Hush, Hush: Chapter 1
May. 27th, 2011 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zelda_queenZeldaQueen: Well, this story wastes no time in being infuriating, so let's waste no time in sporking it!
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 1
We jump to Coldwater, Maine, in present times. We also jump into a first-person narration, provided by one Nora Gray. She will be our Idiot Female Protagonist for this novel.
The chapter starts on an…interesting note, as she enters her biology class and sees, attached to the blackboard, a naked Barbie doll with her arm linked to a naked Ken doll. We’re told that there are artificial leaves on a “few choice places”, which makes no sense seeing as Barbie and Ken are quite anatomically impaired. Also on the board is the sentence “WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)” and I am thanking each and every one of my lucky stars that this isn’t happening in Hogwarts Exposed.
A girl named Vee Sky comments that this is why the school has banned camera phones, because pictures of that would be sufficient to get biology axed. You know, maybe it was just my school, but I always thought that Sex Ed was taught as a subunit of Health class, with biology dealing with cellular reproduction and stuff like that.
Anyway, Vee is Nora’s Annoying Best Friend, and her one character trait is quickly established - she wants hot boys and she specifically wants them for sex. Fitzpatrick makes absolutely no effort to be subtle about this. Vee goes from her comment about the camera pictures (which, if left alone, I could see being a snarky joke a high schooler would make) to talking about how they could be using this hour to get “one-on-one tutoring from cute upperclass guys”. Nora reminds Vee that she was looking forward to the sex unit all semester and Vee replies “This class isn‘t going to teach me anything I don‘t already know”. Nora, for some reason, comments “Vee? As virgin?” and Vee makes it clear that she is embarrassed that she has not yet lost her virginity. I sense that I’ll be very annoyed with Vee for most of the novel.
The class is being taught by a dude named Coach McConaugh, who starts off the lesson with “It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a fifteen-minute trip to the backseat of a car. It‘s science”. Oy. He then asks the class what science is, and there’s a chorus of answers like “Boring” and “The only class I‘m failing”. Alright, points for actually knowing how teenagers talk in that regard. The teacher asks Nora what it is, and she replies “The study something”. How specific. Upon further prompting, she says that it’s knowledge gained through experimentation and observation, before mentally moaning about how she sounds like the audio book for their text. *rubs head* Why is it that when a character in these sorts of books shows the slightest bit of intelligence, they instantly bash it for making them sound overly smart? Do these Suethors really think that all teenagers think that sounding intelligent is undesirable?
There’s more talk about the definition of science, before the teacher brings up how Nora and Vee always sit together and thus must know about each other. We get a brief, gratuitous info dump about how they look - apparently Vee is a “green-eyed, minky blond, and a few pounds over curvy” while Nora is a “smoky-eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that holds its own against even the best flatiron” and has really long legs - and Nora gets a Bad Feeling About This. Said feeling is on the mark, as the teacher promptly says that the two have been together for so long that it’s high time they sit with other people. So yeah, new seating chart time!
Vee points out that it’s April and school’s almost over, so why the flip is he pulling this now? The teacher pretty much says “‘Cuz I can”. I’m dead serious. And yeah, if I had to up and lug my many heavy textbooks and whatnot around the classroom just because the teacher got a bug up his butt to get two girls to split up, I’d be annoyed as well. Why not just swap them around with one other pair?
Instead, everyone gets up and plays musical chairs. And what do you know, Nora is sitting next to the mysterious transfer student who never volunteers in class, is dark and moody, and is unnamed. Well gee, I do so wonder where this all is going?
Nora smiles at the guy and introduces herself and he smiles back but says nothing. Nora is freaked out because “a feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me”. She quickly turns away from this guy, figuring that he is trouble. Normally I’d applaud her for a bit of sense, but we all know that it’s only a matter of chapters before she’s swooning into his arms, so really this insistence of how scary and dangerous he is makes it all even squickier.
