what if tom cruise could help me solve my mummy issues? - rouge by mona awad

everyone knows the first step in every good skincare routine is cleansing. the second? listening to talk lit, get hit.

this month marks the start of season two of the pod and what better way to kick it off than with a book that makes us question if we are but a slave to the beauty industry! join us as we try to figure out wtf happened in this book and unravel the mysteries behind the glass.

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join talk lit, get hit podcast for deep dives into the hottest BookTok recommendations, trending contemporary fiction, and literary favourites! each episode features book discussions, spoiler-filled chats, and thoughtful literary analysis of novels everyone is talking about - from viral romance and fantasy to modern classics. whether you’re looking for BookTok book reviews, author interviews, or a virtual book club experience, out podcast is your go-to space for readers who love stories and want to explore them in depth.

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Transcript

Laura 0:00

Hello and welcome to Talk Lit Get Hit, a podcast where we read questionable books recommended to us by social media and talk shit about them.

Eryn 0:07

We're Bridget, Erin and Laura, three friends who haven't mentally progressed since high school, where we bonded over a love of music and books, but mainly Twilight.

Bridget 0:15

Brace yourself for a heady cocktail of somewhat highbrow and incredibly lowbrow wranglings about all the books the internet loves and our journey to figure out why.

Laura 0:23

Happy New Year and welcome back to season two of Talk Lit Get Hit. This month we are reading a book which, according to Amazon, is the number one most gifted book in the ghost thriller genre.

Eryn 0:35

That is such a niche claim to fame. Not hard to be number one, I guess. We're number one in ghost thrillers.

Laura 0:46

This horror-tinged gothic fairy tale has been heralded as Snow White meets eyes wide shut. This month we are reading Rouge by Mona Award.

Bridget 0:54

Oh my god, guys. Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

Eryn 0:59

Haven't seen you guys since last year. We were talking about this before, but like we haven't recorded since the talklet get lit recording, which was only a like around a month ago, but feels like so long ago. And I feel like I don't know what I'm doing again. It feels like it's been too long between drinks. Ladies, Russell's coming back. Russell. Don't summon him. You're kissing the dog.

Laura 1:29

But did you have a nice break? Did you have a nice Christmas and New Year's? Yes.

Eryn 1:36

Wow. Something tells me it's a lie, but I'll gloss over it. Mine was great. No, I didn't expect to be asked that question. I don't know why that threw me so much. But yes, I did. I'm sad to be back at work. The main thing is we're back doing the pod. The real love that matters.

Bridget 1:59

I had a great Christmas holiday period as well. I'm still on holidays, so I'm only two-thirds done. Only. Yeah, that's so nice voice. Thanks. Um, yeah, we moved into our house. We I just got back from the coast. That was nice. Um, lots of swimming and volleyball, and that's about it. But very excited to be here talking about Rouge. Not rogue. Oh, not rogue.

Eryn 2:27

It's so confusing.

Laura 2:28

Yeah, I'm fighting for my life every time I type it. And we all know typing's not my strong suit, so you can imagine the pits that I'm in.

Eryn 2:36

But it's so funny as well, because even after reading it, and they say it 50 million times in the book, I'm still like Rouge, Rogue.

Laura 2:44

I had a pretty uneventful break as well. Nothing much to report, but it was definitely very nice, very sad that it's over. I feel like a key event of the end of the year for everyone. That's really cool. Is um checking out your Goodreads rap.

Eryn 3:00

I did not know where that was from. Neither did I.

Laura 3:05

I set a reading challenge to read 50 books last year, and I read 54, so pretty pleased with that. Hell yeah, brother. For the last three years now, I've reached my goal. So I decided this year I'm gonna go with 60 books.

Bridget 3:20

Oh. Oh.

Eryn 3:22

My goal last year was 12, and I ended up doing 25. Um so I usually extend my reading challenge out when I'm like one or two books away from it. Yeah, so since 2020, I have met my challenge. For some reason, in 2021, I read 48 books. Who the fuck did I think I was in 2021? Were you like studying?

Laura 3:43

What were you procrastinating at that point in your life? I have no idea.

Eryn 3:46

And then, like comparatively, in 2019, my goal was six books and I read two.

Bridget 3:52

Oh, what a dark year. I have a dark year in 2018. My goal was 60 books. I read 59. That's like a great year for me. Yeah, I don't think that's a dark year. 59, 60. Could could I just not read one more?

Eryn 4:07

I would have just brought the goal down.

Bridget 4:09

Yeah, I said 50. You guys were mistaken.

Eryn 4:13

No, I meant 59.

Bridget 4:14

I reached my goal too. My goal was 200 books and I did it, but it I honestly did not think I was gonna do it. I read 49 books in December. So that's fucked up, budget. That's so crazy. You're wrong in the head. It was fun. I had a good time, but I was on holidays for at least half of December.

Eryn 4:35

So is that really enjoyable though? Was it like the the like pressure of trying to read that many that was enjoyable? Or was it just reading really fast?

Bridget 4:44

No, I don't know. It wasn't I didn't really feel pressure because I guess it's made up, but it was good to do things other than just be on my phone, which is what I would have been doing anyway. So I just like replaced screen time with page time. Yeah, page time. I I don't know how many good books I read. Um some of them were good, some of them were really, really bad. Same time next year by Tessa Bailey. I don't know about you guys, I haven't read any other Tessa Bailey books, but it was actually horrific. And oh, I was in shock actually. Was it giving ladies please? It was I was very much ladies please for most of the book. It was a crime, honestly.

Eryn 5:25

We'll not be adding it to my list, I'll be scandalized.

Laura 5:28

So you heard it here. No, just no. So at the end of last year, we put out a listener survey where we were looking for feedback on what your favorite episodes were, what you liked and disliked about the show, what you wanted to see more of, any extra thoughts or ideas that you had about the show. And it was really great feedback. It was really, really valuable and useful and constructive. So thank you so much. That was really nice. Where the group chat was in an absolute tizzy.

Bridget 5:59

My personal favorite was the validation I felt when somebody said Revenge of the Sith is the best Star Wars, maybe. I said, Yes, it is, thank you very much. It's so true.

Laura 6:09

But there were some things that we took out of that survey that we've been able to firstly giggle about in the group chat, as I just said, and then secondly, implement in our season two of Chocolate Get Hit. So the three things that popped up again and again throughout the survey were that you wanted earlier notice of our monthly books, a variation of genres within those books, and also the ability to weigh in on the book choices. So that's great news because we were kind of hoping to get in that direction eventually. So in 2024, the good news is that over 12 months, we'll read 12 genres. So a different genre every month. This is our first month, January, and we are reading horror slash thriller slash literary fiction. It's kind of three genres that we haven't really dabbled in before on the podcast. But then the plan going forward, apart from these two months, is that for each month, each genre, the three of us will pick a book within that genre. So we'll get your help to vote between the three books and to determine what book we read that month. So for the month of March, you'll find a link to the survey in the show notes. Or if you're on Instagram, it will definitely be shared in our stories or via our link tree. So make sure you visit that link to place your vote.

