Hush, Hush: Chapter 23 (Part 2)
ZeldaQueen: ...Let's just get this over with.
Also. Before we begin, please be aware that this chapter depicts actions which depict acts of abuse, dominance, and near-rape. If this will potentially act as a trigger, please proceed with caution or skip the chapter entirely.
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 23 (Part 2)
ZeldaQueen: *tiredly* Are you ready for this? I don’t think you are. I highly recommend having a pillow on hand to whack your heads against. Here we go.
After that…erm, stunning revelation in the last section, Nora’s finger slips off of Patch’s scar and she wakes up back in the motel room. She’s very disoriented and I can only assume the vision happened in a split second real time, because Patch is only now reacting. And by reacting, I mean he throws her onto the bed, grabs her by the wrists, and keeps her pinned there.
ZeldaQueen: This is not going to get any more pleasant, folks. Just a head’s up.
Patch tells her that “You weren't supposed to do that”, which is rich when you consider that he was the one strolling around with no shirt on, shoving those stupid scars in her face. Or am I supposed to believe that a fallen angel, with all of his strength and abilities, can’t tell when a teenage girl is about to sneak up and grab him? But no, it’s all Nora’s fault. Just blame the girl held down on the bed here. What a great guy!
He gets in her business while still pinning her and demands that she tell him what she saw. I’d like to state right off the bat that Nora continues to narrate this entire scene in the same mellow, bland tone she uses for everything else. There’s no sense that she’s freaked out at this point. In fact, she more or less comes across as sort of irritated. Irritated that the guy she’s trapped in a room with is holding her on a bed and threatening her. Right.
Nora does put up a fight and knees him in the ribs. This does not harm him in any way, and instead causes him to do this
“He slid onto my hips, straddling them, eliminating the use of my legs. With my arms still stretched above my head, I couldn't do more than squirm under his weight.”
ZeldaQueen: THIS IS OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THIS IS THE GUY NORA WILL BE IN A RELATIONSHIP BY THE END, WHETHER SHE LIKES IT OR NOT.
And this is probably a good time to bring up another thing. Unlike Certain Female Protagonists, Nora does have some self preservation instinct (I say “some” because her Portland trip and passivity that led her to this situation to begin with suggests there isn’t much), and tries to fight off Patch. Arguably though, that makes this scene even creepier. Because we have the guy threatening and frightening the girl, but we also get the pleasant image of the girl sobbing and struggling as he does so. But she can’t win, because this guy has basically been god-moded and she can’t hurt him at all. Really, this all reads like Fitzpatrick saw some slasher movie and decided to copy one of those scenes where the killer corners his latest victim in her bedroom.
I bring this all up because…well, it’s honestly all I can think about with this next bit. Nora demands that Patch let her go, or else she’ll scream. Patch replies that she’s already screaming (even though it reads like she’s talking through clenched teeth or something) and that “it isn't going to cause a stir in this place. It's more of a whorehouse than a motel”.
Well. That certainly put a lovely spin on the last chapter, didn’t it? I bet you all thought that this was like Twilight, where it was creepy, but at least the Suethor was just too naïve and stupid to realize the implications of what she was putting down, didn’t you? Nope. This was all planned. Patch knows damned well what he can do. Which means that Fitzpatrick knows this as well. And yet she just let her female lead stand there passively and meekly and let him force her into that situation, without saying a word. Fitzpatrick? That’s really sick.
Patch gives Nora a Slasher Smile (do you really think I’m exaggerating by this point?) and says that it’s her last chance to tell him what she saw. Given that he’s straddling her while holding her on a motel room bed, that is FUCKING CREEPY, WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?
Now Nora is fighting to keep back tears and screams that Patch is sick and he can just own up and tell her who he really is. She then blurts out that she knows he wants to kill her and starts goading him to do it. I honestly don’t know what to say to this. This is all so creepy and horrible and given that Nora is trying not to cry while thinking about that “fateful day he'd walked into my life”, I think Fitzpatrick is trying to invoke a sense of betrayal but it DOESN’T WORK. He’s a bastard who has been abusive and downright evil and out of nowhere, she’s acting like they had some big thing together, even though HALF THE TIME SHE DIDN’T LIKE HIM! GOD!!!
