"Flesh&Blood" Vol. 17 - Pirate Series Reading Club šŸ“ā€ā˜  ā›µ

Sorry Iā€™ve really fallen behind with my Japanese reading, I want to do better with it this year so Iā€™m trying to get back into it now. Iā€™m planning on starting again soon but if I end up not making much progress donā€™t feel the need to wait for me. Iā€™ll try and check in anyway though so you donā€™t get stuck with three posts in a row again.

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No worries! I know youā€™ve been busy with school!

Sounds good! I think the announcement of a 25th volume has really lit a fire in me, so Iā€™d like to get as up-to-date as I can before it releases, I think, just to have a fun goal to aim for. I donā€™t think itā€™s likely Iā€™ll actually be 100% caught up (especially if I keep reading the side stories in between main volumes), but Iā€™ve wanted to kickstart my progress in the series again for a while now.

Chapter 6: I feel like this chapter best encapsulates my feelings on the Kazuya arc so far: Iā€™m so glad we finally got a decent with Kaitoā€™s entire family, but Iā€™m ready to move on, to finally slip back in time. This chapter feels like an excuse for one last (? Unlikely) big feelings :tm: scene between the two boys, but honestly I didnā€™t think weā€™ve really been getting anything new for a while now. Seems like Kaitoā€™s acting skills have potentially leveled up, at least. Iā€™m curious if Nigelā€™s grandfather is going to assist in his escape after allā€¦

Iā€™m thinking this drawn-out drama between him and Kazuya has probably whatā€™s been demotivating me to read; even after a break of a few months this doesnā€™t feel all that fresh, so Iā€™ll be glad to move things along. Maybe itā€™ll feel better paced for me in a future potential re-read if I donā€™t take as long of breaks, haha.

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Omg I didnā€™t know it was announced thatā€™s so exciting! I was gettting a little bit worried we might get stuck at the 24th volume forever :sob: (also noticed the cake, happy birthday!)

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Thank you! :partying_face: Birthdays on Wednesdays are tough, but it was a good day. :smiley:

Right?! It was just announced this past December/late November, so the news is still super fresh. :open_mouth: No clue on release date at the moment, but Iā€™ll be sure to update everyone in the main home thread as soon as I know. :sparkles: Iā€™m glad the author is doing well; last I heard years ago according to her Twitter she may have gotten a cancer diagnosis at the time, which is always worrying. :frowning:

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Interrupting my reading to once again marvel at @ekgā€™s thoroughness in filling out the people/place mini-wiki in the OP. I thought I was finally gonna add something you overlooked with Papa Legba - Wikipedia, but dang, you were on top of it! (And now @pyororon gets to ponder how exactly that Wikipedia page is related to F&B. :rofl:)

Edit: Chapter 7: Escape! Escape! Itā€™s happening! Surely Kazuyaā€™s going to be waiting at the Hoe; surely heā€™s going to be there just in case the impossible happens. I really enjoyed this chapter; we return to action, to doing, and got some nice moments with Keisha and JP at the end. I teared up a bit at a few points. :face_holding_back_tears: Kaito reminiscing on climbing up/down boarding ropes on the Gloria, him thinking of Nigel, him remembering a brief moment of time at El Escorial; perfect gathering of feeling.

The part where Keisha was telling him about Legba was approximately spooky and mysterious, I thought. :open_mouth: 100% did not expect ę¾å²”å…ˆē”Ÿā€™s research to take her there.

I just canā€™t see how Kazuya will let Kaito go. Maybe he goes with him? For some reason I feel like he wonā€™t, but I donā€™t see any other way Kazuya would allow this, or at least follow in the future. Maybe he will, some books down the line?

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And done. Good lord; as always, her endings are never let up.

