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

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

Day 5: Chapters 27 - 33

18. We get a lot of thanalogical (??) science theory chat in the section, with the exchanges between Palamedes and Harrow, which seems to confuse them at least as much as it did me! Did you enjoy the science chat and reveals, or did it get in the way of the action?

I liked that stuff; it was a good breather from the action. Some books are all action action action and it gets to be way too much. Also… thanalogical is a great word! Thanks for that!

19. We see other sides to a couple of the Houses during this section: the Eighth, who had been reported as being super weird with the cavalier being effectively a vegetable, actually transpire to be super weird with the cavalier trying really hard to hold to whatever shred of his life he can claim as his own (Colum says: "I've got my sword. I've got my honour. Everything else is yours." "Your sword is mine also" said Silas. Silas is an ass of the highest order, btw) Similarly, the Second become all noble and self-sacrificing in chapter 33, a change from the rule-bound nimrods they'd been up to that point. Do you like the shifting understanding of the characters? Have your favourites / least despised changed over the course of the book?

These shifts have all been pretty interesting, and some of my preferred characters have changed. I liked Coronabeth from the beginning and continued to like her, but my reasons changed. That is, I like her as a book character but not as a person! The Eighth do become a little more sympathetic.
In general it is difficult to understand any of these people because we’re given so little background info about the Houses/planets that they came from. But the young author does do an impressive job of giving them all distinct personalities and voices, especially considering the size of the cast.

20. Speaking of changes: MASSIVE emotional reveal between Harrow & Gideon. I loved the line "she wrapped her arms around Harrow Nonagesimus and held her long and hard, like a scream", which is just SO Ninth House. How does this information make you re-evaluate Harrow & Gideon's relationship?

I LURV them like this. That was one of my favorite scenes in the book.

21. Something a bit lighter: in the midst of the blood and death and bone-key making and such, there are still some moments that made me snigger. one that I particularly enjoyed was "Hm," said Camilla neutrally, and Gideon knew immediately that she organised Palamedes's and her socks by colour and genre." The little blips of humour have definitely helped me whilst reading the book. Do they work for you?

Absolutely work for me. This book is a black comedy, really, and the offbeat humor of these stray observations is great.

Day 4: Chapters 21-26

14. More deaths! Do you have any theories on why the Fourth were killed? Why Gideon was spared? Who do you think is committing these murders?

They’re all being picked off because… I am actually not sure. Regarding why Gideon was spared, I like Minx’s theory that it’s because she’s not a threat to whoever is doing the killing. Either that, or they enjoy playing mind games with people.

15. The Third House (maybe Ianthe) seem to be lurking in the background of this book, all sneaky and suspicious. Coronabeth seems like the nicer one out of the Twins. But do you think this is the case? Do you think Coronabeth has something up her sleeves?

Definitely something weird going on with those two, but at this point in the book I hope Coronabeth proves a Good Guy.

16. Gideon had a weird encounter with the Eighth house. What did you make of the comment, 'because you grew up servant to a murderer, in a tribe of murderers. You are, more than anything, a victim of the Ninth House'. Do you think Gideon will accept their invitation?

No, not unless Harrow gets in on it too. At her core, Gideon still feels some sort of loyalty to the Ninth, and certainly to Harrow. Gideon is curious about the Eight, but when it comes to how awful the Ninth is, methinks she doth protest too much.

17. (This is a bit of a silly question). Over the course of the book, Gideon has been getting closer to Harrow, Dulcinea and Coronabeth (although it seems she wishes she could get closer to the latter). Put yourself in Gideon's shoes. Harrow, Dulcinea and Coronabeth - Kiss, Marry, Kill.. Explain your reasoning haha!

LOL! Let’s see. Kiss Coronabeth because she is hot but possibly too shallow for anything else. Marry Harrow because she is the most… stable somehow? And I kind like the enemies to lovers trope in this particular context. Kill Dulcinea because she’s dying anyway!

Awesome!

Speaking of LGBT-
A reminder that this month’s Backroom BOM, Save the Date, starts on Sunday 20 Oct (not tomorrow like the YA one).

Last I checked, the book was still free on Amazon. So if you are willing to read a short MM romance, it’s not too late to join Back Room! Go Team!

Sorry, woke up and realized how mean that last comment sounded if any of you work in a book store. 😔
It was just my sleep-deprived a$$hole way of saying I don’t understand why, in some stores, the merest whiff of LGBT themes or content has people ghettoizing a book that doesn’t belong in a special section. In a perfect world, IMO almost all such books would be shelved amongst everything else, except for maybe LGBT history or overt “issues” books like Coming Out novels.

@Mods
On behalf of Team Ira and myself, thank you for those 7 Very Special Mod Points! 😉

M wrote: "Makes it a real pain at the book store."

Only if the staff are idiots who don’t care about how they shelve, no?

