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zelda_queen) wrote2013-04-19 05:50 pm
Crescendo: Chapter 11 (Part 1)
ZeldaQueen: In which we see that, like with underpants, Fitzpatrick has no clue how police officers work
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 11 (Part 1)
ZeldaQueen: Yet again, we start off with a total disconnect between where we ended the last chapter and where we begin this one. You’d think that after waking up and discovering that her boyfriend can invade her frecking dreams, Nora would be giving that some thought. At the very least, you’d think she’d be wangsting over her latest bought of “Oh noes, he totally loves Marcie and not me!”
Instead, we open this chapter with “Monday after school, Vee dropped me off at the library. I took a moment outside the entrance to call my mom for our daily check-in. As usual, she told me work was keeping her busy, and I told her school was doing the same thing for me”. Yeah. You could have skipped the content of the previous chapter entirely, and it wouldn’t have made a difference! Does Nora’s brain get reset between section breaks or something?
Incidentally, this is pretty much the only time we hear about those “daily check-ins” mentioned. I can understand not needing to bring something like that up constantly, except that it’s never really established, not to mention that - spoilers - we’re going to see later that Nora goes for at least a day or two without calling her mother, and nothing comes of it. If these daily calls were so important, you’d think Mrs. Grey would be worried that her baby wasn’t checking in, but nope! Of course, this is the same woman who accepted the lamest excuse ever as to why her sixteen-year-old daughter disappeared overnight without even calling or leaving a note, so it’s not that surprising.
Also, school’s keeping Nora busy? Not busy enough to stop stalking and wangsting, apparently. Just like Twilight or House of Night, schoolwork here only serves as a filler. In this case, the only reason we hear about her going to the library to do homework is because Fitzpatrick needed some excuse to get her alone for this upcoming scene.
Nora goes to the third-floor media lab, and I’m going to have to ask you viewers, is this a Thing in libraries? Because my library never had a media lab. I’d normally guess that it’d be where old newspapers or projection reels or other such resources were kept, except that (A) Nora treats it like an ordinary study room and (B) we’re only told that there are computers in it. In all the libraries I’ve been in, there are clusters of computers set up in certain places so that, you know, the visitors can use them to find books. And while some are only for card catalogue searches, most do permit visitors to go online for research or just fun.
Really, it sounds like Fitzpatrick wanted to put Nora in a study room, which makes me wonder why she didn’t just say it was a study room. The only reason I can think of as to why she didn‘t, I’ll bring up in a minute.
Anyway, we’re “treated” to a laundry list from Nora, as she “checked [her] e-mail, browsed Facebook, and scanned Perez Hilton”. Since when has Nora ever shown herself to be technologically inclined, at least towards the internet? She never mentioned having e-mail before now, nor of having Facebook. And yes, I know she only said she browsed Facebook, but who does she follow? Vee? Her mother? Celebrities? She’s never given any signs that she likes following celebrities online, which makes it even dumber that we’re to buy her looking up Perez Hilton! Has she ever come across to anyone at all as the sort to like him?
(And is Perez Hilton still even a thing anymore? Or is Fitzpatrick pulling a We‘re Still Relevant, Dammit?)
Nora goes on to tell us that “Just to torture myself, I Googled the Black Hand again. The same links popped up. I hadn’t really expected anything new, had I?” I don’t know, Nora. Had you? I have no clue what you think, or why you do half the shit you do. Like your search here, for example. One would think that there would be some sort of musings or motive for you to randomly start thinking about the Black Hand, after forgetting about them for several chapters. But nope! You kindly leave it to the readers to decipher. Thanks a ton.
And new links do pop up, you know. The internet’s not a rocklike entity in your computer. People do constantly add new stuff to it. And for all we know, you’re trying different keywords. If you’re trying a second search, you could be trying “Black Hand, secret organizations” or “Black Hand, fallen angels” or “Black Hand, deaths” or “Black Hand, signet rings”. Any of those would be narrowing your search down more, making it more likely that you’d find what you were after. But why am I expecting proper research for this? You’re the dumbass who found a very simple, very unprofessional website talking about fallen angels and Nephilim, with no sources and written as if the author thought it was all fact, and took it all as One True Text on the subject.
Bah. Moving on.
Nora studies for an unspecified amount of time, before getting up to get a snack from the vending machine. Vending machine? Really? Yes, I know that some libraries have areas where they sell snacks and drinks, but that’s limited to a specific area. I highly doubt any sensible library would leave snack foods available for any moron to buy and eat anywhere, getting it all over the books. Given that this is the world of Hush, Hush though, I suppose it should go without saying that this library isn’t sensible. Nothing and nobody are.