No, I’m firmly convinced by this point that she has Stockholm Syndrome. This is not love. This is the exact opposite. This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read.
And it keeps on rolling like this. Nora starts trying to twist out of Patch’s grip, before concluding that it’s impossible. She’ just trapped with him holding her down on the bed, with no way to escape his power. WHY DOES THE SUETHOR NOT SEE WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS? She tells Patch that he’s probably enjoying this, and he replies “That would be a smart bet”.
… He enjoys pinning her to a bed, watching her cry and struggle, all while scaring and threatening her.
I honestly have nothing. That speaks quite well for itself.
Nora continues to challenge Patch to kill her and get it over with, and it sounds exactly like she just had her will broken or had a mental breakdown. Her only request is that he tell her why she’s the one he wants to kill. Well Nora, it’s because the Suethor decided that you and he are the One True Pair and the only way to get you together whilst upholding his “Bad Boy” image is attempted murder. No, Patch just tells her it’s “Bad genes”. Don’t worry, we’ll find out in a bit what that means. By God, it’s stupid.
Patch shuts Nora up by telling her that if he wanted to kill her, he would have done it five minutes ago. Are we supposed to think well of this, because of that? I’m sorry, but if a guy tricks me into spending the night in a room with him, throws me on the bed, holds me down, straddles my hips, and then says “Oh right, I totally could have killed you before, but I didn’t”, I’m not going to think he’s romantic. I’m going to think he’s a sick creep who gets off on psychologically torturing me. Or plans to rape me. Or might just kill me anyway. After all, William Edward Hickman claimed he never planned to kill Marian Parker.
And now we move on to Patch being all creepy by stroking the birthmark on Nora’s wrist. She starts asking him about Dabria, and Patch avoids the question, instead asking if she’d calm down if he got off of her. *swells with fury* WHAT DO YOU THINK, YOU ASSHOLE? WHAT THE FUCK? MAKING OUT LIKE SHE’S THE ONE BEING OVERLY HYSTERICAL AND YOU’RE JUST THE PARAGON OF PATIENCE AND REASON. I HATE YOU!
*fumes* Nora makes it clear to the readers that she’s making a break for the door as soon as he lets go. I’m loathe to give her any points though, because she’s incredibly stupid and tells him that it makes no point if she runs, because he’ll just catch her and drag her back. For fuck’s sake, don’t tell him you’re considering it, you idiot! Oh, and Patch continues with the creepy, replying that he could catch her just fine “but that would cause a scene”. I can just hear him say that in a low voice while stroking the side of her face, before telling her not to make him duct tape her mouth shut and that he’ll be gentle -
Okay, I just freaked myself out. One second
*elevator music plays*
So, after slapping myself into a semi-sane state, I return and immediately become infuriated once more. Because Nora unloads this
“‘Is Dabria your girlfriend?’ I could feel each ragged rise and fall of my chest. I wasn't sure I wanted to hear his answer. Not that it mattered. Now that I knew Patch wanted to kill me, it was ridiculous that I even cared”
ZeldaQueen: Nora. You are locked in a motel room with a guy who has admitted to wanting to kill you and is holding you on the bed. You’re deciding to worry about whether or not he has a girlfriend?!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT? I…my lord! There is something deeply, deeply wrong with someone who is about to be killed and their last thought is “Oh, he’s already seeing someone. How disappointing”.
Oh, but no worries because Patch says that Dabria is his ex girlfriend (LIKE I SAID, YOU DUMBASS) and that dating her was a mistake (because of course dating anyone but the Mary Sue protagonist is stupid). *sourly* Well, looks like we have the important stuff sorted.
Patch slowly lets go of Nora and gets off of her. She gives herself to the count of three and then throws herself at Patch
“I shoved against his chest, but other than swaying back slightly, he didn't move. I scrambled out from under him and took my fists to him. I hammered his chest until the bottoms of my fists began to throb.
