On the way to temple, SR tells Zoey that a random bit character died during class.  She explains that the dead girl didn’t survive the change, and that whenever that happens, it’s always a sudden thing that pops up out of nowhere, so there’s nothing anyone can do.  She then further explains that the teachers will pretend to ignore the matter, because they’re supposed to get used to death, since it can happen to anyone.

Which…seems to fly in the face of earlier chapters, where it’s stated that the kids are forced eat healthy and exercise, so that they can survive the change.  And also where it’s stated that the adults look for weak kids, as that’s a sign.  Because fuck continuity, that’s why.

This really makes no sense.  Even if it’s true that the death is random, it’s not a good idea to admit that.  It puts a ton of stress on the kids, because there’s nothing they can do except worry.  At any moment they might kick the bucket.  As terrible as it is, you really do want them to blame the dead person.  Not because it’s right or moral to do so, but just out of a sense of pure survival.  If you can tell yourself that there’s things you can do to stave off death, if you can convince yourself that the other kids just didn’t do something right, that’s a hell of a lot less stress to deal with.  This alternative?  Just means that kids are attempting to go to school with the grim reaper over their shoulders 24/7.  You could be able to survive the change and just kick it from a heart attack anyway if you live that way.

On top of that, everything is stated in such a blasé way.  “Oh, well, there’s nothing to be done.”  Okay, but…has anyone tried to do anything?  Hell if I know, because apparently the book doesn’t think that’s an important question.  I guess can infer that there’s been some amount of testing and trials, but no one ever says anything to that effect.  And even so…why stop?  Why not be constantly researching this issue in an attempt to prevent children from dying?  Why would anyone just get to a certain point in their Save Kids From Untimely Death research and go “whelp, nothing more to do here.  Oh well, sad thing about those dead kids.”

Moving on.  They head into the temple and spout off a bunch of shit about pentagrams not being evil and how that’s something the Evil Christians set up.  The whole thing reads like it was copied off a Wicca website.  Specifically, the phrase “blessed be” is very strongly associated with Wiccans.  Not with any Greek ceremonies.  (Interesting fact: in ancient Greece, many educated people didn’t believe in magic, and it was practiced mostly as a superstition or in cults, not as part of the general culture.)  So we’ve been mired in Greek mythology this whole time and now that it’s time for a ceremony, BAM, switch over to Wicca.

Book.  Religion is a bit more complex than that.  Okay, it’s a lot more complex than that.  And “Pagan”…  well, entomologically, it does mean “everything that’s not Christian.”  But it covers a fuck-ton of religions, and all those religions are different from each other.  You can’t just shove it all into a blender and press the “worldbuilding” button.

But, hey, let’s not go with the Greek Pythagorean interpretation of a pentagram.  No, let’s spend a whole page going with the occultist version where it represents various elements.  Then there’s some more shit about how Christians are evil and made everyone think pentagrams are evil, because they’re poopie-heads and for no other reason.  (Ignoring the fact that the pentagram features heavily in early Christian iconography, and it was only the upsidedown pentagram that was supposed to be evil, since it was seen as an inversion of a religious symbol.)  But fuck that, Christians are evil, hey we’re going to hammer that in a bit more.  Did you get the message yet?  No?  Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll come up again.

Because next they go into the temple (a repurposed Christian church) and we get to hammer in how much better it is now that it’s not Christian.  Because do you get it yet you guys?  Everything to do with Christianity is bad!  Even their chairs are bad!  Uhg, shut up Book, I’m sick of your hateful ways.

Then we get into the ceremony itself and, I swear, it had to be copied off a Wicca site.  Right down to evoking each of the four elements and lining them up with the cardinal directions.  I’m pretty well convinced at this point that the author just looked up “pagan” and figured it was all the same anyway, so she didn’t need to think any past that. 

Except in this book, all the magical invocations actually do stuff.  But only for Zoey, because she’s special.  Zoey suddenly realizes that, hey, they’re in a religious ceremony and Neferet is giving a sermon.  Only this sermon is awesome, unlike all other sermons ever, which are stupid.

(Also, this isn’t a sermon.  It would more accurately be described as an invocation, since she’s inviting Nyx into their circle and asking for things.)

Then everyone prays for something they really want, and Zoey prays that she’ll fit in at school.  …yeah, real test of faith there.  She’s already fitting in.  She has her own special clique and everything.

Then there’s more special words and ceremony and everything ends.  I’m sorry, but I’m still stuck on the fact that this is a religious ceremony.  And it’s not optional.  None of these kids decided to become vampyres, they were shoved into this place with a “do it or die” message, and now they’re being forced into a religious setting without so much as a comment on what’s going on.  This is extremely creepy behavior.  One of our basic rights in this country is that of religious freedom, but here we have a book where that right is stripped away and no one even mentions it.  It just makes me really, really uncomfortable to read this.  I wouldn’t care half so much if it would just be acknowledged, and I wouldn’t care at all if the vampyrism or even just the temple were voluntary.  But no, instead we get “worship our goddess or die.”

Afterward, there’s more hateful slander thrown at Aphrodite and more talk about how she’s not only a slut, but a nasty and dirty slut.  Then Zoey parts ways with her friends to go to yet another ceremony that she’s been forced to attend.  Oh…how fun.

Chapter Sixteen

Zoey shows up at the Dark Daughters meeting, which is in some building out in the woods.  Turns out Erik is there, too.  Oh, and glasses are dorky, so Zoey is glad he doesn’t have any.  Fuck you, Zoey.

