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kalinara · 4 years

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So @singledarkshade and @theadrogna came up with a fun challenge. We each picked seven television shows/movies and were given a cast of one actor from each show to use in a hypothetical “dream show”.

My cast: Anya Chalotra (the Witcher), Elizabeth Gracen (Highlander), Reggie Lee (Grimm), Xenia Seeberg (Lexx), Danai Gurira (Walking Dead), Geraint Wyn Davies (Forever Knight), and Robert Vaughn (Man from UNCLE).

-- My show --

The year is 3299. Humanity has long expanded into the stars, with the hope of founding new, ideal societies. Humans being humans, they failed. The Coalition of Allied Planets was founded in the spirit of that old dream, and now it has grown and spread across the galaxy, bringing peace, prosperity and civilization, by certain definitions of those words.

I hereby present: Fall of the Coalition: Rebels Rising.

Characters and Episodes below the cut

Characters:

Corporal Alisha Padwal (Anya Chalotra): Corporal Padwal had once been a promising career officer in the Coalition Corps, until a superior’s blunder led to the loss of a decisive battle. Alisha managed to survive the resulting cover-up, but her future prospects didn’t. Now she’s a guard on a prison transport ship, where she’ll likely live out the rest of her days, until everything changes.

Petra Nikolas (Elizabeth Gracen): If you read the Coalition Press, Petra Nikolas is the most dangerous woman in the galaxy. A second generation idealist, Petra has been using her name, wealth and reputation to secretly amass a group of rebels, all of whom have suffered under the Coalition’s “enlightened” rule. She’s captured now, but not for long. She has a plan.

Marton Reyes (Reggie Lee): A brilliant doctor, all Marton Reyes ever wanted to do was save lives. Unfortunately, the Coalition had a better idea of the best way to utilize his brilliant mind. For years, Reyes took part in horrifying experiments, all supposedly intended to eventually improve human lives. Reyes has his doubts. One day, he couldn’t take it anymore. He was captured immediately, but at least a few lives were saved. Haunted by his past, Reyes finds prison almost a relief, since he can’t be made to hurt anyone anymore.

Jana Brandt (Xenia Seeberg): “Thug”, “Bully” these are nice labels compared to what the Coalition calls Jana Brandt. They call her “undesirable”: a violent recidivist who has been resistant to every attempt at therapeutic reconditioning. The Coalition considers itself too humane to kill someone like Brandt outright, but they certainly wouldn’t mind it if she just happened to meet with an unfortunate fate on the prison planet, Xyron. Of course, they have to get her there first.

Kauli Ka Vedar/Princess Kandake of Karash (Danai Gurira): Fifteen years ago, the Coalition brought civilization to the planet of Karash, quite against the Karashi will. They’ll learn better, of course. Regrettably, most of the ruling family died. Even more regrettably, a few survived, scattered to the edges of Coalition space.

Kauli Ka Vedar is a hacker and a thief, but that wasn’t what she always was. She survives by keeping her head low, and staying the fuck away from flashy rebel heroics. She doesn’t like the Coalition any more than they do, but it’s not just her own life on the line if they figure out who she is. Right now, the Coalition thinks they’ve got a petty thief. Kauli intends to keep it that way.

Governor Geof Drystan (Geraint Wyn Davies): The Planetary Governor of Xyron, Geof Drystan is basically lord and master of all he surveys. Generally corrupt and petty, he nonetheless has a soft spot for young people that he thinks have been mistreated by the system. At least the ones that he thinks he can manipulate. He’s the reason that Alisha has a job at all.

XS 367/”Alan Nikolas” (Robert Vaughn): Thirty years ago, a politician named Alan Nikolas led a movement to reform the Coalition into the democratic ideal that it was always meant to be. A brilliant speaker, the idealistic Nikolas inspired people across the political strata, until assassination put an end to his dream. The Coalition made sure that no one would follow in his steps.

XS 367 is a prison ship AI. Its programming is formidable but limited. It is complex enough to manage every aspect of the day to day running of the prison ship, inside and out, but carefully limited to prevent any sort of manifestation of independent thought or personality. At least until Petra Nikolas comes onboard, bearing the personality matrix of her long dead father.

XS 367 knows he’s a ship. He knows he’s not really a long dead politician. But he also knows that his daughter is on board, and he intends to do whatever he can to help her. His way failed. Maybe hers will succeed.

(Every appearance of Alan Nikolas, whether it’s a flashback, or an image on a computer screen is in black and white).

