In Which I Suffer Through New Moon: Chapter 9 -- Third Wheel · 2:26pm Mar 20th, 2018
Time passes for Bella; Jacob’s given her a way to take her mind off things, so she isn’t nearly as miserable anymore. She’s aware that her behavior is self-destructive, but doesn’t care. Also, days of riding a motorcycle means she actually learns how to ride a motorcycle:
I was getting better with my bike, which meant fewer bandages to worry Charlie. But it also meant that the voice in my head began to fade, until I heard it nore more. Quietly, I panicked.
CM + 1
Come Valentine’s Day, Jacob pops up with a box of candy and half-jokes that Bella should be his Valentine. Seeing a chance to kill two birds with one stone, Bella says she’s going to a movie with friends on Friday and proposes that Jacob come along. That way, Jacob can spend time with her and she can get Mike off her back. Why, yes, Bella is using her friend for her own means. Meanwhile, at school, she asks Mike if he wants to go see a movie as a group and make it a party. He grudgingly accepts and they put together a group.
By the day of the movie, however, reality has butted in and Bella, Jacob, and Mike are the only ones going due to the others getting sick with the flu. The two of them promptly spend the whole outing attempting to out-macho each other — not helped by the fact that they went to see an action movie — and Jacob eventually just stops being subtle and just asks her if she like him more than she does Mike. She does.
He grinned down at me. “That’s okay, you know. As long as you like me the best. And you think I’m good-looking — sort of. I’m prepared to be annoyingly persistent.”
Great. Jacob’s turning into an “entitled to have you” “nice” guy. He even says that he knows she’s still in love with Edward, but:
“But don’t get mad at me for hanging around, okay?” Jacob patted the back of my hand. “Because I’m not giving up. I’ve got loads of time.”
You’re practically ruining your friendship, Jacob, jumping on her like that and saying, “I’m gonna hang around until you forget your boyfriend so you can love me.” You’re almost as messed up as she is!
On the drive home, Jacob says he feels a bit strange, and he feels a bit too hot to Bella. She suspects he might be coming down with the flu, too, so he heads home quickly. Bella tells him to call her once he arrives. As she watches him leave, Bella reflects on her relationship with Jacob and how, even though she never intended it, she’s slowly growing to love him, if only to make up for Edward’s absence. After a while of waiting to let him get back home, Jacob still hasn’t called, so she calls him. Billy answers, saying Jacob was too sick to call, and tells Bella it’s best if she stays away.
Bella comes down with the stomach flu and spends the next day feeling terrible — for a valid reason, for once. Luckily, it’s only a twenty-four hour bug, and she’s largely recovered by the end of the day. She hopes Jacob’s also better and she can talk to him. However, when she calls, Jacob’s not better; every part of him hurts. He doesn’t have the same thing she had, whatever it is (I suspect he’s got a variant of recurrent lunar-synodic lupine genetic reconfiguration). Bella tries to talk to him, but he quickly says he has to go, similar to the way Billy had yesterday, and that he’ll call back once he’s better.
Clinginess Meter: 33 x 3
Not a bad chapter, as far as things go, but ask yourself: how many pages is needed to convey all that? According to New Moon, that number is eighteen. The entire point of making something slow-paced is to let ideas linger, so the audience can think about them. The only real idea here is “Jacob is better-suited for Bella than Mike”, which is almost a foregone conclusion anyway, given Mike’s lack of development. Heck, for the most part, you could cut this chapter entirely (except maybe the ending) and the book wouldn’t suffer. It’s drawn-out, pointless, and obvious. Much like the rest of the book, then.
Yeesh, not even much to comment on, aside from Jacob's sudden horribleness. Does lycanthropy heighten your sense of entitlement?
Eh. I’ll take “boring and pointless” over “I am actively trying to give myself a concussion so I can forget I read this bit.”
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I dunno. Maybe this stems from the author's incomplete or erroneous understanding of wolf courtship. See here, about halfway down the page, for a brief description of actual wolf courtship behavior.
Suffice to say, the author's understanding of wolves is probably only slightly better than her understanding of vampires.
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I mean Jack Nicholson's character became even more of an asshole after he got bitten in Wolf so
Twilight 2: A Werewolf Is Fine, Too
How can someone write such awful characters? D:
No “next chapter” link
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Goit. Thanks. Fixed.
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(Also the one after this too