Last Week:
Marlee learned that the former owner of her locker disappeared mysteriously.
Chapter 4:
As they're (finally) going to class, Noreen fills Marlee in on who Suellen is.There's not much to tell. One day Noreen and her were walking with each other and the next day she was gone.
Just before going into class Marlee oh-so-casually asks Noreen if she and Tyler are dating. Noreen says they're just friends. Marlee is a little embarrassed because she didn't fool Noreen for a second.
The day goes by in a blur for her. Don't they always when you need to conveniently pass time? Marlee appreciates the fact that everyone is nice to her (take notes, Bella) but she just can't keep her mind off...what? Tyler? Nope! I think we may just have a girl that doesn't fall obsessively in love at first sight. Rare these days, I know.
Actually, what she can't stop thinking about is The Locker. It creeps her out a lot that the girl who had it before her disappeared and the smell and vision are disturbing her. She is somewhat miserable but it has more to do with yet another new school and feeling like everyone is staring and whispering. She's thankful for Noreen's presence.
I see this as yet more proof that even though Aunt C is a "cool" aunt she shouldn't be dragging two kids all over the United States. Especially since there is no reason for it. She just doesn't like staying in one place too long. They've lost their parents so why put added stress on them by yanking them in and out of schools every few months?
Anywho, back to the story. She's carrying around all of her stuff rather than face The Locker again.
Noreen invites her out after school but Marlee has to pick up her younger brother, Dobkin. Noreen perks up at the mention of a brother but gets disappointed when she learns that Dobkin is only 6. I usually don't like weird names, especially for little kids. Sometimes it makes it seem too cutesy. But I like the name Dobkin.
Noreen leaves Marlee alone with her thoughts and a knot in her stomach at the prospect of meeting the rest of the kids at school. She's dreading the thought of opening The Locker, fearing a repeat of the first time. Nothing happens though.
Her next door locker neighbor introduces himself. He's described as tall, tanned and shoulder length hair in varying shades of blonde. He is dressed a bit like a down-home boy: in jeans, a denim shirt and boots.
He's very intense and wants to know why they moved to Edison. She counters with a "Why not?"
He says that no one would ever transfer there and they're not related to anyone in town so he wants to know her reason for moving there. Because no one would possibly move somewhere just beacause. He's kind of a dick about it.
Marlee gives him a "What's it to you, asshole?" answer (I may ne paraphrasing a bit here). He thinks she's moved there "looking for a quaint little slice of Americana? Come to study the country bumpkins?"
She insists she's not like that and since we've seen absolutely no proof of it (and neither has he) then he's just being a dick. He brushes off her answer and leaves.
Marlee leaves school also to go pick up Dobkin. He's off by himself on the playground, flipping through a book and looking bored. They talk a little about his day. There was a slight issue with him dyeing a boy's shirt to match his by using grape juice. In Dobkin's words "they're all such children". So, now we know that Dobkin is 'wise beyond his years' and different from other six year olds because of course he is. At least they don't go overboard. He still talks like a six year old and doesn't use a bunch of polysyllabic words.
Dobkin can tell that something is wrong with Marlee and she tells him that "my locker attacked me". He comments that it would make a great movie and I agree (The Locker That Ate the School!)
She thinks that something's wrong but she's not sure what. Dobkin suggests she tell him because he might be able to help.
So she tells him and he reminds her that she knows what that smell was. She tries to fight off the memory and insists that she doesn't know what he's talking about. He says she smelled it once before, the smell of fear.
End of Chapter
I know I keep comparing this to some newer books (like Twilight) but it's hard not to. At least this book moves along at a fairly brisk pace without overly detailing unnecessary stuff and so far I like the main character. She seems like a normal girl. She gets a slight crush on a cute boy but doesn't get overly dramatic about it, descending into utter depression just because she hasn't seen him in a few hours. She's not nasty to everyone or dismissive of people trying to be her friend. She is nervous about meeting new people, and somewhat uncomfortable in a new school. This, however, comes out through the writing and her character. There's not a whole bunch of 'But I'm so ordinary! Why does everyone like meeee!" or unrealistic portrayals of awkwardness. And other people act normally around her. They aren't unreasonably hostile or display sudden love and devotion to someone they've just met.
