That Pretentious Book Club

Amari and the Night Brothers

• Ash O'Rourke • Season 6 • Episode 2

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In this episode of That Pretentious Book Club, hosts Spoons, Wheezy, and Gino are joined by fellow teacup Grandmaster Myla for a magical deep dive into Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston.

This popular middle grade fantasy quickly has quickly become a contender for one of the best books in the genre—ever. We're talking Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief level praise here, which, if you know this podcast, is the highest honor we can bestow.

Join us as we discuss what makes this story so special, the unique experience of being an adult reader enjoying middle grade books, and many a humorous opinion about the characters in this book.

Pour yourself a cup of tea, raise a pinky, and join the club for this discussion of Amari and the Night Brothers!

Reserve your spot at the Story Sirens Studio Fall Writing Retreat now! https://storysirensstudio.com/retreats

Help Ash launch her bookstore!
https://www.ifundwomen.com/projects/story-emporium-bookshop

Support the show

Find this episode's book and more by shopping at https://bookshop.org/shop/storysirensstudio to support the club AND local bookstores!

Visit us at storysirensstudio.com or find us on social media @thatpretentiousbookclub.

Check out sister podcast The Scripturient Society for writers and join our writing group on Facebook!


Find Space Aliens, Southerners, and Saving the World by Ash Leigh O'Rourke on Amazon.

Spoons:

see now I feel creepy because the whole time, spoiler alert, obviously I'm shipping Dylan and Amari and Is this bad?'cause they are like 13 and I'm 28 and I'm like, I want them to kiss. And then I'm like, that's weird, right? I probably shouldn't want them to kiss, but then I'm like, I do though. You know?

Gino:

No, I shipped them the whole time.

Wheezy:

Hello everybody welcome back to that Pretentious book club. I did

Spoons:

Welcome.

Wheezy:

honestly, I didn't think was that weird, but everyone is laughing about it like it really was. So that was one of those ash moments. If you're listening on audio, you have no idea and you're probably happier and more comfortable with your life. If you watched on

Spoons:

Oh My, God.

Wheezy:

on my head, which apparently is very funny.

Spoons:

She just, it was just like, okay, time to start the podcast and it just went up over there and I was like, okay, is this a new thing we're doing? Alright.

Wheezy:

I can't decide if I'm hot or warm. And so it felt like I'm literally gonna do it again.'cause it felt like a good compromise.

Spoons:

Just follow your heart.

Gino:

listen,

Spoons:

go.

Gino:

I'm not saying I wouldn't.

Wheezy:

It

Gino:

So

Wheezy:

feels better this way, like the top of my

Spoons:

Okay.

Wheezy:

warm

Gino:

welcome to that pretentious book club. This is your host, um, Ash O'Rourke, AKA wheezy.

Wheezy:

It ain't easy being wheezy.

Spoons:

Slay

Wheezy:

I'm trying to let other

Spoons:

over.

Wheezy:

intros now that over there is Dr. Spoons Palermo. You could call her Kendall. I wouldn't advise it.

Spoons:

Hi, howdy. You wanna

Gino:

You're like, excuse me, my name? No,

Spoons:

My name and over there is Mar Yoki, but you can call her Gino

Gino:

Kiara, everyone

Wheezy:

Oh,

Gino:

my shirt.

Spoons:

Kiara.

Gino:

Whoa.

Spoons:

Oh my gosh.

Wheezy:

look at

Gino:

And our

Spoons:

a special guest today.

Gino:

Woo.

Spoons:

Oh yeah,

Gino:

My

Spoons:

Our

Gino:

over here is

Spoons:

guest.

Gino:

Myla. We forgot to give her a n name even though she wanted one, but I never gave her one. And I was gonna make her sister pick one out for her. Don't do that. I thought that would be Don't do that. Don't do that. She's gonna pick something terrible.

Wheezy:

middle grade, but just Grand Master for short. How are

Spoons:

Oh,

Wheezy:

about

Gino:

GM.

Spoons:

Ooh. I like grandma.

Wheezy:

Yeah, which also means Game Master, which is like a dungeon master also, and she plays DD so

Gino:

Oh,

Wheezy:

It, all comes around. So Grandma

Spoons:

It's full circle. RGM

Gino:

grandma Master Myla.

Spoons:

Fat

Gino:

we go.

Spoons:

That's really dope actually. Yay.

Wheezy:

my head?

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

you

Spoons:

Oh yeah.

Wheezy:

I had a good like 10 minutes where I was like, I have 10 minutes. I could put on makeup and look cute to impress Myla or not. And I don't know, I was like, I don't, I don't know why I've had this. Like, hello Myla, it's nice to meet you. Also for the first time over this thing, I've just been like, I just really wanna impress her and I dunno why. And so what did I do? I put a sweater on my head

Spoons:

Just really

Gino:

like a little kid acting out always. Like, not always, but it's the same thing. Like when we're at the retreat and you turn into a child and then like Myla comes on, you like, hi, like me. Do

Wheezy:

it's like

Gino:

Do you wanna go on the Seesaw with me?

Wheezy:

you have one chance to make a good first impression. Okay. And actually think I'm really good at it. So anyways, welcome Myla. I'll probably be putting you on the spot and making you uncomfortable because that's what I do. You can ask Gino or Spoons else who's ever spoken to me?

Spoons:

That's the burden of being the special guest. You get to be on the spot.

Wheezy:

But we're

Gino:

Woo.

Wheezy:

The whole reason we're here for this episode it's as

Spoons:

the, this is gonna be a doozy. Okay. Because I have a lot of thoughts.

Wheezy:

we all have a

Spoons:

just telling y'all right now.

Wheezy:

The

Gino:

The text chain. It was,

Spoons:

was blowing up. It was going nuts. Basically crickets for women in white, even though we all liked it, but you know, basically crickets.

Gino:

we didn't say a word.

Spoons:

Boom. Everyone's freaking out. Mostly me,

Wheezy:

times forgot. I was driving while listening to it and was like, this is dangerous. This is definitely dangerous. I fully am not aware. I'm even, I was like, literally, how did I get here? I like arrived at my garage and was like, what happened at this whole 30 minute drive from when I

Gino:

I need

Spoons:

just,

Gino:

Myla to fully recreate her reaction when I showed her your text from earlier today's spoons. Later on, whether she remembers it or not, I'll repeat it.'cause it was, I was like, man, I literally told her, I said, we're not talking anymore. Save it for the pod.

Spoons:

yeah. We gotta save it. Yeah,

Wheezy:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how you

Spoons:

Oh my gosh.

Wheezy:

you have, when we have to have that save it, we, every now and then we do. We have to go, Wait. Save it for the pod. It's

Spoons:

Yeah. Oh. Oh, okay.

Gino:

Yeah, I started ranting about it to my sister and she hasn't even read it, and she's like, Myla, stop talking.

Wheezy:

Oh, that might just be a

Spoons:

Like

Wheezy:

thing. Oh, that's

Spoons:

Aw, that's so funny.

Gino:

So our book, if we haven't mentioned Oh yeah. Is do you wanna tell us? Yeah. Amari and the Knight Brothers. Oh, this is not up to the screen.

Spoons:

ooh. Is that a library book?

Gino:

Yes.

Spoons:

Excellent. Love it. We love to see it. Oh, I don't even have a physical one. Oh,

Wheezy:

God, what's it like to

Spoons:

I might have to get one though.

Gino:

I was gonna say, this is the first time I've had a physical copy of the book in quite some time. But I had every intention, I had every intention of just like actually reading this one instead of audio booking it. But then I got a really special audio book version, so I mostly listened to it. My narrator I brought with me today.

Wheezy:

About to say, are you

Spoons:

Yes. How did,

Wheezy:

life like audiobook, narrator?'cause that's amazing.

Gino:

Yeah.

Spoons:

you prepare for your role as narrator Myla? Like what was your Like? Lozenges, you know, vocal warmups, anything like that?

Gino:

no, I just read it and when I felt like I needed water, I just was like, I'm putting the book down. Gimme a second. Can't. So her audio book got p paused and she couldn't control it.

Wheezy:

So other than the pause that you

Spoons:

Yeah. She couldn't pause it.

Wheezy:

you take a break. Mya decides when you take a break.

Spoons:

The narrator decides you've had enough. Okay.

Wheezy:

That's so

Spoons:

That's really funny.

Wheezy:

my

Spoons:

Oh how was everyone's week? Before we get into the

Gino:

Oh yeah.

Wheezy:

we, but if you don't wanna listen to the

Spoons:

Any bird news?

Wheezy:

notes. But we all know you're here for the nonsense. So yeah, tell us about your birds Gino

Gino:

Um, bird News, Milo went with me to murder our birds last week. We have, we had meat chickens

Spoons:

Ah.

Gino:

We drove and had them processed and today we bought four. I can't believe I'm buying birds. We bought four babies because I have a mama chicken that's been broody for like four months at this point, and she looks like she's on death's door if she doesn't have babies to get her out of the coop. She's just been sitting there not drinking or eating for, I swear, four months. So we went and got babies. I'm gonna sneak'em under her in the morning and hopefully she doesn't murder them all.

Spoons:

yeah. Fingers crossed.

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

had enough. We chicken murder

Gino:

enough birder. We, oh,

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

so we got our like outdoor camera set up finally. We've had it forever, but we got it set up. So we've been watching, we have at least 15 raccoons that are just running around the backyard, just like climbing on top of the pen and crawling around and ever, there's just gazillions of them, but at least 15 that we've seen all at once.

Wheezy:

Oh

Gino:

they're crazy.

Wheezy:

What if you just looked

Spoons:

They're so cute.

Wheezy:

there were just like 15 serial, like known serial killers just walking around?'cause That's what your chicken's lives are

Gino:

what it's,

Spoons:

That's what it is.

Gino:

yes,

Spoons:

They're scary little eyes. They're little hands, They're really cute.

Wheezy:

so

Spoons:

they are murderers. I know.

Wheezy:

Oh, they're,

Gino:

I know.

Wheezy:

Straight up

Gino:

For real though, there's just like, we'll rip the head off, but we don't want any of the rest of it.

Spoons:

Terrible.

Wheezy:

find it

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

Like the least they could do is at least enjoy their meal.

Spoons:

at least eat it. Yeah. Come on.

Wheezy:

a purpose. Nah, we don't

Spoons:

Yeah,

Wheezy:

for Sport.

Gino:

we also have a Wild Turkey and it's babies. Yeah. Those are so cute.

Wheezy:

Have you named them?

Spoons:

Oh Turkey Babies.

Gino:

Oh no, not yet. We haven't like thought of that. What'd you name your, the baby chickens we got today? Oh, we named them Scooter, skunk, Chipotle and Diva.

Wheezy:

Amazing. Amazing.

Spoons:

Perfect. Exactly what they should be named

Wheezy:

my God, that's so good.

Spoons:

Scooter.

Wheezy:

Laying

Spoons:

Perfect. Oh my God.

Wheezy:

That's

Gino:

What else has been going on? Anything? No. I've just been chilling. I've been reading library books, but not much really.

Wheezy:

Oh

Spoons:

Yeah,

Wheezy:

books.

Spoons:

That's what I wanna be doing. Chilling and reading library books. That sounds sleigh. Yeah. And you'll have to forgive me that I use outdated lingo, Myla. I know I'm not cool. So just don't bring it up please. Thank you.

Wheezy:

I use outdated

Gino:

That's a,

Wheezy:

sorry about it. So it will

Gino:

I showed her your text that said Dylan and Amari are your ultimate OTP. And she was like, what? What is OTP?

Spoons:

OTP?

Wheezy:

I've had to

Spoons:

like? Can you On Tumblr in 2013. You know

Wheezy:

Oh my gosh. That's

Gino:

was like, she ships them.

Spoons:

I ship them. Yeah.

Wheezy:

Oh, is ship

Spoons:

True pairing.

Gino:

I don't know. She understood that. So I guess,

Wheezy:

Yay.

Gino:

yeah, shipping is still,

Wheezy:

still

Gino:

yeah,

Spoons:

y'all know that the term ship. Was

Gino:

I.

Spoons:

used to refer to molder and Scully from the XFiles Molder. The XFiles invented shipping.

Gino:

I think I did.

Spoons:

did. you? That's awesome.

Wheezy:

but it all makes sense.

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

like if you were to look up ship in a dictionary or in an encyclopedia, there would be like a reference to them with a picture.

Gino:

Oh my gosh, this is

Spoons:

was like the nineties, so they were starting

Gino:

so random. But I wanted to talk about this like five episodes ago and I always forget, but have you guys ever heard of I think they're called Bills of Moratorium. I might be making this completely. Have, does that sound familiar?

Wheezy:

No.

Spoons:

know.

Gino:

What are you talking about? Oh bill of Mortality. That is?

Wheezy:

less aware of that.

Gino:

Okay, um, it is, I don't know why this was like from four PO podcasts ago, so it had something to do with something, but in like, I wanna say Renaissance. England, or sometime long ago England, they had these bills of mortality, which was, it came out like how everyone died that year or month or whatever. But you have to look, you have to look at them because they're hilarious. Like

Wheezy:

many women died

Gino:

If you really think about it, it makes some of them make sense. But just by our English these days, like, seven people died of vomiting. This and this year. I just looked this up real quick.

Spoons:

Cow.

