Thursday Thirteen: THE EXILE

Thirteen Things I Liked about THE EXILE:

In no particular order:

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P

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1) The "wedding kiss" portrait of Jamie and Claire.

2) Gorgeous landscapes!

3) Jamie's Butt (along with the rest of him <g>) on page 5.

4) We finally learn what happened to Claire's shoes.

5) The white owl and its symbolism.

6) Jamie's face in the early pictures, especially in Chapter 1, is just as I imagined it.

7) "And if one of those effing sparrows sh!ts in my tea...." (I love that line.)

8) How Murtagh and Rupert acquired a wedding gown. ("Force, or bribery?")

9) Murtagh saw Claire come through the stones (!)

10) The story of the nameless girl in France.

11) The wedding-night sex scene -- even if it IS "expurgated" <g>

12) Ned Gowan, who looks very dignified in beard and spectacles.

13) The very last panel on the last page, with Jamie and Claire literally riding off into the sunset, the standing stones in the background, and Murtagh looking at Ellen's picture. I love that.

You will notice that I didn't include the Geillis-Kenneth storyline here. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, but aside from the mystery factor on the first reading -- "Who the hell IS that?!? And what's he doing here?" -- it wasn't one of my favorite aspects of this book.

Feel free to add your own favorites to this list. I have more things that I liked, but there wasn't room to include everything above.

*** NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS ***

You don't need spoiler warnings to discuss THE EXILE on my blog. But if you're commenting about this on Facebook, please be careful not to reveal major spoilers. People can't avoid reading the comments. Please comment here on the blog directly if you want to talk about the specifics of the story or artwork. Thanks!