There is just so much wrong with the prologue I was flabbergasted. Looking back at the other recaps, I assumed that I would easily get through chapters two at a time and cruise right through. I shouldn’t underestimate PCK’s ability to cram stupidity into so few words. I might not be able to plow through this like I’d been hoping. Then there’s still one more book after this, plus the fledgling handbook and four novellas.
First off, there’s the evil spiders. PCK would like us to believe there’s tension to be had by the manifestation of evil. There wasn’t though, not in the slightest. PCK undercut it but having Zoey stop and call Thanatos, have a conversation, and then do the circle which drove it away. Timing is crucial in making something seem urgent. It’s not just the extra words between the spider appearance and the banishment, though an audience does have its limit. It’s the change additional actions, such as the phone call and the forced drama between Erin and the rest. Those don’t feel like part of the action that’s supposed to be going on.
Because those feel separate from the rest, it subtracts the urgency PCK should want. I say should want because a human author would want tension and investment. For all I know, PCK wrote this to tenderize their victims before they eat them. They could still have those things if they were woven into the action, not apart.
The second big sin is Erin’s death. I don’t care what justification PCK is going to throw out, it feels punitive. Like Erin deserved it because she had sex with one of the henchmen and stopped serving the plot. It would have been more acceptable if it had happened after Erin returned to the fold and then died. At least it wouldn’t have read like the horny teens being murdered by the lake man with a machete.
We begin with Neferet who’s complaining about seeing her reflection in Zoey’s magic mirror. I’d forgotten that Zoey’s Macguffin had gained a new boring power. The power to make people look at old photos of themselves. It’s only slightly more useless than a Facebook account. Neferet can’t stand the thought of how weak she once was and that’s what caused her to flee.
We’re told that Aurox had gored her and knocked her to the pavement, things we already knew. Then we’re told that, as her mortal heart stopped beating, the “immortal energy” that made her the witch queen, Tsi Sigili took over. Not being an immortal native american vampire witch queen allied with darkness, I can’t comment if that’s how it works. I can say that sounds incredibly stupid. Why would Neferet have a “mortal heart” if she’s immortal, PCK? Was she immortal as long as her heart was beating? Because that’s the same kind of immortality we all have.
The image of her old self reminded her she had a different name and, Emily something-or-who-gives-a fuck?, and her dad was awful. Yup, being faced with that took away her power, or at least made her forget. So her consciousness is still around, regaining strength and taking new forms as the days go. Considering it’s been just about a week, I’d say she’s doing a bang up job getting things back in order. And yes, PCK is telling us how Neferet is still around and explaining her attack on the school as if we cared.
The liquid darkness that remains of Nefert wandered around, so to speak, aimlessly. She just happened to be lured back to the school because of the power there. We’re told she would have stayed there and fed on the residual power had “death” not appeared. Somehow she sensed death and manifested in evil spiders. This was somehow so she could feed on death. Then PCK uses the word ironic correctly for the first time in this entire series.
Ironically, it was the fledglings’ circle that opened the energy conduit which enabled Neferet to gain enough consciousness so that she was able to focus and borrow the ancient power of death and, ultimately, to find herself once more.
Yes, PCK, that Zoey and her friends are actually the instrument that allowed Neferet to return is as close to irony as you’ll ever get. Hell, Neferet could maybe even get some amusement out of the deal which would be near the definition. Now promise me you’ll never use it to describe Zoey’s love of Halloween themed cereal and you can get your internet cookie.
Neferet fed on the death of Erin and then ran off after Zoey mumbled the words. She got just past the gate of the school before becoming corporeal again. Or that’s merely implied. PCK says that Neferet’s body solidified. She could have turned into a compacted turd for all we know. This sudden transformation leaves her weak though none of the protagonists are nearby to witness it.
I really hate how Zoey isn’t even the slightest concerned when evil shows up. All she does it banish it with a “spell” and then she doesn’t care what happens to it. Just as long as it’s not in her backyard, Zoey doesn’t give a shit. If she at least worried, knowing that Neferet would still hurt other people even if she’s been banished from the school, I might give it a pass. Not on the blog here, I’d just give her a different kind of shit, but in my head.
Neferet needs to feed and there just so happens to be someone nearby. Someone whom PCK will want us to be glad dies. After all, we wouldn’t want our villain to be evil or anything. Aphro’s dad is nearby and he’s muttering about his shrew of a wife and how the hotel was trashed by Neferet. He’s telling himself he wished he never got married because then he could have been a single mayor and dated a lot of old money girls. You know, exactly the kind of thing you talk about to yourself all the time. If you’re in a movie where an angel makes you learn a lesson about your life.
At least I could hope she’d kill him. Instead, Neferet plays the manipulation card on him. She engages the hysterics and begs him to look at what they did to her. Aphro’s mom screeches at him from across the parking lot. Charles, Aphro’s dad, is about to tell he he’s found Neferet when she begs him not to for reasons. So he lies and says he dropped the keys. Neferet then decides to feed on him. Neferet knocks him down and tears out his throat. Why the subterfuge if she was going to kill him? No idea.
Freshly fed, Neferet runs off while Aphro’s mom starts screaming. She tries to get the darkness to cloak her in illusion but it refuses. She ends up in some suburb area and worries that she might get caught, being a naked bloody woman. So she grabs a fox and lets the blood drip over her while telling the darkness to show up. The dark tentacles do and drink the blood. She then tells the tendrils to lead her to safety.
The tendrils take her to the fox’s den where she curls up and goes to sleep. What? That’s the kind of desperation I expect from a hero, not the big bad villain. You’d think she would have found a nice quiet house to hide in after drainging the residents. Are you sure she’s the antagonist, PCK? Or were you just drinking while writing this again?
Vivisector's Writ 