The teacher says that their assignment for the rest of class is to…erm investigate their partner, apparently divining things about them through observation. Nora doesn’t get anything, besides the fact that he smells like cigars. Apparently this is supposed to show how bad he is, because the smell is “richer and fouler” than cigarettes. Me, all I’m getting is picturing her doing a lab with Groucho Marx. That would probably make for a more interesting story as well. Instead, she notices that the guy is writing a ton of stuff about her, even though she can’t see how he figured anything out. All she can see is that he’s writing how she speaks English. Erm, how does that relate to biology? Ah well, who needs that when we can establish how this guy’s an asshole? First he folds the paper so Nora can’t read, then ignores her when she asks what he’s writing about her. Yes, one could argue that he’s just observing and doesn’t think they’re supposed to talk for the project, but then he goes and crumples up her unused paper and throws it in the garbage can, and I really am getting pissed with this guy.
Nora gets out a new sheet of paper and asks for his name. He says to call him Patch, and then says that he means it when he says to call him and winks. Really? Patch? That’s the best bad-boy motorcyclist gangster name Fitzpatrick could come up with? No wonder this kid doesn’t associate with anyone! Any high schooler worth their salt would find a million jokes to make at a name like that.
Nora, however, stays focused and asks him what he does in his spare time. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BIOLOGY? Gah! He says that he doesn’t have free time. Instead of a follow-up question like “Why not?” or “What do you do that keeps you so busy?”, Nora reminds him that they’re probably being graded on this and asks him to do her a favor. The implication is, of course, to actually help her out here, but he asks “What kind of favor”, in a way that Nora picks up on as innuendo. What a charming fellow.
So yeah, he finally relents and says he takes pictures. When Nora goes to write this down, he snaps that he wasn’t done and goes on about how he also has “quite a collection” going for a columnist for the school paper, and how she has to choose between Stanford, Yale, and “…what‘s that big one with the H?” Of course, said columnist is Nora, and she is agape at how he knows all of this.
Nora. Dearest. I realize it can be surprising, but use common sense. He’s probably spying on you!!! Oh, but he then says that she won’t go to any of them, before grabbing her chair and pulling her closer to him. She outright admits that she wants to pull away at this, but doesn’t want to show fear and dear God, go to the teacher and ask him to change your seat! This dude is creepy and downright inappropriate!!!
But no, she just has to hear more. Patch tells her that she’d “thrive” at all three of the schools, but wouldn’t want to go because it’d be a “cliché of an achievement”. He then says that passing judgment is her third-biggest weakness. Nora is, of course, pissed at all of this and asks him to tell her what her second biggest-weakness is, if he’s so smart. Oh, and instead of being pissed about what a condescending asshat Patch is, she seems more angry that he seems to know so much about her. Really. Anyway, Patch says that her second-biggest weakness is that she doesn’t know how to trust, or rather she trusts all the wrong people. She then asks what her first-biggest weakness is, and he says that she keeps her life on a short leash, afraid of what she can’t control. I swear to all things holy, if this is supposed to foreshadow how she’s such a silly loser for not wanting to loosen up and be with the bad boy and how it’s fun to be with psychos, my laptop is going out of the window.
At this point, Nora tells us that she wants to go to the teacher and ask for a new seating arrangement, but is afraid of Patch thinking he is intimidating her. I realize that people do feel this way, especially when threatened, but it really just makes Nora seem stupid. And then, Patch asks her if she sleeps naked. I’m dead serious.
Nora. Go to the teacher, now. Or better yet, go to the principle. Or heck, see a guidance councilor! There's got to be someone you can talk to in private about this! But no, Nora just tells Patch that if she did sleep naked, she certainly wouldn't tell him. He then asks if she has ever had therapy, and I'm serious, not even one chapter in and he has inspired a level of hatred that outstrips that which I feel for Edward Cullen and post-Eclipse Jacob Black combined.
Apparently Nora does see the school shrink, not by her own choice, but she doesn't like to talk about it so she lies and says that she doesn't. Given how this guy is implied to know all about her, if we figure that he really already knew about her therapy and how she felt about it, that just makes him even worse.
