The Femme Fatal's Stupid Sister: Pretty Girl Who Is Beaten Up But Isn't The Main Criminal

I had grabbed a book from the Little Free Library called "The Couple Next Door." It was a book written in 2017. This thriller follows the kidnapping of an infant from an emotionally unstable lady.

Throughout much of the book, Anne, the lady in the case, is set up to be someone who will snap and physically lash out when pushed too far. When it is revealed that her own stepfather was the one who had the baby and was manipulating everyone to scam money off his wife and abscond with the neighbor-lady, I thought, 'Anne will stab the stepfather.'

I assure you, if I was writing this thriller, Anne would absolutely stab the stepfather right in the gizzard. This is the correct recipient of violence- the jerk who put his own family through the ringer for money. Also, he's a control-freak. What better come-upance for a controller than to discover that he has no control over someone he has been playing for years?

The stepfather feigns finding the baby, Anne gratefully accepts said baby into her arms, and police politely arrest the stepfather with no violence involved.

Then there is a final chapter. Anne goes next door to slinky, sexy neighbor-lady (of course her name is Cynthia) and confronts her about having an affair with her stepfather.

Cynthia knows nothing about said kidnapping and was guilty of attempted blackmail and sexing up men on camera for her husband's enjoyment.

Cynthia snipes that the baby is boring, and Anne stabs Cynthia. Just goes all stabby-stab crazy black-out.

Normally, when I side-eye the prevalence of the sexy lady who is scheming, it's because the book is set in 1830 and there is a strong a pattern of the author relying on sexy scheming lady (tm) to be the main villain of all the books. Basically...the author has one woman in a slew of his or her books with basic pattern recognition and the ambition to not rot in the poorhouse, which immediately translates in the author's mind as murderer. But at least when sexy scheming lady is punished, it's because she is the most deserving of blame if you take the plot at face value.

This time, I'm side-eyeing it because the sexy scheming lady is beaten up for...being slimy. I don't want to grade bad behavior too carefully, but the kidnapping was the central crime for a reason.

Maybe it's the inner mysogyny talking, but I think it says a great deal about an author who consistently uses these types of villians. I think it becomes even clearer what is going on when the sexy scheming lady is punished way more than the actual master manipulator.

These patterns make me think:

Lady, stop relitigating Prom.

I'm sorry you weren't chosen as the Queen, ok?

I wasn't either. Like most people who turn into writers, I was the socially awkward numpty who couldn't even fit into the DnD crowd.

But that was twenty years ago, and I have moved on. I recommend you do too, as your fantasy about stabbing a sexy lady who upstaged your prettiness is...dumb. Cynthia deserved some jail time, but she isn't some great mastermind. That was the stepfather. He's the one who should have been all shocked to discover just how violent his stepdaughter can get. This revenge-fic chapter of yours does not fit in the thriller.

I suppose I wouldn't roll my eyes nearly as hard if the stepfather had gotten the shiv to the guts he deserved, or if the characters were not already annoying me six ways to Sunday. And maybe she thought that jail time was the bigger punishment.

But books are supposed to make you feel things, and my biggest feeling at that chapter was: "Author, grow up."