Dev’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2017)

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

haha sounds about right

haven't heard of that one before but sounds like it could be interesting. we'll have to wait and see what cathy thinks of all these suggestions lol

also would be up for artemis fowl been meaning to get to that. again don't know how y'all feel about middle grade but i'm liking it more and more lol

also i've actually got a fair amount of stuff on my scifi shelf that i havent read

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

if you scroll down to the middle of that page it starts w/ the stuff i havent read then there's a few more on the next page as well

im starting to think catherynne valente is more miss than hit for me so i doubt me BRing space opera would be a good idea. and i already read magic for liars it was very good.

empress of forever SOUNDS good but i just tried to read the first craft sequence book by that author last month and it was so mind numbingly boring i had to DNF it so i'm not sure lol i'm like sounds cool but also it's long and i don't trust him now

all the stars and teeth, ruby red, and shadows between us sounds like they're gonna hit all the ya tropes that i hate so sorry i'm a picky bitch but i just can't do straight teen romance with ~mysterious kind of asshole dude~ as the love interest lol

rules of supervillainy looks like it would either be really hilarious or like the most cringey thing ever. i would probably read a kindle sample to check it out first but could be an option

here's some stuff i found on my tbr but i'm open to other suggestions just please not Generic Urban Fantasy Book #1902834. i know we started out reading mostly urban fantasy stuff but i just can't at this point lol there's a huge block in my brain where it's concerned rn

Equal Rites [discworld, witches book 1]

Splashdance Silver [read another book by this author that was a queer genderswapped sci-fi musketeers retelling so it should be interesting at any rate]

The Dystopia Spell [read another series by this author that was a queer sci-fi time travel thing where they were fighting a sentient evil corporation so again ...definitely some unique ideas]

some other random ones that i found on my tbr that look vaguely interesting to me now:
Amberlough
A Study in Brimstone
The Murders of Molly Southbourne

Genuine Fraud [and a random standalone if it catches anyone's eye and we don't want to commit to a series]

Alice Isn't Dead [and another standalone although idk if it's good to read it without listening to the podcast. it's supposed to just kind of be a retelling that is a standalone but i know sometimes they say that and i'm like mmm no people should have really read/listened to the other thing]

or i was actually thinking about reading some of the goosebumps books bc i never read them as a kid but idk how into middle grade you guys are.

i think i had nightside on the tbr at some point and took it off bc the cover/description look very familiar but it is not actually marked to read and eric carter is not really grabbing me either. tbh i think i am pretty burnt out on adult fantasy at this point unless it has something REALLY unique about it because otherwise i'm just like 'why am i reading this is literally like 10 other books i have read or tried to read'

ok finally finished the actual book but not the short story. i've gotta say i'm not super happy with the ending because i don't think i have ever seen her end a book on such a cliffhanger and it's not something i particularly enjoy. i mostly see cliffhangers as something that not very good writers do to 'trick' you into buying more of their mediocre books and seanan is way better than that.

i also didn't catch that they forgot who sarah was but i guess it makes sense since she was kind of scrambling their brains a bit. i definitely like the addition of mark to the gang [hopefully lol] and i think i liked james a lot more in this book than i remember liking him in the previous one. also i'm so glad we got the split pov with artie here because when sarah got kidnapped i was like oh god if i have to spend page time with all these assholes im gonna flip lol

i have no idea, i have not been reading much at all this year. i was trying to figure out what we could read after this that i wouldn't flake out on and i've not come up with anything yet lol i guess i read the first skulduggery pleasant book a few months ago so if you guys were interested in that series then i could just wait for you guys to read the first book before moving on? but i'll try to take a look at my tbr later tonight. and i should finish this book today hopefully!

