Beautiful Disaster go inside Ebook Warning If you re easily offended by cursing and or aggressivity then don t FUCKING read this I am literally losing it This book contains one of the most dist
Beautiful Disaster go inside Ebook * Warning: If you're easily offended by cursing, and/or aggressivity, then don't FUCKING read this. *I am literally losing it.This book contains one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever read in any book. EVER.So here's one excerpt from the book. Abby slept with Travis and left his apartment in the morning without saying goodbye. This is his reaction, a few hours later : “Travis is a fucking wreck! He won’t talk to us, he’s trashed theapartment, threw the stereo across the room… Shep [roommate] can’t talk any sense into him! He took a swing at Shep when he found out we helped you leave. Abby! It’s scaring me! Abby, he’s gone fucking nuts! I heard him call your name, and then he stomped all over the apartment looking for you. He barged into Shep’s room, demanding to know where you were. Then he tried to call you. Over, and over and over,” she sighed. “His face was… Jesus, Abby. I’ve never seen him like that. He ripped his sheets off the bed, and threw them away, threw his pillows away, shattered his mirror with his fist, kicked his door… broke it from the hinges! It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY.It's not okay it's not okay it's not okay it's NOT NORMAL BEHAVIOR. A few lines later, Abby calls him and everything's back to normal. NO. I'M SORRY BUT NO. YOU NEED TO STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM HIM!Stalker :A person obsessed with another to the point of insanity, I.E. following one everywhere, calling constantly, showing signs of irrational, sick and unhealthy behavior, that can sometimes lead to extreme violence. It drives me insane to see how stalkerish behavior is considered as "hot". This book is really, really disturbing, and I don't understand how it could get published. I got 'til chapter 9 and basically I can't take it anymore. The guy, Travis, suffers from very, very, VERY serious problems that should lead him straight into a shrink's office (if not prison). I'm serious. Hey you girls, out there, who gave that book 5 stars, saying you want a Travis in your lives, in WHAT language do we have to tell you : it's NOT normal behavior! And thank God that you haven't met a guy like him because then that would be fucking dramatic! Don't you understand how pathetic it is - all this characterization into unrealistic, hyper-sexualized, robotic male figures? These stories are all the fucking same! The guy is drop dead gorgeous, he's dangerous, he's sexy, he wants you even if you're plain like hell and what he feels for you goes beyond words: Edward Cullen, Christian Grey, Patch Cipriano, Kellan Kyle, Travis Maddox, Damen Auguste or Dimitri Belikov, they're all the same! Girls, NO ONE is going to want to watch you sleep, or forbid you to go visit your friends, or try to kill you because they love you so fucking much, because that's not what NORMAL people do!! If you ever have the misfortune to get involved with someone like that, GO FILE A FUCKING RESTRAINING ORDER already! I find it appalling that young girls actually read this thinking this is exactly how they want to be treated like someday! We're not pets! No fucking one in the world should be allowed to force you into behaving like a child! And I'm also thinking about boys, they're not exactly the target audience but still; reading this must lead to wonder if this kind of behavior is what chicks like. It just spreads some sort of sickening message, "be aggressive, show your jealousy as well as the fact that she's yours, have no limits & be in control, use your strength to make a point, don't let her do what she wants because she doesn't really know what's good for her. You know better". It's so hard to be a teenager, to try to find who you truly are, fiction that is destined to be read by young people has some kind of role, it should set examples instead of showing dysfunctional and extreme codependent relationships like they're normal, because they're not.Hey! YOUNG. ADULTS. That means you're becoming a damn citizen, that you'll study, get to vote, graduate, get a job and make a living! How could you ever want someone to be that intrusive? To go as far as breaking your car down so you can't visit a friend?! (yes, Edward fucking Cullen I'm talking about you because YOU STARTED ALL THIS!)Don't you realize it's an offense to your FREEDOM when a guy's literally forbidding you to get out of his house - even after you've asked him to let you go? When he's dragging you out of the car because you're making out with someone - all this when you're not even involved with him? When he's making you feel like shit because you're seeing someone else? In fact, I won't even get started on all the stupid reactions of Abby. Whatkind of girldates a sweet guy and then goes sleeping in another man's bed every night, when she HAS a choice ? She's just a (stupid, lying and masochist) tease.Then she encourages Travis to beat the shit out of someone in the middle of the cafeteria? Seriously? Just because someone whistles at her or something, she says like "Teach him some manners!", and