the thing about the lost boys is they will be standing around doing jack shit and everyone nearby is like “jesus christ what is wrong with you. get the hell out of here.”

Love versus Hate

Once again I have had my Facebook page assailed with the hatred that Fundamental “Christians” spew out against ‘Gays’, I read the articles as I scroll down my page and I am filled with sorrow, because it was fundamental holy men who Crucified Christ, so herewith my message of love versus you Fundamental, Right-wing Christian outpouring of hate. How Our Lord Practised all the Most Excellent Acts of Love. Treatise on the Love  of God — St. Francis  de Sales Having spoken at large of the  sacred acts of divine love, I present you, that you may more easily and  holily preserve the memory of them, with a collection or abridgment of them.  The charity of Jesus Christ presseth us, [485] says the great apostle. Yea  truly, Theotimus, it forces and carries us away by its in finite sweetness,  exercised in the whole work of our Redemption, in which appeared the  benignity and love of God towards men: for what did not this divine lover do  in matter of love? 1. He loved us with a love of Complacency, for his  delights were to be with the children of men [486] and to draw man to himself,  making himself man. 2. He loved us with a love of Benevolence, bestowing his  own divinity upon man, so that man was God.3. He united himself unto us by an  incomprehensible Union, whereby he adhered to our nature, and joined himself  so closely, indissolubly and super-eminently to it, that never was anything so  strictly joined and bound to humanity as is now the most holy divinity in the  person of the Son of God. 4. He flowed out into us, and as it were melted his  greatness, to bring it to the form and figure of our littleness, whence he is  styled a source of living water, dew and rain of heaven. 5. He loved us to  Ecstasy, not only because, as S. Denis says, by the excess of his loving  goodness he goes in a certain manner out of himself, extending his Providence  to all things and being in all things, but also because he has in a sort  forsaken and emptied himself, dried up his greatness and glory, resigned the  throne of his incomprehensible majesty, and, if it be lawful so to say, annihilated  himself to stoop down to our humanity, to fill us with his divinity, to  replenish us with his goodness, to raise us to his dignity, and bestow upon  us the divine being of children of God. And he of whom it is so frequently  written: I live, saith the Lord; could afterwards have said according to his  apostle's language: I live, now not I, but man liveth in me. To me to live is  man, and to die for man is gain. My life is hidden with man in God. [487] He who dwelt in himself dwells  now in us, and he who was living from all eternity in the bosom of his  Eternal Father becomes mortal in the bosom of his temporal Mother; he who  lived eternally by his own divine life, lived with a human life, and he who  from eternity had been only God, shall be for all eternity man too: so has  the love of man ravished God, and drawn him into an ecstasy! 6. Love often  led him to admiration, as of the Centurion and Chanaanitess. 7. He  contemplated the young man who had till that hour kept the commandments, and  desired to be taught perfection. 8. He took a loving quiet in us, yea even  with some suspension of his senses, in his mother's womb and in his  infancy.9. He had wondrous movements of Tenderness towards little children,  whom he would take in his arms and lovingly fondle; towards Martha and  Magdalen, towards Lazarus, over whom he wept, as he wept also over the city  of Jerusalem.10. He was animated with an incomparable Zeal, which, as S.  Denis says, changed into Jealousy, turning away, as much as possible, all  evil from his beloved human nature, with hazard, yea with the price, of his  own life; driving away the devil the prince of this world, who seemed to be  his rival and companion. 11. He had a thousand thousand Languors of love; for  whence could those divine words proceed: I have a baptism, wherewith I am to  be baptized: and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? [488] The hour in which he was baptized  in his blood was not yet come, and he languished after it; the love which he  bore unto us urging him thereunto, that he might by his death see us  delivered from an eternal death. So he was sad, and sweated the blood of  distress in the Garden of Olives, not only by reason of the exceeding sorrow  which his soul felt in the inferior part of his reason, but also by reason of  the singular love which he bore unto us in the superior portion thereof,  sorrow causing in him a horror of death, and love giving him an extreme  desire of the same; so that a most fierce combat and a cruel agony took  place, between the desire and the dread of death, unto a mighty shedding of  blood, which streamed down upon the earth as from a living spring. 