Left Behind Chapters 3 and 4

So I've been pretty slow updating, but I swear I have good reasons! First, last week was insanely stressful (My prof sent an email at 7:30 at night telling us to get to this random address to cover an event the next day, grammar test, assignments) and ALSO I got sick on Friday. Usually I try to make up the days that I miss, but I'm just going to be continuing with the two chapters.

CHAPTER 3
Strange word/phrase: "Seat" when he means "bum."
Here's something weird about the first two chapters. No one seems very confused or horrified about the disappearances of half the people on the plane. People are DISAPPEARING. There should be worldwide panic and mass speculation. I mean, no one's even brought up the possibility of aliens yet, and that would be my first guess. Mostly people are just mildly confused.

Harold's wife sat staring at Buck, her eyes full, jaw set.
Eyes full of what?

Tim and Jerry have a HUGE show don't tell problem. The woman is described as "grieving" but nothing she does shows that she's grieving.

So everyone's leaving the plane and Rayford gets super mad at his copilot because he wants to ride in a bus to the terminal instead of walking. I think his reaction is harsher than it needs to be.

Tell, tell, tell, but no show.

Rayford is watching footage on TV, and he describes a woman whose baby disappeared from her womb. This should be a horrifying and baffling event, and yet it's described clinically. There's a disconnect between the events in the book and the reader. A good book will suck the reader in, make the reader believe they're there. With Left Behind, there's a barrier. I can't really get into the book.

Of all people, that player, a student at a Christian school, would have known the truth immediately. The Rapture had taken place.
Why is Rayford stating this like it's obvious? The idea of the Rapture taking place wouldn't even occur to me in this situation. I'd be thinking aliens, and I'm pretty sure lots of other people would too.

Wtf? Rayford calls his house from a payphone and is somehow able to check his messages. I'm pretty sure that's not how answering machines work.

Oh, wow.
"All the married students' kids have disappeared!"
Right, right. Because the children of unmarried people are unholy bastards.

WHAT THE FUCK.
So Hattie's all, "Isn't it awful about Chris?" like maybe he broke a toe or something and Rayford's like, "what?" and she's like, "you don't know?" and being all coy so I'm like, "Oh whatever, it's not that important," and then later Hattie's like, "Yeah, I saw him wheeled by. He was covered in blood. I think he's dead." ARE THESE PEOPLE ROBOTS? THEY DON'T ACT LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE!

Rayford shook his head. What next? "Did he get hit or something? Did the bus crash?" Wouldn't that be ironic!"
Why are they talking as if he's fine? He's DEAD, but the way they act, it's like, "Oh, that scamp Chris! He's such a joker!"

Wtf. Hattie says the blood on Chris seemed to be coming from his hand or his waist. Well, the two are kind of far apart. I'm pretty sure it should be easy to differentiate between the two.

So apparently Chris slit his wrists when he found out his sons were gone and his wife died in a crash or something and literally the ONLY emotion response Rayford has is to "nod sadly." And then he immediately wonders if suicide is an option for him, and then he says no, because his daughter Chloe is still there. His thought processes are so robotic, like he's a cyborg. He has no emotions. This is such bizarre reading.

He refers to his son as "young Ray." No one does this.

Wtf? Hattie was "trotting" to her condominium. So...she's a horse now?

There's so much wtfery here, even more than Twilight.

Buck gets a letter from his editor telling him to get to New York and report on shit, and then he randomly goes into a side thing about currency. PEOPLE HAVE JUST DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR, PEOPLE. Get your priorities straight. Also, he's like, "Yeah, I lost a nephew and two nieces and a sister in law that I didn't like." No one has any emotions. This is so weird.

CHAPTER 4

Buck gets his head wound treated by a doctor, who's all, "Yeah, it's the Rapture. What other possibly explanation is there?" Still not sure why "Rapture" is the obvious option here.

So Rayford is trying to get home and he hitches a ride with some lady. He gets home and for some reason starts to describe Irene's daily routine. This has nothing to do with the story, but they throw it in anyway.

Shouldn't Rayford be panicking? I would if most of my family was gone. He seems sad, but also like he's accepted it as inevitable.

Flashback. Buck is talking to Chaim, the dude from the beginning who made that fertilizer that makes things grow. Chaim is talking about this awesome dude named Nicholae Carpathia. Spoiler: he's the Antichrist.

She'd had a rough day too.
Isn't that a fucking understatement? PEOPLE ARE DISAPPEARING.

Buck is talking to this chick because he wants her to get him a flight to New York. Buck says that he has unlimited resources and that money is not an object. Somehow I doubt that. Journalists don't make that much. Even if you're a super good journalist, you aren't going to have unlimited resources.

Back to Rayford. He finds his kid's clothes and then looks at an autographed picture of himself that he gave his kid. Rayford goes, "What kind of father autographs a picture for his son?" That's EXACTLY what I was thinking! These aren't normal people.

Rayford's sobbing and breaking down and yet I can't bring myself to care. I don't give a shit about these characters because they don't seem real.

This is a very strange book.