Travis throws himself on the man. Jesus, HONESTLY are you a beast or something? The poor guy ends up curled up in fetal position, covered in blood and unable to move. WTF? How can you stand this? No really, how can you read this? How can you accept it? Where is your sense of civility, or your instinct of protection towards the human kind? How come no one in the cafeteria stands up and tries to stop this? Easy answer. Because everyone is fucking terrified to get hurt! Like that's normal!It scares the shit out of me to see that some people are able to read such violence and yet remain flippant and oh-so-casual like it's no big deal. It makes me wonder, if they ever witness a real beat-up, would they react? Would they care? Or has modern entertainment succeeded in making all forms of abuse look so cavalier that it doesn't shock anyone anymore?..Travis kept opening the door when Abby was with her date on the porch late at night, or coming in the bathroom when she was taking a shower, refusing to get out, and generally being so nosy it was a shocking wonder how NO ONE told him to fuck off! And that bitch didn't even say ANYTHING! It's so genuinely dangerous when a guy's emotionally abusing/blackmailing you, or yelling at you for not obeying him, or trying to manipulate you! It is BUT romantic ! I don't give a damn whether the guy's a vampire, or an angel, or a fucking rock star, or if it was a bet or not, it's just NOT okay!How could violence keep being depicted as something acceptable - let alone romantic? They're at a party and he hits a boy who TOUCHES her ARM. Honestly! It's not a game! And she keeps forgiving him, every single time.How do you think real abusive relationships start? What do you think are the profiles of the men who end up beating up their wives and/or showing extreme paranoiac behavior? ("Did you just look at that guy? Did you fuck him? Are you cheating on me? Don't you lie to me, bitch. I can see it in your eyes!" This is how it ends, people.) You just wait a couple of years, Abby. Just wait until he loses it, AGAIN, and ends up taking a fucking swing at you.Again, awfully stupid and arrogant Abby stays at Travis's apartment and she sleeps in his bed because she doesn't really have a choice. Fine. But the guy's bringing chicks in the living room, having a big loud threesome.. And one day later, he takes Abby's hand, acts all warm and fuzzy, saying stuff like "You're better than this [I'm not fucking you like I fuck the rest of 'em], that's why I treat you different, don't you ever get near boys or I swear I'll destroy them." He even says "I'll end up in prison if I hear you slept with someone else". When you read something like that your fucking alarm must spark off! I don't know what to say anymore because honestly I feel like I shouldn't even have to say all this in the first place. This should be like, SURVIVAL INSTINCT. What is this message that's conveyed? Should we girls be standing on the corner, watching our love interest that pretendedly loves us fuck his brains out with the whole planet and calmly stating "I can deal with his behavior because, well, he's really hot"? Or because he's so romantic that he managed to nickname her after the most stupid volatile on earth, a.k.a Pidgeon?NO. FUCK NO. Why would you want to lock yourself up in some scary relationship where in the end, you just lose everything; your independence, as well as your right to have a life that doesn't exclusively revolves around him? Why would you want to give up your liberty as an individual in order to be so tied up with your love interest that you can't even breathe on your own? (And for those who pretendedly realized that it wasn't healthy, but yet managed to like the book anyway: why would you want to witness such a relationship? What's the pleasure in contemplating two people who never, ever realize how deep they've fallen into violence and abuse?) EDIT : I don't care whether Travis (supposedly) changes at the end of the book. I don't care for his pseudo redemption and/or efforts. What matters are the facts, here and now, that Abby acknowledges them while they're horrible andstill manages to stay with Travis. I couldn't finish the fucking book because I was feeling sick to my stomach - and I insist on saying the characterization of the love story was goddamn awful and should never be seen as something okay. So do you honestly think I care when you say I should have finished it before writing all this? Give me a fucking break. I have witnessed abusive relationships in real life; this book depicts the beginning of one, and the memories alone are enough to make me wanna puke. I sure as hell won't force myself to undergo the whole 400 pages. Besides, I read on some reviews that (spoilers):* At some point he won't let her get out of the apartment because he thinks her clothes aren't appropriate enough. Therefore he forces her to change. Okay. May I send you back to the "This is not okay behavior" part of the review? * They get married at Las Vegas (at 19).