The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Life & Death: Twilight Reimagined | Vampires, Gender Swaps, and Insane Names
Did you know that Stephanie Meyer wrote a gender-swapped Twilight book for the 10-year anniversary of Twilight? Are you looking for your next summer read that will start to make you question what you ever saw in this godforsaken book series in the first place?? Look no further babes, it's Life and Death, Twilight Reimagined!
When we say there is fanfiction better than most books, this is the book, and Stephanie Meyer is the fanfiction author who should DROP HER PEN. This book is an atrocity, but one we had a lot of insane fun discussing.
Abigial recommends listening to season 2 of the Passages Podcast for more Twilight criticism and hilarity.
If you don't believe us that this book is insane, please listen to the end where we discuss how this book's ending DRASTICALLY differs from the source material. Please trust us, you don't want to miss it.
Plus, books we've read recently:
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail.
Speaker 2:Freshly and I'm Emily Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is a show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in real lived experiences.
Speaker 1:On. Today's episode, we're discussing Life and Death. Twilight Reimagined. Today's episode, we're discussing life and death.
Speaker 2:Twilight Reimagined oh my gosh. But first, if you enjoy the podcast, we would humbly ask that you support us in a few simple ways. You can leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know that you love the show.
Speaker 1:We'd also love for you to follow us on Instagram at Redirect Podcast. And finally, if you really really like this show, we'd love for you to share it with a friend. Um, this episode would be great to share with a friend who has a love-hate relationship with twilight. Um, sharing the show with a friend is the best way to help us grow our community of book loving nerds yes and um, bringing us back to our roots, because wasn't twilight our first?
Speaker 1:or like one of the first episodes we ever recorded. I think it's like the second episode we ever released.
Speaker 2:And I think that was like our first idea was like we have to talk about Twilight, so we're here, we're back.
Speaker 1:So life and death is, oh my gosh. In celebration of, like, the 10 year anniversary of Twilight, stephanie Meyer released this story and I actually have the book. That I have is like, I posted it on our Instagram, but it's like a two books stuck together, so I, it's Twilight and then you flip it the other way and turn it over and it's life and death.
Speaker 1:No. So basically, in the forward to this story, she said that the reason she decided to do this is because over the years, she had heard criticism about and this is actually like we really missed. Like we really missed this because this happened like several years ago that she released the story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I honestly I think I knew of it, but and this was before the release.
Speaker 1:It was before the release of midnight sun um because in her foreword she acknowledges the fact that, like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not really seeing midnight sun, I just haven't written it. Yeah, so let's see what she says. Um, because this is important for setting the tone, because I have several notes about this very thing. Right, she said, as I was musing on Twilight after being away from it for so long and discussing the anniversary problem with friends, I started thinking about something I'd said before at signings and in interviews.
Speaker 1:You know, bella has always gotten a lot of censure for getting rescued on multiple occasions and people have complained about her being a typical damsel in distress on multiple occasions. And people have complained about her being a typical damsel in distress. My answer to that has always been that Bella is a human in distress, a normal human being, surrounded on all sides by people who are basically superheroes and supervillains. She's also been criticized for being too consumed with her love interest, as if that's somehow just a girl thing, but I've always maintained that it would have made no difference if the human were male and the vampire female. It's still the same story.
Speaker 1:Gender and species aside, twilight has always been a story about the magic and obsession and frenzy of first love. Okay, I am, I rate yeah, about this book. I will tell you why she had this opportunity yes, to do something really cool, right, and to have this cool conversation about gender and how it impacts romantic relationships and relationship with your parents and the way that you interact with the world right and she just totally rejected that, like completely yeah, rejected the whole idea, yes.
Speaker 1:And also she changed everyone's gender, every single character.
Speaker 2:With the exception of a few, every single character.
Speaker 1:And namely Charlie and Renee, did not? Bella's parents stayed the same, which is maddening to me it's.
