In the fifteenth chapter of Untold<\/i>, I have an untold<\/i> number of feelings. GET IT. GET IT<\/i>. Okay, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll shut up now.<\/p>\n
Chapter Fifteen: Wild Night<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to offer up a bit of a defense for my enjoyment of this book and what Sarah Rees Brennan writes.<\/p>\n
So, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gone now because the person deleted it after realizing what a poophead they were, but prior to reading chapter fourteen, I checked Twitter to find someone complaining about this book, about me liking it, and about how they felt I was just enjoying this book because they knew that the author was probably reading these reviews.<\/p>\n
If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re already rolling your eyes, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good first step. I caused a 2.4 earthquake in my apartment just from the sheer force of my eye roll. Also, why is it that people are surprised that I can see<\/i> the thing y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all tag me in? You realize that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how tags work, right? Anyway, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a separate point. I COULD YELL ABOUT THAT THING FOR A WHILE. Instead, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s focus on Kami and Holly<\/i>. Because feelings, right?<\/p>\n
I suppose this is a bit repetitive because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already spoken early on during my reviews for this book that I loved that Sarah Rees Brennan lent credence and validity to the idea of teen angst. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also no surprise that my favorite Harry Potter<\/i> book is also the one routinely made fun of because<\/i> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so angst-y. So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m coming at this with a very, very<\/i> personal bias: My teenage life was full of angst. I was in the closet. I had abusive parents. I was bullied by nearly every person in my life. I was poor, and when I ran away from home, the catharsis of freedom was marred by adult responsibility being dropped in my lap at the tender age of 16. And because of this, I think I will always<\/i> find comfort in YA fiction that explores how teenagers deal with emotional burdens, with trauma, with horror, with oppression. Perhaps it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way for me to see myself in others. Perhaps it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way of attaining closure on my life. Perhaps I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just hoping that other kids like me, who might have to struggle with what I went through, are able to find comfort in fictional worlds.<\/p>\n
This chapter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and this series up to this point \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is an intentional thing. I say that because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no surprise that the drama that comes up between these characters is largely emotionally based. We know that Brennan is writing partially in the gothic tradition. The setting of this series clues us into that, and what little I know outside of what I have read in the book itself is proof that Brennan designed this all to reference a very specific genre of literature. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly the same, of course. This is a modern version of romantic lit, sure, but complaining about the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153drama\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that is caused by the situations that these characters are in seems silly because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point? That would be like complaining about how dramatic Elizabeth Bennet acts towards Darcy. If you feel that way, why are you reading Pride and Prejudice <\/i>in the first place? This is not to suggest you must love Austen, that you have to love The Lynburn Legacy<\/i>, or that there is some list of universally adored novel that must be exempt from all criticism. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never hold a view like that. But genre fiction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subversive or not \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has certain elements to it that make it part<\/i> of that genre, and it seems silly to me to complain about the very things that qualify a work of fiction as being part of a genre, you know?<\/p>\n
I look at it this way. I think that soap operas rely on melodrama because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entertaining, and I think that the very origin of soaps wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have happened without early romantic fiction. Given that, I expect that there is a certain amount of absurdity to the way that the emotional storylines unfold. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read romance stories expecting perfect realism. No, I want there to be ridiculous situations where someone is making out with forty people and confused about what everything means, and there are constant misunderstandings and constant scenes of people emoting at one another. And I think you can<\/i> find a very intentional organization to the scenes in Untold<\/i> that are meant to create drama and to increase tension. At the same time, however, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this melodrama that Brennan explores very real issues<\/i>. You cannot tell me that Kami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confusion over who she kissed in Water Rising isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a further exploration of Ash\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in this world. Yes, it seems strange that a person would kiss someone and not know their identity, but there are also motherfucking sorcerers <\/i>in this book, too. Ash Lynburn has no idea where he fits in, and I love that Brennan, through emotional devastation, explores what this means for a kid who is expected to live up to the impossible demands of his parents. I enjoy that Kami\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own self-worth is front-and-center. I love that she explores her attraction to other boys in the way that she does; she constantly<\/i> questions her desires and her attraction, and I find that to be remarkably healthy.<\/p>\n
And Holly. HOLLY<\/i>. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a young woman who has often used sex as a playful escape. (Notice that Sarah Rees Brennan does not devalue this experience, either. We aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meant to look down on Holly any more than the other characters who aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pursuing sex.) And she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so confused and lost because her family has betrayed her, so she turns to the behavior she once used to escape this world, and she finds out that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work anymore either<\/i>. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have sex with Jared, and Jared drops a bombshell, too: After Kami, he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel anything for any other person. She was so real to him that everyone else pales in comparison, and he is torn apart by his desire to be linked with her again.<\/p>\n
These are all extremely important issues to talk about. They are things that any person might go through. They aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fantasy, and even if their construction is fictional and forced so that they tell a story, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make them any less real.<\/p>\n
Holly is the perfect example of that. We finally learn the source of her fear and her terrible behavior towards Angela: Holly is actually bisexual and<\/i> she just found out she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sorcerer. DEALING WITH ONE OF THOSE THINGS WOULD BE OVERWHELMING AS IT IS, but Holly is struggling with both of these revelations at the same fucking time<\/i>. Her sudden attraction \u00e2\u20ac\u201c TO ANGELA, OF ALL PEOPLE!!! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is a direct refutation of the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born that way\u00e2\u20ac\u009d trope that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attached to queer characters, AND I LOVE EVERY GODDAMN SECOND OF IT. Not only that, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of this whole point I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to make. This sort of melodrama is about teenagers having feelings \u00e2\u20ac\u201c really confusing feelings, feelings that make it seem like the world is ending, feelings that take over their lives \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then Sarah Rees Brennan validates them all by focusing the narrative on it.<\/p>\n
Again, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean this book shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be criticized or that I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it. Come on<\/i>. Sarah is an adult and can handle criticism, and I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t resisted being critical of things in the past, despite knowing that the creator was reading my blog. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offensive to me to suggest otherwise because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never been the point of this site. (Though there is a part of me that suspects some subtle misogyny at work here. A woman writes about mostly other women experiencing emotional trauma and now it’s too “dramatic”? Oh, okay<\/em>.)\u00c2\u00a0I am ecstatic that y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all have been able to figure out my taste and constantly recommend me books that I like, but I would hope y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all could also see how willing I am to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like this thing for reason x<\/i>.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n And for what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case with Untold<\/i>. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m enjoying this book a lot<\/i>, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not pretending to like it at all. If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not your thing? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perfectly fine. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always entitled to that. But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t presume that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve now got some secret agenda to my writing that involves me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what the imagined end result is of all this. I get to talk positively about books? Whatever, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m enjoying Untold<\/i>, I hope some of you are, too, and I hope we can all have a good time analyzing a work of fiction, even if some of us ultimately don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it at all.<\/p>\n Part 1<\/p>\n