#john absolutely kills faith like 3-4 years into isolation

[baptst]

hows bunker ! john doing those seven long years you ask?

[chyrstis]

The Inside Hope County section for the questions 👀 👀

So much is going to be admitted to here, but that’s only going to add to the fun of writing it out. (and I’ve already started drafting a few of her smarter choices too). Still, I’m sorry Han. Some of this is going to be awesome, and some of this is going to suck. 

1. What was going through their head when the helicopter went down and during the subsequent chase?

Joseph shook her up badly. He was right there, inches away from her with all of the power in the situation, and she did think for a good long second that she was going to die there that night.

Burke did not help with this. She’s petrified at being held under water for any period of time, so when he left her there, she was on the verge of dying as well. Way to go, nearly ending the entire game out of the gate.

2. Were they afraid of Joseph and Eden’s Gate? Angry?

A little of A and a little of B once things got going. (honestly she leans on B to keep him from seeing any shred of A) She’d initially dismissed some of the concerns about the cult due to lack of evidence, and them being intensely private and isolated up in the mountains of Montana, which was a serious mistake. Seeing the video at the start of the game and witnessing what Joseph had the potential to do was a horrible wake up call, but she let anger at what they were doing drive her, even if at times it might’ve honestly made things worse.

3. Did they trust Dutch?

Once he cut her free, more so. Up until that point in time she’d only known about Dutch through a few of the reports back at the station, but once he made it clear what he was doing, she gave him her full support. It was probably a bit naive of her to do so so quickly, but he was the only person left she could rely, and saved her life at that.

4. How did they feel about their team being taken by the cult, did they count them as lost, did they want them back, did they not care?

She wanted all of them back. Hudson was the one she admired early on, the one that was helping her not become a massive screw up, and Whitehorse’s unwavering confidence in her, that she would be a good fit there, was something that really made it clear that these people were important to her.

Hana’s relationship with Pratt was a bit more prickly, but in that “we’re going to trade barbs every day until we realize we actually get along pretty well” type of thing, and he wanted to get in those early hazing digs before she really proved herself.

5. How did they take to the idea of being part of, if not leading, the resistance?

The realization that she’s actually one of the leaders and that people trust that she knows what she’s doing comes as a fairly hard sell. She does not want to fail them, and the more they rely on her, the more the little voice in the back of her head tries to tell her they’re making a huge mistake.

6. Which companions did they recruit, and who did they travel with the most?

She does try to recruit them all, though I’ll admit that I’m still figuring out how the Fangs are. They’re likely going to stick with those that can probably care for them, but we’ll see.

Sharky wins her over quickly, though, and once she meets Grace, Hana’s always giving her a call when she’s down in the Valley. Even if she has a feeling that Grace is going to spend the next few days shaking her head at their antics.

And Grace totally gets kudos for suggesting Hana bust out of John’s bunker a la Schwarzenegger, so she’s got an admirer for life.

7. Did they have time to find romance amidst the chaos? How did they do it?

:’)

She really wasn’t gunning for it, but she’s low-key smitten with Sharky for a good while, semi-content on being oblivious to the fact that he’s into her as well. They flirt, and she plays it off internally, but I feel like Sharky could light up an entire fireworks display saying, “I think you’re really cool, wanna bang?” and she’d still have to make him spit it out just to make sure he isn’t joking. She does end up initiating, though, once it becomes clear just how much he means to her (at a party, and with a heavy dose of “I think you’re neat, wanna do this, but it’s okay if you don’t?” as a way of giving him an easy out, b/c it’s better than being rejected outright), and there’s no doubting it after that. They’re absolutely ridiculous, and know it.

The second I did not initially plan for, but it became apparent that while she wanted to punch John, she was also apparently okay with subbing that for punching his mouth with hers. Repeatedly. 

There’s a lot of, “…Really? Really?: going on in her head, and practically lives in denial of the nature of their dynamic until she takes his ranch after the Confession fiasco, and he retaliates by stealing something of hers, dangling it in front of her as a means of meeting with him. It’s petty, but it’s how they go about things, and being alone with him is a bad idea, but she goes anyway, and it’s a mess. One that doesn’t end there, but doesn’t get much better until years down the line.

