Juliette goes back to her room in the most melodramatic fashion possible, then reminisces back on grade school when she first met Adam.

I only heard bits and pieces of their whispers.

[…]

“What a loser.”

“—got kicked out of her old school—”

“Psycho!”

Another thing that’s confusing about this book is that Juliette’s claims of madness came long before she spent a year in isolation, and it seems to be entirely based on the fact that she can suck people’s life away by touching them.  Even in a dystopia, I find it really hard to believe that anyone would confuse this magical talent for mental illness, or anything mental at all. It could be possible if we knew more about what was going on – maybe she isn’t being kicked out of schools for hurting people but for avoiding them.  But we’re not even invited to assume that.  Instead we simply get this bare bones nonsense that says everyone assumes she’s mentally ill because she has magical soul-sucking touch.

Anyway, after recounting the story of her brutal bullying, she mentions one day seeing Adam dropped off at school by his abusive, alcoholic father.  The man even gets out of the car to beat Adam some more, and since this is happening before the environmental disasters really set in and everything’s supposedly normal, I have to ask: DID NO ONE ELSE SEE THIS GOING ON?  It’s right in front of a school for fuck’s sake.  Are there no teachers there to call the cops on him or yell at him?

When he walked into class that day covered in dirt and blood from being beaten right outside the school, did no teachers take him to the nurse?

Child abuse is terrible, but if it were this easy to spot, it wouldn’t be a problem any more because we’d be able to pick off abusers like sitting ducks.  If you’re going to display an issue like this, at least do it with enough nuance to show why it’s so hard to combat.  Displaying it like this makes people figure that real abuse is so easy to spot, so if they don’t see anyone with visible bruises or see them get viciously beaten, then they must be okay. 

When issues are as persistent and damaging as child abuse, it is vitally important to portray them with sensitivity and nuance, so people can be educated on the very real dangers.  Don’t turn it into a cartoon villain so that people can continue to ignore all but the most extreme of cases.

Back in the present, Juliette confronts him with the fact that he knew her all along and for some reason Adam shares her reaction that this was somehow a horrible betrayal of some sort.  Then he admits that he thought she didn’t remember him, which she says she did.

For…some reason this is all a very emotional breakthrough for them, and they start making out against a wall.  You know, as you do.  An intercom interrupts them and says “you, you guys know the cameras are off?”  Adam says “Yup, Warner told me to.”  Um…so that was pointless.

They go back to kissing and Adam once again mentions the need to get out of there.

Next chapter, Juliette goes back to reminiscing about stuff we already know because we’ve learned these bits of her backstory already.

I spent the next 3 years of my life in hospitals, law offices, juvenile detention centers, and suffered through pills and electroshock therapy. Nothing worked. Nothing helped.

You know what’s notably missing from all of this?

Anyone screaming HOLY FUCK, THAT CHICK HAS MAGIC FINGERS, FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK SCIENCE PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS WHAT IS GOING ON HOW THE HELL DID SHE FINGER THAT KID TO DEATH WHAT IS GOING ON?

Why did anyone think electroshock would help?  What did they think they were helping?  What kind of pills did they give her to stop her from having magic skin?  Is this sort of thing normal in this world?  Are there lots of killtouch people?

Why would you even try and cure that?  I mean, it sucks for Juliette, but why is everyone reacting like “huh, that’s odd, I wonder if we can fix it.”  Instead of, you know, the more likely scenario of “HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN AND CAN WE MAKE IT HAPPEN AGAIN ON PURPOSE?”

This is a really unusual skill in a world where, as far as we know, this sort of shit doesn’t happen, and yet it’s being treated as if it’s just some random, annoying thing that happened.  This is not how people would react to the sudden appearance of a random death-dealing supergirl, and if this isn’t actually random, then we need to know that.

Adam deals with a random other solider at the door who just wants to  “peak” at her like she’s in the zoo.  Hey, remember all those chapters ago when Warner said that putting the fear of Juliette in everyone would keep her safe?  How unsurprising that it didn’t work.

“Are you serious about leaving?” he asks me.

Strange thing to say, since she’s never agreed to leave or mentioned any desire to. It’s always just been Adam going “we need to get out of here.”

Adam says there’s some big attack planned that everyone is getting ready for, and they should plan to leave in the midst of deploying for that since it’ll be all SNAFU and give them a better chance of a head start.

Juliette has an emo moment of wondering why Adam is putting himself at such risk for her, so he goes off listing all the kind things she did back in elementary school.

The book wants me to think this is awesome BUT:

1. That was elementary school, several years ago, before she killed a kid and landed in a tortureprison.  People change.

2. THE ONLY REASON HE WANTS TO HELP HER IS BECAUSE HE LIKES HER.  That’s a problem, not something to praise him over.  Presumably, if she wasn’t a reincarnation of Mother Theresa, he’d be perfectly fine with her being mistreated and used to torture people.

I’m really, really sick of seeing this glorified in fiction stories.  I’m sick of “heroes” that will only help if someone they, personally, care about.  It was a big gripe for me in Avengers, too.  “The whole world is in peril from a trickster god with daddy issues?  Yeah, we’re going to just squabble for a while.  OMG COULSON DIED?  BUT WE LIKE HIM!  CURSE YOU, LOKI, WILL BE BRING VENGEANCE DOWN UPON YOUR ASS.”  I just can’t get behind the idea of a hero that will only be a hero for a small group of people, and everyone else can go to hell with barely a flicker of conscience.  That’s not heroic.  Heroic is saving people regardless of your personal feelings for them.  Heroic is helping complete strangers, people you actively dislike, and your friends equally.

Being nice to people that you already like is not special.  It’s normal.  It’s not deserving of praise.  It’s one of those “bare minimum to not be a jackass” things.  You might as well act astounded that your new car came with tires.