Hey Ya’ll. Good to see you again. Things were getting a little busy for me with school, so I haven’t been able to properly give you a good looking analysis of one of these. Thankfully, that’s over, and I’ve got time.
So, in the last three chapters we’ve met Bethany, her love interest, and various unimportant characters have been added which will contribute somewhat to the plot but not enough to have actual personalities. Yippy skippy.
So, here we go to see what new drama and excitement will befall our beloved heroine and if I manage to die of liver poisoning. Me and this bottle are getting pretty cozy.
Chapter 4: Earthbound
So…is Bethany just realizing that she isn’t allowed to fly or something?
Bethany gets out of school whines some about how hard it was to be popular and have everyone want to know something about her, waits for Naybriel, describes the palm trees for a while and…
Wait.
Palm trees?
Where is this place?
First we have windmills and farmland and now we have palm trees?
Did Adornetto just decide randomly that all beaches must have palm trees or something? Now, I looked things up, wondering if maybe I was wrong, and Adornetto had decided to set this book in Queensland or something without telling me, but it doesn’t have the right climate either. At first, I assumed that Venus Cove was in some kind of East Coast town or something, since there was farming and such nearby and it didn’t have enough of a beach to be a big city. It happens. And the fact that they’re all smugglers and drug dealers also helps. Then I wondered if it was somewhere in California, but it just didn’t fit. Now, with this sudden revelation of palm trees, I don’t have a clue where this is supposed to be. Don’t hope that Adornetto explains it either. She doesn’t. Ever.
This place, to my knowledge, and to the knowledge of a few friends that I’ve asked, cannot possibly exist.
\~/ \~/
So, moving on, Bethany notes that the other students seem to be happy that school is out, but makes it all about her again by saying how she doesn’t feel any better, and that so much happened off screen that she’s exhausted and how dare Naybriel keep her waiting.
What happened to the limitless energy?
\~/
When Naybriel finally turns up, he’s
closely followed by a small gaggle of admirers, mostly girls.
Thank you for comparing these girls to geese. \~/
In a scene that I can’t imagine happening anywhere outside of a manga, the girls (since the guys that are presumably in this mix don’t seem to want to come forward) all follow him around. You know, I’ve seen people act like this with celebrities, but not with normal people no matter how good looking they are. Particularly when it’s a teacher. For some reason that Bethany doesn’t get, Naybriel doesn’t like the attention. I…don’t dislike Naybriel…
A particularly stupid event occurs where a “shapely brunette” makes a fake fall to get Naybriel’s attention. \~/
She is caught ( \~/ ) only to be set down and ignored. Bethany sees the need to tell us that he’s not being ‘unfriendly’ by not talking to her. I think he’s being a little rude, but at the same time, the girl’s also being extremely obnoxious in trying to get his attention with an obviously fake fall that I can’t imagine anyone trying. Naybriel walks Bethany home and the crowd suddenly seems to vanish, including the fangirls who were:
bristling with jealousy at not having come up with the idea themselves.
\~/
You really hate girls who are attracted to guys, don’t you, Bethany? Despite the fact that if you’d been drooling over Xavier any more, the custodian would have needed to get a mop. \~/
No one in Venus Cove seems to have a car at the moment *which will change when it’s convenient) and everyone seems to need to walk everywhere, but that doesn’t stop the crowd of girls from leaving now that it’s no longer convenient for them to be there and show that Naybriel is hot. ( \~/ )
They talk about how pretty they are and that Bethany has as much of a fanclub as Naybriel, which we don’t see, and Bethany is, despite saying how she wasn’t going to care about Xavier, very nervous about his talking to her.
They get home where Ivy has been sitting around the house doing nothing for most of the day. I suspect that she, like many the fifties housewife, has discovered the joys of soap operas and is going to keep it from the others. Or she’s a spy. That would be interesting too. Seriously though, Ivy didn’t even cook. It’s like Adornetto was playing with dolls and then decided that she wasn’t interested in the mommy one and set it aside, never giving a moment’s thought to what it does.
