BR duration: <t:1683676800:D>-<t:1687219200:D>
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Link: #buddy-reads message
#Billy Summers - Stephen King
white crypt
BR duration: <t:1683676800:D>-<t:1687219200:D>
BR leader: @karmic badge
Link: #buddy-reads message
azure quarry
karmic badge
No wayyy Billy made it too??? 
hazy sigil
I'm also excited for this! I love Stephen King
karmic badge
@pine bramble@hazy sigil@azure quarry@white crypt@versed shadow @shadow rampart @short rose @long jackal
Hello everyone! My smaller group of Stephen King readers! 
“He has no problem with bad people paying to have other bad people killed. He basically sees himself as a garbageman with a gun.”
“Billy doesn't care if it rains, sleets, snows, or shits bananas.”
“You can't help how you feel. Feelings are like breathing. They come in and go out.”
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
How about everything...
So in contrast to The Shining going on in the other BR; Billy Summers is both one of King's newest books and also more of a crime fiction than his usual foray into horror!
Have you heard about this book before? Is this your first Stephen King book or perhaps your first non-horror read of his?
What are your expectations for this read? Many find it difficult to engage with King when he's doing something slightly different than what he's usually typecast for.
Confess something bad you did recently! 
hazy sigil
<@157637559835426816><@923667537105920020><@907276216682291240><@770334946422030...
:gunR: Have you heard about this book before? Is this your first Stephen King book or perhaps your first non-horror read of his?
I actually don't remember hearing about this so I'm excited. I also don't think it's my first non horror read of his
:gunR: What are your expectations for this read? Many find it difficult to engage with King when he's doing something slightly different than what he's usually typecast for.
I don't have any expectations but I love crime books so hopefully I'll enjoy it
:gunR: Confess something bad you did recently! :YA_FingerGuns:
Told a lie to spare someone's feelings
hexed gyroBOT
:gunR: Have you heard about this book before? Is this your first Stephen King book or perhaps your first non-horror read of his?
I actually don't remember hearing about this so I'm excited. I also don't think it's my first non horror read of his
:gunR: What are your expectations for this read? Many find it difficult to engage with King when he's doing something slightly different than what he's usually typecast for.
I don't have any expectations but I love crime books so hopefully I'll enjoy it
:gunR: Confess something bad you did recently! :YA_FingerGuns:
Told a lie to spare someone's feelings
versed shadow
woooo the 3rd stephen king br im in rn 
!!
🔫 its my first non-horror read of his but not my first stephen king book!!!
🔫 tbf i dont have too many expectations, i just sort of hope i enjoy it 
the synopsis sounds really interesting though
🔫 ~~joined too many brs 
~~
hazy sigil
Going to start some of this now 🔫
eager pike
<@157637559835426816><@923667537105920020><@907276216682291240><@770334946422030...
🔫 It'll be my first non-horror read from him and my second/third Stephen King book
🔫 I'm interested to see how it goes, not sure what to expect really since I haven't read many of his books.
🔫 Slept in on a weekday? Idk lol
long jackal
🔫 Have you heard about this book before?
no, I haven't and I'm surprised lol
🔫 Is this your first Stephen King book or perhaps your first non-horror read of his?
not my 1st read by him and also not my first non horror by him either (fairy tale was my 1st non horror)
🔫 What are your expectations for this read? Many find it difficult to engage with King when he's doing something slightly different than what he's usually typecast for.
I don't have any expectations, I'm looking forward to a different side of SK, but I'm hoping I'm not comparing other reads/ themes expecting the king I'm used to
🔫 Confess something bad you did recently! 
bought a bag of puffed cheeze itz and inhaled the bag by myself hiding it from my daughter and bf to not share 🤣
pine bramble
🔫 Have you heard about this book before?
I have! Its at my local library and I've taken a look at it while perusing other Stephen King novels but I've never actually checked it out to read
🔫 Is this your first Stephen King book or perhaps your first non-horror read of his?
This will be my first non horror read of his but I have read other books by him
🔫 What are your expectations for this read? Many find it difficult to engage with King when he's doing something slightly different than what he's usually typecast for.
Im hoping its a good read! I'm interested to see how King's writing is different when he's not writing about the usual horror he does
🔫 Confess something bad you did recently!