8. Feelings about Joseph?

Being around Joseph unsettles her. His intense unwavering focus whenever he addresses her always makes her want to back up and place a solid barrier in front of her, because she suspects he sees right through her. She doesn’t want to believe that he’s right, but he plants that seed of doubt right when he shows her the vision in the bliss, and she struggles with it long after that.

Still, she fights, and pushes to do the thing they had aimed for at the start, to arrest him and lock him up. She’s just not prepared for him to be right.

9. Feelings about the other Seeds?

Jacob is someone that does legitimately intimidate her and the fact that he cuts her to the quick doesn’t make it any better. The things he says to her are the very things she fears most, and she hates how easily he can pick her apart like that. The fact that he makes her doubt her actions, and how much she has control over herself as well rattles her completely. She went into their final confrontation set on killing him, grief from what she did to Eli (and for what he’d done to her) driving all of it.

Faith tries to tap into her doubts and feelings from when she was younger, how when she lost her mother, she realized she didn’t have anyone else to turn to, and acted out a bit as a result. The bliss ruins people, and ruins minds, however, and all it takes is a little to want to be trapped forever in an idealized version of reality. It’s dangerous, and she wants to stop it. She also wants to find a way to Rachel, but isn’t sure if she has the means, or if Faith will even give her the chance.

Her feelings for John are a mire, one that she’s still trying to boil down. She loves pissing him off, and their back and forth ends up turning into a strange competition, escalating until they eventually collided, but by the end she’s tired of fighting him and his siblings. Doesn’t want to just keep on feeding into the anger he wants from her, and after the Atonement she actually finds herself on the verge of being heartbroken. She can’t bring herself to kill him, as badly as she wishes she could, and hates him (and herself) for a while after that.

10. How did they handle having to kill animals and other humans? Had they done it before?

She’d honestly done neither of these things, but realizes fast that with Eden’s Gate, they wouldn’t hesitate. They would easily kill her and those she’s fighting for, and tries to push down any guilt that rises up from having to consider just how many she’d gunned down by the end.

For animals, she hasn’t hunted a day in her life, and still doesn’t do much when in need of some food in the mountains aside from fishing. She’d rather watch them go about their own business, but has been on the bad end of a tussle with a wolverine before.

11. Which canon ending did they choose in-game, and would you have changed the ending at all?

She resisted. There wasn’t any other option to her after fighting so hard for this scenario the entire game, and even though I knew what was going to happen, my heart still hurt as it played out knowing what I’d basically sentenced her to (and just how she was going to take Joseph’s words over the next seven to eight years).

Now, I’m a big softie, so even though I do find it interesting to have the Collapse play out, I’d so much have preferred for her to have been in a bunker with her loved ones and friends.

[vdoesbookrecs]

Mini analysis - A Long Way Down

Blurb: ‘Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?’

For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer’s pretty simple: he has, in his own words, ‘pissed his life away’. And on New Year’s Eve he’s going to end it all ... but not, as it happens, alone. Because first single-mum Maureen, then eighteen-year-old Jess and lastly American rock-god JJ turn up and crash martin’s private party. They’ve stolen his idea- but brought their own reasons.

Yet it’s hard to jump when you’ve got an audience queuing impatiently behind you. A few heated words and some slices of pizza later and these four strangers are suddenly allies. But is their unlikely friendship a good enough reason to carry on living?

‘Extremely funny ...and wise’ -Sunday Times

‘A page-turning plot and rich, funny characters with several big laughs on every page...Hornby’s best yet.” -Library Review

‘Hornby pins down the age in which we live with precision and comic brilliance’ -Guardian

‘Hugely enjoyable’ -Irish Times

‘Masterful ...some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading’ -Johnny Depp

‘Impossible to put down... enthralling’ -Ruth Rendell, Guardian

‘Hilarious yet heartbreaking’ -In Style

‘Generous and wise. Right rom the opening pages, a smile played continually across my face’ -GQ

‘Darkly comic’ -San Francisco Chronicle

‘Brilliant, smart and funny... a cello suite about how to go on living. It’s hard to imagine a novel more darkly and sublimely devoted to life’ -Boston Globe

‘Hornby’s portrayal of four characters who accidentally meet on top of a tower block, all ready to jump to their death on New Year’s Eve, manages to be sensitive and emphatic, but damn funny as well. My new Hornby favourite’ -Adam Philips, Observer

I’ve always been suspicious of books that have more reviews than blurb printed on the cover, and this confirms all my darkest fears and theories.

