assassin through chapter 10. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, and The Rain Wilds Chronicles are fair game, too.***
If Bee’s birth was a fulcrum in the story – a turning point that demanded a reaction – then certainly Molly’s death qualifies too.
Eda and El.
One may occasionally toss out hyperbole like, “this story is going to kill me.” I’m certain I glibly remarked somewhere along the way that Nighteyes’ death made me want to die.
But Molly’s death scene came close to actually accomplishing the job.
I have a knack for encountering the most emotionally devastating moments right before I plan to shut my eyes at night. But in this case, I was on the treadmill, chugging along at a hefty twelve-degree incline, as Molly abruptly collapsed and was gone.
When I tell you my throat was literally closing with grief as I read her death unfold…
How does Robin do it? Just like with Nighteyes, she’s been building to this the entire book. I said in my last post that I didn’t think Molly was long for this tale. And yet her death still managed to catch me completely off guard.
Maybe that’s partially because I was still reeling from having my entire world rocked by the shift into Bee’s POV. (I believe this is the first time we’ve left Fitz’s perspective in a Fitz-centered book.)
And if I thought experiencing Fitz’s reaction to Molly’s death would be difficult from his own perspective, I was not at all prepared for how heartbreaking it would be to witness it from someone else’s.
And Mistress Hobb – clever, clever woman that she is – makes sure we aren’t entirely bereft of Fitz’s thoughts through the ordeal. No, we still glimpse his mind through Bee’s Skill-link with him.
“All their lives she had remained that girl to him, that wondrous girl just a few years older than he was, but so worldly wise, so female to all that was so male in his life.”
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