Davide

Yeison is alive! I'm glad my fear about what could happen after he left at night in the previous chapter didn't come to pass. So Hunter's father wants him to get close to the son of someone related to a drug cartel, that's confirmation, with additional information, of what the conversation Hunter overheard between his father and Juan Camilo a few chapters ago. Getting him involved with things related to catching a drug cartel, even in a small way that one involves someone's son, doesn't sound like a good way to safeguard his own son's safety. Speaking of safety, Hunter fears his cover may get blown by how protective his father and Juan Camilo are being after these attacks started. But I hope that maybe his friends will think his father is just being overprotective because, unlike Colombians, they're not used to these things happening. I like Hunter's thoughts about the impact of the lies he's being forced to tell to help the operation while keeping the cover. The lies are necessary for safety and there would normally not be more to it. But it's making him fall into the same kind of thing he feels bad for doing repeatedly to guys in the past and doing the same thing to his boyfriend will have some effect on Hunter's mental health. He's not doing it for the same selfish reasons as in his backstory, he has grown as a person in that aspect, but doing it even for a different reason brings back those memories. The reason being different, and even valid, won't magically make the repeat of what he swore to stop not affect him.

This is an amazing and ambitious story. It's the first part of a bigger tale, but it ended on a good stopping point. I don't really know how to review this without giving away spoilers, but I'll try. There are two sides to this story. One is about a teenager who doesn't remember anything after an accident and has to get used to a new life with a new family. The other side is something I can't even begin to talk about without giving away too much, that side takes makes the story unique and takes it in a direction I definitely didn't expect from the first chapters. If someone had told me what that second side before I read the story, I would have been sceptical of the ability of meshing those genres with the ones from the first side. But the authors pulls it off very well, integrating those two aspects to not make them feel part of the same story. I wish I could explain better, but this is the best I can do without revealing more than I should.

Of course I can't compare this story to what we would have gotten if you had writen it all in advance, but I liked this one a lot. We got to slowly peel on the mystery, while seeing the process of Josh getting used to his new family, without school taking time away from getting to know the family or rushing quickly through reveals regarding the Josh/Caleb situation. We can still get to that stuff in book 2, but only after the dynamics we've seen so far have been well established.

Great chapter and story, I'll post a review once I figure out how to even do that for this story without giving away spoilers. We got a bunch of answers, thank you for not making us wait for, presumably, months for book 2 to start. Of course we didn't get all the answers, but none of the characters has the remaining ones. We're left on an interesting book 2 hook of what will even happen to Josh and Caleb after the 90 days or long term. I don't want either of them to stop existing, but that's a possibility, or maybe they can merge in some way. It's scary stuff for them. But you didn't forget the other, equally important, side of the story. Josh isn't just an experiment, he's a teenager who lost his parents, is dealing with that loss now that he told Caleb he'd do it, and is leaving with a new family. We finish with Josh's sadness and Caleb's anger, but also Josh feeling truly accepted and supported by his new family. And it seems we'll get to the high school drama next time, adding yet another genre to the mix.

This is a very good story about two characters that are shaped by difficulties in their lives that affect their personalities in different ways from each other. The story gets us into their heads to explore why they act and think in certain ways, and the emotional impact that has on each other. They can be frustrating at times, but that makes the good moments feel more rewarding. (I'm late because I thought I reviewed it before, but I must have not clicked somewhere.)

Whoever it is that's attracted to Nate, I can't see any risk of him leave Ev. But it can be awkward for Nate and Ev might get jealous. In the meantime, they were very sweet to each other in this chapter, they're a good couple.

Got damnit. Rowan is too good at understanding the couple, figuring out the weakness to exploit and playing with them both. He placed doubts on both of their minds regarding opposite views of the same thing, setting off a ticking time bomb. Because of what Rowan said, when Christian and Henry don't talk about the difficulties of Christian's double shift like usual, the doubts will start playing. Christian wondering if Henry doesn't want to listen and why, Henry wondering if Christian doesn't want to talk and why.

No problem, I was only explaining why I'm one week late to commenting.

I didn't realize you replaced the wrong chapter, rather than delete it, until I was part of the way through the next one and wondering who some people were. The narration makes it obvious that Rowan is the person referenced in the synopsis. He seems very good at fooling people, but I'm curious to learn what's his motivation for what he's going to do. I interpreted something wrongly in an earlier chapter. I thought one family was homophobic and the other one was racist, but they're both racist. The effect on them is the same, but still, I stand corrected.

So that's confirmation of what we could glean from previous chapters, Nate already had feelings for Si, but he didn't express them out of fear of damaging their friendship. But it worked out, they're together now, and their couple banter is fun.

I loved this chapter and the story as a whole. It's a wild and unique premise, I don't know how you even come up with something like this. "Hello Caleb. I know what you are." That makes one of us. Jokes aside, Cerberus recognising Caleb is interesting and potentially worrying. I'm guessing that's the hook for the sequel story. I don't know if I trust Josh/Caleb's safety after this reaction from Cerberus, I worry it might try to do something to him. I don't know what to expect, but that's the just the norm with this story. I really liked the conversation in the void between Josh and Caleb (it's so nice to have a name). The way the void was reacting to Josh learning about all this was very cool. It's nice that they reached an understanding and are helping each other out. And it's interesting that the reenactment made Caleb also learn something new about that night. I mentioned the previous chapter touching on the mental health impact of all this on Josh, but that doesn't even compare to the impact on Caleb that this chapter touched on. Caleb has the memory of what he lost, which makes it a lot worse, but the bigger thing to me is spending most of the time as just a passenger inside a body being controlled by Josh. I hope you do write book 2, after a much deserved break from this story. Just as suggestion, it may be easier to write it in advance of posting, even though it would make it take longer for us to read it. With a story this complex, I imagine it would be helpful to have the ability to go to a past chapter to change things because of the needs of a later one, which you can do if you haven't already published it.

