What a Twist!

Well, I totally called it. "The seed is strong," indeed.

Frankie is Neil's son, not Thomas'. However, that's not the book's twist that all the blurbs rave about. That twist is indeed a twisty twist of unexpected proportions. Someone even closer to Thomas than Neil turns out to be the true villain.

However, looking back this reveal doesn't make much sense. I mean, it turns out that Thomas indeed was the target of all of the neurological attacks, but I can't really say (or see) why exactly. For all it matters it could have been anyone who was targeted, and his being a psychology professor was more of a danger to his attackers only when they attacked, otherwise it was hardly a liability. So I feel like the motivation for the villains is lacking, but still. With another 80 pages to go, I could still find a satisfactory motivation.

Also, this is the chapter where the title finally gets mentioned! We find out just what a neuropath is, and it's totally whacked stuff.

Rather curiously, though, the idea of a neuropath, a term that refers to anyone who's had their brain re-wired, reminds me of the homunculi from the anime Full Metal Alchemist.

In this series the homunculi are beings created from attempts to resurrect the dead, and as such are just shells of people. A major part of the series' big plot arc is these beings' struggle to gain human souls and thus to become fully human. I think the connection between them and neuropaths comes up for me, because of some deep-seated idea that the human soul is the totality of a natural brain - to take bits away or to switch bits about somehow removes the soul.