#bbybtm

[secular-gayze]

Anybody else read the most recent chapter of "Better By You, Better Than Me" by Palmviolet and wanna yell with me about it???

[palmviolet]

chapter sixty-five of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter sixty-five summary:

Then Eddie guns the engine and they’re shooting off down the street towards the school, a thing that seems regressive and somehow bizarre, like moving backwards in the annals of time. There, Main Street and the Hawk marquee where Eddie came across Steve and roped him into it in the first place. Melvald’s, where Joyce used to work; the music store, where he and Jonathan and Robin shopped for Christmas presents. They cut across town and Eddie feels the strange urge to laugh.

[palmviolet]

chapter fifty-eight of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter fifty-eight summary:

“Fuck,” Murray says eventually. Glares at Nancy. “Haven’t had a moment’s peace since you came to see me two years ago, you know that? It’s one of those things that totally and unnecessarily tangles up the entire trajectory of your life. A great cosmic accident. God laughing down at the fools from above. For fuck’s sake.”

[palmviolet]

chapter fifty-six of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter fifty-six summary:

“Shit, in Hawkins? There hasn’t been a murder in Hawkins since–” He senses something in her broken-off silence. “Since what?” She sighs again. He hears something clink, something being poured. “You ever heard of Victor Creel?”

[palmviolet]

chapter fifty-five of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter fifty-five summary:

“People see what they want to see. They’re happy to dismiss anything that doesn’t– anything that doesn’t cohere with their worldview. They’ll tell themselves I’m your dealer before they register I’m your friend.”

[palmviolet]

chapter fifty-four of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter fifty-four summary:

He managed only to mouth it at Steve as they dragged him away. Hands cuffed cold behind his back. Upside Down, he’d mouthed, which would be gibberish to anyone not privy to the secret but to the rest of them–

[palmviolet]

chapter fifty-three of BETTER BY YOU, BETTER THAN ME

↳ read on ao3

November 1983. Between unpaid bills, the supposedly straight jock he’s seeing, and letters from his convict dad, seventeen year old Eddie Munson’s got enough to worry about. But when Will Byers goes missing, it sparks a chain of events that will show there are more depths to Hawkins — and to certain people in it, like infamous Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington — than he realises.

/ or, the excessively long slow-burn in which Eddie is involved in the Upside Down from the very beginning.

chapter fifty-three summary:

“Thanks, man,” Steve says, puffing out smoke, handing the lighter back. The distance between them is studied, careful. They both know what happens when they cross it.

[palmviolet]

hon, any news on bbybtm? 🥺

hello! this ask came at an opportune moment (unlike the other ones, which i have not answered... apologies for that) which means i can give you some News!

as you might be able to tell from my tumblr, i've fallen into a rabbit hole of a different sort (ahem true detective) but rest assured better by you hasn't gone anywhere. i wrote 2k words of it yesterday! i'm finally in a place where i feel a bit more balanced about my workload (watch there be another round of edits on the book coming immediately to destabilise that... but for now...) which means i'm targeting the 28th of april as vol. 4 ch1 publication date! mark it in your calendars, folks. it's going to be a wild ride. and to tide you over, the opening paragraph:

Cigarettes and the open road, just the way Eddie likes it. Judas Priest cranked up on the stereo, Stained Class, the song, not the album, though it’s playing out of the album too. He’s got the window rolled down and his elbow hanging out. It’s the road, the interstate, diners and motels flashing past like a real road movie, like if he kept on going he’d end up nowhere but Hollywood, the only place anything about this might make sense.