Betrayed: Chapter 3
ZeldaQueen: ...You all remember my warnings about how this book gets worse?
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 3
ZeldaQueen: Like I said in the last sporking, the first thing we get here is Stevie Rae insisting that it‘s ridiculous to feel sorry for someone who is emotionally abused. Now I might understand this coming from Stevie Rae, considering the refrigerator thing, except for two things. First of all, everyone acts like pitying Aphrodite even the slightest is unthinkable and second of all, we hardly got anything on Stevie Rae being used as a refrigerator. I think the concept only comes up once or twice in this book, and there‘s really no sign that it‘s on Stevie Rae‘s mind when she goes on like this.
Anyway, the girls are running for class and are nearly late because…Zoey had a second bowl of Count Chocula. Does she add her milk with an eyedropper or something? Because…it‘s cold cereal. You pour it into a bowl, you pour on the milk, you eat it. It‘s hardly a five-course meal. I strongly suspect that this was the Cast ladies attempting to be funny by reminding us that yes, Count Chocula is one of Zoey‘s Trademark Favorite Foods. It‘s just annoying. Although not quite as annoying as the running gag they force about her liking brown pop.
Zoey runs into her Vamp Sociology class and as soon as Neferet comes into the room, we get this
“Okay, I know it's bordering on weird (or maybe queer is the better word choice) to continually notice how gorgeous a woman is when you're a woman, too, but Neferet is so damn beautiful that it's like she has the ability to focus all the light in the room on herself”
ZeldaQueen: Do the Cast ladies get out of the house very much? Because I‘m definitely a woman and I notice how gorgeous other women are. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
So we get an info dump on how hot Neferet is, complete with a random mention of how Zoey totally saw the vampire goddess Nyx in the last book, because clearly that‘s not important and going to show up later. We‘re told about how they have a lecture on the Gorgon, which of course turns out that she was not a monster but instead had the affinity of Earth and they‘re supposed to write an essay on human myth and the fictionalization of Medusa.
I’m bringing this up because on its own? That‘s an interesting idea. The whole “myths are actually explained in another supernatural way” is a staple of these sorts of books, yes, but if done well can be a nice spin on things. That being said, there’s a few things that I want to mention, which tie into the series’ writing itself
First, this is just one of a good many times where traditional Greek myth aspects are explained as tying into the vampiric world. Like I said, that’s valid enough, but there’s one thing - every one of those lessons just comes across as hand waving things. “Oh, that wasn’t really a monster, that was a grand and glorious vampire High Priestess, and the stupid humans just got it mixed up!” Maybe it’s just because of how it’s delivered, but it really is annoying.
Second, we’re supposed to believe that Medusa is a vampire with the power to control earth. Okay…where does the blood-drinking come in? I’m serious here. There is literally one thing that must be included to make something a vampire in my book - it must drink blood or something analogous to blood (life energy, fat, spinal fluid, etc). I have yet to have heard of a myth where Medusa does anything like that. Instead, all of the focus is on her Magic Priestess Power. That coupled with what I said before about PC viewing the blood drinking as a “nod” towards traditional vampire stories gives the impression that the vampires are more defined by their fucking X-men powers instead of the blood drinking which is the entire point of a vampire! Jesus, what is it with people trying to make vampires that don’t drink blood? That’s like making a werewolf that doesn’t actually transform into a wolf! Now, that problem could be hand waved with the explanation that the myths just left out the blood drinking thing, or that the people who wrote the myths didn’t know about it. But that and my first issue both tie into the next issue…
Why the fuck did the myth of Medusa form that way in the first place? From what we see, vampires are hardly hidden. They interact with humans pretty regularly, the world knows about them, and apparently they’re recognized enough to get employed and have their own schools and whatnot. We also see that the vampires are apparently rather pissed about being mis-represented in media and mythology. So…how did that happen? Were they conveniently in hiding until the twentieth century or something? Even if that is the case though, why don’t they correct people? Zoey acts like this stuff is a surprise to her, which implies that humans still are under the impression that Medusa wasn’t a vampire and so on. And it’s not like the vampires can’t tell humans about it all. We’re told that there’s a ton of vampires who are in the media and are famous! Really, all I can conclude is that for all the vampires bitch about how humans just don’t geeeeeet them, they are too lazy to actually bother addressing the misconceptions about them.
