Until the Last of Me (Take Them to the Stars #2)[May 28, 2024]

[Yanique, Thread Master]

This is a Buddy Read for Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel starting on May 28, 2024.


Happy Reading!

[Nirkatze]

Thank you!

Series:
1. A History of What Comes Next (April 28) [link]
2. Until the Last of Me (May 28)
3. For the First Time, Again (June 28) [link]

[Felina]

This one is coming up soon. Excited!

[Felina]

So far this is really good. I’m excited because I’m on track to finish all my May BR’s on time.

My only problem with this one is that I’m so excited to start Insomnia that I’m having a hard time paying attention.

[Nirkatze]

LOL Is Insomnia a reread for you, Felina?

I'm hoping to jump into this one today, though I'm going to try to read another book first. Not going to finish all my May BRs on time, but I'm hopeful to only have 3-5 to catch up on compared to the 8-10 of last month... Biggest time crunch for me is trying to get all my reviews for the books this month in before June clicks over... it's such a pain to have to change the calendar dates for everything from the previous month...

[Felina]

Nope. Ive never read it before but I haven’t read a new King in a while so I’m probably overly excited.

[Nirkatze]

No such thing! Well, I suppose if your expectations are high and then lead to disappointment. Regardless, always good to be excited about something.

[Felina]

Damn skippy!

[Nirkatze]

LOL

I went ahead and started this one! Really enjoying so far--through Act 1--(view spoiler)[Surprising to get as much time for the male side as the female this time, and even a mother of the hunters! Her chapter was scary/sad... an interesting contrast to the scientist women. An image of what most women's lives were like in the 50's/60's--"Catholic for suck it up and deal with it."

I really hope she successfully gets away.

It's also interesting to get a male character who is potentially relatable... nature v. nurture, even if he did end up staying with his brothers. The violence in both halves does make the "evil" scarier...

I really liked the little bit on Hypatia--though her ending is tragic, it is also uplifting to think of women scientists from so long ago... and I've heard the story of her showing her bloody menstrual rags to potential suitors before. There was a movie with Rachel Weiss a long time ago... (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Through Act 2--Mostly floating through and really enjoying... I like this style of audiobook, with actors doing their own characters even in others' chapters. (view spoiler)[I wasn't expecting to see the Chinese scientist show up again--the bow is interesting, and I have to wonder if it says more than they've figured...

And now Raphael is trying to get the boys to go to Egypt--his ancestor thought Hypatia's astrolabe might be what they're looking for...

The road trip with Lola was pretty funny--how it ended in a small town, and she got the whole town to help... (hide spoiler)]

[Felina]

I’m reading this now too! About 68% (view spoiler)[I find the serial killer boys interesting and I’m sad for their mother.

I think I like the mother daughter dynamic in this one better than the last book. It’s a little more equal footing. (hide spoiler)]

[Felina]

78% (view spoiler)[ quote ‘I’m not dying next to fucking cake mountain!’ HA HA! (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Whoo! Yay for parallel reading!

Through Act 3--(view spoiler)[It's interesting seeing both pairs searching for the similar information in archaeology in different parts of the world.

I agree about enjoying the mother-daughter dynamic more--I was thinking that it's interesting seeing the daughter's rebellion from the viewpoint of knowing that the mother went through the same phase...

I'm really enjoying the older historical anecdotes at the end of each Act--this one, an illuminist sneaking pigment to draw the solar system... so sad that it burned without being admired... (hide spoiler)]

[Felina]

I just finished. I really enjoyed it. (view spoiler)[ I am
So curious o see how Lola leaving her daughter and confronting the serial killer boys will play out in the next book. She can’t be the only one to have tied this. Looking forward to the last one. (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Ooh, good to know! I'm really enjoying too, will finish soon. Through Act 4 (view spoiler)[Daaamn. Was not expecting mom to die so soon... and so randomly...

