Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for A Decade of Death and Decisions by Drew Hayes starting on October 1, 2025.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!
This is a Spooktober thread. Read any time in October!

Check out the list of other scheduled spooky reads in the Spooktober [buddy read] thread, or seek friends for a plan of your own in the [planning] thread!

This is also a continuation of Drew Hayes series reads, starting with:

1. Fred the Vampire Accountant: (Jan-Aug)
2. Second Hand Curses (Sept 23) [link]

Spooky Oct: A Decade of Death and Decisions (any time in Oct)

Next? Here's a list of possibilities:
You can see Iain's summaries in comment 15 [here]
5-Minute Sherlock (3 books): The Case of the Damaged Detective
Roverpowered (4 novellas): Roverpowered: Tales of an Aspiring Alchemist
Super Powereds + Corpies (4 books + shorts): Super Powereds: Year 1
Spells, Swords, & Stealth (5 books): NPCs
Villain's Code (3 books + 2 anthologies): Forging Hephaestus

Standalones:
Pears and Perils

I am working on this one and am about to start year 3. Year one I found kind of annoying. Year 2 wasn't bad and I could have had more in depth of that series. I have started to keep track of how many decisions I would have made different than the popular vote just for fun.

Cool idea I'll start soon and comment at least once per year

I set up a scrap paper to record and found that:

Year 1: I would have made 7 of the same decisions and 5 different.

Year 2: 6 and 6

I am going to put a bit of a hold on this book and work on The Butcher's Masquerade. I do need to finish this book by the end of the week, however, so I will go back to it shortly.

Year 1: I think what I found annoying was (view spoiler)[ it really has a frat party vibe and I was just thinking that if the whole story is going to be like this then I don't know if I would want to continue. Luckily it doesn't appear that this is the case. (hide spoiler)]

The story probably evolves over time as Drew changes as a writer... this is pretty much a chronicle of his writing start to today, I think... his web serial started coming out in ebooks in 2013...

I;ll start this in the morning, once I power through The Jaguar Path, my last September BR I've been delaying... I joined the series almost a month late, reading Stone Knife in September, and wasn't really ready to continue with book 2, and now it's almost time for book 3... guess it'll just be a month delayed BR for me, from start to finish...

Reading up on the premise again / a bit more, I feel like Drew made a mistake, ending it at 10 years instead of 13 years :D

13 years of writing a story over 13 days, just fits the theme more...

Starting now...

If these chapters are 5 minutes long, that's alot of polls, and I dunno how long I'll keep up the running commentary...

But... chapter 1: (view spoiler)[Wizard Hat seems like the obvious choice here... much more "safe/cool" things you can do with a magic wizard hat in the real world, than a deadly weapon like a Barbarian Axe...

How often does Drew just skip descriptions because tropes exist?... (hide spoiler)]

chapter 2: I can see why you said Frat Guy, with the magic beer cup option...

I was thinking of this yesterday but I am curious to hear what the audio experience is like. I am reading it and so I can see the polls and starting in year 6 there are hidden messages. I was really curious to find out how that is handled through audio.

chapter 3: and the next choice, too...

I definitely think I'll comment on chapters in year 1, and probably default to years after that...

I plan to finish this book today. I found that the longer the book went on the more I started to get into the story and ended up making more of the same choices as the pollsters once year 4 hit.

It does seem like we hit a lot of tropes.

Missed chapter 4... chapter 5 also seemed the most reasonable (view spoiler)[werewolf could easily devolve into mayhem... I didn't expect the skeleton to be a British gentleman, tho, lol... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 7-8: (view spoiler)[not surprised about the costume reveal... the costume contest is a bit of a lackluster plot development, like you said... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 9: (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

Things definitely got alot more interesting towards the end of Year 1... (view spoiler)[I was going to say it was going to be with Circe instead of Victoria, then Circe turned out to be Victoria and the other Victoria was the old lady/glamour disguise person...

There's alot more going on here... I'm curious how it's all going to come together over time... (hide spoiler)]

I feel like this has the potential to be great, despite the frat boy trappings... there are similar-ish premises floating around, with anthology story structures, that I've tried over the years, but inevitably abandon because the misogyny/etc is too strong... author problem, imo...