Episodes:

Episode 1 “Alisha”: Alisha Padwal is a new guard of the XS 367 prison ship. It’s state of the art, with an AI that runs everything, meaning that Alisha and her new partner, Davvyd, are blatantly superfluous. Alisha uses the time to try to learn about the prisoners, their crimes, and their fates. She is disturbed by the harsh, disproportionate sentences. Davvyd, on the other hand, is brutal, taking out his frustration on the prisoners, particularly Jana Brandt. Meanwhile, Petra plants the personality matrix into the AI, and the prisoners break free and take over the ship. Davvyd is stabbed during the commotion, though Jana insists that it was an accident. Alisha is taken prisoner, but she’s not without recourse as she is able to call Governor Drystan via a secret communicator.

Flashback: the episode contains flashbacks of Alisha’s fall from grace, her court martial and Governor Drystan’s interference, and him giving her the communicator in case everything goes wrong.

Episode 2 “Petra”: Petra Nikolas has now taken over the prison ship XS 367, now the “Alan Nikolas”. Her efforts to recruit her fellow prisoners to her cause is meeting some unexpected resistance. Marton is a militant pacifist, who refuses to cause harm to anyone. Kauli doesn’t want to get involved. Jana is on board, but her violent tendencies make Petra doubt the wisdom of recruiting her. She finally has some luck with Alisha, who, while loyal to the Coalition, also has many doubts about their methods.

Meanwhile, the “Alan Nikolas” is on the run from the Coalition. Petra takes them to an old hideout to obtain fuel and supplies, but is double crossed. The others reluctantly sign on with her, realizing there’s nowhere else to go. Alisha does too, but only upon secret approval from Governor Drystan.

Flashback: Petra’s childhood, watching her father’s eloquent public speeches. His assassination and the subsequent smearing of his name. Petra’s own rise, using her money and education to reach out to disenfranchised people, and her arrest for dissidence. Her forces are still out there though, she just has to get the Alan Nikolas to them.

Episode 3 “Marton”: The next supply stop goes about as well as the first. Coalition forces have been waiting in ambush. Petra, Alisha, and Jana get away, but Kauli and Marton are left behind. Kauli is injured, and Marton has to act to save her and himself. Meanwhile, Jana advocates just leaving them, while Petra refuses, winning Alisha’s respect and making her very uneasy about her role as a spy. When the crew is reunited, Alisha is about to tell Drystan that she no longer believes in his mission, but Jana catches her in the act.

Flashback: This is Marton’s backstory episode, so we’ll see him as a brilliant doctor forced into work for the Coalition. We’ll see them threaten his family and friends, to the point of deadly consequences when he tries to refuse. Finally we’ll see him snap, as he’s forced to conduct dangerous operations on prisoners and take on his vow of pacifism.

Episode 4 “Jana”: Alisha has been caught as a spy. Jana wants to kill her, but Petra says that they’re better than that. They basically put Alisha on trial, letting her explain why she should get to live. Jana is disgusted when Marton and Kauli vote to allow Alisha to stay, and attempts to mutiny. Sadly, she is shot by “Alan”, the XS-367 itself, who is trying to protect his daughter and her crew. Marton places Jana’s body in cryogenic suspension with the hope that one day they might be able to save her. Meanwhile, Petra asks Alisha to keep communicating with Drystan, to see if he can be turned to their side.

Flashback: Jana’s backstory episode, as a kid from the Xyron undercity. Her flashbacks will make it very obvious that while she does have genuine issues with rage (and some blackout episodes of violence), there has never been any real attempt to help her beyond clumsy “reconditioning”. We also see more of her confrontation with Davvyd, and his death. Though we don’t actually see her stab him.

Episode 5 “Kauli”: The crew end up stumbling across another Karashi survivor, Kauli’s sister, Berenice, who is being blackmailed by a local crime boss. Kauli has to decide whether to trust Petra, who she sees as an ivory tower rebel who has no idea what risks she’s asking of more vulnerable people, and Alisha, who until recently, was an actual spy. Ultimately, Kauli masterminds a trap for the crime boss, freeing her sister, and makes tentative contact with the rest of her family. We learn that the Karashi have been planning their own form of rebellion, in a more subtle and cautious way, they’re not yet willing to ally with Petra, but they’ll be keeping an eye on her.

Meanwhile, Marton and “Alan” undergo an experimental procedure that allow them to speak to a comatose Jana and try to wake her.

Flashback: Kauli’s backstory episode, showing the fall of Karesh, and Kauli’s struggle to survive as a young refugee, including a situation very like Berenice.