Structure and Intention: There are no chapters, instead the book is divided into three parts of about equal length. These three parts are further divided into sections where each of the four characters narrates a part. These individual narrations are between a half and about five pages long, change frequently, and are indicated by the name of the character set over the text in all capitals. The events of the book roughly follow Aristotele’s model for the ideal drama:

(note: I wanted to link the source and the website this is from apparently doesn’t exist anymore, sorry) At the very beginning we’ve got our exposition - four characters who all want to commit suicide meet. We are informed about the place (Topper’s House, London), the time (around midnight), the characters (Maureen, Martin, Jess, JJ) and get first information about them (mostly their motivations for trying to throw themselves off a building). Then we’ve got our falling action - at the end of the first part, a pact is formed: The characters agree to meet again on Valentine’s Day, and not kill themselves until then. Then we’ve got our climax (the witnessed suicide on Valentine’s) at the very end of the second part, after quite a bit of rising action (the newspaper fiasco, the interview on Martin’s show, the vacation...). Then one could argue that Maureen and Jess’ visit to Martin’s ex-wife can be seen as an element of retardation. I personally don’t, because that whole thing can be seen as leading up to The Intervention, leading us directly to our conclusion (which is a happy one and thus, if this was a play, would make the book a comedy, which I find very fitting.) What’s interesting about the structure is also that part I and II both end with a turning point: In part I we’ve got the Valentine’s Day Pact delaying the suicide, in part II they witness a suicide and subsequently realize that they aren’t capable of killing themselves. The author’s intention becomes clear in the last part of the book: the characters all slowly get better. The last sentence sums this up perfectly: JJ says about the London Eye that “It didn’t look as though it was moving, but it must have been, I suppose”, which can also be applied to the characters dire situations throughout the whole book: It doesn’t look like it’s getting better, but it is. 

Characters:

1) Martin (age: probably mid-forties)

Family situation: Was married to Cindy, with whom he has two daughters (Polly and Maise), currently together with Penny Chambers, his old co-host. Martin is a serial adulterer who’s marriage ended because he was caught having sex with a fifteen-year old girl who was under the influence of cocain. His type is described as blond, young, and big-breasted.

Character traits: Martin is educated and a member of the upper bourgeoise (rich enough to afford a BMW and a very nice flat in London, not rich enough to lose his job and still uphold his standard of living without any problems). He is pessimistic, but at the same time has a very media-friendly personality (egoistic, likes to be the center of positive attention, charismatic, vain, self-assured). Though he is very shallow and lazy, he has a strong sense of obligation.

Situation: Had sex with a fifteen-year-old and went to prison for an unspecified amount of time (my best guess is about two to three months - he’ s still recognized on the street, he mentions recent articles about himself, his girlfriend was still waiting for him when he got out, so it couldn’t have been that long). As a consequence to his...sexual escapades....he lost his job as a breakfast TV presenter (his show was called Rise and Shine With Penny and Martin). He also has an alcohol problem.

Secret wish: To not have to be held accountable for his wrongdoings

Seeks: Redemption 

2) Maureen (age: 51)

Family situation: Is a single mom (her fiancé broke off the engagement before she even knew she was pregnant, and she never had or even wanted another romantic or sexual encounter). She is the sole caretaker of her son Matty (19), who is wheelchair-bound and so severely (mentally?) disabled that he cannot communicate with anyone and basically just...vegitates.

Character traits: Maureen is deeply religious, but often doubts the teachings of the catholic church. As a consequence of her faith she has a strong sense of guilt and duty, and sees her son as the punishment for all of her sins (but mainly for the premaritial sex). She is very timid and has low self-esteem and cries very easily. Some passages allude to her being diagnosed with depression. 

Situation: Maureen has absolutely no friends and isolated from all aspects of social life (except for Sunday church) due to her family situation.

Secret wish: To be free from Matty. 

