Dow Jones > Recent Status Updates

K gets the 711 job from the creepy manager and starts her meth binge before birthday celebrations. Heather and K immediately dislike each other but everyone loves Hunter. Dad shows up w/ gf Linda Sue unannounced & Leigh gives him shit. Jake doesn’t know he’s their dad until they go off to the patio.

Kristina drives to Stockton to score w/ Robyn, is introduced to crystal meth & smoking it, and the spiral returns. Poor baby Hunter. Her parents also don’t know what to do. Her birthday is soon, her sis Leigh is coming, Hunter will be baptized, & now her dad wants to celebrate w/ her too. Just a feeling of dread with each turn of the page. It’s like a suspense novel where you’re always unsettled.

Kristina’s pregnancy w/ Brendan’s baby goes well but her addiction keeps knocking. Only 17, barely off cigarettes, and her fam it trying their best. Not sure if she told them about her addiction yet though. Chase is a good enough seeming guy but should really stick to USC for his future.

Shit dude, she’s slipping fast.

Brendan rapes Kristina and then makes her pay $250 for a shit bindle of coke.

First time rereading this since back in high school when it came out and she spoke to us. Definitely a throwback and brings back nostalgia for that high school life and being able to follow everything since it’s based in Reno (minus the first Albuquerque trip). I like the writing style and the format a lot where Hopkins says so much with so little.

Epic battle at the library! D sacrifices herself drinking dragon tears to explode fire in KS’s eye. G sticks Art’s sword in his tail & KS eats himself like an ouroboros. Jett is a fireman who rescues them. All but Donna survive. Great imagery w/ cast revisiting loved ones. Subsequent years of fire & destruction are caused by (an)other dragon(s) & G wants to help but Robin says let someone else have a turn. Great!

Colin dies days later after D gives G the St. Helen’s blood but G’s still infected w/ bullet. C pulls Elwood Hondo out to try to kill the girls, but Hondo suffocates C. D betrays C noticing his security is same as when D&V were trapped. Tana & Allie become a little couple. Now they’re in the Rackham special collection to pull A&V to make a sword & defeat KS, but G is super weak. Sad stuff all around!

The girls make their plan @ the college chapel to have Gwen try to call Art from the Long Dark, put his soul into a sword, & then Allie calls KS out so she can kill him. Colin & Donna jump them one afternoon & threatens to call KS & wipe everything out now unless they go to the Briars when Daphne launches her shooting spree killing Colin. Gwen covers D, R&A hide behind a tree, & Tana scalds her w/ coffee & bonks her.

Damn! Allie’s drunken highway walk to get to Gwen, now Tana & Robin know about KS & G’s next, so they plan to get the martyr’s robe & mirror. R&T try to get Allie sober as she’s finding a way to get into the Briars. Donna is fuuucked up. A gets key & Colin appearing was intense af but she gets out w/ the goods, yet doesn’t notice Daphne following her. If only Daphne stayed behind for C&D!

Colin’s privacy invasion gets crazy as he watches Gwen & Robin talk about what Robin heard from Stu before turning him to stone. Now C knows they know. Gwen goes to Rackham College now & talks to Art in her head, realizes C gets all KS picks, & struggles to hide knowledge. KS visits her & says C named her as his pick. Daphne Nighswander gets out of prison after 30yrs & has enough $ to find them. Uh oh!

Colin’s first night of KS reveals he saw everyone’s death but his own & Hondo came to tell him he wore the crown if KS was King. He lingered with Gwen as rescuers search to no avail & finally Ron made her move on him at the hotel on his last night in London. Now it’s Gwen’s interlude & Robin’s searching for a Vine vid location that shows someone wearing Stu’s Monty Python grail shirt.

Very cool cave adventure w/ creepy spiders & St. Vitus’s Dance as obstacles leading to the sword. I was shocked when Colin stabbed Art after pulling the sword & learning C & Svangur already had an arrangement. Now it seems so obvious but Colin just wants to keep KS around, yet it calls into question everything he’s said & done. I hope he isn’t truly evil.

Book 4 begins with Colin piloting his privet jet to London. His co-pilot, Ron (f), wants him but he already knows due to surveillance access to all things. He and Arthur meet up & Art begins to lead him into the countryside where trolls are real & he may be able to get help against KS. Robin is also there for help as they’ll go down in a cave. The magic eyeglass is cool lore!

Gwen learns Donna plans to have a “confessed” woman killed, only a man found a year later had Cady’s friendship bracelet. KS obliterates Black Cricket prison & Gwen is eager to go help. She finds Arthur’s mom there and they team up for a few days. Harrowing rescue attempt for Wendy Arthur, but KS nearly takes mom and Gwen with her as he finishes his work taking out Francine Trout. Gwen’s pissed at Donna.

Incredible end to V&D’s book with Valentine getting shot in the dick & D stabs his neck. Poor V in sacrificing himself at the top. I wish he’d tried the door at least. Francis turns out to be decent but still a bad guy. KS wrecks shit & Colin rolls up in Caddy to rescue her from the warzone. Staff was bugging out hardcore. Luckily Colin developed their encryption software. I wish V could’ve survived.