12. Finally, Theotimus, this divine lover died  amongst the flames and ardours of love, by reason of the infinite charity  which he had towards us, and by the force and virtue of love: that is he died  in love, by love, for love, and of love, for though his cruel torments were sufficient  to have killed any one, yet could death never make entry into his life who  keeps the keys of life and death, unless divine love, which handles those  keys, had opened the gates to death, to let it ravage that divine body and  despoil it of life. Love was not content to have only made him subject to  death for us unless it made him dead. It was by choice, not by force of  torment, that he died. No man taketh my life away from me: but I lay it down  of myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up  again. [489] He was offered, says Isaias,  because it was his own will. [490] And therefore it is not said that  his spirit went away, forsook him, or separated itself from him, but,  contrariwise, that he gave up his spirit, breathed it out, yielded and  commended it into the hands of his eternal Father; so that S. Athanasius  remarks that he bowed his head to die, that he might consent to and bend to  death's approach, which otherwise durst not have come near him; and crying  out with a loud voice he gives up his spirit into his Father's hands, to show  that as he had strength and breath enough not to die, so had he love so great  that he could no longer live, but would by his death revive those who without  it could never escape death, nor have the chance of true life. Wherefore our  Saviour's death was a true sacrifice, and a sacrifice of holocaust, which  himself offered to his Father for our redemption: for though the pains and  dolours of his passion were so great and violent that any but he had died of  them, yet had he never died of them unless he himself had pleased, and unless  the fire of his infinite charity had consumed his life. He was then the  sacrificer himself, who offered himself unto his Father and immolated  himself, dying in love, to love, by love, for love, and of love.Yet beware of saying, Theotimus, that this  amorous death of the Saviour took place by manner of rapture, for the object  which his charity moved him to die for was not love-worthy enough to ravish  to itself this divine soul, which departed then from his body by way of  ecstasy, driven and forced on by the abundance and might of love; even as we  see the myrrh tree send forth its first juice by its mere abundance, without  squeezing or drawing in any way; according to that which he himself said, as  we have declared: No man taketh my life away from me but I lay it down of  myself. O God! Theotimus, what burning coals are cast upon all our hearts to  inflame us to the exercise of holy love towards our all-good Saviour, seeing  he has so lovingly practised them towards us who are so evil! This charity  then of Jesus Christ presseth us! Footnotes:[485] 2  Corinthians 5:14.14For Christ’s love compels us, because  we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. 15And He died for all, that those who live  should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was  raised again.…[486] Proverbs  8:31.30Then  I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delight day by day, rejoicing  always in His presence. 31I  was rejoicing in  His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men. 32Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for  blessed are those who keep my ways.…[487] Galatians  2:20.19For  through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. 20I  have been crucified with Christ, and I no  longer live, but Christ lives in me. The  life I  live in the  body, I  live by faith in  the Son of  God, who loved me and gave  Himself up for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God. For if  righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing.”…[488] Luke 12:50.49I  have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50But I  have a  baptism to  undergo, and how distressed  I am until it  is accomplished! 51Do you think that I have come to bring peace  to the earth? No, I tell you, but division.…[489] John 10:18.17The  reason the Father loves Me is that I lay down My life in order to take it up  again. 18No  one takes it from Me, but I lay  it down of My  own accord. I  have authority to  lay it down and authority to  take it up again. This charge I  have received from My Father.” 19Again there was division among the Jews  because of Jesus’ message.…[490] Isaiah  53:7. 6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressedand afflicted,yet He did notopenHis mouth.He was ledlike a lambto the slaughter,and as a sheepbeforeher shearersis silent,so He did notopenHis mouth.8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.… (Photograph titled “Redemption” by Michael Drysdale.)

