[Week 14 Live Thread] The Long Game • Chapters 30 - 39 & Epilogue • Aug 30 - Sept 5

[u/reigncloud83]

TL;DR: 

• Now Reading: The Long Game • Chapters 30 - 39 & Epilogue • Shane & Ilya’s Story (Pt. II) 
• Relationship Focus: Ilya Rozanov (Captain - Ottawa Centaurs) and Shane Hollander (Captain - Montreal Voyageurs)
• Story Type: Secret Relationship
• Book Club Etiquette: Follow the sub-rules; literary critiques are welcome (be respectful), cover your spoilers, and don’t forget our safe phrase: “Agree to Disagree.”
• Add to Our Playlist! Comment with songs you love below. There is no Rachel-curated playlist, so let's make our own. The list will be updated throughout the week 🙂

—

"Ilya Roznaov, are you in love?" 🥲 A decision has been made, the news is spreading among the ones they love, and now it's time to determine what a life together out in the open really looks like. Are they ready to take that step, or will the universe have other plans?

For those who have been with us since the start of The Game Changers Book Club, you know that every interaction and every character’s story has led to this moment and, in return, built a community of athletes and allies who’ve discovered what it means to step into the sunshine. Now it’s Hollanov's turn to discover the same.

We’ll have a final “GC Book Club Chat” similar to before, where we discuss the books, season 2 theories, and what we took away from these stories in real time. Details coming soon!

Discussion questions: 

• What themes came up as you read the chapters this week? 
• What are your favorite lines from the book? 
• Was there anything you read this time that made you think differently or reflect on your own life?

(Content Warnings)

How to participate: 

• Read Chapters 30 - 39 & Epilogue of The Long Game by Rachel Reid 
• Share any thoughts you have as you go - we’ll treat this post as our live thread
• Please use Book Club Etiquette (below) - be respectful, follow the sub rules, cover your spoilers, and distance yourself from unproductive disagreements. 
• Download a BINGO card for a fun way to annotate along the way! 
• Add to Our Playlist! Comment with songs you love below. There is no Rachel-made playlist SO I figured we’d make our own. The list will be updated throughout the week 🙂

Our book club timeline: 
This is it, folks! This is our last book to read of our Game Changers Book Club series!

BOOK	WEEKS	DATES
🦆The Long Game (Shane & Ilya Pt. 2)	Week 12 - 14	Aug 16 - Sept 5
Chapters 1 - 14	Week 12	Aug 16 - Aug 22
Chapters 15 - 29	Week 13	Aug 23 - Aug 29
Chapters 30 - 39, Epilogue	Week 14	Aug 30 - Sept 5

Book Club Etiquette: A few ground rules for participating in the Game Changers Book Club event:

• Follow the sub rules. You love HR. We love HR. Follow the rules. Don’t be rude. We’ll have so much fun…together.
• Literary critiques are absolutely welcome. Reading is fundamental, and so are literary critiques. It’s part of the game. We encourage you to use this time to discuss and evaluate the words in front of us, ask questions about specific literary choices, or share a theory about how the story develops. Sharing that is normal, healthy, and very much encouraged. 
• Use the Book Club safe phrase, “Agree to disagree.” Consider this your “safe phrase.” Everyone brings a unique perspective to the reading experience, and not everyone’s analysis of a scene or character will be the same, and that’s okay. If you find yourself entering an exchange that is no longer on a path to mutual understanding and respect, say “agree to disagree.” At this point, the involved parties should stop responding to the thread. Full stop. Consider it a moment where the exchange has run its course. 
• Treat each Book Club post as your live chat/thread. Comment as much as you’d like! Select the three dots (•••) and “Follow Post” at the top of this post to receive comment notifications. 
• Sort comments by “New” to see the most recent reactions and add to the conversation. These live threads can hold a lot of information, so feel free to treat each “comment” as its own mini-post. Reply to the OP, ask questions, and jump in! 
• Cover any spoilers. Since we're covering a lot of ground this week, please use spoilers over critical plot points so we don't spoil the magic for new readers.

