books and magic

Yes, I know this is my third post today, but I thought you might find it a bit interesting. There...

hollymariefowl — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:18:42 -0500

Yes, I know this is my third post today, but I thought you might find it a bit interesting. There aren’t any spoilers, assuming you know who Sanguine is.

I don’t know if any of you take Latin, but I figured out something.

Sanguine comes from the Latin sanguis, sanguinis, which means.

Billy-Ray Blood.

That is just absolutely perfect for a murderer.

Kudos to Landy for playing with names. I love authors who do that.

Apologies if you’ve already figured it out. I just thought it was awesome.

Just managed to sneak in a few more chapters of Dark Days. Shorter reaction, not very much to say....

hollymariefowl — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:02:00 -0500

Just managed to sneak in a few more chapters of Dark Days. Shorter reaction, not very much to say. Spoilers up to chapter 24.

So, when I read the part of how her mom is pregnant, I screamed, “OH MY GOD!” and got a few nasty looks from my dog. It was more plain shock than anything. Now I just feel bad for the kind of world that the kid is going to grow up in, if that vision does happen. I am really freaked out about her parents getting killed. Also, I’m surprised that no one has targeted her parents. O.o You’d think someone would think to go for that, wouldn’t you?

Okay, I am waiting for Skulduggery to thank her properly.
HOW DO YOU WHISTLE WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE TEETH?! O.o
Fletcher, admit it, you are a bus.
I am now very curious as to why Skulduggery and Guild hate each other now.
I never really imagined Sanguine having a dad. It makes sense, but for some reason you just never think about villains having parents, you know?

Sensible Reaction to the First 16 Chapters of Dark Days

hollymariefowl — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:29:32 -0500

An explanation for the title. As I’m getting this book for my birthday, I have to wait to get it. I knew it was coming and Dad said I could open any package that wasn’t from walmart. So after I finished freaking out, I started reading as much as I could before Dad got home. I managed the first 16 chapters. Ans last night, as Moonie knows, I was freaking out over lots of stuff (not all sp related) so my reaction would have been nonsense.

-First, Fletcher. I really hate to say this, because I don’t want my ship to rule my opinion, but he’s getting a bit annoying. I mean, I feel bad for him, because he’s trying soooo hard, but it’s never going to happen. or it’s very unlikely. I mean, she obviously isn’t interested in romance at the moment. I have yet to see how this turns out.

-What China said about Val and Skulduggery. SHE SHIPS IT! YES! I mean, Moonie put it better than I did…

-That Mar girl. Hah, does she REALLY want to go up against Val? “Thank you for giving my ring back.” Yes. That part cracked me up. Why did Valkyrie not pay attention to the crush bit?!

-Okay, now the most obvious topic. Skulduggery! What did they do to him? I feel so bad for him! He needs a hug. VALKYRIE HUG HIM! Why did they not hug when he got back though? Oh, and I hate how he’s trying to act fine by covering it with his usual charm and wit. That makes me sad.

-And to end on a note of humor, Scapegrace is starting to be my favorite villain. He’s so hilarious. What was he called? The deadly and mysterious Scapegrace? I was laughing so hard. He’s such a ridiculous fail of a villain. Like Doofensmirtz or however you spell that name. The ‘villain’ in Phineas and Ferb? Yeah, him. (Yes, I do watch that show on occasion. It’s cute.)

And I think that’s everything I have to say about him.

Random Reaction Post

hollymariefowl — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:56:00 -0500

As I was reading, I tried to write down reactions, but that didn’t work out so well, because I didn’t always have a notebook with me. Also, I have to wait until Christmas until I get book four….

Are we choosing another book or are we doing waiting for everyone to catch up or what?

Currently Reading: The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and Black Boy by Richard Wright (for school; it’s actually alright though. Better than Their Eyes Were Watching God)

Reaction post below!

(READ MORE BREAK BECAUSE IT WON”T DO IT FOR ME)

Book two

Chapter Thirteen:

OH MY GOD THE SPIDERS…Um…Valkyrie just became the most amazin person in the world to me, because I would have been in hysterics. My arachnophobia can only take so much.

Kill the child? As if that’ll happen.

Is anyone else getting really tired of people’s attitude toward Stephanie?

Chapter Seventeen:

OH MY GOD THEIR BANTER. *dies*

“You’re being-car!” haha. SQUIRREL!

