Hi to you - and thanks to diceytillerman for sending you here! I do get exactly what you're saying in all of the above, and I appreciate your taking the time to explain it. Don't know if you'll have seen Melissa's comment, which posted shortly after yours, but it's well worth reading if you haven't. I've been thinking about what you both said - which is very similar - and why I wasn't able to see Irial the same way while reading. Part of it is just, obviously, that we see from his perspective such a lot of the time - and it's never nice or anything other than toxic, but I was forced to accept that he does really care about Leslie, though the shape of that caring changes and shifts and we get yet more shifting perspective through Niall's view of him... And it's never enough caring to change his nature, of course. I think it was that combination - being made to see him as more than merely the darkest of dark to be resisted or escaped and the knowledge - which Leslie eventually shared - of what he did to others through her that made her caring for him so disturbing to me.

I'm still pondering my different response to The Perilous Gard, in which the Lady offers a drugged escape to Kate, and there's also a very complex view of her presented at the end.

And I totally agree - talking about a book that fascinated you with reading friends is one of life's great joys!