*glances up* Wow, that really got ranty. Sorry. Anyway, Zoey’s mind is not on the essay, and instead she is worrying about getting something together for the upcoming Dark Daughter ritual. You know, the one she had a month to prepare for.
ZeldaQueen: I’m just saying…
So yeah, Zoey goes to Neferet for permission to go to the media center to look up some stuff for the ritual. We get an info dump about how the last time a kid left class early, it was Elliot dying. This isn’t too bad, except that she describes said death as “totally gross”. Such a sympathetic girl.
Nefert is all smiles and lets her go and she scampers off. Along the way, she mentions how she knows most of the inside rules to the House of Night (which we hear nothing about, I kid you not) and mocks her old high school, and how the vice principle had nothing better to do than make sure kids weren’t skipping class and loitering in the halls, the nerve of him.
Zoey enters the library and Nala shows up. You know, Nala serves zero purpose to the story, but I find myself strangely fond of her. Perhaps it’s because she’s one of the few characters who isn’t completely unpleasant. The librarian shows up and bashes dogs for a bit (OH NO YOU DID NOT!!!)
So she settles down at a computer and starts searching for old schools or…something. Honestly, this is like her first performing the Summoning ritual in the last book. It’s built up like it’s serving some grave purpose, but I honestly have no idea what the significance is. From what I can gather, she is searching for ideas for new, sweeping reforms for the Dark Daughters. I’m not sure why. From what we’ve seen of them, you have your members, the High-Priestess-in-training dances, she talks to everyone, they go home. The only corrupt things Aphrodite did were mix blood in the wine, burn pot, and invite bitchy girls. Zoey just has to leave the blood and pot out and evaluate the members and she’s golden.
Anyway, she says how she only wants old, upper-crust schools, “none of those stupid ‘alternative Academies’ that were really just holding pens for future criminals-ugh”, on the grounds that their rules have stood the test of time. But not Chatham, because any school Aphrodite’s parents want her to attend is Bad, long history be damned. She also pulls up Kent and is familiar with it because it’s where Shaunee had been attending when she was Marked (yes, this is the first time we hear about this). So yeah, it’s a school that one of Zoey’s friends went to and thus it is Good, so she starts researching it.
Some time passes and Nala hisses at someone. Zoey jumps and sees that it’s Loren Blake. You know, that guy who was mentioned exactly once in the last book, mostly because he was twenty-five and hot? It probably would have been a good idea to introduce him a bit more, because he strikes up a conversation with Zoey and the book acts like we’re already very familiar with him. I guess it doesn’t matter. After all, he’s Hot and does poetry so he’s Deep and he’s kind of close to Zoey in age…fuck. I think I know where this is going.
“I grasped his forearm in the traditional vampyre greeting, trying not to think about how warm his arm was, how strong he felt, and how alone we were in the empty media center.
‘I know,’ I said. Then I wanted to slit my throat. What an idiotic thing to say! ‘What I mean is I know who you are. You're the first male Poet Laureate they've named in two hundred years.’ I realized I was still grasping his arm and let go of him. ‘I'm Zoey Redbird.’
His smile made my heart flop around inside my chest. ‘I know who you are, too.’ His gorgeous eyes, so dark they looked black and bottomless, sparkled mischievously. ‘You're the first fledgling to have a colored-in, expanded Mark, as well as the only vamp, fledgling or adult, to have an affinity for all five of the elements. It's nice to finally meet you face-to-face. Neferet's told me a lot
about you.’
‘She has?’ I was mortified that my voice squeaked.
‘Of course she has. She's incredibly proud of you.’ He nodded at the empty seat beside me. ‘I don't want to interrupt your work, but do you mind if I sit with you a little while?’”
ZeldaQueen: Cast ladies. No. Please. Please tell me you aren’t doing this. After every Mary Sue cliché you’ve trotted out thus far, please tell me you aren’t going for the teacher-student forbidden affair one.