Seeks: Human contact

3) Jess Crichton (age: 18)

Family situation: Is the daughter of the Junior Minister of Education; her older sister, Jennifer, disappeared shortly after obtaining her driver’s license and is presumed dead. The car she was driving was found at a popular suicide spot and her body was never found. Jess’ relationship with her parents is very tense, as she blames herself for Jen’s disappearance and, consequently, for her parents’ misery.

Character traits: Jess has a hard facade and often acts unpredictable or crazy. Underneath that facade she is a vulnerable and grieving young girl who feels deeply guilty because she is convinced she is the reason her sister left the family and clings to any and all human contact. She is deathly afraid of people leaving her. She is very insecure and often ‘reinvents’ herself in order to please those around her. Despite this she is not afraid to speak her mind, often in vulgar terms. She describes herself as ‘fucked up’ and self harms. 

Situation: Jess is convinced her sister isn’t dead and is living a happy life somewhere without her. She is very detached from her parents, though she secretly longs for a happy family life. She is starved for affection and clings to it wherever she can find it, which leads to her stalking Chas, the boy who took her virginity. She in convinced that they had a deep and meaningful relationship that he destroyed, despite only ever going on two dates and Chas not even defining their relationship as boyfriend-girlfriend type.  

Secret wish: For her parents to swoop in and magically fix everything that’s been going wrong since Jen disappeared.

Seeks: Reassurance

4) John Julius a.k.a. JJ (age: mid twenties to early thirties maybe? it’s pretty unclear)

Family situation: JJ’s family situation is unknown; the only meaningful relationships mentioned in his past are his ex girlfriend, Lizzie, for whom he immigrated to England from the US, and Ed, his former bandmate and childhood friend, who quit the band and is living in the US. 

Character traits: JJ is an introspective, melancholic and philosophical artistic personality. He is very philosophical despite being a relatively uneducated high school dropout and enjoys intellectual stimulation, particularly in the form of books. He loves four things: music, books, his bandmates, and his ex, three of which have left him. 

Situation: JJ is an illegal immigrant. His band broke up despite obvious success and his girlfriend, who was the reason he came to the UK in the first place, broke up with him.

Secret wish: To be famous with his band

Seeks: Self-expression

Language: All four characters use typical language in their monologues. Martin typically uses words from the fields MEDIA. LAW and PROFANITY and very long and elaborate adjectives and adverbs. He uses rather long sentences with multiple subclauses and often employs rhetorical questions. His educated, engaging and cynical tone stands in contrast to his frequent use of profanity. Overall Martin’s tone is rather sophisticated, sometimes lofty, but not implausible as spoken English.  Maureen typically uses words from the fields RELIGION and OUTDATED SLANG. Striking is her complete lack of profanity. She uses rather simple syntax, lots of insertions, often ends her sentences with ‘isn’t it’ and there are often periods instead of question marks at the end of her questions. This leads to her seeming slow (as in slow-moving), old-fashioned, uptight and prudish. Overall her style is rather standard but seems stiff in comparison to the others.  Jess typically uses words from the fields PROFANITY and SLANG. She uses lots of ellipses, rhetorical questions, and relatively short sentences. Her language sees fast-paced, intense, and often jumpy. Her style is somewhere between colloquial, which she is a bit too structured for, and standard, which she is a bit too jumpy for.  JJ typically uses words from the fields LITERATURE, BAND/MUSIC, and PROFANITY. He uses very long sentences with elaborate subclauses which often feature rhetorical questions, and questions and literal speech or his thoughts as insertions. His language is philosophical, thoughtful and ‘deep’, the style is standard to colloquial. 

Personal Opinion: It’s shit don’t read it. 

Ok but in all honesty this book is shallow, doesn’t accurately portray depression or being suicidal, features a character whos only regret about sleeping with a minor who was unable to give consent due to being drugged out of her mind, and also, fifteen, (this is what they call rape fellas!) is that he didn’t get away with it (also this is never addressed? there is no outside perspective given on this? no one ever says anything about this in their parts, everyone seems ok with Martin being a convicted and guilty sex offender? what the f), and, in all honesty, the writing is...rather mediocre. Like, it isn’t bad per se, but in my opinion it’s on no way deserving the praise it gets. 

Note: I...have so much more stuff I could say about this book. If you want a series of very detailed diagrams depicting character relationships or something like that, let me know because I’ve got it all.