Naybriel and Bethany talk about the fascinating place they’ve been, where playing an indoor sport is determined by if it rains, and Naybriel is referred to as ‘Gabe’ out of the blue. They are also smug and obnoxious about the teenage population calling them “lost”, which would bother me less if this was written by a well-meaning but not overly understanding older theologian. Then they compare notes about what was going on, and the deaths of the students are brought up. Naybriel and Ivy are very upset about the deaths, and then we have this exchange.
“But how will we find whoever…or whatever is causing this?” I asked.
“There’s no way to find them yet,” said Gabriel. “It’s our job to clean up the mess and wait until they show up again. Trust me; they won’t go down without a fight.”
As a helpful pointer: you might want, to put it in Biblical terms, to ‘alight off your asses’ and actually do something. I’ve noticed that a good part of these unfortunate accidents were occurring while you were sitting around Byron house reading ‘literature’ and being smug. Your answer is just to keep on sitting around reading and wait for something to happen right in front of you.
Worst. Angels. Ever.
The Agents of Darkness are at least doing something, even it’s kind of defeating the point. They’re not sitting around waiting for people to damn themselves, though we’re actually quite good at it. The fact that the ‘good guys’ sit around and do nothing when, apparently, this is the very thing that they were supposed to be stopping makes me really dislike these characters. Particularly since they are angels, and I would expect them to be able to walk around invisible the way they do in the Old Testament, smiting things.
But that’s not…cute…enough for this book.
\~/ \~/
Also, Adornetto still seems to have trouble comprehending that there is such a thing as a fate worse than death. Particularly once religion has been brought into the picture.
When Bethany mentions that she talked to Molly, Ivy and Naybriel get cheesed because, according to them, Bethany shouldn’t be getting close to people her own age. So…why is she pretending to be a high schooler? I mean, it’s easier to convert people if they like you, you know.
Ok, personal story time: at my college, there are people who like to stand in the main courtyard and shout the Bible at people. They usually end up accosting anyone who walks too close and starts asking them challenging questions about evolution/gay rights/anything else that they are hammering at that moment. They aren’t students, and they never bother to actually talk to people, they just shout at them and demand that people agree. Oh, they get into debates and all, but they’re really rude about it. They don’t make converts. Ever. They just drive the stereotype that all religious people are pushy, condescending, and don’t really like anyone.
This is, essentially, what Adornetto seems to think is the proper behavior for ‘good’ people.
\~/
This isn’t how you convert people. This is how you get people to hate you.
When Bethany asks why they have a problem with her getting people to like her, Naybriel complains that the girls will want to ‘bond’, which Bethany hilariously misinterprets as “physically melding together” and has to be corrected.
Get used to that. Adornetto seems to think that it’s humor. I just see it as a reason why Bethany shouldn’t have been reading porn set in the Romantic period and at least attempted to watch a little TV so she could hold a normal conversation.
Then we have this gem:
“Human relationships can be unnaturally intimate-I’ll never understand it.”
As said by Naybriel
Hello, unintentional les yay! You’re looking vastly more interesting than the main paring.
I seem to remember something about Jesus saying that the greatest form of love was the lay down one’s life for ones friends. But since that doesn’t fit into Adornetto’s Twilight Saga inspired view of love, it’s going to be completely ignored. It’s not like it was one of the most important things to your average Christian. Nope.
\~/
Now, to be fair. This could have, like so many things in this book, been an interesting idea. It could have showed a fundamental difference between humans and angels. It could have shown why we’re supposed to eventually, be better than them. This could have been saying that we are closer to God because we are more capable of love and give it freely. Thus showing humans as being kind of dualistic: capable of tremendous evil even without too much outside help, but also capable of extreme kindness.
Whereas angels would be more steady, but not capable of so much.
Moving on, they talk about how much they don’t understand friendship for a while, make themselves sound stupid and then Bethany gets irritating (or at least more irritating than usual).
“You know I’d never do anything to jeopardize the mission. How stupid do you think I am?”