We get inside and are treated to even more Aphrodite hate.  This time we simultaneously hate her for being pretty and for being not as pretty as Neferet.  Because fuck feminism, that’s why.

In fact, this whole section is Aphrodite hate.  Just assume from here on out that every single line of narration is colored with hateful thoughts toward that girl, even when she does something perfectly nice.

Aphrodite gives Zoey a dress to wear so she fits in with the rest of the group.  She meets some other girls in the group, and apparently they’re deserving of hate for just existing, too.  I really can’t express how little I care, mostly because Zoey doesn’t have to be here.  We were never given one single, solitary good reason for why she’s being forced into this group.

Apparently this ceremony is like the other one, only suckier and creepier.  So…it’s basically a Black Sabbath?  Also, their incense is made out of pot.  I hate the smell of pot.  To the point that it makes me violently ill.  I don’t care how great a high it is, I will never not turn green when I smell that stuff.  More to the point, though.  I really can’t take pot-smoking villains seriously.  Have you ever seen someone high?  Unless they’re attempting to drive or handle a firearm, they’re just not that frightening.  I can’t see these kids as being a valid threat if I’m too busy seeing them point at the ceiling and giggle because it looks funny.

And just exactly why would I want to do a drug that made me want to obsessively eat fattening snack foods?

Really?  Out of all the perfectly valid reasons to avoid smoking pot, you go with the only one that puts emphasis, yet again, on how all women have to thin?  Fuck you, Zoey.

Aaaaand then we get to the part where all these girls are Strawman Feminists.  I’m assuming just so that Zoey can come around with her oh-so-enlightened ways to knock them down, even though she sucks pretty hard at feminism herself.  Anita Sarkeesian has explained why this sucks far more eloquently than I will ever be able to.  

They finish the ceremony, and Zoey suddenly realizes that some kid that was slumped over in a chair the whole time is really Elliot.  Then she spends quite a bit of time pointing out that he’s just not as hot as everyone else in the room.  Because, I mean, it’s not like anyone could think that curly red hair on a man is attractive.  There’s only one standard for male beauty and Elliot just doesn’t reach it.  And for some reason, that’s actually important.

Then Zoey notices he’s got bandages on his arms and realizes what the rest of us figured out in the middle of the ceremony.  They drained his blood and drank that instead of wine.  Oh, wait, except she doesn’t figure it out, she has to explicitly be told it by the other girls.

Can I trade in this protagonist for a smart one, please?

I drank blood—that horrid Elliott kid’s blood—and I’d liked it!

Even in the middle of being appalled that she was tricked into drinking blood, Zoey still takes a moment out to be a hate-filled snipe.  There’s no concern for him, no mention of “oh, hey, I bet that’s why he’s sleeping all the time,” no horror that he’s being eaten by his classmates, probably against his will.  Nope, he’s a horrible person, so we reserve all our oh-noes for Zoey.  Because just fuck everything, that’s why.

Chapter Seventeen

In this chapter, Zoey stumbles away from the group and continues to be concerned only with herself.  Elliot’s ugly, so who cares about him.  She distracts herself from her angst by rescuing a cat from a tree and decides that this was the same cat from her dream earlier, therefore it is ‘her’ cat.

Zoey sits around talking to her new cat for a while, then she smells something weird and looks around.  She realizes it’s Elizabeth, the girl that died that day.  Liz has weird red eyes and runs around…well, like a monster vampyre.  So, without any further information, I can guess that un-changed vampyres don’t die, they just turn crazy, and that’s where the legends of human-eating-monster-vampyres come from.  Let’s see how long it takes for Zoey to catch up.

Zoey let’s Liz run off into the night, and then Kayla and Heath show up out of the blue.

Another use of the word retard.

They all three sit on top of a wall and chat.  Kayla likes Heath, by the way, and I’m not sure why Zoey cares so much.  Also, her human friends are both losers and she thinks mean thoughts about them.  We can tell they are losers, because they smoke pot, and we spend far too long discussing the merits or lack thereof with smoking.

This whole conversation they are having is all over the map and makes no sense.  I can’t tell if it’s because two of the teens are high, or if it’s because I started drinking, or if it’s because this book just sucks.  Excuse me while I go get more sangria. 

Also, Zoey can control the weather now.  It’s quite random.

Kayla leaves, and then Heath tries to flirt poorly with Zoey while Zoey tries to turn him down.  He’s undaunted and tries to make out with her instead.  Zoey starts to push him away, then she gets all blood-lusty and “yes, I’ll do whatever you want,” and this is very…very creepy.  Um…someone in the comments take this and run with it.

I promise, I’m not usually durnk when I do these.

It’s just a special night.

And such.

Heath gets a scratch that starts bleeding and Zoey gets all “om nom nom” on it, which makes both of them get the tinglies.  Supposedly it feels good for Heath, too.  Oh, and there’s more talk about how Elliot is a loser.

You know, this line makes less and less sense every time it shows up.  Elliot was only a ‘loser’ kid at the start because he was always tired.  But he’s only tired because people keep eating him.  But it’s okay to keep eating him, because he’s a loser.  But he’s only a loser because he sleeps through class. But…you see where I’m going with this?  It’s totally circular.  If people would just stop fucking eating him, he’d probably be a just fine kid and pass all his classes. 

Kayla shows up and yells at Zoey for licking Heath.  They both run off, Zoey heads back to school, and suddenly Erik is there with a kleenex.  Um…random?  Whatever, I care not.