All Comments on 'February Sucks: Same Old Me (2of4)'

I'm beginning to fathom what my daughter felt like when the next Harry Potter book was due out in a couple of days.

I am thoroughly enjoying this. I have to inquire along with greymatter46 about academic or professional familiarity. Perhaps just a worldly bartender in the real world. There were comments about redundancy. It is difficult being the only one holding a viewpoint or perspective. The author mentions that the friend group was cultivated by Linda. It takes 5 points of commonality to consider someone a friend. This Jim was just reassuring who he could call a friend. How we respond to betrayal is a route to survival. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Emotional and psychological scars are invisible. I feel I learned a viewpoint here. Is the female perspective depicted here accurate? Is it common? Are we truly as distant as Mars and Venus? I hope veracityheterodyne finds the person or perspective and is able to tell us a tale about it. Francemen, I am one of the insecure. I need to know I am right. Doing the right thing to avoid confrontation and conflict, as well as survive. I need to know who I can trust.

Yak, yak, yak. What real man does all this talking??

All in all, MC shows himself to be poor excuse for a man.

MC marries a woman just like mom, and gets what he deserves.

Without a clear, excuse free "I betrayed your father in his time of greatest need and pain", I personally would never talk to her again. Her actions were nothing short of deplorable and despicable.

Waaaaaaaay too long. 3 stars

Outside of the basic premise, this is nothing like GAs story. I am sick and tired of plagiarizing the idea in order to grind your own axe. Blech.

There are some fine insights in this miasma of words and occasional melodramatic flourishes. The main problem is that Jim is written in large part as a woman. He's like some college girl who needs to flit around her social circle to discuss her problems and feelings endlessly. It's inauthentic and tedious. If you had gone radical and inverted the story by having Jim do what GA wrote Linda as doing, it would have made all the endless rounds of chattering about feelings and what to do plausible. No remotely normal man would behave like this Jim or GA's, for that matter. You should know that normal men view Linda's behavior primarily through the lens of moral principle. "Feelings" are, for decision making purposes, secondary. The minute a man realizes that his wife has done a "Linda", her fate is sealed. There is no coming back from the cruel, coldly premeditated, public betrayal of her husband and marriage. A real life Jim would concern himself with mitigating the financial effects and the effects on the children of the divorce, but there would be no question that Linda would be kicked to the curb. Of course, there would be an emotional side for Jim, but men don't go from person to person or group to group wallowing in angst and being indecisive. Instead, the substance of what would be said to friends and family would be what happened and what will be done. Moreover, what primarily matters to a man is what she did, not "why" Linda did it or her feelings. Having Jim dither and equivocate is just a plot device used by many authors to write a longer story, but the result, as I mentioned before, is an inauthentic male character.

There are impressive flashes of insight in the story, even though I think it's seriously flawed. Don't be discouraged from writing by anything I've said, but you should reconsider how you develop characters.

Getting extremely redundant

Very interesting, but I cannot help to have an impression that the story is merely a vehicle for the psychological and sociological analyses of men and women's relationship.

I agree with Payenbrant (an excellent author in his own right, btw); I can't believe he's choosing now to make up with Mom. Seems an odd time to clear the air, but perhaps he feels she's punished herself enough and it's time for both of them to lay that burden down.

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Great sequel, 5 stars. I think Anderson's sole purpose in writing her story was to force a husband into accepting being cuckolded, rubbing his nose in it, with no consequences, at all, for the cheating wife. But then, she writes all the husbands in her stories as wimpy and indecisive, so it wasn't a stretch.

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This sequel is a breath of fresh air. It's realistic, lots of common sense, Jim stands tall, blame placed where it belongs, a reckoning with Linda coming up. Great stuff, can't wait for the next two.

His mom loved spending time with his father so much she found a lover to spend time e with instead. She is an atrocious human being. Cutting her out is for the best

IMO part 2 is dragging. Jim is becomming indicisive about what to do, I believe the lawyer LV will duplicate his role in the original. Jim's mother is human trash. Linda of course is still the narcissitic, unrepentant cunt. Short of a major twist the final outcome will be as lame as the original....

Rationalize her behavior because she has maturity of teenage. She is 31 and mother of two. No excuses. Men do not talk about love lives with spouses. Never.

Marriage is over. Period. No coming back from that level 9f disrespect. As easily as she cheated she obviously cheated before.

I hope this is not RAAC. No man could let this slide.

Are all women in this story dense?

long boring and too much psychological B S. Do real men need all that dialogue to make up their minds?

Appreciate the detail. As one commentator mentioned gaps in GA's story are getting well plugged.

And I concur with nyc1975. My several groups of male friends never talked about their sexual experiences as described by the wives in Cokatoo's tale.