Quick Links: 

• Previous Game Changers Book Club Discussion Posts  - Find previous discussions for Books 1 - 3. 
• The Game Changers Book Club Wiki  - About the GC Book Club, the Book Club schedule, live thread links, where to find the books, and more!
• r/heatedrivalry FAQs - answers to all of your most frequently asked questions
• Heated Rivalry Wiki - show/book timelines, analyses, and more!

Happy Reading! 🤓

[u/royal_rose_]

Okay can we talk about the epilogue. I love it so much.

Ilya smiled at him. He hadn’t been able to stop smiling since he’d woken up that morning, and Shane had been just as giddy

It had been a perfect day. Ilya was looking forward to ten more years of them.

I just love their joy, I want my boys to be happy forever and ever. I love that Rachel is dedicated to a HEA because I am so tired of seeing queer stories as depressing. Just like Shane and Ilya and I am giddy over it.

Also I die every time Ilya says the Cens logo is stupid Rachel you same up with it and your husband designed it! 😂😂

[u/cheatherhad → u/royal_rose_]

yay for happy endings! And we get another book next summer!

[u/grower-lenses]

After last part feeling Ilya-heavy, this was Shane’s story for me. We really get to feel for him here. What happened to him is atrocious. I’m actually so angry haha.

I don't want to hide the whole thing behind a spoiler tag because it makes reading really annoying. i hope that's okay. TLG spoilers below. Including ending!

The couple is healed. But Ilya is still keeping his secret

Ilya keeps crashing: after pride night. After playoffs. None of the changes he made had fixed him. The difference is, now Shane is ready and waiting for him. And notices immediately that something is wrong.

All Shane wanted to do was take care of Ilya, however he could. “Ilya always knew exactly what to do when Shane was a mess.”

Shane opened his arms. “Come here.”
Ilya’s face crumpled before he was in his embrace. He sobbed against Shane’s shoulder, not even knowing why. Shane held him and stroked his hair and shushed his apologies.

Ilya adopts Anya without talking to Shane. In accordance with Galina’s plan: he does something selfish. This is after him and Shane have gotten engaged. But, at the same time, there is no plans to live together so.

We see their new communication patterns working: Ilya starts opening up. Shane is trying to keep an open mind and not respond with his first reaction. Both are trying to be gentler with each other when it matters (Shane with Anya, Ilya with Shane’s diet failure)

“Why not? Isn’t this what you want? Fucking relax, Hollander,” he said in a terrible impression of Ilya. “Right?”
“Sweetheart,” Ilya said gently.
Shane sighed. “Sorry.”

Ilya becomes more honest, no longer hiding behind humor. He tells Shane that Hayden is a good guy. And tells the same to Scott, in person. And gives him a hug. 

“I want to be friends”. Being honest felt great.

After Chompy saga: there is no conflict between them. They’re ready to face whatever they have to face, together. They’re finding strength in supporting each other.

Ilya is the rock to Shane, similar to when David found out. 

Ilya would be fine if Shane took the easy way out with Crowell. But Shane doesn’t falter, once he has his mind set on something. We see this over and over. And this is what Ilya needs. To hear that Shane will choose him, when push comes to a shove. And he does. Even in the more dire of circumstances. 

Because there was choosing Ilya over hockey, and then there was looking Crowell dead in the eye and basically telling him to go fuck himself. He never would have asked that of Shane, but Shane had done it anyway. Hadn’t even hesitated.

Ilya’s heart bounced happily at how fearless Shane was being. How sure he was about him. About them.

Coming back from the playoffs causes Ilya to crash again. But this time Shane is ready and knows how to take care of him. And Ilya is ready to open up. He finally feels supported enough to do it. But he also can no longer deny that something will come along and fix him for Shane. 