Patch then asks if Nora has ever done anything illegal, and she says no, figuring that breaking the speed limit every so often wouldn't count "Not with him". She asks why he won't ask her normal questions, like her taste in music. He says that he doesn't want to ask what he can guess, and says that she likes Baroque music and somehow divines that because she likes control, she plays the cello. Of course this is correct, but Nora freaks out and lies again, saying that she doesn't.
Patch notices something on her wrist. She insists that it's a birthmark, but he sees it's a scar. He figures that she slit her wrist and asks if she's suicidal. We get the charming description "His eyes connected with mine, and I could feel him laughing". He then asks if her parents are married or divorced. She says that she lives with her mother, clearly getting uncomfortable. Patch continues to be an asshole and asks what happened to her father. Nora says that he passed away and when Patch won't stop pestering her, finally says that her father was murdered a year ago. She finally tells Patch to back off because he's seriously treading into personal territory. We're told how his eyes soften and he comments on how hard it must have been "like he meant it". Too little too late, Fitzpatrick. Having him have one moment of kindness doesn't exactly cover up an entire class of harassment and scaring her.
The bell rings and Nora panics because she didn't get much of anything on Patch. When she tells him this, he writes his phone number on her hand. Considering his comments before about how she should call him, that's just...gah. Of course her courage fails when she tries to tell him how much of a jerkass he was, and all she can come up with is that she's busy that night. He replies that so is he, before giving a smile and running off
"I stood nailed to the spot, digesting what had just happened. Did he eat up all the time questioning me on purpose? So I'd fail? Did he think one flashy grin would redeem him? Yes, I thought. Yes, he did.
'I won't call!' I called after him. 'Not-ever!'"
ZeldaQueen: Apparently the Suethor thinks it would redeem him as well. Nora, you silly, childish girl, you're going to hook up with the hot gangster who scares and harasses you and you're going to like it!
God, now I feel filthy.
Vee shows up at this point, complaining about how her new partner who told her all about her lice treatments that morning. Nora points out Patch in the hallway and Vee comments that apparently this is his third time going through his senior year. Nora tells about how he knew all of those things about her and freaked her out, before telling Vee that she's going to the teacher for a new partner. Good going on her part! Tell how the kid was making very inappropriate comments to her and was frightening her, nip this in the bud...
"At the end of the day, I was the one who took a slap in the face. Coach shot down my plea to rethink the seating chart. It appeared I was stuck with Patch"
ZeldaQueen: *mouth hangs open* I...he...she...they...
WHAT?
Did she not tell the teacher about the harassment? How he scared her? I...this is...
I'm tired. We've only finished chapter one and I am through.
Good freaking riddance
Onward to: Chapter 2
Back to: Prologue
Return to to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 1
We jump to Coldwater, Maine, in present times. We also jump into a first-person narration, provided by one Nora Gray. She will be our Idiot Female Protagonist for this novel.
The chapter starts on an…interesting note, as she enters her biology class and sees, attached to the blackboard, a naked Barbie doll with her arm linked to a naked Ken doll. We’re told that there are artificial leaves on a “few choice places”, which makes no sense seeing as Barbie and Ken are quite anatomically impaired. Also on the board is the sentence “WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)” and I am thanking each and every one of my lucky stars that this isn’t happening in Hogwarts Exposed.
A girl named Vee Sky comments that this is why the school has banned camera phones, because pictures of that would be sufficient to get biology axed. You know, maybe it was just my school, but I always thought that Sex Ed was taught as a subunit of Health class, with biology dealing with cellular reproduction and stuff like that.
Anyway, Vee is Nora’s Annoying Best Friend, and her one character trait is quickly established - she wants hot boys and she specifically wants them for sex. Fitzpatrick makes absolutely no effort to be subtle about this. Vee goes from her comment about the camera pictures (which, if left alone, I could see being a snarky joke a high schooler would make) to talking about how they could be using this hour to get “one-on-one tutoring from cute upperclass guys”. Nora reminds Vee that she was looking forward to the sex unit all semester and Vee replies “This class isn‘t going to teach me anything I don‘t already know”. Nora, for some reason, comments “Vee? As virgin?” and Vee makes it clear that she is embarrassed that she has not yet lost her virginity. I sense that I’ll be very annoyed with Vee for most of the novel.
