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

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

5. Since Thetis, Achilles' mom keeps threatening Patroclus with death, do you think she will eventually kill him herself? Will she ever accept their relationship as it is? We see that the relationship between mother and son is rocky, so were you surprised when she helped Achilles hide from the upcoming war?
well for the first part i'm just gonna say spoilers lol. and for the second part i would not really consider what she was doing 'helping'. i mean he was under literally not obligation to go himself and i don't think he wanted her to take him away and hide him. like yeah he would have gone if patroclus had to go, but his dad wasn't going to make him and all he promised was to listen to people's requests. then she just swoops in and steal him in the middle of the night. but no, i wasn't surprised. she isn't really interested in what achilles wants for himself, only what she wants for him or what he can do for her basically.

6. After I first read one of Miller's books (Circe), I was almost shocked at how different her writing style felt, especially after comparing it to other YA books I've read lately. Sometimes it feels like years pass in a chapter and suddenly something happens, but also doesn't really. Does this writing style suit you or does it bother you in any way? Do you find it easy to read?
i liked circe but really only because it dealt so heavily with gender roles of the ancient world. the time-slip writing style as well as what i would consider rather purple prose is definitely not my favorite thing in the world.

7. What do you think Thetis' plans for Achilles are? What are, in your opinion, her motives by not sending him to war?
i'm guessing she thinks he is too young and something bad will happen if he goes. or maybe there was some kind of prophecy about this war in particular and she wants to keep him away from it? i can't remember. but really i think her plans are for him to become famous enough to become a god and then it reflects well on her and she can kind of raise her own station as well through him.

8. When Patroclus arrives at Deidameia's court, he first introduces himself as 'son of Chiron'. Do you think this means he completely abandoned his father, is stating that he found a new family with Achilles and Chiron, or is only a trick to make Achilles recognize who he is?
i think it's probably a little bit of both. also thetis may have told them to watch out for him under his first name or his actual father's name so maybe he is trying to avoid being recognized by other people but also using a name achilles will recognize if she mentions it to him.

9. Honestly, I did not see the sex scene with Patroclus and Deidameia coming. Did you? Do you think Achilles will find out - and if yes, what do you think will happen next?
lmao, i've read this book before and i didn't see it coming. #awkward. like ...seriously patroclus, you don't have to just go along with everything?? i'm sure he'll tell achilles because they don't really lie to each other. but seriously how awkward. like 'we're both gay but we had sex with the same girl at different times'.

haha no offense to anyone's parents but i cannot imagine basically naming two children the same name. i mean i know it's spelled different or they would give different middle names but still ...basically the same name. that's like even worse than cutesy rhyming twin names.

i rarely encounter people with my name [and definitely never my spelling] but when i do they're usually guys and people generally assume i'm a guy if they just see my name on a list with no other info attached lol

DQ Day 1

1. When I started reading the book I thought that it was Achilles perspective. But it was Patroclus. What do you think of him as a minor character in the story we know, compared to being a major character in this story?
i think that it's proably just to try something different and get a new point of view on the whole thing. like you said achilles is the more famous one and also the obvious choice for pov so why not mix it up a bit. also i feel like patroclus is proably a more 'relatable' pov than achilles would be anyway. i mean i've always liked achilles as a character but also he's a bit of an asshole lol although it gets kind of weird at the end when (view spoiler)[patroclus dies and just keeps on narrating lol. i think it would have made sense to switch pov at that point or maybe do a split pov for the whole book but idk (hide spoiler)]

2. What do you think Achilles sees in Patroclus? Why him over the other boys?
i think it's probably because patroclus isn't really trying to get noticed and doesn't spend time sucking up to achilles constantly. i mean obviously he is still a bit flustered by him but if you're surrounded by people who just do whatever you want 24/7 and are always agreeing with you then someone quiet who is just sitting in the corner ignoring you is probably kind of intriguing and you would want to know what's up with them.

3. Achilles has a different relationship with his father compared to him mother. What are your thoughts on the interactions we’ve seen Patroclus have with Pereus and Thetis? Why do you think Thetis had an opposition to Patroclus?
i guess it makes sense because thetis is a goddess so she kind of sees herself as above all of it. and even though she is proud of achilles also her ultimate goal is to make him immortal so i think she is still kind of viewing his partial mortality as a taint that needs to be gotten rid of. and probably no mortal would ever be ~good enough~ for her son but i imagine she is especially not thrilled about patroclus since he's so small and quiet and such.

4. What do you think so far about the book? Do you know much of Achille’s stories and is this what you expect it to be so far?
i actually read this book back when it first came out although i do not remember any of it except for the very broad strokes and really most of that is in line with the common mythology anyway. i decided to reread because while i enjoyed it i was never as wild about it as everyone else seemed to be and i wanted to see if my feelings had changed at all. so far i'm still like 'it's okay but also weirdly meh for some reason' but also we're not far into it so that could change.

hopefully gonna actually start this on time tomorrow. i'm listening to the song of achilles on audio as well for the BOM so gonna have both of them going at once lol

also i'm wondering if the cover for the next book is brown enough to count for wheelathon? they said they are gonna give points for buddy reads if anyone else is doing that