Episode 6 “Drystan”: Alisha, reluctantly, arranges a meeting between Drystan and Petra, when the former expresses his own dissatisfaction with the Coalition’s practices. The crew believe it’s a trap, but Petra believes that they might be able to turn his trap back onto him, and possibly free the prisoners of Xyron, many of whom are rebels just like Petra.

Marton, Kauli and Jana infiltrate the prison staff to try to recruit and ready the prisoners, while “Alan” and Alisha plan to disrupt Drystan’s communications, so that he can’t spring his trap.

Finally, at the meeting, Drystan tries to spring his trap. Petra gets the upperhand, and manages to negotiate a deal with him to free the prisoners. Then Alisha springs her trap and stabs Drystan before he can comply with Petra’s demands. She reveals that while she respects Petra, she thinks that her rebellion is flawed and destructive. The only way to truly bring down the Coalition is from the top. Alisha reveals that her technological sabotage gave her the command codes to the entire planet and has erased the XS 367’s personality. It is loyal to her now. (Though it still wears Alan Nikolas’s face).

In the prison, Kauli, Marton and Jana manage to escape and vow to find a way to come back and free Petra and Alan.

Flashback: This episode has no flashbacks. All of the action takes place completely in the present day.

Thus ends season 1.

A projection for season 2: “Fall of the Coalition: Rebels Strike”:

Season 2 will take place where Season 1 left off. Alisha is now the big bad, so to speak, defending her claim to Xyron and using that to start masterminding her rise to the top of the Coalition ranks. She intends to use Petra as a means to bring her rebellion under heel, and attempts to capture Kauli to do the same.

The crew will rescue Petra and steal the XS 367. Using the same experimental communication method that saved her, Jana and Marton communicate with the XS 367, which has now broken free from its programming in its own right and convince it to help them. The XS 367 continues to use Alan Nikolas’s face, but now it’s in bright 1960s style technicolor.

Eventually, Alisha’s plans go awry as she faces the people at the very top of the Coalition, and she reaches out to Petra to join forces. But is this another double cross?

#dream show #rip chat challenge #you should join us we have fun games

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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Corrupt by Penelope Douglass

Corrupt is an erothic thriller that’s part of the Devil’s Night series by Penelope Douglas. It mostly follows Erika, daughter to a rich family living in the affluent community in Thunder Bay, who three years ago was involved in an event that sent 3 of Thunder Bay’s most popular and prized boys to jail. Now, they are back, and along with Michael, their best friend and the man Erika has been in love with her entire life, they plan to destroy her and exact their revenge.

This book, is probably the most disappointing thing I have ever read. And I have a lot to say about it, so buckle up; it’s going to be a long review.

First off, this has probably one of the most intriguing premises I have come across in a while; 4 boys who are the richest, most powerful, popular and well protected in an already incredibly rich and affluent community pick one night a year where they do ‘pranks’ that go from stealing trucks to arson and assault, and get away with it, because even though everyone knows who they are, they are so protected by their own community, that they never have to face consequences. Except, because of Erika they do, and now they want revenge, and to complicated things, the one who didn’t go to jail is in love with her. And yet, this book fails to deliver on every possible promise of this premise, which is almost incredible.

PoV Issues:

First off, for whatever reason we have POV’s from both Erika and Michael, which completely takes the mystery out of the book. If the whole premise is Erika not knowing whether Michael likes/hates/wants to sexually assault her, it kind of defeats the purpose of the mystery if we can read exactly what he’s thinking. Having his POV grinds a lot of the book to a halt, and it’s not delivered particularly well either; there’s long stretches of the book where we don’t have his POV, while the ending is almost entirely him, making the book feel uneven; it’s like it can’t decide if he or Erika are the protagonists and as such, character development that should come at the beginning is saved for the very end, at which point I no longer cared.

Pacing and Length:

Second, this book is just way too long. It’s almost 500 pages, and it doesn’t utilize them well. We skip between 3 years ago and the present, and the 3 years ago sections were painful. Everything that happens in the school prior to the actual Devil’s Night is straight out of a poorly written YA book, complete with the ‘popular boy I like doesn’t notice me’ trope, the ‘I think I’m plain, but I’m secretly stunning’, and most infuriatingly dialogue so bad, not only do no teenagers actually speak like that, no humans speak like that.