Gino:

it's like some of them are like five people died of falling off a tower or something like that. Like they're, or like

Wheezy:

The

Gino:

confusion. Like Yeah, like some of them, they're like, you have to look them up. They, I was crying, I was cracking up. Did they literally just jump off the same tower after seeing someone's, I dunno,

Wheezy:

that might be a

Gino:

Found dead in fields and et cetera?

Wheezy:

And et cetera.

Spoons:

You know, you get the picture found that in the field

Wheezy:

you know, fields, and other field, like areas,

Spoons:

they just, people be dead in fields sometimes, you know,

Wheezy:

just, you know, it happens. What can you

Spoons:

Vomiting.

Gino:

yeah. There, oh, this one planet, six people died of Planet. Planet. Did they go to another planet?

Wheezy:

planet or

Gino:

Yes.

Spoons:

They were just on earth

Gino:

What planet?

Spoons:

planet.

Wheezy:

What the hell?

Spoons:

The planet? killed them.

Gino:

Six people died of planet.

Wheezy:

gonna get

Gino:

Is that sickness? What?

Wheezy:

I dunno. That's really

Spoons:

I

Gino:

The

Spoons:

die of planet.

Wheezy:

I know.

Gino:

it. Yeah. So, um, they're just, they're hilarious. I mean, it's death, but they're hilarious.

Wheezy:

I, you know, I'm really glad that

Spoons:

Sometimes step is funny.

Wheezy:

up for episodes out of context.

Gino:

I know.

Wheezy:

better

Gino:

I feel like

Wheezy:

idea what the context is.

Gino:

I know.

Wheezy:

Oh my

Gino:

I don't know, but I was like, I finally remembered.

Spoons:

I love this. I wanna go look'em up after this.

Wheezy:

is read these.

Spoons:

I know. Pause to go look at deaths from 15 hundreds.

Wheezy:

Oh

Spoons:

Oh my gosh.

Gino:

spoons, what have you been up to?

Spoons:

Nothing much. I just, but I did realize, I think we forgot to talk about the part of our trip where we went to see outsider stuff.

Gino:

Yeah, you did because I saw, no, you didn't talk about it.'cause I saw your post on, yeah, I saw your post on Facebook or something and I was like, what?

Wheezy:

Oh my

Spoons:

because like that was kind of like a major part of it. I can't believe we didn't

Gino:

You just talked about being cousin lovers and sharing one bed. That was it.

Spoons:

God. See, yeah. We really should have been talking about how we got to see the out place, where they filmed the outsiders.

Wheezy:

would've

Spoons:

It was.

Wheezy:

if she had, if we hadn't been going to that. She was like, this is my pilgrimage, Ash. I've been waiting my whole life, and I was like, it's six hours away from us. I don't know why it took your

Spoons:

I could have gone, I'm like, for 15 years I've wanted to go. And she's like, it's six hours. You could have driven at any time. And I'm like, I know, but I didn't. So now we're here.

Wheezy:

and it was so special to get to be a part of it because I also like the outsiders. However, the level of adoration that spoons has is def, like my liking the outsiders is so unparalleled. She was so excited. Like we pulled up to the street and she's like, I'm so

Spoons:

I almost cried.

Wheezy:

hurts. I was like, I can't wait to

Spoons:

I was getting sick a little bit. I was like, this is insane. I can't believe we're here. But it was so cool. They had like costumes from the movie. They did the house all set up like it is in the movie, so you can very much picture like, Oh. Patrick Swayze was standing right here. You know, it's so awesome. And everyone who worked there was like also insane like me. So it was really fun. And we got to meet this lady who was like an extra in the movie and she was like, y'all wanna see my part of the movie? And we were like, yeah. And she like rewound to her scene and was like, there and she was like, and we got to meet Matt Dylan. And I was like, what? And it was so cool. And we got to sit right where Pony Boy sits, where he's reading Johnny's letter at the end and then Ralph Nacho's face gets all big and like, oh my gosh. And it was the best day ever.

Wheezy:

and pose with a recreation of the chocolate cake and the

Spoons:

I.

Wheezy:

So that was cool.

Spoons:

from two bits, little scene. And so that was what sold it for me the most, I think be I was telling Ash because I was like, these people understand what I, a Superfan wants out of this experience, you know, because they are insane as well. So they like this one random scene. Like anyone would be like, Oh yeah, that's kind of funny. These people who worked there were like, we have to have the props. People will want to recreate this. And I'm like, right. I did. I was so excited. How did you know? So it was really fun.

Wheezy:

It

Spoons:

So I guess that'll be my update, the Outsiders Museum. So yeah, Ash posted the video on our socials of me, like crying about it. So

Wheezy:

That was

Spoons:

that's in of, in any interest to the club,

Wheezy:

I wish I

Spoons:

I'll, I have some more pictures I might post too. Yeah,

Wheezy:

You should. You

Spoons:

and we literally drove to Tulsa, did that, and then left Tulsa. We did absolutely nothing else in Tulsa. Sorry to Tulsa. I'm sure you're a lovely city, but yeah, we basically just did that. So anyway,

Wheezy:

yeah.

Spoons:

spoons, I mean, I'm spoons

Gino:

Oh.

Spoons:

Weezy Any any updates?

Wheezy:

Some exciting updates. They're not pod related, but they're just, you know, like my life related, which is I just signed a lease for the bookstore hooray.

Spoons:

Yay.

Wheezy:

an actual beautiful space. I signed it this morning and it's in a gorgeous historic building and I'm so psyched and there will be many more details to come. Don't worry if you wanted to donate or didn't wanna donate, but knew I was gonna bring it up again. You still have every opportunity to do so crowdfunding is still very much going because it's very expensive to start a business. Actually starting a bookstore is not that bad compared to other businesses. But for someone who has no money, I sure could use some money. So if you guys wanna crowdfund the, my, my very, my cute little independent bookstore, It's also gonna serve as a writing center and like community event center. We're gonna have like d and d nights, we're gonna have karaoke and comedy and we're gonna have, God, what are we now gonna have? We're gonna have author like readings and signing. It's gonna be so much fun. I'm very excited about it. And if you come and see me, if you come to the bookstore, you can see me and possibly also spoons. So very exciting.

Spoons:

It's gonna be awesome. Yay.

Wheezy:

And we're gonna have some more like really fun fundraising. Does somebody, they call it fundraising, fundraising events.

Gino:

Oh goodness.

Wheezy:

you guys are

Gino:

Oh goodness.

Wheezy:

Lemme just hang on. So I need to put the sweatshirt, I think

Spoons:

she's. Okay. There you go. Yeah.

Gino:

Oh yeah,

Wheezy:

better.

Spoons:

so we can't see anything. Okay. Yeah.

Wheezy:

That's right. Yeah. There we

Gino:

I was gonna say that button on your microphone hit that.

Wheezy:

Yeah. But we're gonna do some cool events that you guys can participate in too. That's exciting and more to come about that. Pretty much that's been my life has been like waking up at two in the morning and thinking of 20 things I have to do for the bookstore and then, or the writing retreat that's coming up and then writing them down and then going back to sleep or trying, laying there for an hour and a half in the middle of the night. So that's kind of been my life. Yeah,

Spoons:

Woo-hoo.

Wheezy:

hair again. It did not go as well as the first time I did it when I, thought

Spoons:

I,

Wheezy:

good at this, and

Spoons:

oh, ri.

Gino:

There's hats. Hats.

Wheezy:

Hats are fine.

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

honestly his fault because he refused to sit still, and I also refused to stab him in the eye with my scissors. So I was like, can have a really good haircut and be blind, or you can have a really messy haircut and be completely safe. So we went with that one.

Spoons:

Yeah, that's

Gino:

You have to

Spoons:

option. Yeah.

Gino:

do it while he is sleeping like their fingernails.

Wheezy:

Honestly. Yes. Now he's very sensitive about that though because now he's aware, he wakes up when I mess with his fingernails. or his toenails. So we have absolute full meltdowns when we have to do toenail cutting. And also now haircuts. Full meltdown. Super fun. I did discover today that he's at the stage where I can annoy him for my own entertainment, which is really delightful. There is a bible verse that says, fathers don't exasperate your children, but it says fathers. It doesn't say anything about mothers. So I feel like I'm probably in the clear he has

Spoons:

I think ethically it's fine. Yeah.

Wheezy:

it's fine, Biblically ethically, he's got these little

Spoons:

Biblically

Wheezy:

likes to stack all the square pieces on top of each other just into a really high stack. And so I. was handing him the wrong size and shape of pieces. And at first he would just, he would take

Spoons:

I.

Wheezy:

me. And'cause he is all focused, he is got his like tongue sticking out his mouth and he is like. As he like puts the pieces on and adorable and I give him the wrong piece. He puts it on because he is not really looking. Then he is like, it doesn't fit. He goes, it makes like a horrendous face. And then hands it back to me. And I did this like three times. By the third time I would hand it to him and he'd go, no, hand it back immediately and just like shout no at me every time.

Gino:

Mom, are you dumb?

Wheezy:

he was

Spoons:

Like

Wheezy:

doesn't I, know

Spoons:

he's, like, obviously,

Wheezy:

He's

Spoons:

oh my God.

Wheezy:

I am 21 months old and I can figure this out. What is wrong with you?

Gino:

Oh, goodness.

Spoons:

we're gonna need to work on this.

Wheezy:

that's

Spoons:

Alright,

Wheezy:

Bookstore and harassing my kid.

Spoons:

I love it.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

lots going on. We're all so we're all, we've all got something going on. You know, we're all doing it.

Wheezy:

Except for

Gino:

Oh, for show.

Spoons:

on right now is my little. that we made.

Gino:

I saw your, you put the pineapple slices on it and I was like, ah.

Spoons:

I did.

Wheezy:

I know she got real cute with

Spoons:

I did. Do you wanna describe the drink, Gina?

Gino:

Here we have three drinks over here.

Wheezy:

Ooh, whoa.

Spoons:

Yeah. They're all like different colors.

Wheezy:

was gonna say Mylas is a really pretty blue,

Spoons:

I love

Gino:

so this is Amari's illusion. This is a mocktail. It is Honey Dew. Pineapple juice, orange juice, lemon juice, and an ice cube. And I have circular ice cube.

Wheezy:

just

Gino:

So I put that in there and I was like they're big. They're like that big.

Spoons:

big ones.

Wheezy:

Ooh.

Gino:

ball. Yeah. Yeah.

Spoons:

Oh Yeah. Perfect.

Wheezy:

that's so magical. That's really cool.

Gino:

And then Myla can tell you about her drink. My drink is Sprite with flowers, which are supposed to be like Amari bloom. The amari bloom.

Spoons:

Stop it. I'm gonna cry. Okay.

Gino:

And the blue is'cause blue just gives me illusion vibe. So like, the flowers an illusion.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

also have like the ice cube for like the crystal ball. And that's,

Wheezy:

That's

Gino:

I don't remember what like the thing that colored it blue. But it's blue. It's raspberry lemonade. Neo. Oh, raspberry lemonade. Neo.

Wheezy:

Nice.

Spoons:

great. I love it.

Wheezy:

it. looks really

Spoons:

It's perfect. Yeah. Y'all are gonna have to take a picture of that. We can post it on the

Gino:

I did take a picture of hers, so

Spoons:

Okay. Excellent. Yeah, Okay. So should we get into the book? Okay. So

Gino:

yeah, that's the author.

Spoons:

What's going

Gino:

I,

Spoons:

So yeah, we're doing Amari and the Knight Brothers on Mylas suggestion, and it is written by Bibe Ston. So I, found a little interview

Gino:

I was shocked that he is a, he, like, after reading it, he has a really strong female voice for her.

Spoons:

When I saw that it was initials, I was like, I wonder if it's a man. And it is indeed. So

Wheezy:

cross my mind. Even once I was like, this book was written by a woman. I just know it literally, until you were like, we should learn about the author

Spoons:

I,

Wheezy:

record an episode where we talk about the author. And I, was like, yeah. And I was like, wait, it's a man, a very handsome man. I have no idea. I know

Spoons:

yeah. Ash has a crush on Bebe Alston.

Gino:

Also we found out they're making a movie.

Spoons:

Yes. they're making a movie. you guys.

Wheezy:

Oh my gosh,

Spoons:

How cool is that? like the coolest thing ever.

Wheezy:

how obsessed I would've been with this book. I'm kind of obsessed now, but like, this was like the level of, if anyone has been with this podcast for any period of time, you know how deeply committed I am to the Percy Jackson series by Rick Ryden. Amazing. I, this would've been like equal like reading. I was like, I have not

Spoons:

Dang.

Wheezy:

the first read of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. It was

Spoons:

yeah. I was also feeling like this would, this is doing numbers on me right now. As a 28-year-old, this would have done even worse for me. If I was like 13, it would've been over.

Wheezy:

But you would be like, you'd be like, I'm at every BB Alston appearance, every signing I have every piece of

Spoons:

I would've had signed BB Alston. Yeah, I would. You're right. So he, I found a little interview, so he started writing in middle school and it says he would entertain his classmates with horror stories starring the whole class in which not everyone survived. And I personally love that energy.

Gino:

That's one way to deal with, he makes his own stories.

Wheezy:

Nice.