* That after him getting an "Abby" tattoo, she gets one too that reads "Mrs Maddox". I'd like to talk about this for a second. I'm a firm believer that you can love someone in an unconditional way without having to show it with material proofs. Marriage and tattoos? What is this? Travis unexpectedly got an "Abby" tattoo, without warning her, without considering the consequences of such an act (but I guess I'm asking too much from him, considering he's got tribal tattoos all over his body). Anyway, Travis emotionally challenged her, and so she got one too. Again, what is this? A leash that she will never, ever be able to free herself from? What if their relationship doesn't last? What if they get a divorce? Basically, until the day she dies, she will look at her skin and remember that at some point in her life, she chose to mark herself not as a person, but as a wife. As someone's something. And that's just terrible. So. *Breathe*. In my humble opinion, I think it is better that I just don't finish it. Like, ever.I'm writing all this because I feel so MAD about this book. Women fought and still fight every day so we can be treated as equals and not as objects. I'm not going to sit still and pretend this book didn't horrify me. Because it did. It fucking did, big time.Also believe it or not but I'm not doing this to tear the author down, I don't really care about her, my review isn't about her but about the book. It's nothing personal, I respect her as a human being. I just feel very sorry for the messages she conveys through this everything but Beautiful Disaster. *** EDIT#2: : Yeah, so. About that. There seems to be some kind of Reviewers VS Authors movement here on Goodreads (but also on Amazon, Twitter, etc.). Since the author of Beautiful Disaster made me be a part of it, I've decided to join here two links. The first one is a blog post, written by author Hannah Moskowvitz. Check it out, it's really good. Second one, written by Nafiza, on her blog. And I have one thing to say: you go, girl. *** EDIT#3: : One more, because McGuire just doesn't know how to let it go.*** EDIT#4: : Yes, I know this is way too long already but I wanted to add something. For the trolls who've been telling me for the past fucking year that this is just fiction: not only do you come off as stupidly paradoxical for being on Goodreads in the first place, because it's a website for people who feel passionate about books, but you're also wrong. When you read a book for entertainment purposes only, you're relaxed and receptive, almost vulnerable, as unconsciously, you assume that what you're reading is okay and right (otherwise it wouldn't be published, would it?) Therefore you don't really pay attention to the real meaning behind what you're reading. After all, "It's just a book", right? Wrong. Sometimes you have to wake up, and realize that what you're reading is in reality a dangerous stinking piece of shit. Yes, it's a book, but young girls read this and unconsciously absorb the messages that are being sent, and then it has an impact on the way they carry out their personal lives, without even realizing that stupid books like this one contributed to giving her a black eye and pushing her down the stairs. Because they've been reading about that "hot" behavior for so long, they've been sexualizing it and they've been associating it with good looks, and of course, with the ultimate perfect happy ending. In reality, it doesn't work like that. You can't change someone who's damaged and unstable just because you love them, no matter what the books try to tell you. Don't waste your time trying. And the fact that Travis Maddox is described as being extremely hot is a manipulation that tries to trick you into thinking that if it's beautiful, then it must be good. Think about that: a weird, ugly guy who follows you around and destroys his apartment because you didn't pick up your phone wouldn't be hot, it'd be creepy as fuck. And that's what I'm asking you now: try to think beyond the "good looks" (and the sugarcoating that goes with it) that the medias are trying to feed you, and just think by yourself. By the way, it also leads to fucking idiotic bitches who tweet about how they wouldn't mind being beaten up by Chris Brown because he's so hot. What the fuck? There aren't enough words to say how wrong this is. What do I care, you say? I care because I'm a woman and reading this makes me ashamed.Wake the fuck up, girls, and never accept being treated like that. You are an individual, you are important and you matter. Your decisions will have impacts. You deserve so much better than someone like this Travis-fucking-asshole. Let him go die in a fucking hole and go lead your own life like the independent and free person you are. And please, destroy the person who will so much as try to tell you otherwise. Finally,last but not least. Due to some comments, it feels like it's time to clarify some stuff. If this review pissed you off, or offended you, you should know that I don't give a shit about, well, what you think. If this is about my swearing, or my aggressivity, you were warned from the very first line and I don't have anything to say to you about it. You knew it was a 1 star rating so basically, no one forced you to read but yourself. Get over it and move on. Simple as.And I know I mentioned the 5 stars ratings girls and all, but really it was just semantics, don't feel like you should comment my review to express your disagreement or your undying love for Travis, cause