This was doubly confusing to me, because the one thing Douglas does do well is the banter between the Horsemen (barf); their dialogue and jokes did sound convincingly high school and like boys pretending to be tough and unbothered, but unfortunately we get very little exploring their dynamic.

You’d think that a 500 page book would have time to develop the characters and really flesh out this plan and its intricacies, but no. Instead, we have one scene of MIchael and his dad arguing about trust funds and inheritance, another scene of the guys planning to do something to Erika’s mom (and us not knowing what they did for like 20+ chapters, even though WE CAN READ FROM MICHAEL’S POV), and the rest is just inane bits of I guess character development for Erika, which is delivered in the most blunt, uninteresting straightforward manner. It doesn’t help that in the past sections, it takes about 200 pages for things to actually start getting interesting, because the start is just Erika being tormented relentlessly by all the men around her, and her not standing up, and the present is her series of increasingly dumb decisions, and back and forth between her and Michael. The plot also peaks too early, and the following 100 pages just feel like they are a waste of time rather than building tension.

The Sex Scenes:

The pacing affects even the sex scenes. Some of them are ill placed, and others are so long and drawn out that even if you are reading this book for them, you will be bored out of your mind. Again, this book can’t decide if it’s a genuine erotic thriller with stakes and a plot, and the sex is supposed to play into that, or an erotica with some mild thriller elements. If it’s the former, then the fact that we have no sex for the first 200 pages, and then like 5 or 6 really long scenes near the climax of the thriller plot is not helpful, and neither is the fact that only 2 really contribute to the plot. If it’s the latter, then there are too few of them and they come too late in the book for anyone to care at that point. 500 pages is just too long for an erotic novel, and I was tapped out on caring about the sex by the second proper sex scene.

Writing and Dialogue:

This book is not written… well. Firstly, there are tons of overlong, flat and plain unnecessary descriptions; I don’t need to know the layout of Michael’s family house unless it will contribute to the plot, or every detail of Erika’s childhood if you won’t at least describe it with flare. The point of long descriptions in FP narratives is to give us insight into how the characters see and remember the world; they’ll describe things in their individual way and note what they find important. Here it’s just flat straightforward descriptions of actions or places that tell me nothing about Erika or Michael.

This same style of flat writing permeates the book even in the sex scenes; we get them both from Michael and Erika and they sound exactly the same, there is no difference. In general there is no difference between Michael and Erika’s voices; Michael mentions cocks and boobs more and wants you to know ‘Erika is mine’ and Erika is constantly thinking only about Michael and wants you to know ‘she belongs to no one, except no one is Michael’

She also has these long monologues about wealth, privilege, social pressures and differences between men and women, and it’s almost infuriating, because Douglas is so close to actually saying something meaningful about these things, but it never goes anywhere and it only serves to tell us that yes, Erika is rich, and yes, it sometimes bothers her, but no, she’d never give up the money, even though I guess she wants to feel like she’d survive without it. If it was written better and actually informed Erika’s character, it would be an interesting study of someone who grew up rich and learning how to make it on their own outside of their privileged environment, but like a lot of things, it goes nowhere.

Then there’s the dialogue. It’s bad. I won’t belabor the point, but I will just give you two examples: on page 28:

“Rika,” he lowered his voice, his brown eyes gentle “Baby you’re beautiful. Long blonde hair, legs that no guy in this school can ignore and he prettiest blue eyes in town. You’re gorgeous”

And on page 70:

“What about you?” I finally asked, making him stop. “Did prison change you?”

He turned, looking at me with eerie calmness “I guess we’ll see”

Lack of Genuine Darkness and Consequences:

Like that second example implies, this book is ‘dark’. Unfortunately, that’s probably the biggest missed opportunity. This is hard to talk about without SPOILERS, so skip this part if you still want to read this book.

We are told that Erika did something to put the guys in jail, possibly as revenge for something they did to her; moreover, their plan is to destroy her, which could mean anything. So I was excited to get some genuinely dark stuff, but unfortunately this book has a tendency to whitewash it’s characters, and nothing they do is actually that reprehensible.

First let’s talk about Devil’s Night. I didn’t mind that the pranks the guys pulled were mostly tied to property damage and theft, because, well they are high schoolers. The orgy/sex circle in the catacombs was just… dumb. I can’t imagine why high school students would be down to have sex in an actual CATACOMB in front of a live audience that just so happens not to have phones recording everything but whatever. The only prank the boys pull which is genuinely fucked up was burning the gazebo, but while I didn’t approve, it wasn't anything that was genuinely dark.