Eryn 7:24

So as Laura said, we are starting off the year with a brand new genre that we've never tackled on the pod before. So if you guys want to let us know what were your initial hopes, dreams, thoughts, expectations on Rouge, Bridget.

Bridget 7:40

I was excited to read this book. I really liked Bunny. I was confused by Bunny, but in a good way. And I was excited to be confused again because I just think she's a bit of a crazy girl.

Eryn 7:55

What about you, Laura?

Laura 7:57

I was also excited, and I'd also read Bunny. Actually, I listened to Bunny as an audiobook. I wouldn't say that I liked it. I was also pretty confused by it. It was pretty batched insane, so I honestly couldn't tell you what happened in it, just that it was like a real wild ride. But the premise of this sounded really, really intriguing and juicy. And I've only heard good things, so I was keen.

Eryn 8:19

Yeah, I have not really heard a lot about this book. I've never read anything by this author, so I was going in very blind. I knew vaguely there was some level of critique on like the skincare/slash beauty industry, but that's about as far as it went for me. So with all that in mind, let's get started. As always, if you don't want any spoilers for the book Rouge, then this is your chance to back out now. We have various content warnings for this episode, uh, including parental death, depression, mental health issues, profanity, sexual content, alcohol, and potential cult vibes. Ooh.

Laura 9:04

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother's considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death.

Eryn 9:20

The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother's demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience.

Bridget 9:30

With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de mes jues. The same lavish culty spa to which her mother was devoted.

Laura 9:40

There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her and her mother's obsession with the mirror, and the great shimmering depths and demons that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Eryn 9:51

Radio. Initial thoughts, vibes, feelings, Laura.

Laura 9:55

I liked it, but I think I said to both of you earlier that I spent at least the last third of the book like reading it with my face scrunched up in confusion, just kind of like trying to keep up as I went, like thinking I'm there's gotta be something here for me to get, like a metaphor, some greater metaphor, or like some part of the plot that I'm missing, and I felt like I was desperately trying to understand it, but I still left pretty confused. So while I would say I enjoyed it, I'm not sure how much. Bridget. Same.

Eryn 10:29

Yes, I think that's the overarching theme. I don't think I would say I enjoyed it. I don't think it was as weird as everyone said it was going to be, and I don't think it was very clear what was happening on that basis. Let's roll on into it.

Laura 10:48

First of all, like this book is marketed as a horror or thriller, gothic thriller, gothic fairy tale. Granted, like it's a genre that's pretty new to me, but I would say firstly that there wasn't a lot that I found scary or spooky about this book. There are a few things that kind of unsettled me, but I found that it kind of was a bit slow. Like it was like meandering. And then I think by the time that it picked up, I kind of had sort of lost interest.

Eryn 11:23

I listened as an audiobook, so maybe like the last hour, shit got crazy. But like you didn't find it scary. I think because so much of it was like not real, they'd kind of set Belle up in such a way that at least for me, I felt like everything or most of it was in her head anyway. So I wasn't actually that scared because it didn't feel like there was any real risk to her. Because the way she described certain things, it made it seem like what she was seeing and what they actually were were two different things. So I was waiting for that to drop and her to see everything for what it actually was. I was waiting for all those people in the spa to actually be mannequins, not be real. I was waiting for the drinks to actually be blood and this to be blood vessels. I was waiting for it to get really messed up and it just never happened. And so on that basis, I didn't find it particularly scary or like thriller-y because I don't think the actual tension was there, or there was no like moment of reveal that felt very satisfying. Like the jellyfish were just jellyfish when the whole time I was like, oh my god, are they like people's brains? Are they this? Are they that?

Bridget 12:30

I think they were their souls. So they were giving up their memories and their souls, like their humanity or whatever.

Eryn 12:37

And like I get that. I think because in my head it was going to be something else, like the souls aren't tangible things anyway.

Laura 12:46

I know what you're saying. It felt like a lot of the points, like the ball never dropped. Like it was literally just reading the blurb then where it says the shimmering depths and demons that lurk on the other side of the glass. That was one of the questions I had of the like Seth slash Tom Cruise character. I was like, is he real? Like, is he a vampire? Is he like a demon? And I feel like I typically pride myself for being so sophisticated and like I'm so classy, and I don't even care if I read a book or watch a movie that's not completely resolved and answers all my questions. I'm just such an intellectual, but it really bothered me with this. I felt like there were so many loose ends, and like so many in my notes are just like Tad, question mark, Sylvia, question mark. There's so many things I don't have answers about. Sometimes I think that can be really powerful, but I think it kind of weakens this particular story.

Eryn 13:34

Yeah, I agree. I'm left with so many questions to the point where I don't even really know what happened. I was left quite confused. And I love an ambiguous ending, I love not knowing all the details, but I feel like I didn't know enough here to actually like piece it together or reach my own conclusion. What did you think, Bridget?

Bridget 13:53

I didn't like it as much as I thought I would like it, but I think that's because from the cover alone, I thought it was gonna be a different kind of story. I was reading it when I was away, and I had a nap in the middle of it, and I had a really unsettling dream. And I think it was because of the book. It wasn't scary, but it was a bit unsettling. But I don't really mind that it was a bit unfinished or confusing because that was what I thought it was going to be, because that's how I felt after Bunny as well. A word that I would use to describe it is it's like a nightmare. Doesn't make sense and it doesn't always the things that are happening don't really end or resolve themselves, but it's got that feeling like a nightmare, like you can't run fast enough or you're falling or your teeth are falling out. It has that sort of feel to me.

Laura 14:40

That's a great comparison, like a kind of nonsensical, like fever dream haze. I think that unsettled is like a really good word for it though, because I while I think like the plot itself was a bit mmm, maybe like lackluster for me, like the writing really lifted it up because I found it really immersive and evocative. Some sections were stronger than others, like some I felt really dragged and were a bit slow, but there were some sections where I really felt sort of sucked into the mania. I think the scenes where she goes to the shop and she loses the plot completely, and she thinks the mannequins are her sisters and that she works at the shop, and then she goes back home and the mannequins are all talking to her, and like she thinks her mother's there and Hud Hudson is there. I found that whole passage so like feverish and bizarre. One of the mannequins is like telling her to jump out the window and like go swimming in the ocean, and I it felt really like anything could happen. And so some bits were really good, but I don't think it was like wholly satisfying.