Anyway, Nora informs us that she can see the sun setting through “the library’s west-facing windows”. Well, isn’t that a relief! And here I was worried the sun was setting in the east for no apparent reason! It’s not like you could just say “I could see the sun setting, outside of the library’s windows” and not make it sound like Nora swallowed a compass!
I have to also ask, how long, precisely, has Nora been studying for? Because you know, it’s summer. The sun doesn’t exactly set early at that time of year. In fact over here in Pittsburgh, now that it’s April, the sun’s starting to set near seven. Maybe a little earlier, but still roughly around then. For the sake of this argument, I’ll guess about six forty-five. We heard at the beginning of the book that Nora’s summer class starts way early in the morning. How long does it last? She only has one make-up class, so far as we’ve ever been told, and both of the summer courses I’ve taken were two and a half hours, tops. Granted they were summer courses for college, but I can’t believe that a high school class could be stretched out longer than that. So according to the first chapter, her class starts at eight in the morning. We’ll say it lasts two and a half hours. That means that she gets out at ten-thirty.
So she sat in a room from ten-thirty until six forty-five, just studying? No lunch break, no break to rest her head, nothing? She just sat and studied for eight hours and fifteen minutes straight?!? How much homework could she possibly have from that class, to justify that?
Of course, the more likely explanation is that Fitzpatrick simply forgot to figure out how much time she was there.
Right. So, Nora purchases a bag of pretzels and a can of cranberry juice and takes it to the media room. Again, what sort of library allows visitors to do that? She’s bring a snack food that leaves an insane amount of crumbs and a drink that can potentially spill all over the computers and books! Oh, and we’re told how her legs “were beginning to tingle with sleep”, which of course makes more sense than just saying “my legs were falling asleep”. *rolls eyes*
In any case, Nora goes back to the room and finds Vee there. Does Vee have a tracking device on Nora? Or did she somehow search the entire library until she found Nora’s stuff? Because we sure as heck weren’t told that they pre-arranged this meeting. Anyway, Vee’s got a “a mix of smug amusement and annoyance” on her face, which I really can’t visualize (…smug annoyance?) She’s brought a black envelope for Nora, along with a box of organic cupcakes. Aside from a moment of comedy (ha ha, organic foods are so mysterious and Vee has no idea what it means!), that’s one of the rare things Vee does that actually is something a good friend would do.
Nora says she’ll be around for thirty more minutes (HOW MUCH WORK DOES SHE HAVE???) and Vee says she left her car in the library’s underground parking lot for Nora to drive home. Vee herself is off to get dinner with Rixon. Because, if you’ll recall, they’re dating.
Vee’s mention of dinner plans of course gets Nora all jealous, because she wishes she had a special fellow to be with! I’m not sure why she’s so jealous. She’s never seen the two together, so she has no idea what their relationship’s like! Oh, and she’s also jealous that Vee is now closer to Patch than she is, which makes no sense. Vee hates Patch, and he invaded Nora’s dreams just last chapter. Why would Nora think Vee’s the one who’s closer?
We get some boring, melodramatic nonsense, as Nora wonders if Vee, Patch, and Rixon watch movies together. No, Nora, I really don’t think they do. Two reasons.
First, Patch is an anti-social asshole who doesn’t acknowledge anyone unless they amuse him, and he obviously doesn’t care about Vee.
Second, I ALREADY POINTED OUT THAT VEE HATES HIM. WHY WOULD SHE HAVE HIM DRAGGED AROUND ON DATES?
So yeah, MORE angst! Just what I’m sure we all wanted! Nora mentally wangsts as to whether or not she should ask Vee about Patch. She wants to, but she doesn’t want Patch to know she’s asking about him because she has pride, but she really wants to know, and FUCKING HELL, WHERE IS THE PLOT???
Nora goes through another half hour of homework and then finally decides to look at the envelope. Inside is, well…
“Breaking the seal, I shook out a black card with a small heart embossed at the center. The word sorry was scripted across it. The card was scented with a bittersweet perfume. I raised the card to my nose and breathed deeply, trying to the place the strangely intoxicating scent. The smell of burned fruit and chemical spices stung all the way down the back of my throat. I opened the card.
I was a jerk last night. Forgive me?”
ZeldaQueen: Yeah. This.
We’re supposed to believe that this is from Patch. Nora certainly believes that it’s from him. Never mind that this is nothing like anything Patch has ever done before. I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again - Patch has never shown remorse for things he has done. He never did anything nice to make up to Nora throughout the last book, and he hasn’t started here.
But Nora, being the twit she is, doesn’t notice this and thus fails to wonder what’s going on. Instead, she gets pissed that Patch thinks that a store-bought card can make things up to her. Apparently not in your book, Nora dearest. But then, everyone here has skewed priorities. You think that him giving Marcie a ride home is a crime so great that a card sent in apology doesn’t make up for it, yet not only do you instantly overlook and forget him luring you into a motel and attacking you, but you saw that moment as a time for romantic bonding!