I don't like febsux spin-offs and I don't like long stories and endless dialogues.

But this one captured me from the beginning of part one.

Excellent work! Waiting for part 3.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Excellent job of developing thinking beyond the “fragile male ego bullshit” that seems to have dug a channel deeply into the stream of stories in this genre. keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to the next two parts.

Ed

There is a fine line between interesting, in-depth character development and boring, mundane repetition.

So far you have done a masterful job of walking that line, kudos!!

Looking forward to final two segments.

Great writing. Wordy but wordy in a good way.

"To make us truly 'even,' I'd have to do it right in front of her face, over her objections, while she screams and cries and has YOU guys holding her back and mocking her and preventing her from stopping me."

Please make this happen or something similar. Twice if possible.

Still a good story. 5 stars. Seems the author must gave been a psychologist or marriage therapist in a prior life. His writing is pretty deep.

This is good, not the whole GA thing but the conversations. If I was to offer a criticism; it is the simple fact that you have brought a whole lot of concepts into the discussion, too many really, seems like you are exploring every trait and possibility to excuse or give reason for adulterers behaviour in an attempt to understand the profoundly unexplainable. [excuse is a poor word I'm sure you get what a simpleton like me is saying] 5 golden ones. PS long in a story is good.

WTF? Where did this masterpiece come from? Were you hit by the Martian Extraordinary Storyteller Ray? Top rung tale not only in the FS follow on category, but in LW's and indeed in Lit. as a whole. Can't wait for tomorrow to read on. 5 stars.

Personally, I find the story to be a combination of an English 101 class and a Psychology 101 class. The story is well written as would be expected from someone calling themself an author and yet the subject is as dry to me as a psychology class. Just my opinion.

Not as good as par 1

But still pretty darn good

The problem is that it seemed as if the story was mired in mud up past the knees.

Wow, this is really good.

A bit wordy in parts but very very good.

Should have been half the word count

I’m just scanning hoping this idiot will get to Jim and Linda. So far she is not even in the story, just her friends that Jim said in part one he never wanted to see again.

This chapter reminded me of my Intro to Philosophy class back in uni decades ago. The conversation in the pub was so similar to a reading discussing free will v. determinism. I love the argumentation presented and the way premises were introduced by the characters within the context of a conversation.

I hope Jim finds a real wife and slut and asshole get theirs, with no mercy! THEN, Jim gets his kids back and they have a new mommy!

Well written story and I have enjoyed it as much as possible. You did warn about it being long and tedious so that is on me. I have determined a positive and a negative so far from this self induced torment.

Positive:

This story just solidifies my belief that soft sciences are not really science. They are long winded never ending conversations that never get to the point and don't solve anything. They are only good for the therapists that use them to charge by the hour and keep the weak minded coming back in the hope that someone else will be able to justify why they are the way they are and how there is no one really responsible for it. It is just human nature and though it may be wrong on some levels it is understandable and must be accepted as human nature and be tolerated. JUST A BUNCH OF DRAWN OUT BULLSHIT THAT IS A WASTE OF TIME AT SEVERAL HUNDREDS DOLLARS AN HOUR!.

Negative:

It reinforces the belief that no one is really responsible for their actions and there is always something else or someone else that caused it. So they can't be held accountable and are just a victim that everyone sympathizes with. Hence, the woke generation, uneducated, indoctrinated self serving morons that have no original thoughts or opinions and are tools for the agenda controllers and mean less than nothing to the handlers that are using them to push their agendas. Just like public schools.....If your child is still in public schools quit calling it an education and be honest and call it what it is, an indoctrination. They can't read they can't write, they can't add and they have no mind of their own. They will never hold a position that is anything above basic and expendable. Congratulations you have raised a mindless puppet with no values or character.

This story has been done to point of ad nauseam.

Basic completion to this mess.

The cunt left her husband like a bad habit and expected to return like nothing happened. Quit using the kids as reason to stay with this stupid bitch. She deserves no compassion or understanding. Don't waste another second on her or the bottom feeding friends that facilitated her ability to be a complete whore. Be there for your kids, make them understand that actions have consequences and that decisions come with the responsibility of accepting the repercussions. Don't sugar coat what she did at all. Move on with life and treat the bitch like a stranger that you share kids with. She doesn't deserve forgiveness or anything else. Forgive yourself for making the mistake of trusting such an unworthy partner and don't make the same mistake again. Life is to short to waste anymore time on this bitch. Oh, least but by no means last, loverboy would suffer a terrible accident in the future after he was publicly ruined and sued. Seems he fell leaving a bar and his balls took out his knees on the way down. Tragically they were all unrecoverable conditions.

If it is not already obvious I will not continue with parts 3 and 4 for more of the yellow brick discussion of this story.

