Is this just me or is it a motivational WTF!?!

I need another perspective on this, care to share an opinion? I've been reading this book, and it's...ok. Not bad, but not OMG brilliant. Now one of the MC's is this chick, and she's a virgin - she doesn't trust men. This has been shown quite well and it's believable. But then she gets gang-raped. She spends the next few hours scrubbing herself raw. Fine, I get that. No problem. She meets a guy who helps her avoid the Big Bad and agrees to take her where she has to go. She's a bit ascared of him cos he's weird. But only a bit.

Feelings about the rape seem to fade away. After about a day. Hmm.

So, is it just me, or is it completely unbelievable that two days after the rape, she's with this guy she's ascared of, grabs him, snogs him, wrestles him to the mud and porks him?

No seduction, no him talking her into it, no ooh he's sooo kind and stuff. Not even a 'Well, if I pork him, it'll prove I don't have to be afraid,' which I coudl believe if done right. Although possibly not while she still got the bruises...She isn't afraid ( except that she won't please him) She just takes him by surprise, grabs him and bonks him.

And the motivation? I'm not 100% sure. The only motivation seems to be that 'he won't tell anyone', with a hint of 'this'll make me a virgin - he'll be my first' ( the only slightly believable bit imo, but it's very vague) and the stunning line 'because he is hard and I am wet'. Because rape victims get unbearably horny for men they don't know and are a bit scared of? Two days after the event?

I've read the passage three times now and I can't see any other reason. If he'd put in some sort of motivation that wasn't so vague I suppose maybe I could believe it. But it'd have to be good.

Is it just me, or is that a motivational WTF!?! It just seems so unbelievable. Has the author got some strange ideas about women? Or am I just being a non-typical woman in my reaction?

Or ( just as likely) am I missing something? Because I'm on the verge of flushing the book down the toilet.

ETA: During the course of the thread I've come to the conclusion it's not that she did this ( any motivation becomes plausible if written right, although physically this might be a stretch) - but that the motivations were not made clear by the author. So it's not what she's doing, it's the weak writing that's the problem.

Was it written by someone who did no research into the subject?

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It was written by a man

I'm not sure whether to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's just ignorant, or whether he's just got some really weird ideas about women. I wasn't sure for a while whether it was just me being weird, because it obviously got past editors etc.

ChristineR said:

Some rape victims become promiscuous after the event, but this involves some complicated psychology--attempts to control further sexual interaction, feelings that you're damaged goods and might as well give yourself away to anyone, things like that. It is not a positive coping mechanism. She'd be likely to dump him for the next attractive guy that comes along in this scenario.

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Now if the writer had done something with that, I could have believed it. It was just glossed over, unfortunately, and I don't think you can gloss over something like that. Or not without giving some people my reaction.

scarletpeaches said:

Any reaction would be believable if written well,

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Exactly - everyone's different and reactions will be too - but if you're going to have your character have a reaction that is so..er...surprising? then you'd better make damn sure your reasons / motivations / thought processes that lead to it are both clear and well written.

dpaterso said:

Wild guess, maybe it's intended to show how the experience made her go temporarily loopy, since porking a guy (is that the word for it??) is 'way off her usual behavior pattern.

-Derek

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I suppose that's possible. It would help if he bloody well showed it in the writing though