‘Done?’ he asked.
‘No!’ I drove my elbow down into his thigh. ‘What's the matter with you? Don't you feel anything?’
I rose to my feet, found my balance on the mattress, and kicked him as hard as I could in the stomach.
‘You've got one more minute,’ he said. ‘Get your anger out of your system. Then I take over.’
I didn't know what he meant by ‘take over,’ and I didn't want to find out. I made a leaping run off the bed, with the door in sight. Patch snagged me midair and backed me against the wall. His legs were flush with mine, front to front down the length of our thighs”
ZeldaQueen: Are we supposed to think this is sexy? Seriously? Because that’s the only reason I can think as to why Fitzpatrick is writing this all like Patch is all but raping her.
And no, I didn’t miss his condescending behavior there. “Oh you, you silly wimminz. You get worked up over the silliest things, don’t you? Just let it out of your system and let me take the wheel. Not like you could hurt me, right?”
So yeah, once again Patch has Nora pinned and helpless and she’s nearly crying and I’m suppressing the urge to retch. She asks if he enrolled in her school to kill her and he says yes. She goes on about how he must be so pleased with himself. And then…oh fuck no. FUCK. NO
“I knew I was being irrationally irate. I should have been terrified and frantic. I should have been doing everything in my power to escape. The most irrational part of all was that I still didn't want to believe he would kill me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't smother that illogical speck of trust”
ZeldaQueen: SHE KNOWS SHE SHOULD BE ESCAPING.
SHE KNOWS SHE OUGHT TO BE TERRIFIED OF HIM.
SHE HAS NO DESIRE FOR EITHER.
SHE CONTINUES TO TRUST HIM WHILE HE HAS HER TRAPPED AND OVERPOWERED.
THIS IS FUCKING STOCKHOLM SYNDROME!!! DON’T TELL ME IT IS NOT!
*BREATHS IN AND OUT MANY TIMES IN AN ATTEMPT TO LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE*
RIGHT. So. After that extremely disgusting bit from Nora, Patch decides that he’d better just do his best to up the creepy. He tells her “I get that you're angry” (NO SHIT, SHERLOCK) and he kisses her.
He kisses her.
While HOLDING HER AGAINST THE WALL. AND SCARING HER. HE TIPS HER HEAD UP AND KISSES HER TO MAKE HER STOP STRUGGLING AGAINST HIM.
Honestly? I’m reminded of the manga Anatolia Story, particularly the chapter where a king uses an incense to paralyze Yuri, so he can have his way with her.
Nora bites his lip, and it honestly sounds like her will is being broken and that is one of the few acts of defiance she can muster. Patch makes a joke about that, because this is clearly a funny situation. Nora calls him out on that, and he replies that he doesn’t think she’s a joke. No, clearly not. The fact that he has all but tied her in the bed sheets and handcuffed her to the headboard is a true demonstration of how serious he is for her. *head desk*
At this point, Nora basically flat-out admits that Patch is That Much More Controlled than her and that she can’t fight him. *groans* She hears a voice in her head telling her to relax, because of course making Nora think she’s insane is a much better way to calm her down than just saying it. Nora finally confronts Patch about the voices and images she’s been hallucinating and figures out that it’s all from him. *golf clap* well done, Einstein. Patch explains that he just puts an image over what’s real, and that it’s up to her to figure out which it is. Is it just me, or does that sound like more victim-blaming? “Well, you could have seen through my mind rape if you tried. It’s not my fault you’re an idiot”. He also admits that while it’s a power angels have, only fallen angels would invade a human’s mind like that.
In other words, he’s basically a demon with no compunctions about mind raping people and has admitted to planning premeditated murder on Nora. Truly, this is a guy worth fantasizing over.
And then, we find out that everything happened because of Patch. He mind raped their Biology teacher into seating him next to Nora. He originally planned to shove her out of the Archangel, but couldn’t bring himself to do it because he just loved her that much. So instead he mind raped her into thinking she was going to die. Because clearly that’s the better course of action. And back when he was making tacos and Nora was freaked out by the huge knife he was wielding? Yeah, he was planning to stab her with it. Yet again, he only didn’t go through with it because Nora somehow was just so wonderful he couldn’t bring himself to kill her.