My sanity is waning rapidly.
And it just. Keeps. Going. On. I’m really sorry for the quotes, but you have to see this
“Okay, I needed to think and talk. Be normal. Forget that he was easily the most heart-stoppingly beautiful man I'd ever been near in my entire life. He's a professor at the school. Just another teacher. That's all. Yeah, right. Just another teacher who looked like every woman's dream of The Perfect Man. And I did mean Man. Erik was hot and handsome and very cool. Loren Blake was a whole other universe. A totally off-limits, impossibly sexy universe I was not allowed access to. As if he saw me as anything but a kid anyway. Please. I'm sixteen. Okay, almost seventeen, but still. He's probably at least twenty-one or something. He was just being nice”
ZeldaQueen: Good God, this is just the “I can’t believe a guy like him would want a plain little girl like me” routine! She’s not even considering the fact that he’s not interested in her because she’s a student and teacher-student relationships are BIG NO-NOS!!!
Also, I really want to stress that I’m not bashing fantasies or whatnot. I’ve had plenty of good-looking teachers. But I’m wondering, does Zoey only have one speed she goes at? Because that endless prose about how ultra-hot and forbidden and sexy and whatnot? That’s exactly how she starts talking when she’s going on about Erik or Heath! You know, her boyfriends! Different adjectives, but…I mean, am I just really old-fashioned? It seems to me that it’s one thing to think “Wow, that’s one hot teacher” and quite another to think “They’re so sexy, how depressing he’ll only ever see me as a kid”.
And this pretty much keeps up for the rest of the chapter. While Zoey does actually get around to explaining her ideas (to replicate Kent‘s Senior Council and Prefect system), in between explanations we get endless descriptions of how hot her face is getting and how gorgeous Blake is and how he makes her feel so bold. He starts tracing her Mark and she goes on about how trembly she feels and he starts reciting poetry to her. And then Aphrodite shows up and Zoey realizes how things look and ruh-oh, this means trouble!
You know, I wonder if any actual plot will be showing up any time soon
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Onward to: Chapter 4
Back to: Chapter 2
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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Chapter 3
ZeldaQueen: Like I said in the last sporking, the first thing we get here is Stevie Rae insisting that it‘s ridiculous to feel sorry for someone who is emotionally abused. Now I might understand this coming from Stevie Rae, considering the refrigerator thing, except for two things. First of all, everyone acts like pitying Aphrodite even the slightest is unthinkable and second of all, we hardly got anything on Stevie Rae being used as a refrigerator. I think the concept only comes up once or twice in this book, and there‘s really no sign that it‘s on Stevie Rae‘s mind when she goes on like this.
Anyway, the girls are running for class and are nearly late because…Zoey had a second bowl of Count Chocula. Does she add her milk with an eyedropper or something? Because…it‘s cold cereal. You pour it into a bowl, you pour on the milk, you eat it. It‘s hardly a five-course meal. I strongly suspect that this was the Cast ladies attempting to be funny by reminding us that yes, Count Chocula is one of Zoey‘s Trademark Favorite Foods. It‘s just annoying. Although not quite as annoying as the running gag they force about her liking brown pop.
Zoey runs into her Vamp Sociology class and as soon as Neferet comes into the room, we get this
“Okay, I know it's bordering on weird (or maybe queer is the better word choice) to continually notice how gorgeous a woman is when you're a woman, too, but Neferet is so damn beautiful that it's like she has the ability to focus all the light in the room on herself”
ZeldaQueen: Do the Cast ladies get out of the house very much? Because I‘m definitely a woman and I notice how gorgeous other women are. And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
So we get an info dump on how hot Neferet is, complete with a random mention of how Zoey totally saw the vampire goddess Nyx in the last book, because clearly that‘s not important and going to show up later. We‘re told about how they have a lecture on the Gorgon, which of course turns out that she was not a monster but instead had the affinity of Earth and they‘re supposed to write an essay on human myth and the fictionalization of Medusa.
