Broken Dove: Chapter Eight

[penwalla]

This is a weird chapter to review, because I do have a big complaint about the worldbuilding, but it's also a subjective complaint that I think other critics of this book may disagree with. Fair warning, these are my opinions, and today's is more opinion-y than most.

But first! Misogyny.

Wren wakes up, steps out of her room, and immediately sees a pretty girl doing the walk of shame out of Saint's (one of the rebels we met during the last chapter) room. Saint winks at Wren. Wren then makes her way to meet Gray who is going to give her a tour of the Dagger.

I am curious as to if this is the normal procedure for new recruits or if Wren is getting special treatment because of her relationship with Gray. Like, it feels like it should be someone's job to orient recruits to the Dagger. The book says that any Mod can apply for a transfer there, and later in this chapter we'll learn there are a thousand of them. It doesn't feel practical to have one of the five leaders of the Uprising doing it.

Regardless. Wren then stumbles into an argument between Wren and Karra.

I quickly back away, keeping out of Karra’s eyeline. If Gray sees me, he doesn’t let on. His jaw tightens at whatever she says, and his irritated response makes Karra cross her arms over her chest. Her voice rises, and when I catch a glimpse of her profile, I see that her cheeks are flushed with anger. Finally, she tosses her black hair over her shoulder and stomps off in the other direction.

Now, note the way Karra is described like she's a petulant toddler. Do we want to take bets on the cause of this fight? Come on. You know it's about Wren. Everything is about Wren.

“Well,” he says, pushing open the doors, “she asked me if you and I ever fooled around, and I said yes.”

My jaw drops. “Why would you do that?”

“Why would I lie?” He shrugs. “Look, KC’s hotheaded, but don’t worry about her. She’ll breathe fire and brimstone for a couple days, then reach the very sensible conclusion that she does not, in fact, own my dick. Especially when I’m single.”

I mean...hmm. I see what Francis is going for here. Karra, like every woman who has the audacity to dislike Wren, is a jealous, irrational hater, whereas Wren is cool and unbothered. However, I do actually think it's at the very least weird that Gray had a fling with Wren under false pretenses. He knew her secret; she did not know his. The power differential in the Uprising aside, I do think it's reasonable for Karra to have an issue with this even if it wasn't cheating. Why are you taking the time to have affairs on your undercover missions, dude? You can't say there was any benefit to the mission.

Okay, we move on to the main point of this chapter.

“So,” Gray says lightly, “I should probably warn you about something else.”

I can’t contain my sarcasm. “Does it have to do with the reason your pilot friend is looking at me like I poisoned her eggs?”

He seems reluctant to answer. “Word’s gotten out that you can incite.”

Now, as Gray takes Wren on this boring tour of the Dagger, we will learn that Wren being an inciter has already turned everyone against her. And I have a lot to say about this, but first, let's recap the rest of the chapter real quick.

So Fiona, another member of the Authority, has spread the word about Wren, even though disclosure is supposed to be confidential, because she served under evil Mod President Severn and hates inciters. Hey, so are there are consequences for Fiona doing this? Gray doesn't say, maybe it'll come back up later, but it really feels like it should be. If you promise confidentiality and then don't give it, that is a huge violation of trust. And Fiona is an authority position where she has to know that.

Again, any woman who hates Wren is an irrational hater. No one will ever hate her for her actual flaw of sucking at everything and having no moral fiber.

Okay, this is an interesting bit.

“I get you wanted to keep it a secret, but you want to know my take? It’s better if they know. A lot of people at the Dagger choose to disclose their abilities, especially field operatives.”

“Really?”

He nods. “It fosters an environment of trust. You don’t want to be working with someone who’s hiding something from you, right?”

Put a pin in this, we're going to talk about it later.

Wren is upset about this, because she's always had to hide her powers, and wishes Cross were around to hold her and tell her how badass she is. As she thinks this, Gray assures her that it'll blow over. Wren compares a few dirty looks to when she was trapped in Silver Block with Anson--Anson, as you will recall, had one personality trait and it was "evil rapist"--and Gray tells her that no, it is not worse here.

I mean, no fucking shit.

Now another curious bit. Wren notices two people talking telepathically, and assumes it's about her. Gray points out it could not be about her. Wren then asks, again, what his powers are, and Gray refuses to tell her.

