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

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

Kerri wrote: "[[ Frankie ]] wrote: "
Red enough? I know it looks like a lot of black, but when you pull up the page & enlarge the cover, you can see that there’s a..."

Definitely red enough IMO!

I have a vague memory of this book being posted in Caps group back near the beginning of TT, for color verification before we stopped doing that. I just checked but it looks like that thread was taken down! I say go for it w/Red.
Also... let us know if something it it makes you wrathful, lol.

Indeed. Queer sex is not a punishment!!

I was actually reminded there of that scene from Buffy S6 where Willow magics those boys into cage-GoGo-dancers. Apparently the original idea was to have them magic'd into making out with each other, and one of the other writers (Marti Noxon?) was like... Um, no, please do not equate boykissing with punishment.

And I didn't say the DOG was bottoming. Would topping really bother the dog? Isn't punishing Blake worth a little very mild animal cruelty that the animal doesn't know is cruelty?! ;D

Rebecca wrote: "

Color???"

Hmmm. Such a deep color that's not quite black but I can't decide if it's more very dark grey or very dark brown. The dude's skin is brown but by itself it's not more than 50% of the cover.
Better to use this book for something else.
Anything make you wrathful? ;D

Cat wrote: "@Alysa: I'm not sure there is a punishment that fits raping magically forced-compliant girls? As they'd never be able to get him charged with rape, let alone have him sent to jail, making him eat s..."

Hah, point taken. I guess I just feel like anything scatological is automatically off-limits? I mean, people can die from that.
*MICROBES*
There could have been some other horrible gross thing to make him do to ruin him socially. IDK, a video of him bottoming for a German Sheppard or something?

Day 4 DQs - Chapters 14-20

13. As disgusting as Alex's form of justice was on Blake, did you laugh and write it off as karma, or did she take it too far?

I thought it was pretty awesome and badass, actually. I do not usually advocate violence, but sometimes it’s the only way to deal with that sort of situation. At least in fiction, haha! Then it’s kind of cathartic for the reader, like if there are people you wish you could do that!
ETA: oh wait, sorry, I think was totally confusing “Blake” with the bitchy girl who tried to reneg on her bargain with Alex about getting the statue back?! What was that girl’s name? Because she seemed like a “Blake”! Re the rape video... I don’t know. I can’t decide if she took it things to a weird place. I mean, the dude deserved some punishment that he may not otherwise have gotten, but I can’t decide whether this particular punishment fit the crime.

14. At Rosenfeld Darlington felt the darkness of the "portal" before telling Alex that it wasn't a portal. I feel like there are still a lot of holes in the world building and the magic system, but do you have any idea what it could be if not a portal?

No idea. Maybe Darlington [well, Bardugo, actually] was just fudging the definition of “portal” to keep Alex in the dark, for some reason. But as you said, there are also still a lot of holes in the world building/magic system. Hmmmmm… maybe the holes are portals… :D

15. In that same scene we learned what happened when Darlington disappeared. Do you think Alex could've stopped it or was to blame? She seemed a little uncertain herself. And if he didn't disappear, do you think he would've turned Alex in for what he believed her to be?

It wasn’t Alex’s fault at all. I’m not sure about Darlington. I think he would have needed more time to think and decide what to do.

16. After discovering what happened with Hellie, Len and the others in LA, did it help you understand Alex more? Did it change how you felt about her?

I definitely understand her better, but my feelings didn’t change because I had already started to suspect something like what happened.

17. Lance seemed to be involved in more than just selling drugs, especially with the ability to portal! Why did he attack Alex as soon as he appeared? Did someone send him after her? But then going back to the scene in the morgue, if this was Lance, who did Alex see when she had the vision above Tara's body (you would think she would remember the face)? Anyone else thinking Glamours?

Yes to Glamours. Otherwise the vision of Lance’s face no longer makes sense. Although with the shaky magic system, who knows.

It was New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird

There were some really good stories in it but also plenty of meh.

Stuff looks different on the tablet I’m on, so I’ll take a look at these covers on desktop tomorrow.

Just came on to mark a book finished — that short story collection
I started last week! Yay!

I know, right? It got a lot better as it went on.

Day 3 DQs - Chapters 9 - 13

9. Well, these chapters definitely get exciting! Alex is attacked by a gluma, which seems like a Gray on steroids. She later recalls that they are messengers sometime used by the houses. Book & Snake are the ones that can "create" these messengers, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were behind the attack. Who do you think is trying to have Alex killed? Do you think it's because of her investigation or for some other sinister purpose?

I think someone is trying to have her killed because of her investigation, but I could be wrong. It could be just because of who she is as a person or as a Dante.

10. "But one thought returned again and again as he tossed and turned, fell in and out of dreams, morning light beginning its slow bleed through the high tower window: Alex Stern was not what she seemed." We know that Alex is special because she can see Grays without the assistance of potions, but Darlington knows this, as well. What do you think that thought means? Is there something more to Alex that makes her "not what she seemed"? Why do you think she can see Grays in the first place?

I was thinking yesterday that there’s a bit of an Unreliable Narrator thing going on with her. I think there’s much more to learn about her childhood, and about what happened with her druggie friends in California.

11. A lot has been happening to the Lethe House Dante and Virgil: Darlington gets purposely drugged at the Manuscript party, he subsequently goes missing, and now someone is trying to off Alex. Do you think that these incidents are connected? Do you think someone has it out for not only Alex, but Lethe House in general? Any other theories about what might be happening?

I like your suggestion that someone has it out for Lethe in general and not just for Alex. It could be someone is trying to kill two birds with one stone by taking her out.

12. After reading the chapter about Darlington's past, my immediate thought was, "Does Sandow do all of his recruiting in the hospital?" Do you think that he preys on vulnerable kids? Why would he do so when there are thousands of freshman at Yale they could recruit to be Dante?

I think he preys on the vulnerable, but doesn’t see himself as doing so. I think he thinks too highly of himself for that.

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*