Luce meandered down the dank dormitory hallway toward her room, dragging her red Camp Gurid duffel bag with the broken strap in her wake.

Dafuq is “Camp Gurid” and why do I need to know it?  Google did not help me in this matter; it either changed Gurid to Guide or sent me to online copies of Fallen.

I think it’s the “meandered” in that sentence that bugs me the most.  Why is she meandering?  That’s not an all-purpose replacement for “walk,” but the rest of the chapter goes on no indication that she’s hesitating, avoiding her room, or wandering aimlessly for any reason at all.  It comes off feeling like the book just wanted to use fancy words for the sake of it. 

She mopes about how ugly the place is some more and then finds a mirror so she can mope about how ugly she is, too, because that seems to be Luce’s number one complaint about anything.  It’s all ugly, and that’s all she’s got.

her biggest fear had come to fruition: The whole school had already started calling her Meat Loaf.

Okay, probably still not what a teenage girl wants to be compared to, but I’d still take it.

Luce manages to mope even more while talking about how much she misses her family and then giving us more back story on the boyfriend who died before the start of this book.  It seems to be there just to point out that they’d been casual instead of OMG love, I guess so she can still have her “first” love be Daniel.  Either way, I’m just bored, because of course teens in high school have casual friend-crush relationships.  Why do I need to dwell on this?  It’s a thing, I get it, I know it happens, stop trying to convince me of… whatever it is you’re trying to do.

A knock on her door made Luce shoot up from the bed. How would anyone know to find her here?

 Earlier in the chapter, Luce said that hers was the only door that wasn’t decorated, so presumably that’s how. 

Outside, she finds a note sending her to Arriane’s door, where she finds another note saying Arriane won’t be around because of a make-up test she has to take.  So… that was convoluted.  Ugh, there is so much padding in this book.  

While standing awkwardly outside Arriane’s door, she sees one of Daniel’s friends and feels the need to lie and say she was on the way to the library for some reason.  The friend tells her to check out a particular part of the library, for some reason, and then Luce decides to actually go.  For some reason.  It’s all just so damn… convenient. 

When she gets to the library, it’s pretty.  Why?  The whole place has been nothing but dismal and gray and ugly, but when we get to this place it’s all plush car pets and mahogany paneling.  Is there a reason for why so much money has been put into this room but not the rest?  Or is it just that everything is ugly when Luce doesn’t like stuff and pretty when Luce does like stuff?

“Hello!” The woman smiled—she actually smiled—at Luce. Her hair was not gray but silver, with a kind of brilliance that sparkled even in the soft library light. Her face looked old and young at the same time. She had pale, almost incandescent skin, bright black eyes, and a tiny, pointed nose. When she spoke to Luce, she pushed up the sleeves of her white cashmere sweater, exposing stacks and stacks of pearl bracelets decorating both of her wrists. “Can I help you find something?” she asked in a happy whisper.

Let me guess, this person is going to be important? 

This is the librarian and religion teacher named Miss Sophia.  She guides Luce to the special collections section that Roland suggested.  Low and behold, Daniel is there!  Good call, Roland.  Did you guys work that out, or was it just… convenience?  Also Luce’s mysterious shadows show up again, but they feel ominously different this time, presumably because of Daniel being there.

His shoulders were hunched over, and yet again, Luce had an instinct to fold herself into them.

Really, dafuq does this even mean?  Stop saying it, Luce, I don’t know what it means!

As she watched the slight movement of his body as he sketched, Luce’s insides felt like they were burning

Why is this concerned romantic, again?  That’s scary shit there.

Then it hit her. The dream she’d had the night before. The briefest flash of it came back to her all of a sudden. In the dream, it had been late at night—damp and chilly, and she’d been dressed in something long and flowing.

Wait, that prologue was supposed to be a dream?  Wow, that was not dream-like in the least. 

Luce spends a full page staring at him in abject angst before she finally approaches him to see what he’s drawing and talk to him.  They talk while Luce decides that being near him makes her less afraid of the shadows that are still following her around for some reason.  (What is up with those is that does, anyway?  We don’t have much information on them.  Do they do anything or just hang around?  We know she sees them, but has she ever interacted with them?  Do they ever do anything threatening?) 

Daniel says he doesn’t want company and when she doesn’t leave at the hint, he pops smoke out of there, leaving Luce to angst some more.

When he pushed past, his shoulder brushed hers. Even as brief as the touch was, even through their layers of clothes, Luce felt a shock of static.

No matter how many times romance books pull this on me, it still comes off as abnormal and slightly scary.  I don’t care how hot a boy is, if his touch does that, I’m not touching him.