Betrayed: Chapter 30
ZeldaQueen: Please, dear lord, let's finish this soon
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 30
ZeldaQueen: Okay guys, I'm going to do my best to get through this thing. I'm not entirely sure how funny it's going to be though because...well...it's damned boring. I'm serious. This is one of those chapters were on one or two things actually happens and everything else is just either Zoey's idiocy or the Cast ladies flailing around, trying to create character development and atmosphere.
Still, I shall do my best. Onward.
Zoey stops making out with drinking Heath's blood and we get a sense of how embarrassed she is that Stevie Rae caught her doing that. This makes it very hard to take Zoey seriously. Really Cast ladies, this isn't Selene finding Lucian amongst the rubble at the end of the fight in Underworld. This is Aaron walking in on his coach making out with the Asian student in Mean Girls.
Anyway, Stevie Rae starts begging Zoey to kill her, and Zoey calmly tells her no, she isn't going to do that. She again asks Stevie Rae to go back to the House of Night with her. Yes, I'm certain that would work out just fine. It's not like the person who commands these guys is the headmistress there, who apparently can read minds, and who put Stevie Rae in charge of the rest. I'm sure there's no way she'd notice that Stevie Rae is on the school grounds!
*smacks Zoey upside the head* YOU DUMBASS!
Stevie Rae insists that it won't work, because she's technically not alive. Zoey insists that she is, and we get a decent line from Stevie Rae, "I'm not me anymore. I did die, and part of me - the best part of me - is still dead, just like it is for the rest of them". Zoey ruins the moment by once again being a self-centered prig and insisting that Stevie Rae is not like the others.
*steeples fingers* Zoey? Is there any way you can back that statement up? Stevie Rae is still lurking around in some underground tunnels. She still kidnapped and drank blood from Heath. The only reason she's acting any differently than the others is because you tried to establish a connection with her. You made no such efforts with the others. In fact, you actively belittled and insulted poor Elliot. So I ask you, why do you think your friend is the only one who is redeemable, especially since she's the only one you're putting any effort into redeeming? Those are kids back there, you know. Kids who, just like Stevie Rae, had families and friends and lives they left behind. And you are just deciding that there's no way to bring them back or save them, even though THEY'RE IN EXACTLY THE SAME STATE AS STEVIE RAE IS!
God, I hate how selfish that girl is.
So yeah, there's really not much point in going into this conversation. It's just a lot of wangst and talking and whining, and it isn't climactic in the slightest and I'm dead bored. Stevie Rae keeps insisting that she's Evil and Undead and keeps getting vaguely-described evil thoughts that make her want to kill Heath, which has potential to be something legitimately interesting for her character to deal with, but instead we just keep getting Zoey sappily repeating how the Power of her Friendship will make Stevie Rae undead. Oh, and her Sue-powers, I'm sure.
There's a brief moment where we're reminded that oh yeah, two other guys were killed. I guess the characters forgot about them. After all, they were lowly humans who smoked pot and weren't Zoey's boyfriends. No reason to think about them, after all. Anyway, Heath insists that it's his fault that they died, because he told them how hot Zoey is and...they randomly hung around that same wall for a look? The fuck? They didn't go there at the same time, remember? So one guy disappears in the area and the other thinks "Eh, probably didn't mean anything, I think I'll have a look as well"? And if that's the case, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF NEFERET TAKING THEIR NAMES IN MARKED? Yeah, remember that bit? The scene where Neferet asks Zoey to write down the names and addresses of the students at her previous high school who all smoked pot? And then, in this book, they made such a big deal about how those two were filthy pot-smokers from Zoey's previous high school? What was up with that? I thought we were supposed to infer that Neferet sent the red-eyed ghosts after specific targets! What, did she give them all lists of the names Zoey gave her, and two guys on that list wandered by completely by coincidence? If someone who didn't smoke pot went by would the undead students let them go? Was the pot-smoking aspect even relevant? If not, WHY BRING IT UP TO BEGIN WITH??? *SOBS* I'M SO CONFUSED!!!
I'm seriously, does anyone know what was supposed to be the deal with that? Anyone at all?
