Nothing But Reading Challenges discussion

This thread is open to discuss Blackout Rob Thurman



Synopsis
When half-human Cal Leandros wakes up on a beach littered with the slaughtered remains if a variety of hideous creatures, he's not that concerned. In fact, he can't remember anything-including who he is.

And that's just the way his deadly enemies like it...

r

r

i was finishing another book today but i plan on starting this tomorrow!

Got thru Chpt 5 yesterday. Wanted to read more but ended up watching Good Omens which I didn't expect to love so much!

So Cal's got amnesia. This was a little random and not at all how I was expecting this book to start. He's still got his snark but not knowing Niko has to be killing Niko. Robin is a great source of entertainment to lighten the mood - the fork stabbing incidents :P

I wonder how it's going to go when Cal finds out he's part-monster! So I guess he is somehow suppressing his Auphe-half, crazy but would think it was something innate and not something that he consciously had to think about.

oh my god good omens was so good and has since destroyed my entire life. i am literally sitting here as i type this watching old doctor who episodes because hello it's 2007 again and i'm obsessed with david tennant! but god, good omens was so adorable. i was very unsure about michael sheen as aziraphale but he was just beyond perfect. ugh i love them so much.

anyway i accidentally listened to the whole book today lmao so i think i will wait and comment as you guys go along. this one is probably my least favorite of the series [besides the last one that ended on a cliffhanger, ugh] just because cal with amnesia makes me want to shake him until he's a total asshole again lol

although the narrator did a really good job with it as always, and i think i definitely liked listening to it more than i did reading it. you'd think i'd be all over this because the brotherly angst levels are off the charts at least on niko's side, but it kind of ruins it for me since cal can't remember shit.

the fork stabbing is incredible though. definitely one of my favorite parts of the early part of the book.

Oh yea I had my doubts too but the casting was absolutely brilliant! I was dying whenever the flaming sword came up and when Crowley was driving the burning car. It was definitely cute and I want MORE! Have never watched Doctor Who but always meant to.

Saw your 3-star rating and did wonder about that... I'll read more of it tonight & post more tomorrow :)

yeah apparently sheen has been a fan of the book basically since it came out and also read crowley/aziraphale fanfic to prepare for the role and i'm just like oh my god you are amazing? #blessed lol

and i actually used to have a 2 star rating for this book but over time i have come to appreciate the good scenes and bumped it up a bit. i still call it a technical 2.5 star although honestly the narration might cause me to give it a real 3 this time. but i know a lot of people really like it so don't let my opinions sway you

i just really like asshole cal and this whole book is basically him going 'am i good person though???' and my reaction is just like 'not really, let's move on'. i mean not that he is necessarily a 'bad' person either but like ...if he needs to do bad things he'll do them and won't worry about it / will realize it's necessary. but ...ya know

i just looked at my reading challenge for this year and this book has a little 2x next to it and i'm like oh god i have a problem lol i mean i guess i realized that i had read it earlier this year but i hadn't REALLY realized

I'm only through chapter 6 but so far I'm enjoying Cal without his memories. I just keep shaking my head at him and thinking man when you remember yourself. I'm actually a little disappointed this book doesn't have other POVs. I want to know what Niko and the others are thinking.

I haven't watched Good Omens yet but it's on my list... maybe I'll watch a few episodes before bed tonight because everyone has been saying how good it was and I really love the book.

oh man, having niko's pov during this book would be SO GOOD. he's so conflicted the whole time

and good omens is only 6 episodes so it's a pretty short watch lol

Devann wrote: "i just looked at my reading challenge for this year and this book has a little 2x next to it and i'm like oh god i have a problem lol i mean i guess i realized that i had read it earlier this year ..."

Hahaha we appreciate you reading with us again! But I could see why. I'm loving this series & could see myself re-reading it too!

Claudia wrote: "I'm only through chapter 6 but so far I'm enjoying Cal without his memories. I just keep shaking my head at him and thinking man when you remember yourself. I'm actually a little disappointed this ..."

I thought that too, I REALLY wanted Niko's POV. Thought that would've added more to the story. Probably more angst because Niko seemed to be having such a hard time with this Cal. BUT reading more, realized that that might've not been a good thing. You'll see why in a couple more chapters!

And YES, you need to watch Good Omens! I'm not a huge fan of Neil Gaiman and haven't read the book but the series is SOOO good!! Maybe I'll read it now that I know the story, and have Sheen and Tennant to picture in my mind while reading it :)

Sorry, was super busy at work today and ended up working late so couldn't comment earlier. But I just finished. Oh boy.

(view spoiler)[So back to Niko POV issue - it was a huge reveal to learn that Niko had been drugging Cal this whole time so Niko's POV would be all angst and guilt and it wouldn't have been such a shock to read later in the story. I sort of understand why he did it (because he wanted Cal to be happier) but I don't know how I feel about it. Did show a different side to Niko with the lies and deceit even for what he thought was a good reason. I thought he was doing it because Cal had suppressed the Auphe in him and was keeping him safe from Ammut.

That epilogue - I never even thought about other attempts the Auphe had made in creating the perfect specimen. Damn!

And oh my god, Robin now has 12 mummy cats! HAHAHAHA!!!

