It’s all downhill from here. We’ve finally reached the halfway point.
This is a pretty dismal chapter. They get to the party and there’s so much awkwardness it physically hurts.
All the awkward!
I’m just going to dive in, I really just hate everything.
Basically, the house is just your typical suburban house, living room, central air keeping everything cool, blah blah and so on. There’s a few people there, a husband and wife and a black woman. Basically, in the middle of all this suburban bullshit, they have the most stereotypical BDSM party going on. I’m not here to judge, and I know not everyone has a dungeon in their basement and these things can take place anywhere. But here, there’s a ridiculous lack of research and a whole lot of dependence on how you *think* a freak party would go.
It’s not like this.
The BDSM culture has a basis in respect and understanding. And trust. A lot of trust. Anita is obviously uncomfortable here and they’re still pressing in on her, trying to make her participate. Telling her that once the “big guys” get there, she’s going to have to participate, Phillip is going to have to share.
Lots of trust.
The whole thing makes me uncomfortable.
Another thing that bothers me about this chapter is the whole weird sense of homophobia and gay panic that’s happening. At this point, she’s getting groped and whatever by two women and she turns and smiles at the unknown man in the group, knowing damn well that it’s going to get his attention. It just doesn’t make sense.
She looked like she wondered what flavor I was and how long I’d last. I had never been looked at that way by another woman. I didn’t like it much.
This is Madge, Harvey’s wife. They’re both doing a spectacular job of making AB super squicky and uncomfortable.
Her eyes said she was thinking naughty things about me, and her. No way. Rochelle swished her skirt, exposing far too much thigh. I had been right. She was naked under the skirt. I’d die first.
Really?
Ok, just a head’s up. It takes like twenty books for this author to even get her main character into the thought of women, and even then she has zero idea of what to do with them when they get there.
GTFO!
Here’s my theory and it’s just that, a theory.
Parallel to LKH, I’ve been writing through my twenties, through a few kids, through a divorce, through new men. And when you’re writing, it comes out in the writing, whether you want it to or not. My early works show that I had no fucking idea what I wanted from a man or how I wanted to be treated. The awkwardness you feel around other people, it can come through in your work, especially if you’re knowing or unknowingly basing the character on a part of yourself, which becomes apparent that she is.
Anyway. I doubt that she’s rather die than get it on with a black lady. That’s pretty extreme and sort of racist. I had a problem with it.
This is pretty though..
And again. HOW DO NONE OF THESE PEOPLE RECOGNIZE HER? She doesn’t even bother with a fake name. She should be screaming this in her head. They have to know her, why is no one bringing it up?
Anyway, after all the awkwardness, Phillip says he brought her there and he was going to take her home. Madge tells him she might be a sweet piece of tail and calls her a bedwarmer, but he’s not going to go up against the vampires when they get there.
Anita is all like hell the fuck no. Madge comments on her temper and Anita has to say something awful.
“Did you know that when you smile, you get deep wrinkles on either side of your mouth? You are over forty, aren’t you?”
So here’s the thing. This is a BDSM party. A not very well educated one, but that’s what it is. A sex party thing. Anita gets invited to it because of Phillip, so far that’s all we know. When you’re in this setting, you don’t mock someone else’s appearance. If they’re confident enough to come in front of you, old overweight in their skivvies, you take the higher road and not insult them. The same thing she describes when Crystal gets there. She’s less of a person because she’s fat and older. So fucking what? If she’s fat and older and still banging Phillip, who the fuck cares? What? Sexy parties are only for young hot people?
Did you just cum on my mom?
Crystal is obviously a terrible person because she looks like shit and obviously shouldn’t be there. She throws herself at Phillip, and Anita is as tactless as ever, telling the woman to keep her hands off her date.
Anyway. If Anita had any hope of getting information from these people, she probably just ruined it.
And I remembered what he said, that he had stopped coming to these parties. Was this why? Crystal and her like?
Yes, who wants to be groped by a middle aged mom? That’s the WORST.
Madge of the sharp fingernails?
More old ladies. Gross.
I had forced him to bring me, but in doing so, I had forced him to bring himself.
If you thought of it that way, it was my fault Phillip was here. Damn, I owed him.
HOLYFUCKINGSHITDUHHHH
Really? You’re just now getting here? To this conclusion? Trust me, stupid, the old ladies aren’t even the worst of it. Didn’t you think before there was a reason he stayed away from his equivalent of an opium den? Come the fuck on! How did you graduate college?
So she makes Crystal cry. Cause she’s a badass fucking vampire slayer, that’s right! These people just came here to get their jollies and Anita is just killing the mood all over the place.
F U
Phillip is shaking. Anita offers that they can leave if he wants. Just now getting the scope of what she’s asked him to do, she offers that if it’s too much, they can leave. But he chooses to stay, because if there’s a choice, he can do it. I get the sentiment and it was clever that she gave Phillip a redeeming quality.
But it’s never true. Phillip has in fact been getting orders from someone. Someone has told him to get her there to the party and keep her safe. But that’s not it at all. He’s lying to her, but she can’t get him to tell her what the lie is or who is giving him orders.
But that’s alright. Edward walks in. Oh yes. The highlight of this chapter. Anita looses all of her sense and curiosity in figuring out the truth behind Phillip, because she’s in shock that he’s there. Edward at a freak party. She wonders what the hell he’s doing there, though it’s pretty obvious he’s there to do his fucking job and kill something.
Bringing down the house!
AB should probably focus and find out who the hell Phillip is getting his orders from, but she can’t get past it. She’s thinking Edward might have met his match. And if Nikolaos connected Anita to Edward, she was in a world of shit. She knows that she should tell Nikolaos that he was here, but she wasn’t going to turn over a human to the monsters.
Edward is way better at acting than Anita, but that’s not saying much. Edward knows she’s not going to turn him in. Maybe she should have started working with him instead of Phillip? He’d be guaranteed to kill his share of vampires and they’d probably get down to the bottom of the murders.
But she’s not going to do that. Instead, she contemplates using his lack of honor like he’s using her honor now. This doesn’t sound like it’s going to be good.
And she never finds out who the hell is ordering Phillip around. Get your head in the game, girl.
Rise of the Anti Fan 