Speaker 2:It's to the point where teachers, I believe, if I remember correctly, are yeah, I'm looking at your chart so I'm right. Like teachers are gender bent people who don't even need to be. You know what I mean. Like it's not just. When I first heard of this, I thought the only change would be bella would be a boy and edward would be a girl, and like no, no, no that even that would have been more interesting that would be interesting.
Speaker 1:You would have seen the way that ed, the edward character, interacted with his family as a girl instead of a boy, but now they've changed all the siblings. They've changed as man carlisle, they've changed all of the friends at school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jacob, all of the werewolves all the teachers, the friends, like you said, I mean every, yeah, the, the vampires they encounter um victoria and what's.
Speaker 2:I can't even remember their names james real life now james, thank you, are, um, are gender bent, and to me I wrote my very first note. This is like reading a very bad fan fiction. And my second note this feels like a first draft with zero editing, very much like Midnight Sun, and I think part of that is like what you said, and I have a lot of notes that go more into this, as we can talk about what happens in this book, but obviously people can be whatever they are. There are boys with more feminine qualities, girls with more masculine qualities, like there's a whole range of being a girl and being a boy, being a man, being a woman, whatever.
Speaker 1:But there are also things that are like how you're raised and how the way that you live in a patriarchal society like exactly she's, she's. She is rejecting the idea that we live in a society that has certain values assigned to gender. Even if the characters themselves rejected them, the fact is we live in a culture where that is the truth, and even more so in 2006, the year that this book was set.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think it really, really it makes me so mad, it makes the whole thing read super weird because you're like this is not what a teenage boy honestly acts honestly, and if it was just one, that's one thing. But because every single character is gender bent, you're like, okay, well, this isn't really how. Like like the cattiness of the girls in the original twilight reads a certain way. Because you're like, yeah, girls can be catty like this. No, no, just transpose all into like straight dudes, like in the pacific northwest, again like in the early 2000s. It reads super weird because you're like guys, don't act like this you know it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make sense, so it doesn't work. And you're like guys, don't act like this. You know it doesn't make any sense, it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't work. And you're right, she could have done something interesting, but she chose not to um yeah.
Speaker 1:So, and, and especially with charlie and renee, that was my biggest gripe. Charlie is one of those interesting characters and making him a woman would have been so interesting. The way that a mom would parent bella, this situation versus a dad, and here's the note that she wrote. She mentions that in the foreword and I'll read that.
Speaker 1:So she said I've done pretty much straight across the board gender swap with all the Twilight characters, but there are two exceptions. The biggest exception is Charlie and Renee, who have stayed. Charlie and Renee. Here's the reason for that. Bo was born in 1987.
Speaker 1:It was a rare thing for a father to get primary custody of a child in those days, even more so when the child was just a baby. Most likely, the mother would have been proven unfit in some way. I have a really hard time believing that any judge at that time, or even now, would give a child to a transient, unemployed father over a mother with a steady job and strong ties to her community. Of course, these days, if charlie had fought for bella, he probably could have taken her from renee. That's the most more likely. More unlikely scenario is the one that plays out in twilight. Only the fact that a few decades ago, a mother's rights were considered more important than a father's rights, as well as the fact that charlie's not the vindictive type, made it possible for renee to raise bella and in this case now beau.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't even okay, I literally wrote down. I did not read this forward. I said do you think she didn't gender bend charlie and renee? Because she couldn't imagine a single dad raising a baby or a woman being a cop. So I was right. Yeah, I think that's odd because to me it could have worked. First of all, who? This is a book about vampires, sorry, right.
Speaker 1:No, this is a book where a 109-year-old vampire preys on a 17-year-old. Whichever way, you swap the genders and you're telling me that the readers could not suspend their disbelief that a female cop in Washington could have raised a baby.
Speaker 2:Also to me the way Charlie and Renee are written. I would say they did not go to court for custody. I think it was like they barely knew each other. Renee was like I'm taking the kid and I'm out of here. He could have been I can't think of a stupid enough name to fit into this which can we please talk about the names in a second but renee could have been a man and I think the way their characters are, charlie was probably just like yeah, okay, like I'm gonna accept this, we're not gonna go to court. I don't see them having this drawn out custody battle, so I think that is whatever, but I just don't think they did that in any ways. I don't think that charlie and renee went to court to get a custody agreement. I think they just like worked it out between themselves and there's not like a lot of hard feelings. They're just like whatever. We didn't really know each other. You didn't like living here. You took the kid, that's fine. Like charlie's such a laid-back guy, I just don't see that. So it's stupid.
Speaker 2:I have a better theory about why like I want to insert this theory okay, because this is so irrational and dumb, but here's my thought.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, I think that in the original twilight there are moments where charlie has homoerotic moments with billy, jacob, jacob and and Carlisle High, high hard on the sexual tension with Carlisle, the way he defends him, the way he's like and he's so handsome, I'm like okay, and I think what she was proving is by keeping swapping all the rest of their genders, there's still sexual tension. So, either way you slice it, charlie is hot for those characters and there is either homoerotic or heteroerotic tension so those characters canon bisexual.
Speaker 1:Charlie, yes, I think okay I think that charlie is either pan or bi. I think that he is like very much it. It's not about the label, but it's the wine in the bottle. I think that he is. This is the explanation I have to insert into this. I like that For me to not want to jump off a cliff with how poorly done this was, because it was so poorly done. Can we talk about the names? Let's discuss the names.
Speaker 2:Beaufort is the stupidest name I've ever heard.
Speaker 1:And Edith, spelled with a Y.
Speaker 2:And an E. Beaufort is the stupidest name I've ever heard, and Edith spelled with aY and it is also E-D-Y-T-H-E.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, beaufort, I okay because I was trying to think she was doing Beau for Bella, because Beau is like right also had to. You know a similar vibe to Bella.
Speaker 2:Like love, beauty, whatever oh, I didn't even think about that. I was just thinking she was trying to think of a name, because there's a key moment where so everyone knows bow as beaufort by the way, that's his full name not even like beau regard, I don't know. I feel like there's better, longer versions of bow than beaufort. Everyone knows bow's beaufort but they keep calling.
Speaker 2:Should send her to ask a man yeah, I agree, she needs her soul sucked out anyways. People keep being like oh, you must be beaufort, you must be beaufort, beaufort, swan. And um, then when she meets, he meets edith, edith is like oh hey, beau. And he's like how did you know to call me beau? It's because she reads minds. And same thing happens, obviously, in twilight. Edward calls bella bella instead of isabella, like everyone else. So she needed that to be a plot point. But I just feel like there are better names like isabella is such a normal name, all the names, the only thing is for alice whatever, that's not even the worst ones.
Speaker 2:Let's get to jessamine hale. It was a like. That's a crime against humanity, okay so yeah.
Speaker 1:So so jasper is jessamine, no, rosalie is royal. No, that's, that's another crime. Emmet is eleanor. That was okay. I thought, why not emma or emma?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly, these names are a lot of time specific carlisle is kareen.
Speaker 1:I don't like that one either, and esme is earnest.
Speaker 2:That was that was okay. That's the more palatable thing. But again it's the same kind of thing with freaking esme and earnest. Like you were saying, they are gender bent, kareen, obviously I actually have no problem with the carlisle gender bending, but the whole thing about like like esme is such a quintessential like motherly figure and like is so. Not that dads can't also be like that, but it just doesn't hit the same. It's so weird.
Speaker 1:It's like but she doesn't feel written right. We will, we will get to this, but, like she did, make alters, slight, uh, adjustments to their stories, yes, in ways that just don't make sense for the way that they act.
Speaker 1:Now, right it like royal it would have almost been better. So like for yeah, so for instance, that was the biggest rosalie in the original book is like gang raped by a bunch of people and like almost killed and then carlisle turns her yes, and she's better because all she ever wanted was to have a baby, like she just wanted to be a mom, and she's better.
Speaker 2:She can never have a kid. So, royals whole thing is like I lost my family. They could never, this could never. But it's like that doesn't even make sense, because it would have been, it would have been more interesting.
Speaker 1:Honestly, if she was going to do all that, it would have been more interesting to discuss royal getting gang raped. Oh yeah, that would have been interesting you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:it's just like. She's like oh men can't, that could never happen, yeah, oh my god, okay, anyways.
Speaker 1:So I'm so mad, I'm so mad, I'm so mad, okay, okay, jacob is Julie, that's fine. James is Joss. I hated that. I wanted to, I wanted to, I wanted to set something on fire.
Speaker 2:Also, laurent is Lauren, which I understand, but the name Laurent, it's like she doesn't understand names, like the name Laurent has a's. Like she doesn't understand names, like the name laurent has. Oh, has a vibe, she's so stupid.
Speaker 1:That's a completely different person. She's so dumb oh my god, okay, victoria is just victor. She gave up by that point. I guess tyler crowley is taylor. Yeah, oh, I'm just so mad um it was just so confusing.
Speaker 2:Honestly, these names are crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh and then uh, billy black is bonnie black. Yes, whatever, oh my god okay, so here's a. Let's talk about bow a little bit how about that?
Speaker 2:yes, just like isabella is not like other girls, bo is not like other guys. He said that this is a quote and I have to read it, but there was no hiding the fact that I was not that guy, not the football star, not the class president, not the bad boy on the motorcycle. I was the kid who looked like he should be good at basketball until I started walking. Yeah, so he's tall, that's his one trait, okay. The kid who got shoved into lockers until I'd suddenly shot up eight inches sophomore year. The kid who was too quiet and too pale, who didn't know anything about gaming or cars or baseball statistics or anything else I was supposed to be into, unlike the other guys.
Speaker 2:I didn't have a ton of free time for hobbies. I had a checkbook to balance, a clogged drain to snake and a week's groceries to shop for or I used to so I didn't relate well to people my age great, literally. This is one thing I will say. I would actually recommend reading this book. This might have cured me of liking twilight because when you read it, gender bent because these names are so weird and some of the plot differs uh, it differs more and more as you progress. But it's like reading twilight for the first time and you realize this is a incredibly stupid person who I don't understand why anyone likes him, or bella for that matter. You are a bad friend. You have no interest. You have no personality. You fall in love with the first person who shows you any attention, like who you think is hot, and that's like all you have about you.
Speaker 1:That is the only characteristic you have and this is yeah he like okay, so I I read this right off the heels of listening to season two of passages which I recommended to you and I will now recommend to all of our listeners. I know it's another podcast, but I don't care, go listen to it. It's so freaking funny. It's two best friends. They're comedians and they read through twilight and that's one thing they talk about was they're like they read the original twilight, like bella is really rude and mean she can't remember anyone's names.
Speaker 1:She can't remember details about people's lives. Like she's not a good friend she's not, and okay, this is a great example of the ways that she just did not put in effort to this. Bella is the daughter of a very like absentee, emotionally inept and like bad mom. Like Renee is canonically a very bad parent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's more the child and Bella's more the parent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, selfish child and bell is more the parent. Yeah, the way that a teenage daughter relates to a teenage, to a mother, like that is honestly just different than a way a teenage son, yes, adapts to a mother like that, like to me, I mean it's not. It doesn't have to do with gender essentialism, it has to do the way that, like, society tells us about our roles, exactly Exactly, bella takes on all the household cooking and she, you know, uh, makes sure that she does like lots of acts of service for Renee.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Bo just says that too. But I think what's more realistic is that Bo would be maybe more protective or concerned about his own work, or just independent, like I don't know if he would be so service oriented, yes like he instantly comes in and is making dinner every night for charlie and it's like maybe that would happen.
Speaker 2:But it's just again not interesting because I would rather see what would this actually be like again, like you said, in the early 2000s for a man, and it's just weird. It's like they're both weird. Bella and bill are both weird. They come in to this new school and they have seemingly no friends they've left behind like I'm sorry there are. There are kids who work jobs to help their families live, or like he didn't even do that of younger siblings. There are parents or kids who do that and they still have friends. They still have some kind of hobbies. Maybe they don't have a lot of time for them, but like you're just boring bad people. It makes sense when you had no friends back in phoenix and why you will not have any friends here. It's just weird. You're not good like you're just kind of terrible people oh my god.
Speaker 1:And again it's like you don't you're so so stuck up about forks. Yes, like this place is so stupid? Also acting, also like acting like phoenix, like this is something they talk about in passages, so I will give credit to them. But like acting like phoenix, is this like, like incredible? Metropolis phoenix is like a conglomeration of suburbs. Yes, the thing Phoenix is known for is its suburbs.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is not a place that is like yeah, I'm going to punch something.
Speaker 1:I am too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just fascinating.
Speaker 1:But okay, whatever. So the other thing that is just like so gender wise. Like okay, whatever. So the other thing that is just like, so gender-wise, like Okay, so Beau starts school and and all the girls are obsessed with them.
Speaker 2:I said they actually do find it more believable that a random new boy would become extremely popular in a small high school versus a new girl. Am I a misogynist? I don't know.
Speaker 1:But I think in some ways this book did unearth some internalized misogyny for me. Sure, because there were things. Okay, maybe this is what it is. You expect bad behavior from men? Yeah, or at least I do and I expect better behavior from women and so when edith comes in and is like act, doing the same behaviors as edward, I was harder on her than I was on edward because I expect more, but herein lies the biggest plot hole of the entire freaking thing, emily.
Speaker 1:Yeah, forget about the early 2000s or late 90s when beau was being raised edith. Yes, thank you is supposed to be a woman born in 1890. Yeah, okay, socialized through the late 19th and earliest 20th century before being turned into a vampire yeah and we're supposed to believe that she is okay in herself, not only pursuing beau but like totally taking on so many of these like traditional masculine roles, when the original edward from the original books was nothing but a traditionalist.
Speaker 1:Yeah was like so hardcore into traditional values and courting and like propriety and religion and all this stuff, and so all of a sudden, like that part, like this is just the rules that she used for for rewriting this are maddening because she just like, didn't hang on to that, like if that was true, right, and now Edith Edward is Edith, then Edith would be like really patient and waiting for Bo to pursue her, to ask her on dates, to be chivalrous for her, even though she's the vampire. Yes, I mean. That to me was just like that didn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:No, I fully agree. I felt the same way because it's like, like you said, you can, you could. It could have been more interesting to keep the dynamic of edith or edward, feeling like I am dangerous, I'm not right for you. I can't keep myself away, though, like that's the whole push and pull of it, like I should leave, but I can't stay away from you and I might kill you. But I'm also into you. But, like you said, edward is so like. I must meet your father. I must be respectful to him.
Speaker 2:None of that from Edith. I will not sleep with you before we're married. Like I believe I'm going to hell because I'm deeply religious. He doesn't even want to kiss her with tongue. That is like that is yes and yeah it is. And edith is like act like you said, acting the same way of pursuing beau very aggressively. And it doesn't make sense, like you said, if, if we're going to believe that, if we're going to believe that the reason that Edward acted that way is because he was right, so old fashioned yes.
Speaker 1:The same thing has to be true for Edith, but the rules weren't, so it's. This is. This is the thing that's making me so mad is she literally just did a search and replace of the names and the pronouns and didn't rethink the very obvious thing about like Edith would have grown up in a time where women couldn't have control of their own money, couldn't have a checking account, Couldn't vote Right Like we're, couldn't date, couldn't have a house of their own, couldn't really have a job job like there's no thought given to the fact that that is the time to eat.
Speaker 2:If a socialized and it makes me irate it just really no, I agree it's totally responsible and dumb, and it just makes this whole thing feel like a stupid cash grab, which it is it is yeah, I also um will say it's not a straightforward search and replace because she definitely dumbed down Bo, Like Bella would have. Yeah, I think I should have got like copied over the lines, but there's. There's one very famous passage from Twilight where she's like there were two things I knew for sure. You know one.
Speaker 2:I was unequivocally in love with him and there's a part of him. But in this book it's like I knew one thing I was really into her and maybe she was gonna kill me.
Speaker 1:Okay, but at the same time I like if you're gonna take on making the main character of your book a 17 year old, a 16 year old boy, right 17 17 17, 17. Yeah, but he's never once mentioned that he's horny. Okay, but there is a part, there is.
Speaker 2:There is that one part where he says you can like smell my circulatory and get stop.
Speaker 1:I was, I said please stop. I think also this is my internalized misogyny, because you know, when bella is saying dumb shit like I just you know, like I'm just not good enough for you and like you're just you know, like you're just so perfect and how could you ever love me and I just um, it's just, I kind of you're like, this is annoying I get it but I'm writing it off as, like, you're just a dumb girl, so this is my internalized misogyny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when beau said it I was just like shut the fuck up. I know like stop.
Speaker 2:I was literally like this you're so.
Speaker 2:This is so embarrassing you have to stop there's a part this is another dumb down moment there's a scene where, um, I believe royal and, uh, I think it's royal. I don't know I should have written Royal and I think it's Royal. I don't know, I should have written down who was referencing. It's one of the vampire couples, I think it's Royal. And what's the girl's name? Again Eleanor or something. Eleanor yeah, I think it's Royal and Eleanor, and they're like in the gym together, in the weight room or something, and he, like Royal, puts his arm around her or something. And this is what bella thinks to himself. Though he was obviously pretty sure of himself, I was still kind of surprised he felt comfortable doing that. Not that she wasn't hot, she was super, mega hot, but not approachable, like not even the rock would dare to whistle at her, if you know what I mean. What?
Speaker 1:it's like she was like how, b17 boy, it's just, oh my god, also here's the other. Like that, I just am like hello making okay. Okay, the changes she chose to make it didn't make were crazy. Yeah, after all of this, jessamine still a Civil War soldier, yes, how could you not change that, especially 10 years later?
Speaker 2:You've heard the criticism.
Speaker 1:You know she not only doubled down, she tripled down because she made that part of Midnight Sun. Yeah, so she tripled down on the fact that Jessamine Jasper was in the Civil War.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you could have taken this. She changed a lot. Okay, we've made that clear. She changed a lot in some of these backstories and also the ending, which I want to wait to talk about.
Speaker 1:We have to talk about later.
Speaker 2:But she could have made Jessessamine, on the union side at least you know what? I mean, like it didn't have to be the confederacy she just said double, double she could have put one line of jessamine being like yeah, I now know better and do not believe in slavery. You know what I mean. Like it is, no, is she?
Speaker 1:just okay, thought Like there's. The changes she made and didn't make are crazy. She doubled down on like Eleanor, the Edmont character being like the strongest one, which again you're like, I mean, I guess you know, but the 17 year old bow wouldn't perceive that. Because the thing is it's's like, it's implied that, like art, uh, that all of the female vampires are very strong, but they don't appear strong. Yeah, do you don't?
Speaker 2:like it's just yeah, um something I wanted to say, um sorry this is just a side tangent, but I this is not really a critique on the gender bending, but I've never given this much thought. Beau references that renee is like his best friend and talks about how much he took care of her and I'm like, so this is obviously probably true of bella as well, and it seems odd. Obviously things play out differently in this book, but it seems odd. After this book it feels like there's no, like Bella doesn't really call Renee. They go visit her one time, they don't really keep in touch and by the end of Twilight, breaking Dawn, she's chill like never seeing Renee again. So again I just question their ability to form relationships to anybody besides Edward slash Edith, because it's just so weird to read this. Knowing like how Twilight plays out, you're like, okay, how is Renee your best friend? And you don't seem to care at all when you completely abandon her in the future. So that was a weird thing for me, but anyways.
Speaker 1:Like we're trying to make something completely irrational and nonsensical. Make sense and you're right, you're right the truth is is that there was just not a lot of thought put into this um.
Speaker 2:So basically I want to talk about with his friends to port angeles okay, this is what I want. Sorry, that's where I got to, yeah this is crazy all right.
Speaker 1:So in the original book what happens is that bella goes with her homies to go shop for prom dresses or dresses for the girls choice dance or whatever. And it wasn't even girls choice.
Speaker 2:In the book it was just a normal dance because she was getting asked by all the guys, yes. So she had to make a girl's choice so that he could be pursued by all these girls, which again does not make sense for how girls act around 17 year old boys. It's just they don't act the same way that boys do around 17 year old girls. So I'm sorry as a whole. Maybe again there would be one, but it's like 10, you know. So that doesn't make sense anyways.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't make sense she goes, bella goes prom dress shopping bro corsage Boutonniere shopping with the bros. There's not like a little forest and forks? That also doesn't happen. No, that doesn't happen. That's so weird, bro.
Speaker 1:Their moms if anything, buy them a boutonniere, If anything their mom, all of the Okay If I'm wrong, and you are a man listening to this and when you were 17, you got in the car with your homies and went to go debate over different boutonniere arrangements. Yeah, prove us wrong.
Speaker 2:So anyways, it's another thing where it's like okay, hey, this is so stupid, it doesn't have to be a one-for-one replacement. You could have made it like, hey, we're gonna go bowling in port angeles or we're gonna go like do some activity there. It didn't have to be a shopping, you know you don't like that's not critical to the plot.
Speaker 1:Well, because then they're like we're also gonna go see a movie, so yeah, I understand you could have been like we're gonna go putt putting and then see a movie.
Speaker 2:Do you want to come? It's just weird.
Speaker 1:Anyways, I'm mad okay, so in the original book, be Bella is like getting. She's trying to find this, find a bookstore, but she gets a little bit lost and then she starts getting pursued by some bad guys who, like you know, probably want to attack her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, implied like that they were going to rape her or something. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Stephanie Meyer is like really, like you know, into this whole idea of like getting saved from being gang raped yeah, this comes up many times, I'm realizing.
Speaker 2:So anyway, and also later it just doesn't make sense because I don't know port angeles. I've never been myself. But later edith is like only you could like this crime rate is so low here. Only you could get attacked in port angeles. And it's like. So this is even like. Does stephanie meyer think if you get lost in a city like people are gonna attack you? Yeah, because also there's a scene in new moon where bella is like trying to make herself see edward and she sees this like biker gang and she starts walking towards them. It's like does she just think cities are like these dangerous places? I guess yes, because I promise you in most like, if you're just it's a chill city, it seems if you're just walking around like, you're probably not going to be attacked by a group of guys. You know like if you have any common sense and you're not wandering into dark alleys, which I guess bella chooses to do.
Speaker 1:But anyways, so I was really, I was really curious what is she going to do with beau? How is she going to approach this? Because she doesn't seem like someone who believes that men could be victims of sexual violence. Sure, but also I was like, you know, this could be an opportunity for her to make an interesting change to so, to show what would happen and like the differences between men and women and their experiences in the world. She does make the change and she makes it about copaganda. Yeah, she straight up these strangers. Yeah, this is, this is literally a such a scenario that I'm confident has never happened, ever in the world and only happens in, like, the conservative, alt-right imagination is that these people are like hey, you look like a cop and we think we saw you with a cop.
Speaker 1:They did like your dad, like at the airport, or something like that which again huh, and now we see you and like we want to beat you up because you're a cop. Yes, that is, that is the scenario and I wish, like, hold on, what chapter is this in?
