#ReadAllTheBooks’s Reviews > The Loch > Status Update

I'm just so frustrated with the character of Brandy. I get that Alten was trying to write a flawed character and that her history of choosing awful men is supposed to show how she would get taken in by David, but there were just better ways to go about that if that's the case. It could have just been a case of her being starstruck by a "big city" guy, the potential money and fame, and his smooth talking.

Almost every step of the way Brandy has gone out of her way to treat Zach like dirt. She gets angry that he didn't trust her enough to confess his PTSD and phobia, but... didn't she do that with her own family? She didn't tell them that she was cutting herself in the past, even though at least True would have understood. Rather than say "hey, I've been there and I'm hurt, but I understand", she just goes and jumps on the David bandwagon. Then when her brother asks about her attitude and actions towards Zach and in general, she says that she's doing it to make him jealous and essentially "get even"... and despite him kind of taking a slight "well, that's silly but OK but I'm worried about you taking up with this guy" attitude, he leans fully into it only moments later. The book also looks like they're going to try and claim that she was only ever trying to flirt and lead David on, but earlier scenes show otherwise.

I just feel like it would have been better to just avoid this whole adversarial relationship between her and Zach. Have them flirt and so on, but no insta-love.

To be honest, I would have suggested having Brandy's role as adversary filled by the ex-fiancée. Have her leave Zach for David and then later reappear by his side. She could've been an academic social climber of sorts. Maybe she comes from money or a powerful family as well, which would have also appealed to David. Brandy could have still been the boat captain chosen, but she would have had to deal with David being all grabby hands while also trying to hide it from the ex, as he wants to ensure that he stays in her family's good graces. That would have been interesting. There's already enough in there about academic politics that a light touch in this direction wouldn't have messed things up as much.

Or just leave the romance angle out entirely.

I really want to like Brandy, but this just strikes a nerve with me. So many books, films, games, and so on have the predominant female character fall into the token love interest role. It's gotten better, but for a while there the default was that if a woman was on screen with a man, they were going to fall into insta-lust/love and hook up by the end of things. It doesn't matter if it doesn't really work or feel right - or if it was in the original work (in the case of adaptations), that forced love interest was always worked in there for one reason or another.

Case in point: Ellie Sattler was not written as the love interest in the Jurassic Park novel, but was made a girlfriend in the film. While yeah, the film was amazing and ultimately it still had her kicking butt, it was still frustrating that they couldn't have her simply being a colleague. She had to be a love interest/girlfriend. At least this one did it relatively well, but many works don't manage this and it just feels arbitrary and forced as a result.

This just reminds me too heavily of that "she's female and straight, so love interest she is" dynamic.