What the guys actually do to Erika was also weird. On the one hand, taking her for a ride in a forest and pretending to want to rape her, so they scare her to stay away from Michael is pretty fucked up. But on the other hand, they don’t actually do it, and since it was Trevor pulling the shots, they never even INTENDED to do it. Even Damon, the one guy from the Horsemen who actually participated in the act, had no intention of actually assaulting Erika, which she obviously didn’t know at the time, but it makes his actions much less sinister.

Then there’s Erika. She didn’t actually do it. That’s the big twist; what gets the boys in jail, isn’t actually anything she does. Instead it was Trevor, all along because there is only one true villain and he is Trevor. What lands Damon in jail is a video of him sleeping with the mayor’s daughter, which Trevor sends to the police. Since the girl is underage, it’s legally not consensual and well… yeah. Again, we can argue all day about consent of minors, but in this book’s universe, Michael is fine for wanting to sleep with a 16 year old Erika, and the book makes sure to tell us that Damon did seduce and consentually sleep with the girl. Even more, the mayor actually hated Damon’s family and used this to destroy him and… can we whitewash Damon a little more please? I don’t think he’s quite saintly enough. He’s the only person who does something in the ballpark of reprehensible, and surprise he’s the other designated villain.

Will and Kai get caught on tape beating up a police officer. Bad, right? Well no, it turns out the police officer they beat up, abused his sister. How noble of them. They are such good people, they went to jail for Will trying to protect his crush (whose gazebo he burned down but… Will makes no sense as a character, don’t dwell on it).

Then the actual plan. First, Michael legally forces Erika’s mother into rehab, which is illegal, but not morally wrong since she is an alcoholic and in essence he’s forcing her to get help. Then Kai, Will and Damon burn down Erika’s house, which was the only part of this plan that I genuinely felt was horrible, but that’s only because we get the one good scene of Michael and Erika bonding over her collection of matches she keeps to remember her father.

Then, Michael takes over as the proprietor of Erika’s estate and freezes all her funds which is again, is a pretty dick move, but didn’t Erika want not to be shackled by her father;s money? Also this is just the last ploy to get Erika to go to the house where the boys are hiding so they can exact their true revenge which is…. To rape her. Maybe.

This part I was really confused by. It seems that’s what they want, but later we are told that they only really wanted to frighten her and make her feel as alone and afraid as they all did when they went to jail. Which again, whitewashes their actions, but even if they did genuinely want to rape her, the plan still makes no sense.

You are telling me that these men, spent 3 years in jail and the only thing that helped them survive it, is a plan to send Erika’s mom to rehab, freeze or destroy her material properties and then rape her? And then what? None of them seem interested in killing her, so do they just… hope she doesn’t go to the police? They all have criminal records, and one of them is probably in the database for sexual offenders! And then, when we find out what had actually happened, everyone just forgives everyone, except Travis the supervillain, who gets MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD.

Now, I want to be very clear. Nothing I say here is something I condone. I do not condone sexual violence, or really any type of violence that isn’t in self defense. But either commit to the characters or don’t damnit!

Commit to the boys assaulting Erika. Maybe don’t go all the way; have Trevor intervene and save her, and maybe he convinces her to use the videos on Will’s phone if you want her to not be solely responsible for sending them to jail. Then the threat of them being in town is genuine because they are actually dangerous people. I would 100% believe that the culmination of their plan is to rape her, if we know they’d done it before, and even more so because of what they had to go through while in prison. It also helps add conflict to Erika and Michael’s characters; he could slowly find out that there was a reason Erika sent them to jail and then he actually has to choose between his friends and her. Erika actually was willing to take justice in her own hands, since she would know first hand how the previous attempt she made to get a rapist to be punished went.

Which leads me to the lack of consequences. As soon as the truth comes out Erika immediately forgives the guys for literary destroying her life, and she especially immediately forgive Michael for not even stopping for a moment to make sure what they guys told him was true, and being willing to let them assault her! Then we have Damon, who gets stabbed, but then completely gets away with helping Travis orchestrate the joyride, assaulting Erika again, kidnapping her, and helping Travis try and kill her. He just fucks off to St Petersburg! (Side note, what kind of person thinks that Damon Torrence is someone who has Russian heritage?)