*sighs*
Passing over that stupid bit, Heath says that the red-eyed ghosts are dangerous and that Zoey ought to kill them because they're putting the town in danger. Yeah, other people. Remember them, Zoey? You didn't seem to give two shits about them when you didn't have personal connections to them. Stevie Rae agrees with Heath. Zoey, surprise, surprise, doesn't. Instead, she says "And how will killing you and the rest of them solve this? Won't more of you happen?"
*rubs face in hands* Okay, I will admit that I could see reasons for Zoey not wanting to kill these guys. As I pointed out, they're students from the House of Night. She knew several of them, and heard Aphrodite speak very fondly of another. Let's pretend for a second that we don't know that Zoey clearly doesn't care about them, and pretend that she has an ounce of empathy for their plight. That could be a reason for wanting to keep them alive - she wants to save them if at all possible, because she knows they don't have control of what happened to them, and are probably lost and scared. If one wanted a more practical reason, one could argue that she also would need them alive to question them about what's been going on.
The thing is, that doesn't work. None of it. Because we've already seen that Zoey doesn't care about any of these guys besides the one that she likes. She says right there that the reason killing them isn't a good solution is because more will just come along. In other words, whether or not the Cast ladies intended it, she just seriously implied that if she knew more weren't going to be made, she would kill a bunch of kids who were transformed into monsters against their wills. And as for the questioning bit, we've seen Zoey in action by now. We've seen what an idiot she is. Do you really believe there's the chance she'd think to do something as sensible as question these guys later?
I might also add that while I could understand not wanting to kill those guys, I still think that Zoey is a supreme dumbass because she also does absolutely nothing to keep the red-eyed ghosts from going out and killing more people. She never warns the police, she doesn't do anything! I refuse to believe that Zoey is smart, because a smart person would think of a long-term solution to an issue like this. Zoey just does the equivalent of stopping up a hole in a dyke by stuffing it with a wad of Kleenex and forgetting about it.
Well, I've ranted on this for long enough. Although to my defense, it's not like there's anything else going on. Zoey runs over to hug Stevie Rae and screws her head on straight long enough to finally do the practical thing and ask how the students were made all undead. Stevie Rae says that she doesn't know how, she just knows who did it. Zoey is all confuzzled and - OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. SHE STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHO'S BEHIND IT ALL??? GOOD GOD, I'VE SEEN CINDER BLOCKS LESS DENSE THAN THIS CHICK!
And of course, because this is such a Dramatic Reveal, the Cast ladies draw it out by having Stevie Rae panic over Her Creator returning. She starts urging Zoey to grab Heath and run, because this mysterious person who totally isn't Neferet will kill Zoey for knowing too much, but will have a harder time of it if she's hiding at the House of Night. Zoey asks Stevie Rae who they're talking about (YOU DUMBASS!) and Stevie Rae finally spits out that it's... *drumroll please* Neferet.
*flatly* What a surprise
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, Cast ladies? I'm not impressed. Know why?
BECAUSE I'VE BEEN CALLING THAT SOMETHING WAS UP WITH NEFERET SINCE MARKED!!!
Did you really and honestly think she was subtle? SERIOUSLY?
So yeah, after that *cough* stunning reveal, Zoey is floored because she obviously didn't see it coming. Still, "even as I shook my head in denial I felt the truth of it deep within me". No shit? What tipped you off, the fact that the students being kidnapped and killed were conveniently the same ones you gave the names of to her? Or the fact that she told you multiple times that humans suck and are worthless and insignificant and you should cut them out of your life as soon as possible? Or her incredibly noticable and suspicious behavior around those police officers? Or that she was clearly nervous that you were Imprinted with one of the kidnapped guys? Or that you saw her giving Elliot orders before kissing him? Or that she conveniently started spreading the word that Aphrodite's visions weren't to be trusted after Aphrodite started seeing futures of the humans being kidnapped and killed?
*slaps Zoey again* IDIOT!
So yeah. Zoey leaves with Heath, though not before having an incredibly cliched and sappy farewell with Stevie Rae, including promises to return for her. Clearly, Zoey holds rescuing Stevie Rae in the highest regard, right? Keep this in mind when we start Chosen.