whatever you say, it won't change the way I feel. I mean it, don't comment. Because I don't give a fuck about what you have to say! Unless it is interesting, of course. But if you’re here to defend the psychopath and try to explain how in the end the relationship comes full circle, or why his unacceptable behavior is only masculine and protective, please SAVE YOUR TIME. (And mine). Obviously, we won't get along and if you can't understand what I'm trying to say then it's fine, keep loving Eclipse and Blood Promise and Hush Hush, I mean, it's cool. Honestly, I'm serious, tastes and perceptions and ideals are all different and I don't have a say in this, and neither do you. So, well, you can just save your time with the comments. And fuck off already. Thank you.. The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl She doesn t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University s Walking One Night Stand Travis Maddox, lean,The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl She doesn t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University s Walking One Night Stand Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs and wants to avoid He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer Intrigued by Abby s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month If Abby loses, she must live in Travis s apartment for the same amount of time Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.. Good Book Beautiful Disaster DELETED AND READDED BECAUSE SOMEONE HAD IT BURIEDBeautiful Disaster opens up at night in the basement of an empty academic building on a college campus where a fighting/betting ring known as The Circle is being run. This is where we meet Travis 'Mad Dog' Maddox, the male romantic lead. He, of course, wins his fight. The female lead, Abby, is attending the fight club for the first time that night. She ends up with blood on her cashmere sweater and a new name given to her by Travis, who doesn't even bother to ask for her name before arbitrarily deciding on 'Pigeon.' It is the way one might rename a dog one has adopted.We meet Travis again in the cafeteria. He is being "followed by two voluptuous bottle-blondes wearing Sigma Kappa tees. One of them sat on Travis' lap, the other sat beside him, pawing at his shirt." Abby's best friend America, who also happens to be dating Travis's cousin and roommate, makes a snide comment. One of the blonde's calls her a skank. Travis "lets his knees give way, sending her tumbling to the floor" because America is his friend. This little interlude sets up two major reoccurring issues: girl on girl hate and Travis treating girls like garbage to step over. Every girl in the book except for Abby and America is a skank, a bitch or a bitchy skank. As for Travis, this incident of deliberately humiliating a girl in public and dropping her on the floor like the used condom wrapper she represents to him is actually as close to a gentleman as he ever gets because this is one of the mildest examples of his behavior.After lunch, Travis and Abby conveniently have a class together although they seemed to have seen each other for the first time at the fight last night. Whatever, get used to this author making up shit as she goes along and writing inconsistently from start to finish. I can give you a list of minor (yet annoying) continuity issues in the comment section below if asked.Travis fixates on Abby and sits beside her, leaving disappointed girls by his usual seat. He indicates she should take notes for him and spends the rest of the class zoned out. Never fear though! Travis is a freaking genius. He doesn't need notes or studying or attending classes to ace the grades. On a similar note, he also does not need to eat healthy or exercise to maintain his muscle mass and six pack! I'm sorry, but every guy I've talked to with a body like Travis's could go on extensively about his diet and workout regime. We don't have to worry about believability in this world because despite the lack of traditional fantasy markings nothing about this book remotely resembles reality. In this world, control and abuse can turn into a happily ever after.With minimal effort Travis pesters Abby into agreeing to come to his apartment after school with her friend America, who is there often to see her own boyfriend, Shepley, Travis's cousin. She agrees and then attempts to dress in the most disgusting way possible: "My hair was piled on top of my head in a messy bun. I had scrubbed the makeup from my face and repalced my contacts with rectangular black-rimmed glasses. Sporting a ratty t-shirt and sweatpants, I shuffles along in a pair of flip flops." I'll hold on while you get your favorite religious artifact to hold off this monster. This description pretty much matches me at the moment on my day off. Rawr.Anyway, Travis is not put off by this visual and decides to drag her out to dinner, which he *gasp* never does with the girls he sleeps with. Abby's friend America is the least helpful person when it comes to rejecting Travis's unwanted advances."I was just heading out for dinner. You hungry, Pidge?" (We still have no idea why he's calling her this.)"I already ate," I shrugged. (Dialogue is routinely shrugged and smiled rather than spoken.)"No you