Ran a red light
ch 1-4 ||I'm very interested to see how Billy gets away with his last job. It seems like he's working
with people who dont seem to care about how serious the job is. Theyre making silly mistakes like calling Billy his real name when hes supposed to be using an alias. Also I'm intrigued to see how Hoff is going to play out in all of this. Billy doesnt like him and I can see why. He seems pretty careless. I'm glad Billy is experienced though and seems to know what hes doing and how to avoid getting in trouble bc hes using his own laptop etc.
ALSO wow Billys story. Hes been through a lot. I wonder if his story leads to how he got in this business. I just hope he doesnt get carried away with his story and incriminate himself... but also I want to know more lol||
pine bramble
ch 5 ||ok now billy has ANOTHER alias. im getting a little confused lol. how is he going to keep up with it all!?||
azure quarry
im beginning this today
pine bramble
ch 9 ||ok so i knewww having three personas would get confusing for billy. the phone call at the beginning of the chapter had me worried. also its so sad how close hes gotten with his neighbors :( i can only imagine what theyll feel and think of "dave" after the killing. it seems like billy enjoys his time with them though and i hope somehow everything works out. theres still a lot of the book left so im hoping it works out in a way where he gets to spend his real life there. also i feel like somethings gonna go wrong soon. edison said joel would arrive tomorrow but i have a feeling he wont||
pine bramble
ch 10 || omg what a nerve wracking chapter. i kept thinking something was gonna go wrong. it's still not too late for it to go wrong but aaaghhh billy got the hard part over with ||
pine bramble
ch 12 ||ok getting more of billys story. im glad hes found a way to get his thoughts out there. (youd be surprised at how much journaling helps!) the baby shoe saving his life was CRAZY. also stephen king also used the significance of a baby shoe in his other novel Cell. I just looked it up and apparently the books are connected so thats interesting.||
pine bramble
ch 13 ||damn that was a rough chapter. im glad billy did the right thing and helped her, though. even if it puts him at risk ||
pine bramble
ch 15 ||the book is starting to get really good. i like alices character a lot. i wonder how billy is gonna get back at tripp and also get his money without causing a scene and giving away his identity||
pine bramble
ch 16 ||BILLYS A BADASS||
pine bramble
ch 20 ||damnnnnn once again billy is a badass. i wonder who roger klerke is?||
pine bramble
ch 22 ||i hope their plan for taking out klerke works. what an awful man. Giorgio isnt any better either for helping him find those girls||
pine bramble
ch 24/final thoughts || damn so thats how it ends. i'm surprised billy goes out that way but i feel like it makes sense. he killed marges son and sort of became the bad guy so it comes back to bite him. it got really emotional there at the end when alice was talking to his grave and about how she wanted to pursue writing in college.
im glad billy and alice both have writing because they used it to cope in different ways. billy sort of used it as a diary/to get rid of his thoughts and alice used it to change reality into something better.
i really liked buckys character too. he was there for billy and alice and supported them even when he thought it wasnt the best idea. i'm glad alice has someone else to go to since billy is gone||
eager pike
ch 3 ||finding billys character very interesting so far. cant wait to read more about his morals and upbringing||
azure quarry
chapter 3 ||I didnt know there was a difference between country and western music||
chapter 4 ||I keep reading Phyllis as syphilis||
chapter 4 ||Even he makes mistakes. When he wrote Cathy it really shows how affected he is by remembering all this||
karmic badge
Chapter 1
||I forgot how different the tone and formatting Billy is to his other work. 
I read this when it first came out but I don't remember very much about it so it's nice to recall how Billy's character is set up. 
||
azure quarry
I'm up to chapter 6 and I'm really struggling with it is it worth continuing or should I DNF it
pine bramble
I'm up to chapter 6 and I'm really struggling with it is it worth continuing or ...
i felt the same way at the beginning. the first half drags on but the second half gets really good. its just a matter of if you want to go through the effort of getting there or not
karmic badge
Beat me to it Snogglepuff; I remember finding the first half tough the first time I read it but I remember that I ended up enjoying the book on a whole - completely up to you though Amanda, sometimes we just don't vibe with some books 
azure quarry
Ok im going to continue 
azure quarry
Chapter 5
||When he gets home he throws the cookies into the trash. Corinne Ackerman is a good little baker, but he can’t think of eating cookies now. He can’t even bear to look at them.||
||What a waste of cookies he could have put them in the fridge or something||
azure quarry
chapter 7 ||Im really enjoying reading about Billys past and im looking forward to read more of it´||
azure quarry
chapter 7
||and if you mind your p’s and q’s, you will get along, too||
||what does that mean||
karmic badge
chapter 7
> ||and if you mind your p’s and q’s, you will get along, too||
||wha...
