The Kingswood Amelioration - Chapter 02
Added 2025-07-25 16:00:17 +0000 UTCComments
That's a great quote. Milo is so sweet. As for Mark and Josh, they definitely have an interesting journey through Year 11.
Matthew Smith
2025-07-29 11:32:33 +0000 UTCInteresting speculation. The matter of future careers/studies etc becomes a key plot point moving into book 6. Danny isn't the only one struggling to know what he wants to do, but answers do some up eventually... I like your ideas for how the future could look though.
Matthew Smith
2025-07-29 11:31:47 +0000 UTCThat cookie metaphor is great and so is Jesse, it's a shame he only had only one year in the story. "Also, am I the only one thinking that young Zack Morse may be another victim of Todd?" Yeah, it could be that. But I also wonder if Zack could be at the point Mikey was near the start of Todd's appearances, where Todd still seemed friendly and helpful, and hadn't abused him yet. Then Zack would be sad that Todd is gone, not knowing what he avoided. So it could go in two kind of opposite directions, but I agree with you that Mikey will support Zack if he was victim.
Davide
2025-07-26 23:29:52 +0000 UTCSo nice to see lively discussion in the comments so far in this book. Everyone has covered a lot of what I might have said, so I'll focus on a few other things. I am delighted to see the beginnings of a possible Avery/Milo pairing. They are my two favorites among the Lads. I think they will make an adorable couple. We know Rob and Milo come from a great family, so I believe Milo would really be supportive and someone for Avery to lean on when/if Avery finds out about his brother Daniel. Also, am I the only one thinking that young Zack Morse may be another victim of Todd? I know Mikey is still recovering from dealing with it himself, but Mikey is so caring and sweet that if that does turn out to be the case, he may find himself becoming my hero again as he helps Zack cope with it. Who knows how many victims Todd may have had? I think one of the many things that keeps us all interested in this story (besides Matt's great story-telling abilities, obviously) goes back to what Jesse told Danny when Danny was just a Year 7. "“So… the cookie thing. It’s something I got told back when I was in Year 7. It’s like a metaphor. You know what that is?” Jesse asked. “Sure,” Danny nodded. He sort of knew, but figured he’d work it out. “So he told me that when you come to Kingswood, you’re like a bag of flour,” Jesse started, smiling as he saw Danny was still understandably confused. “Now over Year 7, you start to pick up the other ingredients that make up who you are. You know, the real basic ingredients, the… the core of who you’ll be as a person. Then you start moving up and as you move through Years 8 and 9 you start picking up… the fancier ingredients, ya know, the chocolate chips or the nuts or whatever. With me so far?” “No, but go on anyway!” Danny sniggered. “Then you hit Year 10 and… all those ingredients get thrown in the bowl and get mixed up and by the end of Year 11, you’re this… cookie dough. It’s all there and it tastes good but, it’s still not a cookie, so then you go on to Years 12 and 13 and you… you get cooked… you get finished off. So by the time you’re my age, you’ve become the… final cookie! The… sum of all your time here!”" We are so invested because we want to see these boys become the 'final cookie.' At the same time, it's really going to suck when our time at Kingswood is over. Finally, although I know that the teacher/student pairings have had their role in the growth of the boys, I still find myself hoping that Danny will be able to leave that part of his sex life behind him. @David I've been re-reading the series yet again. Just made it to summer vacation after Danny and Chris's first kiss. I know Danny has stated he'd like to be a policeman more than once, but I really think you are onto something with him teaching/working with the students. Same with Chris - both of them care deeply about the others around them and they both love Kingswood. @Rutabaga - nice quote! Milo's definitely Rob's brother, because that is definitely something Rob would say to Josh.
Rich
2025-07-26 22:20:17 +0000 UTCI have a thought related to Kingswood characters that isn't related to this chapter at all, but I don't know where else to write it. Danny doesn't know what he wants to do for work, but he wants to help people, and Mr Trent went into teaching because he wanted to help people. That made me think about Danny as a teacher and I think he'd make a good floor master at Kingswood. As evidences of that, you can look at how helping people with their problems is his main thing and at the way he figured out the situation with the Lads last year to figure out Axel was the cause. Naturally wanting to keep Danny and Chris together, that made me wonder if Chris could be a teacher. He seems to be doing well at the whole writing thing, current creative block notwithstanding, but he pointed at an exclusive Patreon questions thing that's a very difficult career to get into. Making music didn't work out for him, but he has extensive knowledge of existing music. He could make a good music teacher and maybe do some writing on the side.
Davide
2025-07-26 17:47:37 +0000 UTC@David pretty well covered the ground I would cover in comments. I'll just add this Quotable Quote: >> Milo kept his gaze fixed on the ground as he said quietly, “Thanks, Josh.” A mischievous grin spread across his face as he added playfully, “I’m glad you’re not dead!” << I do look forward to seeing the Josh/Mark relationship develop and deepen, and particularly to seeing Mark flourish just being himself (referencing the discussion with Rob).
Rutabaga
2025-07-26 14:35:48 +0000 UTCTo me it looks more like Daniel and Avery's parents still didn't know why Daniel ended his own life. I also wonder if they knew Avery is gay or not. But I believe later it will be clearer in later chapters.
Johnny Kape
2025-07-26 05:29:56 +0000 UTCI'm sorry for how long this is, I have a lot of thoughts about this set up for what seems like it will be a great volume. I have a question. Was David involved in choosing Shane or does that only happen for year 7 students? After having a son kill himself over homophobic bullying, I imagine Daniel's parents were probably scared when their other son, Avery, turned out to also be gay (or bi, pan, etc). They probably blamed themselves for not noticing signs that Daniel was being bullied to such a big extent, that's a natural reaction, even though it's unfair to themselves. Avery thinks they put him in Kingswood to get rid of him, but what probably happened is they looked for the most supportive school for gay kids to avoid a repeat of their other son's bullying. I like that we seem to be seeing more of the Lads. It was probably hard to fit them more last year, both because their main storyline was for the group as a whole and for space reasons while we still had Joseph and Brian. We obviously can't follow the day to day of the Lads, so the recap of what don't see through a mentor meeting was method of giving us information. And we got introduced to Shane, he seems cool. It was fun to see someone who isn't Danny nor Chris get caught naked, but that was also an interesting moment for other reasons. First, the fact that Nicky even agreed to get naked there is a big show of mental health progress, but he went further because the old him would have probably had a panic attack after getting caught naked. And Mr. Stone seems like a fun character, I'm curious to see his dynamic with Danny, considering he's probably where that story is headed. I binged the story until the end of the previous volume, so my experience now is different, the volumes kinds of blended together for me before. This volume seems like it's going to feel fresh, based on the storylines that are being setup. We have character pairings we didn't see much of before, in Rob/Mikey and probably Daniel/David, based on the gym and Tuesday evenings things. We have new dynamics among previous pairings, in Mark/Josh and Nicky/Gray. And we have new characters, namely teachers and David's mentee.
Davide
2025-07-25 20:18:32 +0000 UTC
