![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Silver Elite: Chapter 39-40
Wren returns to Hamlett.
She is anxious, but still has time to be distracted by how hot Cross is. Wren, Cross might literally be here to kill Tana and Griff.
And speaking of Tana and Griff:
Cross tells Wren they can't find the secret tunnel Tana and Griff used, which is because the tunnel is steel-reinforced to block thermal imaging. Nice.
Wren tries to link with Tana, but can't. She then realizes it's probably because Tana is being watched, and Wren was told a few sentences ago that Tana was being held at the inn, so why is she surprised that Tana is being watched?
God, it feels mean to judge Wren for panicking throughout this scene, but this complete inability to keep her cool is Wren's biggest flaw and she knows it, and yet the book refuses to have her, like, cope with it in any way. This is a chance for us to see Wren demonstrate all the skills she bragged about having earlier, or for the book to lean into it and actually have her reflect on how unprepared she actually is. Neither is happening.
Wren tries to convince Cross to let her interrogate Griff, since she has a relationship with him she can leverage, but she undermines herself by immediately doubting the case against them. Such great spying from this woman who cannot pretend to be loyal to the cause for two fucking seconds, even when her friends' lives are on the line here. Wren bargains with Cross, asking him to spare Tana and Griff and send them to a labor camp if they talk, and even throws in Cross's face that his mother was an Aberrant, which is news to me. Was this revealed earlier in the book?
You know, Wren is literally a member of the Uprising. Couldn't she make contact with them now, and ask them what the plan is? So she can coordinate with them and not risk her cover by being so suspiciously protective of her friends who are traitors?
Wren bargains with Griff, offering him and Tana life in a labor camp in exchange for the location of the tunnel. Has it occurred to Wren that her friends might be willing to die to protect the tunnel's location?
During this conversation, Tana links with Wren, panicking and begging for her help. Chapter end.
Let's do one more.
Tana's emotional state is overwhelming, and Wren can't hold up her end of the conversation with Griff because of it, so she steps out so she and Tana can talk. Wren's eagerness to flee the situation is pretty fucking suspicious, and my guess here is that she is going to get away with all this because obviously, Cross is a secret Aberrant and also Wolf, and he will cover for her.
Wren then sneaks out of the base, steals a motorcycle, and drives to where Tana is.
Unbelievably stupid thing to do.
So yeah, Anson, a guy whose only personality trait was being an evil rapist, evilly raped Tana and she killed him for it. Whoops.
Let's just take a step back here. Wren rushing to a panicking Tana behind her commanding officer's back is risking blowing her own cover, and risks getting Tana killed. And this is the exact kind of stupid decision that got her uncle killed. And yet, Wren does not stop for even a second to consider this. There's no moment where she consciously chooses to be emotional and reckless. This kind of behavior is in character for Wren in the sense that she is always fucking doing this, but one, it makes her look like an idiot who never learns from her mistakes, which makes this book fucking boring to read.
Wren's plan to get Tana out of this situation is to make it look like she killed Anson, and her theory is that no one will look at the scene hard enough to notice the blood spatter doesn't support her story so as long as she convinces Cross it'll be fine.
I mean, I guess it does make sense that in this world investigations into crimes are corrupt and suspects are presumed guilty, but...Wren, you sneaking out of the base to check on Tana and her captor then mysteriously dying makes you look like the suspect. This makes you look like the traitor. Wren's plan is that she killed Anson in self-defense because he shot at her when she opened the door and found him raping her friend, but I think anyone with a brain (and anyone who has MET WREN) is going to rightly assume she just killed him because she is a traitor.
Like, she is going to get away with all this because the person in charge is the guy she is fucking, but come on.
Tana is horrified to hear her father and her are going to labor camps.
Next scene.
Wren is angsting.
Wren, I was in the scene with you when Tana was pleading. That was two paragraphs ago. You didn't think any of that shit.
And you didn't work your ass off, you spent half the time fucking around trying to fail out. One could argue that you only got through because the commanding officer was into you.
Anyways, Wren is having an identity crisis over all the things she's done. And I think that's fine in theory, but doesn't really feel like it leads logically from anything that's happened earlier in the book. In part because when Wren incited the firing squad and tried to have them kill themselves, and accidentally killed her own uncle, she then just stopped thinking about it and never felt guilty about it again. We don't really have a picture in our heads of how the old Wren would have behaved, because recklessly doing stupid shit that the plot lets her get away with is how Wren has always acted.