Zoey and Heath climb out of the tunnels and into the basement and Zoey actually does something smart. She gets out her cell phone (A heroine in one of these books with a working cell phone! My heart might explode!) and calls Detective Marx. Heath makes a stupid "Can you hear me now?" joke, because that's totally appropriate for the atmosphere the Cast ladies were going for, and Zoey successfully gets through to Marx. She quickly tells him where they are and he says he's on his way.
We then get a bit of them hanging around, waiting for Marx to show up. I'm sure it's supposed to be tense, but considering that there's twelve books in the series, I don't think there's much chance of them (or Zoey at least) dying in Book Two. Anyway, for reasons I can only chalk up to idiocy, they decide that it's better to wait outside in the blizzard and risk being caught by Neferet along the way out. And sure enough, just as they're almost out of the basement, they're caught by Neferet. Well done, you morons.
Zoey decides that the best thing to do is play dumb, which shouldn't be too hard for her. She squeezes Heath's hand to try to signal to him to play along with her, and then starts crying and throws herself into Neferet's arms. She then acts all glad to see her and says "How did you find me? Did Detective Marx call you?"
Now I must admit, this is yet another rare instance of Zoey actually doing something smart, and it really makes me wish she'd be this way more often. Those two sentences are probably the best defense she could provide for herself. Outright confronting Neferet would only give Neferet more reasons to kill them. By bringing up Detective Marx though, Zoey nicely avoids the "Have you told anyone else?" trap. And she proceeds to make it even more clear, because when Neferet asks what she means, Zoey adds that the sirens that they can hear are him on his way right now. In other short, Zoey has just made it very obvious that she told someone else, someone in a position of authority, where she is and that person is nearly there, so Neferet can't kill her without it looking very suspicious.
Zoey continues to pretend to be happy to see Neferet and basically makes up a story about herself and Heath having been attacked by a crazy homeless person in the tunnels. Heath, meanwhile, just stands there with his mouth hanging open and probably drool driping out. Zoey figures he's recognizing Neferet from the Halloween event, but I suppose it's just as likely that he thinks she's really hot.
And then, just as the police drive up, Neferet erases their memories.
No, really
"'Zoey, Heath ...' Neferet moved swiftly to us. She lifted her hands, which glowed with a weird, reddish light, suddenly reminding me of the undead things' eyes. Before I could run or scream or even take a breath, she grabbed our shoulders. I felt Heath go rigid as pain shot through my body. It blasted against my mind and my knees would have buckled had her hand not been like a vise, holding me up. 'You will remember nothing!' The words echoed through my agony-filled mind, and then there was only darkness"
ZeldaQueen: *rubs head* Right. So apparently she really can erase memories. Back when she did it in Marked, I thought when she said Heath wouldn't remember it, she just meant that he'd block it out from trauma or something. Nope. Seems she literally has the power to do so. No idea how that works. We were told that her affinities were for cats and healing, and memory erasage isn't a standard vampire power. Is it something all High Priestesses can do? No idea, seeing as we have no clue how powers work in this world.
In any case though, I have one question. Why didn't she do this earlier?
Why didn't she erase Aphrodite's mind so she'd forget the suspicious visions she had? Even if Aphrodite had more, it clearly doesn't take any effort. And it's not like Neferet seems to particularly care about damaging her students' health.
Why didn't she erase the memories of the police, whenever they came to investigate? She thinks humans are the Scum Of The Earth and it's not like they have Sue-powers to fight it off. Yes, I know it's implied that it starts to wear off, but again, why doesn't she keep doing it? In fact, why doesn't she do that to the People of the Faith? That sounds like a great idea for a scary plot premise, that she's using her powers to routinely mind wipe the entire town, so everyone thinks they're happy, but they're really being forced to forget the abusive treatment she's giving to the vampire kids, as well as that she's feeding human teenagers to the red-eyed ghosts! Why aren't we getting a book about that?
And with those questions to ponder, we finish this chapter. You can also ponder how many unresolved plot threads there still are, because we're two chapters from the end and you can bet almost all of 'em aren't getting resolved. Good bye and good night!
