Betrayed: Chapter 19
ZeldaQueen: In which Zoey continues to be an unlikable idiot
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 19
ZeldaQueen: Okay folks, this chapter is bad. It's not the worst, but it is just boring, as well as one of the worst violators of the "Show, don't tell" rule I've ever seen.
We start off with Zoey being rudely awoken by Shaunee. Apparently Zoey and Stevie Rae have both really overslept and not only have the student monologuers in England returned, but it's nearly time for a ceremony to welcome them back and to honor them. Shaunee tells Zoey that Erik is really anxious to see her again, and Zoey shoots out of bed and waks up Stevie Rae. There's the overused joke where Stevie Rae thinks that her mother is waking her up for school, and then she wakes up and panics as well. Cue some pointless descriptions of both girls showing (not at the same time, than heavens), getting dressed, and putting on make-up.
Along the way, Zoey angsts about how she totally forgot that Erik was coming home that day and how she didn't even wonder how he placed. She wangsts because this is "definitely not good girlfriend etiquette". Hey, you want to know what else isn't "good girlfriend etiquette"? Trying to make out with your teacher and then claiming that you and your boyfriend aren't officially together, so that makes it alright. Yes, I know that it's wrong to say that a girl should do nothing but keep track of what her boyfriend is doing, but Zoey here can't keep track of anything unless it's right in front of her. Not to mention that this all feels much less like she's genuinely uncertain of who she wants to date and more that she's got some bizarre lack of boyfriend object permanence, where she can't remember the two other guys she's dating while she's with the third.
Oh, and we get this
"Everyone thought I was the lucky girl who had caught Erik after he'd escaped from Aphrodite's nasty spiderweb (and by web I mean crotch). Hell, I thought I was lucky to have him, something that had been hard to remember when I was sucking Heath's blood and flirting with Loren"
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, are we supposed to be reading that she doesn't love Erik, or what? One minute, she's going on endlessly about how he's such a fantastic guy and she is so lucky to be with him and she loves him like no one else, and so on and so forth, but then she up and admitted that she outright forgets his outstanding qualities and her love for him while she's sucking her ex's face blood and taking her top off for a teacher!
Also, I'd like to remind the readers about the red-eyed ghosts. Zoey's totally forgotten about them by this point, you see. So nice to know how things rank in her in her mind.
So the girls make it to the auditorium just as the lights are dimming, and Erin tells Zoey that Erik is confused and very worried about her. He knows about how the murdered teenagers were from her previous school and knows she's stressed and upset by it all. She concludes by saying "Erik is too hot to be stood up", which lets us know how things rank in her mind.
At this point, the ceremony starts up. Things are kicked off by Professor Nolan, who you might vaguely recall showing up once in Marked and having the defining trait of being from Texas. She tells them how there were 125 students competing, with five students coming from each of the twenty-five Houses of Night around the world.
Okaaaay, so there are these things all around the world? How does that work? How are their locations decided? How are other countries treating this issue? Why am I expecting answers?
Zoey is amazed that Erik had such competition, before turning to fuss over Stevie Rae. Apparently the kid is still all pale and tired and coughing. We get it beaten into our heads that this is odd, and I think we all know where this is going.
The ceremony goes on, and we learn that the places the five students from this school ranked at will be announced for the first time. Each of the students is to stand up and deliver there monologue. And I'm going to gloss over this, mainly because it's damned boring. They all go the same - they get up, Zoey admires how hawt they are or where she might have known them from, they recite a monologue from Shakespeare (was there a theme to the contest, or are the Cast ladies just short on imagination?), and because we can't be shown how well they recite, there's endless gushing from Zoey which goes along the lines of "Oh wow, that was fantastic! Take my word for it! I shall repeat how awesome it was, in very vague terms!"
For whatever reason, Zoey decides on the spot to invite all three of the girls who give monologues, I guess because she's so impressed by their talent. That, and it sets up for a lame joke about how Aphrodite didn't like other drama queens around her. I have no idea how watching someone recite something proves that they are moral, loyal, or whatever other qualities the Dark Daughter members are supposed to have, but whatever. We all know that Zoey's the final judge on goodness.