It's an expression to watch how you speak, mind your manners, etc. 
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Chapter 6
||Billy has the *dumb self *but Colin White has the silly fucker self. It takes one to know one. ||
||This made my eyes widen a bit, can't lie.||
azure quarry
sorry but im going to DNF this book. Im very much a mood reader and this book isnt really catching my interest
karmic badge
No problem at all 
reading is for fun after all!
hazy sigil
I'm bowing out of this one too @karmic badge , but I look forward to more brs with you ❤️
versed shadow
people dipping out has actually got me more curious now as soon as I've finished the stand I'm gonna jump on this
karmic badge
Looking forward to it Zander! I'm about half way through myself right now
long jackal
I'm curious as well. I have a copy I haven't gotten to it yet
white crypt
I'm starting this!! 
As this is pretty much the first time I'm reading Stephen King, I feel like I need to get used to his writing first 
I hope I'm going to enjoy this one though bc the blurb sounds really fun
karmic badge
I feel like I should disclaimer that this is very different to his more well known books so it might not be a good metric on if you like him or not
white crypt
oh I tried reading The Shining before starting this and I didn't like that one already
so maybe it's a good thing in my case
karmic badge
Hey that's all good 
I like Billy just fine even if he's different from what King usually writes so I'm hoping that you enjoy this one more!
karmic badge
Boy oh boy, I don't hate this book but God how it has slowed me down
versed shadow
time to start this 
can't wait to see if I enjoy this or not
versed shadow
im only on chapter 2 nd its not too bad so far ||billy is a bit flat so far but that could just be because im still p early||
versed shadow
chap 5: ||theres something about the term "bodacious babe" being used fully unironically that both made me laugh and shivver LMAOO ||
versed shadow
chap 6: ||we get it, you dont like trump 
||
versed shadow
... i see what people mean about it being a struggle to get through because this is. p dull... im gonna keep pushing through to see if it does get better ofc but jesus 
versed shadow
general observation from these first few chapters but ||its so weirdly political?? for no real reason... like it doesnt contribute to the story, it just feels like king trying to take the moral high ground like "look guys im leftist" nd its just so. out of place? like dont get me wrong, i dont disagree with things being sad but its just so annoying nd boring. its taking away from the already somewhat lack luster story||
karmic badge
general observation from these first few chapters but ||its so weirdly political...
Absolutely this...|| It's brought up kinda randomly and often. It's not to so much an issue about his political beliefs but it's always kind of out of left field. ||
LET'S DO IT ZANDER 💪 WE CAN FINISH THIS
Worst thing is this is a reread for me and I genuinely did not remember it being this hard to read the first time
versed shadow
Absolutely this...|| It's brought up kinda randomly and often. It's not to so mu...
HAHAHA YESS IM DETERMINED WE GOT THIS 
i trust if youre rereading it that its gotta get better later down the line 
karmic badge
@shadow rampart @short rose@pine bramble@long jackal@eager pike@versed shadow@untold folio
Hi guys! Just a reminder that there's a week left of this! I know that none of us have finished this one yet; plus quite a few are bowing out.
Our closing date is the 20th so there's still plenty of time; if some of us don't quite make the 20th, that's no problem, I can probably do an extension if there's only a few of us finishing.
Due to no one finishing just yet; I'm not going to post any questions, I'll just leave some suitable music
https://youtu.be/ekRRy1UQUUY
versed shadow
small update, im at about chap 7/almost chap 8||as much as i like the domestic stuff, like with the people in he areas he's hanging around, its so dull with no update on anything else also love the just trauma dump sessions for the book thing hes writing. i sympathise for him with everything nd even relate a bit with the whole foster care stuff but damnnn does it get boring hearing about his dead sister when he brings it up every other page||
versed shadow
chap 12, part 6: ||ok its. kind of starting to get more interesting but just because the kill has happened nd hes writing about his time in iraq which is cool. i have a feeling i know where this is going though, so im looking forward to it getting more interesting in that sense. him calling the guy who was supposed to pay him but didnt a "bad guy" i already know hes gonna go after him, kill him nd take the money which should be interesting||
versed shadow
chap 16: ||ok this chapter was fucked up but i cant lie, i felt a sick satisfaction during this chapter. i dont even really feel bad about it because lets be real they fuckin deserved it||
i will say though ||i dont like how its lowkey setting up a relationship between billy nd alice i swear hes like 40 nd shes 21||
karmic badge
chap 16: ||ok this chapter was fucked up but i cant lie, i felt a sick satisfact...