Onward to: Chapter 31
Back to: Chapter 29
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 30
ZeldaQueen: Okay guys, I'm going to do my best to get through this thing. I'm not entirely sure how funny it's going to be though because...well...it's damned boring. I'm serious. This is one of those chapters were on one or two things actually happens and everything else is just either Zoey's idiocy or the Cast ladies flailing around, trying to create character development and atmosphere.
Still, I shall do my best. Onward.
Zoey stops making out with drinking Heath's blood and we get a sense of how embarrassed she is that Stevie Rae caught her doing that. This makes it very hard to take Zoey seriously. Really Cast ladies, this isn't Selene finding Lucian amongst the rubble at the end of the fight in Underworld. This is Aaron walking in on his coach making out with the Asian student in Mean Girls.
Anyway, Stevie Rae starts begging Zoey to kill her, and Zoey calmly tells her no, she isn't going to do that. She again asks Stevie Rae to go back to the House of Night with her. Yes, I'm certain that would work out just fine. It's not like the person who commands these guys is the headmistress there, who apparently can read minds, and who put Stevie Rae in charge of the rest. I'm sure there's no way she'd notice that Stevie Rae is on the school grounds!
*smacks Zoey upside the head* YOU DUMBASS!
Stevie Rae insists that it won't work, because she's technically not alive. Zoey insists that she is, and we get a decent line from Stevie Rae, "I'm not me anymore. I did die, and part of me - the best part of me - is still dead, just like it is for the rest of them". Zoey ruins the moment by once again being a self-centered prig and insisting that Stevie Rae is not like the others.
*steeples fingers* Zoey? Is there any way you can back that statement up? Stevie Rae is still lurking around in some underground tunnels. She still kidnapped and drank blood from Heath. The only reason she's acting any differently than the others is because you tried to establish a connection with her. You made no such efforts with the others. In fact, you actively belittled and insulted poor Elliot. So I ask you, why do you think your friend is the only one who is redeemable, especially since she's the only one you're putting any effort into redeeming? Those are kids back there, you know. Kids who, just like Stevie Rae, had families and friends and lives they left behind. And you are just deciding that there's no way to bring them back or save them, even though THEY'RE IN EXACTLY THE SAME STATE AS STEVIE RAE IS!
God, I hate how selfish that girl is.
So yeah, there's really not much point in going into this conversation. It's just a lot of wangst and talking and whining, and it isn't climactic in the slightest and I'm dead bored. Stevie Rae keeps insisting that she's Evil and Undead and keeps getting vaguely-described evil thoughts that make her want to kill Heath, which has potential to be something legitimately interesting for her character to deal with, but instead we just keep getting Zoey sappily repeating how the Power of her Friendship will make Stevie Rae undead. Oh, and her Sue-powers, I'm sure.
There's a brief moment where we're reminded that oh yeah, two other guys were killed. I guess the characters forgot about them. After all, they were lowly humans who smoked pot and weren't Zoey's boyfriends. No reason to think about them, after all. Anyway, Heath insists that it's his fault that they died, because he told them how hot Zoey is and...they randomly hung around that same wall for a look? The fuck? They didn't go there at the same time, remember? So one guy disappears in the area and the other thinks "Eh, probably didn't mean anything, I think I'll have a look as well"? And if that's the case, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF NEFERET TAKING THEIR NAMES IN MARKED? Yeah, remember that bit? The scene where Neferet asks Zoey to write down the names and addresses of the students at her previous high school who all smoked pot? And then, in this book, they made such a big deal about how those two were filthy pot-smokers from Zoey's previous high school? What was up with that? I thought we were supposed to infer that Neferet sent the red-eyed ghosts after specific targets! What, did she give them all lists of the names Zoey gave her, and two guys on that list wandered by completely by coincidence? If someone who didn't smoke pot went by would the undead students let them go? Was the pot-smoking aspect even relevant? If not, WHY BRING IT UP TO BEGIN WITH??? *SOBS* I'M SO CONFUSED!!!
I'm seriously, does anyone know what was supposed to be the deal with that? Anyone at all?