I like the stories that you write that are solid and cover what is needed without all this psycho-babble and nonsense. Your warning in the beginning will be taken seriously prior to investing anytime in the stories.

Hell I thought did really well making it through 2 parts hoping for a point that was never there.

Couldn't get past page 5 the BS she's 16 kma

There's way too much unnecessary talking.. it'd more of a therapy session. He's talking to these so called "friends" which is baffling to me. What is all this therapy session going to do? These "friends" seem to be trying to convince him to take the cum slut back. I don't understand what there is to talk about other than child custody, split assets and divorce?. There's nothing to think about.. there's no way to make this up to jim. There's no way he could kiss Linda without wanting to projectile vomit. The vision of her sucking and swallowing another man cum would be too vivid to get pass. There's no way the intimacy they shared would ever be the same. There's no way he'd be able to stick his dick in her without visions of her slutting it up with some guy she meant nothing to.. she eagerly gave up her husband's love, respect and trust for her.... for a guy that meant nothing. He obviously meant more than her husband, children and marriage. He meant enough for her to completely shit on them without a second thought. This isn't about "Love", but I don't believe Linda loves jim🤷🏾‍♀️. I believe Linda loves Linda. She loves that Jim loves her. She doesn't love him just as much as he loves her. Where she can actually fix her brain to rationalize humiliating, disrespecting and cheating on him.. he wouldn't even dream of doing what she did to him.. he clearly have more love and respect for her and their marriage than she do. This story is long-winded when it didn't have to be... there's way too much talking and opinions... he's not even talking to the slut. He's talking to a bunch of irrelevant hypocrites who would've been running to the courthouse to get rid of their cheating mate. They wouldn't be taking the advice they're giving him.. "she loves you"🙄🙄.. does she though?... her actions didn't scream "LOVE".. can you just tell me what chapter he finally files for divorce and have a sit down with the slut?..

I liked part one; this, not so much. Too much navel gazing at this point; the scene with the waitress/bartender was worse than weak; it was unnecessary pontificating and setting the scene for "let's understand and excuse Linda; she's just a weak willed unattractive 14 or 15 year old girl inside and that explains why she fucked the star football player and betrayed her husband publicly to do so." Maybe that's not where the author is taking this, but if it's not, then this was about 2 pages of bad pop psychology. And Jim is having way too many moments of being gobsmacked about his wife. Enough; move the story forward.

3*** at best.

A completely rewrite of the original, I don't think I like this Jim very much.

What an incredible depth this author puts into his work! He’s either remarkably in tune with the human psyche, possibly a bartender or councilor himself. I practically feel betrayed, belittled, battered and bruised myself, just from reading this!

First of all, good story so far. MC is just about perfect, unlike most wimpy FebSux sequels.

/

One thing I hope the author does (in these 4 chapters, or may be as a side story). Go talk to Bob's kids, tell them his story. I suspect hearing his, they would put their Dad's and their relationship in perspective. He didn't cheat on their mom. He didn't make her die sooner. He didn't do anything for purely selfish neglectful reasons.

@Anon - are you really that dumb? "Therapy session" as you phrase it, is doing what any half-decent therapy session is SUPPOSED to do. It let's him air out what's inside his head; lets him have other perspective on what is in his head (you'll notice he got several viewpoints he was THANKFUL for but didn't consider earlier). Let's him be social instead of isolated. The only thing it doesn't do that regular therapy does, is have the therapist provide coping mechanisms to ameliorate his issues or achieve his goals, but that's why you *pay* the therapist.

A lot of depth and complete coverage - physiological and physical hurt.

Defiantly a grade of 5.

I have read all 4 four parts and now grading each part.

The author warned us that this story would be dialog heavy. I like and appreciate dialog, but to me this is excessive. Granted given the choice between too much and too little I prefer too much. Good story, I am enjoying the read.

I think a lot of good story building is taking place, lot of information, thanks. Thanks for your writing.

Sorry but this is just too dragged out. It's a good story, but you keep covering some of the same things over and over, and it drags the story down. I'm a big believer that less is more.

Well done

Damn good. I just hope this doesn't turn into an unjustified reconciliation.

Loving how involved this is, so much territory covered and I believe a novel approach to FebSux

This is a rather long story but at least we were warned up front. I like the fact that all the confrontations between these pairs of friends and our intrepid husband has had multiple conversations with different people within the group and he has slowly grown over time to not just lash out with anger as he did at the beginning but instead he continues to take what he has learned and revised his stance on his wife to a more concise explanation of what has been the problems all along and who has been hindering his progress on his stance and plans for his relationship and his family’s future.

