You know, there are a handful of things that I can't forgive an author for. I can put up with not getting the nuances for racial stuff right, I can tolerate a lot of violence towards women (when the women kick ass in return). I guess I'm not the most sensitive person in the universe when it comes to tropes and things. Story, to me, overcomes just about everything else. It's why I can read John Ringo and Stephen R. Donaldson without exploding. But you know...
“What did Gregory say?”
“That his father tried to contact him,” Cherry’s voice.
“Why is that bad?”
“His father is the one that pimped him and Stephen out when they were children.”There is just some shit that should not be done casually.
In other words--
So yeah. This chapter isn't off to a great start.
There's a thing I call plot bunnies. I expect there is a real name for it--probably tropes--but that's what I call them. Author realizes that they cannot introduce an new character, drop a plot bomb or institute a plot twist (or better, a plot Crazy Ivan) so they reach for a bunny. The food porn in Sunshine, the clothes porn in Hunger Games. The songs in Lord of the Rings (OH GOD THE SONGS. THE SONGS). Anything that makes you go OOH LOOK A BUNNY while you're waiting for the plot to move.
So far in this book we've had a sadistic asexual pedophile AKA Musette, a rescue threesome, murder involving nailing to walls, murder involving liquifaction of body, and now we have gross child abuse. I do not think LKH has any bunnies that are not terrible.
And of course this is all a terrible revelation to Anita, who has only been the Pard's emotional support for, like, a solid fucking year.
Micah tells Anita that he's going to go get Gregory and...uh, that's it. The chapter is mostly about Anita talking about how she can't wake up, and it ends with her going back to sleep.
I am wracking my brain to figure out why this chapter is here, and I can find no reason for its existence whatsoever. I'm just going to bed now.
“His father is the one that pimped him and Stephen out when they were children.”
ReplyDeleteAnd of course you are absolutely the perfect person to reveal that fact, and you have the complete right to do so. /sarcasm
So on the subject of eyes, which have come up a few times here: Mine recently changed colours. They went from generic hazel to light green. More specifically, mainly light green with a halo of greenish-gold around the iris and a thin band of very dark green around the edge of the pupil.
The only reason I know these specifics is because I've taken several up-close looks in the mirror. If you're at arm's length or further from me, the only thing you'll see is green. Kaleidoscopic mood-ring eyes just aren't going to be very impressive to the average viewer. They'll probably look 'dark' or 'light' to the casual viewer, depending on whatever colour is predominate at that moment.
I think eye-colour is important to a story if it's important to the PoV character. If the character is a visual artist or clothes horse or has tetrachromatic colour vision then I can understand them noticing eye colour. If the character goes around in disguise a lot then eye colour is important. But like everything else, eye colour is only important to LKH to demonstrate how special Anita/Merry and her boys are.
I've actually had partners whose eyes changed coloures based on their moods, from murky green to bright blue when they're happy. My own can change pretty radically day to day.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I'd never put that garbage in a book, because it could only be used as a plot device, and as a plot device it's STUPID.
I remember reading about this one girl whose eyes went from sapphire blue to emerald green when she was angry and it was a Big Deal because only her Token Love Interest ever saw her with green eyes, because she was a Perfect Angel except around him.
Yeah, that book found the wall several times.
Eye colours should only be used when your narrator is uncomfortably close to the person, so they can actually make out the eyes.