*sighs*
Passing over that stupid bit, Heath says that the red-eyed ghosts are dangerous and that Zoey ought to kill them because they're putting the town in danger. Yeah, other people. Remember them, Zoey? You didn't seem to give two shits about them when you didn't have personal connections to them. Stevie Rae agrees with Heath. Zoey, surprise, surprise, doesn't. Instead, she says "And how will killing you and the rest of them solve this? Won't more of you happen?"
*rubs face in hands* Okay, I will admit that I could see reasons for Zoey not wanting to kill these guys. As I pointed out, they're students from the House of Night. She knew several of them, and heard Aphrodite speak very fondly of another. Let's pretend for a second that we don't know that Zoey clearly doesn't care about them, and pretend that she has an ounce of empathy for their plight. That could be a reason for wanting to keep them alive - she wants to save them if at all possible, because she knows they don't have control of what happened to them, and are probably lost and scared. If one wanted a more practical reason, one could argue that she also would need them alive to question them about what's been going on.
The thing is, that doesn't work. None of it. Because we've already seen that Zoey doesn't care about any of these guys besides the one that she likes. She says right there that the reason killing them isn't a good solution is because more will just come along. In other words, whether or not the Cast ladies intended it, she just seriously implied that if she knew more weren't going to be made, she would kill a bunch of kids who were transformed into monsters against their wills. And as for the questioning bit, we've seen Zoey in action by now. We've seen what an idiot she is. Do you really believe there's the chance she'd think to do something as sensible as question these guys later?
I might also add that while I could understand not wanting to kill those guys, I still think that Zoey is a supreme dumbass because she also does absolutely nothing to keep the red-eyed ghosts from going out and killing more people. She never warns the police, she doesn't do anything! I refuse to believe that Zoey is smart, because a smart person would think of a long-term solution to an issue like this. Zoey just does the equivalent of stopping up a hole in a dyke by stuffing it with a wad of Kleenex and forgetting about it.
Well, I've ranted on this for long enough. Although to my defense, it's not like there's anything else going on. Zoey runs over to hug Stevie Rae and screws her head on straight long enough to finally do the practical thing and ask how the students were made all undead. Stevie Rae says that she doesn't know how, she just knows who did it. Zoey is all confuzzled and - OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. SHE STILL DOESN'T KNOW WHO'S BEHIND IT ALL??? GOOD GOD, I'VE SEEN CINDER BLOCKS LESS DENSE THAN THIS CHICK!
And of course, because this is such a Dramatic Reveal, the Cast ladies draw it out by having Stevie Rae panic over Her Creator returning. She starts urging Zoey to grab Heath and run, because this mysterious person who totally isn't Neferet will kill Zoey for knowing too much, but will have a harder time of it if she's hiding at the House of Night. Zoey asks Stevie Rae who they're talking about (YOU DUMBASS!) and Stevie Rae finally spits out that it's... *drumroll please* Neferet.
*flatly* What a surprise
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, Cast ladies? I'm not impressed. Know why?
BECAUSE I'VE BEEN CALLING THAT SOMETHING WAS UP WITH NEFERET SINCE MARKED!!!
Did you really and honestly think she was subtle? SERIOUSLY?
So yeah, after that *cough* stunning reveal, Zoey is floored because she obviously didn't see it coming. Still, "even as I shook my head in denial I felt the truth of it deep within me". No shit? What tipped you off, the fact that the students being kidnapped and killed were conveniently the same ones you gave the names of to her? Or the fact that she told you multiple times that humans suck and are worthless and insignificant and you should cut them out of your life as soon as possible? Or her incredibly noticable and suspicious behavior around those police officers? Or that she was clearly nervous that you were Imprinted with one of the kidnapped guys? Or that you saw her giving Elliot orders before kissing him? Or that she conveniently started spreading the word that Aphrodite's visions weren't to be trusted after Aphrodite started seeing futures of the humans being kidnapped and killed?
*slaps Zoey again* IDIOT!
So yeah. Zoey leaves with Heath, though not before having an incredibly cliched and sappy farewell with Stevie Rae, including promises to return for her. Clearly, Zoey holds rescuing Stevie Rae in the highest regard, right? Keep this in mind when we start Chosen.
