Still on this freaking plane. I think most of these airplane chapters could have been condensed into one or two, because they just feel like pointless filler at this point. The only time watching people on a plane is entertaining is if there's some kind of impending disaster or there are snakes involved.
Either snakes or Samuel L. Jackson might
make this plane ride tolerable...
Eden asks for the time, but since her Life-Band is gone she doesn't get the little voice giving her the time, and states that she feels "like an amputee who still feels the presence of a missing limb." Wow, Foyt, you really are out to offend anyone and everyone. First people of color, then rape victims, now amputees? I'm almost proud of you for finding new ways to offend.
Eden also states that Bramford stole her identity along with her Life-Band, and that she doesn't know who she is anymore. I know losing the equivalent of your iPhone means some adjustment, girl, but if your identity is wrapped up in that thing, you've got bigger problems...
Both Eden's father and Bramford are asleep, and Eden figures "this might be her only chance." Oh boy, I can hardly wait to see where this goes...
She quietly slipped into the aisle, heading for the attendant's area. Unable to resist the opportunity to study the sleeping beast (gag), she stopped beside him. A company T-shirt strained over his shoulders like a child's garment, exposing his muscular torso. Long, dark eyelashes swooned over the sharp slash of his cheekbones. (Swooned???) Fine, dark hair framed his rugged face.
Time seemed to flicker around Bramford, imposing his former self over his animal-like incarnation, as if his old Holo-Image clung to him. Eden suspected that the dual identities waged a mysterious battle. But which did she want to win? The powerful titan that might save them or the savage beast that excited her? - p. 92-93
Awkward descriptions? Check. Still calling Bramford a beast? Check. Thinking this guy is sexy and falling for him despite hating him? Check and eyeroll. Why do so many books and movies assume that if two people of the opposite sex hate each other, it must be TWU WUV? I hate this trope with a fiery passion...
And of course we know Bramford and Eden are destined to be together because she excites him, because apparently Jamal never excited her like this. I guess that's understandable -- she only ever saw Jamal as a tool to get mated, after all -- but still, the implication that Bramford makes her tingly inside means he's her true love is pretty questionable. Just because someone makes you hot and bothered doesn't mean they're relationship material.
Was it even possible for two people to truly see each other in a calculated world where its inhabitants mated to improve their offspring's genetics or to control a lesser mate?
She thought about how her mother might have quoted Aunt Emily. "That Love is all there is, / Is all we know of Love."
But no, Eden reminded herself, love was dead. - p. 93
And of course, this is a dystopia, there's no room for love in a dystopia! *sigh*
She has a fantasy of Bramford waking her up, pinning her down, ignoring her writhing and protesting, and... biting her neck? I guess Foyt's inspired by vampire romances now? Plus this scene is all kinds of squicky rather than actually romantic...
Because this is all kinds of sexy,
am I right?
In a daze, she stepped away from him. Clearly, the monumental losses of home, Austin, and her Life-Band, had driven her crazy. - p. 93
I dunno, you didn't seem to care any about Austin when he was alive. Show us Eden cares about the dog before you use him as angst bait, Foyt...
Eden finally makes it to Princess Daisy -- I mean Daisy the flight attendant, but the attendant tries to shoo her off. She says she can't help Eden, and she's just trying to survive. Eden, out of nowhere, tells Daisy her mom died of the Heat -- I can't tell if she's trying to get Daisy to pity her or if she honestly thinks it fits into the conversation somehow, because it feels like something really random and awkward to tell a stranger.
She reminded Eden of one of the girls shown on the old Beauty Map -- an English Rose. How ironic that long ago the two of them might have been called "hot." - p. 94
We get it, your precious protagonist is one of those "beautiful even if she doesn't realize it" girls, shut up.
Daisy asks what happened to Bramford. Eden spills the beans on turning Bramford into a furry, and reveals it could be the key to saving humanity from the Heat. She reveals that the change is the best hope for Pearls to not only survive, but to change the world. Then she asks where they're going. Hmmm... personally I would have refused to answer this question until Daisy told me where the plane was going, but Eden hasn't been noted for using her brain in this book.
