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*Spoilers spoilers spoilers* the running grave spoilers thread.. (Content warning - mentions suicide)

717 replies

EggTheParrot · 27/09/2023 12:42

Just as the title says really.. spoilers ok in this thread. Let's keep the other one spoiler free??

Oh my god why is Robyn going undercover!

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14
BabyStopCryin · 03/10/2023 10:57

Well preserved and smarmy. Mama what’sit - hard to say as she is pretending to be Chinese isn’t she?

EmpressaurusOfCats · 03/10/2023 12:06

PatChaunceysFruitCake · 03/10/2023 07:18

I really enjoyed it. Couldn't put it down until I knew Robin was safely out. When she holds his hand and says 'I knew you'd be there' 🥰

Loved Pat's no nonsense approach to Will and her 'confession' to Strike.

I listen to the Strike and Ellacott podcast and I always think they are hard on Lucy. It was good to see her character grow and Strike make an effort to understand her better.

I had a lot of sympathy for Linda in the first few books but she seems to be throwing her relationship with Robin away now. She needs to work harder on accepting that Robin isn't her, a tricky lesson for all parents.

The SE Files? I listen to that too but it’s getting increasingly irritating. For every really interesting point, there’s a load of wittering about how much they love Strike & how it all ‘hurts their hearts’ or ‘hits them in their feelings.’

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 03/10/2023 17:45

Just finished. I was listening to it so all the characters got a bit confusing without the ability to flick back and see who was begat of whom! However I thought it was a much better story than Ink Black Heart - Robin inside the cult was very tense...
BUT I feel like I read the entire book for that last chapter - at last cards on the table time! Very exciting prospect for the next book. Robin's head will be mush on that weekend away with Ryan.
Now to binge re-watch the Strike TV series as I think Tom Burke and Holiday Grainger perfectly capture the Strike and Robin characters chemistry on screen.

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Runningoutofusernamestochange · 03/10/2023 18:28

I’m glad it’s not just me that’s having a rewatch! Anyone know if/when we are going to get a TV series of The Ink Black Heart? Those online chats are going to be really difficult to translate onto screen.

Is anyone else finding it a bit odd that the series is called Strike, when really it’s predominantly about Robin’s journey?

fruitstick · 03/10/2023 18:55

Runningoutofusernamestochange · 03/10/2023 18:28

I’m glad it’s not just me that’s having a rewatch! Anyone know if/when we are going to get a TV series of The Ink Black Heart? Those online chats are going to be really difficult to translate onto screen.

Is anyone else finding it a bit odd that the series is called Strike, when really it’s predominantly about Robin’s journey?

I don't think it's even started filming yet, so will be at least a year away I think.

BabyStopCryin · 03/10/2023 19:29

I don’t the TV adaptations too short and cut back. I think the first one was in 5 parts and the last one in 3?

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 03/10/2023 20:22

The TV adaptations episodes are as follows:

CC 3 Part
SW 2 Part
COE 2 Part
LW 4 Part
TB 4 Part

So the last two have been longer.
I quite like the truncated story telling though. I often feel like JKR could go with a good edit tbh.
(For example I don't need to be reminded of Pats gravelly/manly/growly voice every time she opens her mouth!)
But the adaptation does have a special place in my heart because I never fancied the books until I watched Tom Burke in the role - I think I fell in love with Cormoran Strike in tandem with Robin.

Calmdown14 · 03/10/2023 21:03

I felt the TV adaptation of Career of Evil could really have done with another part. It was a lot of characters and background stories to get your head around in the time frame, plus the Robin sacking and wedding. But they did seem to learn from this and give the next instalments more time.

I feel quite bereft now I have no more to read. Might have to start it again or join in the TV binging.

Neuilly · 04/10/2023 07:22

Finished too and going back for a slower read. I’m shocked they didn’t plan in advance an address for her to write to nor a bank account where they could donate.

LOVED Pat and Dennis. So so much.

last chapter cliffhanger omg hoping it’s a pretty seamless jump to start of next book.