Corrupt by Penelope Douglass

Corrupt is an erothic thriller that’s part of the Devil’s Night series by Penelope Douglas. It mostly follows Erika, daughter to a rich family living in the affluent community in Thunder Bay, who three years ago was involved in an event that sent 3 of Thunder Bay’s most popular and prized boys to jail. Now, they are back, and along with Michael, their best friend and the man Erika has been in love with her entire life, they plan to destroy her and exact their revenge.

This book, is probably the most disappointing thing I have ever read. And I have a lot to say about it, so buckle up; it’s going to be a long review.

First off, this has probably one of the most intriguing premises I have come across in a while; 4 boys who are the richest, most powerful, popular and well protected in an already incredibly rich and affluent community pick one night a year where they do ‘pranks’ that go from stealing trucks to arson and assault, and get away with it, because even though everyone knows who they are, they are so protected by their own community, that they never have to face consequences. Except, because of Erika they do, and now they want revenge, and to complicated things, the one who didn’t go to jail is in love with her. And yet, this book fails to deliver on every possible promise of this premise, which is almost incredible.

PoV Issues:

First off, for whatever reason we have POV’s from both Erika and Michael, which completely takes the mystery out of the book. If the whole premise is Erika not knowing whether Michael likes/hates/wants to sexually assault her, it kind of defeats the purpose of the mystery if we can read exactly what he’s thinking. Having his POV grinds a lot of the book to a halt, and it’s not delivered particularly well either; there’s long stretches of the book where we don’t have his POV, while the ending is almost entirely him, making the book feel uneven; it’s like it can’t decide if he or Erika are the protagonists and as such, character development that should come at the beginning is saved for the very end, at which point I no longer cared.

Pacing and Length:

Second, this book is just way too long. It’s almost 500 pages, and it doesn’t utilize them well. We skip between 3 years ago and the present, and the 3 years ago sections were painful. Everything that happens in the school prior to the actual Devil’s Night is straight out of a poorly written YA book, complete with the ‘popular boy I like doesn’t notice me’ trope, the ‘I think I’m plain, but I’m secretly stunning’, and most infuriatingly dialogue so bad, not only do no teenagers actually speak like that, no humans speak like that.

This was doubly confusing to me, because the one thing Douglas does do well is the banter between the Horsemen (barf); their dialogue and jokes did sound convincingly high school and like boys pretending to be tough and unbothered, but unfortunately we get very little exploring their dynamic.

You’d think that a 500 page book would have time to develop the characters and really flesh out this plan and its intricacies, but no. Instead, we have one scene of MIchael and his dad arguing about trust funds and inheritance, another scene of the guys planning to do something to Erika’s mom (and us not knowing what they did for like 20+ chapters, even though WE CAN READ FROM MICHAEL’S POV), and the rest is just inane bits of I guess character development for Erika, which is delivered in the most blunt, uninteresting straightforward manner. It doesn’t help that in the past sections, it takes about 200 pages for things to actually start getting interesting, because the start is just Erika being tormented relentlessly by all the men around her, and her not standing up, and the present is her series of increasingly dumb decisions, and back and forth between her and Michael. The plot also peaks too early, and the following 100 pages just feel like they are a waste of time rather than building tension.

The Sex Scenes:

The pacing affects even the sex scenes. Some of them are ill placed, and others are so long and drawn out that even if you are reading this book for them, you will be bored out of your mind. Again, this book can’t decide if it’s a genuine erotic thriller with stakes and a plot, and the sex is supposed to play into that, or an erotica with some mild thriller elements. If it’s the former, then the fact that we have no sex for the first 200 pages, and then like 5 or 6 really long scenes near the climax of the thriller plot is not helpful, and neither is the fact that only 2 really contribute to the plot. If it’s the latter, then there are too few of them and they come too late in the book for anyone to care at that point. 500 pages is just too long for an erotic novel, and I was tapped out on caring about the sex by the second proper sex scene.