Well, that's about it for tonight. Join me again on Tuesday and Thursday for another riveting chapter of Dead Dancing Women.
Showing posts with label chapter four. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapter four. Show all posts
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Dead Dancing Women: Chapter 4 Recap
Hello! Last time Emily sat by her lake and made a few calls. Excitement! Thrills! Get ready for...a trip to town!
As we rejoin Emily she's waking up, felling like crap. I guess shock will do that to you. She takes a shower and gets dressed, "pretending to glamour" with her streaky, too long hair. I have no idea what "pretending to glamour" means. And you know, I have absolutely no idea what this woman looks like. With all the other description we've gotten I'd think she could have spared a sentence or two about herself. I'm not even sure how her hair is streaked. Brown and gray? Blue and green? No idea. Maybe it's yellow since she throws on a "clean yellow cotton sweater" and gets into her yellow Jeep. Well, I'm glad she told us her shirt was clean. I was worried there for a minute.
She heads into town bitching about potholes and stopping for turkeys to be courteous. Except that it's kind of the law to stop for turkeys around here so courtesy doesn't really enter into it. She thinks that the turkey is bitching at her. Emily seems to have a real problem with thinking animals are thinking about her. And for wanting "mindless nature" she seems to hate wildlife.
Ooh, now we get a description of the town. Yay! She calls it a mid-sized village. Which calls to mind something fairly small. But, here's the layout: Two grocery stores, an IGA and a Mom and Pop sounding place. A library, an ammo store, a restaurant named Fuller's EATS (naturally) owned by a woman with a penchant for genealogy. Except that all her in-laws seem to be outlaws and ne'er-do-wells (I only mention this because it will pop up again, in one of my major annoyances of the book), A candy shop that has been busted for porn, a funeral home that sounds suspiciously like an actual one in a neighboring town (in real life), a beauty shop (which Emily doesn't trust, saving her hairstyling for Traverse City, the only town that can cut hair correctly, I guess), a barber shop with scary men smoking inside and a lot of Michigan Militia literature and a cigar store Indian (Native-American) outside. She ruminates a bit about the wisdom of offending the Native-Americans in the area who are getting wealthy and powerful off the casinos. I'm paraphrasing, but not by much. Which leads her to another offensive rumination that the locals
"take pride in their independence of thought, right along with the busted couches sitting on their front porches, their pickups with full gun racks, and their groaning deer pole every November."
Because saying people have trashy houses isn't rude at all. And gun racks are actually pretty rare around here though I will plead guilty to the deer thing. Except, Emily, you forgot bow season. Tsk tsk. I'm sure if she had remembered she would have been snarky about that as well.
There is also a feed store, a mechanic, a Five & Dime, a resale shop, a bakery, post office (a U.S. post office, no less) and some kind of wood product place which employs most of the town. There's also a bar called The Skunk Saloon, a bowling alley, three churches, a bank (that is horrible as well, Traverse City is apparently better at banking too) and the combination Police and Fire Station, to which she is now headed.
Sorry to inflict all that on you but that sounds like a pretty good-sized town to me. And I mostly mention it because Emily tells us that she loves planning her trips to town. Even though she doesn't seem to like or use any of it, preferring Traverse City.
And a mention about the bank. There are two towns closer to her fictional Leetsville that have perfectly fine banks and services. Kalkaska and Mancelona. But since I think she made up her town out of bits and pieces of those two towns then she chooses to ignore them. I could be wrong, however, we'll see if they get deemed worth a mention.
Anywho, Emily arrives at the Police Station to find a state police officer ( I somehow feel that should be capitalized but she didn't so I'm not going to). They all get introduced and we're told Officer Brent (the trooper) has a shaved head and unibrow, because, of course. Then Chief Lucky actually uses the word Mrs. as opposed to Miz and I get happy thinking that maybe E.K.B. deemed him smart after all but no, he's back to saying Miz the next sentence. Geez, at least be consistent with your bizarre dialect choices, Elizabeth. And, I swear, I have never heard anyone use the word 'Miz' before. It seems like she just grabbed a random redneck accent to use. WE DON'T TALK LIKE THAT! Sorry for the yelling but it had to be done.