In other words, two out of the three “dates” Patch has taken Nora on only happened because he ultimately had planned to kill her. He did not ride the Archangel with her because he wanted her to live a little. He did not fix her dinner because he was being nice. He was not hanging around her so much out of affection. Every time he hung around her, he was planning to murder her.
You know, I’ll just throw out here that Edward stalked Bella for purely selfish reasons. He was possessive of her, treated her as property, was controlling, and overly obsessed. But never did he stalk her with the intent purpose of killing her.
So congratulations, Ms Fitzpatrick. You have written a male love interest that officially outstrips Edward “I suppose I can murder all the Quileutes” Cullen by way of sheer evil.
Nora gets all dizzy that point and her throat constricts, and she generally acts like Evie having her asthma attack in V for Vendetta. She apparently is…suffering from a lack of those iron pills. Which had pretty much been forgotten for most of the book. Huh. And Patch fixes it by just having her sit still and put her head between her knees. Oh, and he continues to hang around her, even though she’s clearly unwell and having trouble breathing and his presence is, for obvious reasons, causing her distress.
So because Patch kept her from dying of iron deficiency, he thinks that’s totally a reason for her to trust him. No, really, he asks her “Still don't trust my motives?” And I am torn between nuclear fury that he has the unmediated GAL to ask her that after the events of this chapter and fire-and-brimstone fury because she wants to trust him.
By this point, I’m just burned out. Nora says that her condition for trusting him again is for him to let her touch his scars again. He waffles and finally agrees, she pokes them, we finish, blah, blah, blah.
Mother of GOD, that chapter was just horrible! What the fuck? How is that romantic? HOW? I’m at a loss!
See you guys next chapter. It might be a bit. I do need a rest
Onward to: Chapter 24
Back to: Chapter 23 (Part 1)
Return to to: Table of Contents
Also. Before we begin, please be aware that this chapter depicts actions which depict acts of abuse, dominance, and near-rape. If this will potentially act as a trigger, please proceed with caution or skip the chapter entirely.
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
Chapter 23 (Part 2)
ZeldaQueen: *tiredly* Are you ready for this? I don’t think you are. I highly recommend having a pillow on hand to whack your heads against. Here we go.
After that…erm, stunning revelation in the last section, Nora’s finger slips off of Patch’s scar and she wakes up back in the motel room. She’s very disoriented and I can only assume the vision happened in a split second real time, because Patch is only now reacting. And by reacting, I mean he throws her onto the bed, grabs her by the wrists, and keeps her pinned there.
ZeldaQueen: This is not going to get any more pleasant, folks. Just a head’s up.
Patch tells her that “You weren't supposed to do that”, which is rich when you consider that he was the one strolling around with no shirt on, shoving those stupid scars in her face. Or am I supposed to believe that a fallen angel, with all of his strength and abilities, can’t tell when a teenage girl is about to sneak up and grab him? But no, it’s all Nora’s fault. Just blame the girl held down on the bed here. What a great guy!
He gets in her business while still pinning her and demands that she tell him what she saw. I’d like to state right off the bat that Nora continues to narrate this entire scene in the same mellow, bland tone she uses for everything else. There’s no sense that she’s freaked out at this point. In fact, she more or less comes across as sort of irritated. Irritated that the guy she’s trapped in a room with is holding her on a bed and threatening her. Right.
Nora does put up a fight and knees him in the ribs. This does not harm him in any way, and instead causes him to do this
“He slid onto my hips, straddling them, eliminating the use of my legs. With my arms still stretched above my head, I couldn't do more than squirm under his weight.”
ZeldaQueen: THIS IS OUR HERO, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. THIS IS THE GUY NORA WILL BE IN A RELATIONSHIP BY THE END, WHETHER SHE LIKES IT OR NOT.