Also, is it just me, or is that card… morbid-sounding? I mean, a black card with bitter scents? Burned fruit and chemical smells hardly are romantic, in my opinion. And it’s not like Nora’s established herself as someone into that sort of thing. I mean, I’m sure a Sue like Ebony Darkness D’mentia Raven Way would love it. On the other hand, it at least seems to be in Patch’s style. He is, after all, a guy who thinks a great date is taking his girlfriend, in the pouring rain, to visit an abandoned mill and just sort of stare at it.
Anyway, going back to skewed priories, this is Nora’s reaction
“Yes, he’d been a jerk. And did he think a card from the drugstore could negate it? If so, he was underestimating the damage he’d caused. He’d kissed Marcie. Kissed her! And not only that, but he’d invaded my dreams. I had no idea how he’d done it, but when I woke in the morning, I knew he’d been there. It was more than a little unnerving. If he could invade the privacy of my dreams, what else could he do?”
ZeldaQueen: Jeez Nora, isn’t mind raping you in your sleep enough? I think at this point, most sane people would be running for the nearest priest, to exorcise the bastard to Hell. But of course, we know Nora isn’t sane.
And you obviously aren’t too worried about him getting into your dreams, seeing as you went through the first half of this chapter without thinking about it! In the grand scheme of things, you worry more about Patch cheating on you with Marcie rather than HIM GOING INTO YOUR DREAMS WHEN YOU’RE ASLEEP AND VULNERABLE, DEAR LORD WHY ARE YOU SO STUPID???
*weakly lifts head up again*
I’m good.
At this point, a librarian Apparates into the scene to inform Nora that it’s ten minutes before closing. So in other words, at least one person knows that the media room’s being used while they’re closing up. Keep this in mind for a minute.
Nora gets her stuff packed up, and then decides to rip up the cards and wait for him to apologize in person. I suppose seeking him out and asking to apologize in person is out of the question? Although I suppose I can’t say he’s not a mind reader, because… he kind of is.
Anywho, Nora goes to pick up something from the printer and…um…this happens -
“Halfway down the aisle to pick up my print job, I reached out to steady myself on the nearest desk. The right side of my body felt heavier than the left, and my balance wavered. I took another step, and my right leg crumpled, as if made of paper. I crouched down, gripping the desk with both hands, tucking my head between my elbows to get blood flowing to my brain again. A warm, drowsy feeling swirled through my veins.
Straightening my legs, I came to a wobbly stand, but something was wrong with the walls. They were stretched abnormally long and narrow, as if I was looking at them through a mirror at a fun house. I blinked hard several times, attempting to bring my vision to a focal point.
My bones filled with iron, refusing to move, and my eyelids sank against the stark fluorescent lights. In a panic, I ordered them open, but my body overruled all. I felt warm fingers curl around my mind, threatening to drag it off to sleep.
The perfume, I thought vaguely. In Patch’s card.
I was on my hands and knees now. Strange rectangles wavered all around, spinning before me. Doors. The room was lined with open doors. But the faster I crawled toward them, the faster they jumped back. Off in the distance, I heard a somber tick-tock. I moved away from the sound, lucid enough to know that the clock was at the back of the room, opposite the door.
Moments later, I realized that my arms and legs were no longer moving, the sensation of crawling nothing more than an illusion in my head. Scratchy, industrial-grade carpet cushioned my cheek. I fought once more to push myself up, then shut my eyes, all light spiraling away”
ZeldaQueen: … Okay, granted I’ve never been gassed unconscious before, but I highly doubt it works like that. I mean, what gas is designed like that? She got a whiff of it from the card, was able to print a document and put away her books just fine, and only got insanely dizzy when she was on her way out? She was so out-of-it she didn’t realize she wasn’t actually moving (except that she did realize it), yet was lucid enough to recognize the sound of the clock, the direction it was in, and how to move away from it? Do you expect me to believe that the person who drugged the card deliberately only put enough on to have Nora crawl artfully across the floor before she was knocked out?
More importantly, she’s able to narrate it all like that? That’s Bella Swan syndrome right there! The only difference is that she’s talking about hallucinations of doors and not fire in her veins! Passing out doesn’t work like that! This, like everything else, just reads like Fitzpatrick watched a scene of someone being gassed unconscious in a movie or something and decided to copy the way it looked.
Or, rather, it looks like she decided to copy an urban legend. Because this reads almost exactly like an urban legend that, according to Snopes, went around in late 1999. In a nutshell, it had that there were people who would hang out in mall parking lots, offering to sell perfume to passerbys. The perfume samples were actually ether though, so anyone who sniffed them would pass out and wake up robbed.
