Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

Today went pretty well. I got all the old work done, my reports typed up, the quotes sent out for it, and all if it was done a hour earlier than anticipated. The walk went pretty well. For the first 6ish km I was fine. It was only when I slowed/stopped at the library and the grocery store that I started to feel the length of the walk. Then the last 2km/1.25 miles were the worst. I was doing that with a stack of library books and two big bags of groceries. I was really feeling it by the time I got home. Now I'm simply relaxing and enjoying what is left of my day.

My coworker that I normally get a ride with is not working tomorrow so I'm walking a great distance tomorrow. I'm walking 4km/2.5 miles to work and then after work I'm going to walk straight to library and then my groceries and that will be another 8.5km/5ish miles. That also means I won't have time to finish my library book that is due tomorrow. Guess I'll get back in line to wait for the next copy.

Sorry for all the downer stuff lately. Work is whooping me, the weather is whooping me, and I'm just tired on all levels right now. I just got to get to the end of this month and then I'll look at taking a day or two off.

Yup, this will be my second Saturday in a row now. If all goes well tomorrow though it should be last until the summer, hopefully. I have five old repairs to get through and all the paperwork associated with it. If I'm really lucky these repairs will all be simple calibrations and won't take long.

Just when I thought the week was coming to a close the warehouse decided to come in and work tomorrow. On a spiritual level I don't want to work tomorrow but I know on a logical level I have repairs to still get through. Guess I'm working tomorrow now while my spirit stays home sleeping.

Nope, just no, it's not fair. Everyday I get teased that tomorrow will be warmer but it never happens. It's just the same cold temperature day after day after day after day. It even got my hopes this morning when it was -14c/7f but in the last hour and half it's dropped back into the same temp it's been all week. For the briefest moment I thought I could get away with not having to layer up this morning but nope.

I'm just glad that it's Friday finally. It's been a long, rough week. I was planning on working tomorrow but it sounds like no one is coming in so I get the day off. Even if it's only a day off to do laundry.

This feels like the week that never ends. Between the cold and work I just feel like I'm stuck in this frozen Groundhog day kind of situation. There are the cold mornings that are just cold enough to need an extra layer of winter clothing. It was originally supposed to be only Sunday/Monday that were cold, then it was Tuesday, then it was Wednesday, now it's Thursday as well.

Sacrificing sleep last night to finish my book was worth it but I'm feeling it today. I have no energy and just want a nap. Instead I have to be a responsible adult at work and all that.

Katie❄️ wrote: "YAY!! You finished! Wasn't it shocking??! I was just totally shocked by Jeffrey! Same for me. 4 starts for Grant and 5 for Will. I think for me with Grant it was like you could tell even Slaughter ..."

It was incredibly shocking. I reached a point somewhere past the 60% point and I just couldn't stop reading. I was hunched over my ereader just consuming the book. I had to know what happened next and I had to know how it all ended.

I can total see that logic and honestly I think it's something any small town murder mystery series has to deal with. This series was a solid four for me as well. I bumped the last one up to five but I might reconsider it. I still say that the second one was probably the best for me but this final one is probably a close second.

I don't want details, a simple yes or no is fine, but I really hope there is a proper resolution to the Grant County series. The final book wrapped up the books story line but I don't feel that the series story line is done. I don't expect a happy ending with rainbows and puppies as that doesn't fit the series but I feel that the (view spoiler)[ Ethan story line needs to be wrapped up for the series to properly be done. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

I finished it, I'm awake later than I should be but I finished it. The ending has me reeling but I feel that it's on brand for this series. The author just can't give us a damn happy ending. Seriously, I think the author is physically incapable of giving us a happy ending of any sort. I need some sleep but I might be back later for some more thoughts. I will say these few things right now though:

-I'm going to need some time to recover from this book
-I'm really, and I mean really, curious, about how this characters will factor into the Will Trent series and just what that series is about
-As much as this series hurt me I'm really glad that you guys dragged me into reading it. While it was on my TBR I'm not sure I would have ever read it myself.

That is how I am feeling with Beyond Reach right now. I just want to crawl into a hole with snacks and be left alone until the book is done. Instead I trekked to work and I'm sitting at my desk getting ready to type up a bunch of reports and quotes. It's just not fair.

Wait... why is he in this story? I'm not really surprised that he is here considering this is essentially Lena's story but I thought his involvement was ruled out early on.

This book has managed to stump me every step of the way so far. Every time I expected it to zig it would zag and visa-versa. I'm about 55% of the way into the book and I'm still not 100% sure what is going on. I mean sure I know we have drugs, we have skinheads, we have police corruption (maybe), and we have something weird going on with Lena's mom. Outside of that though I'm really not sure. I'm also not sure where the hell Hank is either. I don't think he is dead and if I had to hazard a guess Lena got him out of town somehow but I wouldn't put anything on that guess.

I figured I'd resurrect this so I can ramble away without polluting the reading thread. I'm about 33% into this book and I'm really, really, really curious about what the hell is going on. I have a couple of theories/thoughts but I also feel like it's way to early to start predicting what is going on. It would be like trying to predict what hiking trail you are on when you don't even know what forest you're in. I love the idea of the story being told 3 days apart. If this plays out the way I think it will that will mean that we won't see what happens to Lena after the escape until at least the half way point. Can this book be a valid reason to take time off work tomorrow? I know that I'm crazy busy but I got feeling the deeper I get into this book the deeper the hooks are going to be set.