And that can't be the end of Wahanket right?!?!?!?! (hide spoiler)]

yeah i agree that having niko pov would have possibly ruined that whole little twist / reveal thing but i mean ...cal knew about it before we did and he was just super vague in his pov so i guess niko could do the same, or do kind of an unreliable narrator thing. would have actually been interesting since niko is usually so unflinchingly honest. the first several times i read this book i was so mad at niko for lying to cal but now i'm like ok it was still SO DUMB but he did think he was doing the right thing.

and i never thought about the other auphe-human attempts either but i guess it does make sense that there would be more. not sure i totally buy that they would keep them alive though. i mean yeah it's twisted enough for the auphe to think it was funny but also it seems like a lot of effort and they would have had to get money to sidle somehow for all those years and just so cal can come along and kill them? but like thematically for the book it's a very good choice so i won't nitpick it too much lol

and now for the good omens portion of the discussion: ;)

@Cathy i have such a love-hate relationship with neil gaiman and he has written some of my favorite books and also stuff i just genuinely loathe. but for the most part i do think he's trying and like ...growing as a person and an author i guess. and it's probably not entirely fair for me to judge him as a person just because some things he wrote 30 years ago haven't aged well.

i did like what he did with the good omens tv show though and appreciated that he admitted when he was writing out the script and was like 'wow there's a bunch of dudes in here maybe i should make some of the angels/demons/god women' and also specifically said he made adam and eve black not only because they actually would have been non-white but also so racist people would turn off the show in the first 5 minutes lol

I finished!!!
I’m so torn on this book. Like it was the least enjoyable of the books for me but at the same time I liked it. I rated 4 stars but may be more like 3.5 for me.

(view spoiler)[ Niko drugging Cal so he would stay without memories was a surprise. I didn’t see that coming. I also was kind of surprised at how well Cal took it when he figured it out. I can see what you meant about how torn he was about it because he wanted Cal his brother back but not enough to ruin the happy and content human Cal. Other POV’s would have ruined this revelation so I get why not included. Would have been happy for like one of these mini novellas or snippets at the end that give us that alternate view point though.

I think that for most of series Cal has been evolving and slowly like coming to terms with the fact he is Auphe. Like he thought he was evil then realized after Darkling nope I’m not really evil even as he still accepted he is a monster and abomination. Now it’s him embracing that while he is a monster he’s not an abomination.
(hide spoiler)]

haha i know how you feel. i'm like ...ok compared to the other books in the series it's just so annoying but compared to other books i read i obviously still like it more since i've read it so many times soooo??? i have the same problem with the hp series because like i still really like the books in the series that are not my favorites but at the same time i need some way to rank them in relation to the rest of the series

also yeah the ONE good thing about this book is that cal finally accepts himself for who/what he is. i mean i love his little emo ass but also it's good for him to grow out of it at some point lol

Ugh, another super busy day at work :/

I totally agree how surprising it was how well Cal took it all in. Even the end with the other half-Auphe, he was really calm about the whole thing. He has had some time to come to terms with his Auphe-self but it's like Niko's zen finally brushed off on him. A novella would've been icing on the cake for sure!!

But I re-read that scene with Robin at the bar 2x because I didn't see how what Robin said gave Cal that clue. And the next thing you know Cal's making comments about the toothpaste. Pretty clever to hide it in Chocolate Mint Toothpaste (does not sound good at all!).

Thought we would've seen more on the Delilah front - good for her for becoming alpha of her pack. She got exactly what she wanted. But dreading the showdown that might be coming up.

i would have to go back and reread the scene with robin but i think it was a pretty oblique reference and that cal pretty much already knew but this just kind of confirmed it a little bit. also i agree that chocolate mint toothpaste sounds horrible. i mean i don't like the chocolate mint combo anyway but i'm just like ...chocolate toothpaste??? i like chocolate but no that's just weird.

I am a fan of mint and chocolate but I would never want to brush my teeth with it.

For the scene with Cal and Robin I’m with DeVann Cal had pretty much figured it out which was what his talk with Ishiah was about and then Robin just made a oblique reference when he showed up.

Did anyone else find the whole scene of robin and Cal doing karaoke together hilarious. I was like oh my god what is happening? Cal is doing karaoke?!!!

lmao that was so good. if human cal just got drunk all the time and did karaoke then i would probably not mind him so much, it was just the constant ~am i a good person tho~ that got on my nerves. no! and for your life that's not necessarily a bad thing. let's move on.

Oh yes, that was a great scene! Especially loved Robin singing on the bar doing a jig and whipping his shirt around while Cal is fighting. I can so picture it!

And those stick figure drawings that Niko did had me laughing pretty hard :D

yes! the fact that niko can't draw is just hilarious to me for some reason

i was going to ask if we wanted to do the next one right away but i just realized we haven't heard from mary this week. i wonder if we should wait for her to catch up or keep going? i know she's doing wheel so i figured she'd be around ...

It's because he's so good/a perfectionist at everything else!

I was going to ask that we wait 1 week - have a couple reads that I want to get to this week, so maybe after the 4th (wheel word pending)?

I’m okay with waiting.

yeah that's fine, so we'll wait until next wednesday to see what the new words are then decide?

Actually it will fit any of the words so we can lock in a date to start.

haha we can still wait awhile if you want, i'm okay with whatever

Loving this series so don't want to wait :) Let's lock in for July 5th?

haha sounds good to me

god the next two are just SO GOOD. i mean i know i've been raving about most of the series so far but i just really love the next two so much lol

wish we had waited til next week to read this one for wheel lol, it had freddy krueger and michael myers in it

I was trying to remember where I read those references!! Damn :(