Spoons:

he had just been accepted into a biomedical graduate program when he entered like a Twitter pitch contest and it led to him signing with his agent and now he has a film deal and 20 plus book deal. Like how crazy is that? I love that. he loves he has a sweet tooth. but this is what really caught my eye is that when I started reading the book, I didn't look up anything about it beforehand. I just started listening to it and my like, first thoughts were like, once it started getting into like, you. like, when she showed up at the bureau and stuff, I was like, even before that I was like, this is very Percy Jackson esque, like, kind of like down on you, like kinda kid. But like, you know, it, I was like, she's giving Percy Jackson in a way. Then I was like, this is like if Percy Jackson was like me, met men in Black, and then it's literally pitched as Percy Jackson meets Men in Black. And I was like, wow. I was really on board with that.

Wheezy:

You

Spoons:

I was like, it's giving, for me, it's giving like Percy Jackson men in Black Mortal instruments in a way. And obviously there's like little Harry Potter in there, but I was like, this is, I was loving it.

Wheezy:

Correct. This

Spoons:

so

Gino:

fun. That's funny because um, when I read like the first chapter two, Maya was asking me how far I was and I was like, oh, I got to this point. She was like, well, what happened so far? So I was telling her and her sister was listening and her sister's one of the biggest Percy Jackson fans as well. So as I'm telling her, she was like, so it's Percy Jackson? No, that's Percy Jackson. This is just Percy Jackson. She's like, that literally happens in Percy Jackson. She's like, this guy copied Percy Jackson.

Spoons:

She was ready to fight.

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

That's so

Spoons:

I do think there are a lot of similarities, but I feel that it is quite different enough for me

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

is, I love the

Wheezy:

It

Spoons:

I think it's, I love middle grade novels. Ugh, so good.

Wheezy:

Don't typically, I especially like,

Spoons:

this is a big deal for you.

Wheezy:

I didn't really like them. Percy Jackson was my big exception. And then sure enough, this is my big exception as an adult, like every time we've read a middle grade, I've been like, eh, probably good if you're a middle grader reading this. I was like. I want to only be reading this and never not be reading this for the rest of my life.

Spoons:

Can you tell, we liked your suggestion, Myla. He Bebe Allison said his all time favorite book is Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, which I think is very interesting.

Wheezy:

I'm losing some Approval for him.

Spoons:

oh, I

Gino:

I.

Spoons:

it.

Gino:

Been reading a lot, not reading, I've been watching all like all the Chocolate Charlie, the Chocolate Factory, and Willy Wonka's recently. So that just like caught my attention. It was our summer goal to read or to watch all the rewatch, all the Charlie's and Wonka's and stuff. So we've been watching those.

Wheezy:

The book

Spoons:

So you and Bibi are on the same wavelength.

Wheezy:

Hey, she said she likes the movies. The book is something different.

Gino:

I've never read the book before, so I don't know.

Wheezy:

I

Spoons:

I haven't read it in a long time, to be fair.

Wheezy:

but.

Gino:

know if I read the that book, but I read the Glass Elevator,

Wheezy:

Oh

Gino:

so I don't know if I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I read the one after it.

Wheezy:

people, some people say it's better. I don't know. Listen,

Spoons:

I have heard that too, but I haven't read that one.

Wheezy:

I just, I don't know. I don't know about that one.

Spoons:

That's, maybe that's why you don't like middle grade books as much because, so many of them are about, like, kids where you're like, where are your parents? Like, you know, why does everyone so mean to you? Like, it's like how, yeah, we're just putting kids in basements and stuff. So yeah, so his, it says that his inspiration for the first Samari book, he was wa. Watching men in black and was like, what if they did more than just aliens? What if it was like supernatural creatures? And then he started writing Imari book? How cool is that?

Wheezy:

I Has that, has everybody heard

Spoons:

yeah,

Wheezy:

fact, 20 times.

Gino:

No. No.

Spoons:

no.

Wheezy:

Tommy Lee Jones is my, not so he is related to my grandfather, but like, supposedly they're like first cousins or something, like relatively close. Like they would be at family reunions together. But apparently he's not a very nice person. That's

Spoons:

Oh no.

Wheezy:

I am pretty sure they're related. I can't testify, I don't have the evidence as to how closely, but they do. He and my grandfather do look really similar, so I'm like, ah, I see that side of the family. But

Spoons:

You're like, I believe it could be true.

Wheezy:

do. I'm gonna choose to believe that it's true. That's my fun fact about men in Black.

Spoons:

That is a fun fact. He just a couple more things he.

Wheezy:

halt,

Spoons:

no, didn't. I'm just trying to

Gino:

What was, yeah, I could.

Spoons:

my next BB Alston. Fun fact. he says that it was that Amari is the character that is most like him,

Wheezy:

Aw.

Spoons:

that's probably why it was easy for him to write from her POV also that he was really excited about like having a young black hero on the cover of the book because when he was a kid there weren't very many books for kids his age where like that featured like black main characters. I thought that was very cool too. And then he says that if he could have a supernatural ability from the Bureau, it would be cool if he could just touch a book and know everything inside, so then he could read

Gino:

So good. So

Wheezy:

What a good, what a

Gino:

I feel like we were just talking about something like that, like having superpowers of knowledge. Oh, you were talking about Hermione. Like wanting all the knowledge and never being able to get it.

Wheezy:

That

Spoons:

yeah,

Wheezy:

a really deep conversation. Now. I'm like,

Gino:

Yeah,

Wheezy:

talk about Harry Potter.

Spoons:

it's really does. And I'm like,

Gino:

well I was like, I resonate with that. I want all the knowledge, but I'll never be able to attain it, you know?

Spoons:

that would be cool. So that's all I have

Gino:

Anyway.

Spoons:

do not know his birthday. We can

Gino:

I do.

Spoons:

pod astrologist.

Wheezy:

Ooh,

Spoons:

Oh, we have, Gino has the birthday.

Gino:

Any guesses? No.

Spoons:

He's a Scorpio.

Wheezy:

That's an interesting

Spoons:

I don't know.

Gino:

Close, but Virgo, September 20th.

Spoons:

A very go

Wheezy:

Libra and I

Spoons:

perfect.

Wheezy:

I know nothing about Virgos I'm, and I never choose to

Gino:

I, yeah, I know. Several Virgos.

Spoons:

Yeah

Gino:

yeah.

Spoons:

very like intense sometimes. okay. Okay. Let's get into the

Gino:

first impressions,

Wheezy:

first impressions. My

Spoons:

Myla, do

Gino:

Myla, what was.

Wheezy:

Oh, I'm sorry, I just jumped in. Yes, Myla, go ahead.

Spoons:

Oh, sorry,

Wheezy:

No, it's only right

Spoons:

grandma.

Wheezy:

Myla leads the way.

Gino:

My first. So what happens is my friend said, Myla, read this book. And I was like, maybe. And I just walked away'cause I was looking for a new book to read. So I was going down the sections of books. I already saw like the whole section of books, like it was in another place where all the sections were. And I was like, Hey, this book looks interesting. I pulled it out and it was the exact book she already told me about. And like it wasn't with the other books where it was supposed to be. And I was like, you know what? This is Destiny. I'm gonna read it. And it became my favorite book.

Wheezy:

to be.

Spoons:

Wait.

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

you.

Spoons:

It did. It's fate. You were meant to read it.

Wheezy:

is. Oh, I'm

Spoons:

really crazy.

Wheezy:

I'm so glad Fate gave you this

Spoons:

I know. Thank goodness. Now I got to read it.

Gino:

Yeah. I, when she suggested it and then I suggested it to y'all and I finally looked it up when you guys were like, what's the book? The first thing it said on there was like a combination of Artemis Foul and something else. I don't know. All I remember

Spoons:

Oh

Wheezy:

Artemis

Gino:

say, all I remember was it said Artemis Fow. And that was one of my favorite books probably still is from like my childhood, the whole Artemis Fow series. So I was like, okay, I'm immediately on board.

Spoons:

To do Artemis value, you guys. Oh my God. Why

Gino:

I freaking love Artemis Fow.

Spoons:

I'm a Me too. I was so obsessed. Obsessed.

Wheezy:

our other books this season with

Spoons:

Yeah. Replace it. We're doing Artemis fowl instead. Yeah. Oh my God. Okay, so you were like, yeah, absolutely.

Gino:

Yes. Spoons. What was your first impression? I.

Spoons:

impression was, I don't know, I didn't have very much, like I barely even looked at the cover before I started reading it. I was just like, okay, this is the book. Like, I didn't have much of an impression, I guess. I was just like, oh, it's okay. It's a lot of magic. We're gonna be doing magic stuff. I'm interested in like whatever this new, I'm interested to learn some new lore, you know? always like fun whenever you start in with like a new series and you're like, what's the vibe gonna be? So I don't even know if I have a good first impression. I really just kind of went in blind. didn't like read anything on it, I was like, who are these Knight Brothers? You know? What's their story?

Gino:

Have comments

Spoons:

Oh, she's got comments on the Knight Brothers. Okay.

Wheezy:

first. My first impression of the book was first, what a cool cover. I love the artwork. I love to see a girl. I'll never, it'll never get old for me like a girl heroine on the main cover that will never get old. I love it. Always. Yep.

Spoons:

it.

Wheezy:

It's gorgeous. However, I saw Amari and I was like, yes, it said, and the Knight Brothers. And my first impression was, why the, why are we mentioning the Knight Brothers? Who are the Knight Brothers? If they're not the main character, their name doesn't be deserve to be up there. Obviously Amari's the main character. Her name should be on the cover. And that was my

Gino:

Okay. That's pretty much my last impression of the book. That's my comments of like, wait, why were the Knight Brothers mentioned in the title?

Wheezy:

that was my first question. I was like, I feel like this doesn't need to be here. I don't know if it's about her. It'd be about her. She's clearly awesome. So that was my first impression.

Spoons:

Why are the Knight Brothers here? Okay. so wants to lead us through kind of a basic plot of the book? Anyone want to do it?

Wheezy:

Takers, any,

Gino:

why don't you, I can, I guess. Okay. May

Spoons:

Oh,

Gino:

said she'll try. Yeah. The plot of it is of Aari, the main character who her brother Quentin goes missing like a while ago, and it's just her and her mom. She finds out about like this summer camp thing. I don't think I'm getting all this right because I've read it like a while ago. But it's a secret baroo with like investigation stuff, but she wants to become a agent like her brother was, and find out the mysteries of her brother. And she gets into this whole thing with the Knight Brothers, and that's why they're on the cover.

Wheezy:

oh my

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

Gets like in, she finds out through her this weird thing from her brother who was missing that he was involved with this of Supernatural investigation. So now she's in the bureau to try and find out what happened to him. Exactly.

Gino:

she gets sent to a summer camp for, she tells her mom because her mom doesn't know about all the supernatural things that her brother was involved in. And so she goes to this summer camp where it's actually this bureau of Supernatural things. And everyone else there has kind of known about it for a while. This is where it's like Harry Potter esque, where it's a, it's the school and you have like. People who come from Muggle families,

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

not muggles, but people come from normal families. And the people who come from, they call'em legacy families. So everyone who knows about all the supernatural things and you have to be nominated to get into school.

Wheezy:

Or

Gino:

Or you

Wheezy:

did.'cause he was like

Gino:

Exactly.

Wheezy:

super awesome. His family thought he had this fancy job.'cause that's what he said and they couldn't know anything about it. And then he disappeared. And this is like six months, this takes place like six months later. After like

Gino:

Probably

Wheezy:

trouble in

Gino:

It's been a while. Yeah.

Wheezy:

really hard. It's just Amari and her mom and Quentin, who's amazing. And how old is he? Because can I have a crush on him? Because I do

Gino:

I mean,

Spoons:

am.

Gino:

is out of high school.

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

Because I'm like,

Gino:

I don't remember.

Wheezy:

he's so eligible. You

Gino:

say it in other books, but I probably did not pay attention. He is

Wheezy:

a

Gino:

older.

Wheezy:

He's

Spoons:

he's older. Yeah.

Gino:

I think he still counted as a child, but

Wheezy:

he is not.

Gino:

I dunno,

Wheezy:

twenties because isn't he like 10 years older than she is

Gino:

I don't know.

Spoons:

think he's a young man. Yeah, but I'm not sure exactly.

Wheezy:

over 18,

Spoons:

said you cannot have a crush on Quentin.

Gino:

Seems like he's a child

Wheezy:

He's a child. You're being creepy. Okay.

Gino:

also. I'll let you, I was gonna say, I'll let you I'll help you out a little, is that Wheezy is a lot younger than me, so she might, it might be a little better there.

Wheezy:

I forget that there's any age gap.

Spoons:

I know, me

Wheezy:

Know if that makes it that much better, but Quentin,

Gino:

I picture him like 22 is where I pictured him.

Wheezy:

pictured

Spoons:

that's kind of what I was thinking.

Wheezy:

why I'm probably am incorrect. That's just what I was, he's just so competent. Okay, listen.

Spoons:

You were wanting him to be, yeah.

Wheezy:

I'm just saying he has a very bright future ahead of him. He is gonna make some person a very lucky partner.

Spoons:

Making Maria Van Helsing a

Gino:

Yeah, I agree with you

Wheezy:

Yes, I

Gino:

whole time. I was just like is him and Maria in a relationship? Maybe?

