Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

Alysa’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Yay I finished The Hollow Places last night so I still feel on track to finish current stuff before Wheel.

However, I was talked into seeing the new James Bond movie this Saturday night... It better be good!!!

DQs Day 4 - Chapters 18-end

14. We get more information about what happened to the Bible-writer's group. Marco, Steen, and Petrov ended pretty horribly. Kara chooses to believe the Bible-writer and Singer somehow made it out of the Willow World, but that seems unlikely. What do you think happened to them?

15. Kara finally figures out what's going on with the corpse-otter, literally stating "Everything snapped into place." This leads into the scene where various taxidermied animals reanimate. What did you think of this section? Scary, silly, both, or neither?

16. What did you think of Kara's decision to go back through the hole? Her final visit to the Willow World was quite climactic, bringing together a lot of the scary and/or gross bits of the book: the animals, the trees, Sturdivant, pain, THEM… Did it work for you?

17. We find out how the corpse-otter ended up at the Wonder Museum. Did you figure it out earlier, or were you surprised?

18. In the end, we see Kara and Simon close off the hole. Life goes more or less back to normal. Kara reflects on her experience. What are your thoughts? To steal from the last line of the book, do you "wonder what happens next" for these characters? Please elaborate!

Cat wrote: ""During Wheel it might be a whole different story!"

Yeeeeaaah, I will not even attempt to volunteer for writing DQs during team challenges until my RL workload significantly improves. I may read BOMs but definitely can't commit.

Nearly done with Chapter 12 now...

Just a heads up that I am a bit behind on reading, which means I will be late on posting Day 4 DQs as well. Most likely I’ll post later on 6 Oct. Sorry, everybody 😔

Oh and hello everybody and congrats Cindy!
🎉🥳🎉

I usually like to plan my challenge reading ahead but Wheel is relatively low key, plus my current less-than-usual amount of reading means I shouldn’t commit to much in advance, in case I fall behind. 😕 So I will try to give as many spelling options as I can for each book, maybe find a cover with a wheel, and maybe read some of the BOMs.

Right now I am reading the current BOM, The Hollow Places, which is pretty good so far, and Dragon Untameable which is just okay so far.
I should be done with both just in time for the beginning of Wheel. But if I get behind by a day or two, I will make it up quickly because next week I am taking off work! *huge sigh of happiness*

@Louise : Ahahahaha we were probably at odds during the Infamous Wheel Tower of Seven Sins... :D

@Namita : I think you're right! Our last TT team was so quiet though, I didn't feel like I really got to know anybody. I was actually convinced that I'd accidentally not chosen "prefers chatty team."

WooHoo!!!
Hi, I'm Alysa from NYC! I have a daughter who is almost 11. I'm a librarian in real life.

I've played plenty of NBRC team challenges before, including several Wheels, though I don't think I've played with anyone on this team. I have encountered a few of you on other teams (and apparently Namita and I are already Goodreads friends somehow... :D)

I have been known to get super competitive and be super chatty but since I've been going through some major stuff at work, my reading time and online time have been constrained. I'll definitely check in at least a few times a week if not daily though :)

ETA:
PS @Melissa and Louise : I have captained before and I have a tendency to "backseat captain" sometimes; i.e. suggesting strategy, fixing or pointing out spreadsheet errors, etc.
Like I said I've been too busy lately to do much, but LMK if I'm being unhelpful or if I step on your toes.

DQs Day 1 - Chapters 1-7

1. Uncle Earl, what a colourful character! And it seems he has some interesting friends as well. What's your opinion of him? Do you think he knew about the secret hallway ?

Uncle Earl is a sweetheart. Very endearing, and I'm thinking there's more to him that what he presents to the world.
I am thinking that he knew about the secret hallway but didn't know Kara or anyone else would find it.

2. What do you make of Kara and Simon's reactions following the discovery of the dead body in that "bunker" ? And their decision to not call the police ?

It was a pretty humorous scene, actually. I've been surprised by how funny this book has been in general so far, though it may change as the horror elements come to the fore.
Kara and Simon's reactions made sense in context, as did their decision to continue exploring and not call the police.

3. Do you think there might be any connection between the carved corpse-otter sent by Woody and the hidden hallway or is it just a coincidence that the hole was there?

It certainly seemed like a connection was being drawn, but I really have no idea.

4. Maybe a random question but what's with all the maple trees ? Seeing as a tree is depicted on the cover as well, do you think there's any significance to this ?

I had assumed that the tree on the cover was more atmospheric, and now that I'm actually reading the book I think it's representative of Creepy Freaky Forest, but I don't know yet whether there is any more significance than that.

Audrey Jane wrote: "I will join. I really enjoyed The Seventh Bride by the same author this year."

That was such a great book! I read it years ago and I think it's still the only T. Kingfisher book I've read. I'm glad to be finally correcting that. 🙂

I read H of H in late-March, so if we're doing 6 month rule, that means I can still join for re-read. Though I don't do many re-reads generally.
And that's IF I do the next team challenge. I want to, but I've been in bad reading slump since TT ended, while getting my ass kicked at work.
Instead of reading I've been binge-watching Cobra Kai.