haven't," America said before realizing her mistake. "Oh...er...that's right, I forgot you grabbed a... pizza? Before we left."I can't even tell you how much trouble my friend would be in if she did that to me. Still crappy friend aside, no one forces Abby to go with Travis, no one forces her to get on the back of her motorcycle. She does all of these things despite being extremely uncomfortable around him because Abby is an idiot. During dinner Travis opens up to her about his dead mother and they connect a bit. So much so that he insists on sitting beside her the next day at lunch by bullying someone else out of an already occupied chair. And it is bullying. He does not ask for the chair so much as claims it already belongs to him (much like Abby) and then he stares the guy down until he moves. Abby is pleased with the attention and the girls looking at her to see who Travis insisted on sitting beside.The next big plot movement involves broken boilers in America and Abby's dorm room. America's solution is that they move in with Shep and Travis until they fix the boilers. What... the hell? I can't comprehend how moving off campus to be near hot water could possibly be more convenient than living on campus and heading to an off campus apartment once a day for a shower. Really, you're not supposed to be thinking this much, but since Abby protests vehemently before capitulating you do get a lot of time to think about what a stupid idea this is. I would have preferred a day of skipping a shower or a cold shower to living with someone who made me uncomfortable.Abby and America arrive at the apartment just as Travis's latest fling(?) is getting ready to leave. She offers him her number and he declines in front of an audience of two other girls and his roommate, letting her know exactly what she means. They're not a silent audience either: "Every time!" America said. She looked at the woman. "How are you surprised by this? He's Travis fucking Maddox! He's famous for this very thing, and every time they're surprised!"America's boyfriend must comfort her after she delivers this tirade even though the girl she insinuated was, at best, naive and, at worse, stupid is still standing there. Abby is not pleased with all of this because she didn't realize "Shepley's apartment was a revolving door for clueless bimbos." I love how other girls in this book are treated. It's just fantastic. My favorite is Abby calling the girls Travis sleeps with STD infested imbeciles.Abby "stared at the couch, the cushions still askew and bunched up from its recent use. I recoiled at the thought of how many women had given themselves away against the fabric. Itchy fabric at that." Nice, right? Nothing about Travis or how he treated them, just the awful, dirty sexually active girls.Abby decides she can't possibly sleep on the couch so Travis offers her his bed. He does not fuck girls in there. This speaks volumes about how he views women, good enough for his dick, not good enough for his sheets. I'll kill the suspense here. He sleeps with her in his bed, but not before he keeps wandering in and out of the bathroom while she's showering! He brings her a towel and her toothbrush while she's showering and then ignores her shrieks at him to get out. He does not knock before entering the bathroom nor did he announce himself. He just opens the door and makes himself at home. It's creepy. He brings her stuff in, which means he went through her bags. She shrieks about him going through her stuff and he ignores her, not offering an excuse or apology. She shrieks at him to get out again and he insists he has to brush her teeth all while she's naked on the other side of the curtain. It's all invasive, scary, and the start of a very alarming and controlling relationship.I wouldn't have finished showering. I would have gotten dressed, soapy hair and all, before heading back to my home. Abby, who has stood in the shower with her arms wrapped defensively around her chest listening to him brush his teeth, gets out of the shower and SMILES at the night moisturizer Travis brought her while violating her privacy and personal space. Vomit. Vomit. Vomit.During Abby and America's long stay with Travis and Shepley (seriously, the campus couldn't open another dorm building for them to shower in?), they all go to a bar together. In an attempt to prove they're not sleeping together to the rest of the school Travis and Abby dance together? I don't get the logic there. Anyway he licks her throat. She is not happy. He's mad she's not happy and grinds up on some other girl. She flirts with the bartender, but Travis puts a swift stop to that! Because the guy is a rapist! He's been arrested for it and Travis knows all about it! Thank God for Travis. Thank God for his instructions not to take drinks from anyone but him and his cousin, because they treat girls with all the respect in the world and are the most upstanding citizens to take drinks from. Vomit. Vomit. Vomit.They are still a foursome when Travis gets called for another fight. He asks Abby to go with him. America gives her non-Abbyish clothes to wear (a deep cut, yellow halter top and tight, low-rise jeans). Travis takes one look at her and DEMANDS she change.Travis's mouth fell open. "Oh, hell no. Are you