Wheezy:

Yeah,

Spoons:

ship it. Let me tell you. I ship it.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

then secondly, I would ship him with you wheezy if it would make you happy. But firstly, if Maria dies,

Wheezy:

level two, post Maria's

Spoons:

listen, they're really cute wheezy. I'm sorry.

Wheezy:

I'm honored. I can't believe I made

Spoons:

Oh, okay.

Wheezy:

second place. That's amazing. It's okay. He's too young for me

Spoons:

I have a lot of ideas for, and see now I feel creepy because the whole time, spoiler alert, obviously I'm shipping Dylan and Amari and Is this bad?'cause they are like 13 and I'm 28 and I'm like, I want them to kiss. And then I'm like, that's weird, right? I probably shouldn't want them to kiss, but then I'm like, I do though. You know?

Gino:

No, I shipped them the whole time.

Spoons:

Okay. Thank God, Myla. Thank God I'm not the only one. Yeah. If I was 13 I'd be shipping it, so I'm like, you know, it's fine.

Wheezy:

Milo's our creepy

Spoons:

Okay.

Wheezy:

are you guys?

Spoons:

I know she's like, okay enough. The, so the van hell sings are this ki Legacy family at the bureau, obviously related to Van Helsing from Dracula. And they are like really rich and stuck up and stuff. And so there are two two, so Quentin's partner Maria, who have we've been discussing also went missing when he went missing. So that's this whole other thing. And then she has two younger siblings who are twins who are in like Amari's class for the like. Trainee thing, and their names are Dylan and Laura. Laura is so terrible and mean, and but I'm getting the feeling that she will become more important later in the series And I'm just gonna have to forgive her for saying all that means stuff. But right now I don't.

Wheezy:

Picturing a

Spoons:

and

Wheezy:

for sure.

Spoons:

ugh, we're giving the wrong twin, the redemption arc. That's what I'm saying.

Wheezy:

Completely agree.

Gino:

I don't know. I think there's a possibility that Dylan has a redemption arc.

Wheezy:

might have a

Spoons:

I think so.

Wheezy:

I

Spoons:

I hope so. I really hope so.

Wheezy:

for Percy Jackson, I was like, oh no, we did a Luke twist. Like I

Spoons:

I know,

Wheezy:

that Luke only, he didn't really get, I want that for Dylan.

Spoons:

oh my God, I'm really not over it. This happened like five hours ago for me, and I'm still

Gino:

I was like.

Spoons:

The level to which I was screaming in my car,

Wheezy:

I

Spoons:

I, we haven't even got even gotten there yet. I.

Wheezy:

the day after I stopped. We recorded the woman in white.'cause I thought it's gonna take me a while to get through this. You know, like I'm just gonna give myself plenty of time. We only have a week between the episodes. I devoured the book in like two days and so then I've just been sitting

Spoons:

Yep.

Wheezy:

a whole five days here

Gino:

It's just like I need to talk to you.

Wheezy:

Yeah, and I was also like, I'm so scared. I'm gonna forget, but it's so good. I haven't forgotten. I'm

Spoons:

No. Oh,

Wheezy:

remember.

Gino:

So

Spoons:

so

Gino:

they, um, you have the Van Helsing twins and their father and mother are also high up in the bureau. Their father like runs the school. Like, or the agent? The agents, yeah. He is important. Yeah. I dunno, I don't know anything about Hi. I don't know anything about their mom. I'm gonna be like, I don't know who she is. Said she ran or she works in one of the departments. Yeah, but

Spoons:

oh,

Gino:

I just never knew her.

Wheezy:

Oh,

Gino:

Oh yeah. Yeah. I completely forgot about her. So when I was reading the other books, I was like, wait, they have a mom?

Wheezy:

that's

Gino:

I thought I was like a single dad or something. I completely forgot they even mentioned her.

Spoons:

Where's the mom?

Wheezy:

he's the

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

of the Bureau of Supernaturalist.'cause it's, it is a summer camp. That's how it's like built. But it's also more than that, like a training program for future So

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

he is

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

of the bureau. And can we just really

Gino:

No, he,

Wheezy:

is like, you go to a hotel and you press the button, like for like t like

Gino:

oh yeah.

Wheezy:

of the buttons 26 times and then like another door opens and like, it's this, it is this one of my favorite things that Artemis Foul did too. That's so hard to do. It's like we have fantasy and science fiction all at once and I love it

Spoons:

Ooh. Yeah.

Wheezy:

and Bebe

Spoons:

That is very Artemis Foul.

Wheezy:

oh God, it's so good. And I love the fact that we're like maybe in the basement of a hotel but it's

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

underground I would assume. I don't know. It's, or in

Spoons:

This setup is very Percy Jackson to me. Like 500th floor. Please. You know, it's like

Gino:

And the elevators all have personalities. Oh yeah.

Spoons:

Oh,

Wheezy:

so quirky and

Spoons:

I love the elevators.

Wheezy:

It's got the exact, like the exact level of zany that you want in a middle grade. It's so All

Gino:

I remember when you

Spoons:

a way

Gino:

heard whisper,

Wheezy:

Yes, it does.

Spoons:

Oh, the what?

Wheezy:

thump, zany.

Spoons:

Yeah. What were you saying, Myla?

Gino:

When she found out about Whisper, she just laughed because Whisper only shouts

Wheezy:

I

Spoons:

Yeah, exactly.

Wheezy:

Whisper.

Spoons:

little details like that.

Wheezy:

It's so funny. I loved

Spoons:

So good.

Wheezy:

favorite elevator. That

Spoons:

oh yeah, that was good. I liked mischief the

Gino:

Oh, yeah. Mischief.

Spoons:

I'm looking the other way. I don't know. doing something fun? I don't know. Oh, can we talk about my girl Elsie?

Gino:

I was just thinking that

Spoons:

Amari's roommate at the bureau is a girl named,

Wheezy:

she's the Grover equivalent. Okay. Continue.

Spoons:

nailed It. You got me. And I didn't even consider that until right now, but she is the Grover equivalent and yes, I do love her. She is like. She's so cool. She is a wear dragon, She hasn't actually transformed yet, but she like literally hatched from an egg off the coast of Mexico in like an abandoned sunken ship, which is crazy. She's like, I'm the last of my kind, so I don't really know how to do it. Anyway, I'm Elsie and I'm like, what?

Wheezy:

She's like, oh, and also I'm

Spoons:

And

Wheezy:

and I'm an inventor, and I'm like, oh God, I wanna be you so bad.

Spoons:

she's so cute

Wheezy:

so adorable. She reminded me of,

Spoons:

she has all these cool inventions.

Wheezy:

Wednesday the show Wednesday's roomie the werewolf. With

Gino:

I could see that. Yeah. Yes.

Spoons:

yes.

Wheezy:

that

Gino:

Inez,

Spoons:

be her.

Wheezy:

yes, exactly. With her, just like her general like sweetness competency as

Spoons:

super sweet.

Gino:

I,

Wheezy:

And being

Gino:

yeah, I could see that.

Wheezy:

among the others. Yeah. Oh, and they both hadn't shifted yet. So

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

at that, Myla is like

Spoons:

Oh my God,

Wheezy:

like obviously

Spoons:

they're twins.

Wheezy:

Aw so sweet.

Spoons:

So they have to like, they go through like kind of a Harry Potter esque

Gino:

Yes. Sorting.

Spoons:

sorting situation. Yeah. But it's more, it's not like where they, it's more like they get assigned like levels to like how good the bureau thinks you're gonna be at this job. And so they like get Pokemon badges. And so Amari ends up getting a Moonstone badge, which there's

Gino:

The highest. She like breaks the meter,

Wheezy:

It's fantastic. I'm so

Spoons:

And there's only been 14 ever including her. And one of them was Quentin. So everyone's like, oh, big stuff coming for Amari. And, but then whenever they are getting, everyone gets a supernatural ability that like, it's just something that's like enhanced from your normal personality. but when she's going to get hers this crazy, like stuff happens in the crystal ball cracks and all this, or it appears to crack, and they're like, oh God. And they're like, oh no, she's a magician. She has magic. they all freak out. And then that's when you learn. It's bad to have magic already. You're not supposed to already have magic.

Wheezy:

All criminals, every

Spoons:

yes

Gino:

is crazy like. They're all like, oh we touched the crystal ball to get magic because we like magic, and magic is cool, but if you have magic, you're bad.

Wheezy:

Yeah. If

Gino:

I think it's'cause of the history.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

They're that's too much magic. We only give you a little bit, so get out of here.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

no one likes you. They're just hating because two guys were like, we're evil. So they're just like, all of you guys are evil now.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

because

Spoons:

The ninth Brothers,

Gino:

perhaps

Spoons:

Brothers.

Gino:

then I rather,

Wheezy:

two guys,

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

The Knight Brothers.

Spoons:

So we learned, yeah, the Knight Brothers were like these magicians who kind of gave magicians like a bad rap,

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

they were

Spoons:

invented vampirism.

Gino:

They're also like born magicians, which is special. Special magicians. Yeah, because magicians are generally made from other magicians give, like they give them their magic. Like app apprenticeship of Yeah. But the Knight Brothers were born magicians and Amari. When they test her, they're like, what? You're a magician. We gotta test you. And they're like a hundred percent magician. This is unheard of. Your blood is pure magic.

Wheezy:

So cool.

Gino:

I wonder who's the other born magician?

Spoons:

Oh, know who didn't guess at me. Really? I'm so stupid. I,

Gino:

I have to say, I didn't fully guess it, but I went back and forth throughout the whole book being like, no, I don't trust you. He is bad. Oh, okay. I guess he wasn't, uh, no, I don't trust you. He's bad. No. The whole time I was like, who? No.

Wheezy:

you

Gino:

He talked. He talked and I was like. No, you can't. No.

Spoons:

cannot

Gino:

I wa

Spoons:

this.

Gino:

I have a whole story about that. I, I walked.

Spoons:

about what we're talking about first. So

Gino:

Yeah.

Spoons:

who

Gino:

we get there, when we get there.

Spoons:

Okay. Okay. So Dylan. The other twin, the other Van Helsing twin is like nicer to Amari than Laura, his sister, but she's not sure about him. But then we find out that he's actually behind this person who's been texting Amari, who's like, Hey, I know stuff. I can help you. And she's like,

Gino:

Magician girl.

Spoons:

actually Dylan. And so then they become like friends and partners,

Wheezy:

that was

Spoons:

so

Wheezy:

the username magician girl or whatever, and I

Gino:

Magic is just a girl.

Wheezy:

this was like a chick. I was like, I believe

Gino:

Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

Spoons:

her,

Wheezy:

Yeah, exactly.

Spoons:

and yet, even though he tricked her, I was like, he did it for a good reason.

Wheezy:

school. Yeah. I had that moment too, where I was like maybe it's fine. I guess that's clever. You know, no one's gonna think that. He like used like his illusion magic to look like a girl.'cause he also did that to like

Gino:

Yeah,

Wheezy:

a

Spoons:

Yeah. So he's a magician.

Wheezy:

a magician. It's me. It's me, Dylan. And I was like. Dylan, this was suspicious. I guess

Spoons:

I was eating it up, let me tell you. I was like, thank God Dylan's

Gino:

but

Spoons:

got so

Gino:

he is,

Spoons:

me when he became a magician.

Gino:

he has like technology magician, magic technologist. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the many different types. I think I know them all actually.

Spoons:

Tell

Gino:

of the types,

Spoons:

I,

Wheezy:

they?

Gino:

Blood magic shadow magic, teleportation magic. There's so many. Hold on. There is, oh, uh, okay. There's elemental magic. Weather wrist, which is controlling weather, illusions. And there might be more, but that's all I know of right now off the top of my head.

Wheezy:

them all

Spoons:

was one.

Gino:

And you can only have two basically. Basically.

Spoons:

okay. Interesting.

Wheezy:

I did not pick up on

Spoons:

Oh, I can't wait to read more and learn more of the lore.

Gino:

Oh, also Spellcaster, I think, was only mentioned once where you make magic. I think that was Vladimir. Vladimir. They definitely used the word spell weavers. Yeah. In there.

Wheezy:

Oh,

Gino:

Because I was like, oh, they,

Wheezy:

Look at that.

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

that?

Gino:

I did, I don't think they ever were ever spell weavers. I don't think I ever have like, heard of another one throughout their entire book series. They're like, oh yeah, Vladimir's a spell weaver. Anyway, like they never explained that.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

just like, let's just talk about the other types of magic and ignore him.

Wheezy:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Spoons:

Interesting. They're like, he He was cool. You know,

Wheezy:

and bad, so we're just

Spoons:

don't worry about it. It's fine.

Wheezy:

worry about him.

Gino:

we do find out that Amari is an illusionist. Yeah. That's her powers. But that you're born with two, so well, given two.

Spoons:

Oh, that's so cool. was like, these guys are so cool. But Dylan's been keeping it a secret because like obviously he's a fan house singer and it would be a big deal.

Wheezy:

yeah.

Gino:

a technologist and illusionist.

Spoons:

yeah, so

Gino:

Yeah.

Spoons:

the illusion that like, he got a different thing like that he like, made everyone believe he wasn't a magician at the ceremony thing.

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

So now they're working together. And then also Elsie and Amari working together and they're all like finding clues about Quentin and Maria and all that. And there's a lot of stuff. I don't

Gino:

because Quentin and Maria were the. The star agents at the bureau. So much so that they were like famous. Yeah, they were called Vanquish because they vanquish the bad guys.

