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

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

Jana wrote: "So when we volunteer for teams, what do we do on those teams or with them?"

The team thing is from a challenge that is ending right as this BOM discussion begins, but it's not necessary to be in a team challenge to participate in BOMs.


@Mods, I'd like to volunteer to write Day 1 DQs for this, just for fun, since I'm planning to read it anyway :D

I am going to pretend I'm Jessi today...



Happy Wednesday!

Devann wrote: "@Alysa i was also kind of surprised to hear this touted as her first 'adult' novel because to me books about college kids are still YA, but i guess we'll see. so far it does seem like if you just t..."

Glad it’s not just me! It’s not even necessarily that the characters are college kids, for me. I don’t consider the first if Lev Grossman’s Magicians novels to be YA, and those kids are just starting college. It’s more of a writing style thing. All the labels (YA, NA, etc) are mostly just modern marketing tools, but IMO the “YA” one, at least, has been around long enough to develop recognizable characteristics beyond only “tropes.”

I’m not super impressed with the book either, though chapters 5-10 were an improvement over 1-4.

@ Everybody --
I'm going to to take the separate Mini-Challenge area out of the planning sheet for this week.
People can still read for it, of course, but based on what most of us have been working in, it doesn't need it's own area and is just taking up space ;D

Just general hatred of terrible abusive parents?

Cuz that would make me wrathful too!

ETA: I added it for you, with "Child abuse makes me wrathful" -- you can change it when you get home if you'd like to add more!

LOL, how so?

Day 2 DQs - Chapters 5-8

5. In chapter 5, we meet Professor Marguerite Belbalm who Alex has a meeting with. What do you make of their meeting? Why is she proving help for Alex? Do you think she's just being a helpful teacher or that she has a sinister reason, like wanting to use Alex for something? How do you think this will influence Alex's behaviours and choices in the book?

I want the Prof to be completely earnest in her desire to help Alex... which is exactly what makes me think that she must have a more sinister reason! It'll be a nice thing for Alex to improve academically, but I'm hoping it doesn't all prove worthless if it's just in pursuit of using Alex for some arcane sacrifice or something.

6. Whilst Alex is looking at the crime scene of Tara 'on the other side of the intersection', she has a sense of familiarity and then remembers Helllie and Len struggling in the apartment. Len asks her to let them out. What do think happened in that situation and why did she remember it? I feel like it is something important to the story. Do you think this memory will lead to a large reveal or is it just a small and not so important memory?

I think it's important -- I think Alex is exhibiting signs of being a sort of unreliable narrator, like she's blocked something out that is key.

7. In chapter 7 we get a glimpse into Alex's past and what she had to go through to deal with the ghosts. I honestly wasn't expecting us to find out about her past until past halfway mark. She mentions a lot of issues she had to deal with like no one believeing her, kids making fun of her and ostracising her, her parents, that awful bathroom scene, her illicit drug abuse... Why do you think the Lethe society didn't reach out and help her through all that if they were watching her?

That was all truly awful. But I don't think it would ever have been in scope for Lethe to have gotten involved. Just doesn't seem like something they'd ever do as an organization. Plus, I think they wanted her to be useful to them at an older age, rather than a drag on them as a kid -- at least from their perspective if that makes sense.

8. I'm interested in what you guys think of the writing style so far. We have a chapter written in the present tense with Alex and a snippit of passages from books. Then we get Darlington's POV in the past. Are you in favour of this? What do you think of the snippits and are you paying much attention to what they say?

I like the writing style, for the most part, though at times (at times, all ye defenders!!) it does seem a little YA -- and this is Bardugo's first "adult" novel, right? Like, it takes a little more than bad words and adult content to make a totally stellar adult novel, at least for me.
I like the snippets. I like Darlington's POV as well, though somehow it took me several chapters to clock that his POV and Alex's POV weren't on a concurrent timeline. I think it's because I'm doing the audio still.

Lol, okay, if Allison can’t recall the name of a wrath-inducing character, we can go with “this book being super slow is wrath inducing”! From Joanne’s review it looks like she felt the same way!

