Spoilers should always be hidden using spoiler blur.
When discussing a specific section, please mention where you are in the book so people reading different versions have a clear point of reference.
Feel free to read ahead if it’s exciting, but please refrain from spoiling ahead of the appropriate week.
If you have a question about grammar, vocab, cultural things, etc - ask! That’s a welcome part of the discussion too, and other readers will be happy to help.
Even if you don’t read the chapter(s) in time, you are still encouraged to post your thoughts.
The google sheets is here to help you with vocab, grammar and anything else you might need. Feel free to add to it!
Thanks for keeping us all on track @HopeWaterfall, appreciate you putting the threads up each week.
Chapter 9
What a great ending to the chapter. I love the connection Nadia has with the indigenous people. Such a magical scene where Alex realises there are twenty of them around him. And I loved he joined in painting and decorating himself with her earlier in the chapter.
Caught out by Nadia and Nadie again - Nadie contestó…
So as the body count mounts I wonder if Alex’s dad really thought this through. I feel like at some point his mum is going to get better and ask where Alex is, and say “You let him go where…?!”
That guy’s death was pretty vicious, his head was twisted round and facing upwards. Alex and Nadia seem to have taken it in their stride though, in fact Alex seems to have found an inner peace!
So I meant to ask this last week but forgot: has it been mentioned how bad Alex’s vision is? Every since his glasses got destroyed I’ve been feeling an increased amount of anxiety. But he doesn’t seem to be too concerned…
I finally got around to starting this chapter yesterday - it says 8 pages in the op, but I think it should maybe say 18.
So far everything’s been right on the edge between fantastical but realistic and outright fantasy. What I mean is, so far everything could have sprung from Alex’s imagination. I like that sort of ambiguity.
I listened to this one over a week ago, then it took me so long to read through it afterward, I couldn’t remember many of my thoughts upon initially listening .
I think it’s been more of the same, though. I’m able to catch some parts just fine, but others are hard, especially if they involve lots of vocab that I don’t know.
I’m definitely having trouble suspending my disbelief with regards to how nonchalant they all are concerning the deaths, especially with children present. I understand that for it to be a young adult adventure novel, it needs to have young adults going on adventures, haha, but for whatever reason, I’m having trouble buying into the universe of this one.
I think I’d have no problem with it if the fantastical/magical elements were more prominent, but as it stands, the story world is a bit too grounded in reality for me to be able to turn off the part of my brain that says: “ok I can accept the talking to a jaguar and the existence of a mystical beast but them being a) allowed to bring children on an extremely dangerous trip that is at least partially sponsored by some organization, and b) not stopping the trip immediately after the first death, let alone the second, is where I draw the line.”
But he doesn’t seem to be too concerned…
I thought I was just having an off week or something…
.