Writing and Dialogue:

This book is not written… well. Firstly, there are tons of overlong, flat and plain unnecessary descriptions; I don’t need to know the layout of Michael’s family house unless it will contribute to the plot, or every detail of Erika’s childhood if you won’t at least describe it with flare. The point of long descriptions in FP narratives is to give us insight into how the characters see and remember the world; they’ll describe things in their individual way and note what they find important. Here it’s just flat straightforward descriptions of actions or places that tell me nothing about Erika or Michael.

This same style of flat writing permeates the book even in the sex scenes; we get them both from Michael and Erika and they sound exactly the same, there is no difference. In general there is no difference between Michael and Erika’s voices; Michael mentions cocks and boobs more and wants you to know ‘Erika is mine’ and Erika is constantly thinking only about Michael and wants you to know ‘she belongs to no one, except no one is Michael’

She also has these long monologues about wealth, privilege, social pressures and differences between men and women, and it’s almost infuriating, because Douglas is so close to actually saying something meaningful about these things, but it never goes anywhere and it only serves to tell us that yes, Erika is rich, and yes, it sometimes bothers her, but no, she’d never give up the money, even though I guess she wants to feel like she’d survive without it. If it was written better and actually informed Erika’s character, it would be an interesting study of someone who grew up rich and learning how to make it on their own outside of their privileged environment, but like a lot of things, it goes nowhere.

Then there’s the dialogue. It’s bad. I won’t belabor the point, but I will just give you two examples: on page 28:

“Rika,” he lowered his voice, his brown eyes gentle “Baby you’re beautiful. Long blonde hair, legs that no guy in this school can ignore and he prettiest blue eyes in town. You’re gorgeous”

And on page 70:

“What about you?” I finally asked, making him stop. “Did prison change you?”

He turned, looking at me with eerie calmness “I guess we’ll see”

Lack of Genuine Darkness and Consequences:

Like that second example implies, this book is ‘dark’. Unfortunately, that’s probably the biggest missed opportunity. This is hard to talk about without SPOILERS, so skip this part if you still want to read this book.

We are told that Erika did something to put the guys in jail, possibly as revenge for something they did to her; moreover, their plan is to destroy her, which could mean anything. So I was excited to get some genuinely dark stuff, but unfortunately this book has a tendency to whitewash it’s characters, and nothing they do is actually that reprehensible.

First let’s talk about Devil’s Night. I didn’t mind that the pranks the guys pulled were mostly tied to property damage and theft, because, well they are high schoolers. The orgy/sex circle in the catacombs was just… dumb. I can’t imagine why high school students would be down to have sex in an actual CATACOMB in front of a live audience that just so happens not to have phones recording everything but whatever. The only prank the boys pull which is genuinely fucked up was burning the gazebo, but while I didn’t approve, it wasn't anything that was genuinely dark.

What the guys actually do to Erika was also weird. On the one hand, taking her for a ride in a forest and pretending to want to rape her, so they scare her to stay away from Michael is pretty fucked up. But on the other hand, they don’t actually do it, and since it was Trevor pulling the shots, they never even INTENDED to do it. Even Damon, the one guy from the Horsemen who actually participated in the act, had no intention of actually assaulting Erika, which she obviously didn’t know at the time, but it makes his actions much less sinister.

Then there’s Erika. She didn’t actually do it. That’s the big twist; what gets the boys in jail, isn’t actually anything she does. Instead it was Trevor, all along because there is only one true villain and he is Trevor. What lands Damon in jail is a video of him sleeping with the mayor’s daughter, which Trevor sends to the police. Since the girl is underage, it’s legally  not consensual and well… yeah. Again, we can argue all day about consent of minors, but in this book’s universe, Michael is fine for wanting to sleep with a 16 year old Erika, and the book makes sure to tell us that Damon did seduce and consentually sleep with the girl. Even more, the mayor actually hated Damon’s family and used this to destroy him and… can we whitewash Damon a little more please? I don’t think he’s quite saintly enough. He’s the only person who does something in the ballpark of reprehensible, and surprise he’s the other designated villain.