The story of Andromache and the eclipse was pretty cool. (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Finished! (view spoiler)[Was not expecting Lola to die and Sammael to be the last one standing... The device message is sent, and how much does Kathryn know about the Kitsu? I imagine Sammael won't be one to find a wife and pass on the future... maybe Kathryn will be the last one standing... (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Read this a couple days ago! Definitely kept me on my toes! (view spoiler)[ Enjoyed the snippets from the earlier Kitsu interspersed throughout. I find it really interesting to think about how knowledge is lost through the generations.. Especially specific knowledge about ancestors and who they were/how they lived... I think this was in the comments on a John Green video (about how eventually the Earth and everything in it will be a part of a white dwarf when the Sun reaches the end of its life), but someone said something along the lines of the only thing she knew about her grandmother's grandmother, was that her grandmother had loved her very much.. And how maybe that's enough to pass on to your descendants.. A bit off topic here, but I was immediately reminded of that comment when I started writing this lol

But back to here, even if concrete information (i.e., writing, etc) couldn't be passed on through the Kitsu because of the Trackers finding it, why couldn't have there been an oral tradition? For fear of the Trackers' getting it from them through torture maybe?

Also what was the Kitsu's goal besides just staying away from the Trackers? Just keeping the Astrolabe away from them? Too much information was lost in the 3000 years since "The 1"...

Sammael's POV was very interesting... You think he's better than his brothers... But honestly he wasn't.. He's the one that initiated killing his father and killed both his brothers and still ended up trying to kill his mother... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Through part 1 -- the mother of the Hunters characters were horrific! My heart just absolutely hurts for her! I can't even imagine to have your whole life hijacked, your children from the get-go of conception too .. And to have to endure through so much abuse on top of it! This is beyond horrifying for me to even imagine!

[Choko]

OK, this was so good! I don't know what exactly, but I really like this story. Maybe it is the crazy mix of real history and fiction, maybe it's the (view spoiler)[ dilemma the Kitsu find themselves in in every generation... Can you imagine, thinking that you are being rebellious against your "destiny" only to find out that the rebellion in itself is part of that destiny?! Every one of them wants to be herself and ends up being exactly what her predecessor was .. But Lola sure changed the game, didn't she?! I am not feeling good about it though, because it puts her daughter in a position where she would never know why she is different in a very strange way from the people around her. Yes, we are all different, but she has some physiological stuff that she will think she is crazy once it starts to show up... And she deprived her of the true parent/child connection... And what, in the end she delivered to the Hunters exactly what they wanted, after 3000 years of generations trying not to do that... It sucks! I really hope Sammael doesn't reproduce, but I think there is one more, his illegitimate first cousin, who is left, but he doesn't know what he is...

I don't know, as Emily said, it's just such a waste of generations of knowledge all around... Sad... (hide spoiler)]

[Nirkatze]

Tonari no Emily wrote: "Read this a couple days ago! Definitely kept me on my toes!.."

Really enjoyed your end thoughts, Emily! (view spoiler)[Good point about how the Kitsu pretty much lost all of their history... I wonder if it was a sequence of situations like the current gen--people dying too young with the rule of 3, and never actually filling in their children on the important stuff before it was too late...

The goal of "take them to the stars" ... how early did that start? How early did the Kitsu decide to turn away from the original goal, the one shared by their counterpart...

Hesitant to agree on Sam... he's as violent... but he also thinks about it it... and we never actually get to see inside his brothers' heads, so who knows how they compare... (hide spoiler)]

@Choko--I've been imagining, this whole time, what if (view spoiler)[one of the Kitsu hooked up with one of the Hunters and neither of them knew who they or each other were? What would their child be? (hide spoiler)]

[Tonari no Emily]

Nirkatze wrote: "@Choko--I've been imagining, this whole time, what if"

Oh man that's kind of terrifying (view spoiler)[ just a little super human who may or may not have their dad's insanity going about... (hide spoiler)]

[Choko]

Exactly!!!