The class is being taught by a dude named Coach McConaugh, who starts off the lesson with “It may not have occurred to you kids that sex is more than a fifteen-minute trip to the backseat of a car. It‘s science”. Oy. He then asks the class what science is, and there’s a chorus of answers like “Boring” and “The only class I‘m failing”. Alright, points for actually knowing how teenagers talk in that regard. The teacher asks Nora what it is, and she replies “The study something”. How specific. Upon further prompting, she says that it’s knowledge gained through experimentation and observation, before mentally moaning about how she sounds like the audio book for their text. *rubs head* Why is it that when a character in these sorts of books shows the slightest bit of intelligence, they instantly bash it for making them sound overly smart? Do these Suethors really think that all teenagers think that sounding intelligent is undesirable?
There’s more talk about the definition of science, before the teacher brings up how Nora and Vee always sit together and thus must know about each other. We get a brief, gratuitous info dump about how they look - apparently Vee is a “green-eyed, minky blond, and a few pounds over curvy” while Nora is a “smoky-eyed brunette with volumes of curly hair that holds its own against even the best flatiron” and has really long legs - and Nora gets a Bad Feeling About This. Said feeling is on the mark, as the teacher promptly says that the two have been together for so long that it’s high time they sit with other people. So yeah, new seating chart time!
Vee points out that it’s April and school’s almost over, so why the flip is he pulling this now? The teacher pretty much says “‘Cuz I can”. I’m dead serious. And yeah, if I had to up and lug my many heavy textbooks and whatnot around the classroom just because the teacher got a bug up his butt to get two girls to split up, I’d be annoyed as well. Why not just swap them around with one other pair?
Instead, everyone gets up and plays musical chairs. And what do you know, Nora is sitting next to the mysterious transfer student who never volunteers in class, is dark and moody, and is unnamed. Well gee, I do so wonder where this all is going?
Nora smiles at the guy and introduces herself and he smiles back but says nothing. Nora is freaked out because “a feeling of gloomy darkness seemed to slide like a shadow over me”. She quickly turns away from this guy, figuring that he is trouble. Normally I’d applaud her for a bit of sense, but we all know that it’s only a matter of chapters before she’s swooning into his arms, so really this insistence of how scary and dangerous he is makes it all even squickier.
The teacher says that their assignment for the rest of class is to…erm investigate their partner, apparently divining things about them through observation. Nora doesn’t get anything, besides the fact that he smells like cigars. Apparently this is supposed to show how bad he is, because the smell is “richer and fouler” than cigarettes. Me, all I’m getting is picturing her doing a lab with Groucho Marx. That would probably make for a more interesting story as well. Instead, she notices that the guy is writing a ton of stuff about her, even though she can’t see how he figured anything out. All she can see is that he’s writing how she speaks English. Erm, how does that relate to biology? Ah well, who needs that when we can establish how this guy’s an asshole? First he folds the paper so Nora can’t read, then ignores her when she asks what he’s writing about her. Yes, one could argue that he’s just observing and doesn’t think they’re supposed to talk for the project, but then he goes and crumples up her unused paper and throws it in the garbage can, and I really am getting pissed with this guy.
Nora gets out a new sheet of paper and asks for his name. He says to call him Patch, and then says that he means it when he says to call him and winks. Really? Patch? That’s the best bad-boy motorcyclist gangster name Fitzpatrick could come up with? No wonder this kid doesn’t associate with anyone! Any high schooler worth their salt would find a million jokes to make at a name like that.