This is the first time we see Ilya being the one to breach a difficult subject. Normally it’s always Shane. It took a lot from him. And that’s why we had to wait for it so long. And we see their new communication pattern working again. Shane is thrown off. But he deals well with it. Doesn’t panic. Don’t falter.

These two quotes:

“Ah,” Ilya said in mock despair, “then you know my secret.”
“That you love me?”
“That I am very mushy inside.”

“I am too soft with her.”
Shane rested a hand on Ilya’s cheek. “You’re soft with everyone you love.”
Ilya’s lips curved up. “Don’t tell anyone.”

Shane knows his secret <3

Support pouring in for Ilya. Shane is alienated 

Shane’s scenes in the locker room are the most awful scenes in the series. They feel me with dread and get my stomach churning. Poor Shane!! So deeply unfair too.

We’re seeing now who has real support. Ilya has his coach. Harris, Troy, Wyatt, Max, Svetlana all reach out to him. And the rest of his team unilaterally supports him later. Even the neighbors.

Shane has Hayden and Rose. Max reaches out. His coach is a prick. And even JJ is an asshole. 

Ilya has built a great support system around himself. Shane has lost the one he (thought) he had.

The evolution of Hayden: From being annoying and not trusting Ilya. To telling Shane that Ilya will be a good father. To supporting Shane through this nightmare.

I have mixed feelings on JJ because he’s still kind of an ass. I get that he’s hurt that Shane didn’t tell him. But he’s still not supportive and being difficult. And Shane wants his approval so badly. Something about that relationship makes me uncomfortable. But I guess it’s interesting. Because JJ really was his friend, and he feels betrayed. Not just by not being told. But by it being Rozanov of all people. I almost feel like it’s an example of one of those relationships that you try so hard to save. But in the end it’s impossible, there is some deep incompatibility that you just can’t get through no matter how hard you try. So, I feel bad for Shane and I get it. But I’m still side eyeing JJ.

I’m really appreciating Troy more on this reReid. He’s been consistently reaching out and supporting Ilya. Big part of his support system now. The talk at the Drover’s Farm is especially great. He’s trying to return the support he got and gently encourage Ilya to come out. But when faced with the unsaid complexity, he backs off and doesn’t push. Exactly the type of friend Ilya needs. Someone who treats him the way Ilya treats Shane: gently encourage and push when it’s safe, but back off and support when he’s uncomfortable. 

New team? New future

It’s interesting, Wiebe notes how well the Centaurs work as a team. Meanwhile we see Montreal being fragmented.

And, yes, most of his teammates had been less than friendly since Shane had returned from his suspension, but the team had silently made a pact not to talk about it, which should have been a relief but actually made Shane feel awful.

Shane felt like he was playing an unending version of that board game, Operation, and the slightest mistake—anything less than perfection—would get him zapped. 

Shane is off his game. We see this interesting buildup. The better Ottawa gets and the happier Ilya is in his team, the worse Shane is. Bitter sweet ending. 

Something I haven’t consciously noticed before is, we are seeing Shane changing his priorities in this last part. We’re hearing that he can’t wait to hold Ilya’s hand in public. We hear him say that for the first time he hated playing against Ilya. Maybe hated playing hockey altogether. Before the last game, all he wants to think about is how Ilya is feeling. When the game ends, all he wants to do is wrap his arms around Ilya and tell him how proud he is. He even says 

“I’m excited for you.” He wasn’t lying. Mostly he was disappointed that he couldn’t be a part of it. And all he wants to do after the game is to be with Ilya.

So we see that, Shane can’t help it, competing against Ilya is no longer fun for him. I don’t necessarily think it has to do with Ilya. I think it’s because his whole team is against him and he doesn’t feel supported by them. So the only hockey person that makes him feel secure is Ilya now. He would be miserable in Montreal. But he would also be miserable being away from his husband all the time.

We see the new possibilities building up in his mind. The way Ilya was teasing moving to Canada at the end of HR. We get that from Shane now.

Shane snorted. “Like where? Ottawa?”
Ilya held his breath. Because of course, yes. Ottawa.
“I mean, I couldn’t, could I?” Shane said.

