MN Lisa’s Comments (group member since Jul 20, 2023)

MN Lisa’s comments from the Hooked on Books group.

🧩 Prompt #11: Saint / Sinner

Type: Split Prompt

What this means:
This is a Split Prompt, which means each of you will choose one side of the theme and pick a book inspired by it. You're reading different books, but building a connection between your contrasting choices.

For this one:
One of you picks Saint — a story with a morally upright, idealistic, or self-sacrificing protagonist. Think healers, heroes, or people just trying to do the right thing no matter what.

The other picks Sinner — a book featuring a morally gray, selfish, chaotic, or outright villainous main character. Think antiheroes, con artists, dark lords, or loveable disasters.

📌 Once you’ve both finished reading, post your Story Stitch (your connection blurb) in the Check-In Thread to unlock your next prompt.

Saints and sinners come in many forms. 😇😈

🧩 Prompt #9: Past & Future

Type: Mirror Prompt

What this means:
This is a Mirror Prompt, so you and your partner are working with the same theme — but from opposite ends of the timeline.

For this one:
One of you will choose a book rooted in the Past — historical fiction, historical fantasy, period pieces, or any story set in a time before now.

The other will choose a book that leans into the Future — science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopian worlds, or forward-looking fantasy.

📌 Once you’ve both finished reading, post your Story Stitch (your connection blurb) in the Check-In Thread to unlock your next prompt.

Time to stretch across the ages. ⏳🚀

Updated to Here

19. The Crying Boy Painting

The Crying Boy Painting refers to a series of mass-produced prints created by Italian artist Giovanni Bragolin (also known as Bruno Amadio) in the 1950s. These portraits typically feature a young boy with large, sorrowful eyes and tears streaming down his face. Though the painting was originally meant to evoke sympathy and emotion, it gained a far more sinister reputation in the 1980s.

A legend began circulating in the UK after numerous house fires left homes destroyed, but with the Crying Boy painting untouched and unscathed among the rubble. This eerie pattern led to widespread fear that the artwork was cursed, said to bring misfortune, fire, or tragedy to anyone who owned it.

The image of the Crying Boy(visually simple yet emotionally intense) became a modern folklore icon. Some claimed the boy's spirit was trapped in the painting, while others believed it was connected to an orphan who died in a blaze. Whether viewed as haunted or coincidental, the painting's legacy remains one of unsettling intrigue.

To this day, The Crying Boy Painting is remembered not just as a melancholy piece of art but as a symbol of how emotion, myth, and mystery can turn an innocent image into an object of dread.

Complete the following tasks

🖼️1. The Face That Haunts You
Read a chain of 3 books where the cover features a human face — sad, stoic, unsettling, or crying. Doesn’t have to be a child, but the more expressive the eyes, the better.

📅3. Trapped in 1950
Read a chain of 3 books where the number 1950 clings like soot to canvas. If it slips into the page count, at least two of its digits (1, 9, 5, 0) must show themselves. If it burns into the publication date, all four digits must appear, scattered through the numbers like an omen you cannot scrub away. A book of 290 pages, another of 315, or one with 519 would suffice… as would a date marked 09/15/2000 or 05/19/2014, where the Crying Boy’s shadow still lingers.

🕵️‍♀️5. Smoke and Secrets
Read a chain of 3 books that fits into MPG: Mystery, Paranormal, or Gothic — or ideally, a beautiful mess of all three. Think atmosphere, secrets, and at least one scene where someone stares at something for too long.

9 – Jungle Knows Your Fears
It always chooses what you hate most.
Read a book that includes your least favorite trope or genre. Suffer, sweetly.

5 – Eyes in the Trees
Don’t look up.
Read a book where someone is being hunted, followed, or watched.

6 – Do Not Split the Party
Alone = dead.
Read a book featuring a group or team, especially one with internal tension, betrayal, or secrets.

