Finished: The Mere Wife (Headley) A very good book about two very different mothers, with two very different sons, who just want to be the best of friends. Apparently a modern take on Beowulf, which I now need to read, the story is about Gren, who is the son of Dana Mills, an American vet who was fighting in a war, was captured, and beheaded on television...or so it was assumed. In reality, she is not actually sure what happened to her, but she woke up six months later in the desert, hugely pregnant. She doesn't know who the father of her child is, but now in an Army hospital in the U.S., she has all sorts of visions of her dead comrades. She flees the hospital and goes to the one safe place she can think of, the underground mountain tunnels where her family lived after being run from their own land. She gives birth to her child, but he's got a full set of teeth and head of hair. He's not like a "normal" baby, so she decides to stay in their underground cocoon, an actual ancient, closed-down railway station, and keep him from the "monsters" out there that would harm him. Their haven is bordered by a mere, an icy lake with a warm hot spring in the middle of it, which seems to have the spirits of past souls making it come alive as well. Gren is smart and devoted to his mother, but by the time he's seven years old, he's lonely and curious about the town that is just within his reach at the bottom of the mountain...the town that forced his family off their land and was even built on some of their burial grounds. Nearest him is a huge mansion called Herot Hall. Herot Hall is occupied by Willa,  her husband Roger, and their little son, Dylan. They are a picture perfect family on the outside, and socially the cream of the small town crop. Dylan is a sensitive boy who takes piano lessons, but whose father also wants him to play sports. Willa spends her time throwing parties and wondering how much of a maternal connection she really has with this little being that came out of her. When Gren's curiousity gets the best of him after he watches Dylan from afar, he actually steals into the house and befriends Dylan. Dylan is captivated by Gren, and together they play on the piano. By the time Willa hears the unusual music and makes it to the room, Gren is gone in a flash, but has left behind what look like claw marks deeply embedded in the piano keys! Dylan cries for his new friend Gren, and Willa thinks a wild animal has made it's way into their house somehow. The police are called, which introduces us to police chief, Ben Wolfe, who will become the nemesis for Dana and Gren. Neither the chief or her husband believe that any wild animal was really in the house, but Willa knows something was there. As Christmas comes and goes and the Herot's prepare for their huge annual New Year's Eve party, Gren watches with  longing from the mountain, through the huge windows of Herot Hall...and Dylan watches every day for Gren from his own bedroom window. At the party, when Dylan begins to choke on a lego and no one at the party knows what to do, Gren is there in an instant, and swoops Dylan up and runs off with him up the mountain. Of course, Dana, who by now has figured out that Gren has come too dangerously close to all the town people, follows him there to protect him. The party is filled with commotion and the sight of the bedraggled Dana and her son puts fear in everyone. They figure out that Dana is the soldier who was supposedly beheaded years ago on television, and the story becomes all about Dana swooping in and kidnapping Dylan! Ben Wolfe leads the charge to go and get Dylan back, but in the hunt, Roger Herot is killed. After a couple of weeks, and the funeral of Roger, Willa and the town assume that little Dylan is most likely dead. In reality, he's in the tunnel with Gren and Dana and is truly happy for the first time in his young life. He has no desire to go back home. However, Ben Wolfe, who we find out is really more about getting the accolades he will achieve and being a hero if he finds Dylan, finally figures out where their underground home is. In a tragic confrontation where Ben severely injures Dana, Gren must make the choice to grab his mother and take her deeper into the tunnel for her own safety, thus leaving Dylan there to be found by Ben before Gren can return and take him with them as well. So, Dylan is returned home, Ben is the hero, Ben tells Dylan and everyone else that he killed both Dana and Gren, the "monster",  Ben marries Willa and they have twin boys, and both Dylan and Gren are miserable. Years pass until both the boys are fifteen and realize that the other is still alive. They come together for a brief, joyous reunion before Ben Wolfe decides to finish the job he knows he never completed. :-( We end with the death of Dylan first, by the hands of his own mother who hallucinated that she was actually killing Gren, and then the death of Gren as he fights to the death with Ben to avenge Dylan, and then finally with the death of Ben, who is killed by Dana who drives a newly refurbished tunnel train right into him, and then off the bridge it was driving on, thus killing Dana in the process as well. In the end, the only one left standing is Willa, who is last seen being carted off in handcuffs for killing her own son. It's a tragic story, which apparently Beowulf is as well. The writing is beautiful, though, with so much description and lyrical prose. And, the story is really so simple...why can't the boys who are so different be friends? Why can't Gren be out in the real world and accepted for his differences? Sigh. A really good book that I'm glad I read!