Chapter 8: wow, this was a ton to unpack. Kaito has a nice long conversation with JP on the helicopter ride to his house, then by car from there to Plymouth. JP gives Kaito a letter and a ribbon (Joanneā€™s) to give to Nigel, and tells Kaito about his encounter with a fairy. Itā€™s so interesting to see ę¾å²”å…ˆē”Ÿ slowly but surely leaning more and more into the supernatural with this series; first the ćƒ–ćƒƒć‚«ćƒ–ćƒ¼, now the gnome that JP met, who gave him his eyes, the ability to sense wealth in the ground, and his shattered leg. It even ties together with the ćƒ–ćƒƒć‚«ćƒ–ćƒ¼ that was following Nigel and Kaito; was ę¾å²” planning all of this even then? Regardless of her plans, itā€™s brilliant, and brings in the touch of fantasy that I adore with my books. Perhaps itā€™s too fantasy for some, who, disregarding the whole time slip thing, are in it for the historical aspect, but Iā€™m certainly not complaining.

Things go pretty smoothly, despite the police presence Kazuyaā€™s brought down on Plymouth. Kaito meets a nice black man named Greg, who he gives Lilyā€™s gold coin to in exchange for help, and then itā€™s just Kaito, Kazuya, and Reevers in a showdown on the Hoe.

This sceneā€¦went about as well as expected. Kazuya makes one final, desperate plea for Kaito to stay, even kissing him, but Kaitoā€™s unmoved. Reevers standing there in the background wondering wtf was happening was hilarious. :rofl: I find it really interesting that nothing was really resolved for Kazuya. I hope his ending line of Kaito being å„Ŗ恗恄, and definitely changing his mind and coming back one day, is more an indication of leaving an open end that ę¾å²” can capitalize on in the future, and not some sort of weird premonition of a mental breakdown on Kazuyaā€™s part (which, sadly, I could totally see happening).

Speaking of mental breakdowns, Kazuyaā€™s plan to pin Kaitoā€™s ā€œabductionā€ and year-long ā€œimprisonmentā€ on JP was absolutely brutal, maybe the worst thing heā€™s done throughout all this. I have to say, I appreciate that in a yandere. I really hope he comes back in some capacity in the future, probably finally getting tired of waiting and jumping into the time slip himself. Kaitoā€™s conversation with JP about how willpower was the #1 requirement for opening the tunnel the second time onward and how it was Kazuyaā€™s will that allowed Kaito to cross back over all felt really good together.

Chapter 9: short chapter, like is usual in her post epic-final-main chapters. Nigel and Kitā€™s bargaining chip, leaking news of Walsinghamā€™s son Thomasā€™ debauchery, has suddenly died, leaving them in the lurch. (Thomas was some sort of relative to Walsingham in real life, as far as I can tell, though I donā€™t remember their exact relation. Thomas did not die prematurely, so this will be a å·®ē•° if it turns out to be true.) The biggest question this left for me was the timeline: this reads like weā€™re picking up not long after the last time we saw them sometime in volume 16, but months have passed since then, at least in Kaitoā€™s world. So either this just disrupts the timeline by jumping back, and ę¾å²”å…ˆē”Ÿ is planning on making up the difference next book, or Geoffreyā€™s already been in questioning for months. Iā€™m leaning towards the former so far.

One more book and Iā€™ll be caught up with @ekg. :smiley: @pyororon: Iā€™m planning on starting the next book soon; thereā€™s another I want to read for my bingo board on Natively, but I know the dangers of not picking up a book in a timely manner, so Iā€™m probably going to read a bit into the other one to get a head start, then start F&B 17. Hoping you can join me again soon, but no pressure if you canā€™t!

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Thanks, and Iā€™d secretly love to get back to being involved in this convo, but for now, thatā€™s simply not possible for now - just to let you all know - thatā€™s my situation for now , with the emphasis being is that I AM THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL and I AM soooo HOPING THINGS WILL CHANGE in the coming months thatā€™ll let me be more engage in purson. For now, I think sadly, this one message will be it for another time. Just bear with me, as Iā€™m sorry and I love you all <3

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:heart: :heart: :heart:

No apologies needed! Take your time and do what you need to do. Flesh&Blood and the rest of us will be here when you are!

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