\~/
About that stupid.
Let me remind you that this is the girl who was practically drooling over Xavier’s pretty eyes and ‘floppy’ hair.
You know, I need a nickname for him. Any suggestions?
Bethany is “pleased to see them exchange guilty looks” because she’s an obnoxious little brat, and she says that while she understands that this is important, she wants what she wants, and she’s going to get it. Then Naybriel basically tells her that they have a job to do and she doesn’t always get to have what she wants. Bethany is annoyed because the logic is sound and she can’t stay mad at him (which is a sin, drink up, my lovelies. \~/ ).
Then we get more description of the house and how nice it is to be there, and how the angels are getting junk mail and they need to purchase one of the stickers on the mail boxes around her that say no junk mail. I’ve never heard of these, and I’m going to assume that this is an Australian thing. Bethany decides to do her homework and sneers at her peers for not using a planner ( \~/ ) and then proves that Ivy and Naybriel were very right to not trust her.
I desperately needed to keep my mind occupied, if for no other reason than to stop thinking about my encounters with the school captain.
Yes, I met him when he was fishing and when he was in my class. We’ve had two conversations. It must be FATE! Seriously, this is the most needy, ridiculous twit I’ve ever met. I know that she’s getting addled by the hormones that she shouldn’t have, but she acts more like a stereotype than a person. I know that this is supposed to be twu wuv, but shouldn’t you have…you know…something in common other than the fact that you’re both pretty?
Also, ‘school captain’. What is she even talking about? Captain of what? Sports? Debate club? Seriously, this makes no sense to me.
Anyways she obsesses over Boy X and we have a potentially interesting, but ultimately ignored moment where Bethany wonders what it would be like to lose someone that she loved. This actually makes sense. Being that Bethany has existed without the fear of death, this side of mortality would lead to that question. There is no way that she could ever know the emotional pain that humans went through when someone close to them died. If Adornetto had looked at this and not the love story that this came into by accident, we might have really gotten an interesting piece of work.
But this is forgotten in the face of more uncomfortable imagery about Naybriel and how he likes to cook. Because it lets out his inner artist or something.
I want to know why we’re just talking about this.
I mean, Naybriel’s been bumming around the house all day when he could have been…I don’t know fighting crime or something…and he’s just now started to cook.
What where they doing all this time? I mean, it’s great that we’re giving Naybriel some non-stereotypical hobbies, but why hasn’t this been brought up already?
And what does Ivy do? I’m seriously starting to think that she works for the Agency of Darkness part time or something.
We get some whining about how smooth Naybriel’s movements are and (Ivy’s for that matter) and then we get a lovely new plot hole.
They * were used to be *(this should have an ‘ing’ at the end or something able to sense one another in the Kingdom, a skill that had followed them on our mission. They found me much trickier to read and it worried them.
\~/ \~/
I sure hope you guys aren’t doing this game with alcohol.
First: why? Why are you so special that no one can read you? Trust me, Bethany, you’re about as deep as a puddle. Maybe it’s because there’s nothing really going on inside her head, so the fact that she is living proof that it is possible to live without a brain worries them.
Ivy walks in, and Bethany notes that she’s lost some of her dreaminess. However, we do not get so see this, since Ivy just starts scribbling something in a notebook. Maybe she’s found a Death Note or something and has decided to take matters into her own hands and start killing criminals.
Of course, we don’t get to know what she’s doing. She’s writing down ‘ideas’. That’s it.
Then, because Bethany wants to remind us that she’s a Teenager Just Like You, she starts to wanst about the fact that Naybriel isn’t telling her anything.
Didn’t he realize how much in the dark I felt?
\~/
I really, really don’t like that sentence. It’s technically right, and it conveys the idea, but it just feels awkward. The ‘much’ is unnecessary, and it only adds verbiage to the sentence.
While this would be fine in a first draft, it probably should have been changed and worked with.
