Can I spoiler review here? If not you can always gently remove the comment. ;)
I just had a fortune cookie, with the sort of fortune that was only entertaining if read with the implicit "in bed" statement, so wine would be preferable.
As I noted, I was smiling all the way through the first half of the chapter, and also chuckling at certain moments. Petra's five online identities - ah, the joys of smart kids. We have friends whose daughter figured out how to post videos of she and her sister in their horribly messy room on Youtube at age 8. It's a whole new world for parents of intelligent kids and you captured that beautifully. I liked Sam's tiny moment of collusion with Petra over the fifth identity. The way that even though they're smart kids they're still kids with all their crazy ideas about the world and insecurities and fears was fantastic. It was just such lovely warm family stuff.
You've been doing such a wonderful job with the generational conflicts. I really appreciated that even though of course we love Mac, Sam can see that his Dad has flaws and short-comings. And you don't get through this life without making choices that cascade on down the family line. Of course, having crazed killers threatening the whole family is an extreme example, but the bittersweet aspect couldn't feel more real to me. Also, I did laugh out loud about Mac being the one who slept around. He sure did... somehow when I was watching MacGyver the first time around as a child I totally blocked out the part where he actually slept with women he had a spark with. (Oh my god. You have no idea how much of a prude I was. Did two adults just get out of a bed naked on television? Well that doesn't mean they had sex... they could have just been cuddling!)
The second half... would it be smug if I said I figured Mac was the predator, not the prey? But I didn't figure out just how sneaky until after the revelation of the whole setup. I loved the bit with the fishing line... and felt that the whole full-circle falling from great heights was a very satisfying way to end things.
I found it ... poignant... (I have ellipsis fever tonight apparently. Forgive me.) that Mac has really seen so much and dealt with so much violence that he appeared to be able to quite calculatingly plan in a way that allowed for Félix's death, should Félix do the predictable thing and try to pull MacGyver over the edge. I can see from the precision of your writing in the scene that it wasn't that Mac desired Félix's death, but that he was able to be rather stunningly pragmatic about it. I guess as an audience member who can bug the author I'd love to hear more of your feelings about that scene, but I'm also content to leave it as read and puzzle through it in my own mind.
I'll enjoy reading an epilogue because, duh. But I think you did an excellent job in bringing all the strands together and wrapping them up, showing two different families and the legacies of, to be broadly simplistic, teaching love versus engendering hatred.
Dang, sad it's over, though, of course. Thank you for a wonderful story.
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I just had a fortune cookie, with the sort of fortune that was only entertaining if read with the implicit "in bed" statement, so wine would be preferable.
As I noted, I was smiling all the way through the first half of the chapter, and also chuckling at certain moments. Petra's five online identities - ah, the joys of smart kids. We have friends whose daughter figured out how to post videos of she and her sister in their horribly messy room on Youtube at age 8. It's a whole new world for parents of intelligent kids and you captured that beautifully. I liked Sam's tiny moment of collusion with Petra over the fifth identity. The way that even though they're smart kids they're still kids with all their crazy ideas about the world and insecurities and fears was fantastic. It was just such lovely warm family stuff.
You've been doing such a wonderful job with the generational conflicts. I really appreciated that even though of course we love Mac, Sam can see that his Dad has flaws and short-comings. And you don't get through this life without making choices that cascade on down the family line. Of course, having crazed killers threatening the whole family is an extreme example, but the bittersweet aspect couldn't feel more real to me. Also, I did laugh out loud about Mac being the one who slept around. He sure did... somehow when I was watching MacGyver the first time around as a child I totally blocked out the part where he actually slept with women he had a spark with. (Oh my god. You have no idea how much of a prude I was. Did two adults just get out of a bed naked on television? Well that doesn't mean they had sex... they could have just been cuddling!)
The second half... would it be smug if I said I figured Mac was the predator, not the prey? But I didn't figure out just how sneaky until after the revelation of the whole setup. I loved the bit with the fishing line... and felt that the whole full-circle falling from great heights was a very satisfying way to end things.
I found it ... poignant... (I have ellipsis fever tonight apparently. Forgive me.) that Mac has really seen so much and dealt with so much violence that he appeared to be able to quite calculatingly plan in a way that allowed for Félix's death, should Félix do the predictable thing and try to pull MacGyver over the edge. I can see from the precision of your writing in the scene that it wasn't that Mac desired Félix's death, but that he was able to be rather stunningly pragmatic about it. I guess as an audience member who can bug the author I'd love to hear more of your feelings about that scene, but I'm also content to leave it as read and puzzle through it in my own mind.
I'll enjoy reading an epilogue because, duh. But I think you did an excellent job in bringing all the strands together and wrapping them up, showing two different families and the legacies of, to be broadly simplistic, teaching love versus engendering hatred.
Dang, sad it's over, though, of course. Thank you for a wonderful story.