Eryn 15:46

I don't know. I felt like there was so much repetition that didn't really serve a purpose. I think we often say books are longer than they need to be. I think this is another one that was longer. I almost feel like it should be like novella length, especially if we're going for like nightmare vibes. I think shorter is probably better, like a nightmare is. I don't know if you have read the book Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, but that was a book that left me really like uncomfortable, and that was the kind of like scary, like psychologically fucked up vibes that I wanted out of this. I actually wanted more weird shit out of this. It's not plain enough for me to really understand what was going on. I was really struggling to figure out what was real, what was not real, but not in the sense that it was like, ooh, spooky. It was like, is this a metaphor or is this what she's actually doing? I don't know. It went a bit over my head to be really scary or like uh fulfilling for me.

Bridget 16:46

Instead of trying to be scary with the plot, I think she tries to make a statement about society. It's meant to be like a wake-up call. So obviously, this book is about beauty and skincare culture and whiteness equals beauty. Something Stephanie Meyer should maybe have a think about. But all of these things, I think she's trying to draw attention to those things and show what happens when people go overboard.

Eryn 17:11

Uh yeah, because that was my understanding of what it was gonna be like as well, like the the depths of the beauty industry or whatever. But I also don't feel like that point was made particularly clear. Like it for me it was more like don't go to a weird culty mansion on the rocks, not don't use skincare. Like I don't know, I felt like the messaging got kind of confused or there wasn't like clear and I don't know if clear is the right word because we don't need it all spelled out all the time, but I think because so much of it was kind of up in the air and mysterious, found it a bit wishy-washy and perhaps not as firm of a statement as I would have liked it to be.

Bridget 17:52

The blurb sets you up to think it will be this big critique of the industry as a whole, but I feel like the book is more about this one person. But a book that I read last year that I think was about the toxicity of the beauty industry as a whole would be more like natural beauty. It was a bit spooky, really. Like it was a bit creepy. This book I feel like was more insular.

Laura 18:17

I think I really enjoyed the beauty um aspect of this. I actually it was a pretty strong element of this book for me. And I didn't mind that it wasn't like the critique of the industry per se. I really liked the kind of more personal angle of the things that we absorb or the things that we subconsciously pass down through the generations. There are a couple of passages that I found like really moving. Obviously, the way that Belle has watched her mother interact with beauty and wellness and like her quest for youth, and the way that Belle's mother kind of treats her as like an exotic kind of creature, because obviously, like Belle's mother, Noelle, is French and white, and Belle's father was Egyptian, so Belle has darker skin, and she's made very aware of this fact, and her mother kind of others her. Because that was one of the first things that I started thinking about when I was thinking about this book is the beauty lessons that we absorb either through the media or through mothers, whether they're consciously harmful or not, it's just things that we learn from the world around us. And there's this passage where she says, Will you tell me about it, mother? Mother shakes her head no, she can't. She's with me here in the glass though. She loves this morning's ridicule that we're doing together. It's hers after all. She taught it to me, didn't you? Well, not willingly, never willingly. I learned it by watching you in the mirror. How many nights and how many mornings? How many mirrors and how many years? How many ridicules? Watching over your shoulder, you were just such magic to my eyes then. And I'd say, What's that you're putting on your face, mother? And you'd look at me in the glass, like you're doing right now, smiling sadly, just like that. And remember what you said to me every time. Something about never minding, something about blood, how mine saves me. I remember that. Can't remember what about my blood saves me. And I thought that bit was really true to life and really beautiful. I agree with you, Bridget. I don't think it was like the the searing like indictment of maybe the industry, like a smackdown of the industry. I feel like it was more personal, like a mother-daughter relationship kind of beauty through line there. Which I think is interesting.

Bridget 20:30

Mother's character was the thing that was most different to me between the book and the blurb, because in the blurb, it just sort of feels like mother was just a woman who went to a spa and then got sucked into their cult. But she was always a bit funny. It's part of her personality, like her skin is her lifeline. The cult is just like a it's a byproduct of her mother's whole life. And so then that extends to Belle having been brought up in that way. So I feel like the focus needed to be more on mother and Belle's relationship. Rather than the spa. To me, the spa was just like the end of the culmination of her life, really.

Eryn 21:09

It was distracting, and like I kept waiting for like something to be revealed that would connect it more than just her mum went to the spa. Like I was waiting for them to reveal that like the mum had made the spa, or maybe her dad had made the spa and that's what how they met, or like I don't know. I just felt like I was always waiting for something more that was gonna make it make a bit more sense to me.

Bridget 21:31

I wasn't really doing that. I just didn't think there was gonna be a resolution. I just thought it was just gonna get weirder as we went on. But that's not to say that I didn't like the spa, because I feel like I did.

Laura 21:41

I think I liked the spa. I think I liked, although it didn't make complete sense to me, like the way that her mother was so like beauty obsessed, like obsessed with her skin, because like she felt that the way that she looked was so closely tied to her like success in life because her mother was an actress, right? All of her self-worth seemed to be so tied to the way that she looked as well. And then like her projecting that onto Belle. I liked the way that it was kind of showing the extremes that people will go to to attain youth or beauty or rejuvenation or regeneration or like whatever it is they're searching for. And I think I really got a kick out of the passages where she was watching the Marva YouTube videos and like talking about like then I applied like this serum and then like the snail mucin and then like all of these different products. Because like when you write it down on paper like that, it's truly absurd what we put on our faces and like the barriers we believe we need in order to protect ourselves from like free radicals or whatever. And then like I don't know, I just think it was very funny to go to the spa. The last free radical are like your negative thoughts or like your bad childhood memories, and like extracting those is the price to pay for like beauty. It was absurd and true, and I know that there would be many, many people in real life that would go to that spa. I can see that spa happening. Maybe not like the giant jellyfish that are like some sort of manifestation of your soul. Not to bring it back to this, but I really did get twilight vibes with the freaky twins, and everybody had pale skin, and Tom Cruise had glinting fangs and red eyes, and then like when they walked down all those stairs to go to the treatment room, I was like, oh my god, it's like the Volturi. And I, you know, the cover even looks a lot like Twilight, to be honest. I don't know. I kind of wish that I got some, even just like a oh, they were demons kind of line.

Eryn 23:45

Yes, I want something tangible, like and the fact that they all disappear. Oh, there was a big flood at the spa. Oh, no one was found. So what was it then?

Bridget 23:54

Like I sort of like that bit though, because I think, in my mind, probably wrong. But I think the when they drowned, that showed they were still human because they were still able to be extinguished by all this water. But they didn't find any bodies though. So in my mind, they're like swept out to sea, and so like they're building themselves up to be these false idols or false gods, and they're the chosen ones and they're beautiful, but they're still able to be taken away by water. I was sort of thinking it was like behind the smoke screen, it's all a sham. So they're washed away by water the same as any beauty product is, or just like another regular person, the same as the people that don't have the beautiful skin, they've just got like some shit on their face that makes them look nice.