Nora, however, stays focused and asks him what he does in his spare time. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO BIOLOGY? Gah! He says that he doesn’t have free time. Instead of a follow-up question like “Why not?” or “What do you do that keeps you so busy?”, Nora reminds him that they’re probably being graded on this and asks him to do her a favor. The implication is, of course, to actually help her out here, but he asks “What kind of favor”, in a way that Nora picks up on as innuendo. What a charming fellow.
So yeah, he finally relents and says he takes pictures. When Nora goes to write this down, he snaps that he wasn’t done and goes on about how he also has “quite a collection” going for a columnist for the school paper, and how she has to choose between Stanford, Yale, and “…what‘s that big one with the H?” Of course, said columnist is Nora, and she is agape at how he knows all of this.
Nora. Dearest. I realize it can be surprising, but use common sense. He’s probably spying on you!!! Oh, but he then says that she won’t go to any of them, before grabbing her chair and pulling her closer to him. She outright admits that she wants to pull away at this, but doesn’t want to show fear and dear God, go to the teacher and ask him to change your seat! This dude is creepy and downright inappropriate!!!
But no, she just has to hear more. Patch tells her that she’d “thrive” at all three of the schools, but wouldn’t want to go because it’d be a “cliché of an achievement”. He then says that passing judgment is her third-biggest weakness. Nora is, of course, pissed at all of this and asks him to tell her what her second biggest-weakness is, if he’s so smart. Oh, and instead of being pissed about what a condescending asshat Patch is, she seems more angry that he seems to know so much about her. Really. Anyway, Patch says that her second-biggest weakness is that she doesn’t know how to trust, or rather she trusts all the wrong people. She then asks what her first-biggest weakness is, and he says that she keeps her life on a short leash, afraid of what she can’t control. I swear to all things holy, if this is supposed to foreshadow how she’s such a silly loser for not wanting to loosen up and be with the bad boy and how it’s fun to be with psychos, my laptop is going out of the window.
At this point, Nora tells us that she wants to go to the teacher and ask for a new seating arrangement, but is afraid of Patch thinking he is intimidating her. I realize that people do feel this way, especially when threatened, but it really just makes Nora seem stupid. And then, Patch asks her if she sleeps naked. I’m dead serious.
Nora. Go to the teacher, now. Or better yet, go to the principle. Or heck, see a guidance councilor! There's got to be someone you can talk to in private about this! But no, Nora just tells Patch that if she did sleep naked, she certainly wouldn't tell him. He then asks if she has ever had therapy, and I'm serious, not even one chapter in and he has inspired a level of hatred that outstrips that which I feel for Edward Cullen and post-Eclipse Jacob Black combined.
Apparently Nora does see the school shrink, not by her own choice, but she doesn't like to talk about it so she lies and says that she doesn't. Given how this guy is implied to know all about her, if we figure that he really already knew about her therapy and how she felt about it, that just makes him even worse.
Patch then asks if Nora has ever done anything illegal, and she says no, figuring that breaking the speed limit every so often wouldn't count "Not with him". She asks why he won't ask her normal questions, like her taste in music. He says that he doesn't want to ask what he can guess, and says that she likes Baroque music and somehow divines that because she likes control, she plays the cello. Of course this is correct, but Nora freaks out and lies again, saying that she doesn't.
Patch notices something on her wrist. She insists that it's a birthmark, but he sees it's a scar. He figures that she slit her wrist and asks if she's suicidal. We get the charming description "His eyes connected with mine, and I could feel him laughing". He then asks if her parents are married or divorced. She says that she lives with her mother, clearly getting uncomfortable. Patch continues to be an asshole and asks what happened to her father. Nora says that he passed away and when Patch won't stop pestering her, finally says that her father was murdered a year ago. She finally tells Patch to back off because he's seriously treading into personal territory. We're told how his eyes soften and he comments on how hard it must have been "like he meant it". Too little too late, Fitzpatrick. Having him have one moment of kindness doesn't exactly cover up an entire class of harassment and scaring her.