Gideon was *definitely* not a Space Opera in any way IMO.
It didn’t even take place in space. Just had one brief scene in which Gideon and Harrow shuttled from one place to another that happened to be on a different planet.
And it didn’t even really have any of the melodrama that’s a hallmark of the genre.

Reminds me, I still need to go answer DQs from Days 4-6. Tomorrow!

Ah, okay. Lemme know if you eventually end up needing a new edition created :)

I finished this book last week but never came back for DQs Days 4-6 because I was traveling for a few days!
Missed all the back & forth but I'm going to post more answers soon anyway, because it is fun.

I liked this book a lot more than many of y'all. Especially the Audiobook people ;D

@Jessi

For your audio edition of Les Miz, I see the translator is Julie Rose.
The "default" edition, for page count (1463), is translated by Lee Fahnestock.
If you look for books (translations) by Julie Rose, there is in fact a print version of her Les Miz, with its own, different page count. I dunno which one we should use?
IDK with these classics. So much weirdness on GR.

[[ Frankie ]] - Punkins & Pages! wrote: "Walking into my library is like stepping through a portal back to 1982. LOL. They don’t have hardly any newer books to choose from. But it wouldn’t hurt to double check, just in case, though!"

Hehe, I am having flashbacks to my childhood public library. I actually went back there about a year ago and some things are the same while others are super different. :)
Do they allow for Special Orders or Interlibrary Loans? 'Cuz most of the time they can get stuff for you no problem --
Librarians: Ask and You Shall Receive!

/end second Librarian PSA

@Frankie, are there any decent libraries near you, especially with digital loans? At all the libraries I've got access to, The Chestnut Man has long waiting lists but Two Can Keep a Secret is available.

/end Librarian PSA :D

Kerri wrote: "I’m debating whether or not to sign up for the second November BOM (already signed up for Chestnut Man!) since I’m only vaguely interested... but I might do it just for the points, lol.

Same here, for both of those. Not books I would normally pick up, but I have been using BOMs during team challenges as a way to expand my reading palate, on top of getting those awesome points. :D

I didn't volunteer for DQs on The Chestnut Man because, while I'm pretty sure my library hold will turn up in time to participate, I don't think it'll be in time to write DQs.

I can get the YA one fairly easily and will read it, but haven't signed up for DQs because I'm not sure whether I want to, there is still *plenty* of time, and also Allison volunteered already ;D

Joanne wrote: "I would like to read Wilder Girls (more than I wanted to read Gideon) but my library only has it in paper. I put a hold on it last week or the week before but I'm still 29th in line with 8 copies. ..."

So long as you read and answer DQs within one month of the BOM start, it would still count! So you would have until 16 Nov. Maybe there is still a chance that your paper copy will come in time!

Random factoid, and I am not telling anyone they have to do this, but for The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein during last year's Wheel-A-Thon, my library copy didn't show up until partway into the BOM, so in the meantime I went to Barnes and Noble and read the first few chapters of the hardcover whilst sitting on the floor, lol.

Hi everybody!
So sorry I was away today. I feel like the jerk who shows up at the end of the party and is like, "Great time, y'all!" ;D

SO COOL THAT WE ARE IN FIRST!!!!
Looks like a reeeeeeaaaaalllly close race with Team Acedia though. If it weren't for our super high BOM points we wouldn't have gotten ahead. Hopefully we can continue to kill it on the BOMs, though fewer of us have committed to the upcoming ones so far (and I am not eligible for Wilder Girls).

Go Team Ira!

Also this, due to spreadsheet issue with the start/end times being 7am in Australia:

If you have a US/UK reader who finishes a book on 13th, but after week 2 starts, there will have to be a fudge (or change the finish date to 14th)

:D

Jessi wrote: "Couple of quick things before I FINALLY get to read today!

1. There is a countdown for the end of week one. If you could please have your books updated on the spreadsheet 30 mins before the end so..."

Just as a quick follow up to Jessi’s first point —
If you have not finished a book by our cut-off of 30 minutes before the end of the countdown, take a break from reading and DON’T FINISH IT! That way, you can pick it back up again a bit later and use it for Week 2 :)

@Ozana — looks like Jessi took care of your books! :)

@Joanne — didn’t you listen to audio of Gideon? Cuz you have the hardcover shelved. (And Jessi, some of the HC editions on both of the spreadsheets may need to be changed to audio editions if teammates re-shelve...)

That goes for anyone who listened to audio but shelved something else: We are supposed to shelve the edition we read/listened to.
In the case of this particular book, it may not matter quite as much as usual because all TT players are allowed to use the same page count, but still.

Hi Teammies!
I finished both of my books. And, gotta say, it is awesome how active other people are on here on weekends (esp Saturday) when I tend not to be, lol. We are doing so great!!

@Rebecca
It doesn’t look like Harry and Hortense at Hormone High has a verified word count or length (via arboookfind.com or audio edition, respectively), and since it’s got Childrens as main page genre, we cannot use it without one of those verifications... 😕