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

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

did another one today

Sredni Vashtar ★★☆☆☆

this one didn't make me mad like the first one but i didn't really find anything likable in it either so two stars. it was just under 2,000 words so not really enough to tell a compelling story in my opinion and mostly i'm just sitting here going 'why???'. also wondering why some english guy decided to take the pen name of 'saki' but whatever the reason i'm sure it's not great lol

i had forgotten how all the little details played out and that scene with shelby's mom i thought for a second that (view spoiler)[she was infected with the virus and that's why she was so completely irrationally angry at him because there was just no call for that! (hide spoiler)] her entire family are ridiculous.

maybe we will still get another random alex book in the future lol she doesn't really seem to have a rhyme or reason to who gets how many POVs. and verity and antimony both have 3 so far so it would only be fair for alex to get another POV in book 10 ;) i'm guessing the sarah one will mostly focus on her with maybe brief cameos or phone calls from other family members because that seems to be how all the other books have worked so far. agree that i'm hopeful we will actually get to know artie though!

yeah beginning of next week works fine for me

read another one today

the willows ★★★☆☆

this one was maybe a bit word for me [20k for this story alone, that's basically a novella], but i did find it enjoyable overall so i'll give another 3 star rating. creepy idea with the willows and everything and also puts me in mind of my own thankfully much smaller misfortunes on a river. we just have small rivers here but one time my roommate lost the top part of his dentures when he went under briefly and hit a rock and another time i cut my foot on something and it got infected and i had to get IV antibiotics. rivers will definitely get you lol

idk if claudia ever finished this? but i figure we should wait until we hear from her before moving on lol. probably can just use this thread for the next random verity book then i'll request a new one for the 3 antimony books.

haha i still feel like it might be a bit too 'out there' for me but yeah a better introduction might have helped

yeah the only reason i mentioned the (view spoiler)[sleeping sickness was because the editors specifically chose to mention that in the very short introduction then threw us into this excerpt that had NOTHING to do with that. so i kept trying to think 'how is this related to that' and could never connect it. at first i thought the 'decay' was because everyone was asleep and not doing anything? but then they WEREN'T asleep and also yeah where did all the animals come from. did they break out of zoos?? (hide spoiler)] definitely not checking out the full book of that lol

agree that i'm looking forward to when we get to the 50s at least lol. part of why i read this is because i want to read more older works and i figured short stories would be better, but i still find it difficult sometimes.

i know! (view spoiler)[and it's like every bad thing that happens they blame on alex since he's there and i'm like you realize you would probably just all be dead if he didn't show up right??? like the one sister blamed alex for the other sister getting bit and i'm like how bout you blame cooper since he's ...you know ...actually the one doing this shit???

haha maybe basil is some kind of distantly related australian boggle but for some reason that sub-species got all the brains ;) although really the boggles didn't seem stupid so much as just ...very focused on treasure and not particularly eloquent

i agree that at this point i would love to have more alex. i really like the next one because we're back to verity and her grandma is there too. the antimony ones started out really well for me but i didn't like the 3rd one so i'm interested to see if i was just in a mood last year or if i still feel the same (hide spoiler)]

i finally finished this one today. on the one hand i do really love it just because i think it's interesting what she did with the werewolf mythology in this universe and also i think it really makes me like shelby and alex more. but god shelby's family is just awful almost up to the very end really. i mean the second to last time we see shelby's mom (view spoiler)[she is once again yelling at alex for no goddamn reason and then because of this one of the mice gets killed :((( but then at the end it's like oh yeah we're all happy now have a great time time america you crazy kids! like y'all need help lol. i guess her sisters have shown potential for growth but they were still blaming alex for everything right up towards the end as well. (hide spoiler)]

ok read another story! you guys gotta start soon :p gonna try to do ratings for them all because there's no way i'm gonna remember what i liked or not by the end of the year

the screaming skull
★★★☆☆

definitely better than the first story! looking at it over 100 years later it does seem a bit predictable - or maybe that's just me - but it's way better than the first one in that it [gasp] makes sense. kind of gave me an edgar allan poe vibe although the narrative style is more stream of consciousness and less ...idk flowery or atmospheric i guess? gotta say i'm now wondering if (view spoiler)[this method of murder would actually work or be as undetectable as it is here. i mean idk how exactly your ear canal connects to your brain and i'm sure pouring boiling metal in there is going to ruin your ear / hearing at the very least but whether it would undetectably go all the way into your brain i'm just like hmmm i wonder. (hide spoiler)]

haha it's only about 7,500 words so at least it doesn't take long. i'll try to knock out another one this weekend too