Travis, a whole mess of a character, kidnaps his ex so he can lure his brother and TRY TO KILL HIM, because his ex is in love with him. He orchestrates a possible rape so he can destroy the relationship between the boys and Erika, sends the boys to jail and why? No reason! And then, he gets shot and killed by Michael, and Michael GETS AWAY WITH IT. There is no trial, no jail time, not scandal in the papers about the son of the wealthiest man in Thunder Bay and a professional NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER killing his own brother! IN WHAT UNIVERSE? That part annoyed me even more than all the other things I mentioned before; there are no consequences and no motivation and this book FAILS as a thriller.

Characters:

Let’s start with actual supervillain Trevor. He is possessive, jealous, arrogant and willing to KILL HIS OWN BROTHER just because the girls he wants is in love with him. Why?

He seems to be their abusive dad’s favorite son, he’s arranged to marry Erika anyway, he gets all of her properties and money and managed to get rid of Michael’s friends. He has everything! All he had to do was just tell his father or Erika that the gang is back and planning something, and none of this would’ve happened. He even gets an evil monologue at the end and tells Erika Damon’s backstory, both of which were straight out of a Bond movie. I hated this stupid waste of a character when he could’ve actually been fleshed out and interesting.

Alex is a character that just exists so Erika isn’t the only girl in this book. There is a very weird and inexplicable implication that she’s attracted to Erika and is maybe bisexual and maybe Erika is bisexual that goes absolutely nowhere and I absolutely hated it. It doesn’t help that this book is weirdly homophobic in some other aspects, and the way all the characters, especially the men treat Alex was just awful.

Out of the three guys, Will was the one I understood the least. He’s an alcoholic and that’s where his character starts and ends. We never learn anything interesting about him, and he barely has 10 lines in total. He might as well not have been there.

Damon we’ve been over; he’s the one that I ended up liking the most, because he was the only actually morally corrupt and interesting character. He outright hates women, has a pretty intense backstory and severe mommy issues, and even gets some interesting dialogue with Erika. He’s the only one I might be tempted to read a book about, but only if it’s much shorter than this.

At first Kai was the most interesting of the group and was the biggest wasted potential. He is closed off, secretive and seems to be the most reasonable one, and I genuinely thought that his big secret was either going to be that he has been in love with Michael this whole time, or that he was also sexually assaulted in jail. We never find out what happened to him in jail, which is a shame, but again, since this is a series it probably something Douglas is saving for the second book. As for his relationship with Michael, without me spoiling anything, it’s exactly the twist with Wentworth Miller’s character from Loft, except if the pool scene actually had actually gone with Miller joining the rest. I never like this type of queerbaity twist, especially, because as I mentioned the representation of anyone who isn’t straight or white in this book is horrendous.

Michael was both the worst character and the best developed one. I understood where his anger issues stemmed from, why he was so rude and abrasive to everyone, especially Erika and even the hatred he had for Trevor. I wish we actually had time to develop his relationship with Trevor and his father, and actually delved into why they hated each other so much, but we don’t have time for that in this hell. I thought since he was a basketball player, it would actually play a part, but it doesn’t; other than one line about him being distracted because of the plan, the fact that he plays for the NBA is completely irrelevant. His relationship with Erika was infuriating. He supposedly loves her and thinks she’s his match, but he treats her like shit; possessive, hypocritical, controlling and condescending. There is no reason he should have commitment issues but he has those too, and the fact that it takes Erika being in mortal danger before he tells her he loves her was INFURIATING.

Erika was no better. I again, foolishly believed that her being a fencer would have something to do with the plot but other than an excuse for two truly bewildering scenes it doesn’t. She was an incredibly feeble character and the more the book attempted to paint her as becoming this powerful player and ‘corrupt’ girl the more I got Ana Steele and Bella Swan vibes. She is not empowered nor strong; she is constantly pushed around, insulted, yelled at and even physically manhandled by everyone around her. The fact that none of the characters talk to or treat her like an adult, or know how to communicate at all was bewildering, and she herself was just dense. Not only does she make the stupidest decisions, she also multiple times fails to grasp really simple, obvious things and her wanting to be a sociologist because she liked reading people made me scream.

What’s most frustrating, is just like with Michael there are nuggets of a good character here and there; she is sometimes observant and clever, but mostly she just allows everyone to manipulate her and I couldn’t stand it.

Conclusion?

I do NOT recommend this book. It kept me reading only because I was curious to see what had actually sent the gang to jail and when I found out I was too far into the book to justify DNFing it. But it was not good and I have no desire to read any of the subsequent books by her, unless I hear that her writing has drastically improved (which judging by the blurb for Kill Switch, the book about Damon, it doesn’t seem like it).

goodreads

#corrupt review #corrupt #moni talks #book review

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