trying to get me killed? You've gotta change, Pidge.""What?" I asked, looking down.America grabbed her hips. "She looks cute, Trav, leave her alone!"Travis took my hands and led me down the hall. "Get a t-shirt on... and some sneakers. Something comfortable.""What? Why?""Because I'll be more worried about who's looking at your tits in that shirt instead of Hoffman," he said, stopping at his door."I thought you said you didn't give a damn what anyone else thought?""That's a different scenario, Pigeon." Travis looked down at my chest and then up at me. "You can't wear this to a fight, so please... just... please just change," he stuttered, shoving me into the room and shutting me in.Abby gets changed.Then she gets on his stupid motorcycle again while he drives dangerously. When they get there, Travis claims he can go his entire fight without getting hit. Abby calls bullshit. Travis offers to make a bet. He won't sleep with anyone for a month if he gets hit. If he doesn't get hit she has to continue living with him in his apartment for a month. I don't even have words to express how I felt when this stupid girl took this stupid bet, but she does. Travis wins. She must live with him. I think when you take away someone's constant choice to be with you then it becomes skeevy.Shepley gets angry at Abby for the agreement because she promised not to get involved with Travis. Whenever Travis screws around with the best friend of the girl he's dating it ends badly for him. Of course, he doesn't fight with Travis or demand promises of Travis, no he screams at the girl. Abby insists there's nothing sexual between them and that there never will be. Travis comes out of the shower during all her insisting and gets annoyed. As revenge he goes to a bar, comes home at two AM with not one but two girls. He goes into the room where Abby is sleeping, fishes through his bedside table for some condoms and heads back out into the living room to have a threesome. She sits there listening to him giggling and moaning etc because she can't leave the bedroom without walking through the living room where his little threesome is going on. When he's finished, he kicks the girls out, and he gets back in bed with her reeking of whiskey.She gets out of bed, steps over condom wrappers and sleeps on the reclining chair. In the morning, America acts like a real friend for the first time and packs Abby's things to take her home. Even Shepley is contrite. Travis wanders in during this conversation, having already been out to buy all of Abby's favorite foods for the month she will be staying with him. I'm going to pause and say gifts after emotional or physical abuse are part of a pretty common cycle. Abby stays because Abby is an idiot who insists a bet is a bet. Travis apologizes and hedges around letting her out of the bet. When Abby indicates it is the only thing keeping her there he holds her to it.While she's living with Travis, Abby starts a tentative relationship with a boy named Parker who seems pretty decent. Travis responds as one might expect even though he has made no real romantic gesture towards Abby when she leaves a party with Parker.He leaned in, seeming flustered. "I'll kill him if he touches you.""I like him," I said, emphasizing each word.He seemed stunned at my confession and then his features turned severe. "Fine. If he ends up holding you down in the backseat of a car, don't come crying to me."Convenient how every guy except Travis is a rapist. Of course, Parker is not really a rapist. Travis is just insinuating it to scare Abby into going home with him. Because Travis is the safe choice. Vomit. Vomit. Vomit.Parker behaves like a gentleman, kissing her cheek goodnight. Travis is waiting so close to the door that he opens it before she can push which causes her to fall in. He does this just about every time she goes on a date with Parker. The only exception, I believe, was when he drunkenly went down to the car where they were kissing and pulled her out of it. The wheels of Parker's shiny Porsche squealed out of the parking lot, and Travis lit a cigarette. "You can go inside now, Mare."She tugged on my skirt. "C'mon, Abby.""Why don't you stay, Abs," he seethed.I nodded for America to go ahead and she reluctantly complied. I crossed my arms, ready for a fight, preparing myself to lash out at him after the inevitable lecture. Travis took several drags from his cigarette, and when it was obvious that he wasn't going to explain my patience ran out."Why did you do that?" I asked."Why? Because he was mauling you in front of my apartment!" he yelled. His eyes were unfocused, and I could see he was incapable of rational conversation.I kept my voice calm. "I may be staying with you, but what I do, and who I do it with is my business." (good for you, Abby!)He flicked his cigarette to the ground. "You're so much better than that, Pidge. Don't let him fuck you in a car like a cheap prom date.""I wasn't going to have sex with him!" (so much for it being her business.)More vomit inducing craziness in which Abby accuses him of spying on her. He tells her he doesn't want to know about when she sleeps with Parker. She says that would be a big step for her. He says that's what all girls say. Abby says, "I don't mean the sluts you deal