Honestly, I’d feel a whole lot more sympathy for the ‘unfairness of her being left out’ when she’s supposed to be on the mission if she hadn’t already proven herself thoughtless, manipulative and just generally poor material for the mission. As it is, the only thing I can do is pat Naybriel on the back for being somewhat sane in this train wreck. \~/
giggle
Why are you all spinning?
While Ivy is preparing to be the goddess of the new world, and Bethany is reveling in the loneliness of being alone, Naybriel is cooking. And this is very important. Because…reasons. Bethany whines some more about how she doesn’t get to do anything, and finally Naybriel tells her to
experience being a teenager.
Even though technically speaking, he was against her making friends which, from a cliché point of view, is a pretty big part of being a teenager. Then again, there are a lot of things that are part of the experience of being a teenager that I personally wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
We get a segment about Naybriel cooking mushrooms. And Bethany lies about how good they look. (I’m adding to the first rule of the drinking game: Either commits one of the Seven Deadly Sins or breaks one of the Ten Commandments. Drink up, lovelies.) \~/
While chopping the mushrooms, Naybriel chops his finger and starts bleeding. Bethany starts freaking out because it’s blood and shows how vulnerable their bodies are.
I get what she’s trying to do, to show that the angels have actual human bodies with all of their weaknesses and such, but it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense as far as logic goes. Why do they glow if their human? Why are they so blasted pretty? Also, logically speaking, if they’re supposed to be fighting demons, why would Powers of Light and Goodness be stupid enough to give them weak little bodies? Next…even if they have weak little bodies, does it really matter? Wouldn’t they just go back to being body-less hosts again? Grant it, it might hurt, but it would only really slow them down, and why can’t they just appear to be human like every other time where there was an angelic apparition and the angel wasn’t overly interested in broadcasting it to the world.
AND WHY ARE THEY SO BLASTED PRETTY AND GLOWY AND WHITE
\~/
hic
Then Bethany whines about celery and manages to put down people for trying to live well.
I’m not making that up.
(Note from the editor: I can’t entirely fault someone for not liking celery, mainly because it makes me stomach-sick when I eat it, but I don’t WHINE about it…
And Naybriel, plz…I am worried about what you are doing adding celery to those poor mushrooms…
Ivy could at least be watching Food Network and catching you up on interesting recipes…)
Why anyone would eat it voluntarily was beyond me, apart from its nutritional value. Good nutrition meant a healthier body and a longer life. Humans were inordinately afraid of death,
That scream of rage that you just heard? Probably me.
but I supposed that we couldn’t expect anything else from them given their lack of knowledge about what came beyond.
Fnquo
Fmfr
Foa
Mu kj nuo kjaerhb fv
THEN WHY ARE THE STUPID FORCES OF DARKNESS WORRYING ABOUT KILLING PEOPLE, YOU ARROGANT LITTLE TWIT?
Inuq3rwf
Nfe0qwnffv a
Ofqiwc
Bethany Church, my hatred for you festers like a three day old zombie that has been walking through a swamp that happens to be over a dormant volcano which is now starting to show signs of being active. It seeths like the underbelly of that same zombie once it has fallen face down into the boiling muck.
Go. Die.
\~/ \~/ \~/ \~/
headdesk
So after Bethany’s…charming attitude about people’s fear of death, (which doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense given the nature of the last chapter and how Dark Forces’ plans were revealed) she eats the blasted mushrooms and starts talking about how wonderful taste is since she’s never experienced it.
You’re not making me look forwards to dying, Adornetto.
They have some pointless drivel about how modest Naybriel is and how popular it is, and how hip Adornetto thinks that she is for using slang that will likely become dated within the next ten years that I honestly am not overly interested in recapping.
And now we begin what made me rage so much that I couldn’t review this book.
Romeo and Juliet as understood by a teenager with no education in literature.
Alright, before we begin this multichapter fail, I’m going to say something: I love Shakespeare. I think that his plays are great and that his reputation is well earned. He is really able to capture human emotion and often even makes his villains have moments of being sympathetic, which was, for the time, unheard of.