Incidentally, the third of those girls is Deino, "a drop-dead mixed girl with to-die-for hair and skin the color of vanilla latte" who you might remember as one of Aphrodite's three lackeys in Marked. You know, the one who Zoey mocked for calling herself "Terrible" and saying how men were all evil and needed to die. Well, apparently because Deino can recite a monologue really well, Zoey thinks that maybe she was wrong about the girl being pure evil and perhaps this is the person to re-invite to the Dark Daughters to show she isn't prejudice against Aphrodite's former roster.
"Watching her I was so dazzled by her talent that I started to wonder how much of her hateful haggishness had been because of Aphrodite's influence. Since I'd taken over the Dark Daughters none of Aphrodite's close friends had caused any kind of problems. Actually, now that I thought about it, I realized that Terrible, Warlike, and Wasp had been keeping a pretty low profile. Huh. Well, I'd said that I wanted to include one of Aphrodite's old inner circle in my new Prefect Council. Maybe Deino would be the right choice. I could ask Erik about her. With Aphrodite out of power I could give Deino a chance (as well as sincerely wish her name wasn't so disturbing)"
ZeldaQueen: Because if a person's a good actor, it means that they're good people, don't you know? I...there's so much logic fail, I don't even!
One of the people to monologue, incidentally, is a blond guy named Cole Clifton, who recites a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Zoey notices that Shaunee is checking him out, and somehow this convinces her to play matchmaker and see if she can get Erik to introduce Cole and Shaunee after the show. Her reasoning? "In my opinion more white boys should date women of color. It was good for expanding their horizons (especially true in Oklahoma white boys)"
Cast ladies. Please. Stop trying to make Zoey look open-minded and progressive. It's just painful.
Finally, Erik comes onto the stage. Zoey instantly starts reminding us how he's hot and looks like Superman, which I'm sure would all be more meaningful if she didn't endlessly talk about how everyone except for Elliot is hot. Erik apparently placed first in the contest, and recites a monologue from Othello, where Othello explains to Desdemona's father how he is in love with Desdemona. And given how we're continuously told how awesome and romantic this monologue is, I'm really wondering if the Cast ladies have ever seen or read Othello in their lives.
Zoey also starts randomly comparing Heath to Erik, and somehow figures that Heath's dedication to football is similar to Erik's talent at monologuing. I'm sure that would be a fine case to make, if Heath's involvement with football had been more than a side note for the entire series thus far. She also notes how Heath doesn't make her breathless unless he has cut himself open for her to drink from. Now, that actually sets up for a kind of an interesting point, especially when you consider that blood drinking here is obviously a sex metaphor and thus have Zoey come to realize that her interest in Heath only ever extends to his blood (his putting out) and some machismo tango thing where he takes advantage of her love of his blood (sex) and constantly tempts her with it, and he himself is so addicted to how good her drinking his blood (having sex with him) feels that he honestly doesn't care that she's killing him while doing so.
Instead, all of this is brushed under the rug. Zoey goes all a-tingle because she realizes that Erik is looking directly at her, reciting the monologue to her specially. When he finishes, Stevie Rae eloquently comments that "That was so romantic I almost peed my pants". Shaunee and Erin leap up and drag Zoey away because they want to meet Cole. Erm, then go see him yourselves, you idiots. This is a school function, not a rock band tour. Just because Zoey's dating Erik doesn't mean you need her to go see the performers.
Whatever. While Shaunee and Erin drool over Cole in a way that would raise caine if it were a guy talking about a woman, Erik comes over, kisses Zoey's hand, and playfully refers to her as his Desdemona. Aphrodite trots by at this point, and we get this
"If he's calling you Desdemona, then I suggest you be careful. If it even looked like you're cheating on him he'll strangle you in your bed. But you'd never cheat on him, would you?"