Nope. Just a coincidence!

Yeah I'm in the middle of 10. It definitely got better :D

I just got out of a meeting. When I went in I was fine, but when I came out I was SOOOOOO TIRED....................
I hate these days.

On the bright side, my office is so cold that I am waking up!
*silver lining*

M finished it more recently too —any good specific suggestions?

@ M, or anyone else who has read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell — anything wrath-inducing in it?

Looks brown to me!

Steven wrote: "Alysa wrote: "Aha! Apparently Leigh Bardugo went to Yale, grdauating in 1997!
So... I guess she decided to follow that old advice, Write What You Know.

I hope she didn't know, like, violent ritua..."

Haha, I had not refreshed the page since copy-pasting the DQs to a word doc. That'll learn me.

Aha! Apparently Leigh Bardugo went to Yale, grdauating in 1997!
So... I guess she decided to follow that old advice, Write What You Know.

I hope she didn't know, like, violent rituals though. :D

ETA: that was some fun cross-posting I did there, lol.

I started this morning. I'm doing Audio because it was the first format to come off Hold at the library. I'd rather have the ebook but it is what it is. At least this was I can listen to it at work!

First set of DQs for Ninth House is up, for anyone who doesn't know. :D

Team Ira, the BOM team! BOM BOM BOM BOM!

Day 1 DQs - Chapters 1-4

1. Our book starts out with a Prologue that leaves me understandably a bit lost and confused but wanting more, giving us minimal clues to our forthcoming story.How do you feel about Prologues? Do you ever go back and Re-read them after you finish the book?

Prologues are hit or miss for me. Sometimes they work really well to set a scene or give you an intriguing glimpse of the past or the future, or something that the characters don’t yet know but might eventually learn. No, I don’t usually re-read them at the end.
The prologue here does works for me – it’s intriguing and definitely sets the scene for some major events – but the transition from the prologue to the first chapter was a little clunky. (It might have been better if I wasn’t listening to the audio – which I am doing so far, but not really by choice! It’s just the first format that came off hold at the library. If the print or e comes in, I might switch; I think I might like the writing better in print/e than in audio.)

2. The setting of our story is the prestigious Ivy League school of Yale. The history runs deep and gives a gothic and dark feel to the book. Why else do you think the author may have chosen Yale as the setting?

She was definitely inspired by secret society lore, which is deeply connected to the “old boys club” thing at Ivy League schools, so her options were pretty limited, without inventing a fictional school. Also, this might be cynical of me, but there’s a proven market for this sort of thing – fantastical doings and/or effed up people and relationships at colleges – from The Secret History to The Magicians, to name some relatively recent successful ones – and the author is mining that. Maybe her editor even suggested the idea. That doesn’t mean the book is or is not good, just that the idea for writing it may have been market-driven.

3. In Chapter 1 our Main Character, Alex Stern, is running late for the Prognostication. By definition Prognostication is the action of foretelling or prophesying future events. I'm curious as to what the Bonesmen final goal is by performing these ceremonies. Although it is still early in the book are there any guesses as to what the Bonesmen are seeking? Are they after glory ? Time travel? Immortality?

It may really be as simple as ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, as is implied in the book so far. Probably not, eh, or else there wouldn’t be much here for plot, but I don’t think we have enough info yet to make any guesses.

4. The Grays ! I love ghost stories and cannot wait to learn more about the Grays. Alex not only has the ability to see the Grays but is also able to see them in color. This is important and seems to be a key feature that got her this opportunity at the school. Darlington appears to be jealous of this ability of Alex because he needs to take an elixir at a great risk to do the same. How do you see the relationship between Alex and Darlington? Will they become friends, enemies or lovers?

Apart from the setting (one of my favorite books of all time is also set at Yale, albeit in the 1800s!), the Grays are the most interesting aspect of this book to me so far. The characters are seeming a little boring, which I hope gets better. I think Alex and Darlington will have a friends to lovers arc, but I’d be very happy if I’m proven wrong.

LOL, we are all groupies :D