Zoey and Heath climb out of the tunnels and into the basement and Zoey actually does something smart. She gets out her cell phone (A heroine in one of these books with a working cell phone! My heart might explode!) and calls Detective Marx. Heath makes a stupid "Can you hear me now?" joke, because that's totally appropriate for the atmosphere the Cast ladies were going for, and Zoey successfully gets through to Marx. She quickly tells him where they are and he says he's on his way.
We then get a bit of them hanging around, waiting for Marx to show up. I'm sure it's supposed to be tense, but considering that there's twelve books in the series, I don't think there's much chance of them (or Zoey at least) dying in Book Two. Anyway, for reasons I can only chalk up to idiocy, they decide that it's better to wait outside in the blizzard and risk being caught by Neferet along the way out. And sure enough, just as they're almost out of the basement, they're caught by Neferet. Well done, you morons.
Zoey decides that the best thing to do is play dumb, which shouldn't be too hard for her. She squeezes Heath's hand to try to signal to him to play along with her, and then starts crying and throws herself into Neferet's arms. She then acts all glad to see her and says "How did you find me? Did Detective Marx call you?"
Now I must admit, this is yet another rare instance of Zoey actually doing something smart, and it really makes me wish she'd be this way more often. Those two sentences are probably the best defense she could provide for herself. Outright confronting Neferet would only give Neferet more reasons to kill them. By bringing up Detective Marx though, Zoey nicely avoids the "Have you told anyone else?" trap. And she proceeds to make it even more clear, because when Neferet asks what she means, Zoey adds that the sirens that they can hear are him on his way right now. In other short, Zoey has just made it very obvious that she told someone else, someone in a position of authority, where she is and that person is nearly there, so Neferet can't kill her without it looking very suspicious.
Zoey continues to pretend to be happy to see Neferet and basically makes up a story about herself and Heath having been attacked by a crazy homeless person in the tunnels. Heath, meanwhile, just stands there with his mouth hanging open and probably drool driping out. Zoey figures he's recognizing Neferet from the Halloween event, but I suppose it's just as likely that he thinks she's really hot.
And then, just as the police drive up, Neferet erases their memories.
No, really
"'Zoey, Heath ...' Neferet moved swiftly to us. She lifted her hands, which glowed with a weird, reddish light, suddenly reminding me of the undead things' eyes. Before I could run or scream or even take a breath, she grabbed our shoulders. I felt Heath go rigid as pain shot through my body. It blasted against my mind and my knees would have buckled had her hand not been like a vise, holding me up. 'You will remember nothing!' The words echoed through my agony-filled mind, and then there was only darkness"
ZeldaQueen: *rubs head* Right. So apparently she really can erase memories. Back when she did it in Marked, I thought when she said Heath wouldn't remember it, she just meant that he'd block it out from trauma or something. Nope. Seems she literally has the power to do so. No idea how that works. We were told that her affinities were for cats and healing, and memory erasage isn't a standard vampire power. Is it something all High Priestesses can do? No idea, seeing as we have no clue how powers work in this world.
In any case though, I have one question. Why didn't she do this earlier?
Why didn't she erase Aphrodite's mind so she'd forget the suspicious visions she had? Even if Aphrodite had more, it clearly doesn't take any effort. And it's not like Neferet seems to particularly care about damaging her students' health.
Why didn't she erase the memories of the police, whenever they came to investigate? She thinks humans are the Scum Of The Earth and it's not like they have Sue-powers to fight it off. Yes, I know it's implied that it starts to wear off, but again, why doesn't she keep doing it? In fact, why doesn't she do that to the People of the Faith? That sounds like a great idea for a scary plot premise, that she's using her powers to routinely mind wipe the entire town, so everyone thinks they're happy, but they're really being forced to forget the abusive treatment she's giving to the vampire kids, as well as that she's feeding human teenagers to the red-eyed ghosts! Why aren't we getting a book about that?
And with those questions to ponder, we finish this chapter. You can also ponder how many unresolved plot threads there still are, because we're two chapters from the end and you can bet almost all of 'em aren't getting resolved. Good bye and good night!
Onward to: Chapter 31
Back to: Chapter 29
Back to: Table of Contents