Let’s get this knocked out. A guard comes and opens up their room the next day, making the whole 48-hour lock thing completely pointless.  They find out that the guard who was sent to tell of their location was killed, so Maxon wants to go run off and assure his mother that he’s alive.  But…

So last chapter ended on what passed for a cliffhanger in this book, and it was completely pointless.  America says she doesn’t want to know the answer any more than we do.  They’re going to talk about it anyway, though.   Apparently Maxon decided that I needed to listen to what he had to say, whether…

When she gets back to her room, America’s maids start fucking applauding for her.  Because, yeah, it’s just so awesome what she did, right?  She STATED THE FUCKING OBVIOUS, STUFF THAT EVERY NON-LOBOTOMIZED PERSON IN THE COUNTRY SHOULD ALREADY KNOW, and that makes her special. I guess there’s a lack of non-lobotomized people in this…

America works feverishly on her presentation, writing her speech and doing research and practicing and ordering a new dress (because that’s just so important.)  Oh, and keeping everything an absolute secret from everyone, including the reader.  She’s very, very insistent on how much of a secret everything is.  Because her plan is clearly just SO…

America starts her day by making plans to see Aspen, then goes to the Misogyny Room to sulk about not having any philanthropy ideas.  Her great plan is to…ask Aspen for ideas, not spend all her copious amounts of free time trying to work on the project.  There’s even mentions of the other girls reading…