The problem is that Shakespeare, as anyone who has really read him extensively knows, is not an overly ‘romantic’ writer. The love that Adornetto and Meyer idealize is the kind that Shakespeare tends to either mock shamelessly (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) or show as being rather easily turned to hatred (Much Ado About Nothing and Othello). Even his sonnets were likely a mockery of the other, very serious and kind of nausea inducing groups that were being produced at the time, whether genuine or not.
As such Romeo and Juliet is not as much of a love story as it is about a story two stupid teenagers who were being stupid teenagers and their stupid families that were too busy trying to kill one another to notice that their stupid kids were being stupid.
(Editor’s Note: They call it a TRADJEDY for a reason, kids.)
It’s not the ‘ultimate romance’ that people bill it as. Expect a fuller analysis of it later.
Remember this rant in later chapters. I’m going to go back to it.
Bethany is apparently watching a movie version of the play, and Adornetto doesn’t seem aware that there is more than one.
I didn’t tell them this, but the story fascinated me. The way the lovers fell so deeply and irrevocably in love after their first meeting sparked a burning curiosity in me about how human love must feel.
Like a fool. Kinda sick.~ Special needs. Anyways.~
Ahem.
\~/
Right. So, yeah.
And I hate the phrase “irrevocably in love”. While it sounds like something over dramatic enough for Romeo, that doesn’t mean that it’s good. Besides, you’re directly quoting Twilight
Want proof?
About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. (pq 236)
-Bella Swan, not realizing that even in the eighteen hundreds people would have thought she was strange.
Moving on.
We have some hi-LAR-i-ous dialog about one of the boys having made an inappropriate comment about the actress who played Lady Capulet and Naybriel trying to project Bethany’s virgin ears from the meaning of MILF.
Ivy smiled behind her napkin while Gabriel did something I’d never seen before. He blushed and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
Come on, Naybriel. Brathany’s going to high school. She’ll hear worse in the hallways.
She’ll hear worse in her lit class once they go into modern lit.
“I believe it stand for ‘mother I’d like to…befriend’” said my sister.
“Is that all?” I exclaimed. “What a fuss over nothing. I really think Miss Castle needs to chill.”
Har dee har har.
\~/
And with that, another pointless chapter done!
Let’s recap what happened:
Bethany and Naybriel went home and ate.
Things are really heating up!
Drink Count: 27
Special thanks goes to my lovely editor, Sarah, for putting up with this asshattery.
swenson on 14 May 2013, 23:00 said:
So yet again I have to wonder why Bethany is acting so… naive. She’s an angel, yes? An immortal being who has lived in heaven for… well, there’s not time there, but the point is, she’s not new. Is she? So why is she treated like a child while Ivy and Naybriel are just so much more knowledgeable than she is? Given his history that I refuse to accept, I can see Naybriel having more knowledge about and interactions with humans, but where’s Ivy’s qualifications? And why can’t Bethany have the same ones?
I just… there is so much stupid and so little logic in this story, I want to slam my head into a wall.
Sweguy on 15 May 2013, 04:28 said:
OMG, I’ve waited for this sporking for so long! You just made my day
Juracan on 15 May 2013, 05:28 said:
Yays! My day is made.
This. Is. Freaking. Absurd. And really, if angels can sense each other, shouldn’t they be able to sense their fallen counterparts as well? They’re still angels. Furthermore, shouldn’t they have gotten a lot more intel on their mission before showing up? Or have Ivy scout the area instead of sitting at home all the time?
Oh, who am I kidding; it’s not like Adornetto thought this out…
I would suggest more jokes relating to Professor X, but I think he’s way too awesome to bring into this. I like how you refer to him as ‘Boy X’ later, though, so I’d stick with that until something better presents itself.
Ivy: I am… JUSTICE!
I would say that would be a cool twist, but knowing how YA authors today are, Ivy being evil would probably be over a guy.
Although… being reminded of the shinigami makes me think… where is the Angel of Death? If so many people are dying in this town, shouldn’t there already be an angel there who has some idea of what’s going on, because it’s been ushering souls to the next life?