[edit: actually it might just be for BOM and not all BRs, guess we'll have to wait for more details]

yeah i usually put in the number of books i think i read a month that will go towards the challenge because i do read a LOT of books under 160 pages and also graphic novels as well. then in the extra notes thing i put 'X is the number of books i read that count towards the challenge but XX is my actual number for every month' bc counting those usually like doubles it lol

i've only read the first series of unfortunate events book but i did the audio and it was very good. and it was only like 3 hours so even if you can't use them for wheel then maybe you could sneak in an audio book here and there while driving or something? i was actually planning on listening to a few more in july so i'll just have to work them in around between wheel books lol

i signed up too. hopefully it's more about spelling brown-related words than having all brown covers bc i don't think i've got enough of those to last lol ;)

haha still the middle of the day where i am but i am definitely excited to see what it will be!

i would think that if they are going to announce the challenge tomorrow then it probably won't start until the beginning of july anyway. sign ups are usually a few weeks and then they have to make all the teams and formalize everything before we start

@Sophie i think that's a good choice, i really enjoy the narrator for the audiobook for this series

soooo i accidentally listened to like 60% of this today lol i am enjoying it although like the first one it is fairly light on action. although this time i'm minding it less, either because i'm used to it or because there isn't some big action i feel like we SHOULD be focusing on like the tunnel in the first one. also i like that it only focuses on a few characters. it makes things easier for me and when there are two alternating POVs taken from different time periods that mirror each other that is like ...my jam lol

anybody else still planning on reading this? ;)

just baaaaarely squeezing in lol although honestly i was in such a mood last month that i think i straight up deleted as many books as i read, so my tbr is finally under 500!

I'm in!

Level: Pride Parade [24 books]

Spell It Out: STONEWALL [9 books]
S - Shannon, Merry - Branded Ann
T - Tyler - Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
O - Ofelia - Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun by Guillermo del Toro
N - Niko - Deathwish by Rob Thurman
E - Eve - No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings
W - Wayfarers 3 - Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
A - Asta Idonea - Blood Is Forever
L - Leandros, Cal - Blackout - by Rob Thurman
L - Leandros, Cal - Roadkill by Rob Thurman

Waving the Flag [8 books]
I'm also going to do the Philly Pride Flag, which includes black and brown.



Waving the Flag [4 books]
And I'm going to do the asexual flag as well since I'm asexual



Go to a Parade [5 books]
Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings
↳ read a book set in London, New York or Sydney
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
↳ read a book where the characters go to a party
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
↳ read a book with a politically aware / active character or author
The Mapmaker's Daughter: A Steampunk Novel by Joanna Emerson
↳ read a book with the letters PARADE in the title
The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy! by Tom Cardamone
↳ read a book with someone on the cover who looks like they would fit in at a Pride parade (feel free to be creative!)

yeah i think we are gonna go with june 5th if that works for everyone. i know it's a bit away but it will just build up the anticipation ;) also i'm not sure if essie is still actively participating but i wanted to give her a chance to catch up. i'll go request the thread and we can always change the date if we need to

haha his employees are now either incredibly bored or incredibly happy. i feel like robin probably inspires very polarizing feelings

i know, i would be there for like 10 minutes and i would be like 'either you leave while i do this or you get stabbed' ...so not that much different than sereglio lol

i think it's more like he owns the dealership but at this point mostly passed the running of it on to someone else. he never has time to do anything except run around almost being killed because of cal and niko now lol not that he even NEEDS a job anyway but i guess he just likes it. and i feel like robin is probably fine in small doses but at some point i personally would be like taping his mouth shut or locking him in the bathroom or something soooooo i can see how working for him might be An Ordeal TM ;)

@Cathy I didn't think anything was off with her the first time I read it although I probably should have. But honestly like if you work for Robin you probably HAVE to be at least a little bit antagonistic otherwise he would just be unbearable lol

I love Cal's powers so much. It kind of comes and goes with how much he can use them because otherwise he'd be waaaay overpowered but I like him best when he's more Auhpe -_-;

And I agree that I like Delilah much better than George. I guess I just feel like although it's still definitely not a 'healthy' relationship they are at least on more equal footing and she makes me laugh.

As for the next book ...I've got two other BRs that I'm hoping to do on audio starting on the 1st and the 2nd so if we could maybe wait for the 5th for this one that would make things a lot easier on me lol

they are born and not made but i'm not sure what the rule is for human/vamp reproduction because it just never comes up. i would assume it would be possible though because if vampires couldn't breed with humans then surely robin would have tried to set cal up with a vamp at some point lol. and now i'm just imagining tiny vegan half-vampire ninja children that cal has to babysit ;)

yeah i don't understand why she didn't publish it herself since i assume it had to be at least mostly written. i'm sure there was some of kind of copyright trouble but you'd think the publisher would have sold it back to her or it would have expired or she could have argued that they broke contract or something.

but also she was kind of ...i mean she was not very nice to the fans when it happened. she was always basically saying that we weren't supporting her enough and that her other books never sold as well as the cal leandros books etc etc. and like i know it's hard to be an author but also her other books are honestly not that good and people didn't owe her anything to buy books they didn't want. so i think she kind of got it in her head that if the publisher cancelled the book then it was the fans fault and we didn't 'deserve' the next one or something. idk, it was a weird time and then she just completely disappeared from the face of the internet so i'm just like ...what a time lol