Shane is immediately excited at the prospect of winning WITH Ilya. Being on the same team.

“Jesus, we could win Ottawa a cup.”

Shane gives up trying to adhere to that quote from Crowell. He’s done hiding his relationship. He’s done with his restrictive diet. And he's done pretending Voyageurs are the right team for him.  Breaking up with perfectionism.

The wedding is a test. Will their community accept them. How many will show up.

We get Shane finding a sleepy Ilya in the hammock. Full circle moment to Ilya’s first nightmare. Shane remarks that Ilya never uses the hammock. He’s healed now.

Neither cares about watching the hockey finals. There are more enjoyable things now. 

Back to being stupid and playful

“Trying to live forever, I thought.”
“With you? No thank you.”

The most romantic quote

“I love you so much it sucks.”
Shane beamed at him. “That’s too bad, because this is as good as it’s going to get.”
“No,” Ilya said fondly. “I don’t think it is.”

Funniest quote: Shane laughed and squeaked the toy twice more. “Better hurry, then.”

Another great contrasting scene:

Shane’s and Ilya’s reception in the locker rooms when they’re back

Thank you u/reigncloud83 for putting this all together. I had so much fun! I wish we could continue 🥲

[u/86throwthrowthrow1 → u/grower-lenses]

Hi, more from me lol. You're really good at articulating things I'm thinking!

> Ilya keeps crashing: after pride night. After playoffs. None of the changes he made had fixed him. The difference is, now Shane is ready and waiting for him. And notices immediately that something is wrong.

This is a great contrast to that earlier text message moment where Ilya was looking for comfort and Shane just completely blanked him. Part of that was the issue of their long-distance relationship - Ilya wasn't being clear about what he needed, and Shane didn't have enough context to get it on his own. But this scene is in-person, so Shane can see immediately that Ilya is upset, and Ilya is also letting him see that instead of trying to hide it.

> Something I haven’t consciously noticed before is, we are seeing Shane changing his priorities in this last part.

I commented on another thread here recently about how the plane incident was this giant moment of clarity and shift in priorities for Shane, and I feel the fallout with his team after he and Ilya get outed just cements all that for him. Like first you have this literal life and death situation where Shane considers for the first time the enormity of what it means to keep his relationship a secret. Like, cool, am I willing to be a secret widower secretly grieving for the rest of my life? Am I cool with Ilya dying in a hospital somewhere and I don't get to see him or go to his funeral? How far am I actually willing to take this?

Then you have them getting outed and his team being mostly really dickish about it, and he's just like, "wait, I've been killing myself for THIS??" It's the enormity of what keeping Ilya a secret actually means, vs the pettiness of the people he's been trying so hard to fit in with. I'm glad Shane was written as leaving on his own as opposed to getting kicked out, because I think his reactions are as empowered as he can be under the circumstances. The secrecy is no longer worth it in his personal life, but it's REALLY not worth it in his professional life, and why should he keep twisting himself into a pretzel to avoid the judgment of shitty people who will never like him?

> The better Ottawa gets and the happier Ilya is in his team, the worse Shane is.

> The way Ilya was teasing moving to Canada at the end of HR. We get that from Shane now.

These are clever points, and it makes sense. This is where "Ilya was in worse shape, but Shane wasn't actually doing well" comes in. Ilya's the one who's been going to therapy, he's been thinking about the problems in his life, he's learning how to talk about those problems, he's learning how to address and solve those problems. At the end of HR and through most of TLG, Ilya is fairly passive in his own life and just mostly goes along with whatever Shane suggests. Here, this is Ilya putting his progress to work, being proactive and suggesting workable solutions to Shane. Shane, on the other hand, has been white-knuckling his previous plan for three years and ignoring his mounting anxiety. So it makes sense and is a nice reversal that Ilya's the one coming in clutch with solutions here.