That ending was intense, I could feel the impact the awakening of memories was having on Josh. Plus he'll have new important information in the next chapter, but we'll see how much he actually remembers. There's also the mental health impact this whole thing is having on Josh, both being different and everything he doesn't know about himself. That was covered well in this chapter and I expect it to continue. At some point, the other Josh asked (almost ordered) our Josh to not reveal things about him (the other Josh) to anyone. I wonder if other people knowing too much is why he's silent, he could have decided he can't say anything else to our Josh because of that.

Boyfriends at last! They were practically acting that way already, now they finally realised it and made it official.

This is exactly why getting Hunter's perspective makes me like him more than I would have otherwise. He obviously doesn't talk about those problems, just like I wouldn't have, so the other characters don't get that backstory to justify his behaviour. Similarly, in SftF, maybe Noah has a backstory that justifies how he acts that were mostly not aware of, outside of some brief comments that could be something. So seeing things from his perspective will probably give us that context other characters don't have. And yes, of course I expect Hunter to grow throughout the novel.

Getting a view into a character's head helps understand them, so I expect my perspective on Noah to soften once I read his Extra Innings. Similarly, I'd probably have a harsher perspective on Hunter if the story wasn't told from his perspective.

Congrats on the entries on the top lists. Especially SFtF, number 2 overall for the year is a lot. The formatting is a lot better on new.nifty.org than on nifty.org, plus there's profile pages for every author. There's the thing of it not available for categories that may include kids younger than high school age, but that's still a better place to read the remaining stories.

What the hell was Hunter doing the whole chapter? He had a boyfriend, but spent a lot of time crushing on a other guy. All the truth or dare game did was speed up the inevitable. Yeison deserves a boyfriend that doesn't treat him like this. "We didn’t know then that oaths, even those made in blood, were fragile things. That time, fear, betrayal, and love would test them and break them in ways none of us could have imagined during that warm, star-filled night. Hearts would be broken, lives would be lost, and new loves would blossom." This part is ominous and the ending of the chapter brought me back to it. Yeison is out alone at night, which is dangerous over there, plus he's going to a neighborhood that we were already told us dangerous. My mind went back to the "lives would be lost" line and I hope my fears are wrong. Yeison is a good guy.

The way Ev reacted to Nate giving his phone number to some girl (before he knew he gave the wrong one), he was jealous because he wants Nate for himself. Given the ending, maybe Ev finally starting to realise he has those feelings. As I said in the previous chapter, I think Nate has probably already noticed his own feelings for Ev.

Some of the dialogue gives me the impression Nate is consciously into Evan, but he's hiding his comments in that direction behind jokes because he doesn't know how Evan would react if he said it for real. Meanwhile, Evan is starting to notice he feels something for Nate, but doesn't fully realise it yet.

I got carried away. The boys deserve the good time they're about to have.

In the previous chapter, we learned Jamal's family accepts his homosexuality, but now we see how supportive they are. When he moves out to the other side of the country for a job, his parents and brothers all help him, and his parents' help extends to finding people locally to continue to help him. And, also very important, they help placate questions from his extended family that are inconvenient for a closeted gay guy. "Ryan, who saw me. Who didn’t flinch at my silence, my caution, my faith. Who brought me coffee when I was sick, who played Faiz in the background like it was normal, who never asked me to be less Muslim, less brown, less me." And then there's the introduction of Ryan to Jamal life, where he stresses the importance of the lack of racism. Which connects to how heartbreaking the prologue, set at a later time, is. Because this is what failed with the joke Ryan laughed at, and that's probably more painful than a breakup for most other reasons.

I expected Madison to not believe the child porn and rape accusations against her uncle, even after getting proof he was lying about the money. But what I see is even worse, she seems to almost not care if they're real, she only wants her money. At least Jordan plan managed to get rid of her as a defense witness. Plus Josh and Daniel seem very unsurprised about her, so she must have been like this before. The psychologist thinks Josh and Daniel are both doing well in terms of mental health, but I wonder if the upcoming circumstances could change that. First, because they're going to spend a few days in the place their brother died. And second, since they rarely get to be with their partners in person, they may want to have sex, which could trigger unpleasant memories.

I'man atheist after being raised Christian, but I liked seeing the loving side of Islam explored. With Christianity, we talk about the people who misuse it for homophobia, but we also talk about the ones who actually practice the love they preach. But, with Islam, most people here in western countries, and especially the media, only show the people who misuse it for hate. I loved seeing this chapter explore what that religion should be, and to see a gay guy be supported and loved by his family.

What an ending! They're getting close to realizing the feelings they have for each other are more than just a friendship.

Hunter and Yeison had a great time in all aspects, namely the sexual, romantic and friendship ones. And it feels good to see Yeison get to experience things he can't afford. Yeison is a good guy and he's really sweet, he's make a good boyfriend. But it feels like Hunter's brain will get in the way. Yeison wants a commitment, but Hunter's past makes him weary of what that could lead into. Ironically, Hunter's fear of losing someone if he gets into a serious relationship with them may be what makes him lose Yeison.