Mattyboy

There's an old quotation I like: "no one wants to think they've lived a foolish life" Yup, I think it's pride, too. She doesn't want to feel like a bad mother. Protecting Stacy makes her feel good. Julie can dump the occasional "I'm neglecting and/or injuring Seth" thought in the closet under the stairs where she doesn't have to look at it. Not sure where she stores "I ran off my husband," or "maybe the kids should have a Dad" thoughts, but she's obviously got a system.

And I hope Craig manages to quit football. Yeah, he scores a lot of touchdowns, but it's not making him happy. We met him in hospital with a concussion so severe he couldn't change his own shirt. His Dad now knows he's gay. Is it still too hard to say to him he's done with football? Coach Abernathy maybe isn't a complete dinosaur (he didn't let Craig practice for a couple of days after the brain injury). But the only ethical justification for letting people play tackle football is that they want to. Craig! Get out while you still can! I hope the talk with Coach A is on-camera for us. There's plenty of "it'll be ok" coach-players talks here on GA and all over this genre. "I'm-quitting-this-game-before-I-get-CTE" ? Not so many. Go get 'em, Craig.

Wow! So much revealed about Julie's thinking. Suddenly a whole lot of stuff comes into focus and becomes comprehensible. But also J'accuse ! Julie knew what she was doing. Seth says "Stacy is spoiled rotten,” “You let her get away with murder. You believe everything she tells you. You always have.” and he gets back “You don’t understand” Yes-but-I-have-my-secret-reasons. That's just great. Julie goes on to say that she knows that Stacy is an unreliable narrator. And yes, she knows it's unfair to Seth. And she flat out says she only does what's best for Stacy. Including getting rid of Seth's father and cutting Seth off from him. And the very best she can do at the end is "I don't hate you." That is one nasty package of shitty parenting choices. I wonder about @weinerdog's thought that Marie knew nothing about this, but maybe, I guess. @Ronyx so much foreshadowing and so many clues, and then it all finally comes together into a coherent, terrible, reveal. Wow.

He might bond with Scott. Jackson acts up a lot, but authentic relationships seem to be really important for him. There's Luke, as well.

The Olympic-rings tattoo Jackson mentions has some conventions attached to it. It's thought to be inappropriate to get one before racing at the Olympics. Phelps has one right at his waistline. Biceps and pecs are also popular spots, they tend to be no more than medium-size.

Race was fun, and nice to see Pete beaten and Oliver befriended. The tattoo was unexpected! Very well played by Luke, it'll annoy Cindy twice, once when she sees it, and again when she embarrasses herself teeing off on those words.

Jamie is an ethical slut. The world needs more Jamie. Slicky's only a toy shovel (and maybe good scrubbing) away. And Rybalt may ride again. @Laura S. Fox I trusted you that this was standard dark-before-the-dawn storytelling. But, um . . . I need to ask . . .

ooh, 1) that was hot! & 2) that's interesting about Otis' early childhood and education (and lack thereof). So many more questions, but now we can see some outlines.

He hasn't appeared on-stage yet, but Jasper's already getting named on GA villain-of-the-week ballots.

While the author's voice and the characters are very fresh and original, I already have some clear narrative expectations for the plot: 1) Jasper's gonna go through Toby's stuff 2) Jasper's gonna go through some stuff.

Hurray for Ty! And for Seth assessing the situation with his mother and standing up for himself, but without being cruel to Stacy. Hope Blake is alright. Seems like there's a plan to go look for him, at least. Excellent backbone from both Ty and Seth in their choices. And, quite a good bone, by all accounts.

Oh, it's certainly realistic. And perhaps Vera is trustworthy for reasons you haven't shown us yet. Creates a frisson of uncertainty, though. Was that scene to show us that Denise is alright? or foreshadowing of trouble? I actually quite like the tempo. We're getting to know your characters (who, in different ways, all have some backbone and minds of their own), but stuff is happening.

I know that's the way people old women behave with their close tea-friends, but not a huge fan of Denise's first thing after reading that letter was to blab about it to Vera. Then Vera tells her other friend, who's good friends with Jasper's Mum, and then Brian does need to call a solicitor.

Fun story, and a fresh set-up. Does "chapter 1" mean this is the launch of a serial? or is this it?

Or this may be that this - when nothing else ever could - will finally unify the factions.

"I whispered to Roni, “I want to go home.” “It will be okay, Seth,” she replied. “We’ll have one drink and then leave.” " If the road to chaos had one central point from which all the chaos flowed. This might well be it. But I guess chaos tends to be more diffuse and random? Still feels like this is it

Yeah, that's very hot and cold from Amber. And a weird struggle to find the fridge in her own house.

There's an Easter Egg in The Best Year, I understand

He'll be back here in good time. I trust in Laura . . . and the implied promise of a high-energy Slicky-and-Rybalt climax in which Connor's schemes face catastrophe and Rusty gets the cat-ass trophy

I feel Ronyx has painted quite a fine portrait of the complicated problems of Ellis' work. It's a moderately common position, he's an advocate and a facilitator, but his only powers are helping people think things through, and knowing who to call in his networks of trusted people. He had to know that the scene with Blake's parents-and-lawyer was very bad. But he's trapped that "respectably employed and church-going" will fly in front of family-court judge or a CPS panel. And he needs to play by the rules so his network will trust him next week. I guess we as readers have some extra insights that Ellis hasn't, but he may well be familiar with that curse of knowing it's already very bad and having to wait until it's even worse. The recent sweep of the "parents-rights" movement in North America shows the power-base that Ellis is up against. I took a shot at Ellis above in the comments, but I'm impressed with how Ronyx has built the character. His problems are common in the real world, but it's not a role we see represented that often in this genre of story. So 👏👏👏 @Ronyx But I'm with you @Summerabbacat on your passionate assessment of the situation and on who deserves what. And in particular that Craig's Mom has earned a "least-bad" commendation, and maybe can do even better than that.

Ellis (to Seth): "Does that mean I should remove you from your home?” Well, yes, Mr. Ellis, it probably does. Right after you go get Blake out of his "home" or conversion camp or whatever hell his parents have packed him into. Seth should call Amber, pronto. Chaos meter seems to be ticking into the red nicely, though, so my narrative expectations have been met, @Ronyx

I've enjoyed the sweet tension of the weekly (ish) instalments, but I'm sure this will be an absolute banger to read as a finished novel.

In this situation only, Columbus Day would be better than Thanksgiving

Hooboy this seems to be happening. (we won't have to wait ages for the cliffie to be resolved?)

oh, yes, you should! It's a great ride, and there's plenty of it.