with! I mean me! I haven't... ugh! Nevermind."Yes, she's a virgin so she really is different from all the sluts he slept with! Ugh is right. I think waiting for someone you're really comfortable with and really in love with is a good thing, but I also never felt superior to girls who felt differently about it. The girl on girl hate in this book is ridiculous.After Travis humiliates Abby in front of her date, intimidates and threatens her date until he leaves, and laughs with delight and relief over her virginity he then attempts to drunkenly seduce her. Abby goes along with it. (This is where I felt a migraine coming on). The seduction stops because Travis doesn't want it to be like that between them. Lovely that the drunk Neanderthal calls all the shots.I'm only at thirty percent of the book here and I only have 25% of the room left to review so I'm going to start doing some heavy condensing.Creepy Things Travis Does:1. He buys Abby a puppy for her birthday to keep at his apartment so that she will always have to come back.2. He beats his friends to a bloody pulp in the school cafeteria for making sexual innuendos about Abby. In reality he would've got tasered by security. After several incidents he would've been kicked out of the university, but don't worry about reality in this book.3. He lets Parker and the rest of the school believe he's sleeping with Abby to chase him away.4. He refuses to allow Abby out of the bet even though he is strangling her healthy relationship with Parker.5. Immediately after Abby and Travis sleep together he calls himself her last first kiss then he destroys the apartment and rages at Shepley and America for helping her leave when his words creeps her out.6. After only a few weeks, he tattoos "Pigeon" on his wrist and a long Hebrew scripture quote about belonging to your beloved and your beloved belonging to you. Never has the word 'belonging' seemed so threatening.7. Screams at her for accepting a drink from another guy because it could have roofies in it and besides, she's HIS GIRL, HE will buy her drinks. NO ONE ELSE.8. Punches a guy who is touching her while her face is inches away from the guy's face.9. Stalks her after a break up. Lies to his family about them still being together. Manipulates her into pretending to still be a couple so she'll cook dinner Thanksgiving dinner for his family. Kisses and has sex with her even though he's promised he wouldn't cross those lines again. (I'm not absolving Abby of her stupidity here either.)10. Stalks her some more. Drags guys away from dancing with her. Threatens their lives if they go near her. Tosses her over his shoulder and drags her out of a party. Demands a designated driver take them to his apartment, drags her kicking and screaming out of the driver's car, tosses her in his apartment. Somehow they end up having sex. Don't fucking ask me. It grossed me out -- I can't stomach re-reading it.Awful Plot Devices:1. Zac Effron sing along. I read in another review that Travis had the charm to pull off a Zac Effron sing along. I thought this was meant to be an exaggerated comparison... it was not. He sings Rolling Stone's (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in the school cafeteria with the football players as back up singers. This is really not a joke.2. A trip to Vegas where Travis fights to win money so Abby can pay the debt her big time gambling father has transfered to her. Oh, did I not mention she is the daughter of a famous poker player?3. Travis getting offered $100,000 per fight to continue fighting in Vegas. He decides to take the offer despite Abby's protests and then is shocked and a rage maniac when she breaks up with him because of it, despite knowing she wanted nothing to do with that lifestyle4. A basement fire at fight club bought on by gas lanterns. Because people really use those anymore. Don't worry! Everyone important lives. Because this is reality.5. Abby proposes, they go to Vegas again to get married, she gets a tattoo that reads Mrs. Maddox and mentally refers to it as a brand several times.Real Ways this Book Could Have Ended in Order to be Realistic and Send a Message:1. Travis kills Abby in a drunken fit of rage over something she's wearing, saying, and/or doing. Travis spends the rest of his life in jail.2. Travis kills some guy for interacting with Abby in a way he deems inappropriate. Travis spends the rest of his life in jail and either A. Abby visits him twice a week for the rest of her life or B. The guy's death serves as a wake up call for Abby and she spends the rest of her life far, far away.3. Travis kills Abby and some guy in a drunken rage because he preceived a threat. Travis spends the rest of his life in jail.I don't believe Travis is smart enough to get away with any of the murders because he usually doesn't see any reason to hide his awful behavior. He does everything in front of many, many witnesses every single time. -I purchased this book several months ago because I planned on reading a lot of self-published books in 2012 as a reading project. I purchased it before I read the author's blog post berating negative reviewers. I would not have purchased the book had the post happened before the purchase.
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