Silver Elite: Chapter 15
Aug. 11th, 2025 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaWren opens the chapter by telling us how badass she is.
If Wren is so great at surviving, why does she keep making stupid decisions?
Wren is pretending to be bad at fighting during combat training. After she loses to Lyddie a few times, we move on to a weapons course, where they all get to try out a shiny new rifle. Wren is into it.
This is a problem I have with many books of this ilk: we spend all our time in boring classes, but there doesn't appear to be any actual curriculum. Like, is their instructor not teaching them to fight? They just show up and wrestle until class is over? And during this shooting course--there's no attempt to teach these recruits how to shoot. If they are all expected to have mastered these skills prior to training, why are we wasting time having multiple classes where they demonstrate their skill or lack thereof?
I just think that if your book is set in a school or training environment you should probably have worked up what exactly they're supposed to be learning.
Oh, wait. Wren does get instruction on shooting during this course, but it's actually just her hot classmate flirting with her by correcting her grip. Whoops.
He is also love interest coded--maybe he's the other half of the inevitable love triangle?
Next scene. Wren eats dinner, showers. We're learning bits about the other trainees, but to be honest they're all just a mass of names to me, I'll wait until one of them becomes plot relevant. Wren and Lyddie then go for a shower where Lyddie teases Wren about Kaine's crush on her. God, why do the female friends in these books only exist to talk to the protag about her love life? You two have nothing else to discuss?
Wren shows Lyddie her burn scar from where Julian burned off the mark she has that would have identified her as Modified. We already knew about this, so I don't know why we're rehashing it. And it is fucking weird every time Wren flashes back to Julian and doesn't think about how he's dead now.
Next scene.
All of Wren's classmates are still whispering about her constantly. Presumably at some point they will attempt to kill her. It turns out that the rumor has spread among them that Wren's uncle was an Aberrant, and Wren refutes it, continuing her lie that Julian was just a normal human who was executed unjustly.
I am not accusing anyone of plagiarism but this is the way the rebel kids' conscription in Fourth Wing is justified and it was equally stupid there. If you need a possible traitor to prove their loyalty, is in your elite training squad really the place to do it? And again, in this military dystopia, what's their rationale for just not executing her alongside Julian?
Like, you can send her to a labor camp to be watched. You can give her menial work.
It has never occurred to Wren that the least suspicious thing she would do would be to pretend she wanted to be in Silver Block, and she was honored by the opportunity and really was loyal. And then she would have the chance to climb the ranks and become a valuable member of the Uprising because she'd have a position of utility. Instead she has to constantly flaunt authority and banter with Cross.
Anyways, one of her shitty classmates comes over and starts taunting Wren about Julian, accusing him of being sexually involved with her and of being a pedophile. Wren loses it and beats the shit out of her. You know what, this actually feels like a reasonable time for her to lose her temper, so I won't complain about it.
Officers come and break them up, and the chapter ends.
It feels like this book is just spinning its wheels right now. We have way too many named characters. It's devolved into school drama. Wren doesn't have a clear plan or goals, and it feels like the author has forgotten everything that happened in the early chapters. Why kill Julian off and set up Wren as fueled by vengeance, only to have her make friends with some of her Silver Block classmates? Why waste so much time having her be horny over Cross? What am I supposed to be getting out of these classroom scenes?
Who knows.
By the time I was six years old, I was an expert in survival.
Jim taught me how to build a fire and keep it burning. How to mend my clothes. How to stitch my own wounds.
He taught me to recognize the dangerous plants in the Blacklands and utilize their poisons to eliminate the prey that crept into our clearing when the sun left us.
He taught me to hide when we heard the infrequent roar of a fighter jet powering through the sky, because he wasn’t sure if the gap in the mist was large enough to make us visible from above.
He taught me to defend myself using only my fists, my legs, my teeth. He showed me that any part of my body could be used as a weapon.
If Wren is so great at surviving, why does she keep making stupid decisions?
Wren is pretending to be bad at fighting during combat training. After she loses to Lyddie a few times, we move on to a weapons course, where they all get to try out a shiny new rifle. Wren is into it.
This is a problem I have with many books of this ilk: we spend all our time in boring classes, but there doesn't appear to be any actual curriculum. Like, is their instructor not teaching them to fight? They just show up and wrestle until class is over? And during this shooting course--there's no attempt to teach these recruits how to shoot. If they are all expected to have mastered these skills prior to training, why are we wasting time having multiple classes where they demonstrate their skill or lack thereof?
I just think that if your book is set in a school or training environment you should probably have worked up what exactly they're supposed to be learning.
Oh, wait. Wren does get instruction on shooting during this course, but it's actually just her hot classmate flirting with her by correcting her grip. Whoops.
He is also love interest coded--maybe he's the other half of the inevitable love triangle?
Next scene. Wren eats dinner, showers. We're learning bits about the other trainees, but to be honest they're all just a mass of names to me, I'll wait until one of them becomes plot relevant. Wren and Lyddie then go for a shower where Lyddie teases Wren about Kaine's crush on her. God, why do the female friends in these books only exist to talk to the protag about her love life? You two have nothing else to discuss?
Wren shows Lyddie her burn scar from where Julian burned off the mark she has that would have identified her as Modified. We already knew about this, so I don't know why we're rehashing it. And it is fucking weird every time Wren flashes back to Julian and doesn't think about how he's dead now.
Next scene.
All of Wren's classmates are still whispering about her constantly. Presumably at some point they will attempt to kill her. It turns out that the rumor has spread among them that Wren's uncle was an Aberrant, and Wren refutes it, continuing her lie that Julian was just a normal human who was executed unjustly.
“At least it makes sense now, why you’re here,” Lash says with a rare contribution to the conversation. “Given that you don’t seem to enjoy it much.”
I give him a wary look.
“They’re making you prove your loyalty, right?” He shrugs. “I’ve heard of them doing that before. Drafting family members of criminals as a loyalty test.”
He’s just provided me a great cover story, and I have no problem taking full advantage. “Pretty much, yeah. The Command probably wouldn’t have been my first choice of life path. I miss the ranch. But if serving the General shows him that I can be trusted, then I’m happy to do it.”
I am not accusing anyone of plagiarism but this is the way the rebel kids' conscription in Fourth Wing is justified and it was equally stupid there. If you need a possible traitor to prove their loyalty, is in your elite training squad really the place to do it? And again, in this military dystopia, what's their rationale for just not executing her alongside Julian?
Like, you can send her to a labor camp to be watched. You can give her menial work.
It has never occurred to Wren that the least suspicious thing she would do would be to pretend she wanted to be in Silver Block, and she was honored by the opportunity and really was loyal. And then she would have the chance to climb the ranks and become a valuable member of the Uprising because she'd have a position of utility. Instead she has to constantly flaunt authority and banter with Cross.
Anyways, one of her shitty classmates comes over and starts taunting Wren about Julian, accusing him of being sexually involved with her and of being a pedophile. Wren loses it and beats the shit out of her. You know what, this actually feels like a reasonable time for her to lose her temper, so I won't complain about it.
Officers come and break them up, and the chapter ends.
It feels like this book is just spinning its wheels right now. We have way too many named characters. It's devolved into school drama. Wren doesn't have a clear plan or goals, and it feels like the author has forgotten everything that happened in the early chapters. Why kill Julian off and set up Wren as fueled by vengeance, only to have her make friends with some of her Silver Block classmates? Why waste so much time having her be horny over Cross? What am I supposed to be getting out of these classroom scenes?
Who knows.