The bell rings and Nora panics because she didn't get much of anything on Patch. When she tells him this, he writes his phone number on her hand. Considering his comments before about how she should call him, that's just...gah. Of course her courage fails when she tries to tell him how much of a jerkass he was, and all she can come up with is that she's busy that night. He replies that so is he, before giving a smile and running off
"I stood nailed to the spot, digesting what had just happened. Did he eat up all the time questioning me on purpose? So I'd fail? Did he think one flashy grin would redeem him? Yes, I thought. Yes, he did.
'I won't call!' I called after him. 'Not-ever!'"
ZeldaQueen: Apparently the Suethor thinks it would redeem him as well. Nora, you silly, childish girl, you're going to hook up with the hot gangster who scares and harasses you and you're going to like it!
God, now I feel filthy.
Vee shows up at this point, complaining about how her new partner who told her all about her lice treatments that morning. Nora points out Patch in the hallway and Vee comments that apparently this is his third time going through his senior year. Nora tells about how he knew all of those things about her and freaked her out, before telling Vee that she's going to the teacher for a new partner. Good going on her part! Tell how the kid was making very inappropriate comments to her and was frightening her, nip this in the bud...
"At the end of the day, I was the one who took a slap in the face. Coach shot down my plea to rethink the seating chart. It appeared I was stuck with Patch"
ZeldaQueen: *mouth hangs open* I...he...she...they...
WHAT?
Did she not tell the teacher about the harassment? How he scared her? I...this is...
I'm tired. We've only finished chapter one and I am through.
Good freaking riddance
Onward to: Chapter 2
Back to: Prologue
Return to to: Table of Contents
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 05:46 am (UTC)Also, hello there, Twilight. Only, 10x more creepy. *shudders*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 05:57 am (UTC)Also, thanks to Twilight, it looks like biology class is the new hot place to meet guys. Never mind that sex ed usually isn't covered in biology class, and that that Q & A session had nothing to do with sex ed.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 06:25 am (UTC)I asked once why God had created sex if He was going to punish everyone for enjoying it. The priest said that God HADN'T created it; it was created by the Devil, because Adam and Eve had sex after they ate the forbidden fruit, and they never would have done that if they had obeyed. I asked how come God had told them to be fruitful and multiply BEFORE the Fall, then--did He expect Eve to reproduce by parthenogenesis? I got detention for that. I always did when I asked serious questions.
The bit on the end makes me think that Nora did go to the Coach and told him that she wasn't comfortable sitting with Patch or answering his questions and--
And that was as far as she got, because the Coach--who, of course, wasn't going to listen to a teenage girl--interrupted and told her that he wasn't going to change the seating arrangements back for her, and she was just going to have to get used to it.
I had a number of teachers like that, unfortunately. Being treated as if your opinion doesn't matter because you're a girl gets rather wearing. So at this point, I'm loathing both Patch and the Coach.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 06:35 am (UTC)I do have to wonder though: Why are all of these books called 'saga'? I mean, when I think of a 'saga', I think of a series that has an epic adventure (like a sci-fi or a high fantasy) but romance? Uh...no.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 06:56 am (UTC)And yeah, while Patch is creepy as all fuck, Coach is creepy too! I mean, I'm sorry, but even without details, I got kinda skeeved out by "You two girls must know a lot about each other," and the whole investigate their partners...in a class that not two minutes ago was on the science of sex or whatever.
Ew.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 08:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 08:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 08:57 am (UTC)I don't know how old the characters are meant to be, but at my school we had the "WELCOME TO HUMAN REPRODUCTION (SEX)" class towards the beginning of Year 7 when most of us were 11 so that's how old they are until proven otherwise. And picturing someone that age with this attitude... well, you did mention Hogwarts Exposed. D:
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 12:53 pm (UTC)Also, I was really, really lucky and missed sex ed by being sneaky and switching schools, but it cannot really be like this at all, right? Please tell me I'm right!