LongFaulks · 04/10/2023 08:42

Finished the audiobook last night and this morning have bought the kindle version so I can immediately start a reread.
I always do the books in this order (listen then read) as Robert Glenister is my definitive Strike, the actor playing him in the tv series is just a pale imitation.

My favourite Strike by far. The farm section was so tense and stressful. Every time she went to a night rock visit I’d be thinking ‘this is it, this time she get’s caught’. Hugely amused that so many of us here are analysing the chocolate bar deposits. I too was enraged by the flake. FOR FUCKS SAKE ITS MOSTLY AIR. Would have been a snickers for me every time. I also overthought the inclusion of a Yorkie bar. Whose idea was that (thinking back to the old adverts where Yorkies weren’t for girls)?

The farm scenes really captures how cults work to brainwash people. The fatigue, the hunger, the constant mind reprogramming, fear of exclusion, turning families into the bad guys. Earlier this year I listened to a really good podcast series on BBC sounds on the Lighthouse cult in the UK. So many parallels to this.

I did clock that all the pigs emphasis would mean that someone at some point would have been fed to them. Definitely didn’t get the end though.

If someone comes across a family tree online of all the characters in this book I would be very grateful. Would help with the reread.

Neuilly · 04/10/2023 08:48

I would also say that I have a family member who lives at the Scientology UK HQ in East Grinstead and although it’s very difficult to probe too much with her, I definitely see some of the false cheerfulness, blind faith and other behaviours in her. Really scary.

LongFaulks · 04/10/2023 08:54

A friend of mine who also lives the books and I also complete regular Stump Watch check ins when we are reading the book.

I’m going to give The Running Grave a 2/10 for overall Stump Watch. Zero chafing this time!
IBH was probably a 9/10.

Thedrownedprophet · 04/10/2023 09:35

Apropos of nothing, we used to keep pigs in a small holding we had, and they didn't eat everything, they often turned their snouts up at kitchen scraps.

No way would they have eaten a body.

Lancelottie · 04/10/2023 09:35

Minimal stump watch but possible TMI about the causes of hamstring pain!

BabyStopCryin · 04/10/2023 10:10

Noooo - there have been cases where bodies were chopped up and fed to the pigs! Wasn’t there a newspaper editors wife who was kidnapped and murdered and she was said to have been fed to the pigs?

i always thought chickens were happy little clucks until my sister got some. They eat other chickens…

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 04/10/2023 10:16

There's definitely been multiple uses of pigs to eat bodies. I also was thinking "they've eaten people" when pigs were getting mentioned but I didn't think it was Daiyu, I thought it would be random people who had died at the farm or people who had tried and failed to escape. I'm guessing that they weren't massively well fed at the farm (like everyone else!) so yeah, if they were hungry enough I'm sure they would have chomped up a child.

tribpot · 04/10/2023 10:17

I declined to google 'would pigs eat a human' but it's a fairly common trope in books at least. There's a Jack Reacher novel where it happens too.

Lancelottie · 04/10/2023 10:38

BabyStopCryin · 04/10/2023 10:10

Noooo - there have been cases where bodies were chopped up and fed to the pigs! Wasn’t there a newspaper editors wife who was kidnapped and murdered and she was said to have been fed to the pigs?

i always thought chickens were happy little clucks until my sister got some. They eat other chickens…

I still shudder at the memory of two chickens fighting over a (formerly alive) mouse.

Dinosaurs, I tell you.

Thedrownedprophet · 04/10/2023 10:43

I'm just saying that our "Snoop Hoggy hog" and "Notorious P.I.G" wouldn't have contemplated it.

fruitstick · 04/10/2023 10:46

I mean it puts Charlotte's Web in a whole new light.

MrsJagoRoss · 04/10/2023 11:26

There was a period TV drama where a man was eaten by pigs. Was it a Sally Wainwright one? Can anyone remember?

Thedrownedprophet · 04/10/2023 12:03

It was Gentleman Jack I think.

SirSamVimesCityWatch · 04/10/2023 12:04

There's a fair few if you google.

(God knows what this is going to do to the suggestions Google gives me from now on)