She starts interrogating them for her article and the Chief goes along with it for a bit. Mostly just stuff about if he told the family (one daughter, a refined, delicate lady, gag). He also tells her that a search will be on for the rest of the lady. After pumping him for info she then politely informs him that she's covering it for her paper. Then Super Trooper pipes up telling her that she will have to get any of her information from the Gaylord State Police post. Ok, I'm not 100% on this but I do know that there is a State Police post in Kalkaska. Emily says that the one in Gaylord is the main one however. Since this could be accurate I'll defer to her. This time.
Emily answers some questions until Deputy Dolly interrupts by telling the trooper he'd be better off letting the locals handle the investigation because they know everybody and know all the local feuds. Which seems reasonable to me. Super Trooper thinks so too because a bar fight gone bad in Petoskey is much more interesting than a severed head. Ok?? I have the feeling that a bar fight shooting would be a local matter but that a severed head would be state but who am I to argue with the Gods of Contrivance?
Emily decides to leave and go to the local gossip mill, Fuller's EATS. I'm not yelling. That's the way it's written. She knows that everybody knows everybody back to their great-granddaddies and speculates that people there would know based on the perpetrator's lineage. In a conversation that uses more Generic Redneck Speak:
"Goes back to 'is great-grandfather, Chilton. I remember the man. Tipped over the Johnson's outhouse one Halloween and never had the gumption to admit to it. Bad, right from then on. Coward, you might say. Fun is fun, but telling the truth is something else..."
Outhouse tipping! That sounds almost as fun as cow tipping! Ugh.
So, off to Fuller's EATS!
End of Chapter
And so winds up another exciting chapter of stereotyping and Emily pondering on animals gossiping about her.
Next Tuesday we'll find out what exciting things she learns at Fuller's EATS. And if she thinks their food is edible. My guess is it doesn't compare to Traverse City. And don't forget that Sunday is Teen Horror Sunday and we'll start another chapter of The Locker by Richie Tankersley Cusick. In which more fun things will probably happen than in this book.
As always, leave a comment, like, share or tweet about it if you found this interesting or entertaining at all. And please, feel free to leave a comment with suggestions or just to say hi!
As we rejoin Emily she's waking up, felling like crap. I guess shock will do that to you. She takes a shower and gets dressed, "pretending to glamour" with her streaky, too long hair. I have no idea what "pretending to glamour" means. And you know, I have absolutely no idea what this woman looks like. With all the other description we've gotten I'd think she could have spared a sentence or two about herself. I'm not even sure how her hair is streaked. Brown and gray? Blue and green? No idea. Maybe it's yellow since she throws on a "clean yellow cotton sweater" and gets into her yellow Jeep. Well, I'm glad she told us her shirt was clean. I was worried there for a minute.
She heads into town bitching about potholes and stopping for turkeys to be courteous. Except that it's kind of the law to stop for turkeys around here so courtesy doesn't really enter into it. She thinks that the turkey is bitching at her. Emily seems to have a real problem with thinking animals are thinking about her. And for wanting "mindless nature" she seems to hate wildlife.
This Turkey is Judging You
Ooh, now we get a description of the town. Yay! She calls it a mid-sized village. Which calls to mind something fairly small. But, here's the layout: Two grocery stores, an IGA and a Mom and Pop sounding place. A library, an ammo store, a restaurant named Fuller's EATS (naturally) owned by a woman with a penchant for genealogy. Except that all her in-laws seem to be outlaws and ne'er-do-wells (I only mention this because it will pop up again, in one of my major annoyances of the book), A candy shop that has been busted for porn, a funeral home that sounds suspiciously like an actual one in a neighboring town (in real life), a beauty shop (which Emily doesn't trust, saving her hairstyling for Traverse City, the only town that can cut hair correctly, I guess), a barber shop with scary men smoking inside and a lot of Michigan Militia literature and a cigar store Indian (Native-American) outside. She ruminates a bit about the wisdom of offending the Native-Americans in the area who are getting wealthy and powerful off the casinos. I'm paraphrasing, but not by much. Which leads her to another offensive rumination that the locals
"take pride in their independence of thought, right along with the busted couches sitting on their front porches, their pickups with full gun racks, and their groaning deer pole every November."