Snopes debunked the rumor on the grounds that, among other reasons, it takes far more than a quick sniff or two of ether to knock a person out. In fact, according to this description of how to apply anesthetic and properly knock a person out before a medical procedure, "An inhalation with chloroform generally takes about four minutes; often more; seldom less. With ether, the time required is longer and the quantity of the agent greater".
On the subject of chloroform, incidentally, this toxicology document describes that knock-out gas as smelling "nice" and "it can take up to 15 minutes to knock the victim out".
In other words, it sounds very likely that it was neither chloroform or ether. I'm sure there could be some other sort of knockout gas it is, but no point in fussing over that. We never find out anything about this. Really. We never find out how the culprit got the stuff, what he used, anything. Nora never gets medically examined or has any after-effects (because, you know, it's not like huffing an unknown substance causes problems for your health or anything!) and it's all pretty much forgotten.
Yes, really. This section is only a vague reminder that there’s more to this story than whining over Patch. This whole thing serves little to no purpose, in the vast scheme of things. This would be like if Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had Harry get whacked with the rigged Bludger, didn’t suffer any injuries for it, managed to dodge it the entire time, and didn’t think back to it for the entire book, until Dobby decided to monologue in the second-to-last chapter about it.
I have such a headache.
So, Nora wakes up several hours later (the only actual number we get is “more than two hours”, disoriented and literally in the dark. The library has been all locked up, and apparently none of the librarians or custodial staff thought to look in the media room before shutting up, even though they knew someone was using it right before closing! Seriously, these people are all idiots!
Anywho, Nora wakes up and is immediately lucid enough to deduce that she was drugged and Patch must have done it. She does her usual bizarre descriptions of being dizzy and having a hard time standing, but it doesn’t work, seeing as she narrates it in her usual dull, rational manner.
She staggers to the door and tries to pull it open, only to find that something’s keeping it pulled shut. The reason for this? “[S]omeone had tied one end of a length of rope to the outer door handle, and the other end to the handle of the door one room down”.
… What?
Do these doors not have ordinary locks? Or is Fitzpatrick, much like Meyer, unaware that buildings like malls or libraries generally lock up the individual shops or rooms in addition to locking up the entire building? Why is Nora’s captor (yes, we know that’s what this is about) bothering with this elaborate set-up? Is it supposed to be that it’s more fun? Or is this just Fitzpatrick writing the sort of trap Nancy Drew might find herself in, without considering if it makes sense for this time and location.
Well, whatever the reason, Nora certainly is on the ball! What brilliant thought does she have about this strange situation?
“I frowned. That‘s weird.”
ZeldaQueen: Yes. That’s all she can come up with. “That’s weird”. No, Nora. To quote the Todd in the Shadows, “A hole in the wall’s weird! This…there’s just no words for it!”.
You’d think she’d be used to this sort of thing by now! A freaky thing happens, a stranger comes in to mindrape her, she has to run away! But no, she’s just mildly confused. *face palm* She starts shouting for someone to let her out, which might be sensible, except for the fact that someone roped the door shut, you idiot. Would they bother doing that if a librarian was still around to let you go???
Right, right. *sighs* Nora finally looks at the clock and realizes that it’s eleven at night. She tries to use her cell phone to call for help and to use one of the computers to get on the Internet. Unfortunately, neither of them gets a signal. I…really am not sure why that would be. Is this kidnapper of Nora using the same mind trick Patch did, back in Hush Hush, when he made her think her cell phone was dead? We’re never told one way or another. I’m just going to pretend it’s the case, because the alternate idea (that the cell phone just conveniently doesn’t work in a fucking library at the exact moment she’s in trouble and that the internet… apparently went to bed for the night) makes me want to claw my eyes out.
As Nora’s scurrying around, trying to find a way out, she hears the elevator coming in. Out of nowhere, we then get a charming anecdote about her childhood. And it’s long and I’m terribly sorry, but you must see this
“Once, when I was four or five, my dad took me to the park to teach me how to ride my bike without training wheels. By the end of the afternoon, I could ride all the way around the quarter mile loop without help. My dad gave me a big hug and told me it was time to go home and show my mom. I begged for two more loops, and we compromised on one. Halfway around the loop, I lost my balance and tipped over. As I was righting my bike, I saw a big brown dog not far off. It was staring at me. In that moment, as we stood watching each other, I heard a voice whisper, Don’t move. I gulped a breath and held it, even though my legs wanted to run as fast as they could to the safety of my dad.