And this is probably a good time to bring up another thing. Unlike Certain Female Protagonists, Nora does have some self preservation instinct (I say “some” because her Portland trip and passivity that led her to this situation to begin with suggests there isn’t much), and tries to fight off Patch. Arguably though, that makes this scene even creepier. Because we have the guy threatening and frightening the girl, but we also get the pleasant image of the girl sobbing and struggling as he does so. But she can’t win, because this guy has basically been god-moded and she can’t hurt him at all. Really, this all reads like Fitzpatrick saw some slasher movie and decided to copy one of those scenes where the killer corners his latest victim in her bedroom.
I bring this all up because…well, it’s honestly all I can think about with this next bit. Nora demands that Patch let her go, or else she’ll scream. Patch replies that she’s already screaming (even though it reads like she’s talking through clenched teeth or something) and that “it isn't going to cause a stir in this place. It's more of a whorehouse than a motel”.
Well. That certainly put a lovely spin on the last chapter, didn’t it? I bet you all thought that this was like Twilight, where it was creepy, but at least the Suethor was just too naïve and stupid to realize the implications of what she was putting down, didn’t you? Nope. This was all planned. Patch knows damned well what he can do. Which means that Fitzpatrick knows this as well. And yet she just let her female lead stand there passively and meekly and let him force her into that situation, without saying a word. Fitzpatrick? That’s really sick.
Patch gives Nora a Slasher Smile (do you really think I’m exaggerating by this point?) and says that it’s her last chance to tell him what she saw. Given that he’s straddling her while holding her on a motel room bed, that is FUCKING CREEPY, WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?
Now Nora is fighting to keep back tears and screams that Patch is sick and he can just own up and tell her who he really is. She then blurts out that she knows he wants to kill her and starts goading him to do it. I honestly don’t know what to say to this. This is all so creepy and horrible and given that Nora is trying not to cry while thinking about that “fateful day he'd walked into my life”, I think Fitzpatrick is trying to invoke a sense of betrayal but it DOESN’T WORK. He’s a bastard who has been abusive and downright evil and out of nowhere, she’s acting like they had some big thing together, even though HALF THE TIME SHE DIDN’T LIKE HIM! GOD!!!
No, I’m firmly convinced by this point that she has Stockholm Syndrome. This is not love. This is the exact opposite. This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever read.
And it keeps on rolling like this. Nora starts trying to twist out of Patch’s grip, before concluding that it’s impossible. She’ just trapped with him holding her down on the bed, with no way to escape his power. WHY DOES THE SUETHOR NOT SEE WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS? She tells Patch that he’s probably enjoying this, and he replies “That would be a smart bet”.
… He enjoys pinning her to a bed, watching her cry and struggle, all while scaring and threatening her.
I honestly have nothing. That speaks quite well for itself.
Nora continues to challenge Patch to kill her and get it over with, and it sounds exactly like she just had her will broken or had a mental breakdown. Her only request is that he tell her why she’s the one he wants to kill. Well Nora, it’s because the Suethor decided that you and he are the One True Pair and the only way to get you together whilst upholding his “Bad Boy” image is attempted murder. No, Patch just tells her it’s “Bad genes”. Don’t worry, we’ll find out in a bit what that means. By God, it’s stupid.
Patch shuts Nora up by telling her that if he wanted to kill her, he would have done it five minutes ago. Are we supposed to think well of this, because of that? I’m sorry, but if a guy tricks me into spending the night in a room with him, throws me on the bed, holds me down, straddles my hips, and then says “Oh right, I totally could have killed you before, but I didn’t”, I’m not going to think he’s romantic. I’m going to think he’s a sick creep who gets off on psychologically torturing me. Or plans to rape me. Or might just kill me anyway. After all, William Edward Hickman claimed he never planned to kill Marian Parker.
And now we move on to Patch being all creepy by stroking the birthmark on Nora’s wrist. She starts asking him about Dabria, and Patch avoids the question, instead asking if she’d calm down if he got off of her. *swells with fury* WHAT DO YOU THINK, YOU ASSHOLE? WHAT THE FUCK? MAKING OUT LIKE SHE’S THE ONE BEING OVERLY HYSTERICAL AND YOU’RE JUST THE PARAGON OF PATIENCE AND REASON. I HATE YOU!
