Don't get me wrong, I love Luci (har har) and she's actually my favorite GotY ever (sorry, Jess), but she messes up a lot.
So this time, Luciana's all excited because her family is going to Chile to see the rest of their family over winter break. She wants to reconnect with her four cousins who are all also twelve. She mentions that they used to message each other a lot, but she's been busy lately, so that's fallen off a bit, which is the first clue that this isn't going to go well.
Then the next morning after she arrives in the middle of the night, Luci receives a message from Claire Jacobs, AKA: the girl who left her to drown in Book 2. They've been chatting since the school year started and things seem better between them. Luci believes in giving people second chances, because she's awesome like that. Like really awesome. Who gives the person who basically left you for dead a second chance? Claire's going to be right there in Chile, too, going to a NASA Mars-based habitat in the Atacama Desert with her dad. She invites Luci along, but Luci's got family on the brain and she doesn't completely trust Claire, so she declines.
So once again, Luciana's got several problems. The first one is the cousins. Now the book makes this seem one-sided, like it's all Luci's fault. It isn't. The cousins are flat-out being assholes. She tells them when she's landing at the airport. Every one of them ignores her. Who does that? Assholes. And you know what, sure, maybe Luci does go on a bit about her experiences, but if that was my family member, I'd want to hear about it! How many kids get to do what she did? Not many! She's got a right to be proud of it and want to share it, not have Dick Boy Cousin #1 yawn at her and the others all laugh. Then they proceed to exclude her and she ends up accepting Claire's invitation. Who can blame her?
During the big party where the cousins are brushing up on their douchebaggery, a small earthquake hits and Luci's worried. Then she sees a crack in the foundation of her grandmother's house and everyone is worried. It turns out to be too dangerous for them to stay there, so it's off to one of the relatives' houses and that's when Luci learns her asshole cousins are leaving her out.
Have I mentioned she hasn't seen these people in SIX YEARS, she's only there for a few DAYS, and they're treating her like this?
I don't even care if the book's message is be a better listener. That's still not how you treat family.
So off Luci goes on a helicopter ride with Claire and Claire's famous dad. They meet the scientists working in the habitat and spend the night. Then the trouble begins when Claire gets mad at her dad, because he has to rush off to an unexpected meeting and not take the girls to see some geysers. Claire goes off in a rage, but Luci's happy because she cares more about the scientific work. She manages to get the three scientists to let her and grumpface Claire tag along and even gets to take a soil sample from deep within the earth.
And then she fucks it up when they get back and she ruins all the samples, so off the scientists go into the desert again, leaving the girls alone at the habitat.
That's when the bigger earthquake hits.
The bunk beds collapse, leaving claustrophobic Luci trapped between them. Claire talks her out of a panic attack and helps her get out, only to pass out from her own head injury. Luci works to fix that only to have Claire disappear on her, because she goes out into the desert with a head injury to look for her dad's helicopter. They have a fight out there with Luci finally saying she hasn't forgiven her for the almost drowning thing and she doesn't trust her. Claire doesn't blame her. But then the chemicals from the lab tent get a fire going and it's back to the action with Luci armed with a fire extinguisher and Claire a fire blanket. They save the habitat and go to sleep, then Claire's dad gets there in the morning.
So while talking with Claire, Luci learns that she should have listened more to her and realized that was also her problem with the cousins. She didn't express enough interest in what they were doing. Claire even says something like "You never asked."
Now here's my issue with that: communicating is a two-way street. You can't just sit back and wait to be asked to participate. Why should anyone coddle you? If you have a problem, do not wait for someone to ask you what's wrong. If you need to talk it out, YOU can initiate things. And don't think less of people for not asking, because why should they have to initiate a conversation about YOUR problem? Same goes for the thing with the cousins. Luciana took her turn talking, so instead of laughing at her and excluding her, how about you speak up and tell her about your own stuff instead of expecting her to ask you? Don't be so fucking passive.
Anyway, everyone's safe and sound. Luciana gets back to her family and then bonds with the one cousin when she asks about her photography. (Which she should not have had to do.) Then they all work together to have a New Year's party in the nearby park and surprise poor Grandma, who's lost her house because the foundation can't be fixed. So it all works out in the end.
Once again, Luciana is an excellent character stuck in a not so excellent storyline. The bones are there, but it's just not handled right. It would have been an easy fix, too. Have the cousins admit they were dicks and apologize. Have someone initiate a conversation without having to be asked about a topic. Have Claire say she could have told Luci she needed to talk about her dad.
No comments:
Post a Comment