Van is tortured under water as Donna has to watch on TV. She starts to notice no one has slept & KS has their number for Easter. Staff gets desperate. It’s now March. Colin’s software is what staff uses in their Blackberries. D&V finally get to see each other and walk along the North Carolina beach. All hail the King.

Van & Donna are held for tests where head staff are nicknamed after saints & nurses are after capitals. Same Mr. Francis from Greenland & they want to learn about KS. In attempts to catch Allie, she blew up 12 men. Badass. V&D are kept for weeks. MRI reveals Donna’s dragon tattoo. I hope this facility get wrecked.

The lacrosse players wreck Colin’s caddy but he’s recording it all & they all go to jail & Gwen bails them out. Gregg’s parents take him away & the wedding is off. Now it’s 2000, Allie almost kidnapped, Van is taken, & Donna is next. Allie calls KS for help, but Van’s in trouble & Greenland big neck gets to Donna. She agrees to avoid lobotomy. Donna’s friend Cady’s kidnapping story is told. So innocent.

The plane drama was so damn good. And the fbi interviews and how Allie became a hero. She and Van married in Greenland & the crew and fam were all there. Now it’s Gwen’s interlude & Donna & Gregg, boy from plane, are having their bachelor(ette) party on Halloween dressed as D&D cartoon characters. They’re out getting drunk on the town & at the roller rink now.

Allie & Van are en route to London. KS tells Allie she must kill Horation b4 midnight or he’ll wreck the flight; their deal protects them from people, not gravity. Allie meets Horation upstairs & we learn he’s a murdering rapist cult leader. Frank Heck from the bar is an air marshal questioning her on the plane as she boarded super sus. People see KS outside the window & A&V talk to others about UFO vs dragons

Allie’s panicking as we drives to the airport to catch the flight to London. She calls Donna to get support but the call drops & she reveals she’s Van’s fiancé but prefers girls. Talks to Tana to try to reach Gwen. A man tries to pick her up w/ white wine at the airport bar but she finally says no. She gets an odd feeling about him. I think it’s her victim, H. Matthews.

Gwen tried to riddle w/ KS w/o prep so now she has to break Art’s heart. She chooses Llewelyn for KS & she & Colin are w/ him for final moments. Daphne receives Jayne’s letter naming the group & she has 24 years left til she can get revenge. Now to Book 2 five years in the future & Allie’s victim will die on a plane to London & KS says he’ll take the whole plane of victims unless she’s on the flight.

Art & Gwen fuck through summer before he leaves for Oxford. They help his mom move into her new place. Arthur comes back to visit during Christmas break & sees Gwen again & she tells them King Sorrow’s picked her to choose the next victim by Easter. G&A get no real alone time as she’s taking care of Jett, Tana’s newborn, & Llewelyn. They’re trying to summon KS now.

Arthur sees J&R killed in a drive-in in a brutal way & they all think it’s over. Gwen & Art go to prom & have fun, return home to take her virginity, & Tana calls needing help to get to the hospital as she’s in labor. Gwen says she’s going to study EMT to help people at a different school. Llewelyn falls down steps w/ broken osteoporosis hollowed bones, w/ AIDS, & doesn’t have long to live. Baby is a boy.

The gang jumps J&R & warns them to take off & Colin deceives J into getting Arthur’s mom’s parole granted by taking blame for the shiv. Colin also masterfully breaks into the library planting fake evidence leading to no one so Arthur will be off the hook. What a great group of friends and they’re finally fighting back. Awesome. Tana flips though when J&R bail west & Arthur’s worried she’ll tell Gwen.

Gwen comes over to Arthur and Van’s to have them see if her tattoo is real and Van says he has one too. Their TV dinners overcook in the oven causing smoke everywhere and Arthur sees into Jayne’s eyes when King Sorrow taunts her through the TV. Now he’s having second thoughts since seeing her mental torture but the group still believes J & R should die. They relent though and give Arthur a shot to save them.

The seance was a bit tricky to follow as it’s like a dream of chaos and weed smoke, but Arthur uses his love of language to seal the deal w/ King Sorrow and everyone else agrees to feed him people they want killed. One human sacrifice on Easter every year or one of them dies is how the pact goes I think. Arthur names Jayne & Ronnie as the first victims. The invisible tattoo w/ 2 fingers on the head is a cool summon

The first couple pages took some getting used to Hill’s style, but I’m loving the characters, their dialogue, and all the late 80s references and even The Dead Zone characters being referenced. Tana and Jayne are both awful, I don’t feel too bad for them. Ronnie is a psycho. Poor Arthur just trying to help but gets into the rare book thieving game to pay off Jayne’s debt. Very engaging prose, I’m hooked.

Loving the action of finding the modern pirate base, treasure chest, and escaping to Penguin Village and the first collaboration w/ Dr. Slump. Senbei’s so funny photobombing panels. Don’t know from here on out what’ll happen next so it’s very fun to continue. Volume 8 is next.