*fumes* Nora makes it clear to the readers that she’s making a break for the door as soon as he lets go. I’m loathe to give her any points though, because she’s incredibly stupid and tells him that it makes no point if she runs, because he’ll just catch her and drag her back. For fuck’s sake, don’t tell him you’re considering it, you idiot! Oh, and Patch continues with the creepy, replying that he could catch her just fine “but that would cause a scene”. I can just hear him say that in a low voice while stroking the side of her face, before telling her not to make him duct tape her mouth shut and that he’ll be gentle -
Okay, I just freaked myself out. One second
*elevator music plays*
So, after slapping myself into a semi-sane state, I return and immediately become infuriated once more. Because Nora unloads this
“‘Is Dabria your girlfriend?’ I could feel each ragged rise and fall of my chest. I wasn't sure I wanted to hear his answer. Not that it mattered. Now that I knew Patch wanted to kill me, it was ridiculous that I even cared”
ZeldaQueen: Nora. You are locked in a motel room with a guy who has admitted to wanting to kill you and is holding you on the bed. You’re deciding to worry about whether or not he has a girlfriend?!? WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MATTER WITH YOU, YOU IDIOT? I…my lord! There is something deeply, deeply wrong with someone who is about to be killed and their last thought is “Oh, he’s already seeing someone. How disappointing”.
Oh, but no worries because Patch says that Dabria is his ex girlfriend (LIKE I SAID, YOU DUMBASS) and that dating her was a mistake (because of course dating anyone but the Mary Sue protagonist is stupid). *sourly* Well, looks like we have the important stuff sorted.
Patch slowly lets go of Nora and gets off of her. She gives herself to the count of three and then throws herself at Patch
“I shoved against his chest, but other than swaying back slightly, he didn't move. I scrambled out from under him and took my fists to him. I hammered his chest until the bottoms of my fists began to throb.
‘Done?’ he asked.
‘No!’ I drove my elbow down into his thigh. ‘What's the matter with you? Don't you feel anything?’
I rose to my feet, found my balance on the mattress, and kicked him as hard as I could in the stomach.
‘You've got one more minute,’ he said. ‘Get your anger out of your system. Then I take over.’
I didn't know what he meant by ‘take over,’ and I didn't want to find out. I made a leaping run off the bed, with the door in sight. Patch snagged me midair and backed me against the wall. His legs were flush with mine, front to front down the length of our thighs”
ZeldaQueen: Are we supposed to think this is sexy? Seriously? Because that’s the only reason I can think as to why Fitzpatrick is writing this all like Patch is all but raping her.
And no, I didn’t miss his condescending behavior there. “Oh you, you silly wimminz. You get worked up over the silliest things, don’t you? Just let it out of your system and let me take the wheel. Not like you could hurt me, right?”
So yeah, once again Patch has Nora pinned and helpless and she’s nearly crying and I’m suppressing the urge to retch. She asks if he enrolled in her school to kill her and he says yes. She goes on about how he must be so pleased with himself. And then…oh fuck no. FUCK. NO
“I knew I was being irrationally irate. I should have been terrified and frantic. I should have been doing everything in my power to escape. The most irrational part of all was that I still didn't want to believe he would kill me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't smother that illogical speck of trust”
ZeldaQueen: SHE KNOWS SHE SHOULD BE ESCAPING.
SHE KNOWS SHE OUGHT TO BE TERRIFIED OF HIM.
SHE HAS NO DESIRE FOR EITHER.
SHE CONTINUES TO TRUST HIM WHILE HE HAS HER TRAPPED AND OVERPOWERED.
THIS IS FUCKING STOCKHOLM SYNDROME!!! DON’T TELL ME IT IS NOT!
*BREATHS IN AND OUT MANY TIMES IN AN ATTEMPT TO LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE*
RIGHT. So. After that extremely disgusting bit from Nora, Patch decides that he’d better just do his best to up the creepy. He tells her “I get that you're angry” (NO SHIT, SHERLOCK) and he kisses her.