The dog’s ears pricked and he started toward me in an aggressive lope. I shivered with fear but kept my feet rooted. The closer the dog came, the more I wanted to run, but I knew the moment I moved, the dog’s animal instinct to chase would kick in. Halfway to me, the dog lost interest in my statue-like body and took off in a new direction. I asked my dad if he’d heard the same voice telling me to hold still, and he said it was instinct. If I listened to it, nine times out of ten I’d make the best move.
Instinct was speaking now. Get out."
ZeldaQueen: Dear Christ, what was the point of all that? We just took a two-paragraph jaunt away from what’s supposed to be a tense action scene to talk about Nora’s childhood run-in with a dog! Why do we need to know that? I could summarize it in a way that would flow much better! Here!
“When I was a child, my dad took me out to learn how to ride a bike without using training wheels. As I was peddling around a loop, I lost my balance and the bike toppled over. As I got up, a huge dog came running towards me. Just as I was about to run, I heard a voice in my head, urging me to not move. Sure enough, when I did that, the dog lost interest and went somewhere else. My dad later told me that the voice was instinct. If I listened to it, nine times out of ten I‘d make the best move.”
Now, granted it’s still pretty clunky and out-of-place, but it’s at least not loaded down with pointless details!
I suspect part of that was supposed to be character-building. Oh, look! We get a sweet memory of Nora and her father going to the park together! Doesn’t that make you feel so bad that he’s dead now?
No. It doesn’t. This is the first time we’ve had this sort of thing established, so it’s too little, too late. Plus, as I already said, it’s totally out-of-place here! We don’t want to hear about Nora arguing with her dad over how many laps she can do before going home! It’s like Fitzpatrick morphed into Victor Hugo, only without her random musings even being well-written or philosophical!
*heaves a sigh*. RIGHT.
So Nora follows her “instinct” (which is similar enough to Zoey Redbird’s Deus Ex Machina Feeling that I want to kill something) and decides to get out before this mysterious elevator-rider shows up. I do love how she needs some sixth sense to tell her to get away from this person, when we’ve established that no librarians are around, and her kidnapper must be nearby. In any case, Nora escapes by grabbing a monitor and throws it at the window. It goes clean through, and Nora uses a three-hole punch to knock out the remaining glass, so she can jump through.
…Yes, I’m sure that a sixteen-year-old girl who is not written as particularly athletic or physically powerful would be capable of breaking through a window with one lob of a computer. If anything, I’d think the monitor would break while only cracking the window! I mean, even if that wasn’t some sort of strong plastic (because everyone in this series seems to be stuck in the Stone Age, when it’s convenient), it’s not going to be a thin sort of glass! At the very least, Nora ought to have to hit the window twice! And a three-hole punch? Again, how thin is this glass? Does it just get poked out?
Whatever. Pointless stuff, same jazz. Nora jumps through the window and runs for the stairwell. She informs us that “I had to reach the stairwell, adjacent to the elevator, before the elevator rose much higher and whoever was inside saw me”. Why? Don’t ask me. I can completely understand Nora wanting to escape before her captor comes back. If someone’s going to gas you unconscious, you don’t want to be around when they come back for you. But why does it matter if he sees her? Does she not want him to know she escaped? She broke a fucking window!!! Even if, by some miracle, he didn’t hear that, I think the broken glass and mangled monitor in the hallway would tip him off!
And the way Fitzpatrick’s writing this elevator, I think she’s picturing one of those old-timey ones with the gates. It’s described as a cage elevator, in any case. So…apparently this elevator only has a cage as a front door, which is how this guy will see Nora, when he gets high enough? If that’s the case, I have no clue how the library’s gotten away with this. That design, in this day and age, sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I mean, it’s been established that high school kids visit the library, and they’re hardly the most responsible of people. All it takes is one kid mangling a finger, sticking it through the gate as they go up a floor, and the library gets sued. I can understand them keeping the old-fashioned design, but even the church I work at, which is plenty old and has an elevator with a gate, has normal doors behind it.
I also have to ask, how fast does that elevator move? Nora hears it coming, and apparently has time to break open a window, knock out the shards of glass (of which there would be many, seeing as a computer monitor would hardly leave a big hole or a clean break), and run to the stairs, all before this person gets near enough to see her.
Nora heads down the stairs, wasting time making sure the door closes noiselessly behind her. Again, I think this person will pick up pretty quickly that you’re not in that room anymore! Just go!!!
Just as she’s about to the second floor, the mysterious person enters the stairwell. Nora stops moving so he can’t hear her, which granted is halfway smart. Yes, he knows she’s there, but at least he can’t figure out immediately where she is. She then starts hearing her dad’s voice in her head again, calling out to her and asking her to say where she is.