Chapter Twenty:

I just realized that Sanguine is totally a dwarf. (Artemis Fowl reference)

Chapter 23

The gowns, oh god. alskjfoawjf ((type-up note: I really have no clue what that means. That’s all it says. And I don’t have the copy of that book anymore))

Book Three

Chapter Two:

“Bite me”—I almost died from laughing at that. It was just so perfect.

Chapter Three:

Psh. When I ask my parents for math homework help, they laugh and walk away. She’s lucky.

This reflection is starting to unnerve me, especially with the blackouts.

The ending:

*dies* WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

And also, I’m going to have to wait till Christmas to get the next book. Which sucks.

you guys are goofs

mooncactus — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:53:32 -0500

You all managed to finish the third one at the same time, even though we were supposed to still be on book 2.

GOOFS.

Anyway, we’re going to have some trouble, obviously, getting books 4-6. Do we want to switch to another series right now until December (when you’ll be able to get them) or just…. yell at eachother and cry about book three until we can decide on another book. Because I know Ezra (allie) and I could one hundred percent do that. ahahha

Thoughts?

Apology

hollymariefowl — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:41:51 -0500

Um, it’s Holly here. I do have to apologize for holding you guys back. I’m really busy with 3 AP classes, school in general, band, and NaNoWriMo (and failing epically at that), and college visits, so most of the time I can’t get on the computer. I’ll jot up a joint review for books 2 and 3, as I just finished the third one. It might be a while though because I have a debate to prepare for, and I have to learn another piece of music by Wednesday for a challenge. Sorry again!

'Playing with Fire' Review!

rubypeet — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:56:45 -0500

My reviews are not really reviews, though… just sort of caps-locky excitement about things. Also SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE BOOK.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

okay so first off way to go whoever decides what the preview page is at the beginning of the book.

making it the moment where skulduggery is about to shoot val was FANTASTIC and made me START TO CRY OUT OF SHEER WORRY and NOW MY MEDICAL SERVICES TEACHER THINKS I HAVE PROBLEMS.

SO YEAH COOL GOOD JOB.

but yeah so the summary of this book could basically be “you’ll have this perfect image of everything that is going on and suddenly another detail is revealed and you lose your entire mental picture HAVE FUN PICKING UP THE PIECES OF YOUR BRAIN”

i do not remember having this problem with the first one. like, they’d be describing a place or something, and suddenly BOOM GUESS WHAT THIS IS NOTHING LIKE HOW YOU THOUGHT IT WAS BECAUSE OF THIS LAST DETAIL

also maybe i’m bad at visualizing but i had about 80,000,000 problems trying to picture the fight on the church in the first chapter??

allie stop bitching about scenery and get to the other stuff

the things i ship make me worry about my mental health and you are getting no more details than that

except that i pretty much ship tanith with myself ssshhhhhhh ~~and there’s no way you can hold that against me because she’s fucking awesome~~

um. skulduggery just sort of gets better and better with every passing chapter. seriously he just… oh my god i adore him and he has won my heart and every other literary character can GET THE FUCK OUT because he is my favorite.

he is so perfectly written to the point where i sort of just need to bow at derek landy’s feet and tell him how obscenely wonderful his character is.

um wow this review is not linear in the least is it

~~haha fuck punctuation im dave strider~~

so the whole thing with the reflection is… that is one of my favorite parts of the series. it’s just really really neat. and curious. and i am quite interested in it. but… i don’t know, i felt like after val took all the memories back from the reflection and was like “oh god i just remembered what it was like to be shot,” …i dunno i sort of wish they had gone more in-depth on it?? i mean, she suddenly gained the memory of not only being shot, but being shot by her best friend. not 100% on this but i think the mental image of, like, nona or luke or carrie or moonie shooting me would probably fuck me up more than the knowledge that i was shot in the first place. even if i was aware that it wasn’t *really* me and there was a purpose to it.

idk i overthink things

CHINA YOU BAMF. (literally all i have to say on the subject omfg she is SO COOL)

so is tanith the official magnet for grievous injuries or

i love her and it sort of feels like a punch in the face everytime she almost dies

which is really often

like, i know landy wanted to kill her off in the first one but

why does he have to come so close to doing so so often

also can i bring up how much i love val’s family

and how much her mom is basically my mom

the whole thing at the reunion with her mom putting on that big grin and being like “let’s get the fuck out” is exactly like my mother at my family reunions, jfc.