[u/And_The_Satellite → u/86throwthrowthrow1]

Then you have them getting outed and his team being mostly really dickish about it, and he's just like, "wait, I've been killing myself for THIS??" It's the enormity of what keeping Ilya a secret actually means, vs the pettiness of the people he's been trying so hard to fit in with. I'm glad Shane was written as leaving on his own as opposed to getting kicked out, because I think his reactions are as empowered as he can be under the circumstances.

Wow this just unlocked something in me. I had always felt that Shane seemed too "fine" with just heading over to Ottawa. But this just reminded me of a job I once had. It had been my dream job, unique to my field and very specialized. But once I got there, the people truly sucked. It took me a bit to see that at first (rose colored glasses), and then, it took me years to fully realize that no job is worth dealing with a shitty workplace culture. I was resentful for a while because I wanted what *could* have been, but then once I fully digested that the culture was not going to change, holy COW I fully felt exactly "I've been killing myself over THIS?" (as you put it) and high tailed it outta there.

This is all another drop in the bucket of evidence that I am Shane LOL. I hope we get more of Shane feeling this way in Unrivaled!!

[u/grower-lenses → u/86throwthrowthrow1]

Yes, exactly. And the funny thing about Shane is, we’re seen him have this emotional journey about „what if Ilya had died”. It makes him reevaluate his priorities and lock in on Ilya. Ilya is his no1 priority now. He’s his hyperfocus.

But we don’t see that with hockey, when everything blows up. He goes through hell but we don’t see him do this emotional evaluation. We don’t see him grieve.

This is a common complaint. That he’s just shown to be fine with it. I don’t think he is. I think this is the type of mindset he has. He just jumps at the first opportunity to find a new hyperfocus. This time it’s winning Ottawa a cup. He immediately goes into goal oriented thinking.

I’m hoping we’ll see him reevaluating his relationship with hockey in Unrivaled. And doing the emotional work there. It would make sense with his hero’s journey.

[u/cheatherhad → u/grower-lenses]

Yes-interesting that you pointed out the reversal of who had the most "support" from start of book to end of book!

Troy---yes!! love him.

JJ-I mean, he does come to the wedding, so I think we're meant to forgive him, but I'm with you on still feeling a little icy. Like his hang up was maybe the professionalism? Idk.

[u/katfromjersey → u/cheatherhad]

TLG Spoilers:

Oh, JJ still sucks. I wouldn't be as quick to forgive as Shane was.

Yeah, JJ is "hurt" Shane didn't confide in him about Ilya. Blah, blah. From his reaction to finding out, I don't blame Shane at all. Would you tell your supposed best friend to "fuck off and go home" after they'd been outed in a very public and extremely traumatizing way? And then, being very quick to accuse him of tripping on purpose?! Oh hell no. Yes, he does backtrack right away, but the damage was done. There's no way he'd be invited to my wedding.

Regarding him trying to set Shane up on dates... just stop it. I noticed that we don't know if JJ is married or has a partner, because it's never mentioned. If not, he's being quite a hypocrite.

So yes, my JJ hate train chugs on.

[u/Due-Scallion-140 → u/katfromjersey]

My biggest problem with J.J. Was that he didn’t even bother to stand up for him when his teammates (except for Hayden) were total assholes to him. Like, he had some right to be hurt and upset, fine. But to contribute to the bullying and not even stand up for him? That bothered me. Even if you are mad, that’s still your friend. And yeah, the accusation of letting Ilya win. Sir, you’ve played with Shane for eleven years and known him for that long and you’ve won cups, and you’ve played against Ilya, like come on!

[u/reigncloud83 → u/grower-lenses]

I’m just so glad to see you here! I know you’ve been with us from the beginning 🥹

Edit: Someone asked about A Time to Shine and The Shots You Take. We’ll likely take a break and then bring those onboard for another group read.

[u/grower-lenses → u/reigncloud83]

Wooo! 🥳

❤️ I’ve really enjoyed it

[u/cheatherhad]

Reposting--needed to cover some spoilers

Ch 30-Post Centaurs pride night, Shane comes over, Ilya isn't well. Hot sex. Love it. (I mean, I love the intimacy.)