🔐 Week 4 Prompt: Pick a Trope, Any Trope
This lock is a little more dramatic than the others. It wants a twist.
Choose a book with a trope you either love, hate, or can’t stop reading.
Enemies to lovers. Found family. Secret royalty. You know the type.

Your partner has to guess how you feel about it.

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What gap do you think your partner’s book filled for them—and was it the one you expected

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What did your partner’s choice reveal about what they might be ready for now—even if they weren’t before?

It's been a few years since I read it, but I'm pretty sure it does take a back seat. I'm not one for politics in general, so I think I would have mentioned if it was a bit too much.

I recommend The Night Of by Tal Bauer because, as my review states: I did not see the ending coming at first and it wasn't until about 80% that I had suspicions. I loved that I couldn't tell. I enjoyed the mystery of this as much as the romance.

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What did your partner’s choice reveal about what they might be ready for now—even if they weren’t before?

Updated to Here

The Jumanji board game is a mysterious and magical game that serves as the central catalyst for adventure and chaos in the Jumanji films and original picture book by Chris Van Allsburg.

At first glance, Jumanji appears to be an antique, beautifully crafted wooden board game with ornate carvings, a central green-glowing dome, and sliding animal totems as game pieces. Its tagline warns players:
“A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind.”

But Jumanji is no ordinary game. Once the first dice are rolled, it unleashes real-world consequences based on each move: stampeding animals, violent weather, quicksand, giant insects, jungle vines, and other perilous phenomena spill into reality, threatening both players and their surroundings. The game cannot be paused or stopped, only completed. The only way to end the chaos is for someone to reach the final space and yell, "Jumanji!"

The game possesses a dark sentience, pulling players into its world (or bringing its world to them), and has a reputation for lying in wait, ready to tempt the next curious soul. Equal parts thrilling and dangerous, the Jumanji board game is as much a test of courage and friendship as it is of survival.

Roll to Survive
You didn’t mean to open it.
It looked old, maybe even beautiful—carved wood, green-glowing center, and that line etched across the top:
“A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind.”

Now the room is shaking.
There are vines in your bookshelf.
And something is watching from the ceiling.

You have three rolls to make it out alive.
You cannot skip your turn.
You must finish the game.
You don’t win. You survive.

🎲 How to Play:
The dice are in your hands, but make no mistake—the game is in control.
Roll two six-sided dice (2d6) three times.
Each roll will give you a number from 2 to 12.
https://www.online-stopwatch.com/chan...#


For every number you roll, the board will unleash one challenge.
You must complete three tasks total—one per roll.
You may not skip. You may not reroll. The board does not care for hesitation.

When you're ready to begin, post in the Occult Museum (Check-In Thread) with:
Your Team Name
Your three rolls
A link to your team’s tracking spreadsheet

Once you've declared your fate, the jungle listens.
The vines creep. The drums beat.
And the game... begins.

Char
1. Meteor Shower – Read a book where something falls (rain, ash, bodies, etc.).


6. Hologram Glitch – Read a book with a deceptive cover, twist, or hidden identity.


12. Final Turn: System Reset – Read a book where someone starts over or gets a second chance.

Beth
1. Meteor Shower – Read a book where something falls (rain, ash, bodies, etc.).


5. Sci-Fi Throttle – Read a book tagged as science fiction.


8. Black Hole Detected – Read a book that’s emotionally heavy or slow-burning.

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What gap do you think your partner’s book filled for them—and was it the one you expected?

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What did your partner’s choice reveal about what they might be ready for now—even if they weren’t before?

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What did your partner’s choice reveal about what they might be ready for now—even if they weren’t before?

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What gap do you think your partner’s book filled for them—and was it the one you expected?

🗝️ Week 3 Response
This key slipped into place like it had been waiting for you.
Maybe the stories we resist are the ones we need most.

What did your partner’s choice reveal about what they might be ready for now—even if they weren’t before?