Silver Elite: Chapter 50

[penwalla]

The memory plays on a loop in my mind, each detail etched with painful clarity. A torrent of emotions threatens to overwhelm me. Contrition. Shame. Relief. I killed her and it makes me sick to my stomach. I killed her and I’m relieved. She can never tell anyone what I am now. She can’t imprison me. Experiment on me. Put me in front of a firing squad.

I’ve rid myself of an enemy, a dangerous one, yet as I stare at her lifeless body on the floor, guilt claws at my insides. The line between right and wrong blurs into shades of gray, leaving me grappling with my own moral compass.

I told myself I never wanted to interfere with someone’s free will.

Look at me now.

Okay, so two problems with this.

One, Wren has never been able to consistently incite anyone. She has done it purposely only once, and she still did it so badly that she killed her uncle. So there has never been a real threat of Wren going against these principles she apparently has--she is not able to incite at all, which makes all her moralizing about it feel cheap.

Two, Wren has not tried to incite anyone since the beginning of the book. She hasn't been working on it, she hasn't been spending a lot of time thinking about it, and when she has she's always been against it.

This book really suffers from what I'm going to call a lack of "even-if". What I mean by this is that there's no extrapolation from Wren where she's like, I will refuse to incite even if it means I will die or someone else will die. She was willing to incite to save her uncle's life, and now she's willing to incite to save her own. (Wren does not think about the Uprising or the larger consequences of her death at all, because of course she doesn't.) There's no scene in-between these where Wren thinks about inciting and doesn't, or starts to incite and stops. In fact, she still acts like she can't do it on command and never practices, so the impression the reader gets is that she might not be able to do it if she needs to. And then she does it with some effort against Jayde, the most powerful telepath ever, without any buildup.

Think of all the words this book wastes on Cross's abs.

Speaking of Cross, he arrives to rescue Wren. He seems upset, but immediately takes over the situation, calls someone in to clean up the body, and tells her to take the jammer and hide herself until the party tonight.

Frustration burns a path through my veins. This isn’t fair to him. It isn’t fair to Xavier, as annoying as I find him. They shouldn’t be fixing something that I broke.

I force myself to follow his orders. I strip out of my uniform and step into the bathroom. I crank on the shower and then stand under the warm spray, trying not to cry.

I like to think I’ve grown since I got here. I’ve learned to be more patient. I’ve learned to trust someone other than myself. I’ve even started to rein in my impulses. Sort of. Sometimes.

God, this book is so bad. What the fuck is Wren even talking about? Why is Xavier her first priority here? At no point during Wren's breakdown about killing Jayde does she consider that Jayde might have done bad things that warranted death.

And furthermore, that's the character development Wren thinks she's undergone? That's the flaw the book thinks she had that needed addressing--that she wasn't TRUSTING ENOUGH?

Let's set aside that Wren killing Jayde here is probably the least stupid thing she's done on impulse in the whole book. Jayde was highly dangerous and had figured out Wren was a Mod, either Wren had to kill her or she had to run for it. It's not like Wren killed her from afar, Jayde was holding her at gunpoint and trying to take her prisoner. Wren didn't have any other options! This was the one time I agreed with the decision she made!

Wren was mistrustful at the start of this book because she is the member of a marginalized group that is actively being killed, imprisoned, and experimented on by the ruling powers, and among that group she is especially talented in a way that puts her at risk. Her mistrust of other people is extremely justified and the people she mistrusts are mostly people who are a threat to her and would turn her in or kill her if they found out about her.

She's not too mistrustful! Wren's problem is that she assumes anyone who is nice to her personally is fine! She's too trusting!

As Wren gets out of her angsty shower, Lyddie barges in on her in her underwear, and notices her scars are gone, and demands to see the results of her having her burn scars healed. Wren flinches away from her, causing her underwear to ride up just slightly to reveal her bloodmark, and Lyddie immediately figures out that she is a Mod.

That is so contrived. Like, why have the mark somewhere her underwear covers if it immediately becomes visible if she moves her leg?

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. You’re…You’re Aberrant…”

“I am. But I’ve been loyal to the Company my whole life. My parents still serve the General in Ward Z. Our cattle feeds the Command.”

“Your parents,” she echoes. “I thought your parents were dead.”

“No, it’s all part of my cover. They gave me a fake Aberrant uncle so no one would suspect what I was.”

Wren lies to Lyddie, spinning a story about her being an undercover agent and a healer, to explain her bloodmark. As she starts to convince Lyddie, Ivy walks in. Wren is still in her underwear. This entire scene could have been avoided if she locked her door, or put on pants. Once again it feels contrived.

Also, Lyddie immediately tells Ivy Wren is an Aberrant operative, and it is very funny to see Wren lose her temper and fantasize about slapping Lyddie. Remember: when people are nice to Wren they are good, and when they are mean to her they are bad.

Lyddie finally agrees to keep her mouth shut until after Jubilee, when there's apparently going to be a briefing that outs Wren as a Mod. But Ivy makes no such promise. Chapter end.

Okay, so Wren's just going to pledge allegiance to the Command, get the tattoos, and actually become a Mod operative, right? That's the twist this book is leading to? She has not thought about or contacted the Uprising at any point during all this drama. That would have actually been interesting--what if she reached out to them and they refused to help her cover up things with Jayde, then she had to ask Cross for help and the price of that help was her having to come out as a Mod and pledge allegiance? 

So to recap: Wren's character arc in this book is that she learns to trust other people and not be impatient, and also that fascist military governments are fine if your commanding officer is hot and willing to fuck you.

Cool.