ZeldaQueen: You know, it's not a good sign when the shallow Scary Sue knows more about the implications of a particular Shakespeare romance than the protagonists using said comparison.
Everyone laughs this off as Aphrodite having issues, but Zoey wiggs out because OHES TEH NOES, APHRODITE TOTALLY SAW HER WITH BLAKE, WHAT IF SHE TELLS ERIK, WHATEVER WILL SHE DO??? And I'm shaking my head because dude, no one believes her! Her friends aren't hanging around her anymore, you're All That, Neferet is telling everyone that she's having fake visions. She's been discredited!
Shaunee goes over to Erik and makes it obvious that she carries a torch for Cole, adding "You can also tell him that if he wants a little brown sugar in his Juliet he need look no farther than right here". This leads to Erin talking about how, had Juliet been black, things wouldn't have ended badly because "we would have shown more sense than drinking that sleeping potion crap and going through all that drama just because of some unfortunate parental issues". And then we're beaten over the head with how this is funny because Erin is blonde and blue-eyed and very much not black. Ha. It is to laugh.
Damien and Jack coming running up at this point, and we're reminded that Jack is shy and cute. Erik sincerely and warmly welcomes him as his roommate, which leads Zoey to note that most people would hate on Jack for being gay. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Wait, spoke too soon. She notes that Heath wouldn't be comfortable with Jack as his roommate, and adds "Not that Heath was hateful or anything like that, but he was a typical teenage Okie boy, which tended to mean narrow-minded homophobe". I'm sure typical teenage Okie boys really appreciate that, Cast ladies. Well done.
All of this is interrupted as we're reminded that that blasted Full Moon Ritual is going to start in an hour. Zoey asks Erik if he'll be there, and he says yes before giving her a box. Inside is a really pretty dress, which he tells her he picked up in New York so she'd have something nice to wear for her first ritual. And we end our chapter with her wangsting about how she doesn't deserve him
Onward to: Chapter 20
Back to: Chapter 18
Back to: Table of Contents
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 19
ZeldaQueen: Okay folks, this chapter is bad. It's not the worst, but it is just boring, as well as one of the worst violators of the "Show, don't tell" rule I've ever seen.
We start off with Zoey being rudely awoken by Shaunee. Apparently Zoey and Stevie Rae have both really overslept and not only have the student monologuers in England returned, but it's nearly time for a ceremony to welcome them back and to honor them. Shaunee tells Zoey that Erik is really anxious to see her again, and Zoey shoots out of bed and waks up Stevie Rae. There's the overused joke where Stevie Rae thinks that her mother is waking her up for school, and then she wakes up and panics as well. Cue some pointless descriptions of both girls showing (not at the same time, than heavens), getting dressed, and putting on make-up.
Along the way, Zoey angsts about how she totally forgot that Erik was coming home that day and how she didn't even wonder how he placed. She wangsts because this is "definitely not good girlfriend etiquette". Hey, you want to know what else isn't "good girlfriend etiquette"? Trying to make out with your teacher and then claiming that you and your boyfriend aren't officially together, so that makes it alright. Yes, I know that it's wrong to say that a girl should do nothing but keep track of what her boyfriend is doing, but Zoey here can't keep track of anything unless it's right in front of her. Not to mention that this all feels much less like she's genuinely uncertain of who she wants to date and more that she's got some bizarre lack of boyfriend object permanence, where she can't remember the two other guys she's dating while she's with the third.
Oh, and we get this
"Everyone thought I was the lucky girl who had caught Erik after he'd escaped from Aphrodite's nasty spiderweb (and by web I mean crotch). Hell, I thought I was lucky to have him, something that had been hard to remember when I was sucking Heath's blood and flirting with Loren"
ZeldaQueen: Seriously, are we supposed to be reading that she doesn't love Erik, or what? One minute, she's going on endlessly about how he's such a fantastic guy and she is so lucky to be with him and she loves him like no one else, and so on and so forth, but then she up and admitted that she outright forgets his outstanding qualities and her love for him while she's sucking her ex's face blood and taking her top off for a teacher!
