This chapter is short. After how horribly long the last one was, I wholeheartedly approve.
Tookie wakes up . . . but she isn't in the infirmary. She's in a building that seems to be entirely made of mirrors and glass. She looks out the window and sees the M plaza below, which means she's in the M building.
Sleepwalking. You're seriously going there, Tyra? Again?
She was in a crowded hospital. The only exit that she's aware of - since she had never been to the building before - required passing by several staff members and about a dozen patients. Not to mention that Bravo was getting excited by how fun stealing stuff and hiding it in Tookie's brooch is. You think he would have stuck around until she woke up.
What kind of love interest are you, Bravo? Not even being there to creepily watch the girl while she sleeps. Edward would be ashamed of you.
Anyway, Tookie discovers that she's about 60-70 stories up, so a quick escape from the M building is impossible. You see, the M building is not only off-limits, it's strictly off-limits.
Wow. That's almost as threatening as a newborn kitten. What are they going to do? Kick her out, so she can go see Lizzie?
Tookie feels light-headed and realizes that the Zed Meds haven't worn off yet. So she managed to get 60-70 stories up in a forbidden building . . . while still partially sedated.
Unless she's been sleep teleporting a la Nightcrawler, this is stupid and impossible.
She walks down the hallway, and sees Gurus Applaussez, Lauro Brown and Gunnero Narzz.
Applaussez is holding three coffee cups, one in his/her hands and one in his/her head-hand. (Don't ask me how you can drink like that. I have no clue.)
Tookie continues to call Guru Applaussez "it." Even though Dr. Erica told her that the Gurus are all human and would have been forced to be human guinea pigs or part of freak shows if it weren't for Modelland. I hate Tookie.
Gunnero is sitting on a throne of glass and diamond. He smiles slyly, applies his lipstick, and blows a kiss in Tookie's direction.
And then it dawned on Tookie: the Guru couldn't see her. He was admiring his own reflection in a two-way mirror.
Then Tookie hears "angry voices" coming from the direction of the EMERGENCY EXIT TO THE M. All she has to do is sneak past a set of double doors . . .
She hears the BellaDonna's voice berating someone who is sobbing. The BellaDonna goes on about how the person is a hypocrite, how Modelland made her but not she's trying to abolish it, and she makes her want to vomit.
In case you haven't figured out, she's talking to Ci~L.
Ci~L points out that the BellaDonna made her come back to Modelland, and the BellaDonna tells her to shut up.
Look, if this is about the flashing the underage girls and carrying them in a pouch that may or may not have been inside my own body . . .
The BellaDonna demands to know what Ci~L was thinking digging up "new trash", specifically "that round one, that wee one, and that wan one?"
Why don't you do it yourself? You are in charge. You said yourself that Modelland is a QUEENDOM, and you're the queen. Ci~L has been busted down to first year Bella. She doesn't have any authority any more.
Ci~L starts threatening the BellaDonna, saying that the BellaDonna has no choice but to let her keep those three around. Uh, what happened to Ci~L sobbing? Is she having mood swings?
Try saying that sentence out loud. Listen to how awkward and how unnatural it sounds.
Ci~L tells the BellaDonna that she made one grave mistake. She then goes on for most of a page about what that mistake wasn't, listing all the crap that the BellaDonna has been putting her through. You know, just in case the reader had forgotten about it.
Use Private Browsing mode next time. That stuff was nasty.
Ci~L then says that the BellaDonna stupidly putting her in admissions gave her the chance to see the three rules that a BellaDonna must follow.
"I read them when I was enslaved in your admissions room, you idiot."
I'm assuming that Ci~L was working there before T-DOD, since she was too busy being tortured and being forced to retake her classes after that. She figured being tortured for 3 months was better than revealing she had blackmail material on the BellaDonna. Why is everyone in this story a moron?
The three rules are as follows:
Tookie is shocked that the list is predetermined and that T-DOD is phony. Even though she saw Ci~L read names off a list (even checking it twice, in Tookie's case) and pick a girl who was not walking (Piper).
Tookie is either extremely unobservant, or very stupid.
Crap. She's going to be forced to read this book.
The BellaDonna demands to know what Ci~L wants, and Ci~L says that she wants the three girls (Shiraz, Piper and Dylan) to remain because they're her experiments.
Two possibilities.
- Ci~L is not playing with a full deck and wants to sacrifice the girls.
- Ci~L is speaking metaphorically, and this conversation is a deliberate red herring.
The BellaDonna agrees to Ci~L's terms.
"Tookie De La Crème."
The chapter ends, so we'll have to wait until later to find out why the BellaDonna did that. Or why Ci~L is now gung-ho about sacrificing girls that she was defending a few chapters ago.
Sleepwalking, Poor Plotting and Passive Characters
This is the third time Tyra Banks has used Tookie's sleepwalking as a way to advance the plot.
First Time
Tookie sleepwalks from her bedroom to her living room. This is believable, since she didn't travel very far and didn't need to travel over unfamiliar surroundings. This sets up Tookie's sleepwalking and allows her to have a talk with her father. I have no real problem with this instance.
Second Time
Sleepwalks from her dorm room to a secret holding cell at an unknown location. Then sleepwalks back to her dorm room. At this point, she knows nothing about the Modelland campus.
This is completely ridiculous, especially the sleepwalking back to her dorm room. She managed to travel down a flight of stairs and out of the dorm building. Then, she traveled to another location which she knew nothing about (and its a holding cell, no less.) And she makes the return trip in her sleep, too.
It's completely unrealistic, contrived and mind-numbingly stupid.
It's also unnecessary. We already knew Ci~L was being tortured at this point. Ci~L said she would be when she first dropped the Unicas off at Modelland. The BellaDonna is publically punishing her in other chapters. Now if the torture had been hidden up to this point, it might have been a horrifying reveal. But it wasn't. It's been out in the open since Tookie got to Modelland.
Third Time
Like the second time, this one shatters any suspension of disbelief. People do not sleepwalk up to the top of a 70 story building, past numerous witnesses without someone noticing. The building is off-limits to students. Unless Tookie was knocked out for several hours, it was still day time.
She was at a hospital. She should have been prevented from leaving by the staff. Heck, even if the hospital staff suck at their jobs, Piper was there, too. She should have noticed Tookie leaving.
Tookie needs to overhear a conversation between Ci~L and the BellaDonna for the plot to progress, so she is dropped into the correct location, regardless of whether it makes sense. The only potential explanation that would make sense would be if Ci~L was teleporting Tookie to her . . . a power which we haven't seen evidence of, so would still be pulled out of nowhere.* Not to mention it makes no sense for Ci~L to want to do that.
This is a sign of poor plotting and story progression. Things need to happen, so they happen.
And a big part of the problem is how passive Tookie is. She doesn't investigate after seeing incredibly creepy or disturbing things. She doesn't even tell her friends about them. She just goes about her daily life, occasionally thinking about what has happened, but not doing anything about it.
Tookie doesn't do things. Things happen to Tookie. And it's hard to care about a protagonist who refuses to take an active part in their own story.
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