Will and Kai get caught on tape beating up a police officer. Bad, right? Well no, it turns out the police officer they beat up, abused his sister. How noble of them. They are such good people, they went to jail for Will trying to protect his crush (whose gazebo he burned down but… Will makes no sense as a character, don’t dwell on it).

Then the actual plan. First, Michael legally forces Erika’s mother into rehab, which is illegal, but not morally wrong since she is an alcoholic and in essence he’s forcing her to get help. Then Kai, Will and Damon burn down Erika’s house, which was the only part of this plan that I genuinely felt was horrible, but that’s only because we get the one good scene of Michael and Erika bonding over her collection of matches she keeps to remember her father.

Then, Michael takes over as the proprietor of Erika’s estate and freezes all her funds which is again, is a pretty dick move, but didn’t Erika want not to be shackled by her father;s money? Also this is just the last ploy to get Erika to go to the house where the boys are hiding so they can exact their true revenge which is…. To rape her. Maybe.

This part I was really confused by. It seems that’s what they want, but later we are told that they only really wanted to frighten her and make her feel as alone and afraid as they all did when they went to jail. Which again, whitewashes their actions, but even if they did genuinely want to rape her, the plan still makes no sense.

You are telling me that these men, spent 3 years in jail and the only thing that helped them survive it, is a plan to send Erika’s mom to rehab, freeze or destroy her material properties and then rape her? And then what? None of them seem interested in killing her, so do they just… hope she doesn’t go to the police? They all have criminal records, and one of them is probably in the database for sexual offenders! And then, when we find out what had actually happened, everyone just forgives everyone, except Travis the supervillain, who gets MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD.

Now, I want to be very clear. Nothing I say here is something I condone. I do not condone sexual violence, or really any type of violence that isn’t in self defense. But either commit to the characters or don’t damnit!

Commit to the boys assaulting Erika. Maybe don’t go all the way; have Trevor intervene and save her, and maybe he convinces her to use the videos on Will’s phone if you want her to not be solely responsible for sending them to jail. Then the threat of them being in town is genuine because they are actually dangerous people. I would 100% believe that the culmination of their plan is to rape her, if we know they’d done it before, and even more so because of what they had to go through while in prison. It also helps add conflict to Erika and Michael’s characters; he could slowly find out that there was a reason Erika sent them to jail and then he actually has to choose between his friends and her. Erika actually was willing to take justice in her own hands, since she would know first hand how the previous attempt she made to get a rapist to be punished went.

Which leads me to the lack of consequences. As soon as the truth comes out Erika immediately forgives the guys for literary destroying her life, and she especially immediately forgive Michael for not even stopping for a moment to make sure what they guys told him was true, and being willing to let them assault her! Then we have Damon, who gets stabbed, but then completely gets away with helping Travis orchestrate the joyride, assaulting Erika again, kidnapping her, and helping Travis try and kill her. He just fucks off to St Petersburg! (Side note, what kind of person thinks that Damon Torrence is someone who has Russian heritage?)

Travis, a whole mess of a character, kidnaps his ex so he can lure his brother and TRY TO KILL HIM, because his ex is in love with him. He orchestrates a possible rape so he can destroy the relationship between the boys and Erika, sends the boys to jail and why? No reason! And then, he gets shot and killed by Michael, and Michael GETS AWAY WITH IT. There is no trial, no jail time, not scandal in the papers about the son of the wealthiest man in Thunder Bay and a professional NBA BASKETBALL PLAYER killing his own brother! IN WHAT UNIVERSE? That part annoyed me even more than all the other things I mentioned before; there are no consequences and no motivation and this book FAILS as a thriller.

Characters:

Let’s start with actual supervillain Trevor. He is possessive, jealous, arrogant and willing to KILL HIS OWN BROTHER just because the girls he wants is in love with him. Why?

