Morality Pet: Delphine and to a lesser extent, Mathieu serve as this for Thomas. Their presence helps him calm his anger and encourage him to become a more heroic figure after he spent a long time committing thievery and murder and tolerating rape while in the company of bandits. He even makes a point to avoid killing people simply because Delphine doesn't want him to. Earn Your Happy Ending: Thomas and Delphine are both brutally slain by the Princes of Hell during the climax, and Thomas actually goes to Hell where his soul is tormented for what seems like years. Eventually, Delphine's divine aspect reaches him there, and with the implication that Heaven is finally winning the war she resurrects him only a day after he was killed. Delphine's mortal aspect, meanwhile, wakes up in her dead parents' farm exactly a year after she first met Thomas with no memory of prior events. The two eventually reconnect and Thomas raises her as his daughter, and they both live more or less Happily Ever After as a monk and nun respectively. Thomas's son inherits his lands and his wife lives peacefully to old age, although she never stops missing Thomas. They reconcile but can't be together.

My first impression of the three main characters: the girl annoyed me, the monk bored me and I damn-right despised Thomas. And yet, they grew on me! With all of their flaws and shortcomings, they felt so real, they faced their fears and desires, they changed and sacrificed so much for each other. I truly admired their character development which was perfectly paced and actually quite believable! Deadpan Snarker: Thomas copes with his dark past and the sheer hopelessness of everything around him with a dry and bitter sense of gallows humor. Christopher Buehlman does a great job of atmosphere. The dread, the southern heat, the creeping badness is all super present. He takes a caring and delicate touch with devolving his characters, intricately carving their personalities before soaking them in blood. Thomas is a disgraced knight traveling with some men during the plague and wartime. These are not good men. Our story begins with these guys raping and pillaging. They are eating some poor farmer's donkey when a girl walks right up to the men and asks them to help her bury her father.The only thing worse than a bad book is a book that starts out promisingly good and then goes straight to hell.

I decided after recording that video to read BETWEEN TWO FIRES in December as a Christmas present to myself along with Adam Nevill's CUNNING FOLK (serendipitously, Christopher was also reading that book and we just recorded another book discussion coming soon). The Friend Nobody Likes: Chretien, the man who stole Thomas's lands (and slept with/coerced his wife), to his party. They all dance attendance on him because he's next in line for the throne of Navarre, but none of them respect him because they know he's the kind of person to buy somebody's excommunication so he can take their stuff. I also really enjoyed how the author blends actual historical things (Like Clement's call to the Crusades and the Plague) into the real story with how basically hell has free reign upon the earth. Almost like the horrible things humankind does to each other...is missing the greater purpose of life. Imagine that. I appreciated the subtle philosophical filter the story is told through. Eldritch Abomination: Some of the demons and their minions are just alien in appearance and methodology. One is described as looking like a seemingly liquid thing that could shift into a mass of writhing tentacles. It takes possession of Thomas and attempts to have him violate Delphine.No puedo decir cuál es el secreto que descubre Frank porque arruinaría todo el libro, solo voy a decir que es una forma bastante original de tratar uno de los temas clásicos dentro de la literatura del terror. Hasta ahora todos los libros de Buehlman que he leído abarcan tópicos clásicos, pero el enfoque que les da es lo que convierten a sus historias en algo único.

A primera vista parece ser la típica novela acerca de un pueblito siniestro con una leyenda oscura en el que ocurren cosas extrañas; sin embargo, la originalidad de este libro está en la forma en la que el autor crea el ambiente para desarrollar este cuento de terror. Demon Lords and Archdevils: The main antagonists of the story are Bel-Phegor, Ra'um and Baal'Zebuth, each Princes of Hell tasked by Lucifer to conquer the earth in his name. One story they all seem to tell is that you must stay out of the woods across the river. An old wives tale to be sure. Something Daddy's told their children at night to keep them in line. Nothing more.Francis Nichols inherits a house and its possessions from his departed Aunt in Whitbrow. But this comes with a stark warning from her to sell the property and keep the money and not to live there. She warned him that bad blood lies in that dwelling and the place will smell out what's in you and claim you for it's own. By combining modern horror dynamics with a convincing medieval setting, Christopher Buehlman secures his status among today’s leading dark fantasy authors.” Deliberate Values Dissonance: It is medieval France, after all. Misogyny, homophobia and antisemitism are rampant. Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Thomas and Marguerite's marriage ended up being this, at least for a while (although the "arranged" part is downplayed, because he asked her father and she agreed to the suit almost immediately once she saw him).