[Dan Wells] Marci or Brooke

[Comatose]

I think Nobody was out to lunch. Yes I know it was her nature to never be happy, but still. Brooke's great, but she's no Marci.

[PeterAhlstrom]

I felt that Marci was a great person but that she didn't really know who John was. And thus we don't really know how she compares unless we can see her reaction to who John really is.

Though it's been a couple years since I read the book so I could be remembering incorrectly.

[Comatose]

That's a good point. Because of Forman, Brooke knew exactly what John was like. But I don't think Brooke, even understanding John, would have been able to 'teach' him social skills the way Marci did.

[Silus - Shard of Flame]

I can't think of a concrete reason for it, but I just liked Marci more.

[Inkthinker]

I don't see it working out well for John and Brooke... they're bound by shared trauma(s), but that's not necessarily a healthy basis for a romantic relationship. Though I'm guessing they'll end up spending a lot of time together in the future, given that Brooke is John's best lead to the next demon, I don't think they'd be able to work out over a long-term.

Marci might have been good for him, but... well, that didn't work out either.

Edited August 31, 2011 by Inkthinker

[fireflyz]

I liked Marci's character a lot. She was one of those rare people who truly didn't care about popularity or looks, just about the people behind them. That she herself was both popular and beautiful was just happenstance. Dan did a good job developing her character, because it's too easy for someone like that to come off as completely fake. She didn't seem fake, John just seemed lucky.

Brooke is alright, but she didn't strike me as being very tough or capable. I understand she had a very traumatic experience, but I felt that her sudden change of character at the end of the last book was a little forced. On the other hand, I might have still been feeling bitter over Marci's death at that point.

[Inkthinker]

I don't know that she had changed all that much at the end of the book... she's got some knowledge of Nobody and Nobody's memories (that alone probably does massive damage to her psyche, given that Nobody was a damaged personality herself), but it's not like she fell into John's arms or anything. She's probably still afraid of him, possibly even more so. Just because she knows he was right doesn't erase what she saw in him.

[fireflyz]

I agree, I didn't mean her change in her attitude towards John. I more meant her sudden desire to become proactive. I'm sure the events that just happened had a lot to do with that, but it was like one minute she just wanted to forget everything and leave it alone and the next she wants to go after these demons. I'm sure if/when Dan puts out a followup this will be addressed, but it just seemed a little forced to me.

[happyman]

I agree, I didn't mean her change in her attitude towards John. I more meant her sudden desire to become proactive. I'm sure the events that just happened had a lot to do with that, but it was like one minute she just wanted to forget everything and leave it alone and the next she wants to go after these demons. I'm sure if/when Dan puts out a followup this will be addressed, but it just seemed a little forced to me.

Being scared and scarred as deeply as Brooke was can effect changes this severe. In a real sense, she really did end as a different person: A combination of whoever Brooke had been (and we didn't really know her that well) and what Nobody was. Whatever else you might say, Nobody was proactive. Deeply disturbed, but she always did something about it. It never worked for Nobody (I doubt anything could), but that aspect of her could theoretically be negated by Brooke's perspective on life.

If it had been anything less than full psychic rape by a seriously broken demon, I'd probably be more skeptical.

I also suspect she picked up a bit of perspective from her experience. It became a whole lot more personal and ironically, probably less bizarre. It also isn't weirdness that she can't handle any more; it's now part of the world that she understands better than any living humans.

[RedBeardRaven]

Well, I just finished IDWTKU and I wanted the Marci situation to work out more than the Brooke situation.

The main reason for this is because she brought out the person inside of him. The human aspect that he had been lacking. The moment that they shared at the home coming dance was what triggered this, in my opinion. At that moment the seed of love blossomed and was a correlation to the desire to be connected to someone. Just like when he had the connection with his mom in the kitchen.

My main issue is that it is hard to say what would have happened if Marci did not die. Would he have kept growing as an emotional attached person or would he have stayed at arms length (after killing Nobody) with the world. Would Marci have left him if she found out his dark side? I honestly do not think she would have because of all the times that they had spent together there was the hint of his dark self still there. She seemed to accept that and possibly even understood it better than Brooke had.

I felt Brooke was only testing the waters with John. They were both young and in high school and they lived close to each other in a small town. He was the odd man out in school and that alone could have piqued her interest. We really did not get to know Brooke well before she left John. Her decision is understandable but the way that she just left showed me that she would rather run from a situation than confront it. John was the other type of person (obviously) and he only seemed infatuated with her because of her "perfection".

Marci felt more real than Brooke and I would take that any day of the week over perceived "perfection".

[legacyblade]

I really liked Brooke better. It's hard to come up with exact reasons, but I think she'd work better for John. If she'd seen his dark side when she wasn't kidnapped (and he wasn't looking at her like a preditor while asking for a knife), she'd be more likely to have accepted it. I figured a lot of the running away from john is because of the mental association she had of him with Foreman. Not a nice comparison if you ask me

She did seem honestly concerned for him when he started asking her about demons. And she would have talked to him about it (and maybe come to accept him) if he hadn't run off. She would have probably blamed his behavior there on him having been held captive by foreman and psychological scaring and stuff.

On top of everything, she's more my type (physically). She's the slender "tree-like" girl. Marcy is the busty really curvy girl. I prefer the former body type.