fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3556 ]

[ SECRET POST #3556 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3556 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

[Lord of the Rings trilogy]

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02.

[pride and prejudice; unnamed others]

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03.

[Endeavour]

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04.

[Tim Curry / Movies: IT, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, Legend]

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05.

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06.

[Loud House]

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07.

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08.

[MST3K]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #508.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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Yay I am here for this!

This was the second time I've read the book.
It was a mostly enjoyable read, very easy, but as much as I liked it, not much of it stayed with me after I read it either time. I had to make notes for this because I knew it wasn't going to stick.

I wasn’t deeply invested in the characters.
Katsa. Best everything ever! Super good looking! Men get jealous over her! She's unkillable or something that we don't know all the limits of because it seems to just get more amazing for the convenience of the plot!
I do appreciate characters that don't want children or marriage in settings where it's an expectation that they should, but at times I felt like it was a bit overstated. We get it. You don't want it. I did like that she didn't change her mind because of Po though.

Po was a bit similar in that they're both super amazing and special and sexy. They were both moody, dramatic idiots at different points. I know I'm saying a lot of negative things. I didn't hate them, but I did wonder at times how many pages one of them was going to sulk for.

Some of the names of places and people were a bit ridiculous sounding. Tbh I can't remember most of them now. It was in my notes though so it's going in.

The romance wasn’t all that romantic. It wasn't the focus for me. I liked the friendship between Katsa and Bitterblue and their escape more.

The pacing of the book was slightly off. I feel like the writing got more confident and her style was more consistent as the novel progressed. Google says this was her first book, so that makes sense. Maybe it would have benefited from some harder editing.
Overall I enjoyed it. I think the premise was interesting. It’s certainly not the best thing I’ve ever read but it’s far from the worst.

Leck is a scary bad guy. I will say that.

I would have liked to know more about Raffin and Oll, and maybe had a bit more follow up on a few plot points. Raffin and Bann were gay for each other, right? Also what were the other kingdoms thinking about this whole council business and the Leck thing?

I should get around to reading Bitterblue at some point. I read Fire once but I found it pretty forgettable.

Thanks for running the book club discussion! I had fun reading it and I want to hear what other people think.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Raffin and Bann were together, lol. When Katsa demands to know if Raffin is also secretly in love with her, and the two of them crack up, I thought for sure that was why. Then later on, she says something to Po about how Raffin should find a nice wife who wants lots of kids, and I thought for sure that there was going to be an "Actually, haven't you noticed..." moment from Po, but there wasn't? So maybe it wasn't actually intended. But I'm still totally reading them that way.

I think Po is probably more likely to notice that kind of thing than Katsa is, but I'm not sure if he'd share it though because he's probably used to respecting other people's privacy.

His gift as well only works when people's thoughts are about him, so I don't think he'd have known for sure how they think or feel about each other even if he did suspect it. He might know one or both of them swing that way if they checked him out, but that's it. ;)

"Po was a bit similar in that they're both super amazing and special and sexy. They were both moody, dramatic idiots at different points. I know I'm saying a lot of negative things. I didn't hate them, but I did wonder at times how many pages one of them was going to sulk for."

At the end there was a bit I really liked where Katsa called him out on the self pity a couple of times. So glad that new brand of self pity was quickly nipped in the bud!

I was getting pretty annoyed with him towards the end tbh. I think if I were his gf and trying to be around him with him being all moody and making me feel like I did something wrong all the time I wouldn't handle that well at all.

Especially since, well, he can read minds more or less but you can't so it feels a little onesided. Especially since he sounds like his powers have quadrippled or something. HE CAN MENTALLY SEE ROCKS. How am I meant to expect his people reading of "only when it's directed at him' is still at that base level?

Yes! Me too. I know you don't just get over something like that, but he doesn't have the excuse of being ignorant of how he was making other people feel. He needed a bit of a kick.

Thanks for commenting! I agree with you on many things, including how sulky the MCs were, especially Po. And I loved Katsa's relationship with Butterblue!

Some of the names of places and people were a bit ridiculous sounding.

I definitely thought a lot of the kingdom names were dumb, uncreative, and generic.

Raffin and Bann were gay for each other, right?

Wait, really? I didn't pick up on that at all but it would be really cool if true! I wonder how mad that would make Randa...

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply!

I don't know for sure that they were gay, I think it was just vibes. Raffin and Bann spent a lot of time together, they both laughed when Katsa asked if Raffin was in love with her, neither of them had other love interests and I think at one point Katsa talked about how they'd thought about marrying each other for convenience? We know Katsa didn't want to marry, but why would Raffin want to marry someone he doesn't think of in that way? Raffin's relationship with Randa also seemed really strained, and Randa didn't approve of a lot of things he did. I'm wondering if he got vibes too? Giddon never seemed jealous of Raffin either even though Katsa was close with him and probably more affectionate towards him than any other man before she knew she loved Po.

I'm going to read Bitterblue at some stage, so if you are as well, let me know so we can discuss it!

...I assumed Giddon was never jealous of Raffin because he and Katsa were cousins, but given that is apparently not a social barrier to marriage in this society (since they discussed a possible marriage of convenience), you may well be right.

As I said I'm in favor of this development! Now I wish I'd picked up on it myself.

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[ SECRET POST #3556 ]

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!

Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!