Like, I think the idea here is that Wren betrayed Tana and Griff by letting them get sent to a salt mine instead of rescuing them. But the last time Wren went off on her own to rescue someone, that person was Julian Ash, and now he's fucking dead. But the book doesn't think to make this obvious comparison, so we can't get what could be a really satisfying moment of development where, like, Wren actually learns from her previous mistake and makes a plan to get her friends to safety using her new position in Silver Elite and can have the mixed feelings of still putting her friends in a horrible situation but being able to prevent their deaths.
Wren has never actually embraced the pragmatism of being a spy and having to play along with the enemy in order to do what's right and help people. So she beats herself up for doing so, it just doesn't have any weight to it.
Wren's mourning this old self, but I don't know what she's actually mourning because the book has not demonstrated any actual change in Wren's character.
Cross comes in to comfort Wren, and she lets him hold her in the shower, and then suddenly remembers that Cross is the enemy and shoves him away. She pushes him away when he tries to see if she's all right, and then curls up to be sad because now she is all alone.
Wren, your loved ones are going to a labor camp while you got to join an elite military unit that you are completely unqualified for. Jim is dead because you killed him. Maybe you should spend less time angsting about how this affects you and more time being sad about their suffering.
Chapter end.
She is anxious, but still has time to be distracted by how hot Cross is. Wren, Cross might literally be here to kill Tana and Griff.
And speaking of Tana and Griff:
“We do. We’ll need a team once we break Archer.”Now, Wren immediately realizes that this is her fault, for warning Tana and Griff, because that's probably why they tried to flee. But I would like to point out that the Uprising could have just told Tana and Griff that they should stay put, and still warned them about the danger. And honestly, it sounds like the actual problem is that Griff tried to kill two people with a truck, and they might have otherwise gotten away with it.
It feels like an icy explosion just blew into my chest. I take a steadying breath. My hands feel weak. “What do you mean, ‘break’ him?”
“We’ve been questioning him all day.”
My gaze darts to the building. “Why?”
“Archer and his daughter tried to run. They managed to dodge our surveillance a few nights ago and somehow made it out of Z without detection. Last night they were stopped at a checkpoint in S, where Archer tried to mow down two Copper soldiers with his truck. We brought them both back to Z for questioning.”
Cross tells Wren they can't find the secret tunnel Tana and Griff used, which is because the tunnel is steel-reinforced to block thermal imaging. Nice.
Wren tries to link with Tana, but can't. She then realizes it's probably because Tana is being watched, and Wren was told a few sentences ago that Tana was being held at the inn, so why is she surprised that Tana is being watched?
God, it feels mean to judge Wren for panicking throughout this scene, but this complete inability to keep her cool is Wren's biggest flaw and she knows it, and yet the book refuses to have her, like, cope with it in any way. This is a chance for us to see Wren demonstrate all the skills she bragged about having earlier, or for the book to lean into it and actually have her reflect on how unprepared she actually is. Neither is happening.
Wren tries to convince Cross to let her interrogate Griff, since she has a relationship with him she can leverage, but she undermines herself by immediately doubting the case against them. Such great spying from this woman who cannot pretend to be loyal to the cause for two fucking seconds, even when her friends' lives are on the line here. Wren bargains with Cross, asking him to spare Tana and Griff and send them to a labor camp if they talk, and even throws in Cross's face that his mother was an Aberrant, which is news to me. Was this revealed earlier in the book?
You know, Wren is literally a member of the Uprising. Couldn't she make contact with them now, and ask them what the plan is? So she can coordinate with them and not risk her cover by being so suspiciously protective of her friends who are traitors?
The fact that Griff isn’t restrained tells me he hasn’t put up a fight. He wouldn’t, though, not with his daughter’s life at risk. He’d never take any chances with Tana’s well-being or safety.Didn't he try to run over two soldiers with his truck earlier?
Wren bargains with Griff, offering him and Tana life in a labor camp in exchange for the location of the tunnel. Has it occurred to Wren that her friends might be willing to die to protect the tunnel's location?
During this conversation, Tana links with Wren, panicking and begging for her help. Chapter end.
Let's do one more.
Tana's emotional state is overwhelming, and Wren can't hold up her end of the conversation with Griff because of it, so she steps out so she and Tana can talk. Wren's eagerness to flee the situation is pretty fucking suspicious, and my guess here is that she is going to get away with all this because obviously, Cross is a secret Aberrant and also Wolf, and he will cover for her.
