Last time:
Marlee had just arrived at her new school and met the Moon Elf Taylor.We also got the rundown on her flaky artist aunt and wise beyond his years little brother, Dobkin. And she got three warnings to "Be careful."
Chapter Two:
Now she's in school and the hallway is teeming with kids again, heading to their next class. And, of course, everyone's staring at the new girl. A student catches up to her to give Marlee her new locker assignment and take her around the school. The girl sounds rather pixie-ish so I'm picturing something like Tinkerbell. I'd use a picture but Disney spies would probably find me and kill me.
Anywho, the Pixie is named Noreen and, unlike other fictional characters I could name (*cough* Bella *cough*) Marlee is nice to her and hopes they become friends. Like most tiny girls in books, Noreen has a lot of personality and bulldozes their way through the hall. Marlee is surprised that Noreen knows so much about her new house and finds out that Noreen's mom is the realtor and it's a small town where everyone knows everything and everybody.
They gossip a bit about the former owner of the house, the oldness of it and the "depressing" old-fashioned furniture. How can furniture be depressing? Being a broke-ass bitch most of the time I get my furniture used and I really could care less what it looks like. As long as it's comfortable and clean, I'm good.
Anywhat, Noreen wonders why they didn't rent one of the more "gorgeous" apartments on a different street (I guess she isn't big on tact, maybe they cost more Noreen!). Noreen suggests making the house nice again to impress everyone and Marlee wonders why they should even worry about impressing anyone. They continue down the hall with Noreen pointing out various doors and teachers. They chat a bit more about how really really small the town is and that everyone's already impressed and jealous of Marlee because she came to them from the Outside World and everything.
The bell rings but Noreen continues to give her the grand tour so she can be out of class longer (my kind of girl). Marlee thinks about how she and Noreen are really clicking and that she'd like to be friends with her. Although she doesn't really want to get close to anyone because they move around so much. Which is, again, a welcome relief from some newer fiction because most of the Bella types only think about how much they hate people and especially hate it when people are nice to them. I'm sorry but I really hate that.
Anywhere, they walk around the school a bit more and bitch about the cold weather (I feel your pain, girl). They go to The Locker. Noreen acts a little funny about it and starts babbling a bit about it obviously being empty although Marlee can't see that because it's closed and they're several feet away. Oddly, The Locker won't open after a few attempts so she tells Noreen to hold her purse while she kicks it's ass.
It pops open suddenly, sending her back a few feet and then she gets overwhelmed with a really nasty stench. She feels hands clawing at her and hears screams of pain and terror.
That's one sucky locker.
End of Chapter
Looks like it's starting to get going so of course they end the chapter with a cliffhanger. At least things are actually happening.
You know, as much as I do poke fun at them the teen horror books from the nineties do hold up incredibly well. The protagonists are generally likeable (for the most part) and have personalities of their own. Some of the plots might be a little far-fetched but no more so than some modern books. And, honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the stream of consciousness style of writing that seems to be pretty popular lately. I don't mind a first person view but in the S.o.C. you're so limited on the world around the character in the book. Plus, it doesn't make sense at times. Just to use an example, in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins there is a part explaining what the Tracker Jackers are. If we were truly in the character's mind then they would know what they are. They wouldn't have to elaborately explain it to the audience because they would already know. But Katniss does have to because the reader needs the explanation. So it makes it seem like the character is telling herself information that she should already know so it's either narrative cheating or making the character seem kind of dumb for having to explain simple facts of their world over and over again.
I'm not really picking on The Hunger Games because I did think it was a pretty decent book, that's just the first example that popped into my mind.
Anyways, my point is that in order to use that style you have to either narratively cheat or over-explain at times if you're not using it well. Stephanie Meyers and E.L. James I'm looking at you. Right at you. It's a hard style to pull off unless you're very talented at it.
Well, enough of me and back to the post.
Tuesday will be the riveting Chapter 5 recap of Dead Dancing Women so be on the watch for that!
And, as always, give me a like or a share if you like the blog or hit me up in the comments with any suggestions or requests. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment