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That Pretentious Book Club
A Comedy Podcast By and For Book Lovers. If you love books, laughter, and witty ladies drinking tea (and whiskey), this is the podcast for you.
That Pretentious Book Club
With a Vengeance
Welcome to Season 6 Episode 3 of That Pretentious Book Club!
In this twisty episode, the club dives into With a Vengeance by Riley Sager—a 1950s, fast-paced psychological thriller that had even the smartest of us second-guessing everything.
Join the hosts as they unravel the backstories of a cast of incredibly dislikable suspects, all of whom played a part in the mysterious tragedy that destroyed our (incredibly badass) heroine's life. If you liked Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, this book is almost guaranteed to satisfy.
Pour yourself a cup of tea, raise a pinky, and join the club for this discussion of With a Vengeance by Riley Sager!
Join a team, crush your TBR, and support Wheezy's new indie bookstore in the Bookshop Read-A-Thon!
Reserve your spot at the Story Sirens Studio Fall Writing Retreat now!
Help Ash launch her bookstore!
https://www.ifundwomen.com/projects/story-emporium-bookshop
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.
well, I loved how Anna had like three hot men lusting after her this whole time. She's doing her vengeance plot. I was like, good for you, girl.
Wheezy:She was like, I don't have time for any of you losers. I'm on a mission. Hello everyone welcome back to that pretentious book club.
Spoons-1:Hooray, Haah. Welcome.
Wheezy:We need like a canned applause or something after
Spoons-1:Yeah. We need one of those sound machine things. They press the buttons.
Wheezy:Or just an air horn really close to the
Spoons-1:Yeah. Or that, yeah, that.
Wheezy:that would be, I like that would be criminal.
Gino:I will just whisper. Oh, A SMR. Welcome every time.
Wheezy:Welcome back to that pre
Spoons-1:Welcome back
Wheezy:welcome, back to Easy Listening with that pretentious book club.
Spoons-1:Delilah.
Wheezy:Oh God. Oh, that's so funny.
Spoons-1:Well,
Wheezy:Okay, well, year at that pretentious book club, if you came here for a comedy podcast about books, you're in the right place. If you came here for a super serious podcast about books, you could not be farther from the mark.
Spoons-1:Much love.
Wheezy:If you don't wanna hear nonsense, but you do wanna hear about the book, it's still not gonna be a serious take. But you can use the skip notes in the episode description.
Spoons-1:Yes,
Wheezy:we're glad that you guys are here and I'm gonna start over on the far side of my screen. I dunno how they appear for you guys, but that over there is Dr. Spoons Palermo, AKA Kendall
Spoons-1:hi, howdy, and in my middle is as O'Rourke, but you can call her wheezy.
Wheezy:It Ain't Easy being wheezy. And in the middle of my screen is the beautiful statuesque blonde woman, Gino, I guess you could call her. Do we even say your first name? I feel like I'm redacting more and more information from you every single episode.
Gino:I'm gonna wear a mask the next time. I mean,
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:time I was like, I'm gonna wear a mask.
Wheezy:Yeah. And I was like, that would be so interesting. How would that, me being fully willing to try anything.
Gino:I'm also gonna start using a voice changer box. I'll be like, well, for this book, I thought that
Wheezy:How funny would that be? That's so
Spoons-1:I want to play a game.
Wheezy:have done that when we when we were hating on a guitar that might have been
Spoons-1:Oh yeah.
Wheezy:There were times I was like, is it unsafe for our faces to
Spoons-1:This feels unsafe.
Wheezy:how it feels unsafe? How crazy AAR people got for
Spoons-1:Oh man. I actually looked it up today. I was like, I wonder how many copies of AAR sold, apparently 13 million. But I think, I don't know if that's correct. I, it was a very quick Google. So anyway, that's your fun fact from Kendall today.
Wheezy:It's a super
Spoons-1:really fun fact.
Wheezy:I love it. What are you drinking Spoons.
Spoons-1:Basically a mimosa, it's champagne with orange juice in it. Well, it's like an orange mango, Casey.
Wheezy:like
Spoons-1:And welcome to the pod Juicy. She is making a ruckus in here.
Wheezy:Juer, she's our
Spoons-1:she's our producer. She has a whole readathon team named after her.
Wheezy:Cats Without Tails. That's my team. So if you guys have been itching to garner some acclaim for the fact that you read books you guys can do that. You guys could join our Read-a-Thon. It's awesome. And it's supporting my bookstore that I'm opening, so that's super exciting. And also you can crush and destroy your enemies or your friends. In this case. I'm actually crushing my friends. So anyways, team Cats without tails, Gino's. Like, actually I hate it here. I hope to destroy you all.
Spoons-1:Like, this is actually serious for me.
Gino:was my final
Spoons-1:Yeah, this is, oh, are you getting, are you out for a vengeance? You are getting a vengeance.
Gino:Oh.
Wheezy:Oh, that's relevant because of
Spoons-1:Yeah. Yeah. In case you guys couldn't see.'Cause it's a podcast, it's not a visual medium. I did hold up the book that has the word vengeance on it, so,
Wheezy:Yeah, unless you're watching this on YouTube, all of the three people who in the closet and watch our YouTube videos
Gino:Phil tried to look up the YouTube videos today and he was, know, there's something weird with our YouTube'cause he was like, there's only four videos and it says the rest are like hidden.
Wheezy:what? Ah, ugh.
Gino:you tell Spoons that what I found out,
Wheezy:No, I forgot. This is insane. This is insane.
Gino:I decided to look up our YouTube videos the other day, which I've never done before.'Cause I always listen on like
Spoons-1:yeah.
Gino:And, I was just going through and I was looking at like viewership and I noticed like Twilight has like more views than others. So I was like I wonder if the more popular, newer books
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:than the older books. So I'm looking through like these views, okay, this that, and I get to Hercules
Spoons-1:Oh, herky Pro.
Gino:what? How is it for Nest?
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:Yeah. Yeah. It has over a thousand,
Spoons-1:What?
Gino:I think it's a thousand views. It has like an insane amount compared to
Spoons-1:that's so weird.
Gino:the
Wheezy:She told me and honestly my, like the first thing hobby said, and also my first thought was, did I, like, did I flash someone? I don't think I would've done that. That was the
Gino:her,
Wheezy:Gino same thought too. I was like,
Gino:I was like,
Wheezy:what
Spoons-1:Oh my God.
Gino:in this video?
Spoons-1:I hope I didn't,
Wheezy:it the Christmas
Spoons-1:it was Christmas.
Wheezy:it the, if it was the Christmas one, maybe that's why.'cause it was
Spoons-1:But that's so
Gino:I
Spoons-1:weird.
Gino:insane amount of views compared to
Spoons-1:That's hilarious. Somebody's,
Gino:And I was like, oh, you already know this. But she
Spoons-1:I had no idea.
Gino:this.
Wheezy:I was
Spoons-1:I bet somebody uses it for A SMR and they fall asleep to it every night and they play it every single night. That's what it is. Something like that.
Wheezy:It is me. They just keep rewinding to hear me say
Spoons-1:It's some, you know what it is? It's some French person who plays it on repeat and they're working on their own vengeance. Every time we say it in a bad way, they get more angry. Yeah. They're plotting and it just feels their rage. That's what it is. They're gonna come kill us or something
Wheezy:French are always angry.
Spoons-1:much loves Who are our French listeners?
Wheezy:Absolutely.
Gino:Weezy, what are you drinking?
Wheezy:I'm drinking. I'll just go ahead and dive into our drink early. But then I do wanna ask about y'all's lives'cause I care about you as human beings. I am,
Spoons-1:Okay.
Wheezy:I never know what I say that's gonna make spoons laugh all of a sudden. It's always something silly and little. Anyways, I'm doing our drink for today, which I forget what it's, what was this one called? The locomotive. All so this is a little bit of a twist on the locomotive'cause it's supposed to be made with whiskey. And ironically, I don't have any whiskey in my house. So it has rum, which actually turned out really good. So it's got, you say, is it con control?
Gino:We're just getting French today.
Wheezy:Cont, I don't know.
Gino:I
Wheezy:The orange
Spoons-1:the orange. Yeah.
Wheezy:The, like orange-ish one and yeah. Okay. Triple sec. There we go. Triple sec with lemon juice and simple syrup and rum. I think that's it. Shaken with ice. And I garnished mine with a Marino cherry and I did some sugar on the rim, which has pretty much quickly turned into rock candy, essentially. So if you see me in the video, like biting sugar off the rim, that's why it's turned into candy and it's actually super, super good. So only one who did the drink today.
Spoons-1:Yeah,
Wheezy:not to brag, but to totally brag. I'm so proud of myself. I mean, I did my thing where I'm like, I totally am gonna do it right guys. And then I
Spoons-1:you,
Wheezy:quite do it right.
Gino:but I
Spoons-1:yeah, you always do your own twist on ing.
Wheezy:really, I always do the twist, and it's not'cause I'm creative, it's because Im lazy. But today I swear, I really thought that I had everything for it.
Gino:ironic because you're always like that one,'cause I have all the ingredients and then you come on and you're like, so I did not have all the
Wheezy:I did not have the ingredients.
Gino:time.
Wheezy:Listen, I have a few toxic traits. One of them is thinking I have the ingredients for drinks that I don't,
Spoons-1:Toxic red flag.
Wheezy:the other toxic red flag. The other one is thinking my car is a lot bigger than it actually is. And being like, yeah, I could probably fit that in my car. to me driving down the highway with an enormous dollhouse sticking out the back while the trunk flaps
Spoons-1:Oh my God.
Wheezy:All the way to my child's preschool where I then left it in their supply closet until the next week to come pick it up.
Spoons-1:You are like, I'm not doing that again.
Gino:So,
Wheezy:nothing if not consistent.
Gino:I do care about you two as humans, but I also have to put my duck away. So if you guys wanna talk about your week, so I don't like
Spoons-1:Oh, yes.
Wheezy:You want me to talk about me?
Spoons-1:Like, oh,
Gino:Just keep
Spoons-1:such a hardship.
Gino:will
Wheezy:Excellent. Oh, no. My life, no spoons. You wanna tell me how your life is going? I mean, I don't But
Spoons-1:no, it's okay.
Wheezy:like it's
Spoons-1:Well, I, my life, I guess it's fine. It's a mess. But I enjoyed this book this week. And then also I am in the middle of
Gino:I
Spoons-1:the second Amari book. That's my new update. And well, I'm more like Two thirds I guess.
Wheezy:And the sassy spoons now has two books in their tally
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:my five.
Spoons-1:Well, you know, we're having a slow start, but we're gonna,
Gino:but
Spoons-1:catch up at the end and then also surpass you, so I wouldn't worry too much about us.
Gino:I
Wheezy:Unless the ugly ducklings are the dark horse in this race
Spoons-1:they're really gonna come outta nowhere.
Wheezy:Boys.
Gino:girl come out of
Wheezy:Yeah, you guys should totally join the Read-a-Thon and totally like upend all of my assumptions right now though, cats Without Tails is kicking
Gino:s is
Wheezy:a double
Spoons-1:Yeah, y'all are doing well, but like I said, we're really gonna do well probably better than you. So,
Gino:better think so.
Wheezy:probably, but you're like, listen, slow
Spoons-1:slow and steady wins the race. Yeah. Once I log that Amari book, we're gonna be, we
Gino:of
Spoons-1:closing in. So,
Gino:be
Spoons-1:But yeah, it's good. I'm enjoying it. The oh, also I have made two days in a row I have done
Gino:I
Spoons-1:like rice dishes for dinner that
Gino:which
Spoons-1:when I think about it, I'm like, this is not like a real meal. Sometimes I will just put things together where I'm like, that's gonna be good to eat, but then I'm like, I don't think anyone else has ever
Gino:don't think anyone
Spoons-1:eaten this concoction before. I love to do that.
Wheezy:I, do that quite a bit. That's probably why you're always like, oh, wow, Ash, this is really good. And I'm like,
Gino:And
Wheezy:wow, that's so nice of you. the same thing I do with the drinks, where I'm like, I probably have the ingredients for that and I don't,
Spoons-1:Me too.
Wheezy:so I just use what I find.
Spoons-1:I fully like had French fried, not French fried,
Gino:French
Spoons-1:they call it,
Gino:sex
Spoons-1:the little onion, the fried onions that you put on like green bean casserole.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Spoons-1:of those in my rice concoction yesterday because I was like, you know what, this is good. And it was good. And today I made what I'm calling Chick-fil-A Rice because it was
Gino:because it
Spoons-1:chicken nugget
Gino:the rice.
Spoons-1:chopped up, and then Chick-fil-A sauce in there, which is like,
Wheezy:That just sounds good.
Spoons-1:it was very good is the thing. But I was like, this is not a real meal.
Wheezy:sashimi.
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:Yeah, it was,
Spoons-1:so
Wheezy:meal. That's
Spoons-1:anyway, that, that's, those are my updates. Oh. And then,
Wheezy:I had shells
Spoons-1:oh.
Wheezy:cheese with crushed up. Super stale. Crushed up.
Gino:up
Wheezy:Dill pickled
Spoons-1:Oh my God. That sounds delicious.
Gino:that good.
Wheezy:Your sounds way
Spoons-1:I disagree.
Wheezy:sound Good.
Spoons-1:I've been so into di like, pickle flavored chips lately, so that sounds super good to me. What, tell me about your life, Hui. What are you up to?
Wheezy:I just did, I just told you about the mac and cheese
Spoons-1:right, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Wheezy:you about my child's leftover
Spoons-1:Of course. Yeah. No,
Wheezy:up
Gino:up. Of
Wheezy:stale Cheetos on top. everything. No I'm an insane person.
Spoons-1:Well, right, yeah.
Wheezy:isn't news if anyone has been here for more than 30 seconds, but I forget how insane. Like when. Hello. Welcome back. Darlene. Gino.
Spoons-1:Duck's alive.
Wheezy:So we were just, yeah. Are the ducks good?
Gino:are put away.
Spoons-1:They're put away. They're safe.
Wheezy:we go. All right. I was just going to rega everyone with things that I've learned about myself that everyone
Spoons-1:Okay, I wanna hear it.
Wheezy:so recently spoons and I went to Oklahoma and it was absolutely fantastic and wonderful. And while I was gone and hop was watching our child. He kept like sending texts of like, wow, RI is so chill. Does he ever do this with you? And he's like, falling asleep on Javi. No, he doesn't do that with me. He hasn't done that with me since he was like six months old. No. And like he's like, yeah, he just chills and watches movies. He just took a three hour nap. I get a 45 minute absolute tops, 45 minute long nap. Once a day. That's best case scenario. And then he wakes up between five and 6:00 AM every day. Let clock work. Today it was 5:00 AM So if I fall asleep while we're talking, I'm sorry. I also drove over the curb this morning to pull back into my driveway, which I do every single day. Like I was, I'm incredibly tired anyways, see, where was I going with this? Oh yes. So I was like, I don't understand how RI is so chill with Javi and not with me. And. Javi said something that I had kind of been like, maybe this is what it is like because I am so busy. Ri picks up on that energy and he's like, I'm also gonna be so busy. It's so much fun to be so busy. And I'm like, I need you to be so calm though. who is somebody else today? One of my coworkers, I was talking to her about Riley and how busy he is, and she was like, well. I mean, you're a pretty busy person. And I was like, what does that have to do with anything? And so now I'm realizing that I'm the whole problem. And
Gino:It's me. Hi. I'm the
Wheezy:it's me, hi. I'm compulsively productive and probably need to work that out in therapy. It's me. And, but a lot of it is just stuff that right now I'm gonna rush because I'm opening a bookshop and if you guys haven't been back to us for a while, you might not know that. If you have been, you're like, shut up, please stop talking about it. But I'm opening the story Emporium and Bookshop in HU Texas, which is like in the Austin metro area. And it's gonna be super, super awesome. And there's like a whole like writing center attached. And we're gonna do like a bunch of like really cool community events, like d and d nights and like wine and book clubs and like, free and low cost tutoring and stuff for all ages. Like it's going to be so freaking cool. And it's what I think about like 99.9% of the time. But also there's so much bureaucracy involved in starting a business. And I hate to comply. I absolutely loathe compliance so much. And to apply for my damn beer and wine license, you have to get like six other certificates say I will pay my taxes essentially. But to get to that, you have to file other things first also. And it's just like I have, this is insane.
Spoons-1:Oh my goodness.
Wheezy:else has ever like had to do this, you're also, I'm just here. This will be my last story'cause it's just absolutely insane to me that like, this is 2025, get my freaking beer and wine license. Not even a full liquor license, just beer and wine license. Okay. It's supposed to be the easy one. I have to print out this thing, this piece of paper that the file that they give you is literally like a mosaic. Like you print off these like eight pages and you have to tape them together. So they make one full poster and you have to go stick it on the physical location of your business at least 60 days prior. To when you plan to start serving alcohol and you have to take a picture of it when you post it and send the picture to the office, is that not insane? This is 2025. I was like the bureaucracy. What an absolute waste of time is someone's whole job just to look at these damn pictures. They don't even have to drive out and look at it, but you're gonna make me do this. This is insane. Anyways, there's so much bureaucracy involved. That one is the one that got me
Spoons-1:I know
Wheezy:The very
Spoons-1:for the listeners, Ash is tweaking.
Wheezy:to comply. am really freaking, I hate to comply, especially with absolutely ridiculous, nonsensical waste of time. So
Spoons-1:Wow.
Wheezy:I wonder, Ash, I wonder how Ash feels about this. Don't even get me started on deed restrictions.
Spoons-1:Please don't like we have to move past deed restrictions.
Gino:I.
Wheezy:I'll never move ba deed restrictions.
Spoons-1:We,
Wheezy:Actually, this is worse. This is worse than deed restrictions. It makes no
Spoons-1:you're like, I hate taping.
Wheezy:my mom
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:was like, yeah, we had to do the same thing. I, they are making me print off eight freaking pieces of paper to tape together, like I'm
Spoons-1:I go to maybe,
Wheezy:to go put
Spoons-1:Maybe like the FedEx store or Kinko's or something has big paper and you can get it on big paper.
Wheezy:But then they all have to give me a different file. The file that they have up
Spoons-1:Oh,
Wheezy:of
Spoons-1:so it's like built in.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:eight giant pieces of paper.
Wheezy:Yeah. Really stick it to him. be really good. Honestly,
Spoons-1:the whole window Is this
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:it's the whole window and if you shine a light on it, it's like the secret ink where it just is a huge middle finger. That sounds really good. Anyways, that's my life is just bureaucracy and lots of waiting and I'm waiting to hear on some other funding things. So please guys, support my bookstore because then I won't go crazy dealing with the bureaucracy of like, oh, it's just the insane things. Just
Spoons-1:to make ash not go crazy. Join my team for the rath fund and then we will crush her. But we will also make her not go crazy. So,
Wheezy:Or you could help me not go crazy and you could help me
Spoons-1:But
Wheezy:by
Spoons-1:well, it's
Wheezy:without
Spoons-1:probably more fun to be on my team, so, you know.
Wheezy:I think it might be, I mean, if you, yeah, if you like losing, if you like winning that
Spoons-1:Oh my gosh.
Wheezy:Gino's, not Vine for her team at all. So it's Gino, how is your life and how do you feel about your chances of success?
Gino:I thought you were gonna ask me how I felt about bureaucracy and beer and
Wheezy:How do you feel
Spoons-1:How do you feel about taping together eight pieces of paper?
Wheezy:feel about to go post on a building? No one's gonna see, but you have to take a picture, then upload it to your computer.
Gino:I have the duct tape to do it, so
Wheezy:This is not about canned, this is about should.
Spoons-1:I'm kind of like, I like taping.
Gino:I,
Wheezy:You're like, ooh, arts and crafts.
Gino:I,
Wheezy:Oh my gosh.
Gino:I thought IW like I was trying to think of anything I'd have to say. I don't wanna talk about birds. And I was like, I don't have anything. My life has been something,
Wheezy:I mean, it's bird adjacent, but the ugly ducklings is your team.
Gino:I
Wheezy:It is bird adjacent.
Gino:about, I was thinking about that today and I was like, I should, I don't know how, did anyone ever write that story? Because that doesn't exist. Like an
Spoons-1:They're all cute.
Gino:is an
Wheezy:No,
Gino:They, yeah. I was like,
Wheezy:I thought about that too. If you were like the teenage duckling, the teenage chicken for sure.
Spoons-1:they're so ugly.
Gino:they got some awkward
Wheezy:Was a The Turkey chickens, those things are hideous.
Gino:wants one so bad.
Spoons-1:Wait, I've never heard of a turkin.
Wheezy:course she would. It is a Turkey chicken.
Spoons-1:god. That's crazy.
Gino:I,
Wheezy:very ugly.
Gino:it's just a chicken, but it's like, it has a no feathers on
Spoons-1:Oh,
Gino:a really long neck, so they
Wheezy:So it looks like a Turkey and a chicken. Had an in demon spawn baby. It's real ugly.
Spoons-1:so, so what are you, what?
Gino:yeah.
Spoons-1:what's your update instead of birds? You said you were,
Gino:Oh yeah, I did realize, I don't know why it came to me while I was sitting here. I went to an impromptu, well, it wasn't impromptu, I was impromptuly invited to a costume party
Spoons-1:my God. I love costume parties.
Wheezy:Oh my gosh.
Gino:hours beforehand. They were like, Hey, do you wanna come? And I was like, cha, let's do that. And I like, like I was cracking up the whole time because there are two types of people in this world. Okay. One is my partner and one is me. So I was like, oh. I was like, okay, costume party. I have a basement at my mom's house full of costumes. Like literally there's like, a theater kid. Then I ran a theater business. And so, and my mom is a seamstress, so I have For days. And so I was like, let's go, let's look, let's pick something out. And I went down there and I was like, oh, I could be Tinkerbell. Oh, I could be Glinda. Oh, I could be like things that probably still fit me now Looking at here. And Phil goes, I know what I'm doing. And I was like, okay. And he goes, I need to ask your mom for some something to tie something up with. And I was like, okay. So he leaves I'm like okay. Looking through. And then I come upon my Kita from Atlantis costume
Spoons-1:Hot.
Gino:and I was like, I loved this costume. Only got to wear it one Halloween. So I was like, I'm gonna do that.
Wheezy:I've seen those pictures. Amazing.
Gino:yeah. So I
Wheezy:them with mild. My other pictures of you. Just kidding. Where am I?
Gino:that reminds me, did you still need that lock of hair?
Wheezy:Don't worry. I already got it.
Gino:so I get my key to costume. I come up from the basement like, all right, I'm ready to go. And Phil is standing there with a two small bucket hat on. And a trench coat. And I was like, okay. So we get to our house and I'm like, do your thing. I'm doing my thing. And eventually, anyways, he comes out. He is a
Spoons-1:Yeah, I was gonna
Gino:yeah, he,
Wheezy:there's only one thing that can be
Gino:he the bucket hat, like, it just made it, it made it so
Spoons-1:yeah.
Gino:I can't explain to you why the bucket hat, just like, he went from like, oh, you're a flasher to, oh, you're flasher. And he cut a pair of pants. He cut a pair of pants so that he just had the legs. And then he was, that's what he wanted the ties for, was to wrap'em around like his knees essentially, so that he, when his trench coat was closed, it looked like he had pants on. But then
Spoons-1:Oh
Gino:that
Spoons-1:my.
Gino:cut off a shirt, the top,
Wheezy:that is so funny.
Gino:so then on our way to the party we stopped at the gas station to get some things and we're pulling up to the gas station. I was like, I'll go in so you don't have to. And he goes, no, I'll go in. I don't care. And then we pull up and the cops are sitting at the gas station and I, he is like trying to get out of the vehicle without exposing himself to everyone.
Spoons-1:Nothing to see here, officer.
Wheezy:works with cops. I feel like
Spoons-1:Oh my God, it
Gino:I had this like, amazing cosplay kind of costume. I loved doing Kind of costumes.
Spoons-1:And he's
Gino:I'm gonna cut some things up and not wear
Spoons-1:like, I'm a flasher.
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:The flasher part of the costume aside, I am Phil. am like, what do I have that I can randomly piece together from a, I'm a, I'm scrappy, I'm a scrounger. I'd be a really
Spoons-1:I just cro.
Wheezy:Javi will drop$400 on a really, Javi will drop$400 on a really cool costume, and then I'll go, damn, that looks like it was worth it. But mostly I just, I will, I'll tie things up for sure on me. I'll be like, that's probably fine. The amount of clothes I've cut up and been like, this is a costume.
Gino:Well, literally we got there and there were four people in just Spider-Man onesies.
Spoons-1:That's the true lazy man's costume there.
Wheezy:That sounds right.
Spoons-1:Oh my gosh.
Gino:I was like, okay.
Spoons-1:I've decided this.
Gino:I've never
Spoons-1:Go ahead. Go ahead.
Gino:go
Spoons-1:No. Go ahead.
Gino:I've never seen Silent Hill. I don't know
Spoons-1:I have any either.
Gino:I'm not like a horror movie person, but the host is and host where had costumes from that and hers was like, really killer. She made it herself and it's like, I think it's some sort of, I might be completely wrong, and if you see in Silent Hill, like I've literally know nothing about it, but it looked like a plague doctor kind of thing, except for like giant
Spoons-1:Spooky.
Gino:it was like kind of
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:so hers was really cool and she made it herself and
Spoons-1:Oh, I love that.
Gino:yeah, there was a lot of just like Spider-Man onesies aside from that.
Spoons-1:Yeah. Some people, yeah, I love going all out for a costume, but yeah, I don't know. So it, it is, I, I think you're right. There really are like two types of people in the world. It's either one or the other.
Wheezy:back to my toxic trait.
Spoons-1:Amazing.
Gino:that's all I got.
Wheezy:That's fantastic. I'm so psyched to, for, and I can bring it back to me and the bookstore. I'm so psyched because when I have the bookshop, I will have a really cool venue to host really cool things like costume parties at like,
Spoons-1:Halloween party.
Wheezy:to be like everyone come to the bookshop dressed in a costume.
Spoons-1:Oh my God.
Wheezy:don't know why.
Gino:let you go unless we make you a good costume
Spoons-1:Okay. Yeah.
Gino:I'll be like, I know it's your bookshop and you're hosting it wheezy, but
Spoons-1:I'll send you pictures. Yeah.
Wheezy:trade and be like no. I really, I've got enough pieces. I can make a good costume here. I swear I do. everything fits in my car and I definitely have all the
Spoons-1:Yep. All of the above. Oh my God.
Gino:why if you're
Wheezy:Oh, good lord.
Gino:I'm in charge of the food and drinks. So don't worry.
Spoons-1:We definitely have it all in the car.
Wheezy:a lot of the, well, Gino also, Gino does a lot of the planning. I do like a lot of the like, admin prep work before, and then when we get there, I'm just basically like Gino's assistant. I'm like, yes, master, what do you need from me? And it's, I'm just always so relieved. I'm not the one making the decisions because I be like, that's probably
Spoons-1:fine.
Wheezy:eh? Yeah. Oh, we still have a few spots left too for that. If anyone out there, any writers are looking for a little Autumn escape, you can go out to Pennsylvania and join us. You can go to story siren studio.com if you wanna check it out. We want to get into the book?
Spoons-1:I do.
Gino:I mean, I guess
Spoons-1:Yeah. If we have to talk about the book
Wheezy:we're doing with a Vengeance by Ri Sager. And I'm shocked'cause is this really the first ri Sager book
Spoons-1:it is, but I wanna do more because I like so many of them.
Wheezy:I love Riley
Gino:Oh, I'll
Wheezy:Spoons introduced me and I have read like almost every Ri Sager book now. Sorry, continue, Gina.
Gino:No, I'm gonna save it for
Spoons-1:Oh,
Wheezy:Oh, okay.
Spoons-1:all right.
Wheezy:I just, I love ri
Spoons-1:Yes. We love ri.
Wheezy:my introduction to thrillers and now I read like 80% thrillers, all because
Spoons-1:Oh my God. I love that.
Wheezy:I always also forget, that's my child's name. it's almost like I named my child after Ri Sager, my, one of my all-time favorite
Spoons-1:Well,
Wheezy:although that's
Spoons-1:yeah, I was gonna say offer, quick offer by his name is actually not Ri Sager, it's Todd Ritter, which is, I think Ri Sager is a better name, but,
Wheezy:That's a little too close to Tom Riddle if you ask me, but that's okay.
Spoons-1:um, he also has another, wait, actually I don't trust that. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Alan Finn.
Wheezy:it is Alan Finn.'cause it's a, the Cat Campbell series I
Spoons-1:No. Yes, for sure.
Wheezy:No. Sorry. Alan Finn is things Half in Shadow. He published some under his real name this one's, according to Wikipedia, as he, under his real name, Todd Ritter supposedly published the Cat Campbell series. But then when he had other books, because like he didn't feel like the sale stood up well enough that he thought like it was gonna be harder to convince a publisher to promote his books under his actual name. And so he started going by a different
Spoons-1:That's so cool that you can be successful under like several identities. You know, you're just like, no I don't even need my name.
Wheezy:still don't understand Alan Finn. I feel like there's not a lot of, and Alan, he only has one thing published under Alan Finn Things Half in And I don't understand why. I feel like it's, feels like murky as to why he's using Alan Finn ever anyways.
Gino:Maybe whatever he published was personal. He didn't want it
Spoons-1:yeah. Maybe
Gino:associated.
Wheezy:jokes on him. Wikipedia knows everything.
Spoons-1:our good friend Wikipedia.
Gino:committed.
Wheezy:Oh
Spoons-1:Oh my God. Ri no. Oh my God, that's crazy.
Wheezy:no, you said that. And I was like, what did he do? My son, what did he do? And I looked at the baby monitor. My son's name is Ri If
Spoons-1:Oh my God. Ri okay. I didn't realize that Final Girls was like the first Ri Sager book. I think that Final Girls was good, but it wasn't my favorite.
Wheezy:kind of makes sense. Yeah, same. I just read that one and I would
Spoons-1:I have read Final Girls the last time I Lied Home Before Dark and this one, and then I have read quite a bit of the only one left, but I haven't finished it yet. So I am,
Wheezy:I've read Final Girls Lock Every Door Home Before Dark. Survive the Night, the only one left Middle of the night with a vengeance.
Spoons-1:that's like almost all of them. Yeah.
Gino:At the
Spoons-1:These,
Gino:I know
Wheezy:Almost all of This is one of the,
Gino:the house
Spoons-1:Which my entire family read on family vacation. They just passed it around to each other and then I'm the one who ended up with it, so it's on my shelf. I still haven't read it, but like my grandpa, I think read it. My aunt, my mom, like they would just pass it to each other when they were done. It was so funny. So
Wheezy:I am gonna get it on audio book next, but the problem is then I also really wanna own the copy. And this is something where Spoons will like, we'll go and get her book signed by authors at like author readings and stuff. And I have never had any desire to, except for
Spoons-1:you guys
Wheezy:like I was looking@risager.com or whatever and I was like,
Gino:My
Wheezy:she has the signed copy. I
Spoons-1:I did, but I bought it like that. It was, I got it in Colorado. It was already signed, but isn't that exciting? Anyway,
Wheezy:That's so cool. What about your friend Gino?
Gino:Yeah, he got the signed copy too.
Spoons-1:Amazing.
Wheezy:Todd Ritter. Tom Riddle, it's fine. I wanna meet him so badly. I wanna be like, you're the reason that I love thrillers. And he'd be like, okay,
Spoons-1:Okay, thanks.
Wheezy:can I sign your book?
Spoons-1:All right. Get outta my line.
Wheezy:like you don't understand. This changed everything for, it really did open up like a whole world of fiction I never thought I'd have any interest in, and it is most of my escape is thrillers
Spoons-1:Oh my God, that's awesome.
Wheezy:Thank
Spoons-1:Thank you. Ri Sager. Sh.
Wheezy:you Spoons. Because you introduced
Spoons-1:You're welcome. Should we do first impressions, Gino? Do you wanna go first?
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:So I saw it on the list of books we were reading with a vengeance and I was like, no idea what this is. And when I looked it up and I saw by Ri Sager, I realized that my friend had, like the day before he's been posting things that he reads this year on Facebook, With like a little review of like what he likes about it or whatever. And I had
Wheezy:Oh, he is a book blogger.
Gino:Yeah. Whatever he had posted. It Riley Sager. And so I immediately texted him. I was like, what's the book you just read? And it was not with interventions, but then I told him, I was like, oh, we're reading this one next to he is. That's when he was like, oh yeah, I just got the signed copy of that one. So he had read two either books, I think by Riley Sager, but I do not remember which ones. And the one he really liked. And the other one, he was like, he said there was too many twists and turns. He's like, he
Spoons-1:Oh,
Gino:Ugh over it, like,
Wheezy:Interesting.
Gino:But I don't remember
Wheezy:I wonder if it was Final Girls. I don't know. It was good. But there's such like a difference in like you can tell there's such a difference between Final Girls and all the other ones I've read. It was good, but it felt more like something by Lisa Jewel, if you know what I'm saying. Different. A
Spoons-1:I do not. But I
Wheezy:way
Spoons-1:love that you said that.
Gino:it's like literally no one does
Wheezy:Literally no
Spoons-1:This kind of reads more like a jewel than
Wheezy:anyone? Anyone.
Spoons-1:His early works don't represent
Wheezy:saying
Spoons-1:the
Wheezy:definitely not comparable to wear by any means. I just read two Ruth wear books in a row, so
Gino:So I got the book immediately'cause the weight on my,
Wheezy:Yep.
Gino:you guys always say that I am able to get all my books on audiobook like so immediately. Not this one. The wait was 37 years. Not exactly, but that's what I felt like it was like, there are 783 people
Spoons-1:oh.
Gino:of you and I was like, Ooh, I don't have that time.
Wheezy:Because it's new.
Gino:got the actual physical copy And.
Wheezy:yeah.
Gino:Then I was like, oh, I can buzz through this in two days. And then I proceeded to procrastinate for reasons for and a half. And then yesterday I was like, all right, if I read 142 pages today and 142 pages tomorrow and then I'll be good, it's fine. And so I,
Spoons-1:And you did it.
Wheezy:forbid, I was like, you know, we could postpone a day. There's literally no reason that we can't. And she was like, I can't believe you would say that to me. That's
Spoons-1:I'm not a quitter.
Wheezy:And I was like, I mean, we absolutely cannot. We must record tomorrow or never again.
Gino:yeah, I literally was like, do not take this away from me. But I finished it in like two hours this
Spoons-1:Oh, nice.
Gino:42 pages left, and I start at like seven 20 and was done by nine
Spoons-1:I feel like the last
Wheezy:yeah.
Spoons-1:yeah, about 150 pages. I was like, what? I was pretty locked in.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:What was your first impression? Spoons.
Spoons-1:My first impression was I saw it at this cute bookstore in Colorado and went New Ri Sager. I didn't know that was out. And then I was like, sign copy. And then I bought it. So, that was kind of, I already was like, I'm going to like it because I liked everything else I read by him. And I do really think the cover is good. I like the the big blue letters and I like the train and I think it's a great cover. And I like this red spine and yeah,
Wheezy:It is beautiful. The red spine looks really
Spoons-1:I think it looks nice. So yeah, I'm a fan of that. So that was kinda my impression. I was like, yep, sounds good. I'm in. Oh, and then I was like 1942. Actually, it takes place in the fifties, but. The fact that it was like a period piece almost caught my eye as well.'cause I was like, okay, interesting. Because all the other ones I've read have not really been in the past. I
Wheezy:I, my first impression of this was I had seen a book called With a Vengeance, but sort of like skated past it. It was just like a recommend, like a recommendation on Amazon or something. And I didn't realize it was ri Sager until Spoons, I think, on air. And one of the episodes was like, yeah, there's this new book by RI Sager or whatever, it's a period piece on a train or something like that. And my brain immediately went, oh my God, it's like a murder on the Orient Express and it's ri Sager no freaking way. And I got so super excited and immediately ordered it. So that was kind of my first impression. I was very excited.
Spoons-1:excitement.
Wheezy:I do love Murder on the Orient Express and the movie that they did recently, I guess, I dunno if it was that recently now, but the newest movie as of 2025. I don't
Spoons-1:Yeah, with Brianna,
Wheezy:I enjoy it.
Gino:was like three or four years
Spoons-1:I love all the Hercule Perot movies that are coming out. I can't wait for the next one. I'm like, he can just,
Wheezy:murder on the Orient Express, like I'm gonna watch anytime it's cold outside. I'm like,
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:Murder on the Orient Express.
Spoons-1:have like Beef with Murder on the Orient Express, which I know is unfair, but I'm like, it's not fair that everyone did it. That's not fair. That's a cop out Agatha it pisses me off. But, um, but I know somebody had to do it, you know, it might as well have been Agatha, but it makes me mad. I'm like, that's not fair. How, how am I supposed to guess that, you know? But
Wheezy:Ever since Murder on The Orient Express, whenever I read a thriller where it's obvious someone has been murdered, I'm like, what if everyone did it? Which never would've ever occurred to me,
Spoons-1:yeah, she is.
Wheezy:She did it once and it's gonna stick with me forever.
Gino:I love when we read murder mysteries because I love getting wheezy takes as they go along. She's
Wheezy:I knew exactly where you were going with that.
Gino:I had this friend, this is like off on a tangent, but not did y'all read Aragon?
Spoons-1:I have not, but I, I know if a Bella had about it,
Wheezy:spoons.
Spoons-1:I never read Aragon. I know everything that happens in Aragon. Okay.
Wheezy:I'm gonna tell Lacey she's gonna be at the retreat and she's
Spoons-1:I'm sorry.
Wheezy:'cause she's on my team anyways.
Spoons-1:Yeah. Traitor.
Gino:watching the movie, these Oh, so great movie, which by the way, they're making another movie or a TV series or something. And Christopher Palini actually has like,
Spoons-1:What?
Gino:on the script, so like, he's the
Spoons-1:Oh, that's fun.
Gino:if he's actually writing it or he is making like, all the edits to it and stuff.
Wheezy:he was homeschooled,
Spoons-1:Yeah, and it shows. He wrote a frigging dragon book that's basically Star Wars like, yeah, when he was like 16, obviously he was homeschooled.
Wheezy:Yeah, he was very successful though.
Gino:Oh goodness. But,
Wheezy:So you watched the first movie, which by the way, I read, I watched the movie before I read the book, and I really liked the movie. So if you've, if you watched the movie with absolutely zero context about the story of Aragon, it's a really good,
Spoons-1:I like that Jimmy from Downton Abbey is in it. Anyway, I'm sorry.
Gino:Oh. Yeah. So we were watching the movie, this friend who had never read the books. I was watching it with her and she, I just remember at one point she yells out, like, oh my gosh, has a baby and the baby's name is eldest. And like,'cause the second book's eldest. And I was like, no. Like it's the farthest thing from anything. So it became like anytime someone made this like, jump the shark. You know, these like wild, well, I
Wheezy:Yeah. Yeah.
Gino:but like, whenever anyone Guesses that are like extremely inaccurate, like Phi had a baby and its name was ELs. That's what I think of now when you're like, oh, this happened, like.
Wheezy:Oh
Spoons-1:that I'm gonna start saying that.
Wheezy:that is wild. Oh my god. Severe head. Maybe his name was Elvis.
Gino:It's like literally not,
Spoons-1:like, that's not it. Nope.
Wheezy:even a little bit. Oh, that is so funny. My brother-in-law's is rereading the Aragon series now, or reading it for the first time. It really is making a comeback like
Spoons-1:Well, I think PE.
Gino:I'm rereading it because I wanna read the Ttag book that he,
Spoons-1:Yeah, I think that's why people are into it again.
Wheezy:Do we need to read Aragon on
Spoons-1:Let's do it. I wanna read it.
Wheezy:What else are we gonna take? We'll deal with this later, but what else are we gonna bump off? Well see, you just read us, you don't have to read it again, so you can have just have like a break or spoons and I can just do an episode.
Spoons-1:Or it could be
Gino:about
Spoons-1:solo episode. And I just am like, here's what I think for myself.
Wheezy:like that One time that I did a totally
Spoons-1:Yeah, that was
Wheezy:which is an
Spoons-1:very impressive.
Wheezy:thriller. Thank you. I think about that sometimes and I'm like, I really just talked to myself for an hour and a half and honestly it was enjoyable.
Spoons-1:listened to the whole thing and I was like,
Gino:do solo
Spoons-1:yeah, you did great.
Wheezy:No
Spoons-1:I totally like bailed on you. So it was very bad of me and good of you to do it.
Wheezy:It was awesome. I was, honestly, I was really good'cause I kind of always wanted to know if I was
Spoons-1:And you were.
Wheezy:now I know I'm capable of it. It's not super fun, but I Did it. Nailed
Spoons-1:it.
Wheezy:Take that bureaucracy.
Spoons-1:Okay. Should we talk about what happens in movies?
Wheezy:It's. Yeah, I
Spoons-1:So, just so everyone knows, if you've never been here before, we do do full spoilers in this podcast. So if you want to know what happens at the end of this, who done it? Mystery. Don't listen to the rest of this because we'll tell you. So Basically,
Wheezy:do leave us a five
Spoons-1:yeah. But yeah. Really quick before you go.
Gino:Obsess
Wheezy:then join Team KA
Spoons-1:Yeah. Or or Sassy spin. Yeah. Uh, Basically our main character is named Anna Matheson. Sorry, I just started talking. Is that okay or do y'all wanna, okay.
Wheezy:I read this like over a week ago, and I've read several other books since then
Spoons-1:okay.
Wheezy:Readathon. So I if, yeah, if I randomly throw in a character name that has
Spoons-1:Yeah,
Wheezy:book, that's
Spoons-1:George, you know, Frida, you're like, what is, who are they?
Wheezy:Okay.
Spoons-1:so,
Wheezy:Like,
Spoons-1:and you don't know
Wheezy:know.
Spoons-1:I was in the epilogue. So Anna Mathison is she basically, she is this woman who was wronged in her past by six people that she kind of tricks into being on a train and it's only them. And
Wheezy:she's like the archetype of a woman
Spoons-1:she is a woman's corn
Wheezy:Like every description about her, they're like, she's into like a scarlet dress that just barely hides the knife she has
Spoons-1:like so slay.
Wheezy:her beautiful blonde hair is in a tight bun so that it won't get in her way. And the only jewelry she wears is a little pin in the shape of a train on her dress. And you're like, like she's exclusively there
Spoons-1:She is there to
Wheezy:She's
Spoons-1:yes. Get shit done. She is not messing around.
Wheezy:she wouldn't put up with bureaucracy, I'm just saying.
Spoons-1:She has gone
Wheezy:doesn't. In fact,
Spoons-1:she's, yeah, she is. She's involving,
Gino:She literally,
Spoons-1:go ahead. Oh, she's involving the FBI.
Gino:does involve
Spoons-1:Yeah, but to the,
Wheezy:does a little bit, but she's also like, they're gonna take too long. So I'm gonna basically
Spoons-1:and also she wants to see everyone's squirm. So she has arranged this like 11 hour train, express train, ride to Chicago and only invited these specific people with the express purpose of watching them realize that their lives are over and having fun with that.'cause she wants them to suffer because they all kind of work together to, i'll just, I guess I'll just say what they did. Yeah, they,
Gino:Yeah.
Spoons-1:It's in the beginning. They her dad was this guy, really rich guy who owned like this train business company and
Gino:Essentially like the
Spoons-1:Right, yeah. And so they there was like this thing during the World War II where they were transporting all these soldiers and stuff on this train in like domestically, but the train blew up and everyone died and like all these weapons got destroyed and stuff and
Wheezy:Including Anna
Spoons-1:including her brother and,
Gino:well, her father
Spoons-1:yeah, no, he was later.
Wheezy:Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I got
Spoons-1:And so all these people died and everything was bad. And then they were like, oh my God, it's because her dad must be a Nazi sympathizer. And they basically, he went to like jail for it and all of this. And then he got killed in prison and then her mother went crazy and killed herself. And so then she was an orphan and had to go live with her horrible aunt. And so her life totally got ruined like 12 years ago. And she
Wheezy:Yeah.
Spoons-1:like that the people who actually were responsible for this thing, were like her dad's main business rival. And then like certain people who worked in the company and then like her
Wheezy:People who are close
Spoons-1:close to the family. And they all got a big payout for helping. And so.
Wheezy:her nanny, her basically surrogate sister.
Spoons-1:it's so bad. Fuso. I was like, I wonder like, what could have been so bad to justify this? And then when they tell you, I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. No, that's really bad. Yeah. Okay.
Wheezy:it was a little freaky at first because like Anna Matheson and her sort of like partner in the whole scheme, Seamus whose brother also died in the training explosion. So they're, they've concocted this plan together. And Seamus is clearly in love with Anna, but she's not into him like that. Where am I going with this?
Spoons-1:It was weird.
Wheezy:Oh yes, the violent tendencies.
Spoons-1:Oh yeah.
Wheezy:Anna Madison would
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:like, I've pictured all of the horrible ways that I could kill them. I want to kill them with my bare hands, every one of them. And I'm like, wow. She is like, she wants to get her hands dirty. Like she wants to
Spoons-1:she's serious.
Wheezy:I was like, are we, is this, are we a murderer? Is this, are we murdering now? Is the murder book?
Gino:I definitely had a theory at a couple points in the book that she was actually the one Because she kept having those like fuzzy
Spoons-1:Yes.
Gino:and I was
Wheezy:Yeah, I did too. I had the same thought.
Gino:that she is
Spoons-1:Yeah, I had the same thought. So basically like when she confronts everyone, oh, also her dad's business rival didn't show up on the train, but his son did. His son who is very handsome and she used to have an
Wheezy:Dante.
Gino:lover?
Spoons-1:is like her boyfriend. And he has like nothing to do with it.
Wheezy:totally like scorned
Spoons-1:Yeah,
Wheezy:So she's got beef with him for other reasons. She's also like, bro,
Spoons-1:yeah. She's like,
Wheezy:Did he send you? And he's like, what? No, I just saw the invitation and I thought I would come see you'cause I like missed you babe. was, she's like, not
Spoons-1:she's like, okay, I'm kind of busy. So,
Gino:I am busy. I.
Spoons-1:but this, the one guy who like built the train basically. Dies at the beginning, after they're all having like martinis. He like, yeah, his name is Jed. And he like starts foaming at the mouth and like falls over dead. And then immediately after they find out somebody else is on the train and he is this guy who's like, I just happened to get on the wrong train. Like, I'm so sorry. What's his name? Reggie. Yes. And they're like, oh my God. And so immediately things go bad for Anna and Seamus. They're like, okay, this is not part of the plan. And they're kind of freaking out. But, um,
Gino:Oh yeah. Because Anna, even though she talks about wanting to strangle them and murder them with their own hands, she also doesn't want that because she wants them to suffer long and hard. She's like, death is Them. So the whole plan is she gave all the evidence to the FBI and told them like that they'd be on this train arriving in Chicago at this time, And she just wanted to watch everyone on the train. Find this out and then squirm for 12 hours. And then she wanted to watch them when they got there and they were all arrested and like their lives were ruined and embarrassed like her father was.'cause he was ripped from their
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:of blowing up the train when he really wasn't. And she Them disgraced like that. So that's why she
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:her plan is not to murder them.
Wheezy:Yeah. She also kind of wants to clear her father's name in the public eye because he went to prison as a Nazi sympathizer and was murdered in prison. So she would like to clear his name, but that's hard if you kill all the people who actually did it.
Spoons-1:Yeah, so I, it's so hard to like recap who done. It's because so many things happen in the middle
Wheezy:There's
Spoons-1:and
Wheezy:details.
Spoons-1:I.
Wheezy:Well, so let's, okay, so let's just there's very few characters. So really quickly, let's just, Judd is the first one to die with by poisoning. Yes. The engineer. So the one most culpable technically.
Spoons-1:Yeah.'cause he made the train to explode.
Wheezy:Yeah. Dante's. He designed it Dante's father. What was the Dante's father's
Spoons-1:Kenneth
Wheezy:K. Is the one who engineered the whole situation. So, but he's not on the train supposedly. Let's see, and then there's
Spoons-1:Sal. Oh yeah. Herb.
Wheezy:Oh, herb. Herb. Or Herb or whatever. He just kind of sucks.
Gino:He is kind of a grease ball, but he he's the
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:did the physical building. He is the mechanic, That blew up.
Wheezy:He's just basically greedy. Yeah, who was basically like a secretary, but like in like, like a pseudo like older sister figure to Anna all growing up. then
Spoons-1:Edith the house.
Wheezy:Their German nanny who raised her and
Spoons-1:Yes.
Wheezy:and
Spoons-1:And she planted evidence in their house.
Wheezy:guy. Yeah.
Spoons-1:Laps for the general who was like
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Spoons-1:well. And so
Wheezy:Those
Spoons-1:everybody. And then Reggie and Anna and Shamus and, So after Jed,
Wheezy:People start
Spoons-1:Jed dies.
Gino:dies and they're like, he was poisoned. Anna finds like residue in his And then Reggie shows up and she's like, who are you? And he is like, I got on the wrong train. And she's like, I don't know that I believe this guy. But then everyone's searching, being searched to see who has the poison on them, Frisked. And Reggie frisks her because she doesn't, she can't stand any of these murders touching her, and Shame as her partner to be truthful. And so Reggie like finds the knife on her, but he doesn't say anything. So then she's like, I still don't think he's who he says he is. But I kind of trust him more'cause he didn't
Wheezy:Yeah. Yeah. So
Spoons-1:And
Wheezy:And then E Edith
Spoons-1:yes, and we find out Edith was a literal Nazi, Which was rough.
Wheezy:That's unfortunate.
Gino:they, yeah,
Wheezy:been out. She's like, I loved you and your brother so much is my own children, but also I am a Nazi and
Spoons-1:She's like, and I did do it for Germany. Thank you. I was like, girl.
Wheezy:Nobody take that soundbite out of context, by the way. No one, take that soundbite.
Gino:in
Wheezy:It was a quote from the character Edith.
Gino:oh no, we're
Spoons-1:Wait, what's, Oh my God.
Gino:in her opening chapter, Edith like, kind of ends the chapter with like, but I knew one day I'd have to choose like I moved to America and I knew one day I'd have to choose. And when I did, I knew where my allegiances would lie essentially. And it leaves it very like the first chapter of hers cliff hangry of like, well, which is it? Is she like. Rooting for America now, obviously, or Germany. And then yeah, when right before she dies, she's like, no. I love y'all. But gotta do, I mean, we're better, like, we're better than everyone
Spoons-1:Yeah. That was crazy.
Wheezy:she Although she does have a moment when she's basically being murdered where she's like, maybe I made a mistake.
Gino:yeah.
Wheezy:And that's
Gino:She's
Wheezy:is rough, which.
Gino:I thought we were better, but also, why didn't I go back home then?
Wheezy:Yeah, if we, if it's so much better, she's like, well, maybe I actually threw away, like the family that I loved and the children that I saw as my own children for this ideology. And actually it wasn't, none of it was actually worth it. It was a huge
Spoons-1:Oh,
Wheezy:she's dead. She's murdered.
Spoons-1:rough, buddy.
Gino:is strangled.
Spoons-1:it's got strangled.
Wheezy:yeah. Or suffocated. Or Is asphyxiated.
Gino:to look like she's strangled, which earlier Anna had lost her temper and. Like started strangling Edith. So it's kind of made to look Anna did it. And you
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:her aunt earlier spoons that she went to live with and you're like her horrible aunt. I kind of like her aunt.
Spoons-1:Well, he was okay, but
Gino:tender loving,
Wheezy:She's like the aunt in little women, at least in like the Broadway musical version. Right.
Spoons-1:oh my gosh.
Wheezy:like, kind of awful, but like there's a logic to it. Like
Spoons-1:Yeah, I mean, I understood
Wheezy:She's like, you need
Spoons-1:what he was coming from,
Wheezy:to not flinch.
Spoons-1:but it sounded like a, not a fun life,
Wheezy:work.
Spoons-1:immediately,
Wheezy:No.
Gino:Myla just made me watch Enola Holmes and that's who she reminded me of is the mom and Enola
Spoons-1:oh, yeah, I've seen that. I,
Gino:'cause she was like,
Wheezy:I have not.
Gino:teach you how to do all these things and kick butt,
Wheezy:Interesting. And she the aunt is the one who was doing the investigative work and we find, spoiler, we find out that Dante had collected a bunch of evidence and sent it to her aunt. But that's basically how like Anna got started. Like she had not like figured out any of this on her own. She was just like, well, now that the information has been given to me by my now dead aunt, I'm going to basically take all of my inheritance and all the money I have. To book the train that used to be my father's and concoct, this whole
Spoons-1:yeah. I was so gagged when I found out that Dante was the one who had sent all the info. I loved that.
Wheezy:I was like,
Spoons-1:ugh. He is so charming. Unfortunately, you know, it's like, ugh, okay, fine. You got me.
Wheezy:He really
Spoons-1:I loved him. Just like casually playing the piano whenever everyone's like freaking out.
Wheezy:Honestly, he was like one of the only like charming men. Even like Reggie was just like too suspicious to be charming and all the other
Spoons-1:Ugh. I loved Reggie though.
Wheezy:like
Gino:There was a small part where I was rooting for Reggie, like
Spoons-1:yeah,
Gino:I was like, oh,
Spoons-1:I thought he was so cute.
Gino:can,
Wheezy:was a really short moment where I was like, is he gonna be like the OT of this whole thing? No.
Spoons-1:Oh,
Wheezy:And I was like, no. That was like a full like 30 seconds of like
Spoons-1:well, I loved how Anna had like three hot men lusting after her this whole time. She's doing her vengeance plot. I was like, good for you, girl. Like.
Wheezy:And she really did not
Spoons-1:No.
Wheezy:She gave like a tiny shit about Dante, but that, I mean barely. She was like, I don't have time for any of you losers. I'm on a mission. Like she just could not have cared any
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:That was crazy.
Spoons-1:So then Edith dies and then we also, I don't remember exactly when, but we find out that it Jack or not Jack, I'm sorry. Reggie is,
Gino:Ju.
Spoons-1:go ahead. Oh yeah, he's in the FBI.
Gino:Okay.
Spoons-1:So he kind of, it was not an accident. He happened upon the train on purpose.
Gino:Yeah, he was
Spoons-1:Yeah. And I was loving that. And then there's just a lot of like
Gino:oh, then Herb, herb starts freaking out.'cause he's like, they're going down the train. He's like, the first person's room is Judds. And then this next is Edith. He's like, I'm next. I'm next. And Anna's like, be quiet and go to your room.
Spoons-1:Shadow shut up.
Gino:you're fine. Go to your
Wheezy:I'm not gonna my room. And if you try and make me, I'm gonna slit your throat with this bread knife. I'm already in
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:my room. Cute.
Gino:then, yeah, he does get his throat slit in his room. Like Seamus is standing outside the door guarding it, and then they Trickling out and they burst through it and they're like, oh,
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:well he is dead and how, and they're like, someone must have climbed through the window.
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:And this is when suspicion starts to turn towards Anna because not only did Herba just held her at knife point, essentially trying to convince her that he was gonna be the next one killed. And he almost slit her throat and then he died by his throat being slit. And we know Anna has a knife on her and they, when she was looking at the window to try and figure out how somebody could like crawl on the outside of the train, they found her little like lapel pin, the little train, pin that used to belong to Or something on the ground. And so they're like Anna, how did this get in here? And anyways, she's very clearly being framed obviously, but that's when suspicions start to turn and be like, well, maybe it was Anna, which is when I was the least convinced that it was Anna.
Spoons-1:It's like, well, it can't be Anna. Yeah.
Wheezy:Oh, nah too many, too much evidence.
Spoons-1:Yeah. Like,
Gino:The whole time though, she was really fixated on Or lieutenant, I don't know. I never once was like, it's, I was like,
Wheezy:I never did either.
Gino:all. She was so
Wheezy:No.
Spoons-1:was, yeah, it would've been too obvious, like, I don't know, because he was such a jerk, you know? So it was like, okay, well it's not gonna be him, and then it's never the jerk. So that's why like for a brief moment, I was like, oh, I really hope Dante doesn't have anything to do with this. And then when I was like. Yeah,
Gino:I
Spoons-1:but then I kind of, I didn't suspect him as much. My main, I was really proud of myself, you guys, because my main suspects were Seamus and Reggie the whole time and I was right. Spoiler alert for the end. But yeah, I was really proud. Although I did obviously flip flop somewhat. I was like, well maybe Dante on the walls. I dunno.
Wheezy:I suspected Reggie pretty soon on. I didn't suspect Seamus for a while. I just really didn't wanna suspect him. I was so sad. was very clearly like, I am choosing to be blind
Spoons-1:I do not see it. Me with Dylan Van Helsing, I do not see it. I cannot,
Wheezy:dunno what you're talking about,
Gino:Maybe instead of recapping the murder mystery books from none. We'll just recap we thought it was over like, well, first I thought it
Spoons-1:yeah,
Gino:I thought this then because this,
Spoons-1:was totally, yeah.
Wheezy:I mean that's basically what reading them is like.
Spoons-1:Okay. I was surprised by so many things though because I didn't expect Jed to be the first one to die. And then I also didn't expect lapse for to last the whole time, like, you know,
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:also
Spoons-1:at the beginning.
Gino:Although judge was not the first
Spoons-1:That's true, because he
Gino:he
Spoons-1:turns out he wasn't dead.
Wheezy:Turns out
Spoons-1:was so satisfying.
Wheezy:his death. Sal also spoiler, I suppose, faked her death. Also we found out she's lesbian or bi. I don't know, I don't think that was clarified.
Gino:from the beginning, I was like, immediately from
Wheezy:I also was not surprised.
Spoons-1:Yeah. Yeah.
Wheezy:I didn't feel it from the beginning, but I wasn't
Spoons-1:not surprised.
Wheezy:it, I felt like, like Anna was being so dense. Sal was like, she has some line where she's like, no man could have done blah, blah, blah. And I was like, it was a woman. She's lesbian. Like I just, and Anna was like, whatever, could she mean? And I'm like, well, I wonder
Spoons-1:I know.
Wheezy:Man, woman, she says, it's not a man.
Spoons-1:I was like, I know it's 1954 girl, but like, get your head outta your ass. You know, like it so obvious.
Wheezy:I felt so bad for
Spoons-1:I did too.
Wheezy:all the people on the train, I think I felt like
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:for her because she didn't have anything to do with the preamble to it. Like she didn't, she wasn't a part of the setup. Oops. I just messed up my plug. She wasn't a part of the setup. She was part of covering it up I felt like she was, I mean, obviously it's still not, you still can't condone it, but I feel like she was in like a harder spot than the others were.
Spoons-1:I thought so too.
Gino:I didn't feel like she had much remorse at all the whole time. Like she seemed just
Wheezy:she didn't. Which,
Gino:like, yeah, I did it.
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:So
Wheezy:well, I think if she had more remorse because her situation was like so much clearly, like it was so different than the other ones. I think that would've been at like, I dunno. I kind, I feel like maybe Ri wanted us to hate all of them a little bit. It would be really hard to still like ha like understand like Anna's hatred for her as much if she hadn't still been kind of
Spoons-1:Yeah, it has also been like 12 years and she's like a heavy drinker. I think. You know, she's like numbed all of her thoughts about it
Wheezy:She spent all of the money on like, cosmetic stuff and trying to look young and hot
Spoons-1:and Anna's like, and it didn't work.
Wheezy:no efforts towards men's.
Spoons-1:Anna's like, and you're still ugly bitch.
Wheezy:She's also made no efforts towards men's. Yeah. Suck it Sal. Yeah. And then she is, she's the next one who's found dead.
Gino:Judd is refound.
Spoons-1:Yes.
Gino:'cause they're like, wait, He's the one killing people. And then they split up. Oh, they split up. And Anna goes with Reggie Seamus goes with Dante. And then I was like, literally, I know this is how these things go. But every time Anna's like, oh, I'm just gonna get, like, I just need space to myself for a second. And whoever she's with, she's like, like, let's split up for a second. And I was like, literally, every time you
Wheezy:Don't do it.
Gino:dies. Someone
Wheezy:You have not seen Scooby do. She should have
Spoons-1:Come on Anna.
Gino:So she's with Reggie and she's like, you go ahead, I'll be right there. And then all of a sudden there's noises and or whatever, and she finds Reggie stabbed not dead,
Wheezy:And he's like, Judd stabbed me. He's alive. And they were like,
Spoons-1:I knew immediately that really sealed it for me. I was like, okay, you liar. Like, there's no way. I was so mad at him. I was like
Wheezy:I also was
Spoons-1:I was rooting for you.
Wheezy:I don't think so.
Gino:yeah, I did have questions at that point. And so she goes and stitches him up. And even though I was like, yeah, I think you're part of this, at this point when he is like, have you ever
Spoons-1:Ugh.
Gino:Like you wanna go to a musical? I was like, oh,
Spoons-1:I know, me too. I literally out loud said, Ugh, hot. I was into Reggie. That would've worked on me, honestly. I would've been like, of course I'll go to a musical with you.
Wheezy:I
Spoons-1:His blood's all over my hands while I'm stitching'em.
Wheezy:Of course I will.
Gino:yeah.
Wheezy:my God. Yes.
Gino:oh, and that's the point. If you didn't know, that's the point where I texted y'all and I
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:I don't get this drinking alcohol while you're being stitch, because everyone, they do it in all
Wheezy:Ah, that makes sense.
Gino:and they're like they're using alcohol, vodka, whatever to clean the wound. And then they're like, oh, gimme a swig of that. And then they're like, all right, here it goes. And they rip out whatever it is or stitch up, whatever it is. And everyone's like, and I'm like, okay, first of all, that alcohol does not act that fast, so I don't care if you drink that half that bottle in
Wheezy:Maybe it's psychological
Gino:seconds is not gonna dull
Spoons-1:No, there's no way.
Gino:after that, you're bleeding out anyways and it's thinning your blood, so you're just gonna bleed out more.
Spoons-1:Yeah. But it makes you look so cool to be like, gimme that and take a little swig while you're like bleeding out. You know? It kinda looks cool.
Wheezy:and if you do survive the excessive blood loss, then at least you're somewhat numb in the recovery period. Like, listen, after I had ri my child, not ri Seger, obviously, and the recovery was so bad, honestly, man, being heavily drunk for so much of that recovery would've been so much better. Like.
Gino:I, I thought you were
Spoons-1:Was so great. I was like, oh, okay. Learning things about ash today. Okay.
Wheezy:You were like, I saw you Ash.
Spoons-1:I know. I was like, oh my God, I didn't even clock it.
Wheezy:no.
Gino:just
Wheezy:It would've been so much better.
Gino:it would've been horrendous.
Spoons-1:But he was looking so cute when he was bleeding out on the train floor though. I was like, oh, Reggie, I wish I like, I'll go to the musicals with you. Literally. I was like, I know I do suspect you're probably a murderer, but I like you. Like that's what I was feeling in that moment.
Gino:And their little banter, he is like, I know you've done this before. And she's like, yeah, I've definitely stitched up so many people. It's like, great. So, you know, to like pull this part of the skin and do that. She's like, yeah, absolutely.
Spoons-1:That was so cute.
Wheezy:I was like, oh, I didn't know that. Fascinating. Like taking notes. Oh my gosh.
Gino:but Dante and Shamus show up and they're like, what happened? And well, actually no. passes out. She's been having these like dreams of Tommy, her Just like his guts and bones because there was nothing left of him on the train. And she keeps seeing him in the train. She's like, I think he's here. I think he's alive.
Spoons-1:That was so scary.
Gino:which that in the end I did not see well, no, I did see actually before that. Nevermind. No, I totally saw it before that. I just like, the connection didn't make
Spoons-1:No I didn't put it together until the end. I totally didn't.
Wheezy:Wanted it to be him, so to be her
Spoons-1:I kind of thought, because I was like.
Wheezy:people. But I was like, I don't believe it,
Spoons-1:Well, they never had a body because he got blown to Severine. So part of me was like, maybe he's still alive. You know? I kind of thought,
Gino:Yeah. But
Wheezy:Yeah. Maybe he's like horribly disfigured.
Gino:like, Before then. To her
Wheezy:No.
Gino:'cause they had such a close bond. But I did towards
Wheezy:Well, unless I just like, maybe he somehow like blames her somehow for surviving, but I was like, I don't buy it. It's probably not him. That makes me sad.
Gino:I definitely thought there was a big chance that it was someone like, not on the All. I mean, not like, like that we didn't know
Spoons-1:Yes.
Gino:the train that was in the story. But so yeah, she's like, Judd stabbed, Reggie and Seamus is like, what? That doesn't make sense. Like when, and she's like, I don't know, the last 30 minutes or so. Cause she had passed out and then Dante came and was like, I'm gonna kiss you awake snow White. And so the Seamus is like, follow me. And they go back and find Judd's body, like contorted stuffed into a bathroom, I
Spoons-1:Yeah, he was in the bathroom, I think.
Wheezy:Yeah, I think it's a bathroom because isn't he like over a
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:Because I remember being like Ugh, there's no dignity in that. No dignity.
Gino:So he, Judd is actually dead now and then Seamus says he loses his
Spoons-1:No, that's about right. Yeah. Like there, at this point, like so many things happen so fast. It was like, Seamus gun is gone.
Wheezy:picks
Spoons-1:Then they suspect, oh, LA laps for, ha, what's his name, has a heart attack.
Gino:Heart
Spoons-1:Yeah. Sal is dead. Like everything is happening at once.
Wheezy:and he earlier had a heart
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:cause he was trying to get her to stop the
Spoons-1:Yeah, but this one
Wheezy:he
Spoons-1:appears to be real.
Wheezy:is for real. appears to
Spoons-1:And then,
Gino:And then Sal
Spoons-1:yes, it's like crazy all at once
Wheezy:Right in the noggin.
Gino:was like, go to your room again. And I was like, quit putting people in
Spoons-1:there. Everyone gets killed in my room.
Gino:It's literally the least safe. Let's split up and everyone go to their rooms. I was like, literally don't split up. Literally everyone dies
Spoons-1:Yeah. We need to
Gino:everyone just
Spoons-1:all be together.
Gino:room. Let's have a little circle, a little campfire, tell
Wheezy:go to your room where it's very clearly safe. The evidence shows there's an excellent track record of you totally staying alive in your room.
Spoons-1:Then
Gino:then,
Spoons-1:oh sorry. Well, she suspect then she accuses Dante of everything and she like blows up at him basically. And it's like this whole thing and. She is very upset. Yeah. And then they tie him up in his room
Wheezy:the whole time.
Spoons-1:with his ties and Sha Yeah. Shamus is loving it.
Gino:can be
Spoons-1:Right. I was like, okay, now we're just leaving Zante out to be murdered, because I know at this point I'm like, well, he for sure didn't do anything. But then you find out it was all part of her plan because she was like, I know it's not Dante, but she had started to suspect that Seamus was involved and turns out he was,'cause she interrupts him trying to kill the general. And then he's like, okay, yeah, you got me also, I'm dying also, I'm in love with you and I'm gonna jump off this train right now. And she's like, what? And he's like, well,
Wheezy:He is like, here, take my
Spoons-1:yeah.
Gino:it is like, yeah, I did And then he jumps and then she's like, oh, he's like, basically she said she'll never forgive him for this and she's gonna turn him in. Which I was like, don't. like, don't turn him in. Like you could
Wheezy:Maybe just don't.
Gino:listen, you shouldn't have done that, but I'm not gonna turn you in and let's just Now. But she was
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:I'm definitely gonna turn you in. So he jumped she was like, wait, he only said he killed No, I know
Spoons-1:another killer.
Gino:Revelation
Wheezy:Ooh.
Spoons-1:And yeah, it turns out the other killer is Reggie. So he, yep, he,
Gino:and Sal wasn't dead. She
Spoons-1:sal faked it. Everyone's faking their deaths on this train. I was loving that.
Wheezy:Honestly. So
Spoons-1:so Reggie's dad.
Wheezy:very possum like This is a possum book,
Spoons-1:it's a poss book,
Gino:the possum train.
Spoons-1:tree.
Wheezy:alternate title idea for
Spoons-1:Hey ri, let me lay something on you.
Wheezy:naming it? The possum train?
Gino:There's a note in the, about the author, about a alternate title that his friend suggested, which was train Enemies, like.
Spoons-1:I like train these.
Wheezy:It's good. It's no possum train, but
Spoons-1:so good. Train enemies. I'm gonna start calling it Train enemies. So it turns out
Wheezy:Yeah. Have you
Spoons-1:Reggie's dad was like worked on the train that exploded 12 years ago. And so now, and then his life got ruined too. So when he found out that all this was going on,'cause he is in the FBI, he was like, hell yeah brother, I'm getting on that train.
Wheezy:I am gonna
Spoons-1:Y Yes. But then he got on the train and found out that Anna didn't mean to kill everyone. And he's like, Ooh, well I definitely want to kill everyone. So he and Seamus were both like, I just really want everyone to die, basically is kind of where I'm at. And Anna was like, absolutely not.
Wheezy:And it was like, God, me too. But have some self-control, like
Gino:like we aren't animals
Wheezy:the men
Spoons-1:They're like, well I think I do wanna kill them though. So they basically both were the ones killing everyone,
Gino:women are emotional.
Spoons-1:right? Yeah. Women can't control themselves.
Wheezy:Right. And this book is written by a man, so everybody shut up about it. That's how women, no
Spoons-1:He gets it. Our ally ri gets it. Um, so then Anna and Reggie have like this big standoff where they like running around on the train and like. It was so crazy. I was like, is this mission impossible? Like, oh my god.
Wheezy:and stuff. Oh, it's awesome.
Spoons-1:Yeah. It was so crazy. Yeah, they fall through the like observation car and like get all cut up.
Wheezy:She's all like disheveled and her feet are all like cut up on glass and I'm like,
Spoons-1:It was nuts.
Wheezy:insane. And then they're running through the, all the cars and then they get to where the conductor is supposedly, that she told, had originally told, don't stop for any reasons. Don't even open the door. She's like, it's Bert who I really trust. He's this super trustworthy conductor guy and he's not gonna stop till we get to where the FBI are waiting. then she pounds on the door to be like, maybe he, maybe I was wrong. Like maybe he actually will open the door even though I told him not to. door does in fact open, but it's not Bert,
Spoons-1:Ah,
Wheezy:it is
Spoons-1:Dante's Evil Dad. Okay, that got me.
Gino:Okay, this
Spoons-1:I loved it.
