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lliiraContent: Harassment, misogyny, depression, dogs peeing on a tree
Get your barf bags ready. Page 69 starts with something that nauseated me more than anything in this book yet had.
Tyler Crowley (I wonder if she'll ever just call him "Tyler") won't let Bella alone. He follows her everywhere, including between classes, and forces himself on her lunch table. She tries to get him to "forget all about it" (nearly hitting her with his van), but he "remain[s] insistent". It is extremely creepy and scary and icky and gross.
Bella worries that she's "gained another unwelcome fan." That sounded arrogant until I thought about it for a few seconds and realized Bella's severely underplaying the grossness of these guys, and how helpless they must make her feel. Mike and Edward are not happy that Tyler is at the lunch table with them, and they're being jerkish to him and to each other over their rivalry for Bella's affections or whatever the heck they're hoping for. Bella hasn't acted one bit interested in any of these guys. I don't think they want her specifically -- this is some kind of sick contest between the three of them. Very obviously, none of them care what she wants. I don't know if Meyer believes all boys act this way, or if she's making other boys look extraordinarily terrible in order to make douchebag Edward look better.
The lunch table where Bella sits is "now-crowded" because of Bella's -- I don't know what to call them. They're not admirers. They're not quite stalkers, either. Ugh. I don't know what Meyer was thinking. This stuff doesn't make Bella look attractive, if that's what Meyer was going for, because none of these guys (except possibly Mike) has been shown as attracted to Bella. This is a pissing contest, and Bella is the tree. Maybe it's to show that Bella needs to be pissed on by the biggest dog of them all so all the other dogs will leave her alone. I don't even know, it's yucky.
No one seemed concerned about Edward, though I explained over and over that he was the hero...
No one believes her because no one else saw Edward there. How special. Edward didn't only save Bella from being smushed; he also sat with her until the ambulance arrived, forcing her back down to the ground when she tried to sit up. But no one else saw Edward there "until the van was pulled away" -- something that didn't happen until the paramedics arrived. Uh. Huh.*
Here's a weird line: "I tried to be convincing." Wait, what? What reason would the reader have for thinking you wouldn't try to convince your frenemies of the truth? Why do you have to "try" here? When I see lines like that in books, it's usually because the person trying to do the convincing is either making excuses for not really trying, or talking about trying to convince people of a lie. Add this line to the fact that Bella was surprised at herself for telling Edward the truth. Possibly Bella lies so constantly, she doesn't know how to communicate when she isn't lying.
Bella thinks that the reason no one else noticed Edward is that "no one else watched him the way I did. How pitiful." Well, it makes you sound creepy, Bella, but actually no. I can sort of buy that Edward moved so fast that no one saw him actually rescue you. I cannot buy that they did not see him sitting with you right after he did it. And I do think Tyler would have noticed that you moved or were moved away from his van with blinding speed. Something else is going on here. Maybe the Cullens have bribed all of Forks to pretend not to notice supernatural manifestations.
Bella's non-answer is typical of depression, though. Depression makes a person self-obsessed. When I was depressed, the reason for all sorts of random things was that I wasn't good enough. This is one way in which depression stymies a depressed person's cognitive abilities; when your first answer is "I'm pathetic," you get stuck in a spiral of self-hatred and don't look for other answers.
Edward was never surrounded by crowds of curious bystanders eager for his firsthand account.
Yep, Bella's jealous of Edward again/still. I can't remember jealousy ever being one of the first things I felt when attracted to someone. When I had a crush, stuff about a guy would be added either to the "he's so awesome" column or to the "I want to cuddle him and make it all better" column. After I've been with someone for a while, sometimes I'll start feeling a little envious over some of their abilities (Beroli's memory is incredible, for instance), but mostly I'm proud to be with someone who's cool. But, well, Edward's not cool. "People avoided him as usual." Yeah, because he's a huge douche.
Edward's family keeps sitting at their own little table, not interacting with any of those dirty Muggles, continuing not to eat.
None of them, especially Edward, glanced my way any more.
Oh my. Okay, this sentence shows us that Bella is creepily staring...
I mean, the Cullens aren't trying...
Oh for...
What else was Edward especially not doing? A trapeze act involving six flaming torches and two lemurs? Stripping and wrestling with Emmett in a large vat of pudding? Singing Au Claire de La Lune while setting up a croquembouche large enough to feed everyone in the lunchroom?
Yep, I'm done. Can't stop giggling.
I wonder if Edward is especially not giggling.
* Speaking of which, why did the teachers leave Bella lying on the ground, with only Edward watching her? Forks High School is letting itself in for a massive lawsuit; first, for not closing the school while the roads were icy; second, for not salting their parking lot; third, for letting a student who had just been in an accident lie on the ground without any adult anywhere near her.