Wheezy:

Yeah, vanquish.

Spoons:

I love

Gino:

There's like posters of them on Elsie's wall and you'd be so weird seeing your brother just on someone else's wall and you wake up and you're like, ow. Wait, what's that?

Wheezy:

I'd be like doodling faced, like mustaches and horns and stuff on it.

Spoons:

That would be weird. I didn't even think of that. She's

Wheezy:

funny. I,

Spoons:

really like, what is the big deal? Yeah. That's

Gino:

It's probably not weird to Dylan

Spoons:

and

Gino:

'cause he sees his face like everywhere.'cause he is a Van Healthing, so he is probably like, oh, it's my sister.

Wheezy:

Yeah.'cause

Spoons:

he is like, whatever. I'm already famous.

Wheezy:

Dylan.

Gino:

So then in school, in order to become a agent, there's like three tryouts or three trials. Tests and they basically get thrown into the first one without Yeah. Any warning. They're like, oh, by the way, it's right now.

Wheezy:

I hate that. That's one of my least favorite tropes. You're

Gino:

oh yeah. And lc is a scientist. I,

Wheezy:

you're already in it. And I'm like no. I wanted to know when the test was starting.

Spoons:

isn't.

Wheezy:

I'd be so

Gino:

but at least she didn't have to quit before. Like Laura. Like completely,

Wheezy:

that's true. Laura did try to basically blackmail her, caught her practicing magic with the book that Dylan gave her and recorded it on her phone.'cause she's a, she's definitely an iPhone girly. And it was basically like, if you don't drop out, there's only this many spots for the junior agents open. You better not take mine or anyone else's. You're gonna drop outta the program tomorrow or you're gonna switch whatever your, you know, focus

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

And she does try to, Amari does try to go do that.'Cause she obviously doesn't wanna like go to prison, which is what would happen hypothetically if she was caught using magic.

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

instructors won't let her until the next day. And then that's when like, surprise, you're in the test happens Basically blows it outta the park. She does amazing

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

and she gets partnered with Dylan and they're the only ones who actually pass. I mean, they all pass, but they're the only ones who like pass

Spoons:

They win basically.

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

did because of Amari, because she's smart and she saw things in a different way than everyone else saw them. And yeah. And so then at that point, I guess had Laura tried to basically blackmail her and be like, what are you doing? Like winning this? Like you have to drop out. And Dylan was like, why? And she was like, this video. And he was like, what video? Because he's a technologist and he made it go away. And he was like, you really should just told me. And she's like, yeah, I really should have just told you. Maybe you could have just like,

Gino:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking the whole time. I was like, you know, he's a technologist and one thing I thought was like, I immediately started like shipping them is when he picked her up and twirled her when they won.

Wheezy:

That was

Spoons:

thank you, Myla. Exactly what I was thinking. I was like in a public place where I couldn't freak out, but I went like this. I was freaking out. That was so cute.

Wheezy:

sweet.

Gino:

Obviously you can see he liked her,

Wheezy:

Yeah. Yes.

Gino:

her the whole time.

Wheezy:

Oh,

Spoons:

Yeah. When he got her those shoes, he got her the shoes. Oh my God. The scene with the flower, like from your drink

Gino:

Amari bloom. Yeah. So cute. So cute.

Spoons:

like practicing illusions together. And then he's like, you're this little blah, blah, blah. He's like this little sprout.'cause you're like, so cool.

Gino:

Yeah.

Spoons:

I'm gonna make it a flower. And then they're like, oh my God. Like, that was so cool of us. And I'm like, yes.

Gino:

Yeah, because like the whole time he's like flirting with her clearly, and he's like, I, you are so pretty. And then she's just like, oh, look at that. And he's like, I'm flirting with you. And she is just ignoring him.

Wheezy:

funny. She's like, I am here on a mission and I have only one thing that I truly care about and that's funny. And I was like, this is excellent. Nothing distracts you. You are so focused.

Spoons:

I know she really is.

Wheezy:

I love

Spoons:

She had like one throwaway line at the beginning where she's like, I guess he's cute enough. And I was like, that's good enough for me. You know? Like,

Wheezy:

like, oh, she's interested. And it was like very

Spoons:

yeah.

Wheezy:

otherwise, which

Spoons:

Yeah, I know. She's busy. She's got a lot going on, you know,

Wheezy:

She's very busy and important. Dylan's just gonna get in the way. Sure enough.

Spoons:

but they make a really good cause they went through like all the little trials together and they did a great job.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

I was like, wow, they're really killing this trainee thing. And then Laura gets kicked out. I was like, uhoh so sad. Oh, nobody cares.

Wheezy:

Oh,

Spoons:

how much I dislike her. Oh. She like went beyond just like being rude though. She was like, I was like, girl,

Gino:

She was bullying for sure.

Wheezy:

She was a full on bully.

Spoons:

He was

Gino:

She tried to bully her in every way possible.

Wheezy:

Yeah. was

Spoons:

was bad.

Wheezy:

a good person.

Spoons:

No.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

No wonder her brother did not hang out with her. Oh. Yeah, I feel like I had an earlier indication where I was like Dylan might be the bad one. But then for sure when he shows her, he gives her his magician book, essentially. And she's looking at it and then he is like, oh, you didn't see this part? And he turns to the back and, um, it's foul magic, which is, like

Wheezy:

question this

Gino:

bad spells, um, spells that like take up a bad part of you essentially. And she's like, and he's trying to convince her. Yeah, like, look at this, don't focus on your brother. No. Look at the magic here.

Wheezy:

Yeah, he

Spoons:

The way that happened. And I was just like, he's just trying all his avenues. You know? He's really being so gracious too about the, he's being resourceful. And then she was like, I don't think that's a good idea, Dylan. And he was like, you're right. I, that was a bad idea. And I was like, oh, he's so respectful. Like, what

Gino:

What?

Spoons:

with me? I fell for it. Walk line and sinker. I was like, this boy is so sweet.

Wheezy:

really

Gino:

No.

Wheezy:

I just like dismissed it. I was like, huh, interesting. We're gonna see where that goes later. Sure.

Gino:

Hey guys. I was definitely like,

Spoons:

picking up like

Gino:

you wanted them to be so bad.

Spoons:

wanted it to be true so bad. That's what it was. You know? I really did. I was really stupid.

Gino:

no. I was like he's either a complete idiot and gullible like someone else. I was like, there's something wrong with him, as in he's either evil or he's talking to someone evil and he's like, oh, it's not that bad. Like, you know,

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

at that point. And then,

Wheezy:

a Luke Kronos situation.

Spoons:

yeah. Something like

Wheezy:

Bit. End up kind of like that.

Spoons:

These little betraying blonde boys, they're like, it's not that bad. Like,

Wheezy:

trusting blonde boys spoons.

Spoons:

that's my other issue. He's blonde. Of course. I was like, oh, I have such a weakness for them. God, this was evil, Myla, and I'm blaming you. Okay, now this is ruining my life. I was literally already thinking, I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna look up Amari Dylan Fanfic when I get off work today. And now I'm like, Ugh, this is

Gino:

Yeah.

Spoons:

course I'm gonna read the next book, but.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

yeah.

Spoons:

my God. When

Gino:

I still don't think there's a chance.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

gonna say, I still think there's a chance. I mean, they basically ended this book with being like you know, you and Dylan are kind of like how the world's gonna happen. So it can either happen as enemies or as friends, like, and they're just also like, oh, also, you'll never see him again. That's kind of what they said. They're just like, and he'll never bother anyone again. That's like them closing the story.

Spoons:

I was like, do

Gino:

You know who we haven't.

Spoons:

13-year-old in solitary confinement? Like, what's going on? I,

Wheezy:

they're also like fully 13. Like

Gino:

Yeah. You're gonna,

Wheezy:

has

Gino:

So, yeah, they're just like, bye you'll never see the light of day again. We are an hour into this right now and we have not once mentioned, uh, au Oh. But like, evil, the main guy, and we're talking about like Vladimir, but No, we just skipped right over him.

Spoons:

whatever.

Wheezy:

So

Gino:

he is the main, he is the one of the Knight brothers that, um, is still in existence who Quentin and Maria captured right before their disappearance. Yeah.

Wheezy:

I think you

Gino:

Van Quish ca captured right before their disappearance. They vanquished him and then

Spoons:

qued them.

Gino:

and then his apprentice kind of makes an appearance or sends a letter or something and they're like, okay. So he has an apprentice now that's kind of trying to take up his mantle. And they think that's where, van Quish is being held with the Apprentice. And Amari goes and talks to, excuse me Moreau in the cell that they're holding him in. And she is like, where's my brother? And he is like, I like you. You're a magician. Join our side or die. And she's like, Hmm, I think I won't.

Spoons:

No,

Gino:

and then he is like, well, that's fine, but I have a plot and it's gonna win. It's a good one. It's a doozy. And you get donuts.

Wheezy:

He really was like, listen, my

Spoons:

Yeah,

Wheezy:

a very good plan. It's the greatest

Spoons:

gonna wanna be on our side. Okay.

Wheezy:

gonna wanna get in on this, get in on these donuts. I mean,

Gino:

We have your favorite kinds.

Spoons:

don't think so. Yeah.

Wheezy:

the part of me that would be so tempted if somebody offered me donuts to do something evil, I know there should be like no part of me that would be tempted, but I'd be like, what kind of donuts are we talking about? How many donuts?

Gino:

I don't like donuts, so it wouldn't work.

Spoons:

yeah, it's like, he's like, I mean. The Bureau is so mean to her about the magic thing. That part of me is like, I'd be tempted a little bit, you know?

Gino:

No, I definitely felt the whole time, like the bureau is way too black and white about magicians. You know, they're like, oh, you're a magician. Nope, you're bad. Like, we can't even look at you. At least some of them are. Yeah,

Wheezy:

I wanna

Gino:

exactly.

Wheezy:

rogue, person out here. Like, I don't like either.

Spoons:

Yeah.

Gino:

Yeah. I wouldn't like either two.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

yes. Agreed.

Gino:

Of me was like,

Spoons:

me,

Gino:

I

Spoons:

oh, sorry. Oh, they were just like the, what's it called? The institute, like the Mortal Instruments stuff.'cause like they're the same way. They're like I don't know about this. We're very black and white about everything in this very gray world.

Wheezy:

when

Spoons:

Yeah. Maybe they're all just kinda like that.

Wheezy:

we just down with institutions.

Spoons:

Yeah. We're going rogue.

Gino:

Part of me is like maybe the magicians are right and maybe, yeah, the bureau is, should be taken dismantled. Like

Wheezy:

I

Gino:

it's a

Wheezy:

times. I was like, maybe these, like, again, like back to Luke. Luke had some points. Okay. He was like, the, all of the Greek gods are really horrible parents. And I was like, you're right.

Spoons:

You

Wheezy:

correct.

Spoons:

right. You know?

Wheezy:

Objectively correct, Luke.

Spoons:

I know.

Gino:

Okay.

Spoons:

But that's what makes a good villain. If they have a couple good points, you know, I'm like,

Gino:

yeah.

Spoons:

you know,

Gino:

So like how you, like, if they just randomly go, no, I'm just gonna kill everyone. That's eh, but if there's have a point, like, guys, we're being treated unfairly, so let's kill everybody. That's more like,

Wheezy:

it

Gino:

eh,

Wheezy:

way, I could be convinced.

Gino:

are there donuts though? So?

Spoons:

Right. And there's donuts, you know, like,

Wheezy:

Donuts we're just stacking the reasons

Spoons:

okay, now I can see why you have henchmen. You know, like, Okay.

Gino:

Oh, yeah. And uh, Maru has these things. Murro has these things, called hybrids, which are attacking everyone and they're half animal, half humans of all

Wheezy:

things.

Spoons:

It took

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

scary

Spoons:

way too long realize that this was like, until they were like on his island, I didn't even make the connection to the island of Dr. Moreau. I was like, oh, it's Dr. Moreau from the island. Like,

Gino:

I didn't either.

Wheezy:

until

Spoons:

because

Gino:

you just said it.

Spoons:

he has the human animal hybrids, and I was like, oh, I can't

Wheezy:

That makes so much sense.

Gino:

oh my gosh.

Spoons:

see. Like, I don't know. We are really focused on other stuff, you know, that.

Wheezy:

myself.

Gino:

We're so narrow sighted of just like the Dylan Amari situation that we're like, what?

Wheezy:

welcome to my, this is how I am with every book. This is what it feels like to be me in every book. You guys are like something really obvious and I'm like, didn't even remotely

Spoons:

Oh,

Gino:

Wait, we haven't even talked about like the first tr wait. No. We have the first tr. Oh yeah. I mean, we didn't really go through it, but yeah. Yeah, we kind of glazed

Spoons:

some

Gino:

over it.

Wheezy:

Glazed.

Spoons:

basically. Should we kinda,

Gino:

donuts.

Spoons:

like we keep going everywhere. So like, close to the end I guess. they get,

Gino:

We will just go to the end.

Spoons:

she's having like her, she's doing a presentation, which I thought was so cute as well, that

Gino:

Her final exam,

Spoons:

slot for your final exam. And she is like, slay. And she does her little thing where it's like, my name's Amari, this is where I live, just to like humanize herself for the people who work at the bureau

Gino:

she is from Rosewood, which is called the Wood.