I've been sitting on this for a while (it's an eARC!) but never got to it last fall, and then earlier this year I read House of Hollow and didn't want to read this one too close because of the name! LOL

Yay! Can I take the last set of DQs please?

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel.

Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.

Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis

For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.

Katrell doesn’t mind talking to the dead; she just wishes it made more money. Clients pay her to talk to their deceased loved ones, but it isn’t enough to support her unemployed mother and Mom’s deadbeat boyfriend-of-the-week. Things get worse, when a ghost warns her to stop the summonings or she’ll “burn everything down.” Katrell is willing to call them on their bluff, though. She has no choice. What do ghosts know about eating peanut butter for dinner?

However, when her next summoning accidentally raises someone from the dead, Katrell realizes that a live body is worth a lot more than a dead apparition. And, warning or not, she has no intention of letting this lucrative new business go.

But magic doesn’t come for free, and soon dark forces are closing in on Katrell. The further she goes, the more she risks the lives of not only herself, but those she loves. Katrell faces a choice: resign herself to poverty, or confront the darkness before it’s too late.

Judith wrote: "DQ Part 3 - Saturday
10. How do you feel about the ending of the book in the present? What are your thoughts on the past reveal? Was the cave in too Deus ex Machina?
It was a let down. I feel like ..."

@Judith - yeah, I think most of us felt let down. So much potential, so many problems. *sigh*

Next time something I nominate wins, it had better be great! :D

Judith wrote: "Late to the party, but I finally made it

DQ Day 1-2 : beginning to 32% (p101)

1. What attracted you to this book? Do you tend to read a lot of horror/thriller/suspense novels (or not), and what a..."

Glad you are here! :)

Finished two more.


Definitely not one of my favorite Margaret Atwood books to date, but it’s still Margaret Atwood, so. Plus this was one of my beat up paperbacks so I could take it on a day at the beach :)


This was a sequel to a book I read ages ago but still remember vey well. Oddly gripping but not very good and should probably have stayed hidden in the author’s drawer.

Finished book on Friday but have not had time for GR!!!
Here I go...


DQ Day 5-6 : 63%-End

10. How do you feel about the ending of the book in the present? What are your thoughts on the past reveal? Was the cave in too Deus ex Machina?

Still having problems suspending my disbelief on too many points. There's the town being so well-preserved like I mentioned before, there's Aina having survived in what seems like relatively good physical health, there's the fact that no one ever thought to check the mines after everybody disappeared or at any time since then. It's all just way too convenient. It's like a movie that looks very stylish but makes no sense when you examine the details even a little bit.
I'm also left scratching my head over things that were so straightforward to me that I was convinced they could not be true. Like, how did they go with Birgitta being the mother of the baby when that was THE most obvious answer from page one? They treated it like some kind of big reveal, but I had been convinced that there was no way a book like this could be so straightforward so the baby was Aina's or something but Birgitta took the blame.

11. Were you surprised by how Max acted?

Disappointed, yes. Surprised, not really. This was typical Nice Guy™ bullS41t, and I wish that Alice (and the book) had called it out more.

12. Did you feel sad for any of the character deaths? Past or present?

I felt sad that Emmy died immediately following the reconciliation with Alice. I was also sad for Elsa, and of course what happened to Birgitta was just horrible.

13. What are your thoughts on the epilogue? Was it necessary?

It was of a piece with the rest, so in that sense it neither pleased nor bothered me.

Bonus: 14. Getting back to the mental health quote, do you think this book actually discussed the issue? Do you think Tone was portrayed realistically or sympathetically or just as a red herring?

So, I have to confess here that I did not originally expect this book to be about mental health, or female mental health, or anything of that sort. The description of my edition mentions nothing of the sort, so I was a bit "Huh?" when Cat first brought it up.
But since the book did turn out to have several female characters with various types of mental health issues, the topic is certainly relevant insofar as we can discuss how they were portrayed, and whether or not mental health is the main theme.
I think the book did an okay job with Alice's history of depression, and maybe with Birgitta as a woman living in a time and place where there would have been a dearth of understanding, let alone treatment. We can never be sure what was actually wrong with her, but it's strongly implied that whatever it was, Tone inherited it, which in turn implies that it could have been treatable with modern medicine.
Aina clearly went insane but that was more like a "horror movie crazy" and not meant to approach realism.
Tone's portrayal is by far the most problematic. I don't even know where to start.

I agree with some of y'all that we think harder about BOMs than we might if we were just reading independently. This book was a fun diversion the way that a B horror movie is a fun diversion. I'm not sorry I read it, and it had its good points (creepy atmosphere especially!) but it was not great. It sure did not change my general wariness about suspense/thriller novels that, on the whole, overpromise and underdeliver.

Cat wrote: "Whatever, I very much doubt that Mattias himself dies (cult leader types rarely join their brainwashed followers into death). Does that mean one of the team is his grandson, and doesn't want the truth out???"

Or Mattias himself, age 90+, is living with his followers in a bunker somewhere, and sending minions out to "haunt" the town and mess with people! IDK!
I don't think Birgitta was the baby's mother, but Mattias was for sure the father.