Wren then sneaks out of the base, steals a motorcycle, and drives to where Tana is.
Unbelievably stupid thing to do.
Big, terrified brown eyes meet my gaze. A second later, Tana releases a choked sob and pulls me into the room, locking the door behind us.
The sight that greets me freezes me in place.
There, sprawled on the bed in a pool of crimson, lies Anson.
Dead.
So yeah, Anson, a guy whose only personality trait was being an evil rapist, evilly raped Tana and she killed him for it. Whoops.
Let's just take a step back here. Wren rushing to a panicking Tana behind her commanding officer's back is risking blowing her own cover, and risks getting Tana killed. And this is the exact kind of stupid decision that got her uncle killed. And yet, Wren does not stop for even a second to consider this. There's no moment where she consciously chooses to be emotional and reckless. This kind of behavior is in character for Wren in the sense that she is always fucking doing this, but one, it makes her look like an idiot who never learns from her mistakes, which makes this book fucking boring to read.
Wren's plan to get Tana out of this situation is to make it look like she killed Anson, and her theory is that no one will look at the scene hard enough to notice the blood spatter doesn't support her story so as long as she convinces Cross it'll be fine.
I mean, I guess it does make sense that in this world investigations into crimes are corrupt and suspects are presumed guilty, but...Wren, you sneaking out of the base to check on Tana and her captor then mysteriously dying makes you look like the suspect. This makes you look like the traitor. Wren's plan is that she killed Anson in self-defense because he shot at her when she opened the door and found him raping her friend, but I think anyone with a brain (and anyone who has MET WREN) is going to rightly assume she just killed him because she is a traitor.
Like, she is going to get away with all this because the person in charge is the guy she is fucking, but come on.
Tana is horrified to hear her father and her are going to labor camps.
Next scene.
Wren is angsting.
I allowed them to take my best friend to a labor camp. I stood there and watched. Hell, I facilitated the deal.
Standing in front of my bathroom mirror, I stare at my reflection and say, “Who the fuck are you?”
The Wren from a couple of months ago would have fought to the death to save her friend.
But the entire time Tana had been pleading with me, I kept thinking about my parents and how much they sacrificed to help the Uprising. I worked my ass off to make it to Elite, and fighting for Tana would have meant destroying the solid cover I’d built, the trust I’d earned.
Wren, I was in the scene with you when Tana was pleading. That was two paragraphs ago. You didn't think any of that shit.
And you didn't work your ass off, you spent half the time fucking around trying to fail out. One could argue that you only got through because the commanding officer was into you.
Anyways, Wren is having an identity crisis over all the things she's done. And I think that's fine in theory, but doesn't really feel like it leads logically from anything that's happened earlier in the book. In part because when Wren incited the firing squad and tried to have them kill themselves, and accidentally killed her own uncle, she then just stopped thinking about it and never felt guilty about it again. We don't really have a picture in our heads of how the old Wren would have behaved, because recklessly doing stupid shit that the plot lets her get away with is how Wren has always acted.
Like, I think the idea here is that Wren betrayed Tana and Griff by letting them get sent to a salt mine instead of rescuing them. But the last time Wren went off on her own to rescue someone, that person was Julian Ash, and now he's fucking dead. But the book doesn't think to make this obvious comparison, so we can't get what could be a really satisfying moment of development where, like, Wren actually learns from her previous mistake and makes a plan to get her friends to safety using her new position in Silver Elite and can have the mixed feelings of still putting her friends in a horrible situation but being able to prevent their deaths.
Wren has never actually embraced the pragmatism of being a spy and having to play along with the enemy in order to do what's right and help people. So she beats herself up for doing so, it just doesn't have any weight to it.
Wren's mourning this old self, but I don't know what she's actually mourning because the book has not demonstrated any actual change in Wren's character.
Cross comes in to comfort Wren, and she lets him hold her in the shower, and then suddenly remembers that Cross is the enemy and shoves him away. She pushes him away when he tries to see if she's all right, and then curls up to be sad because now she is all alone.
Wren, your loved ones are going to a labor camp while you got to join an elite military unit that you are completely unqualified for. Jim is dead because you killed him. Maybe you should spend less time angsting about how this affects you and more time being sad about their suffering.
Chapter end.