I got through this chapter a few days ago lmao; it's something! 
versed shadow
hahaha for sure!!! i feel slightly bad for my reaction to it but not entirely ||it was definitely satisfying, but also interesting to see more of billy's almost ironic moral code. its very much "an eye for an eye" which is interesting, but i think this scene is one of the times where the reader kinda questions how far he'll take things. i agree that those men were POS nd deserved punishment nd definitely still found some sick satisfaction in the scene its still like oh shit was that too far?||
versed shadow
i defo see what people mean about it picking up after the half way mark, im not considering dnfing it anymore HAHA
ive got about 2 nd a half hours left of the audiobook so im hoping to finish this tomorrow after my exam, i doubt ill get it done today just because of last min studying 
karmic badge
It's just so hard to get to half way
pine bramble
Yeah I'm ngl I basically skimmed a lot of the first half of the book
versed shadow
Yeah I'm ngl I basically skimmed a lot of the first half of the book
tbf you didnt really miss anything HAHA
versed shadow
It's just so hard to get to half way <:kek:811230413154025472>
LMAOO FR
pine bramble
tbf you didnt really miss anything HAHA
right!? the main focus of the first half is basically ||learning about Billys backstory. I guess it provides context about his job and who he is but did we reaaally need all that other nonsense?||
this book was weird cuz its basically like two different books in one
sacred ivyBOT
versed shadow
right!? the main focus of the first half is basically ||learning about Billys ba...
yesss right!!! its so boring icl || like i know his sisters death is important to his current life but its repeated sO MUCH like we get it, your sister was murdered by your step dad nd then you killed him, youve told us like 50 times in the last 4 pages LMAOO||
i thought ||the stuff with the neighbours nd the kids was cute but its all just. inconsequential to literally anything else||
versed shadow
ok i just finished and 
im glad i pushed on tbh
im giving it 3/5 ||because i did actually enjoy it, i dont like how king took the route of "she is in love with him" because i loved the father/daughter thing so im kinda annoyd about that, but im not entirely surprised, given king's track record 
. the second half was good but the first half was actually lame af but ykw i enjoyed the second half enough so its fineee. i also really liked bucky in the end too i thought him nd billy were like alice's accidental dads which i thought was sweet||
the vibes the second half gives me are like ||that clip from brooklyn 99 where rosa is like "ive only had arlo for a day and a half but if anything happens to him ill kill everyone in the room and then myself" LMAOOO like with billy nd alice which i loved||
karmic badge
@versed shadow I finished too by the skin of my teeth lmao
I love your interpretation of the second half. And I remember thinking the first time I read it that the second half was it's saving grace. ||The father/daughter dynamic between Billy, Buckey and Alice is suprisingly wholesome honestly. I respect that King didn't have Alice sleep with Billy honestly, while she might have wanted to. I like to believe that if Billy had lived they would have still stayed mostly platonic.
||
||I really liked Alice as a character and even Billy too. This book is so weird in how many random tangents it goes off on about Trump and The Shining??? But the ending is genuinely really good. In a strange way I love that his death wasn't very melodramatic. ||
@pine bramble
Kudos to you too for finishing all that time ago! I'm very proud! 
||I love the way you interpreted Marge's final retribution on Billy. He was needlessly violent to her son and because of that he was taken down like the men he deemed bad. ||
@ivory galleon Did you finish this? 
Also does anybody want me to post some questions about Billy or do we want to close the page on this strange BR? 
ivory galleon
<@481563287633526792> I finished too by the skin of my teeth lmao
I love your in...
I don't think I signed up for this BR? ☺️ So I did not finish this book, sorry!
karmic badge
I don't think I signed up for this BR? ☺️ So I did not finish this book, sorry!
Omg! I'm sorry I saw you posting about the half way hump and misunderstood! Sorry about the ping! 