Also, I'd like to remind the readers about the red-eyed ghosts. Zoey's totally forgotten about them by this point, you see. So nice to know how things rank in her in her mind.
So the girls make it to the auditorium just as the lights are dimming, and Erin tells Zoey that Erik is confused and very worried about her. He knows about how the murdered teenagers were from her previous school and knows she's stressed and upset by it all. She concludes by saying "Erik is too hot to be stood up", which lets us know how things rank in her mind.
At this point, the ceremony starts up. Things are kicked off by Professor Nolan, who you might vaguely recall showing up once in Marked and having the defining trait of being from Texas. She tells them how there were 125 students competing, with five students coming from each of the twenty-five Houses of Night around the world.
Okaaaay, so there are these things all around the world? How does that work? How are their locations decided? How are other countries treating this issue? Why am I expecting answers?
Zoey is amazed that Erik had such competition, before turning to fuss over Stevie Rae. Apparently the kid is still all pale and tired and coughing. We get it beaten into our heads that this is odd, and I think we all know where this is going.
The ceremony goes on, and we learn that the places the five students from this school ranked at will be announced for the first time. Each of the students is to stand up and deliver there monologue. And I'm going to gloss over this, mainly because it's damned boring. They all go the same - they get up, Zoey admires how hawt they are or where she might have known them from, they recite a monologue from Shakespeare (was there a theme to the contest, or are the Cast ladies just short on imagination?), and because we can't be shown how well they recite, there's endless gushing from Zoey which goes along the lines of "Oh wow, that was fantastic! Take my word for it! I shall repeat how awesome it was, in very vague terms!"
For whatever reason, Zoey decides on the spot to invite all three of the girls who give monologues, I guess because she's so impressed by their talent. That, and it sets up for a lame joke about how Aphrodite didn't like other drama queens around her. I have no idea how watching someone recite something proves that they are moral, loyal, or whatever other qualities the Dark Daughter members are supposed to have, but whatever. We all know that Zoey's the final judge on goodness.
Incidentally, the third of those girls is Deino, "a drop-dead mixed girl with to-die-for hair and skin the color of vanilla latte" who you might remember as one of Aphrodite's three lackeys in Marked. You know, the one who Zoey mocked for calling herself "Terrible" and saying how men were all evil and needed to die. Well, apparently because Deino can recite a monologue really well, Zoey thinks that maybe she was wrong about the girl being pure evil and perhaps this is the person to re-invite to the Dark Daughters to show she isn't prejudice against Aphrodite's former roster.
"Watching her I was so dazzled by her talent that I started to wonder how much of her hateful haggishness had been because of Aphrodite's influence. Since I'd taken over the Dark Daughters none of Aphrodite's close friends had caused any kind of problems. Actually, now that I thought about it, I realized that Terrible, Warlike, and Wasp had been keeping a pretty low profile. Huh. Well, I'd said that I wanted to include one of Aphrodite's old inner circle in my new Prefect Council. Maybe Deino would be the right choice. I could ask Erik about her. With Aphrodite out of power I could give Deino a chance (as well as sincerely wish her name wasn't so disturbing)"
ZeldaQueen: Because if a person's a good actor, it means that they're good people, don't you know? I...there's so much logic fail, I don't even!
One of the people to monologue, incidentally, is a blond guy named Cole Clifton, who recites a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Zoey notices that Shaunee is checking him out, and somehow this convinces her to play matchmaker and see if she can get Erik to introduce Cole and Shaunee after the show. Her reasoning? "In my opinion more white boys should date women of color. It was good for expanding their horizons (especially true in Oklahoma white boys)"
Cast ladies. Please. Stop trying to make Zoey look open-minded and progressive. It's just painful.
