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The story of the moor concludes and then we are treated to ANOTHER pair of young lovers by association with the soldier’s brother, who is a wealthy judge and who brought his 16 year old daughter, the two of them being trailed by their neighbor’s (and lord’s) 15 year old son, who is in disguise and ran away from home to trail them because he is so madly in love. And, uh, somewhere in there Don Quixote is insane.

Don Quixote has a lot of the title character goofing off but his bumbling path draws sympathetic characters together and part of at least the first half of this story is that he indirectly accomplishes some good, with a huge romance concluding between Don Fernando, Cardenio, Luscinda, and Dorotea. Now we are in a historical romance involving Christian captives and moors that is partly based on Cervantes’s own life.

This book contains a freakin straight-laced romantic and I assume tragic NOVELLA that contains I assume a treatment of a character whose name I’ve heard with regard to romantic partners: Lotario, I assume Lothario, and Camilla. Like, if you are into books for carrying an overall plot through the whole thing, then Don Quixote isn’t one for you. The digressions remind me of the side-stories in House of Leaves.

My mistake; the Shakespeare play was based on this episode of Cardenio. This story completely takes over the narrative and is a bit of whiplash as its melodrama is played almost completely straight, at least until Cardenio and Dorotea put their heads together and then join in on the conspiracy to get Don Quixote to leave his self-imposed exile to insanity.

In this bizarrely free-wheeling story we have intersected with a Shakespeare play that has since been lost—The History of Cardenio—and Don Quixote frees a bunch of galley-slave prisoners. This act amazingly does not go well for him once they refuse to do the chivalrous thing in paying homage to Quixote’s Lady Dulcinea. And at this exact moment Sancho realizes exactly who Dulcinea is.

At this point we are in the throes of a gross-out comedy that has simultaneous diarrhea and vomiting after an ill-advised liquid “medicine”; Don Quixote projectile-vomiting into Sancho’s face, with expected results; and Sancho sneak-popping while being right next to Don Quixote. We’re a very, very long way away from Marcela’s defense of her conduct.

holy SHIT this plea from Marcela the shepherdess. a bunch of young men following around a woman who patently doesn’t want to marry any of them and them shaming her for it up to and after one of the lot tops himself. You get one side of the story and then Marcela arrives and spits absolute FIRE.

WAIT HOLD THE FUCK ON

HOW AM I JUST NOW REALIZING THAT ATHENA, THE VIRGIN GODDESS, HAS ANNABETH AS A DAUGHTER, LET ALONE THE REST OF THE ATHENA BUNK

god bless Rick Riordan and not holding to dumb purity traditions <3

Don Quixote is so eminently readable. Idk what it was like when it was written but the intro says that it was actually a very modern mode of Spanish. Right now the book is in the middle of a HUGE dressing-down of the chivalric genre fiction that the novel is aimed at. All of the volumes that are mentioned actually existed; Cervantes appears to be quite well-versed on his subject.

This is basically a Good Parts retread and update of The Odyssey. That’s cool, it just blows by at ludicrous speed. Everything from the moment Clarisse takes off to the airport is insane, rounding out with the Party Ponies (but not the Pink Pony Club). The way Riordan fits in the clearing of Chiron’s name is a bit too tidy.

More crazy stuff. Scylla and Charybids (which goes poorly); the isle of Circe (which also goes poorly); and the Sirens (which goes INCREDIBLY poorly, though it’s exactly what Annabeth asked for). Percy seems like he’s merely along for the ride for most of this adventure, though it’s been a bit better giving him agency once he is taking advantage of his Poseidon heritage with the sailing ship.

I was wondering when we would get to develop Clarisse into a character other than “girl who is a bully”. Like the last novel, the story just sort of rockets along. We have been on a monster-ridden cruise ship with the coffin of Kronus; a donut shop for monsters that is apparently the explanation for restaurant chains; and now we are hitching a ride on a confederate gunboat.

Grover, putting off being married to a Cyclops. The same one Odysseus blinded. At least Tantalus has a character definition to be super Snape. And in case nobody knows why we are supposed to loathe him beyond his hatred of the good campers, Riordan has him tell his own account of his transgression… COMPLETELY unrepentant. Zeus, strike this man back down to the underworld!’