For the second chapter in a row your characters a providing some good counseling and psychological advice for readers stuck in a bad marriage. I normally just roll my eyes when I see another sequel pop up, but this one is different. While it's all about Jim and Linda, it really isn't. Kudos for that! 4.8*

What a whiny puss Jim is. Actually all the guys. Good story but overly redundant. Unnecessary

Far more words than are needed. Word counts are not the sign of a good story. Repetition throughout. Still giving 5 star score to support all writers in LW

No more FebSux variations are needed! (but that's not going to happen...) This is indeed long with much conversations between very different stakeholders. Yet of all the follow-ups to George's original story, this is most in-depth, insightful reveal of what a wife's unexpected self-centered actions can do to her husband, to all the important people in her life, and to herself. I can't wait to see how the counselor handles Jim and Linda on Thursday.

only "complaint" is the story length... damn good writing otherwise.

Well-written but tedious reading. BTW; there’s no Estes National Park anywhere. Estes Park is a town adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park. Author needs to check his facts. Four stars ⭐️ for this one.

I agree with other commenters. well-thought, well written, but TOO WORDY. I needed a good editor to trim the boring parts and make the story a bit more dynamic an engaging.

Oh you have still kept this one going strong, so different than most on here following up on George’s fantastic story.

I THINK THAT THERE SHOULD BE A SECTION JUST FOR ALL THE OTHER FEBRUARY SUCKS STORIES ON HERE, THERE ARE SO MANY AND ITS EASY TO MISS ONE, AS THEY ARE BEING POSTED OVER SO LONG A PERIOD.

Wow, one of the best things i have read on here but even having reconciliation as an option, are you kidding me??

This story is something else, it does seem a bit long and full of analyzing and dialogue and conversation but the amazing thing is it has helped me understand my own divorce over 40 years ago. The girl was to young, 19 and had a 2 year old. I was too old and too inexperienced at 25. She got pregnant for some reason? So I married her. It lasted 1 3 years I was pushing forty she was still young, end of marriage. Not my choice though. Those of you who have been divorced understand, I hope. Somethings in this story are right on others not so but there is something to learn from these stories, the insights from the authors and even their characters. You really need to know the person you are marrying. It not the same as sleeping together. Maybe there needs to be a trial marriage? who knows. Oh well just rambling again. 5 stars from me, onward!

Can't help laughing when everyone in his life is some sort of philosopher. Still a good story though.

And a further engrossing episode. Well done.

Nice but straight to encroach in victim blaming a little don't buy into her being 31 but emotionally a teenager. You know cause and effect, you have two kids...

Better than the original but still irritating that reconciliation of any sort other than being cordial for the kids is still on the table...

I truly appreciated his reconnecting with his mom and the beginnings of getting to know Bob (seems like a developed soul) this is a good development off of the "February Sucks" story framework.

I really didn’t like the part where they tried to explain Linda’s behaviour. What it was boiled down to is that she was horny and it was the heat of the moment. That bullshit doesn’t explain anything. She isn’t a robot and there is no such thing as a slut switch. She is an adult with a brain and she made a choice. She definitely isn’t ’owed’ any compassion.

Nice continuation, not quite up to Chapt 1 emotiveness, but very good. I am seeing signs of a foundation being layed for reconciliation, and that would be just wrong for a narcisist like LInda

I hope that his wife being a chronic cheater is true. Cause I do not buy the secret slut switch. I think that's just psycho babble. The difference between eighteen and thirty one has gotta mean something.

If a 30-year-old woman can't control herself, has no brain, she's just an animal. I don't believe that. Maybe you're just giving her an excuse to make the story more interesting. I really like this ending!

It is not surprising that the female of the species needs or seeks the attention of the male of the species. We as Homo sapiens are infect a species of animal. So, the part of our mating ritual is that the female of the species would show her plumage for lack of a better explanation. Thus, Linda attracts many males given how attractive she is. It may sound silly, but it's actually how it happens in all animal species. Just Saying.

So far it seems to me Jim is responding as one would expect, maybe with even more bravado than normal.

If in future chapters he turns around and reconciles with this slut I'll be grossly disappointed. Score pending.

Way to much ridiculous psycho babble distracting from an interesting version of the story.

This is becoming a slough.

Omg. Skipped half so far. Just skim reading now. Good effort in writing over the top in the dialogue.

Tooooooo wordy. Too much preaching. It would have been a better story if reduced to half, at least.

Have to agree a bit wordy. So far it's been almost like a marriage manual or a cheaters hand book on how not to cheat. Not sure I agree about the age thing about some being forty in their teens and some women 15 at age 30 or so. But this is our author's and I guess this is how he wrote it. I am actually learning something about relationships reading all these LW stories. I guess I only got as far as the last story quite some time ago, so I hope th enext part is a bit more interesting. 4 stars and onward to the next chapter.