Being the dumbass that she is, Nora actually considers responding. If she had, she’d deserve whatever her kidnapper has planned, because she is too dumb to live! Instead, she thinks that her “father”’s sounding “strange and demanding” and “I was struck by the thought that someone could be impersonating my dad to lure me close”.
ZeldaQueen: This has just occurred to you now? Every time you’ve heard your dad’s voice, something freaky happened to you. You seriously only just now twigged that in a world of people who can get in your head, one them is screwing with you by impersonating your dad? Jesus! That’s like if, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry spent half the book under the impression that his parents were conveniently rising from the dead and speaking with him, whenever a Dementor came by!
Oh, and for some reason, she’s still convinced that her dad’s still around. She just now thinks that his ghost is talking to her, and so’s this impersonator
ZeldaQueen: My kingdom for a logical conclusion!
Anywho, the person chasing her finally kicks his brain into gear and runs down the staircase. Nora takes off, getting out of the stairwell and through the library front doors. No, I don’t know why the library doors aren’t locked. Don’t even bother wondering. We know it won’t be explained.
We get a brief diversion from the plot to have a “clever” move from Nora - while running towards the street, she jumps over a handrail and dropped “ten or so feet to a small grassy courtyard below”, amidst “trash and tumbleweeds”. I’m pretty sure that grass or not, a ten-foot fall wouldn’t leave on unscathed, and I have no clue why tumbleweeds would be going around in Maine of all places, but whatever. Yet again, totally pointless! It’s to throw off the guy chasing her, but he finds her again anyway, so yeah.
She runs to the parking garage it’s in. Either it was badly described in the last book, or I didn’t get a good mental image, but either way this thing apparently is an actual independent parking garage. You know, with a ramp going underground and a parking arm.
And apparently there’s no one manning said parking arm, because there’s no mention of it. If there was, Nora just ran past someone who could have helped her without comment, which means she’s reached even deeper levels of idiocy. Not to mention, are parking garages open at eleven at night? Granted I’ve never used any that late, but don’t most have “no overnight parking” rules? I dunno. Let me know, guys.
Anyway, Nora finds Vee’s car and starts to pull out, narrowly avoiding a black SUV peeling after her. Of…course. Whatever! Let’s just keep moving before we’re dead of old age!
From here, it’s pretty much a “high speed” chase scene in which Nora ditches the SUV. If everything else wasn’t so staggeringly idiotic, it might not really be that bad. As it is, it just isn’t very interesting. Really, all that’s going through my mind is trying to figure out if we’re to think driving fifty miles per hour in a forty five miles per hour zone is edgy.
Long story short, Nora loses the SUV by getting a car in between them. Given how she’s been zipping along, I’m surprised she hasn’t had the police called on her for reckless driving. She takes advantage of having lost the guy by hiding in a neighborhood that’s charmingly known as “Slaughterville”. Of course, given how everything in this series is written, it’s morbid and dangerous. Apparently it got its nickname after three teenagers shot each other in a playground.
… How would that get a neighborhood a nickname like “Slaughterville”? If there was constant gang fighting or something like that, I could buy it. But one incident? True story - in my neighborhood, a crazy guy lured his girlfriend into the woods, tried to kill her, and leaped in front of the train when he failed. We didn’t start calling that place “Crazy Fucker Forest” after that incident. In fact, plenty of people likely don’t associate the two. I’d think it’d take more than one shooting to get a place a reputation like that.
Of course, it figures that of all the neighborhoods for Nora to end up in, she gets the incredibly dangerous one. Every single frigging place in this series is dangerous, I swear! The beach she frequents? Home to drug dealers. When she goes downtown? She ends up in a bad neighborhood, looking for Vee. When she stops at a motel? It’s a total sleezebucket that apparently has no manager on staff and a pervy guy running the check-in desk. And just wait until we find out more about the local amusement park! Oh, you guys just wait! *mutters darkly under breath*
Nora decides that the best course of action is to pull into someone’s garage. No, not park outside of one. Go inside of it. Now me, I’d think that if a town is so bad it got the nickname of “Slaughterville”, the residents would be paranoid enough to lock places up tightly, or carry around weapons. You know, to stop break-ins or keep people from squatting (like Nora pretty much is). But nope! Someone conveniently left their garage wide open, so in Nora goes!
Once inside, she gives Vee a call. Again, she doesn’t seem particularly concerned about being caught here. If it were me, I’d be a little more worried about being caught illegally trespassing. Of course, if it were me, I’d be calling the police, and not my idiot friend. But no, it’s vitally important that Nora call Vee, because Vee saw who all handled that drugged card. And as we know, it’s much more important for Those Meddling Kids to go snooping, than to call the authorities and quickly establish what happened, helping them know what to look for at the crime scene, and generally help get things moving more quickly.
