The Peripeteia

The previous blog post was dedicated to the conflicts in the book. Among other things the blog post contained a description of the internal conflict concerning what Nora feels about Patch and if he is worthy of her trust. It’s safe to say that this has got a clear connection to the peripeteia, the turning point.

There are two clear turning points in the book. One is slow and the other is fast. The slow one is the one connected to Patch. Nora struggles with her feelings about him and she doesn’t completely trust him, but she never really thinks that he could hurt her. When Nora finds herself in trouble she decides to go with her guts and trust Patch. From that moment, as a reader, all the suspicious thoughts about Patch disappear and that is when the real turning point comes along. In the following quote, Nora calls Patch to ask him for help when she is in danger;

He’s here, I thought. The man in the ski mask.

I shoved a few coins into the phone and gripped the receiver with both hands. I tried to remember Patch’s cell phone number. Squeezing my eyes shut, I visualized the seven numbers he’d written in red ink on my hand the first day we met. Before I could second-guess my memory, I dialed the numbers.

“What’s up?” Patch said.

I almost sobbed at the sound of his voice. I could hear the crack of billiard balls colliding on a pool table in the background, and knew he was at Bo’s Arcade. He could be here in fifteen, maybe twenty minutes.

“It’s me” I didn’t dare to push my voice above a whisper.

“Nora?”

“I’m in P-Portland. On the corner of Hempshire and Nantucket. Can you pick me up? It’s urgent?”

(Hush, hush. 2009. Becca Fitzpatrick, p. 275)

Nora lowers her guard and of course Patch is there for her. This is not the turning point though, this moment leads to the turning point that will make the reader hold his or hers breath. All actions throughout the book leads up to this moment when everything she hoped not to be true is proven to her. When she finally sees that he is dangerous.

“I want the truth” I said, struggling not to cry. “Did you come to school to kill me? Was that your aim right from the start?”

A muscle in Patch’s jaw jumped “Yes”

(Becca Fitzpatrick, p 301)

In the quote above you can see what every action has lead up to, the truth. The turning point is the truth! When Nora for the first time can’t close her eyes to what’s been right in front of her all the time; Patch is dangerous.

What about the fast turning point? During the book Nora and her friend Vee is acquainted with Jules and Elliot. Nora gets suspicious about Elliot when she finds out that he had been a suspect in a murder  investigation at his previous school. She is positive that there is something wrong with Elliot and when he threatens to kill Vee, her worst fears are confirmed. She ends up hunting down both Elliot and Jules in the school after dark, because they had captured Vee. It is not until Nora finds Elliot bleeding and unconscious that she starts to suspect that Elliot wasn’t the one to worry about after all. In the following quote she finds out the truth about Kjirsten, the murdered girl, in a conversation with Jules;

“Did Elliot kill her… or did you?” I asked on a cold snap of inspiration.

“I had to test Elliot’s loyalty. I took away what was most important. Elliot was at Kinghorn [Elliot’s previous school] on scholarship, and nobody let him forget it. Until me. I was his benefactor. In the end, it came down to choosing me or Kjirsten. More succinctly, choosing money or love. Apparently there’s no pleasure in being a pauper among prices. I bought him off, and that’s when I knew I could rely on him when it came time to dealing with you.”

(Becca Fitzpatrick, p. 360)

The book ends with Nora being a hero. She defeats Jules, Patch turns out to be trustworthy and Vee got out unharmed. According to me the ending is satisfying but it left me craving for more because the book was really good. I think that if you want to know how Nora got out of all the trouble, you are going to have to read the book. The ending has no value if you haven’t read how she got there.

This book is mostly written for entertainment purpose but somewhere deep down, maybe a message is hidden. That’s up to the reader. 

The Conflicts

A book is built on its conflicts, without them the book would portray a perfect life, in a perfect world. Utopia. In Hush, hush the internal conflicts are prominent. Nora, the main character, is very conflicted about Patch, whether she is going to trust him or not. She even battles the feeling of like and disliking him, as seen in the following quote;

Not that I wanted to know more about Patch. Since I hadn’t liked what I’d seen on the surface, I doubted I’d like what was lurking deep inside. Only, this wasn’t exactly true. I’d liked a lot of what I’d seen. […] I was in an uneasy alliance with myself, trying to ignore what had started to feel irresistible. (Hush, hush. 2009. Becca Fitzpatrick. P.19-20)

Throughout the book Nora is struggling with this problem, is Patch dangerous? But as time goes along, she slowly lowers her guard. When she is really in danger she chooses to relay on Patch after all. But later she finds out something that makes her go back to that conflicted place. But the she also has got a conflict out loud with Patch, and external one. A part of the conflict can you see in the following quote;

“I want the truth,” I said, struggling not to cry. “Did you come to school to kill me? Was that your aim right from the start?”

A muscle in Patch’s jaw jumped. “Yes”

I swiped a tear that dared escape. “Are you gloating inside? That’s what this is about, isn’t it? Getting me to trust you so you could blow it up in my face” I knew I was being irrationally irate. I should have been terrified and frantic. I should have been doing everything to escape. The most irrational part of all was that I still didn’t want to believe he would kill me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t smother that illogical speck of trust.

“I get that you’re angry-,” said Patch

“I am ripped apart!” I shouted. (Hush, Hush. Becca Fitzpatrick. P. 301)

In the quote above it is very clear that Patch and Nora is having a conflict. And it is a big one, about whether he wants to kill her or not. But in the quote Nora’s thoughts are also followed. And it is clear that she is still conflicted about him and if he can be trusted. She is not just fighting with him, but also with herself.

The last quote doesn’t really portray the easy everyday external or internal conflicts that everyone comes across in life. But the book also content conflicts that are easier to relate to.  Nora has got a conflict with a girl in school, Marcie Millar. Marcie and Nora doesn’t really have a conflict about something, they just don’t like each other. Marcie is rude, as seen in the following quote; “’There’s a hundred reasons why I’m a cheerleader and Nora’s not. Coordination tops the list.’”

These are just a few of external and internal conflicts. The conflicts make the book interesting. But for one to figure out how these conflicts are solved, if they are, they have to read the book. That is what makes you want to keep on reading.