Incomplete and in no particular order:
Gabi- probably feels trapped in her marriage and maybe regretting other life choices. She has just had a drunken one night stand with a student. Excellent seeds for real life drama.
Main Character- all kinds of believable familial and interpersonal drama.
Layla- teen bullying issues compounded by existence of principal parent and a crush on the new guy. More realistic drama.
Elena- we’ll call it a busy home life. Super dramatic.
Alexis- feels like she betrayed a friend for love but happy anyway. Very bittersweet and very real drama.
ex/future/possible/whatever stepsisters- enough said. Ohh, so much drama.
Erynn- succumbed to pressure and attended HS prom with blackmailer to avoid teen embarrassment. Ok, it is not the mid 20th century, she wasn't raised into a crazy cult of misogyny and it’s not really consistent with what we know about her mother and upbringing but I’ll accept the need for some more drama and she has to be “intertwined” somewhere... then we go WAY off the rails.
While the “feelings betrayed” backstory totally works from Alexis’ POV it is more than a bit cringy from Erynn’s. A 13 year old child, unseen since, doesn't tend to inspire strong adult emotions in a well adjusted 21/22 year old college student with a home, a job, the ability to feed and care for herself and some life goals. An aspiring math teacher indeed!
We’ll assume Ethan is neither BF Skinner nor Prof. Moriarty. (Based upon his story so far I suspect he’d have to Google them.) Yet he has somehow convinced said well adjusted college junior(?) to perform tasks with what? The same high school social embarrassment? The young woman is a pretty 20 something living alone and off campus, has presumably taken the required childhood development classes and probably some basic psych… She is currently working as a model; which I'm certain has it’s own form of predation education. This character is either a victim of unfortunate rewrites due to plot holes/AVN porn prejudices or there is so much to be revealed that speculating upon her psychopathy is useless.
21/22 year old college students are not 17/18 yr old HS kids. One goes from a few hundred peers in forced social groups and seclusion into a wide world of new ideas and thousands of disparate people. Add to that a professional life and well...
Now, I’ll allow that there are great differences in what is personally considered romantic. Dirty Dancing was a huge movie when I was a kid and it can be either a sweet love story or a study in 1950’s statutory rape laws based upon one’s perception… And those Shade novels, geezus. Either way, unless alien mind control exists or this tape has her sucking down coke off a murdered homeless person while choking adorable puppies I am not seeing it as anything other than UNreal life drama.
I truly don't hate the Erynn character. It's like she was written for a totally different story. I think she is currently very inconsistent and completely out of place within this, so far, very clever and engaging tale.
Gabi- probably feels trapped in her marriage and maybe regretting other life choices. She has just had a drunken one night stand with a student. Excellent seeds for real life drama.
Main Character- all kinds of believable familial and interpersonal drama.
Layla- teen bullying issues compounded by existence of principal parent and a crush on the new guy. More realistic drama.
Elena- we’ll call it a busy home life. Super dramatic.
Alexis- feels like she betrayed a friend for love but happy anyway. Very bittersweet and very real drama.
ex/future/possible/whatever stepsisters- enough said. Ohh, so much drama.
Erynn- succumbed to pressure and attended HS prom with blackmailer to avoid teen embarrassment. Ok, it is not the mid 20th century, she wasn't raised into a crazy cult of misogyny and it’s not really consistent with what we know about her mother and upbringing but I’ll accept the need for some more drama and she has to be “intertwined” somewhere... then we go WAY off the rails.
While the “feelings betrayed” backstory totally works from Alexis’ POV it is more than a bit cringy from Erynn’s. A 13 year old child, unseen since, doesn't tend to inspire strong adult emotions in a well adjusted 21/22 year old college student with a home, a job, the ability to feed and care for herself and some life goals. An aspiring math teacher indeed!
We’ll assume Ethan is neither BF Skinner nor Prof. Moriarty. (Based upon his story so far I suspect he’d have to Google them.) Yet he has somehow convinced said well adjusted college junior(?) to perform tasks with what? The same high school social embarrassment? The young woman is a pretty 20 something living alone and off campus, has presumably taken the required childhood development classes and probably some basic psych… She is currently working as a model; which I'm certain has it’s own form of predation education. This character is either a victim of unfortunate rewrites due to plot holes/AVN porn prejudices or there is so much to be revealed that speculating upon her psychopathy is useless.
21/22 year old college students are not 17/18 yr old HS kids. One goes from a few hundred peers in forced social groups and seclusion into a wide world of new ideas and thousands of disparate people. Add to that a professional life and well...
Now, I’ll allow that there are great differences in what is personally considered romantic. Dirty Dancing was a huge movie when I was a kid and it can be either a sweet love story or a study in 1950’s statutory rape laws based upon one’s perception… And those Shade novels, geezus. Either way, unless alien mind control exists or this tape has her sucking down coke off a murdered homeless person while choking adorable puppies I am not seeing it as anything other than UNreal life drama.
I truly don't hate the Erynn character. It's like she was written for a totally different story. I think she is currently very inconsistent and completely out of place within this, so far, very clever and engaging tale.
