Riverdo's and Riverdon'ts

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 21-31 and Epilogue

This is The End.

The chapters hit in a machine-gun-like staccato as we more or less begin giving every individual action beat it's own goddamn chapter.

And once the dust settles, we're left to cope in the wreckage of a plot that just... didn't make sense on so many levels, in hindsight. But we give it our best shot at reconstruction. We bore witness to the catastrophe, and it's our responsibility to catalogue the damage.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)
M.I.T. Choir - O Fortuna   

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 18-20

There is no bottom. The maelstrom pulls Rob and Quinn shrieking into the fathomless deep as the book somehow gets goddamn even worse.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)   

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 15-17

It gets worse.

Somehow, this set of chapters is even worse than the previous set of chapters. I hate it so much.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)  

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 12-14

Well, shit.

If called upon, neither Quinn nor Rob could have very precisely articulated what they expected, plot development-wise, when the main 4 finally made it to Shadow Lake. However, it's fair to say that the depth (and commitment level) of utter bullshit that unveils itself through this section was not on ANYONE'S bingo card.

If the film INCEPTION was about an author trying to avoid actually telling a story, it would play out a lot like this.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental) 

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 9-11

Prose and Cons is back! And holy hell did we draw some choice material this time.

The first two pages of this section contain just about as much wacky nonsense as the preceding 8 chapters put together, and Quinn and Rob put on their very best Forensic Linguist and Forensic Literary Scholar hats to try to make sense of the carnage.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 6-8

The Satanic Panic of the 1980's casts a long shadow, somehow, across Riverdale in the Year of Our Lord 2018 or 2019, and hoo boy does it make no sense.

Additionally, there appears to be a legitimate cosmic horror being hinted at by multiple characters, now?

It's a lot of sauce for a meal with no main dish.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)
Kevin MacLeod - Divertissement    

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Chapters 3-5

Time travel, Gargoyle Kings, and Toilet Gun Truthers. This book goes to a level of crazy neither Quinn nor Rob were remotely prepared for.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)   

Prose and Cons: Riverdale: Get Out of Town, Prologue and Chapters 1-2

The nightmare begins anew as Rob and Quinn plunge into the second novel of the Riverdale Ostowverse.

There's a frame-job for murder and, more importantly, a house party. Also the text messages seem to be behaving like some sort of invasive species at this point, taking everything over.

Oh, and we go on a weirdly long tangent about Scott Pilgrim, if that's your thing.

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)    

Prose and Cons: RtDB Evening Reminisce

Quinn and I marvel at the alacrity with which all plotlines are abandoned and the novel essentially crumples its way across the page count finish line and simply turns to dust.

And I learn a new fact about Ostow's body of work that tempts me in a dangerous, dangerous way...

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)    

Prose and Cons: RtDB Afternoon Reminisce

Wow. Looking back at how I described the previous section, I'm having a real "Sweet Summer Child" moment at myself. I derided the first section as " all the nothing these characters are given to do on the morning before the actual story starts happening."

What a fool I was. This section is even longer, and basically only 2 things happen. Holy shit!

Music:
Josh Woodward - Faded War (Instrumental)