Gino:for two seconds here. I was like, wait, so is Dante Again? Because he was the one that knocked on the door and was like, don't come out for any reason. And I was like. Like, did he know his father was in there and that's why he
Spoons-1:Yeah, I totally had that thought too.
Wheezy:I honestly, point, I figured the conductor is somebody, and at this point the only person left was Kenneth. I did a pretty decent guys. I'm
Spoons-1:I didn't even think about it at all.
Wheezy:I also, and the last thriller I read, that was really good. I totally nailed the ending. I'm
Spoons-1:Yeah. Look at you.
Gino:no,
Wheezy:I was not surprised.
Spoons-1:no clue. I was so blindsided and I loved it. I love it when I'm not smart enough for the book. It's like.
Wheezy:I was so right once, for the first time ever.
Gino:But then Anna's like in how does she get him to kinda confess again? She has the gun at this point. I don't remember.
Spoons-1:She does have a gun, but I don't remember.
Gino:Reggie has the gun, so
Spoons-1:Oh, but she does
Gino:but she essentially.
Spoons-1:she does try and shoot him. She does have a gun somehow. I think she got Reggie's gun.
Gino:Anyways, he, Kenneth
Wheezy:were two guns.
Gino:serious. And she's like, why did you do it? Why did you do it? I know why you did it actually. She's like, no, I know why you did it because you were in love with my mother and she didn't love you back. And he is like, that's not it. Your father stole her from me and stole my child. Your brother Tommy, who was killed on the
Wheezy:Wow.
Gino:train.
Wheezy:Turns out their mom was pregnant with Tommy when she got with Anna. And Tommy's Well, Anna's dad.
Gino:but really early on when it's mentioned that like, or I guess it's not really early on, but earlier on when Anna mentions that her Dante mention, I don't know, someone finds out that when she finds out Kenneth wasn't with her mom before she was With her dad, they do say like they were, they knew each other for two weeks and then they got married and I was like, oh, she was Kid. Like I
Spoons-1:Dang, I didn't even think about it. I'm so dumb.
Gino:Yeah.
Spoons-1:I can't,
Wheezy:I was like, what? No way,
Spoons-1:like put it all together. I guess that was like crazy.
Wheezy:together at
Spoons-1:And. And they're always talking about like,
Wheezy:Well,'cause first you were like, oh, he did it for greed to take over her father's like railroad company. And then it was like no. He did it because he was jealous, because he loved. Anna's mom, and then they're like no. It's because of all of the things, but primarily because Tommy was actually his son, and so in revenge, he decided to
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:train frame her dad as a Nazi
Spoons-1:And I loved it because like once, I mean obviously Gina figured it out, but I'm dumb so I didn't figure it out. But then I was like, oh yes. And I love it when you can look back and see all the little pieces like Tommy and Kenneth like talking at the party and she got all mad and then like, like she keeps seeing who she thinks is her brother. But then of course it's actually Dante.'cause they actually do resemble each other weirdly.'cause they're Hoff brothers, which is like weird.
Gino:See, I didn't put
Spoons-1:No.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:put like, that's what I was saying before when I was like, oh I didn't put together in my brain that made Tommy and
Spoons-1:right?
Gino:So not until the end, like I knew Tommy was Kenneth's kid, but I just like other relationships didn't Together. So then I was like, oh, that's why I should keep saying, but
Spoons-1:It was so good.
Wheezy:being like, well, can she still be in love with Dante? Yes.
Gino:same thought. I
Wheezy:Like, wait, so
Spoons-1:I literally didn't even think that it was gonna be a thing until the end. I was like, oh,
Gino:no
Spoons-1:yeah. I mean, they share a brother, but they're not related.
Wheezy:But no, no
Spoons-1:No.
Wheezy:relation.
Gino:It's a better, it's
Wheezy:I like think through it a few times.
Spoons-1:God. It's way better than cousin lovers. Oh my God.
Wheezy:Finally, we're getting away from cousin lovers to what siblings
Spoons-1:Oh, no.
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:don't know. What is that? I don't
Spoons-1:And there.
Gino:step it is.
Spoons-1:Sort of
Gino:it's step
Wheezy:I think it is. I think it is. That's rough.
Gino:worse
Spoons-1:I don't know about that.
Wheezy:We've moved from cousin lovers to
Spoons-1:Oh, no.
Wheezy:lovers.
Spoons-1:Right.
Wheezy:Less genetic relation,
Spoons-1:Yeah, it's a little weird. Uh, so then she, and but this, so Reggie is like, you know, you wanna kill him, like, just kill him, Anna, like, he has to die. Like he killed, he ruined our lives or whatever. And Loki, this probably makes me a bad person, but part of me was like, yeah, like, this guy sucks.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Spoons-1:like, maybe you should just kill him. And then she's like.
Wheezy:It's the anna in I know what
Spoons-1:I know. I was like, well, I mean, I wouldn't, I'm just saying if she decided to kill him and then she and Reggie went off and had adventures together, I wouldn't be mad. You know? That's kind of what I was thinking.
Gino:I
Wheezy:You be like, we
Spoons-1:And they're wrongs. Yes. I was like, they can go be morally ambiguous, you know? Cool guys. And seeing musicals together, that's fine with me. I don't care. Like I was gonna be happy for them, but she doesn't do it. And instead she shoots Reggie in the leg and then makes Kenneth like surrender when they land or when they arrive at the
Wheezy:everyone's trying to mess up
Spoons-1:I know.
Wheezy:She
Spoons-1:She's like, I've been very clear about what I want from the beginning and all these men are coming in here and telling me to kill everyone and I'm not gonna do it. And I was like, for that, I do have to respect you. You know? She knew what she wanted from the beginning. Ugh.
Wheezy:That's true.
Spoons-1:So it all works out at the end because they get to Chicago and the FBI are there and Reggie's like, listen, I did kill those guys. Okay, you guys got me. I did kill them. And they're like, okay.
Wheezy:He really does.
Spoons-1:And then he's also like, you know, and I meant what? I said, you should join the FBI girl. You'd be a great agent. And then literally his boss is like, so Reggie tells me you'd be a great FBI agent. You wanna join? I was like, what? I loved that.
Gino:and she's
Wheezy:I was like, first of
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:is amazing. Yeah. But then I was like why are we listening to Reggie?
Spoons-1:And my brain, Reggie gets out for good behavior in like five years. And then Reggie and Anna become like FBI partners together. I mean, they wouldn't hire him again, but he can be a contractor or something, you know, something like that.
Wheezy:I feel like Anna's just gonna hate him forever. I don't feel like they have like even like a
Spoons-1:He got her a job at the FBI.
Wheezy:a thorn in her side. He can't follow her instructions. Yeah. Kind of. Because his boss had really weird judgment and was like, yeah, I'll listen to this
Spoons-1:Well, okay. They made a good team as honestly like, I guess, whatever.
Wheezy:I think she and
Spoons-1:I know. I was sad about Dante.
Wheezy:a well will, they won't, they
Spoons-1:Well, at the end they were kind of,
Wheezy:leaning heavily towards they
Spoons-1:they were like, we can't,
Gino:we'll just be friends.
Spoons-1:And then he was like, well, I guess my life is gonna be over now because my dad is bad. And she's like, oh, sorry dude, been there, but you know, at least she's gonna be there for him.
Wheezy:she's like, well,
Gino:he Tell me stories about my brother? And that felt weird.
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:he, he didn't know he
Wheezy:It was weird.
Gino:whole life and he is like a grown man now. And he's been dead for quite some time. And it just felt like, I don't feel like I would feel much connection to this
Spoons-1:I would still wanna know though. I'm like, if you were like my, I don't know, relation I guess, but I don't know.
Wheezy:So they're basically like, so we're gonna be
Spoons-1:Yeah,
Wheezy:pals now.
Gino:and
Wheezy:She's like, if it's hard for you to be the child of a super hated man, you know, I know what that's like. You can send me a letter
Spoons-1:drop me a line.
Wheezy:And he is like, cool. And talk about our brother. And
Spoons-1:I guess, yeah, don't remind me like
Wheezy:you can talk about he
Spoons-1:it's a little weird, But I'm not happy for Anna. She is, you know, she got her vengeance sort of, and now she's has a cool, like she has prospects. She can live her life. She doesn't have to be bogged down by this anymore. Good for her. She found her calling.
Wheezy:Yeah. She had a mission. She was focused, she was not gonna be deterred.
Spoons-1:That's true.
Wheezy:There were a couple bumps in the road, but everything else went pretty much to plan in the end. Like aside from a couple murders in there that she
Spoons-1:Yeah, just a few.
Gino:She got half of her people there. Three out of the
Wheezy:Yeah.
Spoons-1:that's pretty good.
Wheezy:Yeah. like when I'm raising baby chicks and I'm like, eh, most of them made it. It feels like a win.
Spoons-1:50 50. Not bad.
Wheezy:Not bad. Not bad. It could be way worse.
Gino:up with 10 of the 20 birds that I got last time living.
Wheezy:Sounds about right. You're like
Gino:Yeah.
Wheezy:50 50 is not bad. It's been
Spoons-1:She's like a couple raccoons. Got in the train, but you know, other than that, we did pretty okay. And I kind,
Wheezy:Yeah. Other than that, good actually, I think went pretty well to fail The plan
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:to fail.
Spoons-1:So that's with a vengeance. Good for her. Good for everyone. Except for everyone who died. Oh.
Wheezy:Snaps all around. That was interesting'cause it's the only RI Sager period piece as far as I'm aware. I don't
Spoons-1:And it ha it was a multiple POV thing, which I feel like most of them that I have read have not been, it's been like one,
Wheezy:That's a good, yeah. I don't think, yeah, I think you're right. I don't
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:usually multiple POV.
Spoons-1:I liked it,
Wheezy:Did we have favorite and least favorite parts?
Spoons-1:I don't know.
Gino:favorite part was when she was stitching up Reggie and he was like, do you wanna go to a
Spoons-1:God, I feel you.
Gino:And,
Wheezy:That's
Spoons-1:I loved that. I.
Gino:and then my least favorite part the description of her trying to climb out of the train to chase after Reggie. Just because like, I don't know, it was like two or three pages of. It did not fit in the rest of the book for me aesthetically.
Wheezy:I feel like he's trying to convince you. No, she could have totally done this
Gino:exactly. She, he was
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:grabbed this and then kind of put her hand here and there was like a little piece of metal here that stuck out and curved it. And I was like, what's going on
Spoons-1:Like, okay.
Gino:Like, I was like, he, I was like, he ran to the other side of the train, already got down, is having lunch, like by the time this description was over.
Wheezy:Oh, that's so funny.
Spoons-1:I think my favorite parts, I don't know if I have one favorite part, but it's like every time there's a big reveal, I would get so excited. Like the instant that it's like Reggie was crossing people off of his list and you're like, he's not just somebody who showed up on the train. He's a real, he has an investment in this. And then the instant you find out Jed was not dead, I was like, oh my God. Like I got so excited. I think.
Wheezy:That was
Spoons-1:the minute you find out that Kenneth was the one that was the be biggest one for me, I was so happy with that. I was like, oh my God, he's been here the whole time. I love it when it's like you find out something has not been the way you thought it was the whole time. That's my favorite, my least favorite part. I don't know. I dunno, nothing stuck out to me as being like, Something I really didn't like. One more thing I did like is that I feel like, oh, sorry. I really thought that
Wheezy:no. Go
Spoons-1:the vibe, I loved the like the vibe, the setting, the mood. It felt very much like I wanted to watch this. As like an old Hollywood movie is what I felt like. I was like, why is Audrey Hepburn not in this? Because I was like, imagining everyone in their fifties outfits running around this sleek, nice train, and I was like, I want this to be a movie, but I want it to have been made in 1954 is what I wanted. And so, ugh, I loved it.
Wheezy:the vibe is
Spoons-1:I felt like they nailed that, or he nailed that. So anyway, that was my favorite part.