Oh, and Nora is applying to Stanford, Harvard and Yale, but is afraid of sounding too smart?! You have got to be kidding me. Middle class kids who apply and go to these schools know how smart they are and are more than willing to let everyone else know.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:01 pm (UTC)Well, I'm not sure about Maine but that's exactly how it's done over here in Western Aus. O.o (Though my biol textbook had some pretty explicit illustrations of human reproduction for homeostasis.) I'm curious as to why this action would get the subject axed though.
And whaddaya know? Annoying Bint (Allegedly Female Protagonist) meets Mysterious Yet Attractive Stranger in a biology class. *waves* Hello? Author? If you're going to rip something off, try something less recognisable than freaking Twilight and a little subtlety probably wouldn't go awry.
I... I honestly don't think anything they do relates to biology in any way shape or form unless their teacher is making them go over scientific method. And Vee (I'm annoyed about that name) said it was April with the implication that it's late in the school year, so I'm going with a no on that.
...my laptop is going out of the window.
Can I recommend throwing something at a brick wall? Like the book? Far less expensive and far more satisfying. XD
I think if I ever find this book in physical form I may buy it just so I can do something revoltingly violent to it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:06 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, and we did have sex ed. We watched a few videos, were taught about various STDs and their symptoms and how to treat them, and were given some lessons on the different contraceptives and how they worked and what the level of effectiveness of each one was.
"Being treated as if your opinion doesn't matter because you're a girl gets rather wearing"
I'm loathing it in general because what sort of a message is that? If a guy is harassing you don't bother going for help because you won't get any? Granted it does happen, unfortunately, but really!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:10 pm (UTC)"Can I recommend throwing something at a brick wall? Like the book?"
I would, but my book is on my laptop :(
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 02:42 pm (UTC)Is this book going to do the same "There's nothing wrong with sex... as long as you're not a FILTHY SLUT!" thing that House of Night does?
...and I really like the whole "fallen angels" concept, but not when it gets wrenched into Twilight knockoffs. Thanks for pissing on one of my favorite motifs, Hush, Hush.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 03:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 03:18 pm (UTC)You're right, at least from what I had. Our first time with sex ed was in about fifth grade, when we had a brief, vague video about girls having their period (only the girls saw that. No idea what the boys had, but it was probably about wet dreams or something). A year or so after, we had a lesson on a field trip about childbirth, which was demonstrated with a wool, drawstring sack. In our middle school and high school classes, we were told about the various organs and parts to the sex systems and how they worked, as well as how pregnancies worked and progressed. We never had naked Barbies hung on the black board and we never had to ask each other stupid questions.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 03:20 pm (UTC)Oh yeah, and we did have sex ed. We watched a few videos, were taught about various STDs and their symptoms and how to treat them, and were given some lessons on the different contraceptives and how they worked and what the level of effectiveness of each one was.
I'm quite severely jealous. We did have one teacher in fifth grade who did a unit on drugs and who made us do a report on them. But we never learned ANYTHING about how the body works or sexually transmitted diseases, and no school ever even mentioned contraceptives except to tell us about condoms exploding, so there was no point in using them in the first place. This was usually followed by a plea for abstinence. (Granted, my middle school, both my high schools and my college were all Catholic, but they could have acknowledged that something other than the rhythm method existed!)
I think that your education was a lot better than mine.
I'm loathing it in general because what sort of a message is that? If a guy is harassing you don't bother going for help because you won't get any? Granted it does happen, unfortunately, but really!
It's what I would expect, sadly. But, y'know, this could be the basis for a decent plot where the girl fights to be heard because she does see that Patch is a stalkeriffic creep and she doesn't want to let anything send him the message that she's interested. And then have her STAY uninterested in the creep, not to mention pro-active and brave, throughout the book.
But, of course, if you do that, you can't jump on the Twilight bandwagon. You can't talk about how wonderful it is to have a supernatural stalker if the main character thinks it is anything but wonderful. You can't use the trope "Stalking Is Love" and have the stalker and stalk-ee end up together if your main character is shouting at the top of her lungs that STALKING IS BAD, DAMN IT!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 03:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 04:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 06:13 pm (UTC)You know, I never had a sex ed. class. I took health, psychology...but it never really came up. The scientific parts did (about the reproductive organs and stuff), but none of the other things. If it was ever mentioned all we ever got was abstinenceeeeeee.