Laura 24:40

Yeah. Because I I know what you're saying, because like the whole point of the novel is they're like it will be worth like forgetting who you are in order to achieve your like final ultimate self. Ultimate self, yeah. And I feel like I don't know if it would just struck a chord because of like the time of year and the kind of content that's being pushed towards me on like TikTok and Instagram currently, but I'm getting so much like how to be the best you in 2024, like start the year off right with this cleanse and like do this and do that, and like skincare routine drunk elephant for Christmas. Yes, I don't know. Maybe I'm just feeling especially bitter and jaded at the moment. But I was like, this is this is so true to life.

Bridget 25:22

The part that I thought was realistic was when Belle had woken up, I think after her first treatment, or maybe the first time she went to the mirror at her mother's house as an adult, and she was driving to the antique shop with Tad, and she was like, Wait, I don't have my Barry on, and she was freaking out because she was in the sun without wearing, you know, SBF or serum, million serums or whatever she wears. And I was like, wait, sometimes I'm like that. Like if I go in the sun without sunscreen on my face, I'm like, Oh, I shouldn't be out here.

Laura 25:55

So, am I brainwashed? Is it me? Well, like it's interesting, hey, because I remember seeing something recently on TikTok that like the renewed obsession with sun safety and like SBF is just like ageism repackaged, and I was so like resistant to that. And maybe it's slightly different because growing up in Australia, I feel like sun awareness is pushed on us way more, and like rightly so. But I was like, no, it's for it's for skin cancer, which is definitely one thing. But I think when you take a step back and do look at most of the messaging around wearing SBF, it's like, what's my mum's secret? My mum's like 60. Oh, she wears SBF. This is my best cat beauty secret, SBF. I really enjoyed that part of the book too, because that resonated deeply.

Eryn 26:38

Yeah, yeah, I think it certainly made me ponder my own choices around like beauty and skincare and stuff like that. Which yeah, I did enjoy that as well. I did enjoy that kind of self-reflection about whether or not I was complicit in the same problems. Going back a little bit, because I've been pondering as you guys have been talking, the mother and Belle connection. I'm not sure where I land on whether Mother was like pushing her beauty standards onto her daughter. Because on one hand, she was always telling Belle she was so pretty and she didn't need to do anything and she was perfect as she was, but then you're right, Laura, in her doing that, she was creating this sense of otherness and always like promoting her as something exotic and something different, which whether she meant it or not, did create a bit of a complex in Belle. Obviously, no one has to be at fault, or maybe there is no like one right answer, but I'm not sure if I feel like Belle reached the kind of phras obsession with skincare because of her mother or in spite of her mother.

Laura 27:42

I think it could be a little bit of both. I was trying to figure out the Tom Cruise Seth character.

Eryn 27:49

Bro, I struggled so much. I don't understand. Was it real? Was it not real?

Laura 27:54

Was it that was like one of my favourite parts. Same. And I have like a lot of notes because I found many parts of this book hysterical, and those scenes were especially funny to me. They were funny, yeah. Um, but also in equal parts, like heartbreaking. Like I found myself crying at various points towards the end. I found it so strangely moving, and I don't understand quite why, but I thought the sense of competition that the Tom Cruise character was breeding between like Belle and her mother was quite interesting, and like the way that it was like she's ugly, she's old, you're pretty, you're the one for me. I don't really have like a smart conclusion to draw about it, but just the way that through like the beauty standards we strive for, you can be in competition with your own mother was just like a pretty grim message that I was possibly taking away from that.

Bridget 28:47

And your own self trying to always reinvent yourself and recreate yourself in a better way, I think. And and also I thought it was maybe a little bit of a commentary on how people like the Tom Cruise character prey on vulnerable, lonely people, the perfect candidate.

Eryn 29:05

And so this is why I got confused, right? So we first meet Tom Cruise when she's in her first treatment. So I wasn't sure if it was a real memory or if Tom Cruise's character was doing the treatment and like talking her through it and altering the memory as she went. Because it was like if he was real in quotation marks at the time she was a child, he's just been alive that whole time running this cult. And I was like really fixated on this bit because I just couldn't understand it. The reinforcement that his name is Seth, and like they're always talking about the Eye of Horus. So I was looking into some of the like Egyptian mythology and stuff like that, because Seth actually kills, I think it's Osiris, and that breeds the Eye of Horus, and the Eye of Horus is actually like a protective amulet against the Egyptian god or demon, whatever he may be, of Seth. And what happens is that anytime Belle is, I guess, attacked or impacted by Seth, she's not wearing the Eye of Horus. After I did that kind of investigation, I was enjoying that element more. But if we were going down that like ancient Egyptian mythology route or like even tying in those elements, I wanted to see it more. Like I wanted more of that, if that was the explanation behind it all.

Bridget 30:25

I feel like he has been the same guy the whole time. And he's interested in the case. I just think he's like a demon. Yeah.

Eryn 30:31

And the demons like live in the mirrors. Is that the vibe?

Laura 30:35

Yeah, I guess. Yeah. I don't know if he's like necessarily the leader of the cult, but I think he's like tied to the cult in some way. He's like a recruiter and is just trying to find like the right vulnerable, gullible kind of soul. I don't know if it was clear that like Belle's mother was communicating. Like it seemed like you know, she was like, Don't go to the mirror, don't touch the mirror, but I don't know if she ever saw the Tom Cruise character or Seth in whatever form he took for her. Wasn't there that line as well about like the mirror only like reflects back what you want to see? So I kind of got the impression he would take a different form for everyone else. And she was like obsessed with Tom Cruise as we know.

Eryn 31:14

I also wondered, because she discovered the mirror during a time when her mother was like a bit of a get about. I was also kind of wondering if Tom Cruise was how she was like, I don't know, softening the memory of something perhaps worse that happened to her as a child. And so I was debating whether or not that was just like a cover she'd made up for a deeper, worse thing she'd been through as a child, which would have been interesting as well. But I think for me, I'm I was just trying to find something more tangible, and any kind of explanation would have been appreciated on my side. Anything I was grasping at absolutely anything, but I did love the like subtle bullying of Tom Cruise that happened in this when she described his teeth as really long and one being longer than the others.

Bridget 32:03

They're off-center, aren't they?

Eryn 32:04

Yeah, off-center, one's longer than the other. Like, we get it, Belle. But like that in itself is a pretty interesting choice for Belle to have a crush on someone who has been quite widely critiqued for his looks in a lot of ways.