The second return to camp half blood and EVERYTHING IS IN CHAOS!!! Also, it was painfully obvious that Tyson was Not Mortal, lol. It would be nice to see whatever passes for more normal summer camp shenanigans but there’s no adventure in that, and camp half-blood is not nearly as mysterious as big ol’ Hogwarts.

The moment all of everyone in the ROR surged to fight for Hogwarts I got goosebumps

OH snap I only just realized that this is all going to finish up at Hogwarts! But then again I think I sort of knew this from cultural osmosis

on the one hand, I don’t really care that they lost the sword. it was too convenient to have it. the setback doesn’t mean much of anything because, well, they’re going to find a way to destroy the cup. I am also pretty sure that it has been Snape and not the ghost of Dumbledore aiding Harry in destroying the horcruxes.

It’s been kind of wild. I thought the Deathly Hallows was some sort of place and had no idea what the significance of its symbol was. Of all the Potter lore, it’s been the most opaque to me, up until now. None of the spoilers that I ever saw really got into it. Also I was really sad about Dobby :(

LET IT BE KNOWN THAT NOTHING NICE EVER HAPPENS IN THESE BOOKS WITHOUT THERE BEING SOMETHING AWFUL QUEUED UP TO HAPPEN RIGHT AFTERWARD

A pretty intense segment with the destruction of the locket. I mean, it’s all absolutely stuff Ron worried about, and him arriving in the nick of time is quite the contrivance, but it all sort of fits together.

Well uh there’s a point to this being a Debbie downer book. Potter is approaching the nadir, first with Ron leaving, now with his wand broken and all potential leads that he understands padded out. This is a long way to go without even having the first horcrux destroyed… but I imagine that this is going to round up when Hermione figures out what the Beedle book is for.

It was inevitable that Grimmauld place and Kreachur would have to be taken from Harry. That’s par for the course in this sort of novel, which is more quickly approaching the typical YA cycle.

NGL, the infiltration segment has felt kind of tense. I’m happy that Kreachur is being treated well, though. I also thought that the scene with Remus was pretty intense. Harry went mad dick, there, and while you can sort of see where he’s coming from, it felt a little like it came from nowhere.

This book is pretty fun. I mean, I had a feeling that the wedding was going to go belly-up, and it’s great that a lot of old things are starting to tie together, specifically that the RAB connection is now put together. I am worried about Kreachur, but how much betrayal can you fit int the next 550 pages?? Wait, I’ve read modern YA novels, don’t answer that

Like holy smokes guy just enjoy your relationship with Ginny even if it’s doomed!! Voldemort would torture all of the Weasleys if you died anyway!! This is Peter Parkercore

Peter Parkore

…Peter Parquor??

Harry talking to Krum as Barry was pretty fun, tho

Like, idk. I can appreciate not liking the tone of this novel because, after six books of Hogwarts format, we are queuing up for a full-blown adventure amidst the wizard apocalypse. It’s not too harsh right now, though I know that the body count is gonna be a bit bigger by the end of it. I also can’t see a supporting cast reduced to merely Hermione and Ron, so I doubt that it’s going to end up that way.

The book gives us a little time to shine a light on Dumbledore’s early life and also gives us an idea of of just how horrible it is to be counted among the Death Eaters. For some reason I thought that there was a scene that involves Aunt Petunia explaining her relationship with her sister; I’ve read part of it on media, I think, but it must be coming later, which makes sense because the Dursley sendoff is flat.

thinking about it I’m p sure that Gideon’s mother was a lyctor and that being pregnant is the way to sidestep the constraints of separating paired souls, whether it happens naturally or she did it on purpose. how much residual lyctor hood went her way, idk, based on her unnatural stamina. It’s obvious that she is in some way infused with the Gideon of 9000 years past.

Uhhhh okay. Back to back revelations regarding lyctorhood—okay, that one makes sense, but double twists about Dulcinea??? AND there are 50 pages left.

Lol I did not call that the seventh’s cavalier had been dead the whole time but in retrospect it makes so much more sense. I guess the question is, he had an accident? But, why? What happened that he died?? Also this is just the time to barrel through more plot revelations lol. Whatever bombshell Harrow’s about to drop is right around the corner??????