@Cathy (view spoiler)[i don't know if she REALLY took him 'proposing' seriously but i think it's more like 'ok we both know we're perfect for each other and you're literally flying to australia to save my family like we are pretty much engaged right' kind of thing. or like if she had said 'well you DID propose' and he had majorly backtracked then she would have played it off as her joking too maybe? i think it's more just them knowing even if they haven't said it out loud (hide spoiler)]

also i don't remember if this is discussed later in the book [i think i'm on chapter 11?] but i don't get why it's like 'well shelby HAS to take over the society after her father since her brother died'. like y'all aren't a monarchy are you? i mean if she really wanted the job it would be one thing but you'd think they'd have several people kind of 'in line' since it's a job with a high mortality rate anyway

i'll try to finish up tomorrow. i listened to a lot at first but then i got distracted again lol

[edit: gonna try to rate each story and unfortunately this one is ★☆☆☆☆]

well i finally read the first story, the other side. gotta say it's not really off to a great start for me but i was expecting to struggle a bit with the earlier works in this book. i think my main problem is that it's an excerpt and didn't actually make any sense to me. (view spoiler)[i mean it sets it up like 'here's an excerpt about this sleeping sickness' and then suddenly there's a bunch of animals everywhere and everything is rotting for some reason and also we've got a bunch of random women flashing people and also one that got eaten by a dog??? what??? how is any one of those relevant to the others?? (hide spoiler)] i guess it definitely qualifies as weird but i'm thinking this excerpt might not make much sense outside of the book it is a part of, at least not to me. maybe you guys will get something more out of it lol

i think the mice do fight at least a bit because they make weapons and obviously hunt things that they then eat but i'm sure there's a limit to how big of a thing they can take down especially since there's only a small number of them currently with alex. but i don't think there's actually a scene in any of the books of the mice fighting things on the page, at least not that i remember

i listened through chapter 9 i think yesterday and yes they're all so awful! i mean at least shelby doesn't try to defend them so there's that. obviously she still loves them because they're her family and she knows they're really worried about her and in general but also she's like YOU'RE ALL A BIG BAG OF DICKS and i'm like 👍👍👍

but yeah i guess maybe they haven't always been this bad and she didn't think she would need to warn him? although there are passages about her dad not liking any of their boyfriends [loud sighing] and her like dating in secret and not telling him so i feel like she should have at least seen that coming. at least seanan writes it as the dad being absolutely out of line though.

but really it's like hey could you all maybe not constantly attack the one person who has any experience in the thing you are dealing with??? not the best survival instinct!

i love that they always bring the mice with them whenever they travel places and the mice never want to stay hidden or whatever.

also totally random comment but i remember when i was first reading this years ago someone told me how awful the cover was and i was just like ??? maybe just because i read so much urban fantasy but i feel like it's a pretty standard cover and i guess the faces sometimes look weird but i think painting them helps elevate them above the standard stock photo covers at the very least

started pocket apocalypse this morning! as usual i will either listen to the whole thing in one day or it will take me all week lol. i'll try not to get too far to give you guys a chance. and i'm going to try to read the first story in the weird compendium today so like *fingers crossed* for that. i'm being so sluggish this january.

anyway i remember really liking this book. seanan's take on the werewolf mythology is really interesting and definitely reminds me of her approach in her mira grant books [newsflesh and parasitology].

i don't think it's especially necessary to understanding the stories - although i haven't actually started them yet lol i am still in such a slump. but basically just describing what they consider 'weird' fiction and how they put the book together

i read the foreweird and introduction today so like ...not much to talk about so far but sounds interesting and i'm glad to see them mention including female authors and poc/authors from countries that american/western audiences might not be familiar with, although it does seem to still be very male and like american/european centered but i guess it also depended on what stories they could get the rights for etc

i think it might be better to just start on sunday/monday. i'm gonna try to maybe do a story from the weird compendium this week [the thread is up] and then there's a buddy ready in another group that i should also start ...and of course i've literally just been sitting around watching tv and listening to podcasts for like 4 days so #superproductive obviously lol