SHEL: I know last time I just complained about Cabel as a love interest based on his greasy hair. And now he's had a SUPER-DUPER-MAGIC-FAN-FICTION-WORTHY makeover. But I still don't like it. No doubt there's a reason for the change. But I'm still not loving it. It's too drastic.
Monica: I like it. I’m not saying it’s not a complete Mary Sue (“Yes, I’d like my boyfriend character to have broader shoulders, and pouty lips, and… ooh, can his hair be cut to gently frame his face? With highlights? I love me some highlights!”) but at the same time, she needs someone a little more respectable to be all anchorish for her for the rest of the book. Think of all the drama on the bus, where he was literally holding her down and trying to protect her from her own mind -- I don’t think he’d be up to it if he was still stumbling around bedecked with the aforementioned greasy ringlets.
Shel: Ugh. All this throwing around of "greasy ringlets." It's upsetting my tummy.
Monica: Am I the only one who is having major and serious Freddy Kreuger flashbacks? To the point where I sort of want to ask the author if she’d been having an all-night Friday the 13th movie marathon the evening prior to writing “Wake,” and then dreamed an evil character that sort of vaguely *TOTALLY* resembled the main character in said films?
Shel: Well, maybe it's Cabel who was so disturbed by Freddy. Am I reaching to far again? I think I might be.
Monica: You might be. But it's okay. We love you anyway.
Shel: It's good to feel loved despite my crazy tendencies.
Monica: Leaving Knifey-Nails behind, can I mention that I felt *so* bad for Jamie when Cabel pretended not to be Cabel? You can imagine she's walking a pretty tenuous line anyway, sanity-wise. There she was, planning on having a nice chat with Mr. Newly Muscular, and he goes and makes her doubt her own reality? What a jerk.
Shel: My response was, "What a silly moment. Whatevs."
Monica: Ooooh, I'm loving the interactions with Miss Stubin! It's all Mysterious and Fraught with Portent! Why is she the only one who actually addresses Janie face-to-face? Why did she need Jamie's permission to change the dream?! How hot, really, was the soldier anyway!??!
Shel: I'm liking Miss Stubin overall. She gets cool points. I hadn't noticed that she's the only one addressing Janie. I hope this isn't a "6th Sense" dealie.
Monica: Didn't you just about lose your mind during the bus scene? "He takes her hand with his free hand and strings his fingers in hers. Looks at her hands, and lays his cheek against her hair. After a while, he is asleep too." At this point, I'm screaming at the book. Because AH! Cabel falls ASLEEP! JANIE is ASLEEP! Things can only go pear-shaped from here. And... they do.
Shel: I just kept thinking how much it would suck to appear to have seizure in front of all your classmates. Not a good time.
Monica: Aw. Page 99 is filled with angst and misery and angst and angst, all in just three lines. I've decided I *do* like the way this book is written... it took me a while to warm up to it, but the liking is definitely there.
Shel: Awww. I'm glad it won you over for that moment. On a different note, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don't likes Cabel being knifey-nails. I was expecting a hunt for a Dexter-like serial killer. I can see how your mind made that jump. I, alas, am unable to have flashbacks. The only version of Freddy Kreuger I saw was The Simpson's Halloween spoof.
Tune back in on Friday and the feast can continue with the next fifty pages.
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