Shatter Me: Chs 16 – 17

Juliette gets out her purple dress and in the process finds her journal, which she guesses that Adam has saved for her.  Then she finally puts two and two together and realizes that whole “there’s no cameras in the bathroom” line was code for “so go in there and let’s talk.”  As she sneaks her notebook in there under the dress, she finds he’s written a single line.

It’s not what you think.

Fuck, boy, it’s not like there’s a time crunch going on.  You don’t have just a few seconds to whisper something to her while trying not to look suspicious.  It’s a FUCKING JOURNAL, WRITE SHIT, EXPLAIN STUFF, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THESE GOD DAMN TINY CLUES THAT AREN’T EVEN ACTUAL CLUES, THEY’RE JUST THERE TO TEASE ME.

I’m serious, I hate being teased.  I hate it, hate it, hate it.  There’s a difference between mystery and teasing, and this is it.  A mystery has a sense of purpose behind the clues, a reason why things are hidden, a problem or obstacle that prevents the whole truth from getting out, and that’s why the main character needs to go after it.  Here?  Fuck that.  There’s no reason Adam can’t write more in that journal, just like there’s no reason Warner can’t tell he what the fuck is going on.  And we’re not invited to figure it out, because we’re not given actual clues.  We’re just being taunted with the fact that we don’t know anything.  There’s no way for us to figure this out except to read more, and I think that’s the key.  The point of this isn’t to give us something to figure out; it’s to trick us to keep reading.

If your story is interesting, I will keep reading.  If you need to use tricks, then take a step back and realize that you’ve been reduced to using tricks because the story wasn’t good enough on its own.

Oh yeah, and apparently Adam has been beaten/injured since the last time we saw him.  To…keep Juliette in line?  Although it seems more like it’s for evilolz, because at this point they’re not supposed to know that she keeps blathering on in her head about him.

Warner comes and he takes her outside again.  Juliette does her whole “wheee, I’m outside again” bit, which Warner thinks is amusing, and then the look over the edge of the roof they’re on and see a whole bunch of soldiers standing below in formation.  These soldiers are, apparently, Sector 45, which Warner is in charge of.  Or maybe Sector 45 is the area that these soldiers have responsibility over?  We still don’t know.

Warner introduces Juliette to the formation formally, then someone named Delalieu has a report to give.  Delalieu calls out some soldier named Fletcher and accuses him of fraternizing with known rebel members, giving them stolen food and supplies, and possibly sending on sensitive information.  Fletched doesn’t deny it when asked if all this is true, so he gets shot in the head.

Well.  That’s pretty efficient.

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