Get your barf bags ready. Page 69 starts with something that nauseated me more than anything in this book yet had.
Tyler Crowley (I wonder if she'll ever just call him "Tyler") won't let Bella alone. He follows her everywhere, including between classes, and forces himself on her lunch table. She tries to get him to "forget all about it" (nearly hitting her with his van), but he "remain[s] insistent". It is extremely creepy and scary and icky and gross.
Bella worries that she's "gained another unwelcome fan." That sounded arrogant until I thought about it for a few seconds and realized Bella's severely underplaying the grossness of these guys, and how helpless they must make her feel. Mike and Edward are not happy that Tyler is at the lunch table with them, and they're being jerkish to him and to each other over their rivalry for Bella's affections or whatever the heck they're hoping for. Bella hasn't acted one bit interested in any of these guys. I don't think they want her specifically -- this is some kind of sick contest between the three of them. Very obviously, none of them care what she wants. I don't know if Meyer believes all boys act this way, or if she's making other boys look extraordinarily terrible in order to make douchebag Edward look better.
The lunch table where Bella sits is "now-crowded" because of Bella's -- I don't know what to call them. They're not admirers. They're not quite stalkers, either. Ugh. I don't know what Meyer was thinking. This stuff doesn't make Bella look attractive, if that's what Meyer was going for, because none of these guys (except possibly Mike) has been shown as attracted to Bella. This is a pissing contest, and Bella is the tree. Maybe it's to show that Bella needs to be pissed on by the biggest dog of them all so all the other dogs will leave her alone. I don't even know, it's yucky.
No one seemed concerned about Edward, though I explained over and over that he was the hero...
No one believes her because no one else saw Edward there. How special. Edward didn't only save Bella from being smushed; he also sat with her until the ambulance arrived, forcing her back down to the ground when she tried to sit up. But no one else saw Edward there "until the van was pulled away" -- something that didn't happen until the paramedics arrived. Uh. Huh.*
Here's a weird line: "I tried to be convincing." Wait, what? What reason would the reader have for thinking you wouldn't try to convince your frenemies of the truth? Why do you have to "try" here? When I see lines like that in books, it's usually because the person trying to do the convincing is either making excuses for not really trying, or talking about trying to convince people of a lie. Add this line to the fact that Bella was surprised at herself for telling Edward the truth. Possibly Bella lies so constantly, she doesn't know how to communicate when she isn't lying.
Bella thinks that the reason no one else noticed Edward is that "no one else watched him the way I did. How pitiful." Well, it makes you sound creepy, Bella, but actually no. I can sort of buy that Edward moved so fast that no one saw him actually rescue you. I cannot buy that they did not see him sitting with you right after he did it. And I do think Tyler would have noticed that you moved or were moved away from his van with blinding speed. Something else is going on here. Maybe the Cullens have bribed all of Forks to pretend not to notice supernatural manifestations.
Bella's non-answer is typical of depression, though. Depression makes a person self-obsessed. When I was depressed, the reason for all sorts of random things was that I wasn't good enough. This is one way in which depression stymies a depressed person's cognitive abilities; when your first answer is "I'm pathetic," you get stuck in a spiral of self-hatred and don't look for other answers.
Edward was never surrounded by crowds of curious bystanders eager for his firsthand account.
Yep, Bella's jealous of Edward again/still. I can't remember jealousy ever being one of the first things I felt when attracted to someone. When I had a crush, stuff about a guy would be added either to the "he's so awesome" column or to the "I want to cuddle him and make it all better" column. After I've been with someone for a while, sometimes I'll start feeling a little envious over some of their abilities (Beroli's memory is incredible, for instance), but mostly I'm proud to be with someone who's cool. But, well, Edward's not cool. "People avoided him as usual." Yeah, because he's a huge douche.
Edward's family keeps sitting at their own little table, not interacting with any of those dirty Muggles, continuing not to eat.
None of them, especially Edward, glanced my way any more.
Oh my. Okay, this sentence shows us that Bella is creepily staring...
I mean, the Cullens aren't trying...
Oh for...
What else was Edward especially not doing? A trapeze act involving six flaming torches and two lemurs? Stripping and wrestling with Emmett in a large vat of pudding? Singing Au Claire de La Lune while setting up a croquembouche large enough to feed everyone in the lunchroom?
Yep, I'm done. Can't stop giggling.
I wonder if Edward is especially not giggling.
* Speaking of which, why did the teachers leave Bella lying on the ground, with only Edward watching her? Forks High School is letting itself in for a massive lawsuit; first, for not closing the school while the roads were icy; second, for not salting their parking lot; third, for letting a student who had just been in an accident lie on the ground without any adult anywhere near her.