Laura 32:19

And also link to Scientology. I found the Tom Cruise sections hysterical for the fact that it was the named character Tom Cruise, and then the way that he was so clearly like the manifestation of a 10-year-old. He was talking to her in that tween teen kind of vocab. I mean, so many scenes were so perfect, she would say, like, she's a bitch or whatever, and Tom Cruise would be like, totally. Um But there's one line where it says, Tom seems amused but annoyed by my chatter. Stacy sounds like your run-of-the-mill slut, he whispers. School is a waste of time, Belle. You'll learn nothing there except lies. Death is inevitable and the world is full of murder, Tom says, tenderly brushing a lock of hair out of my eyes. If Tom talks, he only really wants to talk about two things: my beauty and how mother is evil. A terrible person, Belle, a vile bitch queen. It surprises me that Tom Cruise feels this way about Mother, when she looks so much like all the girls he kisses in his movies, but he's so serious sounding that I believe him. And then when Tom talks about mother, his eyes go red, his fangs shine in the light more. There is a heavenly glow on his face, he's so beautiful, the most beautiful being I have ever seen. Again, like what does it all mean? I couldn't strictly tell you, but did I enjoy it for sure?

Eryn 33:36

Well, I mean, they talk a bit in the book about like envy and jealousy and stuff like that. It's almost like when Belle looks in the mirror and sees Tom, she's seeing her own like envy reflected back at her. And no doubt that's what her mum was seeing as well. I was curious as well about when Belle poisons her mother. Because it's quite a big plot point. Because Tom Cruise was involved, I was confused if it actually happened or not. And like, because I'd also made this narrative in my head that when she was getting treated and reliving these memories, I wasn't fully sure if they were real memories or if they were being like, I don't know, altered or whatever to suit whatever the cult was trying to push with Belle. So I was never 100% sure on that. I really liked that theory. That they were altering her memories. It's really interesting.

Laura 34:23

I just took them as at face value, but that would have been really interesting. Yeah.

Eryn 34:27

I'm telling you, I was just doing so much mental gymnastics to make this make sense.

Bridget 34:32

I was like, yeah, I'm here along for the ride.

Eryn 34:36

Throw it at me. I was like, if two plus two is four, then they've got some they've got some placenta cream and they've got some manipulated memories.

Bridget 34:44

Erin sent a message and she was like, not to spoil anything, but the amount of times that this book has said placenta is disgusting or something like that. It's just unnecessary. It was so off. But it was funny because I got to the bit, like the first time they mentioned Tom Cruise, and I was like, what why is Aaron going on about placenta when she should be talking about this Tom Cruise character? What?

Eryn 35:04

I was like, you're really focusing on the wrong thing here. I think the placenta mentions were way more off-putting. And it was probably also because in in my brain I'd done that work that the jellyfish weren't really jellyfish, it was gonna be some kind of bodily part. And so I was fully expecting the jellyfish to be placenta or something of that nature. And so I was just like freaking myself out, like yuck.

Bridget 35:28

One of my favorite lines that I thought was so funny. It's the first time that she sees a jellyfish and she finds the one that is uh following after her, and they say it found me, it loves you, it loves me. Can't you tell? And then whatever. This person tells her that her and the jellyfish are gonna go on a journey together. And she says, We are? Oh yes, a marvelous journey. I can feel it. Belle says, What sort of journey? She looks at me like, what a question. The only journey that matters in the end, daughter of Noel. Retinol? I whisper the soul, a journey of the soul, of course.

Laura 36:08

So funny. I found that hysterical as well. I've been like breathlessly trying to find a moment to interject that. I think probably the male characters were the biggest distraction in this book. Um, and I mean that's probably like a comment in itself. Like, we had Hud Hudson, we had Chaz, we had Tad.

Bridget 36:32

They're also very similar names.

Laura 36:34

Yeah, and I think those names speak to like the man as an accessory. Like I was picturing Tad 100% as Ken. I found him hysterical. I don't understand his real purpose in the book. I don't really understand why Hud Hudson was there, like what his role was, why he was just like inserted at the end. But maybe we could talk very briefly about Tad because although I don't have too much to say about him, there were a couple of quotes that I found so hilarious that I really wanted to read out. I didn't come to the party, Tad says. No disrespect to your mum or anything. What party I think? Then realize he must mean the funeral. I'm just not really a death person, you know. Right. I also don't really dig her crowd. He frowns as if recalling something deeply unpleasant. I think of mother's crowd, blah blah blah, blah blah blah. But I paid my respects in my way, Tad says. I want you to know that. Thank you, I say. I wonder what this looks like, Tad paying his respects, Tad on his knees in a room decorated with conch shells, maybe a framed poster of white stones on tiled sand, lighting some sort of scented candle, Tad and an outdoor tiki bar, raising a beer to the bloody sunset, taking a somber sip. It tastes bittersweet. Did a one man paddle out just yesterday, Tad tells me. Really? A surfer, of course. It was amazing. I could feel her energy out there, you know. All around, big time. There was a seagull flying around and over my head. He raises his index finger, making it spin. A dolphin even came up out of the waves and sort of smiled. Now his hand is a dolphin's beak rising out of the imaginary waves. And the waves are just perfect. He dropped his hand and sipped his beer. Pretty sure that was all your mum just saying hey. Oh my god. I thought it was so hysterical. He was so funny. I have no thoughts about him apart from like, what a funny guy. I don't understand why he was there.

Bridget 38:36

Did either of you, like, what do you I don't think there was a point to any of the men. I think what like what you said, they were just an accessory. And Hud Hudson, I think, was you know, he was, I'm gonna save you. And then he gets sucked in just as much. So maybe that's a commentary on I don't know. It's not just women that get sucked in, I'm not sure, but she she saves herself through the power of her mother and also her father through the bracelet.

Laura 39:03

That's a great point because he really was playing that whole heroic, like swept in with his disguise, like kisses her, trying to like romance her, and he keeps popping up, trying to rescue her, like giving her a crumb of information.

Bridget 39:17

She never gave him a second thought, and I loved every time that he came, she was like, Who are you?

