Hooked: A Dark, Contemporary Romance

In these chapters, the narrative’s already violent threads take a dark turn as James transcends the consensual nature of the violence he has thus far shown to Wendy and kidnaps her outright, intensifying the theme of The Problematic Portrayal of Violence as a Virtue in Dark Romance. While the conventions of the typical “mafia romance” allow for the inclusion of elements such as kidnapping and imprisonment, James’s willingness to use such tactics on a woman for whom he also harbors considerable romantic feelings renders the narrative a study in the tendency of the dark-romance genre to glorify toxic behavior. Indeed, such behavior would be an instant “deal-breaker” in any real-life relationship (not to mention grounds for a felony conviction). Thus, while James’s violent response to his suspicions of Wendy’s complicity in Peter’s plots is merely intended to be the mafia-romance version of the “third-act breakup” trope, it also represents a moment in which McIntire’s protagonist utterly fails to walk The Fine Line Between Criminality and Villainy, for the taint of villainy continues to cling to the character after these events and is only expunged at the novel’s conclusion.

Compounding the problematic elements of this development is Wendy’s eventual acquiescence to the new dynamic of her interactions with James; even when he physically releases her from imprisonment, he maintains his psychological control over her and forces her to perform a public role to further his own aims of exacting revenge on Peter. In her meek acceptance of her fate, Wendy demonstrates an acute inability to win Women’s Struggle for Independence in a Patriarchal World, and this element is emphasized by her morose recognition that she allows herself to be dominated by the men in her life, both James and Peter. Likewise, her innate compulsion to subordinate herself to the toxic male influences that surround her can be found in her paradoxical eagerness for any interaction with James, no matter how problematic it may be. In a nod to the original Peter Pan, McIntire uses these scenes to shift James into his much crueler criminal persona of “Hook,” for he now exhibits a need to control every aspect of Wendy’s existence. In prior chapters, though James felt the urge to control Wendy to some extent, he began to realize the value of developing a more equitable relationship with her and abandoning the need to hurt and manipulate her. Now, however, his suspicions of her betrayal cause him to revert to his primary behavior patterns of violence, dominance, and control through fear.

Control is a major element in these chapters, as James is losing some of his control over himself, enforcing that lack of control onto Wendy in his pursuit of revenge. Both James and Wendy note that they lack control over their own physical responses to each other, with both experiencing arousal in situations that should not evoke such a response. For example, James notes that he finds it “extremely irritating” that he cannot control his body’s “reaction to her” (183), referencing his physical arousal. James blames himself for this weakness, noting that he let Wendy “get too close,” and that he “became too relaxed” (183). Terms like “close” and “relaxed” relate directly to James’s involuntary arousal, as the author makes it a point to entwine the concepts of arousal and emotional connection even in the midst of the violence described in these chapters. This trend further explores the problematic portrayal of violence as a virtue in dark romance, for James’s obsession with exerting both physical and psychological control over Wendy becomes inextricably linked with their ongoing sexual attraction to each other. Within this context, Wendy is ashamed at her own eagerness for James’s attention, for her romantic attraction to him becomes intermingled with her simple, traumatized relief to have any kind of human contact after her isolation in the basement—even if that contact comes from the perpetrator himself. They both seem to understand they have a real and valid connection, but the subversion of what was previously a kind of acting or playing is now being used as legitimate violence. The feeling of connection remains, which challenges the violence that James is trying to use as a means of control. Though Wendy is afraid, she also senses the miscommunication at the root of the conflict, and James internally doubts that Wendy would want to hurt him at all. James notes that he “never truly viewed her as a threat” (183), but it is increasingly clear that this original viewpoint was valid, and Wendy is not a threat.

Another connection between James and Peter is formed in Wendy’s acknowledgment that she has been to galas and similar events before, having been used as a tool by her father to gain a reputation for being a family man. In Peter’s endeavors, he kept Wendy close by, using her presence to create a public image of himself as an upstanding man. Now, James is ironically using Wendy for the exact opposite purpose, for he is dragging Wendy to the gala to show the depths to which he is willing to sink to get revenge. James’s expectation is that in the eye of the public, Wendy will appear to have shifted her allegiance from Peter to himself. Furthermore, he intends to use this public appearance to advertise the fact of his sexual relationship with Wendy, the realization of which is designed to infuriate Peter. The fact that Wendy is accustomed to serving such purposes demonstrates her familiarity with being essentially held hostage by her father’s ambitions, just as she is now literally held hostage by James’s desire for revenge. By creating a parallel between the ways in which Peter and James both choose to control and use Wendy, the author establishes the fact that Wendy has always submitted to being dehumanized as a passive tool of male ambitions and manipulations. Thus, this section demonstrates Wendy’s most intense failure in women’s struggle for independence in a patriarchal world.