Hooked: A Dark, Contemporary Romance

The major plot twist in this section occurs when Wendy uses James as a tool to hurt her father, even as James is using her as a tool in his own revenge plans. Thus, she manages to exert a partial degree of personal agency when she flaunts the loss of her virginity as a means of embarrassing Peter in front of the socialites at the gala, thus reclaiming an imperfect triumph within the context of Women’s Struggle for Independence in a Patriarchal World. Even if Peter might not be personally hurt by his daughter’s announcement, Wendy knows that her father’s public image is the most important thing to him, and her outburst is designed to undermine that image. It is also important to note that because James brought Wendy to the gala as a weapon against Peter, Wendy’s willful display of anger also serves his goals quite nicely. However, the true distinction lies in the fact that Wendy takes the initiative to hurt her father rather than doing so at James’s behest, thus paradoxically reestablishing her independence despite her imprisonment. In this moment, Wendy shows herself to be an autonomous person, and both men must recognize that Wendy has a mind of her own, for her actions serve to simultaneously damage Peter’s public image and subvert the power dynamics of which she has so far been a victim.

Wendy’s outburst is one of several factors that cause James to realize how deeply he has been misled by his own misplaced outrage, for Wendy’s innocent comment about Ru’s apparent “retirement” suggests that she is simply not involved in Peter’s plots, while her outburst at the dinner table confirms it. In the subsequent three-way interaction between Peter, Wendy, and James, it likewise becomes clear that Wendy has been looking for any excuse to remove herself from Peter’s world, and she therefore chooses James over Peter despite the her lover’s considerable displays of violence, psychological abuse, and manipulation. The scene itself does not depict either man as a clear-cut victor over the other, nor does it succeed in establishing James as a more virtuous man than Peter. However, it does show that Peter is indifferent to his daughter’s fate, for he does not act in her defense even when confronted with the reality of James’s unhealthy hold over her. Peter has made it clear that Wendy is not a priority for him, and so Wendy’s decision to remain with James becomes a risk worth taking, at least within the context of the dark-romance trends that characterize McIntire’s narrative. Though James may still enact some violence on Wendy, he shows an incrementally greater likelihood of valuing her life and well-being more highly than Peter does, and this is apparently enough for Wendy to choose to ally herself with her captor rather than her father.

In the last few chapters of this section, the theme of Revenge as a Cycle rapidly increases in intensity and severity. James’s motivation for hurting Peter is to avenge the deaths of his parents, but before he can complete this plan, Peter retaliates against both James and Wendy by burning down the Jolly Roger. This kicks off a new rate of escalation in this underground war, for in response to the loss of the Jolly Roger, James burns the planes in Peter’s airfield. The frenetic intensity of the revenge cycle therefore signals that the climax of the men’s ongoing rivalry is rapidly approaching. With Wendy now firmly on James’s side of the conflict, the two continue to grow closer despite the fact that James has kidnapped her and continues to imprison her aboard his yacht, once again emphasizing The Problematic Portrayal of Violence as a Virtue in Dark Romance. In fact, Wendy even shows signs of forgiveness despite the fact that James is still denying her access to freedom.

A less central but still significant aspect of the narrative occurs as James interacts with his various subordinates, Smee and Moira in particular. In these relatively minor interactions, the concept of allegiance nonetheless arises as an issue of note within the text, for although Moira’s presence in James’s office is meant to allow him to establish his alibi while he attacks Peter’s business interests, an air of distrust exists between the two. In fact, both Moira and Starkey are portrayed as being less trustworthy than they were in the beginning of the story, and even Smee comes under additional scrutiny when he flaunts the ticking watch in James’s presence. The watch, though not mentioned since the opening of the novel, clearly represents James’s childhood trauma at the hands of his uncle, and Smee’s possession of such a watch therefore subtly foreshadows a connection between Smee and the future suffering that James will undergo as the conflicts of the novel reach a narrative climax.