Colorworld Readalong: Teleworld Chapters 13-24

Hey all, Dani here.

Wow, we’re already on week two of the second book in this readalong/discussion. Seriously, that means we are already halfway through this book. Time is really flying by, that’s for sure. I hope you have all had a nice weekend, by the way. Wow. My days are blending together so much right now that I’m not exactly thinking clearly, which means I’m forgetting the pleasantries of a standard intro. How are you all doing?

Oh, I should probably also put up a reminder that there will be a panel with Colorworld Live on Friday, July 17th where authors Rachel Kelly, Lance Conrad, and Russell Nohelty will be talking about reading, writing, author life, and more. You can check out the merch store here. Seriously it’s going to be a great time.

Teleworld is 400 pages long (the original version anyway) with 51 chapters total. There is also an illustrated edition, the e-book, or the audiobook. I do definitely recommend listening to this book if you are someone who enjoys audiobooks. The voice actor cast is absolutely incredible. This first book just features Todd Haberkorn and Cherami Leigh, but they have also added Brittney Karbowski, David Wald, and Chiemeri Osemele.

The readalong for June 29-July 27 will cover Teleworld, the second book of the series. I’ll have the book details below the cover image.

And you can check out my post with the full readalong details here.

June 29-July 6: ———Read Chapters 1-12

July 6-13: ——-Read Chapters 13-24

July 13-20: —–Read Chapters 25-39

June 20-27: —–Read Chapters 40-Epilogue

My plan is to have the discussion posts for each week posted on Sundays…so July 5, July 12, July 19, and July 26. Join in on those posts any time you’d like. Just be forewarned that I cannot guarantee that the discussions will be spoiler free. If you want spoiler free information about this series, you can check out my book review.

After a month of living a semi-normal life with her condition, Wen would rather not think about scary things like the fact that her ability became more powerful all on its own. Or that Louise is still roaming free. Or that she’s about to be married to Gabriel and she has no idea how they’ll manage being unable to touch each other. But the questions won’t leave her alone and she’s desperate for answers.

Wen believes those answers begin with Subject Number Three, the only person known to have survived touching her lethal skin. When her Uncle Robert finally locates the woman, Wen is sure that an end to her problems is within her grasp.

She’s wrong. They’ve only just begun.

Now, hope for a cure to Wen’s condition is crumbling, Kaylen is missing, and a horrifying accident with her brother leaves Wen desperate and terrified. Just when she thinks she can’t take much more, Gabriel, the one person Wen thought she could count on, suddenly becomes the one person she fears the most.

Be Warned…since this is a discussion for book two, there are probably spoilers below and in the comments. But if you want to start at the beginning of the discussions for the first book, you can head over to this post, which then links to the rest of the Colorworld discussions.

Chapters 13-24

1. What do you think of the coincidence that Wendy and Gabe were not only at the same art benefit a few years earlier, but that Gabe and Mike ended up buying an art piece for Maris that just happened to be the one piece Wendy made?
2. Okay, so I just need to know…what did you think of Wendy and Gabriel’s first marital spat, as they try to figure out their new relationship dynamics and married life and living together and figuring out limitations due to Wendy’s death touch?
3. What are your thoughts on Wendy’s indecisive avocado dream?
4. Do you think Gabriel is justified in his thoughts or do you think his plans are going too far? What about Wendy’s thoughts and plans?
5. Kaylen re-enters the story by contacting Wendy about her father being kidnapped. This then leads to scenes where Wendy and Gabe learn more about the colorworld, we all learn more about Uncle Rob’s ability, and we get some surveillance/spy tech work as the group hunts down Louise. That’s a lot of information and action all at once. What do you think will happen next?

I think it is cool how people’s lives can be connected in ways that they don’t notice or realize at first, only to be revealed later. Sometimes the world really does seem to be a small place, while other times it seems vast and impossible. Having this art benefit and art piece connect Wendy to the Dumas family was just a fascinating revelation to me.

Oh man, both questions 2 and 4 sort of tie in together. I’ve always been intrigued by the ebb and flow of relationships when it comes to romance plot lines in books and other media. There has to be road blocks and speed bumps and twists and turns in the road to keep things exciting and to keep the reader invested. Wendy and Gabriel just take things to an extreme due to Wendy’s lethal skin. A lot of their issues stem from Wendy’s fear of people touching her and having to experience their deaths like she did with Dina and Derek and others. Gabriel’s side of things comes from his logic and analysis of theories he comes up with and details that he has observed from being around Wendy. But then he tries to act on those, barely explaining what he’s doing until he gets caught, and then standing firm to logic and analytical observations without considering the emotional trauma involved, instead just chalking it up to Wendy being simply afraid or overly-moral. This is the main struggle of this power couple through this book, and it does present some serious challenges to overcome. Both sides have merit, but I can say that I think they both rashly over-react. When I read this through the first time I definitely was on Wendy’s side, but the more I read it, the more I find myself sitting in the middle of the situation, as if trying to find some sort of middle ground.

Oh man, that avocado dream was hilariously weird, and finding Gabriel hiding in Wendy’s room when she awakes freaked me out, though not to the extent that Wendy was freaked. It reminded me of that creepy scene in Twilight where Edward admits to sneaking into Bella’s room pretty much every night just to watch her sleep. But then you add into it that Gabriel was lurking in Wendy’s room because he was trying to decide if his soul was good enough for him to be able to touch Wendy without harm. I think he took it too far when he went into her room while she was sleeping to try out a theory he had formulated.

Of course when Kaylen enters the story is where we start getting the major action of this book. Before this it was just mostly casual relationship drama. But now there’s kidnapping and surveillance work and a manhunt. And where this week’s reading ends is with Wendy literally starting to chase after Louise because she doesn’t want her to get away from them again. I have a feeling that this story is only going to get a bit more action packed as we move forward, and I’m excited about that.

Oh, and I’ll always enjoy the scenes with Uncle Rob in them, and finding out more about his ability is really cool. But the more he reveals about what he can do, the more you realize that he has a lot more strength of character and depth to him than what we initially observed. Uncle Rob is certainly a fascinating character.

As always, if you have any questions you would like to add to this conversation, please feel free to ask them in the comments. That’s all from me for today, but I will be back soon with more bookish content.