Eryn 39:22

Yeah, I don't remember who he was. Where I landed with Tad, that quote was really great because it actually feeds into my theories on Tad. And he says it a few times that the the vibes in the house are off and he can feel that something is off in that house. And I think he knew Mother before she got in too deep with the cult, and he kept fixing the house because he kept telling himself that if he could fix it, he could save her from the cult. And I think that's why it really freaked him out when he saw Belle doing the same journey that the mum was on, because he couldn't save the mum and he can't save her. But something I found really interesting is part of why the mother was in so much debt was because the windows kept needing replacing. And they talk at the end about how the windows were broken out of nowhere. And so I wondered if the windows breaking is to do with the like the mirrors and any kind of reflective surface and how they crack and you you see what you don't want to see in there or whatever. And so I wonder if he kept coming back and fixing the windows thinking that that would help keep mother safe and it just never worked. So m my impression of Tad is that he is someone actively aware that something otherly is going on and he's trying to do what he can to stop it, but he's also has no idea how to stop it. And then Hud Hudson, I thought he was actually a detective and he was actually investigating his brother's death. And I think like you, he thought he was uh uh not so much immune, but he thought he would be able to go into the cult, get the information he needed without being, I guess, targeted by the cult, because he talks a lot about how the cult don't show interest in just anyone, and I don't think they showed an interest in him until they knew that he was figuring out too much. And so he was kind of made to shut up, and I thought it was actually really sad that his end after quite noble beginnings and a noble mission was that he had basically lost the plot and was dancing with a mannequin on the beach. Like that's pretty sad for someone who came in to like avenge his brother and just try and figure out what happened there. I'm constantly like drawn back to the fact that everything in this is like an old Hollywood movie and uh it all feels made up. It feels like something Belle has seen in a movie that she's just like popping in places where nothing else exists. It's why I keep coming back to the theory that not everyone is real, like how the mannequins come alive after she's had all their treatments. I feel like not everyone in the story was real, and she was just putting in placeholders of things she could remember from her childhood, and that's why Hud Hudson sounds like he could be played by Gregory Peck, and that's why it's Tom Cruise in the mirror, like it's all just anything familiar she can grab onto. And like maybe she never recovered from the emotional trauma of having poisoned her mother as a child.

Bridget 42:32

And she also couldn't remember that year of her life.

Eryn 42:35

A whole lot of like psychosis um to look into this, I think.

Laura 42:41

There are a couple more scenes that I found really hysterical, and one was when she first goes to the spa, and I think the woman in red and the twins are standing at the top of the stairs, and she's trying to walk up to them, and she just keeps like tripping and falling over, and they're just there like smiling and like looking at her, and the woman in red is like, oh, so wonderful, and she keeps just falling over and trying to clamber up. But another scene, like kind of in the vein of retinol, is um when she was at Sylvia's store the first time, and there was that woman there trying on the clothes, and Belle was helping her, and then I'm it's unclear what she said to her, but she gives us some pretty harsh truths about her life and the items on sale. Who knows what else she even says to her? But there is this quote What the woman prompts now, bringing me back to the dressing room floor. What should I do? I'm on my knees with this stranger who's also on her knees. I'm crushing her cheeks between my hands, giving her a fish mouth. She's gazing hungrily, fearfully, into the mirror of me with bloodshot eyes. I see her soul shattered like so much glass, yet the shards are sharp and hungry, whispering, feed, feed, looking into her eyes. I feel a flicker of awful recognition, and then it's gone. Mirabelle, Sylvia shrieks, pounding on the door, rattling the handle. Boleros, I whisper, or a blazer maybe. The customer stares at me. Her pink gloss is a slash across her face. Her ringlets have gone limp. What? They really finish a look, especially in spring. Oh my god. I mean, I didn't know if that was the message, but I really liked, and again, I think particularly relevant because of the messaging of this item will like set you up to succeed in the new year. If you get a captual wardrobe, you'll be like the a new renewed person. This kind of like messaging about like this serum will be the one that like heals you or like a blazer will pull your life together was really like funny and dry and resonated. Another thing that I found was interesting or a little bit confusing again, shocker to me, was the prose itself and the kind of point of view the narration is told from. Like the prologue when I was reading it was kind of I thought it was like a golem smeagle kind of situation. Because it starts off with like she used to tell you fairy tales at night, remember? Once upon a time, when you were a sad, dreamy little girl. Each night you lay in your princess bed surrounded by your glassy-eyed dolls, waiting for her like a wish. Tick, tick went the seconds on your snow white clock. The moon rose whitely from the black clouds, and then come in, you called in blah blah blah, like mother did this, mother did that. That kind of gave me the sense that like whatever unfolded in this book, she's still not quite out of it. I don't know. I don't know like what point of view that narration was from. Actually, I don't know if I have a specific instance of this, but I sort of got the feeling that even before she started like slipping deeper into insanity, Belle was referring to herself in like third person. And so that kind of confused me because I was like, was she like, is she better or not?

Eryn 45:52

Yeah, I think her mental state remains a question throughout. And even when like she gets out at the end, and you said it before, Bridget, that like she saves herself with the help of the jellyfish. I quite enjoyed the like fast pace of that conclusion scene, and I liked the the tension of them having to like break out of the aquarium, and then they break the glass and the water's spilling everywhere. Like I liked that, but I also feel like it was not a super satisfying conclusion for me. Like she broke out with the jellyfish, and then she has that moment of clarity on the beach with her mum's ghost or whatever, and somehow she's cured of all her problems, and she meets with Sylvie, and Sylvie's like, Oh, don't you want some skincare or whatever it is that she says? And she's like, Oh, I used to. Like, you're telling me after almost 30 years you're over it because you swam in the ocean. Like, I'm cured.

Bridget 46:50

Maybe she is finally awake.

Eryn 46:52

Oh my but something I did enjoy throughout this book, because I did enjoy the elements where like she was obviously an unreliable narrator, and I liked that as the story progressed, uh, you could trust what she was saying less and less. And I particularly enjoyed the bits where it was like using wordplay and it was quickly correcting itself, but it kept happening, or they would stop correcting itself. Like I really enjoyed that, and I really thought that that was gonna build to the big reveal I was hoping for where all the veils drop and everything's revealed for what it actually was. Um so it was disappointing for me that that didn't happen, but I did enjoy the journey of being like because you said some of them before it was like a procedure and a ridicule, um ritual, yeah, yeah.

Bridget 47:42

Even just her name, Mirabelle, she's Mira. Um, there was a lot of really interesting and clever language choices.

Eryn 47:49

There was some in some of the reviews I read, there was a bit of angst about the use of French in this book because apparently there is misuse of French, and I don't know if it's deliberate or not, but they use the wrong French words for uh enter and stuff like that. I was reading. Um, someone from Quebec was I believe was particularly incensed because apparently they referred to Quebec as um separated into the city and the island, but Quebec is the city and the island, like it's all the same thing, and which is interesting because I uh when I googled the author as well, it suggested that she had grown up in Canada as well. So I'm curious if it's on purpose. If it was just a slight or if it was on purpose, because before we were talking about the name of the spa, and Bridget, you had it translated as the house of the jellyfish, but I had read it translated as the house of Medusa, which is interesting.

Laura 48:46

Yeah, I wonder, like if it was intentional, that could be quite smart, because I feel like French is like put on this pedestal as like the pinnacle of class and like good taste and fine things, and definitely suited to an environment like the spa. And so it would be quite funny to have a mistranslation or like these characters misusing it in that way.