and speaking of val’s family HER UNCLE IS MY FAVORITE

and also kenspeckle is amazing and i love him and anyone with the power to put skulduggery in a pink, children’s hospital gown as my eternal respect

and

just

“come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough”

i think i am sexually attracted to that sentence

Finished Playing with Fire

ghastlybespoke-deactivated20120 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 21:34:00 -0400

Thoughts on the entire book

The ending was actually kind of anti-climatic??? Like I was actually expecting the Grotesquely to die a more INVOLVED death?? Also everything that The Torment did was ridiculously unexpected. From when he was on the ceiling to when he told SP to shoot Val and then when he was a spider and then at the last minute when he switched sides. And I’m sorry if you don’t ship Val and Tanith but oh god every scene they interacted in they were just so SHIPPABLE. Like when SP tells Val to carry Tanith when Tanith is injured and she’s all like “Skulduggery, she’s too heavy for me to carry!” But also, I’m gonna kill Billy-Ray if its the last thing I do that backstabbin’ no good tunnel diggin’ American.

Playing With Fire, Chapter 34

ghastlybespoke-deactivated20120 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:55:00 -0400

Spoilers for Chapter 34 of Playing with Fire below watch out!

Okay wow I have no idea if any of you are even this far but on the very last page of chapter 34, the torment turned into a spider and I couldn’t stop thinking about Midnighters and I was almost waiting for Jessica Day to pop out and clear away all the spiders with her firebringer power

Salut!

ghastlybespoke-deactivated20120 — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:09:05 -0400

I’m Alek.

I don’t think I’ve been in a book club since middle school???

But yeah I started the second SP book the day before yesterday I think and I’m more than halfway finished. I forgot to write some of my reactions but most of them were just being shocked and shipping things more than I should. ~~Moonie’s fault.~~

I like that currently reading list so I’m gonna put one here: SP: Playing with Fire, The Hunger Games, Good Omens, and I just finished the Scarlet Letter (for school)

Rules and Member List are up!

mooncactus — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:48:11 -0400

Tell me if you see anything that needs to be fixed.

Oh, and an introduction? Er, okay. I’m Moonie, founder of the club. I’m one of those obnoxiously huge readers- I read about 150ish books a year and can finish a 550 page book in 3 hours. So it’s not much of a surprise I made a book club! The last one I was in I didn’t like too much- too much scheduling and we had assignments. Ugh! Not to mention i had completely opposite taste from the rest of my group.

Skulduggery Pleasant is a recent obsession. I started reading the books this July and fell head over heels for them. My whole basis for forming the club was so all my friends that I dragged into reading the series could have a place to talk to eachother and freak out about the books.

I should add that, if you haven’t read the books, don’t let that stop you from joining! But I do highly suggest them.

And my currently reading list? I have a big stack of to read books and I haven’t picked one yet. So…

Greetings and Salutations.

rubypeet — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:53:12 -0400

I’m Allie. I like books and hot chocolate and more books and things of that nature.

I’m getting the next SP book sometime around the eighth, so I’ll put my reactions up then.

Um… idk what else to write.

Kbye.

Are we each doing an introduction post? I’ll go ahead and do one then. Introducing other...

hollymariefowl — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:45:02 -0400

Are we each doing an introduction post? I’ll go ahead and do one then.

Introducing other member of book club: Holly.

Hello. Hi. Salve. Bonjour. Hola.

Yeah, uh…I’ve never actually done a book club before.

I just started Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire, so I’ll have a couple of reaction posts up soon. I’m already most of the way through it.*cough* I’m reading it too fast and slacking on NaNoWriMo.

And Moonie, do we have to do every single chapter? I’ll do most of them, mind, when I have something to write down. But this isn’t English class, so I don’t want to end up trying to BS something intelligent to say for chapters that I don’t have a huge reaction to. Plus I really doubt you want me to do that. It won’t end well.

Currently Reading: Skulduggery Pleasant, City of Bones, Their Eyes Were Watching God (for school, AGAIN)

Moonie/Mod here! Go ahead and start writing/posting your Playing with Fire posts, and don’t...

mooncactus — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:20:26 -0400

Moonie/Mod here! Go ahead and start writing/posting your Playing with Fire posts, and don’t worry if you’ve already started the book and didn’t manage to get all of them written- just start with wherever you’re at. In the future, please try to get all of them done but for now… it’s our first book, it’s fine.

Enjoy! I’ll be picking up a copy soon, hopefully.