He seems to be their abusive dad’s favorite son, he’s arranged to marry Erika anyway, he gets all of her properties and money and managed to get rid of Michael’s friends. He has everything! All he had to do was just tell his father or Erika that the gang is back and planning something, and none of this would’ve happened. He even gets an evil monologue at the end and tells Erika Damon’s backstory, both of which were straight out of a Bond movie. I hated this stupid waste of a character when he could’ve actually been fleshed out and interesting.

Alex is a character that just exists so Erika isn’t the only girl in this book. There is a very weird and inexplicable implication that she’s attracted to Erika and is maybe bisexual and maybe Erika is bisexual that goes absolutely nowhere and I absolutely hated it. It doesn’t help that this book is weirdly homophobic in some other aspects, and the way all the characters, especially the men treat Alex was just awful.

Out of the three guys, Will was the one I understood the least. He’s an alcoholic and that’s where his character starts and ends. We never learn anything interesting about him, and he barely has 10 lines in total. He might as well not have been there.

Damon we’ve been over; he’s the one that I ended up liking the most, because he was the only actually morally corrupt and interesting character. He outright hates women, has a pretty intense backstory and severe mommy issues, and even gets some interesting dialogue with Erika. He’s the only one I might be tempted to read a book about, but only if it’s much shorter than this.

At first Kai was the most interesting of the group and was the biggest wasted potential. He is closed off, secretive and seems to be the most reasonable one, and I genuinely thought that his big secret was either going to be that he has been in love with Michael this whole time, or that he was also sexually assaulted in jail. We never find out what happened to him in jail, which is a shame, but again, since this is a series it probably something Douglas is saving for the second book. As for his relationship with Michael, without me spoiling anything, it’s exactly the twist with Wentworth Miller’s character from Loft, except if the pool scene actually had actually gone with Miller joining the rest. I never like this type of queerbaity twist, especially, because as I mentioned the representation of anyone who isn’t straight or white in this book is horrendous. 

Michael was both the worst character and the best developed one. I understood where his anger issues stemmed from, why he was so rude and abrasive to everyone, especially Erika and even the hatred he had for Trevor. I wish we actually had time to develop his relationship with Trevor and his father, and actually delved into why they hated each other so much, but we don’t have time for that in this hell. I thought since he was a basketball player, it would actually play a part, but it doesn’t; other than one line about him being distracted because of the plan, the fact that he plays for the NBA is completely irrelevant. His relationship with Erika was infuriating. He supposedly loves her and thinks she’s his match, but he treats her like shit; possessive, hypocritical, controlling and condescending. There is no reason he should have commitment issues but he has those too, and the fact that it takes Erika being in mortal danger before he tells her he loves her was INFURIATING.

Erika was no better. I again, foolishly believed that her being a fencer would have something to do with the plot but other than an excuse for two truly bewildering scenes it doesn’t. She was an incredibly feeble character and the more the book attempted to paint her as becoming this powerful player and ‘corrupt’ girl the more I got Ana Steele and Bella Swan vibes. She is not empowered nor strong; she is constantly pushed around, insulted, yelled at and even physically manhandled by everyone around her. The fact that none of the characters talk to or treat her like an adult, or know how to communicate at all was bewildering, and she herself was just dense. Not only does she make the stupidest decisions, she also multiple times fails to grasp really simple, obvious things and her wanting to be a sociologist because she liked reading people made me scream.

What’s most frustrating, is just like with Michael there are nuggets of a good character here and there; she is sometimes observant and clever, but mostly she just allows everyone to manipulate her and I couldn’t stand it.

Conclusion?

I do NOT recommend this book. It kept me reading only because I was curious to see what had actually sent the gang to jail and when I found out I was too far into the book to justify DNFing it. But it was not good and I have no desire to read any of the subsequent books by her, unless I hear that her writing has drastically improved (which judging by the blurb for Kill Switch, the book about Damon, it doesn’t seem like it).

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