The entire first part (Part I) of Deerskin had a very disturbing feeling.  As I was reading it I had this weird, almost sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I am not sure if it was because it I knew what was going to happen (we were warned of the rape in class) or if it was the way it was written.  At first I thought it was kind of sweet how the Queen waited for Lissar's dad to come back with his prize so she could marry him.  It was like a fairy tale, the queen had so much faith in him.  She believed he would return successfully and so she waited for him.  After that story it got really weird though.  The king and queen, as well as all of the people in the kingdom forgot Lissar and paid little attention to her.  The king and queen were completely rapped up in each other and the people in the kingdom were also effected by this obsession.  It felt really creepy hearing it described. 
I hope we will eventually understand what happened to the queen.  She died of a disease unknown and would not let anyone see her as she was dying.  Why???  The king went crazy when she became sick and got even crazier when she died.  Was it the grief of losing the love of his life or was he always crazy.  I seems to me that either the queen or the king held some kind of "other" power I am just not sure which one.  It seems most likely the queen, who everyone thought was the most beautiful women in the world, was able to make everyone worship her some how.  Was it consciously or unconsciously?  Lessar's nursemaid also went crazy with the death of the queen.  What made her go crazy and lose her mind?  Did the king go nuts and rape his daughter because he was so far gone that he did not realise what he was doing?  This book has a very weird feel to it.  Kind of spooky (great for Halloween) and very unsettling.  In some ways it bring me back to Leck (Graceling) and his ability to control the minds of others.  I am looking forward to seeing how this story progresses and how Lissar moves on.

One of my very favorite authors is Laurell Hamilton. She currently is writing two series of books, one about Anita Blake who is a vampire hunter and necromancer and the other about Meredith Gentry who is a fairy princess (literally) and who lives for awhile in the human world to prevent her family, and her Aunt the Unseelie Queen, from finding her and most likely killing her. Since it has been awhile since I have read the first book in either series I decided to re-read Kiss the Shadows. I found that I saw this book and its characters differently then when I read it the first time. Meredith is hated and seen as weak because she is not immortal like all of her relatives, she is only half fey and as a result she is mortal. The fey see her as less and have no respect for her. Her aunt, the Queen of the Unseelie, is really an evil and twisted bitch who enjoys inflicting pain so Meredith decides to escape into the mortal world where the fey do not like to be because the metal messes with their magic. But now the Queens Guards are sent out to find Meredith and bring her back to fairy, not to kill her but to have a child. The fey are immortal but they have been slowly losing their magic and they are no longer having babies. So Meredith, who is considered good for nothing, weak, and of little importance is now good for something, hopefully having a child. If she can get pregnant she will be the new Queen. Being more aware this time around it seemed funny to me that what makes her important is her uterus. Of course if she fails to get pregnant she will be killed but she has been threatened her whole so I guess what is one more death threat.

What is evil? What might originally seem evil may not be seen the same way once the facts are presented. What is considered to one person to be evil may not be considered evil to another so how do we decided if the act of evil can in some cases also be considered good?
For example, I was watching the movie, A Time To Kill, not to long ago. It is a story that takes place in Mississippi I think (it was a Southern state). Samuel L. Jackson’s character goes into the court house in front of dozens of people, shots and kills two white guys who had brutally rape and beat his child and then left her for dead. Luck for her she lived but she lost the ability to ever have children. Jackson’s character did not think that the trial would be fair, it was not a white girl who was raped and beaten, just a little black girl. Matthew McConaughey’s character is a lawyer and he defends Jackson through his trial.
Racial prejudice is really what the movie is about and it is seen at its worst. The crime seems less important because it was a black girl and the murder of the two white men more serious because they were white and it was a black man that killed them. McConaughey’s family is harassed and a burning cross is put in his yard because people are so mad that he is defending Jackson. His assistant (Sandra Bullock) is beaten and hung from a tree for helping McConaughey with the trial. But again, how do these people justify there actions. If they see the murder as wrong and evil then how can they justify their action in what they are doing?
My favorite part in the movie, what really made it a great movie for me, was when McConaughey was making his final argument. It was looking like he was going to lose the trial but his closing argument is so great he wins. (If you haven't seen the movie here is the closing argument. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7f-BgDgpmE).
In a town that sees black and white it is very different. Imagining it was your child or the child of a friend makes the situation so much more real.  Put yourself in another persons shoes and the situation can seem different.  Often times are prejudices and assumptions can make a big difference even though we do not always realize it.  Sometimes what may seem evil at first may turn out to the the greatest act of good.