I’m bringing this up because on its own? That‘s an interesting idea. The whole “myths are actually explained in another supernatural way” is a staple of these sorts of books, yes, but if done well can be a nice spin on things. That being said, there’s a few things that I want to mention, which tie into the series’ writing itself
First, this is just one of a good many times where traditional Greek myth aspects are explained as tying into the vampiric world. Like I said, that’s valid enough, but there’s one thing - every one of those lessons just comes across as hand waving things. “Oh, that wasn’t really a monster, that was a grand and glorious vampire High Priestess, and the stupid humans just got it mixed up!” Maybe it’s just because of how it’s delivered, but it really is annoying.
Second, we’re supposed to believe that Medusa is a vampire with the power to control earth. Okay…where does the blood-drinking come in? I’m serious here. There is literally one thing that must be included to make something a vampire in my book - it must drink blood or something analogous to blood (life energy, fat, spinal fluid, etc). I have yet to have heard of a myth where Medusa does anything like that. Instead, all of the focus is on her Magic Priestess Power. That coupled with what I said before about PC viewing the blood drinking as a “nod” towards traditional vampire stories gives the impression that the vampires are more defined by their fucking X-men powers instead of the blood drinking which is the entire point of a vampire! Jesus, what is it with people trying to make vampires that don’t drink blood? That’s like making a werewolf that doesn’t actually transform into a wolf! Now, that problem could be hand waved with the explanation that the myths just left out the blood drinking thing, or that the people who wrote the myths didn’t know about it. But that and my first issue both tie into the next issue…
Why the fuck did the myth of Medusa form that way in the first place? From what we see, vampires are hardly hidden. They interact with humans pretty regularly, the world knows about them, and apparently they’re recognized enough to get employed and have their own schools and whatnot. We also see that the vampires are apparently rather pissed about being mis-represented in media and mythology. So…how did that happen? Were they conveniently in hiding until the twentieth century or something? Even if that is the case though, why don’t they correct people? Zoey acts like this stuff is a surprise to her, which implies that humans still are under the impression that Medusa wasn’t a vampire and so on. And it’s not like the vampires can’t tell humans about it all. We’re told that there’s a ton of vampires who are in the media and are famous! Really, all I can conclude is that for all the vampires bitch about how humans just don’t geeeeeet them, they are too lazy to actually bother addressing the misconceptions about them.
*glances up* Wow, that really got ranty. Sorry. Anyway, Zoey’s mind is not on the essay, and instead she is worrying about getting something together for the upcoming Dark Daughter ritual. You know, the one she had a month to prepare for.
ZeldaQueen: I’m just saying…
So yeah, Zoey goes to Neferet for permission to go to the media center to look up some stuff for the ritual. We get an info dump about how the last time a kid left class early, it was Elliot dying. This isn’t too bad, except that she describes said death as “totally gross”. Such a sympathetic girl.
Nefert is all smiles and lets her go and she scampers off. Along the way, she mentions how she knows most of the inside rules to the House of Night (which we hear nothing about, I kid you not) and mocks her old high school, and how the vice principle had nothing better to do than make sure kids weren’t skipping class and loitering in the halls, the nerve of him.
Zoey enters the library and Nala shows up. You know, Nala serves zero purpose to the story, but I find myself strangely fond of her. Perhaps it’s because she’s one of the few characters who isn’t completely unpleasant. The librarian shows up and bashes dogs for a bit (OH NO YOU DID NOT!!!)
So she settles down at a computer and starts searching for old schools or…something. Honestly, this is like her first performing the Summoning ritual in the last book. It’s built up like it’s serving some grave purpose, but I honestly have no idea what the significance is. From what I can gather, she is searching for ideas for new, sweeping reforms for the Dark Daughters. I’m not sure why. From what we’ve seen of them, you have your members, the High-Priestess-in-training dances, she talks to everyone, they go home. The only corrupt things Aphrodite did were mix blood in the wine, burn pot, and invite bitchy girls. Zoey just has to leave the blood and pot out and evaluate the members and she’s golden.