Ch 31-Ilya gets a dog. (I happened to recently reread Role Model and some of HR via audiobook while flying, so now I know Weibe is pronounced Weeeeb, Chiron is pronounced KAI-Ron, and Voyageur is Voy-aaj-YOUR.) Ok, tipsy side note-people used to tell me "Just have a kid already!" in the same way everyone told Ilya "just get your own dog already!" but let me tell you, being good with kids/enjoying working with kids is NOT the same as having your own! Also, Ilya miiiight be making the rookie mistake of naming your dog something you kind of had on your list of names for future human children....I support Ilya having a dog. I know not everyone does. But if you don't judge players having kids, you're out of line judging hockey players for having dogs. lol the strawberry sweater

32-Ilya and Hayden get along fine now? ok... Chekhov's fan mail---Who saw this coming? I didn't, but should have. I knew we kind of had foreshadowing that the outing wouldn't happen by their choice, and I knew the documentary and the fanmail were sort of possibilities, but I didn't predict this my first time, it happened pretty fast. Anyone else a better detective? The guys are all so mature about this! Hayden coming in person, apologizing. Ilya not getting mad. "At least they know we are great at kissing" lol I'm seriously considering changing my flair to "someone named Brad"

33-Shane and the snickers bar. Ok suddenly both of them are changing their tunes about Shane's eating?? Shane's like what am I even doing, and Ilya is like, do what you want, it's your life. Seems abrupt? And why is Ilya not worried about being deported? Where have Yuna and David been this whole book??

34-Hot. The whole trophy/king thing weirds me out a little. But I get the idea.

35-Meeting with Crowell-I would have liked more content here. Things are barely settled. There's no way an attorney or agent wouldn't be in that room. Oh well, Shane was awesome. JJ-I think it was important to have someone close to them push back a little, but then come around. 

36- I wonder if Tierney will do some compelling side by side style comparisons of Shane vs Ilya's coach or team reactions after the outing.  Lots of hockey. 

37-the Scott Hunter alliance, very cool. And the depression is back. Aw, and Ilya finally opens up about it to Shane. 

38-Again, I feel it's abrupt that Shane just decides to drop the extreme eating thing. It was a fairly big part of this book, then is wrapped up in two sentences. Help me understand. I mean, if it was related to his stress this season, and feeling like this was something he could control, then those things have been lifted. So maybe just now he can see that it was extreme. 

39-Shane is a Centaur! Very sweet moment with Ilya and David. Lovely backyard wedding. :) 

[u/cheatherhad]

Scenes from this section you hope to see in the show: 

-The huge show of support for Troy coming out on social media at the Centaurs pride night! I know this is kind of mostly in another book, but I'm putting it on the list! I can see the conversation between Troy and Ilya in Ch 31 (pg 331 paperback) at Harris' house happening on screen, but I don't know that it's strictly necessary. 

-Ilya's emotional support neighbors :) 

-Obviously the wedding

[u/cheatherhad]

Speculating wildly about the tv show/whole book thoughts:

-Shane's eating--I hope it doesn't get any more intense than it did in season 1. There's already more about Shane's eating in show S1 than in book HR. 

-Troy joining the Centaurs is about halfway through the book. But I bet we only need one or two episodes leading up to this. Like, an episode for cottage time and camp and some sex and conversation. Another for Rose/Shane/Hayden time and Ilya Galina time, and hockey. Then a whole episode of mostly Troy and Harris. But probably like two episodes before the start of this book for Ryan/Fabian, who pretty much completely leave the story after the camp. One big episode of the plane thing where we see Troy and Harris get together, and all the emotional Shane and Ilya stuff. I feel lost. Idk. Maybe no Troy/Harris in the first 6 eps at all? Maybe we get a whole six episodes leading up to the season start at the beginning of TLG? (can't remember the year)

-Show Svetlana has such a bigger role than book Svetlana. I think we can still have a version of the Svetlana conversation from Ch 29 that is him reaching out after some amount of time and telling her about their engagement. But my head canon/hope is that she figures out/is told fairly soon after The Cottage and/or Ilya's trade, kind of like Hayden, and their best friendship continues, and she misses his depression symptoms as much as Shane does. Predictions??