I really wish I had a better answer than, “Because the Cullens are.”
While I personally agree with you, I once again have to note that not everyone who has studied literature really goes with this interpretation. John Green, for example, argued that the two were actually in love and that the tragedy was the family’s fault, not theirs.
You have to understand that I may have squealed when I saw that line.
What’s worse is that they’re freaking angels. They really shouldn’t have any misconceptions about the human mind and how it works. Angels are pure, yes, but they’re not naive. Bethany knows Gabriel was supposedly at Sodom, right? What does she think they destroyed the town for, being overly friendly?
Shy on 15 May 2013, 08:30 said:
“Why anyone would eat it voluntarily was beyond me, apart from its nutritional value. Good nutrition meant a healthier body and a longer life. Humans were inordinately afraid of death”
Seems like the angel needs to read the bible if she wants to hear a religious reason why someone should eat healthy and take care of their body.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” 1 Corinthians 6:19
You’d think the angel would understand and appreciate people trying to be healthy and take care of their bodies/temples. But no, instead we get more mightier-than-thou snobbery from the little snot.
Brendan Rizzo on 15 May 2013, 08:47 said:
Oh my. All those pictures…
Oh no. I can’t believe that Adornetto has brought that awesome video game into this.
lilyWhite on 15 May 2013, 08:57 said:
When I read the chapter title, I started to expect mad ducks, Happy Happyism, five moles who are the third-strongest amongst all of them, and Mr. Saturns. Now it can’t possibly live up to my expectations.
She’s emotionally exhausted. That, or Adornetto is irrationally confused.
It’s like Adornetto wants to present the angels to be as clueless about the human world as they could possibly be. Because every single piece of sports equipment can be hauled and set up outside—but only if it’s not raining.
If their painfully stupid ignorance of the human world ends up being a plot point, then I’m going to headdesk.
Asahel on 15 May 2013, 14:23 said:
Oh my word. Seriously? Did… did no one look at this? Did not one editor come up and say, “I think your angel is sinning a little too much?” No, never mind. Don’t answer that. I already know.
Pryotra on 15 May 2013, 15:41 said:
Well, she does make a big deal about being made seventeen years ago. Which opens all kinds of confusing questions like why anyone would bother to keep track of time/why their standard for time and ours are the same thing. Off the top of my head, I’d say that Bethany has to be so stupid so that Adornetto can envision herself as the Paragon of Purity or something like that.
Because normal is never good enough for a Sue.
You’re thinking again. I honestly doubt that Adornetto knows that there is such a thing as the Angel of Death, and that they’re not necessarily evil. Besides, they obviously have a very good idea of what’s going on, they just choose not to do anything.
Well, I could, in the standard literary tradition, insult him and such, I will agree to disagree, but state that there is a hefty group of Shakespearian scholars who would respectfully disagree and point out several points that would argue the contrary, including what appears to be the Bard’s general attitude about love.
Unfortunately, plenty of people tend to get those two confused. They can’t imagine something that doesn’t sin being aware of sin and being able to face it without being sullied or something. And even if the source that they’re dealing with really does beg to differ, they don’t let it go.
Also, the fact that angels, have, in popular culture, either been Victoria’s Secret Models or fluffy Taste Like Diabetes sweetie bunches, I’m not surprised that Adornetto wouldn’t understand this.
She probably thinks that they were just ‘very bad people’ and doesn’t really understand what was going on.
I really think that Bethany is actually a fallen angel. She just hadn’t realized it yet. Her attitude is perfect for one. Smug, self-righteous, ignorant and snobby.
I’d go with the second, personally. The girl has very little internal consistency. Look at her attitude about people dying in this chapter vs. what it was in the last one.
Of course not. They were too blinded by all the moneys that this thing was going to bring in. By this time, they’ve probably figured out that Obnoxious Heroine + Wish Fulfillment Romance + Badly Researched Mythical ‘Thingy’ = Money.
lilyWhite on 15 May 2013, 15:48 said:
The probable reasoning is simple, really: she’s not interesting unless she’s an angel or something, but she’s not interesting if she acts like an angel.