Anyway, she says how she only wants old, upper-crust schools, “none of those stupid ‘alternative Academies’ that were really just holding pens for future criminals-ugh”, on the grounds that their rules have stood the test of time. But not Chatham, because any school Aphrodite’s parents want her to attend is Bad, long history be damned. She also pulls up Kent and is familiar with it because it’s where Shaunee had been attending when she was Marked (yes, this is the first time we hear about this). So yeah, it’s a school that one of Zoey’s friends went to and thus it is Good, so she starts researching it.
Some time passes and Nala hisses at someone. Zoey jumps and sees that it’s Loren Blake. You know, that guy who was mentioned exactly once in the last book, mostly because he was twenty-five and hot? It probably would have been a good idea to introduce him a bit more, because he strikes up a conversation with Zoey and the book acts like we’re already very familiar with him. I guess it doesn’t matter. After all, he’s Hot and does poetry so he’s Deep and he’s kind of close to Zoey in age…fuck. I think I know where this is going.
“I grasped his forearm in the traditional vampyre greeting, trying not to think about how warm his arm was, how strong he felt, and how alone we were in the empty media center.
‘I know,’ I said. Then I wanted to slit my throat. What an idiotic thing to say! ‘What I mean is I know who you are. You're the first male Poet Laureate they've named in two hundred years.’ I realized I was still grasping his arm and let go of him. ‘I'm Zoey Redbird.’
His smile made my heart flop around inside my chest. ‘I know who you are, too.’ His gorgeous eyes, so dark they looked black and bottomless, sparkled mischievously. ‘You're the first fledgling to have a colored-in, expanded Mark, as well as the only vamp, fledgling or adult, to have an affinity for all five of the elements. It's nice to finally meet you face-to-face. Neferet's told me a lot
about you.’
‘She has?’ I was mortified that my voice squeaked.
‘Of course she has. She's incredibly proud of you.’ He nodded at the empty seat beside me. ‘I don't want to interrupt your work, but do you mind if I sit with you a little while?’”
ZeldaQueen: Cast ladies. No. Please. Please tell me you aren’t doing this. After every Mary Sue cliché you’ve trotted out thus far, please tell me you aren’t going for the teacher-student forbidden affair one.
My sanity is waning rapidly.
And it just. Keeps. Going. On. I’m really sorry for the quotes, but you have to see this
“Okay, I needed to think and talk. Be normal. Forget that he was easily the most heart-stoppingly beautiful man I'd ever been near in my entire life. He's a professor at the school. Just another teacher. That's all. Yeah, right. Just another teacher who looked like every woman's dream of The Perfect Man. And I did mean Man. Erik was hot and handsome and very cool. Loren Blake was a whole other universe. A totally off-limits, impossibly sexy universe I was not allowed access to. As if he saw me as anything but a kid anyway. Please. I'm sixteen. Okay, almost seventeen, but still. He's probably at least twenty-one or something. He was just being nice”
ZeldaQueen: Good God, this is just the “I can’t believe a guy like him would want a plain little girl like me” routine! She’s not even considering the fact that he’s not interested in her because she’s a student and teacher-student relationships are BIG NO-NOS!!!
Also, I really want to stress that I’m not bashing fantasies or whatnot. I’ve had plenty of good-looking teachers. But I’m wondering, does Zoey only have one speed she goes at? Because that endless prose about how ultra-hot and forbidden and sexy and whatnot? That’s exactly how she starts talking when she’s going on about Erik or Heath! You know, her boyfriends! Different adjectives, but…I mean, am I just really old-fashioned? It seems to me that it’s one thing to think “Wow, that’s one hot teacher” and quite another to think “They’re so sexy, how depressing he’ll only ever see me as a kid”.
And this pretty much keeps up for the rest of the chapter. While Zoey does actually get around to explaining her ideas (to replicate Kent‘s Senior Council and Prefect system), in between explanations we get endless descriptions of how hot her face is getting and how gorgeous Blake is and how he makes her feel so bold. He starts tracing her Mark and she goes on about how trembly she feels and he starts reciting poetry to her. And then Aphrodite shows up and Zoey realizes how things look and ruh-oh, this means trouble!
You know, I wonder if any actual plot will be showing up any time soon
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Onward to: Chapter 4
Back to: Chapter 2
Back to: Table of Contents