ZeldaQueen: So Vee picks up and has no idea why Nora’s so freaked out. Nora immediately asked who all touched the card, and then explains about how she thinks the card was drugged. Nora? Given that you were pretty much kissing the sky after a few whiffs, I think it’s safe to say that yes, it was drugged! Anywho, Vee says that she got the card from Patch, who was hitching a ride from Rixon. Patch told her to give Nora the letter, and no one else touched it after Vee got it.
Nora explains about passing out, which Vee tries to pass off as fatigue. Vee, honey, there’s a difference between fatigue and what seems to be a narcoleptic attack. Nora tells about her Great Escape, and Vee ponders this all. She can tell that Nora thinks Patch was behind it, but doesn’t agree. Why, you might be wondering? Well… “As much as I don’t like Patch, I’ve got to tell you, I can’t see him drugging you. He’s a whack job, but he does have boundaries”.
Yes. Vee, the very same girl who thought that Patch killed her love interest of last book, thinks that drugging his girlfriend is beneath him. Apparently in this bizarre world, drugging is more extreme than murder. And okay, Vee doesn’t know about that lovely motel chapter, but let’s see what she does know of Patch.
She knows he doesn’t seem to have a history of any sort (she was there when they found he had no student record, if you recall).
She knows that since dating him, Nora has been cutting off her interactions with others.
She knows that Nora has been having a tantrum (strike) going on one long BSOD after another after splitting with Patch.
She knows that said break-up came about because he apparently was cheating on Nora with Marcie.
She completely believes - and has said it more than once - that Patch is a dangerous guy.
She completely believes - and again, has stated this more than once - THAT PATCH MURDERED JULES.
So put this all together, and what do we get? An antisocial, seemingly dangerous guy who gets his girlfriend obsessed with him and then cheats on her, has a completely unknown history, and who may or may not have killed another student not two months prior.
Guys, I think if most of us came across such a person in real life, there would be at least one “Keep your drink covered while he’s around” comment made. Hell, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
gehayi even included in a spiteful the idea that Patch has been spiking Nora’s food and drink with mood-altering drugs since Book the First! Why is drugging apparently a hard limit for Patch?
Actually, I can tell you why. Vee just got turned into the Rosalie of this book. We all know how Meyer used Rosealie as a puppet to conveniently fill whichever roll needed performed, right? And we know that because of this, her character was never consistent. Well, that’s what Fitzpatrick’s doing with Vee. Patch has had the shadow of suspicion cast on him, and Nora has good reason to think he drugged her. Naturally, this won’t be the case. After all, he and Nora are the Truest of True Loves, and thus will get back together and have it be revealed that all the “bad” things he did either weren’t his fault, or just Wacky Misunderstandings. So she can’t have Patch looking too bad here! He’s innocent, don’t you know? So Vee’s being made to cast doubt on Nora’s suspicions. That’s why she’s being made to defend Patch, after making it clear she thinks Nora should stay far, far away from him. She’s just filling the role that needs filled.
Right. Nora starts to get hysterical and wonders who was behind it all. Vee doesn’t know, but invites Nora to spend the night so she can help her figure it out. I think it goes without saying that we hear none of this, and they don’t come up with any ideas. That runs the risk of them solving the mystery before the book’s over, considering how few characters are in this thing. Vee then asks where Nora is. Upon hearing that she’s in a place called “Slaughterville”, Vee actually has an understandable reaction of telling Nora to get out ASAP and get over to her place.
And here is where we will take a break, because the next part? Is so full of fail, it's not even funny. See you soon, ladies and gentlemen, and have a snack and security blanket or something. You'll need it!
YOU FUCKING WHORE: 60
Onward to: Chapter 11 (Part 2)
Return to: Chapter10
Back to Table of Contents
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And is Perez Hilton still even a thing anymore? Or is Fitzpatrick pulling a We‘re Still Relevant, Dammit?
Um...I still follow Perez Hilton...
Wow. No one noticed the unconscious girl on the floor of the media room/study room before closing up? Can someone say 'lawsuit'?
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Ah, okay. Thanks! XD I know very little about the guy, so as much as I knew, it could have been yet another example of Fitzpatrick having no idea what's hip and current.
"Lawsuit" is pretty much the Word of the Day for this chapter. Just wait until the next section, when you see how the flipping *police* act.
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Yeah, I follow his celebrity blog. He is one of the bigger ones out there. I still wouldn't give her points because I never got the impression Nora was someone who paid attention to celebrity news. (I do because I pay attention to EVERYTHING) It would seem more like something Marcie would do. Not to say only people like Marcie watch his blog but...I don't know. It's still out of nowhere.