Daisy says Bramford gave her this job after her husband, one of Bramford's pilots, died, and that she owes him. Eden gets this lovely "sensitive" bit:
Eden figured Bramford found it cheaper to employ the widow than pay costly benefits. He was no tender heart. - p. 95
We get it, you think Bramford is a big bad meanie despite the fact that he's saved your bacon at least twice in this book. Shut up, will you?
Eden starts to explain that they could trade Bramford to the government for... something, she never gets to finish her sentence because another idea pops into her head. She asks for a Life-Band instead, saying everything depends on it. Daisy refuses, saying she has a son to think about, but Eden persists, and Daisy finally answers:
"Sector Six," Daisy said, abruptly. "That's your destination."
Holy Earth, Eden gulped. They might as well be sucked into a black hole. Sector Six was a lawless, barren land. If the drug lords didn't kill them, The Heat or predators would. (Yes, the "The" there is capitalized in the book) - p. 95
Something else that would make this
book way better...
Okay, hold up. Drug lords and predators? I thought no life could exist on the surface thanks to the Heat... excuse me, The Heat. Drug lords is at least a tiny bit understandable, as they could be living in caves like the Combs, but predators? Unless they've somehow evolved in a stupidly short time to be resistant to heat, they should all be dead. Wait, this is Foyt, she believes that animals are magically resistant to the same radiation that should kill humans, never mind...
Also, if there's already a perfectly legal drug being handed out to the general populace to pacify them, why are drug lords such a big problem? Did Foyt just figure "drug lords are a staple of dystopian fiction, my book needs some?" You need to think these things out before incorporating them into your book.
This is a big flaw of a lot of amateur fiction, from Paolini's Eragon books down to this book -- the authors want to throw in all kinds of concepts that they think are cool, but don't stop to think if they actually fit into the world they've already constructed. Before throwing in anything, whether it's a common trope of the genre or your own original creation, stop and think "does this fit with the established rules of my universe? Does it add to the story or create a plot hole?" Unfortunately, like Paolini, Foyt didn't stop to consider before tossing it in.
The jet starts to land, and Daisy tells Eden to go. Eden begs again for a Life-Band, but Daisy says no, and Eden goes into the bathroom. Her Midnight Luster's coming off (she calls it Daylight Scary instead, har har), and she considers wiping it off, but she's too terrified of looking at her own natural coloring to do it. Girl, given the circumstances on this adventure, nobody's going to freaking care.
Even some Coal was better than none, she decided, throwing down the towel. - p. 96
For hating Coals, she sure wants to be like them... Being white myself, I can't put myself in the shoes of someone who's experienced racism or prejudice, but I can imagine that this attitude isn't as weird as it looks. There might be people who hate the fact that they're forced to act "more white" but still do it because it means better job prospects, less harassment, etc. Still, the way it's written in this book just comes across as awkward.
The sun's rising as Eden sits back down -- "like a bloodshot Cyclops" -- and she thinks how strange it is that humanity used to love the sunlight and fear the night. She also sees the Amazon River... and that's the first sign we get of where exactly this book takes place.
And right here is where I cry bull on all Eden's whining about how Coals don't know what it's like to experience prejudice. With the reveal that this book takes place in our world, in South America, she shows that this isn't an invented world but our own, with our history and our past intact. (Or at least I have to assume so, as this book hasn't hinted at an alternate history of any sort.) So things like slavery, the Civil Rights movement, and all the ugly history of racism and prejudice still exist in this universe's past, and Eden has no right to scream that black people have no idea what it's like to be outcasts.
Ahem... sorry, went off on a tangent there. Moving on.
Eden remembers seeing forests in the World-Band as a child -- and of course we get the Latin name for Sequoia trees because SMRT PPL USE LATIN NAMES DURRRRRRRRRR -- and says she could hear the trees crying as a child, and her mother explains this is because they were the oldest living things on the planet and now they're gone. Um... wat? When did this book become Ferngully?
Apparently crying over the trees was the last time Eden ever shed tears. Good to know that our protagonist is such an unemotional clod that she didn't even cry over the death of her mother, but could apparently cry over some trees. Remind me why we're supposed to like this girl again?
We get a random Emily Dickinson poem, Eden's terrified of the rising sun, chapter ends, yadda yadda yadda. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- this book has the most aggressively unlikable protagonist in fiction I've ever seen. Even Bella Swan looks like Black Widow next to her...
