Read Dottie's here
Everyone goes out to the back porch so Gregory doesn't get shapeshifter goo all over Anita's carpet. The carpet in her house, you sickos.
Stephen, Gregory's brother, is here. Stephen is a werewolf who is also conveniently a submissive. Surely LKH knows that wolves only engage in rigid dominance hierarchies in captivity, right?
Anita once again assures us that Gregory isn't nude for sexual reasons. Want to buy a cucumber? I promise I haven't used it for sexual purposes! What, you don't? It's a nice cucumber! Hey!
Vivian begs Anita to try calling Gregory's beast before they resort to drugs. Anita is apparently so scary that Vivian tries to placate her by crawling around on the floor.
"She was displaying the leopard version of submissive behavior, and I hated it. Hating her feeling the need, like I was some ogre that needed placating, but I let her do it."
If you claim to hate something yet never make the slightest effort to choose another path, I am not going to believe you. Plus, literally two sentences later she talks about how Micah's pard ought to be afraid of her at the start.
Merle is the only person I give a damn about and Caleb is still a creep.
Just an aside:
Two things that are true about me:
1) I have endured a lot of sexism in my life and
2). I am reading another book right now that has the same problem these books do in that the female main characters seem to do nothing but attract shallow, vapid male cardboard cutouts that comment on their tits and try to pick them up.
Maybe three things, because the other thing that occurs to me is
3). that most (individual circumstances vary) of my cis female or trans friends (of all identities) have also experienced patriarchal sexism. I tell you this because even knowing these things to be true, even having experienced sexism first hand, even knowing that it is common as fuck. I still find the sheer amount of sexist males in these books to be flat out ridiculous.
The protagonist in the other book encounters no less than three men trying to get in her space and hit on her despite all the signs that she is not interested in like a twenty four period. Anita always has shallow assholes like Jason and Caleb orbiting her. It's too much. These men have a single personality trait, and it is sexist creep. That is not how you accurately portray sexism. Sure, cat calls on the street are a kind of sexism, but it's the least subtle and, in some ways, the easiest to shake off. What's really hard is when people you love and respect also happen to have sexist attitudes, deeply ingrained ones, that they can't or won't work on despite hurting you with them repeatedly. It goes much deeper than Caleb making hrr hrr comments and looking for ways to show his dick.
It's also really fucking insulting to dudes--yes even cis dudes, even with their privileges--to constantly insist that they're all just sexism dispensers with no other personality traits. I used to know a woman who had a cut out of Antonio Banderas in her bedroom. The men in NiC have about as much depth as that, except they have little speech bubbles pasted to their lips that say things like HEY BABY NICE TITS IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
To no one's surprise LKH hates women so much that it has grown all out of proportion and started to encompass men, too. There is some truly fascinating social science shit going down here. I've said before that I could do a breakdown of these novels for academic credit, and that is only becoming more true as I keep reading.
Claudia and Igor are here, and even their most innocuous gestures are deconstructed according to Anita's narrow gender expectations. My god, I almost find this world triggering, it's so crushingly oppressive when it comes to gender and what each gender (and by that I of course mean binary genders, because Narcissus aside that's all Anita believes in) may and may not do. I almost think I need to add obsessive compulsive personality disorder to Anita's diagnosis, because this is starting to sound like a compulsion to sort and order people regardless of whether they wish to be sorted.
Oh my GOD she's going to call Raina again. To heal a torture victim. A victim of the exact same methods Raina used to use. Remember all that shit with the oubliette and the chains and the drugs? Raina's doing, at least originally. Jacob was just borrowing her methods. SO OBVIOUSLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO, WHEN ALL YOUR LEOPARDS ARE LOOKING TO YOU TO FIX THIS, IS TO CALL THE GHOST OF A GODDAMN RAPIST TORTURER TO HELP YOU.
Pictured above, LKH.
The others point out that Raina only works if Anita is all hot and bothered, and she doesn't want to fuck Gregory ergo the fuck magic won't work. So, not only is she going to call the rape ghost who devised the methods that traumatized Gregory, she will call the rape ghost knowing full well that the rape ghost will want to rape Gregory as payment.
Anita feels "slutty" for requiring sexual attraction to heal, because women are either sluts or saints in the ABverse. Oh, or so old as to be a non-entity.
Anita compares Gregory to a child (!) and reminds us that Gregory is technically a rapist. Again no, his alpha was a rapist and raped Gregory by forcing Gregory to take part in sexual assaults. The text even tells us that because Gregory is not a dominant, he is incapable of refusing the requests of an alpha shifter.
Anita again claims to hate how subservient the leopards are, despite never doing a single goddamn thing to empower any of them. Forcing Nate to get a driver's license is not empowering him, by the way.
Why is it that Anita can't muster up any lust for Gregory?
"I think of him more like a child, no offense."
Didn't stop you when it came to sucking Nate's cock like it was the last candy cane in the mall's Christmas display, but whatever.
So NOW they're talking about how it's a bad fucking idea to call Raina in to this situation AFTER Anita already tried and failed once. You are all idiots.
Claudia's height is extra special impressive because she's a woman. Even things that would sound bland out of someone else's mouth sound offensive because it is Anita saying them.
Well fuck me, they're still going to call Raina anyway. Oh and LKH? Don't think I didn't notice how conveniently, Micah isn't here to help her do this instead. Good effort at creating some actual tension, but when your only other option is solve the fucking puzzle cube and call the torturer rapist into the same space as the victim, well, that's the wrong kind of tension.
Caleb snarks and Anita finally does a single thing I am completely, one hundred percent behind:
"If you're not going to be helpful, stand over to the side and shut the fuck up."
Anita starts to strip because reasons. Caleb makes ANOTHER sexist bullshit comment. Oh my god I just can't even with the straw sexists. I don't understand why LKH so clearly loathes women and conventional femininity, but also feels the need to populate her world with straw sexists and straw bigots that constantly comment on Anita's body and sex life. It is a six car pile up of gender theory. No survivors.
Merle informs Anita that she isn't his Nimir-Ra. Love ya, babe. Please don't give in to the rape beams later.
Oh god. You guys. Anita can't get in the mood for Gregory so Stephen, Gregory's beloved twin, suggests she call Raina then get Raina in "the mood." Anita even warns him about what Raina's idea of sex is like and he gives her the go ahead anyway!
1). RAINA INVENTED THE OUBLIETTE DRUGS SILVER CHAINS TORTURE METHOD
2). RAINA'S MATE MADE THE SILVER EAR PLUGS
3). RAINA IS A SADISTIC TORTURE-MURDERER, RAPIST, AND SNUFF FILM PRODUCER
4). THEY ARE GOING TO CALL HER IN TO THE SAME SPACE AS GREGORY, VICTIMIZED BY HER TORTURE METHODS, SO SHE CAN RAPE HIM UNTIL HE'S BETTER.
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