Wheezy:

Uhhuh.

Gino:

I was like, Uhhuh.

Wheezy:

I was like, that's good. That's funny.

Spoons:

She is so cute and I love her so much. it was like so cute to me that she was doing that. And then while, like immediately after the bureau gets attacked by the hybrids and then everyone's freaking out and then that's when they're like, oh my gosh, Maria Van Helsing did betray Quentin and she's the apprentice And

Gino:

Okay.

Spoons:

Ah,

Gino:

I saw this here. That's when I was like, it's Dylan. I was like, he's using illusion stuff. I knew it right then. I was like, he's sneaking in this way. It's a distraction. It's not Maria. I was like, this is too, like, no, it's not Maria. That's Dylan right here. I saw this.

Wheezy:

God, what's it like to know

Spoons:

Like so

Wheezy:

I did not,

Spoons:

I cannot believe how badly I saw. I saw nothing coming. I just totally was like, anything you say is true. I guess. I don't know.

Wheezy:

from the beginning. I just felt like Shirley, like two, like sibling team up, like duos, like one after the other, like from the same. I was like, I just, statistically this seems unlikely. So I'm

Spoons:

Something's wrong.

Wheezy:

with one of the two. And I picked the wrong one. I picked the one I knew nothing

Spoons:

Me too.

Wheezy:

basically.

Spoons:

Yeah, I thought that like the Dylan Amari one was gonna be like the redeeming one. Like oh. But I don't know. I was like, this one fell apart. But this is like the second chapter.

Wheezy:

Quentin was basically asking, or someone had asked him if that he felt like Maria could be trusted essentially. So like there was a red herring in there too. It was like, can we trust Maria? And I was like, I don't know. Can we? Yes.

Gino:

Dylan set those up the whole time. Mm-hmm. But I definitely, early on when Milo was reading to me, what's it, what's their vanquis, their. Boss' name is, it's like Magnus Mag. I definitely early on

Wheezy:

Me too.

Gino:

Myla, I was like there's something fishy about him. I was like, I don't trust him. I was like, oh, really? There's something fishy about Magnus. Okay. I was like, she was like, like a plot twist. And I was like, yes. I was like, yeah, like a plot twist. And I was like you are right. But it's Dylan. Sorry.

Wheezy:

either will

Spoons:

You're almost right.

Gino:

No, I was like, I think I thought he had something to do with, I don't remember what it was that made me think that and set me off. I was like, I think he was just too like good. He was too, like always sticking up for Amari and all this that I was like, nah, like

Wheezy:

I,

Gino:

sticking up for her because you have ulterior motives.

Wheezy:

It was, I was having

Gino:

I see how you thought that.

Wheezy:

Association, so I was like, he's probably

Spoons:

okay. Thought he was at the perfect place in the bureau to be evil. Like if anyone was going to have it to be a twist of villain, I thought it might be him. So I was kind of in the same boat as Eugene. But, then at the end I was like, oh. And then I was like, oh, you know, so there was a lot going on. Clearly at the very end.

Wheezy:

Oh.

Spoons:

Oh,

Gino:

so basically this book, I was like, oh okay, wait.

Spoons:

no way. Ooh.

Gino:

That's how we should have just told the whole plot of the whole thing.

Wheezy:

Honestly.

Gino:

So this is what happened.

Spoons:

I was like, oh. my God.

Gino:

I knew that. But, Wait.

Spoons:

basically then they're gonna go on what happens?

Gino:

Oh, so it's her trial, and then all these hybrids come and then. Dylan sees his sister. So he runs to the secret vault and then Amari's like, oh my gosh, they're not attacking us. They're going after the secret magician book that the bureau has that Morrow's trying to get his hands on. And so Dylan sees his sister run in, and so Amari follows as well. And then they hear like giggling and laughing and it's the sis Maria and she pops up and she is like, haha. It was evil all along. And, and then all the agents come in and they're like, what's going on? And Dylan and Amari are like, it was his sister all along. Oh no. And everyone's like shock and disbelief and then. They shut down the bureau they put on lockdown because they're like, how did she get through all of our shields? And Ari's like, she is probably a technologist like her brother, but I'm not talking about that because, you know, we're protecting his secret.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

And then Dylan's like, well, they know that they have to get in order to look at the book, they have to have the key. You have to have the key in the book in the same area. And Quentin had figured out where the key was. So they find out through Quentin's research where the key is, and they're like, we have to go after the key before they get the book and the key together. So Dylan helps Amari escape to go find the key. And Elsie's like, I'll come with y'all and. Just as they're trying to leave, they get to transport. But Elsie's like, I'll stop these agents who are trying to stop you. And they just see as like, the elevator doors are closing or wherever transporting Elsie starts breathing fire because she, they found out that she has to have like this act of courage to turn into a dragon. And that was her act of courage by stopping the agents from her friend. And I was like, go el. See I love her. Um, is she your favorite character? I don't know. Um, and then they get to this doctor's house who has the key and just as they're like outside Dylan's like, Hey, just promise me you'll hear'em out. Okay. And i's like, wait, what? Who? Huh? What? And they get inside and, oh yeah. Before this they figured out that Morrow was that they had imprison wasn't actually Morrow, it was a.

Spoons:

Yes.

Gino:

Murrow's apprentice. Yeah. Yeah. With an illusion over him. Amari figured that out. So they walk in where they think they're gonna find the doctor and the key And it's Murrow. Yes. And he is like, hello, hello. Amari. Ha ha. Evil laugh. Evil laugh.

Wheezy:

chair. I've been

Gino:

Where this cat?

Wheezy:

Yeah,

Spoons:

Yeah.

Gino:

And Damari is like, wait, what? And Dylan like goes up and sits next to him and he's like, yes, I am evil too. Um,

Wheezy:

and

Spoons:

then Kendall screamed in her car for five minutes and deposit. I was screaming so

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

profane in all caps.

Gino:

I was gonna say, she had spoons had sent a message earlier in the chat today. She's like, oh my gosh, I shit them so much. Don't tell me I'm not finished the book. No spoilers. And I was like, oh. And I just finished the book when you texted me that like literally two minutes beforehand. And I was like, oh boy. Oh, it doesn't go well.

Spoons:

I was like he, Not, I cannot stress enough to you. How surprised I was. Like,

Gino:

oh wait, so I can now tell the story of how I found out about Dylan.

Spoons:

tell.

Gino:

So I was already suspicious of him. I was like, there's something off about this guy. He just doesn't, it, it seems rehearsed, like there's something, he's just giving me a bad guy type of guy. So I was at lunch and with this other guy, he dread it. And I was like, so you've read the book? And I was asking him and we were talking, and I was like, so what do you think about Amari and Dylan? I shipped them. And then he's like, oh yeah, I did too. And I was like, what do you mean did?

Wheezy:

Oh

Gino:

And then he is just like, oh, I mean, I mean, I was like, yeah, I know. He, he stabs her in the back and then he's just like, I didn't mean to spoil it for you. And I was like, it's kind of obvious though. And I was like, okay. So when I got to that part, I was like, yeah, this is when he steps her in the back. This is when it happens.

Wheezy:

ah, this is,

Spoons:

You are like, it's been foretold.

Wheezy:

them. Can I too did

Spoons:

Oh my God. Wow.

Wheezy:

you were on it, you

Gino:

but her bro, yeah. Vanquish is there They're like asleep, mostly dead. Androse is like, yes, I'm stealing their life force in order to resurrect Vlad. Yeah. And he's like, okay, so we're gonna do this thing now. And then so sad, Amari, you have to die. Dylan's like, wait, Amari so die. What? And he is like, yeah, duh.

Spoons:

But I

Gino:

so he,

Spoons:

her. She's so pretty. It's okay if you kill my sister, but don't

Gino:

no, but because, no, because I had a problem here. Because he immediately, so Dylan's like, yeah, no, that's not gonna happen. So he steals Oz's magic and kills him. Yeah. He's just like, um, no. And then he's like, you don't attack my girlfriends. And then he is like, Amari, join me. And she's like, uh, no. And he's like, okay, well then I guess you have to die. Like, he went from like, you will not kill her. She's my girlfriend. I love her to, well, you're not gonna join the dark side. So I guess he was right by,

Wheezy:

Oh

Gino:

he is more like I wanted to kill him anyway and he is like, now.

Spoons:

He was like I kind already wanted

Gino:

I can just use his magic. Bye-bye.

Wheezy:

Oh my gosh. It's such a mess.

Spoons:

That was insane. But see, this is how crazy I am because was like, no, I was so upset. Then two seconds later I was like. Okay, so now we're having a SAR on Gala, Riel vibe. We're having like a cool like villain, like she's so cool. It's cooler than him vibe. I was like okay. I can go with this too. I like immediately just switched. I was like, okay, he's not sweet. Okay, that's fine. Like that's how crazy I am.

Wheezy:

I kind of still shipped Luke and Anna Beth for a while too, so eh, you know, I see it.

Gino:

What I think, like when I read the book was I was like, wait, why does he hate his sister? What happened there? And they don't explain it in the book.

Wheezy:

fair.

Gino:

like the second book is when you actually learn. And I'm kind of just like, I know it's important that you learn the second book, but where was that in the first book?

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

He was just I hate her, so I'm fine with if she dies along with your brother and you.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

Thought it was somewhat irredeemable that he was like I am going to kill our siblings. I was like, oh okay, so you're 13 and that's bad. Okay. Interesting.

Wheezy:

gosh. 13. Committing fracture side.

Spoons:

Okay. I'm glad to hear that there is some,

Gino:

Yeah, he needs a therapist. He seriously needs a therapist. And instead he's just like, I'm just gonna kill my siblings'cause they're clearly the problem. I'm just gonna go over there, kill my sister, and you. What? Let's just kill the entire world. I don't need a therapist. What

Wheezy:

knows I'm

Spoons:

Yeah. Yeah. It can't be me. It's everyone else.

Wheezy:

Dylan. I'm

Spoons:

You're so right, girl. Oh, you know what, Dylan sucks. Actually, I changed my mind. was really bad. He shouldn't have done that. I

Gino:

yet? He's my favorite character.

Spoons:

Okay.

Gino:

don't,

Spoons:

Like

Gino:

yeah. I liked him throughout the whole series. He's still my favorite character. Every single book. I don't care if he's bad,

Wheezy:

interesting.

Gino:

I don't care. He's still the best character.

Wheezy:

that

Gino:

I just prefer bad guys for some reason. They just have a better plot because they always have better motives. They're just better.

Wheezy:

You have a very interesting future ahead of you. Yeah, I get that. I still get

Spoons:

Hi. I mean, that is valid

Wheezy:

one of the,

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

I FIC Fictionally. It's

Spoons:

Though,

Wheezy:

think about The

Spoons:

that's what it's darkling,

Gino:

See

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

Like it's very like, no,

Gino:

what?

Spoons:

world together. We both are so powerful and we're always be connected by this bond, and that's what really does it for me. I'm like,

Wheezy:

an equal.

Spoons:

yeah,

Gino:

I don't know. I was still always a little Mao, which is like weird for me.

Spoons:

The little mal, oh my God. In the second book, he has a Dylan has, I am become a blade tattooed ice.

Wheezy:

I'm gonna wake up my sleeping child. That's hilarious.

Spoons:

is so crazy. I'm like freaking out about this series already. I can't

Gino:

But what is kind of crazy is that the adults walked in on a 13-year-old child and they're just like, okay, so he has these two people who are sleeping. Why not? We just throw him in prison, let him rock for the rest of his life. See what that'll do for him. You know, he's only 13. There's not much left to live. It doesn't matter what choice he made.

Wheezy:

Clearly not gonna learn anything else. He is completely a fully baked person at the age of

Gino:

not give him a therapist, not a, like, maybe get him a little bit of prison and see what happens. No, they're just like, no, throw him in and let him die. I don't care. Like, and also the father, like they said that he went to the prison and they never said anything about their, his father or anything. I bet his father was just like, oh yeah, kill him. I don't care.

Wheezy:

That was also

Spoons:

probably would honestly.

Wheezy:

like they're like, we kind of treat the kids like adults sometimes. Expectations

Spoons:

going to listen forever.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

also thought that was insane, Myla. I was like, I'm so sorry. Like we're not going to try and rehabilitate the preteen. Okay. That is a little

Gino:

They were ready to just toss Amari in jail forever. Like the second she showed up too.

Wheezy:

that one really scarred me. I was like, you can't, she's a

Spoons:

yeah.

Wheezy:

with Dylan. I was

Gino:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

I should care more, but like, you've really gotten yourself into a pickle, Dylan. Like

Gino:

But I feel like if Dylan revealed himself before then his father would immediately just like put handcuffs on him and be like, okay, you're not my son. Get out. Yeah.

Wheezy:

He was

Gino:

So he's,

Spoons:

disowned.

Gino:

also like, it is not like his like sister would stop it or anything.'cause like she's probably with her dad on that.

Spoons:

She'd be like, good more money for me.

Wheezy:

Huh? You can see how he turned evil. And that is the danger when you can start to see how the boys turn evil and you're like, but now I understand them.

Spoons:

That is the That is bad.

Gino:

It all starts with the blonde.