I actually thought, at the beginning of the chapter, Fitzpatrick wrote this chapter and the previous one out of order :/
I guess research is too much to ask nowadays, huh?
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Yeah, that's mainly why it jumped out at me. It's like how we'll later get throwaway mentions of Nora going to a gym or thinking about how she used to play the cello. Not only are those hobbies out of nowhere, but they seem totally out of left field for her character. And I know that there are plenty of people who have past times or like things that don't seem the sort of thing they'd be into, but it doesn't feel like that.
The entire "plot" here is disjointed. Fitzpatrick obviously wanted one of those stories were a bunch of strange, seemingly random events happened, but she forgot to give any consistency or unnoticed patterns.
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I could see a school library having a full computer lab or the like attached, but yeah. Does strike me as a bit odd that an independent one would have the computers set aside. Then again, that kidnapping thing was so stupid I'm going to have to assume the entire library is run by our villains.
... HOW is Nora this STUPID? Holy shit, I think the death thing last book actually DID leave some serious brain damage!
On the elevator thing: Maybe it's a cage front, with glass doors behind it? I dunno. Clearly we've put more thought into this than Fitzpatrick ever did.
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Well, it certainly gets reset between books.
/organic foods are so mysterious and Vee has no idea what it means/
Because she’s overweight? -_-
/Yes. That’s all she can come up with. “That’s weird”./
Maybe Patch’s horrendous treatment of Nora has so numbed her to terrifying experiences that being locked in a dark room by a stranger seems like a picnic now. Of course, that wouldn’t say good things about Patch, so the remaining conclusions that we can draw are A) Nora is stupid or B) Fitzpatrick is a bad writer.
/Doesn’t that make you feel so bad that he’s dead now?/
No. Why didn’t we get flashbacks like this in the first book? Or earlier in this book?
/She takes advantage of having lost the guy by hiding in a neighborhood that’s charmingly known as “Slaughterville”./
Okay, Ms. Fitzpatrick? Are you writing a paranormal YA romance or a lame slasher film? When your story takes place in a small town in Maine but everything is grim and dark to the point of resembling an apocalyptic dystopia, it just looks like you’re trying too hard.
/Every single frigging place in this series is dangerous, I swear! The beach she frequents? Home to drug dealers. When she goes downtown? She ends up in a bad neighborhood, looking for Vee. When she stops at a motel? It’s a total sleezebucket that apparently has no manager on staff and a pervy guy running the check-in desk./
I seriously wonder if Becca Fitzpatrick is a fan of Frank Miller’s comics, because these characters and this type of setting fit his stories perfectly. Narcissistic and stupid psychopaths who we’re supposed to root for? Check. The setting made out to be much ‘darker’ and ‘grittier’ than it should be just to look edgy and cool? Check. Misogyny? Check. Unrealistic dialogue? Check. No sense of how ridiculous everything is? Check.
/it’s much more important for Those Meddling Kids to go snooping, than to call the authorities and quickly establish what happened, helping them know what to look for at the crime scene, and generally help get things moving more quickly./
Because if the authorities actually got involved and were able to do their jobs, this miserable series would be over because they would lock Patch up.
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(Anonymous) 2013-04-20 04:53 pm (UTC)(link)2. Why bother with the gas-card? Nora's too stupid to figure out who sent it (being close to Patch ruins your brain, so just snatch her when she's home by herself (where's the mother in all of this?).
3. You had perfectly fine legs, Nora, you didn't need to kill that monitor.
4. Slaughterville is stupid in a morbid sort-of-way, but it's not as confusingly stupid as Cheeseman.
-Dragonturtle Monk
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The gas card serves no purpose after this, save being brought up by the Big Bad when he's doing his end-of-book gloating. Nora comes nowhere close to solving it, so there's not much point in it at all. And yes, it makes NO SENSE AT ALL for said Big Bad to not just kill her now. In fact, she even ASKS why. The answer sucks, and I'll be ripping into it when that point comes.
The mother is out of town for work, which is the usual way to get rid of her for plot-related reasons. She's pretty much conveniently missing until the start of the next book, so don't get too fussed about her.
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And all I could think was "Wait a minute, you're on a highway in the south and you are going under fifty?" Because let me tell you, the amount of people laying on their horns at her should have made her extremely easy to follow.
Basically, I find Nora being able to ditch an SUV in a small town late at night about that realistic.
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(Anonymous) 2013-04-23 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)Drugging too far?
(Anonymous) 2013-09-29 01:49 am (UTC)(link)Because a guy who has no problem with murdering innocent people in cold blood over and over again, has repeatedly tried to destroy the Earth, has deliberately started wars and committed genocide is such a nice guy who would never do something as nasty as being his wife, right?
Re: Drugging too far?