Because saying people have trashy houses isn't rude at all. And gun racks are actually pretty rare around here though I will plead guilty to the deer thing. Except, Emily, you forgot bow season. Tsk tsk. I'm sure if she had remembered she would have been snarky about that as well.
There is also a feed store, a mechanic, a Five & Dime, a resale shop, a bakery, post office (a U.S. post office, no less) and some kind of wood product place which employs most of the town. There's also a bar called The Skunk Saloon, a bowling alley, three churches, a bank (that is horrible as well, Traverse City is apparently better at banking too) and the combination Police and Fire Station, to which she is now headed.
Sorry to inflict all that on you but that sounds like a pretty good-sized town to me. And I mostly mention it because Emily tells us that she loves planning her trips to town. Even though she doesn't seem to like or use any of it, preferring Traverse City.
And a mention about the bank. There are two towns closer to her fictional Leetsville that have perfectly fine banks and services. Kalkaska and Mancelona. But since I think she made up her town out of bits and pieces of those two towns then she chooses to ignore them. I could be wrong, however, we'll see if they get deemed worth a mention.
Anywho, Emily arrives at the Police Station to find a state police officer ( I somehow feel that should be capitalized but she didn't so I'm not going to). They all get introduced and we're told Officer Brent (the trooper) has a shaved head and unibrow, because, of course. Then Chief Lucky actually uses the word Mrs. as opposed to Miz and I get happy thinking that maybe E.K.B. deemed him smart after all but no, he's back to saying Miz the next sentence. Geez, at least be consistent with your bizarre dialect choices, Elizabeth. And, I swear, I have never heard anyone use the word 'Miz' before. It seems like she just grabbed a random redneck accent to use. WE DON'T TALK LIKE THAT! Sorry for the yelling but it had to be done.
She starts interrogating them for her article and the Chief goes along with it for a bit. Mostly just stuff about if he told the family (one daughter, a refined, delicate lady, gag). He also tells her that a search will be on for the rest of the lady. After pumping him for info she then politely informs him that she's covering it for her paper. Then Super Trooper pipes up telling her that she will have to get any of her information from the Gaylord State Police post. Ok, I'm not 100% on this but I do know that there is a State Police post in Kalkaska. Emily says that the one in Gaylord is the main one however. Since this could be accurate I'll defer to her. This time.
Emily answers some questions until Deputy Dolly interrupts by telling the trooper he'd be better off letting the locals handle the investigation because they know everybody and know all the local feuds. Which seems reasonable to me. Super Trooper thinks so too because a bar fight gone bad in Petoskey is much more interesting than a severed head. Ok?? I have the feeling that a bar fight shooting would be a local matter but that a severed head would be state but who am I to argue with the Gods of Contrivance?
Emily decides to leave and go to the local gossip mill, Fuller's EATS. I'm not yelling. That's the way it's written. She knows that everybody knows everybody back to their great-granddaddies and speculates that people there would know based on the perpetrator's lineage. In a conversation that uses more Generic Redneck Speak:
"Goes back to 'is great-grandfather, Chilton. I remember the man. Tipped over the Johnson's outhouse one Halloween and never had the gumption to admit to it. Bad, right from then on. Coward, you might say. Fun is fun, but telling the truth is something else..."
Outhouse tipping! That sounds almost as fun as cow tipping! Ugh.
So, off to Fuller's EATS!
End of Chapter
And so winds up another exciting chapter of stereotyping and Emily pondering on animals gossiping about her.
Next Tuesday we'll find out what exciting things she learns at Fuller's EATS. And if she thinks their food is edible. My guess is it doesn't compare to Traverse City. And don't forget that Sunday is Teen Horror Sunday and we'll start another chapter of The Locker by Richie Tankersley Cusick. In which more fun things will probably happen than in this book.
As always, leave a comment, like, share or tweet about it if you found this interesting or entertaining at all. And please, feel free to leave a comment with suggestions or just to say hi!
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