Bridget 49:10

There's also something else that I noticed, and I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but on page 61, they're talking about the cat Angelica, and it's actually spelt in a different way than for the rest of the book. Oh at the start of the book it's spelt with a J, but on page 60 it's spelt with a G.

Laura 49:28

Maybe because um in like Egyptian culture don't like cats protect against spirits. I was like, I was like bringing it closer to angel. Hey.

Bridget 49:37

Angelica, like a more English version of Angelica when she's not in her trance, and then it's a J when she is, but I only spotted it once, so it could have just been intentional, yeah.

Eryn 49:51

I think if the French is incorrect, I think it would make the most sense if it's incorrect when mother speaks it, because I think mother was putting on an act most of the time anyway. I don't I think she was putting on her Frenchness to fit into that like noir mould for all the movies and stuff that she really liked. Um so if she got the French wrong, I think that's actually pretty accurate for who I was picturing the mother to be.

Bridget 50:18

And I think the same thing about the uh cult, if they were if they were getting it wrong as well. I think it's part of the image that they're trying to present, the classy French.

Eryn 50:28

Or even so, if going back to like the theory I was talking about before, if it is all in Belle's head would align to what 10-year-old knowledge of French as well.

Laura 50:38

Oh, I love that. Speaking of like mother's fakeness or like the way that she's presenting herself, I think I kind of mentioned it earlier, but um, when Belle's talking to Tom Cruise in one of her memories, Tom Cruise says, of mother. She's taking your beauty away, he said. She is? Oh yes, definitely. And I for one won't stand for it. I told you I hate stealing. I nodded. I hated stealing too. I thought of Mother's many robes from Egypt, how sometimes she'd line her eyes just like Elizabeth Taylor and Cleopatra, wear a blue beetle on her wrist, a scarab. She didn't steal any of it. Father bought it all for her. From Egypt, mother would say, of the jewels and robes. So why was it that when I watched the beetle wink against her light skin, I sometimes thought liar. I sometimes thought thief? She was Noelle Noor with creditors only. I'm Mirabel Noor no matter what I wear, no matter where I go. Can't take it off like mother's wrist beetle, can't take it off like father's eye. But was mother really stealing? Wasn't she born like that, and wasn't I born like this? And wasn't I the actual thief coming into her room where she told me again and again not to go, little thief, little bitch. Isn't that what mother calls me under her breath each time she catches me? She says it after I've left, but I hear her through the wall. But I thought that was a very interesting passage as well. I really liked that kind of I don't know, like that childlike view of adult topics.

Eryn 52:00

Yeah, but also like really true because mother's an interesting character because sometimes her her interest and respect of the of Belle's Egyptian background seems quite genuine, like when she wanted to honour her father's religious choices for Belle, and when she kept telling her, like she's beautiful, you've got that beautiful Egyptian blood, blah blah blah. But then you see things like that where she's dancing to walk like an Egyptian and she keeps telling Belle to play it, even though Belle hates it. It's like, well, she almost doesn't actually understand anything about it. And it makes you question how much father was actually really in their lives. Was he a one-night stand and she's left with all this stuff? How much has mother had to actively work to learn about Egypt to help Belle accept that's who she is? Like, where is Father? Like, what's the go? Where did he go? When did he go? Why did he go? Because if we're going back to the Egyptian mythology stuff, I'm pretty sure that to create the Eye of Horus, Seth plucked out the eyes from Osiris. Um, and so the Eye of Horus came from Osiris. So assuming that Belle's father is the Osiris character, that means that this Seth, whoever this Seth character might be, would have also killed um Belle's father.

Laura 53:23

That'd be interesting.

Eryn 53:24

And so if Seth is in every mirror and it's whoever is looking in it, maybe mother killed father.

Laura 53:33

You see, my true well, another interesting thing that I noticed when I read out that passage that I didn't pick up on at all throughout reading the book was that beauty is capitalized, like the B for beauty. So it's like making it a thing, like a something that you have or you don't, I guess. And I think even that I don't know, like there as we've talked, there are just so many little things where I'm like, oh, that's a nice touch. That's a nice touch. Like clever little details that are definitely making this like a very smart and like I don't know, switched-on kind of reading experience.

Eryn 54:05

For me, reading the audiobook, I might have missed it because a lot of the nuances like you've just mentioned don't show up in the audiobook. And so I think there's probably a level, a layer here that I have not absorbed by listening to it. But I did enjoy listening to it for the simple fact of how fast those like corrections of the word misuse happened, and it seemed really natural, the the misspeaking, or even the like, yes, definitely, anytime any question was raised. Definitely, yes. Like it just felt really like self-soothing and like immediately like, oh yep, everything's going the way it's meant to go now. Doesn't mat like ignore the blip, now it's going the right way again. So that part of the listening experience was good, but now I'm almost wondering if maybe reading it's the better experience.

Laura 54:56

I really liked at the end, not to be the quote person again. Um love quotes. But there was that really nice section at the end after Belle and the jellyfish like crash out of the enclosure and into the ocean or whatever, and Belle's lying on the shore, and like her mother kind of comes to her, um, and she's like right there alongside her, and then you kind of get that little passage from the mother's point of view, and it says she kisses my forehead, and then a light fills me, a warmth, a remembering that branches, of you and me, mother. Of you and me, sunshine, of us, standing in an orchard, a sea of trees in September light. You're handing me an apple you picked for yourself, for you, mother, you say. You say it matches my Chanel lipstick, my best red. Your face is so full of sunshine, no shadows yet. You reach out to hand it to me, and I'm afraid how beautiful you are, how much I love you, how I won't be able to protect you from this place, from me, my places that I go. One is locked away in the closet, cracked and turned to the wall, but one day you'll find it, you'll stand in front of its shining face, not knowing why I turned it away, that I'm only protecting you from myself, the things I can't change, the things I wish I could. I'll try to stop it in my clumsy ways that are out of love, that won't work, but my places will soon be your places and everything will shatter like glass, terribly. Both broken for years. I'm in a blackness that knows no end, even among the palm trees and the light that melts me like a witch. My smile is a ghost, my heart is in a beige guest room on the other side of the continent on an island by a slushy river covered in bandages. And I don't know, the quote continues, but it wraps up and she says uh she's kind of talking about when she finally sees Belle again in the airport when they're reunited after Belle's lived with her grandma, and she says, How beautiful you are, how much I love you, that I can't protect you from my terrible places that I still go. Can't help but go because no one protected me, no one saved me, no one ever held out their hand and walked me away. But I'm trying to save you, sunshine. I'm trying in my broken way. I'm holding out my arms, I'm taking the apple you're handing me, I'm looking into your eyes and saying it's the most perfect thing.