i still can't click on any of your spoilers bc im only on chapter 20 womp womp lol but yeah i wasn't sure if that meant that james was bi or just maybe that it affects you no matter what if the blood is directly on you? i'm just going to choose to think he's bi though and yes we will totally read the new october daye book when it comes out! not sure what else she is doing this year. so far we've had incryptid and wayward children and then october daye is usually in september but she usually writes standalone stuff too

probably shouldn't be so amused but the end of ch 14 killed me a little bit

"Oh, and did you know my dad’s bi?”
“I did not know that and I did not want to know that and why do you know that?”
She shrugged. “He made a pass at your dad when he started bleeding. Now come on. We need to figure out what we’re going to do next.”

between that and alex bleeding on james i feel like y'all are gonna have a lot to discuss lol

im about to start chapter 9 right now so i guess stuff has happened but still not a lot yet. i think it's interesting to see how she can go into people's mind and see stuff from her perspective though. i should get through more today depending on how busy work is. lately i only really read at work most of the time bc i don't want to be doing work lol

i did chapters 1-6 on friday i think. i will try to read some more today but i don't see myself finishing until wednesday maybe, not unless i just get really into it

i think technically five years after the second book? but yeah i have no concept of timeline in this series lol

yeah alex's adventure really is way out in left field. i guess it was just to show a third group of humans who know about cryptids and were kind of somewhere between the covenant the price family? but i do wish he was a bit more centrally involved overall.

ah okay, i vaguely remember him now. it was just like 'and then james came out of the door' and i was like ummmmm lol

also y'all need to remind me who james is because i think i just blocked out the entire mess that was largely book 8 and now i'm like james whomst?? was he just a random dude that showed up?

ok last two for this month

★★★★☆ “In the Penal Colony,” 1919, Franz Kafka

ok this one was just ...real messed up! i guess i shouldn't be surprised because it's kafka but still. i did like it though and i guess if i found it really disturbing then it's doing its job as horror

★★☆☆☆ “The Dunwich Horror,” 1929, H.P. Lovecraft

ok i'll be real i only read half of this lol. for all i love horror i just do not care about lovecraft or find it compelling at all. maybe it's because everyone still tries to do it today and for the most part i think they do it badly and then i'm just super annoyed with the whole concept and can't even read the original stuff idk. but this one was so long and i just didn't feel like finishing it -_-;

so that catches me up to the end of february! hopefully i can be more on top of it next month ...

i got about halfway through ch 5 yesterday. enjoying it so far but i feel like maybe she should have set up the series differently with how she switches protagonists and done like a rotating line up of all of them and having it switching every book because when she drops things like 'alex is (view spoiler)[having a baby! (hide spoiler)]' i'm like whaaaat because we haven't really heard from him in so long. i mean she probably mentioned him a few times in the antimony novels but i don't remember that being mentioned although it's been awhile since i read them obviously.

ok i lied im gonna start it lol i was planning on reading a middle grade book but i wasn't feeling it so gonna give this a try

★★☆☆☆ “Unseen—Unfeared,” 1919, Francis Stevens

oh i really wanted to like this one. i was like finally a female author! then i just zoned out through the entire thing. like that other one earlier where i very much did just read it but couldn't tell you a thing about it [except he got something wrapped in a weird membrane from south america i guess]. i think a lot of these stories the rating probably depends just as much on my state of mind as whether they are 'good' or not, or maybe which stories came before or after them.

i think i'm gonna skip the penal colony for now and focus on shorter ones lol maybe that will help my concentration ...

★★☆☆☆ “The White Wyrak,” 1921, Stefan Grabinski

ok clearly that was not a good idea either lol this one was more readable but i just didn't find it that interesting. seemed like a pretty standard monster story, although i guess it could have been better back when it was first published

just gonna power through and do one more so i'll just have the longer ones for fri/sat

★★★☆☆ “The Night Wire,” 1926, H.F. Arnold

liked this one more than the other two! i agree with the introduction that it's impressive it still feels weird and spooky even though they are also using technology that is way outdated and most of us have not really seen/used. i could see this one being an episode of the twilight zone.