But that would actually involve acknowledging that Bethany has flaws, and I’m going to guess that Adornetto never has anyone acknowledge Bethany’s flaws and just has other characters shill her all of the time for things that are the complete opposite of her actual behaviour.
Pryotra on 15 May 2013, 15:58 said:
You would be very very right.
I can’t wait until you guys meet the actual antagonist.
swenson on 15 May 2013, 18:24 said:
There’s an antagonist other than Bethany’s crippling stupidity?
Pryotra on 15 May 2013, 18:32 said:
Oh yes.
You’ll flip when you find out about him.
We even get our own Gothic Movement.
Brendan Rizzo on 15 May 2013, 22:25 said:
Now I want to know who this antagonist is.
Juracan on 16 May 2013, 04:34 said:
They are the angels who don’t do anything!
They just stay at home and lie around!
And if the legions of Hell are slaughtering/harassing the local populace!
They’ll just tell you… they don’t do anything!
The VeggieTales reference was totally necessary, I assure you.
True, and there’s also the fact that angels shouldn’t find this romantic at all—given they’re supposed to know a lot more about the nature of love, and exactly how bad suicide is for the soul, you’d think they wouldn’t romanticize it.
…he’s going to be the third part of a love triangle, isn’t he?
swenson on 16 May 2013, 08:03 said:
That poetry fits the song very well. I commend you. :D
Asahel on 16 May 2013, 11:36 said:
Almost forgot to mention and on a related note: Why not Weapon X? It’s clear that if an angel were truly attracted to a human, the forces of darkness would want to use him as a weapon to make the angel fall.
Pryotra on 16 May 2013, 21:44 said:
How did you know? Just assume that nearly everything male in this book is interested in Bethany.
He’s got some other…fun…qualities about him, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. It’s just…bad.
Fair on 17 May 2013, 01:08 said:
Just when I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse… bring on the Gothic Movement!
Juracan on 17 May 2013, 03:30 said:
Pretty much the assumption I made, this being YA romance.
Fireshark on 17 May 2013, 09:30 said:
I think I’ve spent too much time on here, because I’m starting to associate the YA genre with a feeling of impending dread.
Simon on 17 May 2013, 10:26 said:
Whoo, something finally being posted here! How many weeks will we have to wait for the next one?
Pryotra on 17 May 2013, 15:59 said:
Tell me about it. It nausea inducing. Though Adornetto is probably the worst offender next to Mommy and Baby Cast.
Well, I’d recommend that you read The Book Thief. It’ll restore your faith in YA.
We’ll, I’m working on my review of Torment, then I start on the next chapter.
It shouldn’t be too long, since I’m off for the summer.
Pip on 18 May 2013, 19:24 said:
Yes “NO JUNK MAIL” signs are very common at least around Sydney – though they’re normally not stickers but polished metal plates attached to the mail boxes.
Also I’m assuming by the confusion ‘school captain’ is also predominantly an Aus-ism. I suppose they’re kinda similar to school prefects just with differing levels of authority over their peers. Sometimes there will also be a vice captain position. Although I mostly only recall this being mostly a primary school (years kindergarten to year six) thing. But aren’t they in highschool? It must be a pretty small one to simply require a school captain! I remember having house captains in high school. One for each – only our houses weren’t as interestingly named as Hogwarts’s…
It is actually really uncanny and off putting how much Venus cove reminds me of my home town…
Pryotra on 19 May 2013, 10:12 said:
Yep. Thanks for telling me. It really helps to know what is being weird and what actually works, given the country that she’s from.
It would be a real help if she would at least mention where she is, since different places don’t have the same things. In America, we have neither prefects nor school captains, but the Harry Potter series worked since Rowling very obviously set her story in Britain.
As long as you don’t have the landscape and have an actual place where people work, I could see it working. Adornetto just didn’t put much thought into how the place would be set up.