I'm going to have a hard time explaining this as a lot of it is based on my gut. This is a low three at best but a lot of it comes down to entertainment/not entertained. A two star book is something that I actively had a hard time reading and just did not like the book/characters/the writing/something. Now I know that it sounds like this book should fit that bill to a tee but here is the thing. I was at least mildly entertained while listening to this book. Sure there were moments where I was yelling at characters for doing stupid things or just being stupid in general but there was always that part of me that was curious about that mystery. Now granted it played out in the end pretty much how I guessed it would. This book just never crossed that weird internal line for me.

It's been a bit of a slower week but here is what I've completed this week.

-3 Stars
Oh man this book was stupid and I mean extremely stupid. This was the longest feeling 8 hour audiobook I think I've ever listened to. How do I even sum up this massive train wreck. A young woman heads to Paris with her friends and classmates for spring break. She finds out that she is descendant of french royalty that was part of this secret organization that had ties with Marie Antoinette. While there, quite conveniently, something has awakened Marie's ghost and she is going around killing the descendants of this secret organization. Oh and because it's a YA book set in Paris we need a little romance mixed in as well. The above book I described actually sounds rather interesting but something went horribly wrong somewhere and we ended up with this really dumb train wreck. Lets start with the MC since we spend the most time with her. She ricochets between dumb, TSTL, and poor writing faster than a coked up squirrel. A perfect example of this, at the beginning of the book the MC talks about how excited she is for this trip to Paris and how she has memorized the itinerary for the entire trip. Once she gets to Paris though it seems like she forgot everything because for the rest of the book it's "what are we doing today/tomorrow?". There is another point after she has started seeing the ghost where she comes to the dumbest conclusion. She is in a dark alley and hears footsteps and her first though is ghost. Then there is the day where the class is heading to the catacombs. Now our MC has claustrophobia so you can already see how this could be a rough day for her. No, she has no idea what the catacombs are nor does her friend. How? Just how? You memorized your itinerary for the trip and never once looked into where you were going? In general, how the hell do you not know what the famous catacombs of Paris are? Even if it's just a sterotypical image of what they are. Just, just, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Alright, enough MC, lets get into the supporting characters and other stuff. There is the school teacher/escort who has no problem with a 16 year girl going off into the city with the 20 year old sexy tour guide by themselves. There are the two friends of the MC who are somehow valley girls from Toledo, Ohio. Maybe that was just the narrator but "yas gurl" is not something I want to hear in my headphones very often. One friend is the passive hanger on and the other girl is every mean girl trope rammed into one character. I was secretly cheering for her to die first but that never happened. Oh and our MC has to keep a massive secret from her friends lest she get kicked from the cool girl club. Her parents are divorced and she is now poor. Her mom has to work at the mall to make ends meet. Mean girl would use that against her and ban her from being her friend. Why does the MC hang around this moron? What else? The only history of Paris is of course the stuff surrounding Marie Antoinette because nothing else of any importance every happened in Paris ever. There is just so many things to talk about with this book. It's a mean girl school drama, it's a historical murder mystery, there are horror elements, there is a romance subplot. Why did I keep at this book when I was starting to set a trend of DNFing books? It's hard to explain but it's liking watching a bad B movie. You know the movie is hot garbage but you keep watching just to see what happens next.

One final thing, the narration. This book had two different narrators and it just added to the train wreck vibe of the book. Now take what I say here with a grain of salt. As I've already stated many times I'm no expert when it comes down to accents. Throughout the book there are short scenes where we, the readers/listeners, get to see people getting murdered by the ghost. These sections had there own narrator and for my ears it sound like how French should sound like. Then there was a narrator for the rest of the book. This is the narrator for the "yas gurl" parts. The narrator was perfectly fine but lets just say her French didn't feel as natural. It felt like a very Americanized attempt at French. Which makes sense for some characters. But we would get this horrible French for the native speakers as well. Including the ghost from the other sections and it was just jarring.

-4 Stars
It's a Junji Ito book. That statement either makes all the sense in the world to you or it means nothing. Junji Ito has a unique art style and writing style. A lot of his stories don't really explain anything. You are just dumped into a horror scene where weird things are happening and then the story is over. There isn't a happy ending where everyone lives and the "evil" is defeated either. It just kind of ends and it makes for a unique style of horror. There is of course the iconic Junji Ito art style that really twists human features to the extreme and there are just panels that burn themselves into your brain.

-4 Stars
Still enjoying this series. The characters are now actively trying to save their building. It also has this weird love knot with different people interested in other people. It's much more than a love triangle and for right now I am down for it. I can't wait for the next volume.

-3 Stars
More muscle bound guys punching other muscle bound guys until they explode. I'm not hating the series and I can appreciate the cultural impact of the story but I also don't think it's the greatest thing ever.

I've already started my next books but here is what I am currently working on.

On audiobook I'm listening to . It's not what Goodreads promised me but at the same time I'm kind of vibing with it. I'm about 50% of the way into the book and I'm at a point where I'm hoping things start picking up soon.

I also reading which has immediately pulled me in. After that I need to finish and this week as well.

Time to start the final round of emotional damage. I'm about to start . Will Lena finally get her redemption arc? Highly doubtful. I even took steps and gather up all my hopes and expectations for Lena, took them out back, tied them up, gagged them, and then buried them under the floor of the shed. I doubt it will help but here is to hoping.

Gord is a cold grumpy bear this morning. Gord stood outside the main doors for 15 minutes because everything was locked not knowing that everyone was using the side door.

Gord is not excited about going to work today. He has many books to get read and he is ready to start Beyond Reach today. Gord understands though that repairs need to be done and that he hasn't done them in two months. That is why Gord is making himself go to work.

Gord was planning to use it all weekend, except for his weekly update.