Finally, Erik comes onto the stage. Zoey instantly starts reminding us how he's hot and looks like Superman, which I'm sure would all be more meaningful if she didn't endlessly talk about how everyone except for Elliot is hot. Erik apparently placed first in the contest, and recites a monologue from Othello, where Othello explains to Desdemona's father how he is in love with Desdemona. And given how we're continuously told how awesome and romantic this monologue is, I'm really wondering if the Cast ladies have ever seen or read Othello in their lives.
Zoey also starts randomly comparing Heath to Erik, and somehow figures that Heath's dedication to football is similar to Erik's talent at monologuing. I'm sure that would be a fine case to make, if Heath's involvement with football had been more than a side note for the entire series thus far. She also notes how Heath doesn't make her breathless unless he has cut himself open for her to drink from. Now, that actually sets up for a kind of an interesting point, especially when you consider that blood drinking here is obviously a sex metaphor and thus have Zoey come to realize that her interest in Heath only ever extends to his blood (his putting out) and some machismo tango thing where he takes advantage of her love of his blood (sex) and constantly tempts her with it, and he himself is so addicted to how good her drinking his blood (having sex with him) feels that he honestly doesn't care that she's killing him while doing so.
Instead, all of this is brushed under the rug. Zoey goes all a-tingle because she realizes that Erik is looking directly at her, reciting the monologue to her specially. When he finishes, Stevie Rae eloquently comments that "That was so romantic I almost peed my pants". Shaunee and Erin leap up and drag Zoey away because they want to meet Cole. Erm, then go see him yourselves, you idiots. This is a school function, not a rock band tour. Just because Zoey's dating Erik doesn't mean you need her to go see the performers.
Whatever. While Shaunee and Erin drool over Cole in a way that would raise caine if it were a guy talking about a woman, Erik comes over, kisses Zoey's hand, and playfully refers to her as his Desdemona. Aphrodite trots by at this point, and we get this
"If he's calling you Desdemona, then I suggest you be careful. If it even looked like you're cheating on him he'll strangle you in your bed. But you'd never cheat on him, would you?"
ZeldaQueen: You know, it's not a good sign when the shallow Scary Sue knows more about the implications of a particular Shakespeare romance than the protagonists using said comparison.
Everyone laughs this off as Aphrodite having issues, but Zoey wiggs out because OHES TEH NOES, APHRODITE TOTALLY SAW HER WITH BLAKE, WHAT IF SHE TELLS ERIK, WHATEVER WILL SHE DO??? And I'm shaking my head because dude, no one believes her! Her friends aren't hanging around her anymore, you're All That, Neferet is telling everyone that she's having fake visions. She's been discredited!
Shaunee goes over to Erik and makes it obvious that she carries a torch for Cole, adding "You can also tell him that if he wants a little brown sugar in his Juliet he need look no farther than right here". This leads to Erin talking about how, had Juliet been black, things wouldn't have ended badly because "we would have shown more sense than drinking that sleeping potion crap and going through all that drama just because of some unfortunate parental issues". And then we're beaten over the head with how this is funny because Erin is blonde and blue-eyed and very much not black. Ha. It is to laugh.
Damien and Jack coming running up at this point, and we're reminded that Jack is shy and cute. Erik sincerely and warmly welcomes him as his roommate, which leads Zoey to note that most people would hate on Jack for being gay. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Wait, spoke too soon. She notes that Heath wouldn't be comfortable with Jack as his roommate, and adds "Not that Heath was hateful or anything like that, but he was a typical teenage Okie boy, which tended to mean narrow-minded homophobe". I'm sure typical teenage Okie boys really appreciate that, Cast ladies. Well done.
All of this is interrupted as we're reminded that that blasted Full Moon Ritual is going to start in an hour. Zoey asks Erik if he'll be there, and he says yes before giving her a box. Inside is a really pretty dress, which he tells her he picked up in New York so she'd have something nice to wear for her first ritual. And we end our chapter with her wangsting about how she doesn't deserve him
Onward to: Chapter 20
Back to: Chapter 18
Back to: Table of Contents