Wheezy:

It

Spoons:

Ugh.

Wheezy:

with the blonde boys. Never trust a blonde boy.

Spoons:

I know. And I do. Every time it's like, God, I keep thinking they're all gonna be PETA and then they're not, and it's like, good Lord,

Gino:

No, they never are.

Wheezy:

been that way. There's only ever been

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

for a trustworthy blonde boy.

Spoons:

Myla, what did he say?

Gino:

No. Oh. Like when I make characters like in d and d or something I make, if they're a bad guy, I make them normally, especially if they're a boy, they're blondes. I don't know if that's because of Dylan.'cause I read him like in fourth grade and I was just like, you know what, all boys who are villains are blonde,

Spoons:

They're Now forever.

Gino:

like every single person.

Wheezy:

Jackson. Every blonde boy is a,

Gino:

Yeah, they're just like, so if you're blonde, Draco, malfoy, it's immediate. Like Draco Malfoy, everyone who's blonde is just immediately like,

Wheezy:

Harry

Gino:

oh

Wheezy:

None of them were blonde. Huh?

Gino:

yeah. Also, when she first like Reddit and, uh, they said Statue Boy, which was like, Dylan before, like we knew his name. She's like, that's Draco mal boy. That's KO mal. I did boy, like, as they were, she was reading it to me and when they were introducing Dylan and they were like, he's like this pretty blonde boy sitting there with like his turned up nose. And when I was like, Draco.

Spoons:

Called immediately.

Wheezy:

good.

Spoons:

gosh.

Wheezy:

That's fantastic. Okay. Okay favorite and least favorite parts. Starting with

Gino:

Myla. Oh. I liked when he betrayed her, I guess. And maybe the Amari bloom. Amari bloom too. I think my favorite moments are always with my favorite characters because it's just perfect to see their trauma or see their pain or something. Perfect. To see people's pain is, and TV shows or books or something is amazing. I like that.

Spoons:

need to have you on every episode. Like I wanna hear your takes on everything we read. I'm so serious.

Wheezy:

She's like, you know, the

Spoons:

It's our new guest.

Wheezy:

to pieces. That was my favorite.

Spoons:

like, that is so real though. Like, I feel you.

Wheezy:

What about your least favorite part?

Gino:

I'm trying to think of the part probably my least favorite part I don't even remember. I'm gonna be honest.

Wheezy:

the whole book was good.

Spoons:

It was

Gino:

I have no idea because I read this again in like fourth grade. So probably all the bad parts I didn't care about, they just disappeared.

Wheezy:

I

Gino:

So

Spoons:

we don't need

Gino:

I don't know.

Wheezy:

That's fine. That's all good. Gino.

Spoons:

totally valid.

Gino:

I am okay. I'm just gonna go with my it's probably not my favorite part, but there was this little snippet that I wrote down because I was cracking up. They were talking about Yetis and

Wheezy:

I know what you're talking about. was funny.

Gino:

and, um, I don't re Oh, they were talking about like how they would just like buy out a whole forest if people there were annoying them and Amari was like, are they that rich? And Elsie was like, I mean, they own this whole cooler company. That's really big or something.

Spoons:

that was really funny.

Gino:

And I was like, Yeti coolers. Oh my,

Wheezy:

so

Gino:

Yeti coolers. Um, that made me crack up enough that I wrote it down. And then least favorite part is, actually, I'm gonna say I was a little bit disappointed that Magnus wasn't in on the plot at the end.

Wheezy:

We need at least like a stable adult figure, Gino.

Gino:

No. I was like,

Wheezy:

up to, someone to take care of them.

Gino:

just make them all evil. All the kids will soon follow. I was like, oh, bummer. Yeah. So I'll go with that as my least favorite.

Wheezy:

Oh my god.

Spoons:

Oh my God.

Wheezy:

So many Myla. You're so quotable. I'm sure you know

Spoons:

I know you're killing me.

Wheezy:

t-shirt. Just make all the adults evil. The children will soon follow.

Spoons:

They will soon follow Slay. Oh my God. Yes.

Wheezy:

That's

Spoons:

all going to be evil. That's what we want.

Gino:

What about, no, a good book would just be everyone's evil. And then the main character's like, but guys, what if we're not evil? And everyone's like, no, I'm okay.

Wheezy:

No, I think we're all gonna be villains.

Spoons:

If we

Gino:

are all villains. If we were villains. All right. Wheezy favorite and least favorite part.

Wheezy:

Oh God, I thought I was gonna go last. I hadn't even thought

Gino:

I needed it. That's why I threw it up. Threw it in there.

Wheezy:

Favorite part. I really liked all of the like little inventions, which is not like a specific part. They're just all sprinkled throughout, but especially like Elsie's inventions. And then just like the Inventions they had throughout the bureau. I just, I loved the, like it did feel like Artemis fell. I loved that. Like I say the world building? I love the

Gino:

Yeah,

Spoons:

Yeah.

Gino:

The little sneak candles. Oh,

Wheezy:

This was so that were

Spoons:

I love the sneak candles.

Wheezy:

be very hard

Spoons:

That was cool.

Wheezy:

I enjoyed the whole book so much. So I'm gonna say world building. Favorite. I don't, I was really. I was really stressed out for Amari Quentin's mom. was like, this Idea where her baby boy is, and now her daughter is off at this summer camp, and then she's been notified she's gonna come home, but then Amari's gonna go off somewhere else since I was like, I would lose my freaking bananas. Like this poor mother is just trying to take care of her children. Not that it was really part of the book, but in the background, every time anything happened about like Quentin nor Amari, I was like, oh my God, their mom, their poor mother.

Spoons:

Oh

Wheezy:

I could think about.

Gino:

fair, fair.

Spoons:

that is scary. My favorite parts were also Maya's favorite parts, like those two. And then also I really liked the scene where they went to the like ghost party whatever that was

Gino:

Oh yeah.

Spoons:

the Elsie and Dylan and Amari like kind of snuck out. That

Gino:

All Souls. All Souls Festival or something.

Spoons:

Yeah. Until then it got sad at the end but

Gino:

I

Spoons:

it was really cute. And then least favorite. I don't even know. Oh,

Gino:

was it that.

Spoons:

Girl, the, somebody like drew that mean picture on Amari's wall and she wanted to

Gino:

Oh yeah.

Spoons:

I hated that part. I mean, it was like made sense from a plot point of view, but like, it made me feel sad, so I didn't like that. But yeah.

Wheezy:

What about favorite and least favorite characters, Myla,

Gino:

Oh, favorite. Obviously Dylan, obviously,

Wheezy:

right, Obviously to you and to us. Now that we've spoken to you, but that would've been hard for me

Gino:

I told you I called it. I feel like I do that to people because I talk to my friends, I'm like, and then this one guy, and I just start ranting about them and then I'm just like, so what are you guys' favorite characters? And they're like Him. Yeah, but definitely him. I think I did that with this book too.'cause my friends, one of them likes Elsie, but I think the other one likes Dylan too, because I was like, so Dylan.

Spoons:

All your friends on your side,

Gino:

Yeah, if I'm in an argument, I'm just like, but everyone I know likes Dylan, so what are you gonna do?

Wheezy:

If you lead with evil, the children will soon follow.

Gino:

Least favorite.

Spoons:

to live by. We don't even need lessons learned. That's what we learned, you know? That's it.

Wheezy:

Oh gosh.

Gino:

I, okay. Oh, I don't know.'cause all the characters are good. I Okay. Just in the first one, uh, because I know who I hate the most in the other books, but,

Spoons:

Oh

Gino:

in the first one for some reason, I wanna say Fiona, the agent. Fiona, I, I don't know why I liked her. No, I think she's a great, I, she's a great person. I don't know why that's popping out to me.

Wheezy:

she's good

Spoons:

Is she boring to you?

Gino:

I don't know. I'm just gonna say Dylan's mom, because I don't know her and she just seems to be like, oh yeah, my mom, blah, blah, blah. I've been just like, never talks about their mom.

Wheezy:

No,

Gino:

Like, where is she? I don't know. Where's his mom's?

Wheezy:

'cause I was gonna say my least favorite character is Amari and Quentin's father because he is an absent father.

Gino:

Oh yeah. Yeah. He's no, yeah, he's bad.

Spoons:

too.

Gino:

Yeah. Then he's my worst character. Yeah.

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Spoons:

we go.

Wheezy:

All right, Gino.

Gino:

My favorite character I think is Elsie. I think so. She's so cute.

Wheezy:

She's

Spoons:

I love,

Gino:

Yeah. And then my least favorite is Magnus.'Cause I'm just disappointed. He wasn't

Wheezy:

just debating in

Gino:

really

Wheezy:

I was just debating that he might be my most favorite character. I like Magnus.

Gino:

No. Like

Wheezy:

a steady,

Gino:

is.

Wheezy:

father figure

Gino:

No one is that good. Magnus is great. What are you talking about? No.

Wheezy:

Magnus is not. I know. I did not, I didn't really view him as like perfect. I was like. He's not very nice. Like when she, when Amari's mom was dropping her off and he was there, I was thinking like, you need to look friendlier. Like you are looking like you're taking charge of this woman's daughter. Like he's

Gino:

No, it always felt like, it always felt like just enough his roughness or meanness or anything was always just enough to be like, not suspicious, but not far enough to actually be meaningful at all.

Wheezy:

No, I want him I'll trust him if he's mean.

Gino:

yeah, I was like, you can, I don't know, I just, from the very beginning I was like, also, I shit Magnus and Fiona because of the date.

Spoons:

Yes.

Gino:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Spoons:

that was so cute.

Gino:

She is so cute. Fiona.

Wheezy:

much Fiona's, like, you know how I'm totally out of your league Magnus, and he is like, ah, this

Gino:

And there's.

Wheezy:

she is.

Gino:

There was some point when someone said something to Magnus about, I don't remember what it was, like losing weight or getting a haircut or something, and she was like, yeah, I agree. I've been telling you,

Wheezy:

like a couple times where she was like, yeah, get a haircut. Like, it was very funny.

Spoons:

They were really cute.

Wheezy:

They were really cute.

Gino:

Spoons

Spoons:

my favorite character was either Dylan or Elsie. There might be Tide for because I think Dylan is the best character because,

Gino:

you all missed. If you're just listening, you missed wheezy rolling her eyes at that.

Spoons:

because he is complex. But Elsie was my favorite because she's sweet and cute. So it's like, you know, they have two sides of that. Yeah. And she's very cool.

Wheezy:

don't

Spoons:

And smart.

Wheezy:

you were attacking

Spoons:

I

Wheezy:

You listed her as a favorite

Spoons:

Isaac

Gino:

Just like,

Spoons:

favorite. Another thing I liked about Elsie was that she was like a very like, attentive friend. Like Amari was very like she would make Amari

Gino:

oh yeah, she was, yes. Yeah.

Spoons:

she's

Gino:

was like, you have to eat.

Spoons:

to stop studying. Yeah. Like, I thought that was so cute.

Wheezy:

I don't know.

Gino:

I need a lc in my life.

Wheezy:

and Amari, I, they were both such great characters.

Gino:

needs a freaking lc in her life.

Spoons:

take a nap.

Gino:

Yeah, you ma'am.

Spoons:

You kind of do. I'm sorry, I can't be more LC too. I'll try.

Wheezy:

Go take a

Spoons:

I'll just call you in the middle of the day. Are you taking a nap yet?

Wheezy:

Working.

Spoons:

of course. Amari is very

Gino:

See, yes, I'm asleep right now.

Spoons:

nothing I love Amari. She was a great main character. It's just

Wheezy:

so

Spoons:

Aren't your favorite because it's But

Gino:

Yeah. But she was great.

Wheezy:

Oh

Spoons:

I think she's so cool. And I love, like her as a narrator too. I think she's really fun and she tells me everything I need to know. My good friend Amari.

Wheezy:

so focused. She's fantastic. I would follow her into

Spoons:

She's so cool.

Gino:

Like I said, I think Bebe did such a great job with her voice. Like I had no idea it was a male writing it, and I was like this, like I, she had such a presence.

Wheezy:

Yeah,

Spoons:

Yeah, she is really awesome. I really do want her and Percy Jackson to hang out. Don't you think they'd be friends?

Wheezy:

would be

Spoons:

Like

Wheezy:

friends. Amari might also be like kind of trying to fight him a little bit, but mostly I think they'd get along, but I think

Spoons:

they're both a little scrappy.

Wheezy:

They're very scrappy, but Amari is also like fully 13 and like like, you wanna go? You wanna go. Like she's gonna fight. if you're like, no, that was actually, I wasn't being offensive. And she's like, let's just fight. I think the only way to solve this is if we fight it out. Fuck.

Spoons:

She is so smart though. She is like, also like, you know what? I'm going to outwit everybody here, and I'm like, slay. You know who never do that? Percy Jackson, but that's okay. He's,

Wheezy:

right. Sweet, sweet, Percy.

Spoons:

he would never, but it's okay. He has Annabeth.

Wheezy:

Yes.

Gino:

What I think is so smart is when she was like in the trials and she's like, I left soaking wet and like all the water stuff. And I was like I did not get that. And also I not as smart as the other people'cause they're like, I would pick the crown. I'm like, oh, I probably wouldn't pick the crown either. I, I would just pick one of the other random stuff.