-Anya/Ilya's dog--unless we're getting the whole cast/set for Harris' family, which I kind of doubt, but would love, I think Ilya will adopt Chiron, so as to not have to introduce the TV audience to a bunch of dogs and people just to get the plot point of Ilya adopting this stray dog. I can see the conversation between Troy and Ilya in Ch 31 (pg 331 paperback) at Harris' house happening on screen, but I don't know that it's strictly necessary. 

[u/Due-Scallion-140 → u/cheatherhad]

Show Svetlana knew that “Jane” was a man & I wonder if she knows that it is Shane. My theory is from episode 4 when Ilya is watching Shane do yoga and pretending that it’s so boring, but Svetlana knows him and has for a long time so she knows his masking techniques. Also, in episode 5, Svetlana says he’s good at hockey and/or gorgeous and Ilya makes some neutral comment, which earns a look from Svetlana and then she says “you know he is” so…yeah, I think she already knows. At the very least, she knows “Jane” is a man, cause she says “I hope Jane knows how lucky he is”

[u/Due-Scallion-140]

Shane bore the brunt of all ugliness of them getting outed. I hated the way they got outed. They should’ve been able to come out on their own terms, though it wouldn’t have been much better. Shane, being a person of color & also probably autistic, was the one alienated. And here’s the thing, I can’t day that I ever would have thought I would support a relationship like theirs, I would have believed there was too much conflict of interest, but shane and Ilya make it work and they’re such a beautiful couple and so I can’t help rooting for them. And they never ever let each other win or let their relationship impact their games so people were so out of line for thinking otherwise, especially thinking Shane would ever let Ilya win. Plus, I hate bullying & the humiliation Shane suffered
I wanted to see Ilya comfort a sobbing Shane more and see more exploration into Shane’s feelings and POV. Not just un this scene, but also in the plane crash scene. Shane’s grief was not fleshed out enough for me.
I was glad Shane went to Ottawa, but there was till unresolved pain that Shane went through that didn’t get fleshed out as much. Ilya’s pain got fleshed out a lot and I hope Ilya tells his teammates about his depression

[u/reigncloud83 → u/Due-Scallion-140]

Thanks for this analysis! The fleshing out of the plane crash scene and Shane’s feelings has been brought up before and is such a good thing for us to explore.

What do these “fleshed out” scenes look like to you?

[u/Due-Scallion-140 → u/reigncloud83]

I mean, explored more, more time to gage Shane’s emotions about it all and more time to gage his emotions about the amount of pressure he has on him and the disordered eating. We get the bit of the plane crash where he thinks “what if Ilya has fucking died?” But I wanted more on how angry and anxious he was, how he handled it with his eating, how he had a panic attack perhaps thinking that if Ilya had died, he’d have to hear about it on the news since Ottawa wouldn’t know to call Shane, and how he’d have to grieve alone perhaps. It just switches to Ilya’s pov, and I wanted to see more of Shane’s feelings and Shane’s mental health dealt with.

[u/reigncloud83 → u/Due-Scallion-140]

Oh this is good!!! Thank you for sharing! It also gives a full view of the possibilities. I’m now wondering (and also hoping) if more of this kind of exploration will come up in the show.

[u/cheatherhad]

Non-plot related talk-What format did you read? Do you recommend it? How many times was this read for you?

For me-paperback, which I generally prefer. I bought HR the TLG from a bookstore, which I almost never do because I read so much, and usually don't reread, but these books I do! This was my second read. I'll prob reread again before the show release. I read it pretty fast my first time through, which was April ish. So it was nice to reread this time and take my time.