It would be so funny if he was a secret Prime. Like the reverse Cross, where he has to hide his Prime-ness to stay in the Uprising.

Next scene. Gray gives Wren a tour, and frankly, I think it's weird that Gray shows Wren exactly where the Intelligence department is, going so far as to walk her up to the door but not letting her enter. He shows her all the labs. He shows her the control center. Like, is this good operational security?

Now, you might say, Wren is perfectly trustworthy. To which I say, in this very chapter she tries to steal from the armory a jammer so she can privately talk to Xavier. And Gray catches her doing this.

We'll get to that. Back to the tour. They stop in the shooting range so Wren can show off.

Okay, more lore. No Primes are allowed at the Dagger, though they are allowed to live in the Valley below. Wren argues with Grey about Xavier, correctly pointing out that Xavier has no way to reach the outside world because he's a Prime, and even if he escapes he's trapped by the Blacklands. Now, I would argue that even if Xavier's danger is limited while he is a prisoner here, he's still too dangerous to keep alive indefinitely and that there are compelling reasons to execute him. And like...the red threat on Xavier's head could be fake, right? He could be an enemy agent sent to infiltrate them.

I actually think it's weird that they're just waiting for him to cooperate during interrogations. Considering the portrayal in this book and in Silver Elite of the Uprising as ruthless pragmatists.

Wren then asks why the Uprising isn't rescuing anyone in the labor camps.

“So why are we letting that happen?” His lack of righteous outrage irritates me. “I got on that helicopter with you because you said we were going to war. That we were going to fight. And instead, all you guys are doing is training inside a mountain and going dark in the wards. How is that fighting?”

Wren, you've been a member of the Uprising for like...five minutes. You've done like two whole missions and your role both times was pretty small. You have no idea what the Uprising is or isn't doing.

Also, again--notice that the Uprising is constantly being held to account for every bad thing that happens to Mods, but Cross can literally be an officer in the fascist military and Wren will let him off the hook for anything and everything.

Gray takes Wren into the communications wing and then to where they keep all their tech. Wren learns she won't be able to sign out anything except comms and redacted tablets at her current level, so she immediately tries to steal a signal jammer. Gray catches her, but treats it like it's a joke, and lets her borrow it to talk to Xavier privately.

“I want to be able to talk to Xavier freely.”

His jaw tightens slightly. “About the captain?”

And he's just okay with this???? God, I hope this is a plan by Gray to get info out of Wren or Xavier or both. Okay, Kallister calls Wren for her training, and the chapter ends.

Let's get into it.

This whole chapter touches on a bigger issue I have with the books, which I've struggled to articulate.

Why don't the Mods have their own culture? Even the solidarity between Mods in this book feels so thin. They're all fighting to not be oppressed, yeah, but...why do none of them seem to have any pride? 

It would make perfect sense for Wren, raised by an ex-Uprising agent who tried to isolate her from other rebels, to have internalized some anti-Mod sentiment. I'll buy that Wren has no Mod pride, that she secretly does believe being a Mod is bad, because that is the way she is written. But we don't see any Mod culture among the other Mods. 

Wren walks by two Mods freely using their powers in the hallway to talk to each other and she immediately assumes they are talking negatively about her--but there's no scenes in this book so far where Wren is shocked or pleased to see Mods casually using their powers just for the fun of it. Gray mentions that some people in the base choose to reveal their powers, but it actually doesn't make sense to me that that wouldn't be the norm. Why does anyone on base need to hide their powers, unless they've got one of the scary ones like incitement or corruption?

I think it's a normal human thing for groups of humans to form cultures. The spaces marginalized people make for themselves should be different from the world of the oppressors. This is an aspect in this book that is totally lacking, and I can't understand why.

If you want the book to have Wren torn between the Uprising and Cross, would it not make more sense for the Dagger to be a place she would want to be? Would it not make more sense for it to be inviting, a place where all the Mods can only display their powers, a place where she would be celebrated for who she was and not hated and feared? Imagine if Wren revealed that she was an inciter and it was treated by others as a good thing. 

I think that would be much, much more interesting than the path Francis has chosen, which is to always have Wren battling jealous haters everywhere she goes.