Wheezy:

Would've been like, I found this book and they're gonna be like that. That's nothing. That's

Gino:

I thought it was like your partner. I was like, oh, if you leave with your partner, like they're the, they're then you would fail because he just completely got thrown against the wall. And

Wheezy:

I. did think the second that she said the water, I was like, oh. And because she's soaking wet, she has the water on her. Ha. And,

Spoons:

Oh, clever. You got that.

Wheezy:

on its own. Only when she already said it was the water and I was like, cool. She's all wet.

Spoons:

She did it.

Wheezy:

She did it right?

Spoons:

That Good test.

Wheezy:

yeah.

Gino:

did you have the least favorite spoons? Did you say that?

Spoons:

Oh I don't know, probably honestly, Laura, I hated

Gino:

Oh yeah.

Wheezy:

Oh

Gino:

fair.

Spoons:

I know I'm probably gonna end up liking her later in this series, but right now I hate her,

Gino:

Yeah. She's not the best.

Spoons:

Okay.

Wheezy:

is like, no, she's

Spoons:

Me and Myla are on the same About this stuff, except for she's smarter than me and has figured it all out way before me. But in terms of what we enjoy, I think we're on the same page, so you know.

Gino:

Wey.

Wheezy:

about pinkies up? We

Gino:

Wait, Weezy,

Wheezy:

of what

Gino:

did you guess your favorite and least? Oh, okay. Yeah.

Wheezy:

did.

Gino:

Okay.

Wheezy:

She is like, Gino's

Gino:

I was here.

Wheezy:

me.

Gino:

No, I may have been looking because, wait, no, I may have been looking because I have a favorite quote. So I was trying to find it in the book, the

Spoons:

I

Gino:

quote, favorite quote, so I may have not listen to you because I had to quote,

Spoons:

Oh.

Wheezy:

Okay.

Spoons:

Do your quote, Gino.

Gino:

This book. I actually have two favorite quotes. Okay.

Wheezy:

Ooh.

Gino:

the one is said by Jayden, who we haven't mentioned, but he's a not supernatural person who was just part of her life in Rosewood

Wheezy:

Ugh.

Gino:

and. She goes back home for a short bit and sees him and he's talking about, she's talking about how she's kind of a failure and he's talking about how she compares herself to her brother all the time and he says, can't be easy. Having Quentin Peters as your brother, it's like being the second best basketball player in the whole world. But your brother's the best. You'd grow up losing all the time and thinking you suck, but everybody else, the people watching, we see you pulling off moves. We only wish we could, we able to see how great you are. Which I was like,

Wheezy:

That's really good.

Gino:

that's deep.

Wheezy:

That's very deep.

Gino:

like, like you're the second best person in the world, but because you're always comparing yourself to someone right next to you is like the best. You know, you always think you suck, but which people do a lot in life. So yeah,

Wheezy:

Yeah.

Gino:

you just have to think what other people are also seeing and then.

Spoons:

glad you brought that up.

Gino:

And then towards the end I think this is something Quentin said to her, but I might be wrong. As long as you believe in yourself and as long as you bet on yourself and believe you can do anything. And I was like, that is also true. Like you just have to believe or maybe it, she said it to herself, but like, believe in yourself and bed on yourself and you can do it. It's like this is a very inspirational motivating

Wheezy:

inspirational.

Gino:

Middle grade book.

Spoons:

into that with herself.'cause she kept kind of selling herself short and then like Jaden was like, dude, you always were like top of our class, like blah, blah, blah. And she's like, oh yeah, I guess I am smart and capable. You know, like she was always. Kind of selling yourself short, even though we, as the readers are like, you are so cool. Amari Peters, queen of the world. I was like, girl, get it.

Wheezy:

it's true.

Gino:

Okay, go ahead. Pinky's up.

Wheezy:

Pinkies up. So we rate'em On a scale of one to five, five being the best and one being the worst, how many pinkies up would you rate this book? Myla?

Gino:

And you could do points like, okay. You could do like 1.7 or five point, or, yeah, I think five.

Spoons:

Yeah.

Gino:

She's like five. Pinkies.

Spoons:

Five Pinky's up.

Wheezy:

4, 5.

Gino:

I don't have enough pinkies, but

Wheezy:

know

Gino:

have four over here.

Spoons:

3, 4, 5. Yeah.

Wheezy:

We didn't think about it when we created the rating system. It was a long time ago.

Spoons:

Can't stress how little thought went into

Wheezy:

I cannot

Spoons:

creating.

Wheezy:

Gino.

Gino:

geez. I hate this system by the way. I've mentioned this before

Wheezy:

I love that. You hate it.

Gino:

because like, like last week, I gave the woman in white four pinkies, and I feel like I have to give this more than four pinkies. Because

Spoons:

they're totally different genres,

Wheezy:

you

Gino:

the thing, it's like, it's a totally different thing. But so yeah, my books have, they're always all over the place. Like I would go back and be like, no, I thought that book was better than this book, but I rated it less pinkies than the other books.

Wheezy:

You always have to like qualify first. You're like did give this other book, this rating, so I don't know if I can use this rating.

Gino:

Anyways.

Spoons:

anyone remembers from weeks to week what we,

Wheezy:

I certainly don't.

Gino:

I have a chart on my wall. It's just marker sharpies.

Wheezy:

me crazy.

Gino:

It keeps me up all night. Okay. I'm gonna give it 4.25 pinkies up.

Spoons:

Nice. Woo hoo.

Wheezy:

That's solid.

Gino:

Just cut up those pinkies

Spoons:

good.

Wheezy:

Oh God. Gross.

Spoons:

Shout.

Wheezy:

Oh my gosh.

Gino:

spoons.

Spoons:

I'm going to give it five Pinkies up. I had such a fun time, and I go by what I'm feeling in the moment, and right now I'm feeling five because I'm about to start that second audio book as soon as we get off the call. So that's kind of where I'm at.

Wheezy:

Five. I'm giving it five. Pinkies up.

Gino:

Wow.

Wheezy:

rating. depends on,

Gino:

I think this is the highest. This is definitely the highest,

Wheezy:

the highest, yeah,

Gino:

yeah.

Wheezy:

I think this is the highest cumulative radio that we've had. I would absolutely read this. I'd read this again tomorrow and that's why it gets a five. Pinky's up.

Gino:

Wow. And the second grand master, Mya.

Wheezy:

yeah,

Spoons:

Grandma.

Gino:

The second one is, I would say like just as good, but when I'm talking about the third one, I don't think it's as good. Personally, I

Spoons:

Okay,

Gino:

don't like the third one.

Wheezy:

I

Gino:

It was kind of just like,

Wheezy:

sucks. I,

Gino:

first one was good, the second one was good. The third one was more like, I feel like you're like, it was good. But some aspects of it were more just like, it's kind of like you just wanna make more or something. It's just like not necessary.

Wheezy:

time a

Spoons:

you think it's getting dragged on?

Gino:

You said there's a fourth and fifth, right? It didn't actually seem like it was getting dragged on. It just seems some parts were just unnecessary And stuff, but

Spoons:

I

Gino:

they are making more so I was gonna say, we'll come back for the third one.

Spoons:

Yeah. We'll be

Gino:

Yeah, we'll come back. Let's see. Oh, real quick. I slightly mentioned it earlier, but that's why I was like, Amari and the Knight Brothers are barely in this. They definitely don't need to be on that title. I was like expecting way more Knight Brothers in this book. But it was like,

Wheezy:

to the end and I was like, did I miss something?

Gino:

I know. I was like, where were the Knight Brothers? The second one? Amari and the Great Game. That one has way more of the thing that it's talking about in the whole thing. The great game. Yep. Also Dylan's on the cover of it,

Wheezy:

i'm looking it up right

Spoons:

Oh, it's all coming together for Kendall's.

Gino:

Also, I dressed up as him for like a school thing, like they said, dress up as a book character. I came in like, in the second book cover, he was wearing like a red cloak. So I come and I'm like, yep, I'm Dylan. Guys.

Wheezy:

That's

Spoons:

love this so much for you. I feel like we're kindred spirits.

Wheezy:

There Look at that blonde boy

Gino:

I have to look this up.

Spoons:

being evil.

Wheezy:

Look at him with

Spoons:

a jerk. Can't wait to see him again.

Gino:

I'm, I think his favorite color is red, probably. Oh yeah, I see him. Yeah, there it is. I don't think the camera can really see it. Yeah, I see it. Yeah.

Spoons:

Ugh. That's gonna be good. And when the movie comes out, we're all gonna go see it.

Wheezy:

There he

Spoons:

Oh, there he is. Brooding in the background.

Wheezy:

brooding with blonde hair, which just does not go together for

Gino:

He's not on the third one. On the cover. Yeah. He's not on the third one.

Spoons:

Right?

Gino:

is not on it.

Wheezy:

oh my God, all the Dylan stands.

Spoons:

I'm excited to see more of Jaden though. Like if Jaden

Gino:

Oh yeah. I, yeah, I like Jayden a lot.

Spoons:

that's gonna be so fun. He's such a cutie. I love him.

Wheezy:

a cutie. I really, I want the best for him. I

Spoons:

Me too. I really do.

Wheezy:

Oh my

Spoons:

I was already like, trying to decide who I should Jaden with. I was like,

Wheezy:

I shipped Jayden with Amari, but I feel

Spoons:

Elsie,

Wheezy:

going

Spoons:

oh,

Wheezy:

Oh, that's way better.

Gino:

yeah. That would totally work.

Spoons:

that I made up in my head. Ha. And they have not even interacted yet, but I made it

Gino:

No

Wheezy:

really

Spoons:

and then I was like, okay, Maya shaking her head and then I was like, what if Jaden and Laura? But then I was like, no, Laura needs to not be here.

Gino:

I,

Wheezy:

You are

Gino:

I ship him with someone else. I ship him with someone else. She so excited for more Elsie like to see her grow and develop.

Spoons:

Oh, me too.

Wheezy:

Oh

Spoons:

This is gonna be good. I'm

Gino:

No, but I really do ship him with someone else. Like it's there. I promise it. It's, it.

Wheezy:

And so

Spoons:

There will be something

Gino:

It's, I guess it's subtle, but it's yeah. There's something going on there.

Spoons:

I'm excited. I'm excited.

Gino:

think you see it more in the third book maybe. It that's a good thing about the third book. I guess

Wheezy:

You're like, that's

Spoons:

Okay. We get some Jaden

Gino:

that's why I read it.

Spoons:

He gets his flowers in the third. All right.

Wheezy:

That's funny.

Spoons:

was so fun. Thank you once again for recommending it, Myla, and for being our special guest. I

Wheezy:

Yes. Our special gas Grand Master,

Spoons:

woo.

Wheezy:

the

Spoons:

master a Pause. Pause. Applause.

Wheezy:

the OGGM. Is there anything anyone else that wants to

Spoons:

Yes.

Wheezy:

this book?

Gino:

Not about the book, but real quick, stay tuned to look at Story siren studio um.com for our read-a-thon coming up for the bookshop. And a couple other

Wheezy:

Just do

Gino:

fun activities if you wanna come to our retreat and you're 18 plus or 21 plus we have a retreat coming up in October and Pennsylvania, a writer's retreat. And yeah, just stay tuned on our socials and website and everything. We've got tons of new stuff coming at you constantly, so

Wheezy:

constantly.

Gino:

cool.

Wheezy:

Yeah. Thanks

Spoons:

Woohoo.

Gino:

it. Yeah.

Wheezy:

Yeah, do it.'cause Myla said so and we're always gonna

Spoons:

Yeah.

Wheezy:

from now on. So

Spoons:

the grand master who told you to?

Wheezy:

you guys can follow us at that Pretentious Book club. You can also follow our Story Siren Studio account on Instagram, or go to story siren studio.com. You can always send us book res. Now my lazy dog is getting up at the very end of the episode. Do you need guys side? So you talk so much, mom. so you guys can email us book recs or let us know what you thought about the episode, what we were talking about. You can also, if you wanna follow the news about my bookshop, you can follow the story Emporium and Bookshop on Instagram. It's fun. There's also a website's not as exciting. and I think that's it. Leave us a review. Share the pod with your friends.

Gino:

Five stars. Only

Wheezy:

still five

Spoons:

stars, only reviews. Thank you.

Wheezy:

if we could do pinkies, we would, but they, we can't control

Spoons:

I think he's only

Wheezy:

I've written

Gino:

five stars. What are we doing? Oh, five stars. We're stealing my hands. Okay.

Wheezy:

Look at that. Anyways

Spoons:

Winnie.

Wheezy:

all we've got.

Gino:

Hi Benny.

Wheezy:

say hello and a bonus

Spoons:

Winchester.

Wheezy:

this is Winchester, my big farm

Gino:

Hi, Winnie

Spoons:

Hi, Winnie dog.

Wheezy:

my sweet boy with one whole

Gino:

Slab.

Wheezy:

He

Gino:

Ber slab,

Wheezy:

brain cell in there. Yeah. You good boy. like shaking his head at me. He's like, please let me outside mom, and thank you for your giant paw. And until next episode, keep your teacups full

Spoons:

Your pinkies high

Gino:

and your book club

Wheezy:

club.

Gino:

Pretentious.

Wheezy:

Yay.

Spoons:

Yay.

Wheezy:

Oh my god.