Eryn 57:19

It's so nice.

Bridget 57:20

Yeah, I like that bit too.

Eryn 57:22

Oh my god.

Bridget 57:23

When the jellyfish were like the mother and the daughter jellyfish, I was like, I was like, why am I crying?

Laura 57:29

And there was also a scene where she was um when Tom Cruise disappeared and she was like, Come back, come back, Tom.

Eryn 57:35

And I was crying in that too.

Laura 57:37

Oh my god.

Eryn 57:39

Is that the one where she was like, What did I do wrong? Like you said, if I did this, I would come back.

Laura 57:45

Yeah, that's sad. I waited for you and you didn't come back. Oh my god, my face is so hot from the repressed tears. Oh darling. Oh man. I still haven't Googled how to not cry and talk. Um you drink water. Blah blah blah. I'm trying to save you sunshine. I'm trying in my broken way. I'm holding out my arms. I'm taking the apple you're handing me. I'm looking into your eyes and saying it's the most perfect thing, even though you're not hearing me. You're already skipping away. I still call after.

Eryn 58:15

I love you. That's nice.

Laura 58:23

But there were moments like that where it like really unexpectedly swept me off my feet and I was just like crying.

Eryn 58:30

While there were bits that I felt were like quite nice, I can't say I felt emotional like that about it. So that's really interesting.

Laura 58:37

I think it's just something I've been thinking about a lot, like the way that body image and like an obsession with youth and beauty plagues us all, and the way that we push it onto other people around us without even meaning to, and like the way that our actions and our comments like bleed out into the world. Um, and I just think what an incredible pressure and like yeah, I guess just pressure to have an a daughter and the want to shield her from that. Um, but the way that you directly or indirectly like push those messages onto her as a mother is like a really interesting and complicated topic.

Eryn 59:17

Yeah, and I mean you can try your best and still the kid's gonna be fucked up. Like you could do the absolute best you could do, and even in sheltering your child from it, you're probably still fucking them up in one way or the other. So like there's no winning in it, and it's such a like it's almost like Sisyphus like rolling that ball up the hill all the time, and like you know you're never gonna get to the top of the hill, but you're still rolling it anyway, like you're doing what you can with what you've got, but at the end of the day, the ball's still coming back down the hill, and you still have to push back up the hill again the next day. Like there sometimes is just no winning in these things, and you can only ever uh do what you can do and hope that you've given everybody the the tools that they need to help themselves, which I guess ultimately they did.

Laura 1:00:06

I liked at the end the kind of resolution with Sylvia as well, who'd kind of been like an antagonist to a degree. And I think where I wonder if again, like once Sylvia sort of stopped being a threat, once it sort of stopped being Sylvia is like likes ugly and unbeautiful things, and like I only see the world through like the lens that my mother saw the world through of like wow, that's so sharp, and she's got style, and Sylvia doesn't have any of that. Once Belle kind of like let go of those ideas, she could see that Sylvia was just like a friend all along. Like Sylvia really was trying to help her, but I enjoyed that short scene with them at the end as well. I thought that was quite nice and yeah, I was really glad that they started to work together again. Yeah, it was so nice. I think throughout this book, even though I've noticed a lot more things that I enjoyed about this book, like I don't think it's really drastically changed my opinion of it. I think it's still a pretty middle of the road book for me. I would recommend it to some people. I would still recommend it. Um, I still would have finished it if not for the podcast. But I don't think it's too high up on my ranking. Maybe like a three-point something star.

Bridget 1:01:18

I would agree. I would have picked this up on my own and I think maybe three, three and a half. Bold. Okay.

Eryn 1:01:25

Well, seeing as you've segued very nicely into the pinnacle of our show, how about favourite characters, Bridget?

Bridget 1:01:32

The mummy and daughter jellyfish.

Eryn 1:01:36

How about you, Laura? Oh, it's Tad. I would maybe pick Hud Hudson as my favourite. I liked his commitment to a disguise. When he rocked up in a monocle that time, I'm like, bro, how much luggage did you bring in? Someone was wearing opera glasses, weren't they? Yeah, like Hud Hudson, my guy. Uh, what about least favorite character, Bridget?

Bridget 1:01:58

Maybe the boring shop assistant. Can't even remember her name.

Eryn 1:02:01

She was boring Esther?

Laura 1:02:03

Yeah.

Eryn 1:02:03

Boring.

Laura 1:02:05

Mine would be Chaz. The lawyer. Slimy.

Eryn 1:02:08

He was slimy and he did give off vibes like he wanted to be her stepfather. Like he was a creep. But you know what? Respect for mother, because she had a lot of dudes like doting on her, even though she was probably giving them nothing. Like she's making moves. Um, I would say my least favourite character is maybe her friend who wasn't her friend. Stacy. Yeah.

Laura 1:02:30

Let's rate each other. Let's do spins in the basement.

Eryn 1:02:33

Yeah, I thought things were getting into weird territory again there, and again, nothing came of it. But like Stacy was a really interesting character because she didn't want to be Belle's friend, but then like defended Belle, but then didn't want to defend Belle. Just very confusing.

Bridget 1:02:51

That was a weird side quest.

Eryn 1:02:53

Yeah.

Bridget 1:02:53

Yeah. And Stacy's mum was a bitch.

Eryn 1:02:57

But then like Stacy protected Belle when she found the Eye of Horace bracelet. Okay. The pinnacle. The creme de la creme, as the French say. Enchanted. Enchante. We can't do this because now we have we know we have French listeners. We can't upset them.

Bridget 1:03:18

Celebi. Hey Siri, how do you say sorry in French? Desolate. Someone's American can tell you. Hey Siri, stop. Shut the ball. Siri is such a big okay.

Eryn 1:03:35

Laura, little shit.

Bridget 1:03:37

I'm gonna go with lit.

Eryn 1:03:39

Bridget, little shit. I'm also gonna go with lit. Sorry, colleagues, not for me. It's a shit. I did so much work to make this good for myself.

Laura 1:03:49

Did you think that we would like it?

Eryn 1:03:51

Yes.

Laura 1:03:52

And I thought that you wouldn't like it. Same.

Eryn 1:03:54

I knew pretty early on that it was just not gonna be a book for me.

Bridget 1:03:57

I think you just gotta like paddle out, one man, paddle out, pow.

Eryn 1:04:01

Ride the wave. Look, feel the vibes. I do feel for Tad. He he is right. Sometimes you do just have to feel the vibes.

Bridget 1:04:09

We've now completed our second most important journey. After Ratinol, of course. For February, we are prepping the cue cards for Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld, and you can have your say on what we read in March via the link in our show notes and socials. Make sure you subscribe to the show, and if you want to be on the same page as us, follow us at talklit.gethit on our Instagram and TikTok.