He kisses her.
While HOLDING HER AGAINST THE WALL. AND SCARING HER. HE TIPS HER HEAD UP AND KISSES HER TO MAKE HER STOP STRUGGLING AGAINST HIM.
Honestly? I’m reminded of the manga Anatolia Story, particularly the chapter where a king uses an incense to paralyze Yuri, so he can have his way with her.
Nora bites his lip, and it honestly sounds like her will is being broken and that is one of the few acts of defiance she can muster. Patch makes a joke about that, because this is clearly a funny situation. Nora calls him out on that, and he replies that he doesn’t think she’s a joke. No, clearly not. The fact that he has all but tied her in the bed sheets and handcuffed her to the headboard is a true demonstration of how serious he is for her. *head desk*
At this point, Nora basically flat-out admits that Patch is That Much More Controlled than her and that she can’t fight him. *groans* She hears a voice in her head telling her to relax, because of course making Nora think she’s insane is a much better way to calm her down than just saying it. Nora finally confronts Patch about the voices and images she’s been hallucinating and figures out that it’s all from him. *golf clap* well done, Einstein. Patch explains that he just puts an image over what’s real, and that it’s up to her to figure out which it is. Is it just me, or does that sound like more victim-blaming? “Well, you could have seen through my mind rape if you tried. It’s not my fault you’re an idiot”. He also admits that while it’s a power angels have, only fallen angels would invade a human’s mind like that.
In other words, he’s basically a demon with no compunctions about mind raping people and has admitted to planning premeditated murder on Nora. Truly, this is a guy worth fantasizing over.
And then, we find out that everything happened because of Patch. He mind raped their Biology teacher into seating him next to Nora. He originally planned to shove her out of the Archangel, but couldn’t bring himself to do it because he just loved her that much. So instead he mind raped her into thinking she was going to die. Because clearly that’s the better course of action. And back when he was making tacos and Nora was freaked out by the huge knife he was wielding? Yeah, he was planning to stab her with it. Yet again, he only didn’t go through with it because Nora somehow was just so wonderful he couldn’t bring himself to kill her.
In other words, two out of the three “dates” Patch has taken Nora on only happened because he ultimately had planned to kill her. He did not ride the Archangel with her because he wanted her to live a little. He did not fix her dinner because he was being nice. He was not hanging around her so much out of affection. Every time he hung around her, he was planning to murder her.
You know, I’ll just throw out here that Edward stalked Bella for purely selfish reasons. He was possessive of her, treated her as property, was controlling, and overly obsessed. But never did he stalk her with the intent purpose of killing her.
So congratulations, Ms Fitzpatrick. You have written a male love interest that officially outstrips Edward “I suppose I can murder all the Quileutes” Cullen by way of sheer evil.
Nora gets all dizzy that point and her throat constricts, and she generally acts like Evie having her asthma attack in V for Vendetta. She apparently is…suffering from a lack of those iron pills. Which had pretty much been forgotten for most of the book. Huh. And Patch fixes it by just having her sit still and put her head between her knees. Oh, and he continues to hang around her, even though she’s clearly unwell and having trouble breathing and his presence is, for obvious reasons, causing her distress.
So because Patch kept her from dying of iron deficiency, he thinks that’s totally a reason for her to trust him. No, really, he asks her “Still don't trust my motives?” And I am torn between nuclear fury that he has the unmediated GAL to ask her that after the events of this chapter and fire-and-brimstone fury because she wants to trust him.
By this point, I’m just burned out. Nora says that her condition for trusting him again is for him to let her touch his scars again. He waffles and finally agrees, she pokes them, we finish, blah, blah, blah.
Mother of GOD, that chapter was just horrible! What the fuck? How is that romantic? HOW? I’m at a loss!
See you guys next chapter. It might be a bit. I do need a rest
Onward to: Chapter 24
Back to: Chapter 23 (Part 1)
Return to to: Table of Contents