Wheezy:I totally agree. I think my favorite part was, I really liked that scene where she and Dante are standing in the kitchen and he's basically talking about how he's
Spoons-1:Oh, I,
Wheezy:he's gonna make some food. And she's like, what if it's poisoned? Or he's like, what if it's po? I forget. They have like a kind, like a funny, like repart and you learn a little bit about their
Spoons-1:that was good. I loved that.
Wheezy:I just really
Spoons-1:He's like, help me look for the mustard. Will you?
Wheezy:like, oh, maybe now I am a little bit invested. Yeah, exactly. It's so funny. I'm like, well, you just really don't, you don't seem to be taking this as seriously as everyone else. And he's like, well, I am, but I'm very hungry. And I was like, that makes sense. To be honest, I kind of get it. So that was probably like my favorite scene. Least favorite. I'm kind of sad that Seamus ended up being a murderer, like I guess it worked for the book, but I'm kind of sad that he gave into his like more like base. You know, I feel like his life was very tragic. Like he, he lost his brother. He knew, he basically, even though he was in love with Anna very clearly, always seemed to know that he didn't really have a shot with her and had kind of resigned himself to that. And then his like, like the highlight of his life after losing his brother seemed to be that to one time that he murdered someone. And he was like, yeah, it was awesome.
Spoons-1:Yeah, that's bad.
Wheezy:and I was like, this kind of sucks buddy. Like so much potential. So that kinda made me sad.
Gino:I think he had like a LS or something too, like,
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:Yeah. Gino, did you say your least favorite
Spoons-1:The.
Gino:the description of climbing out of the train.
Wheezy:Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. What about favorite, least favorite characters?
Gino:My favorite character, think is Dante.
Spoons-1:Love Dante. He was great.
Wheezy:Dante. It was pretty good.
Spoons-1:Yeah, he was so cute.
Gino:Least favorite I'm gonna think about while y'all say your favorites.
Spoons-1:My favorite was Reggie, but
Wheezy:you
Spoons-1:loved him, but I love Dante too.
Wheezy:You're like in the Reggie
Spoons-1:I am a little bit, and something is wrong with me lately. I keep liking all these murderers. I'm like, what's going on? Like the villains, and I'm not somebody who usually likes the villain, but I keep liking the villain lately.
Wheezy:I know. It's so much
Spoons-1:It kind of is fun over here. I'm like, oh my God, what am I missing? Yeah, my least favorite. I didn't really like, oh, I actually did like Kenneth as a character too. I thought he was a fun villain. I was like, okay, you've got stuff going on here I didn't like. Whereas like, Edith and Laps Oxford were like, not as fun to me.'cause I'm like, okay, you're just a jerk and you're just a Nazi. Like, I'm sorry, I can't be vibing with you.
Wheezy:Yeah, that's true.
Spoons-1:it's like, okay, at least these guys kill people, but at least they're fun. You know? You guys aren't really that fun. So, that's kind of where I was at with that. And I liked Anna a lot. I was like proud of her.
Wheezy:she's great. She
Spoons-1:She really was.
Wheezy:She is
Spoons-1:I have every faith in her.
Wheezy:Lie. She's got like emotions. Do not come into the equation with her at all. Oh, But she's so, so competent. It's amazing. I think Anna is my most favorite character. She's just so impressive. Lee's favorite character is Herb, and yes, I know that there was an actual Nazi on that train, but let's be real. Herb is just gross. Like he's just gross and greedy and he has no, there's nothing even remotely redeeming like Edith at least was like, I did genuinely love these
Spoons-1:Yeah,
Wheezy:children. And I'm like, well, you made every other horrible decision and it makes it even more sad, but at least you're interesting. Herba was just like, do better. You had every opportunity to choose to do better and you didn't. You
Spoons-1:that's true.
Wheezy:So least favorite.
Gino:See, I was thinking about it and I was, herb was one I was thinking but I don't have enough strong emotions to, I
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:Like he is not my least favorite because I'm like, you're just gross and not important. and then I do think I was kind of leaning towards Edith and I think she's my least favorite. Which also, I mean, there's no, I don't need to explain it.'cause like we said, she's a Nazi. But as I said earlier, there's been a lot of world War II stuff going on in my life right now. I watched saving Private
Spoons-1:Oh God.
Gino:time, which I know way like late, way late.
Wheezy:Wow.
Gino:around to it. And so it's just like, I mean, I never like Nazis, but I'm really not on the
Spoons-1:You are like, now I'm really sensitive to Nazi
Wheezy:You are like, I've never been so far.
Spoons-1:like Edith. You did not come to me at the right time for me to feel sympathetic about your Apple strudel. Okay. Like we got, I'm not having it. Okay. I saw what happened to private Ryan.
Wheezy:that is so funny.
Gino:yeah. We need to be careful with the sound bites from this one.
Wheezy:Oh dude. Right? Like, listen, I know Edith was a Nazi, but
Spoons-1:To be clear, we do not like Nazis. Okay, let's take that for your soundbite. But yeah, take that for your soundbite.
Wheezy:bite. Our
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:to this.
Spoons-1:Uh, what else do we have?
Wheezy:like, wow, what a thing to say. My mom the other day was spoons was like. You know, Ash, you've really come out of your shell lately. And I was like, really? And she is like, yeah, I feel like maybe you just didn't use to say so many things now. You say a lot of things. I was like, thank you. She was like, oh, I saw this shirt that reminded me
Spoons-1:yeah.
Wheezy:And the shirt is a picture of a possum that looks like it's screaming and it says, I'm a delight.
Gino:Oh my gosh.
Wheezy:It's like, thank
Spoons-1:Possum train.
Wheezy:Possum shame. It's all in theme. I did not get off topic at all
Spoons-1:It was backs of possums.
Wheezy:Have anyone have a favorite quote from
Spoons-1:I did not do a quote. Sorry. Everyone
Wheezy:Neither have I, I haven't done it in like,
Spoons-1:we quote is a special thing.
Gino:pull favorite quotes when they, like I was gonna say when they
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Gino:me and nothing like I like, haha, or, oh, that makes sense. I dunno.
Spoons-1:what about lessons learned? Yeah, lessons learned.
Wheezy:Yeah. I feel like I've learned how to pull off the
Spoons-1:I,
Wheezy:revenge.
Gino:Fake your
Spoons-1:yeah. Faking You're deaf. Yeah. Stay focused. I learned how to climb out of a moving train to run after someone on the roof.
Gino:I am
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:learned in great detail. If you can't do it, you weren't paying attention,
Gino:pinky on the,
Wheezy:obviously.
Spoons-1:Um, I learned.
Gino:don't let boys distract you when
Spoons-1:Ugh.
Gino:goal, even if there's
Spoons-1:That is so true. Even if there are three cute boys who want to date you on your train, do not be distracted.
Gino:to not
Spoons-1:Nope.
Gino:path.
Wheezy:Yeah. Maybe just'cause somebody appears dead. Don't assume they're dead.
Spoons-1:Maybe we should all learn how to properly check for a pulse. Yeah,
Wheezy:fourth check.
Gino:yeah. Learn
Wheezy:Yeah.
Gino:a
Spoons-1:that was so,
Gino:love, I
Wheezy:Learn how to ch.
Gino:oh, I thought that when Seamus checks lap the general's pulse the second time when he is having the heart attack and he is like, oh, it's like pacing. That's crazy. I was like, okay, we already established you don't know how to check a pulse,
Wheezy:No. No. Why are
Spoons-1:yes.
Gino:again? Like.
Wheezy:That's true. But I mean, in that did also learn how to more authentically pull
Spoons-1:we did? Yes.
Wheezy:It's to run in place a bunch first.
Gino:part of it was cardio and the other part was he was like, they were like, Anna also badgered him with a lot of questions to raise his heart rate.
Wheezy:Yeah. Yep.
Spoons-1:really quick. Sorry, I just remembered this. Whenever it was revealed that Seamus had like muscle relaxants, I kind of thought maybe he and I think that maybe my timeline was off, but I was still trying to piece things together. But I was like, did he work with Judd to like make it seem like he was dead? I don't know. I was like trying to figure that out.
Wheezy:Oh.
Gino:Oh no. I
Spoons-1:okay. Okay. I'm glad I wasn't the only one,
Wheezy:Interesting. See, once again,
Spoons-1:but that was not what happened, but I thought maybe I was like, maybe they're in on it together anyway.
Gino:Yeah. I had a little thought that
Spoons-1:So yeah, we learned a lot.
Gino:how many pinkies.
Wheezy:I learned so many. Yeah. Pinky's up. How many Pinky's
Spoons-1:I'm giving it. 3.75. Pinky up.
Gino:Okay.
Wheezy:Do you
Spoons-1:Oh. Well it, I thought it was really good and I enjoyed it. It wasn't my favorite Leigh Sager book. But I still think 0.75 is a good rating. It's like, for me it is. You know,
Wheezy:agree.
Spoons-1:I would maybe read it again. I enjoyed it. I would recommend it to people, but it wasn't my favorite.
Wheezy:Yeah. Yeah.
Gino:I give it 3.5 pinkies up.
Wheezy:Would you like to justify your rating? Because I know you struggle with ratings.
Spoons-1:No,
Gino:no.
Spoons-1:it is what it is. It stands
Gino:I felt it
Wheezy:I give it four. I give it a
Spoons-1:nice.
Wheezy:app. read it again. I was not like of my favorite. It's not like, doesn't rank among my favorites of the ri sagers, but I do like a lot about it and I will absolutely read it again.
Spoons-1:Yeah.
Wheezy:four,
Spoons-1:Nice. Solid
Wheezy:I did my pinkies up. If you guys were, if you're watching on YouTube, if you're not there, pinkies everywhere.
Spoons-1:pictures. So many pinkies.
Gino:right.
Wheezy:Good Lord. What else do
Spoons-1:I think,
Wheezy:Like, like the amount of pinkies you're picturing, like triple that. Like
Spoons-1:I love how you just said,
Wheezy:like
Spoons-1:what else do we do? Uh, now what? I think we end the podcast now.
Wheezy:I dunno. Yeah. Join the Readathon please. If you read books you might as well just join the Readathon. Why not read for a cause read for my bookshop and also you,'cause you can help my team continue to destroy the other teams. It's cats without tails. Once again, that's cats without tails. You should join me. You can also donate to the bookshop if you would like. At i fund women.com/i don't know the story, poem and
Spoons-1:Go to our
Wheezy:there's
Spoons-1:Instagram. Yeah,
Wheezy:guys
Gino:I was
Wheezy:yeah, go to her Instagram.
Gino:Readathon site I was like, what do you want the URL to be? She said maybe SE and B readathon. I typed it out and then I sent it to her. I said, you might wanna look at this again. So if you type in se the and sign and then B readathon, it looks like SE and Breada.
Wheezy:Yeah, I was like,
Gino:delicious.
Spoons-1:Reath.
Wheezy:work.
Spoons-1:for the Beretta.
Wheezy:If you guys wanna eat a crazy amount of bread while you're reading, I will not judge.
Gino:Yep. That's what For. I'm
Wheezy:percent.
Gino:Breada.
Wheezy:Yeah. I signed up for the breada.
Spoons-1:Oh, so sorry. I didn't, okay, I'm gonna go. I thought there'd be bread. So
Wheezy:I came prepared. I've got like a bunch of baguettes.
Spoons-1:spilling out of your.
Wheezy:not in the room. Amazing. Oh God. You guys can also leave us a review if you would like. Don't forget to share the podcast with your friends and follow us on social media. We are that Pretentious Book club. You can also follow Story Siren Studio on Instagram. We do actually finally have an Instagram account for our production company, so that's cool. You can also go to either of those for updates about the writing retreat that's happening in October. So if you are even a little bit, go check it out. It's happening October 16th through 19th in Pennsylvania. It's gonna be beautiful, it's gonna be fall, it's gonna be such a super fun time. It's an all ladies retreat and we're gonna do a bunch more next year. So keep on the lookout and think that's everything. So until the next episode, your
Spoons-1:Your Pinky's High and your book club. Yay.
Wheezy:Amazing.