Maybe it's because I live in the Bible belt and sex is BAAAAAD. Pfft.
And I really really want to write a spitefic for this chapter already. Patch needs a highfive in the face with a frying pan.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 10:40 pm (UTC)I never thought to find myself longing for Edward Cullen's brand of creepy.
What the shit is this?! D:
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-27 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-28 02:31 am (UTC)My school did that, too. Only it wasn't called Sex Ed; I think that it was called "Reproduction" and it was just one of the many topics that we covered in Health. We basically learned what the sexual organs looked like, how pregnancy and childbirth worked, etc.
/Anyway, Vee is Nora’s Annoying Best Friend, and her one character trait is quickly established - she wants hot boys and she specifically wants them for sex./
Just like Ever's "best friend" in Evermore did, right? And we all know what a great friend she was. -_-
/I sense that I’ll be very annoyed with Vee for most of the novel./
Trust me, you don't know the half of it. *is glum*
/Patch? That’s the best bad-boy motorcyclist gangster name Fitzpatrick could come up with?/
Patch is such a random and stupid name for a fallen angel. I don't know if that's supposed to be the point, but it's just a silly name in general. What is he, a dog?
/Anyway, Patch says that her second-biggest weakness is that she doesn’t know how to trust, or rather she trusts all the wrong people./
Ahem.
"Trusts all the wrong people." Is that ever going to come up again? Will Nora ever realize that she does trust the wrong people, namely *Patch?* Will Patch ever realize that he basically told Nora, "Don't trust me?" That he basically shot himself in the foot there?
/he says that she keeps her life on a short leash, afraid of what she can’t control. I swear to all things holy, if this is supposed to foreshadow how she’s such a silly loser for not wanting to loosen up and be with the bad boy and how it’s fun to be with psychos, my laptop is going out of the window./
Or how it's fun to abuse drugs, shoplift, have unprotected sex, or do a bunch of other stupid and dangerous things, just so that you won't look like a stick-in-the mud. Well, you know, if doing any of the above is what passes for cool, then I'll stick to "keeping my life on a short leash," thank you very much.
/And then, Patch asks her if she sleeps naked. I’m dead serious./
So, not only does this complete stranger patronize her, but he makes sexually lewd comments to her and knows information about her that a complete stranger shouldn't know. And yet instead of telling someone, she just sits there like an idiot.
/When she tells him this, he writes his phone number on her hand./
Because I know that I'd certainly want to call someone who was behaving like a creepy stalker. *rolls eyes*
Edward Cullen, where are you? May I reread your biology classes with Bella again? Because now they look like poetry sessions compared to this.
/Did she not tell the teacher about the harassment? How he scared her? I...this is.../
She did tell him. He just didn't care. Be warned, this will not be the last time that Coach will do this. By the end of this book, I will not be surprised if you hate Coach nearly as much as you hate Patch or if you think that Patch is mind-controlling Coach to act as stupidly, irresponsibly, and horribly as he will act in upcoming chapters.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-28 03:46 am (UTC)A character like Vee can actually be an interesting character, if done right, in the fact that there are teenagers out there who really want to have sex, but never have had it, but think it is the most awsume thing in the world. Let me think... a bunch of fanfic writers who are under sixteen yet write M rated stuff where sex is involved is the simple example.
I am honestly not sure why certain *cough* writers think it is all right to bring across all teenagers as shallow minded when it comes to life, like their intelligence, or sex, or how they treat others. While there is some of this, this is not a constant, nor the norm. Most teenagers are looking for something to tell them that it is all right to break from the norm, and these kinds of books don't help the matter.
I am personally bothered by the fact it is near the end of the school year, yet it is coming across as if this is the first time the girls have been in this class. I mean, hello, he's asking a first day question, what is science. Fail on the author's part big time.
As for the rest... WTF...