Year 2: not as much to say... (view spoiler)[still so many questions about the why of it all... fun little adventures, and the MC just kind rolls with it...

The skeleton from Year 1 sitting at home and maybe having a coffee shop job just reminds me of Hank's robot butler in Hard Luck Hand... (hide spoiler)]

RachelG. wrote: "I plan to finish this book today. I found that the longer the book went on the more I started to get into the story and ended up making more of the same choices as the pollsters once year 4 hit.

I..."

cool...

Year 3 Start: (view spoiler)[God Punch Lightning Fucker!!! (hide spoiler)]

This isn't Victoria's sister... (view spoiler)[sounds like a Fae or Demon... (hide spoiler)]

Oh yea... Year 2 thing: (view spoiler)[having wrong choices is real Choose Your Own Adventure energy... and I loved it... going back and choosing a better option where the MC doesn't die is exactly how you read a CYOA book... (hide spoiler)]

Year 3: (view spoiler)[feels lucky Jim didn't get stuck as a lifeless scarecrow...

Also funny how judgemental Drew gets sometimes about pollsters picking out of character options... (hide spoiler)]

Year 4 is gonna be interesting...

Each year is like condensing a Dresden Files or Iron Druid story into 13 short chapters...

Year 5 is the Horror movie convention book with Molly in Dresden Files...

Year 6: (view spoiler)[FratCo... so, basically, a law firm? :D (hide spoiler)]

More Year 6: (view spoiler)[surprise sibling is a classic TV trope... (hide spoiler)]

Year 7: (view spoiler)[I don't know what to make of these secret messages that have been creeping up... are they coming from Cheryl?... I know, whatever they are, are building to the finale...

I'm also slowly becoming savvy to look for suspicious people, like Frankie and Stein... Frankenstein has come up so many times in the book, over the years... costume in year 1, Doctor another year... (hide spoiler)]

I used to love those CYOA books when I was younger.

Year 5: (view spoiler)[ I liked the Terror Camp 4 and nod to Jason and Freddy during this section. I thought he should have been a clown instead of a werewolf though. (hide spoiler)]

Year 6: What did you think of Thad?

Year 7: Reminds me a bit of DCC Butchers Masquerade just because it is fresh in my mind since I started reading it recently. I did not get the second hidden message solution at all. I think my eyes missed a few bolded letters.

RachelG. wrote: "Year 6: What did you think of Thad?

Year 7: Reminds me a bit of DCC Butchers Masquerade just because it is fresh in my mind since I started reading it recently. I did not get the second hidden mes..."

I think Thad was a walking stereotype in Year 6, but became a much more normal-ish likeable character when he recurred in future years...

I can see that with DCC... things keep ramping up...

About done with Year 8 now: (view spoiler)[did not see Pumpkin coming... explains the cover... I hope Cheryl gets to come back, too tho...

Having a surprise child from the future show up is very 00s TV...

Charmed, Angel, Lucifer... so many shows did it, in one way or another... (hide spoiler)]

Year 9: (view spoiler)[Reunion Special... this whole thing with the lost name, and the fact the MC may have been stuck in a death loop longer than we think is super interesting... plays into the nameless hero trope... and is a much different perspective to Quicksave Romano in The Perfect Run, over in the Vagabond thread... (hide spoiler)]

I started Year 10, but it's super late and I'm tired, so I'll finish after some sleep when I can pay better attention... getting drowsy...

Year 10: I love how this book/series blossomed over the years... almost done now... (view spoiler)[in the beginning, it seemed like a story where readers were making the decisions...

But then, as the years progressed and the MC started dying, it was cool to learn that the deaths were canonical, and some Groundhog Day + Death stuff was going on...

Year 10 so far has felt like some real payoffs, exploring the many variations in the timeline, the hinted fact that the MC has been resetting way further back than anticipated sometimes, and the return of characters not seen in years, including Victoria's dad, who is the obvious true villain of the piece... what I didn't expect was the corruption of Cheryl... (hide spoiler)]

5 chapters left and it's over...

Finished: (view spoiler)[the ending ended up being alot more Loki season 1 than I expected... also, I feel like it could continue with more of Victoria's shenanigans... (hide spoiler)]