Speaker 2:because I I want to read a line of this, please do it's insane and it shows also that she is capable of actually being thoughtful, because there's also a part, like at the end, where um edith wants to confront them and he's like, no, don't get out of the car. And she doesn't. She doesn't get out and confront them, but I'm pretty sure unless I'm just remembering the movie that Edward does get out of the car and confronts them and then he's like, no, I'm not going to murder them right now. Then he gets back in the car. So you are capable of thinking edith is this tiny girl that doesn't have the same effect, even though she's a strong vampire, as it did when edward did it, so like, and you're capable of making up this crazy scenario about them thinking that he's a cop somehow, even though he's a 17 year old.
Speaker 1:Please read and he's like. Also, he's described as like skinny and willow yeah kind of nerdy looking okay, yeah not strong, not athletic like he. Yeah, doesn't look like a cop. Okay, I started walking forward, crossing the mouth of the alley and also, this is just so awkwardly written mouth of the alley okay and heading on to the next street like I hadn't noticed them there.
Speaker 1:Just as I was out of view, I heard a voice whisper behind me it's a cop. I glanced behind me, hoping to see someone in uniform, but there was no one else on the empty street. I was farther off the main road than I had realized. Picking up the pace, I watched the pavement so I wouldn't trip again. I found myself on a sidewalk leading past the backs of several gray warehouses, each with large bay doors for unloading trucks padlocked for the night. The south side of the street had no sidewalk, only a chain link fence topped with barbed wire protecting some kind of engine parts storage yard. It's so specific for no reason. I wondered. Far past the part of port angela's that guests were supposed to see. It was getting dark now. The clouds were what. The clouds were back and piling up on the western horizon, creating an early sunset. I left my jacket in jeremy's car in a sharp wind, made me shove my hands in my pockets. A single van passed by me and then the road was empty. Hey, pig. A woman's voice called from behind me. I looked back and it was the woman I'd seen before, the familiar one. Behind her were two of the men from the alley a tall bald guy and a shorter man who I thought might be the one who had the gun. What I asked, slowing automatically. She was looking straight at me. I'm sorry, did you mean me Sorry? She repeated. They were still walking toward me and I backed away toward the south side of the road. Is that your favorite word or something? I'm sorry, I didn't know what you're talking about. She pursed her lips. They were painted a dark sticky red and suddenly I knew where I'd seen her before. She was with the guy I'd knocked with my bag.
Speaker 1:When I first arrived in Port Angeles, I looked at the shorter guy and, sure enough, I could see the tops of the tattoos on either side of his neck. Aren't you in a call for backup officer? He asked. I had to glance behind myself again. It was just me. I think you've got the wrong guy. Sure, we do.
Speaker 1:The woman said and it was just me. I think you've got the wrong guy. Sure, we do. The woman said and you didn't see anything back there either. Did you see anything? No, no, I didn't see anything. Um, and then she says hey, hey, I said rolling high, my hands higher so you could see they were empty. I'm not a cop. I'm still in high school. I kept edging away until my back ran into the chain link fans fence. You think I'm stupid? The woman asked you think you're plain clothes? Get up, fools me. I saw. I saw you with your cop partner vice, what? No, that was my dad. You're just a baby pig, sure, okay, so that's cleared up. I'll get out of your way now. It is insane. And so then? So that's cleared up, I'll get out of your way now.
Speaker 2:It is insane, and so then Edith comes in and saves him.
Speaker 1:I'm going to start calling Bella and Bo baby pig from now on. This is something Piglet Like.
Speaker 2:These criminals are now pursuing a cop that they remember from months ago from the airport, from a five second interaction. Somehow she remembers him and he is stupid that he happened to run into the same. This whole genderbend scene makes no sense. By the way, she could have made it like maybe he does actually witness a drug deal or something and they're like, you're gonna tell you know, like she could have made it the similar thing, but without being so weird and making no sense anyways. So then edith saves him again am I right?
Speaker 1:and then, like this whole night, like you know, it's not edith. From here on, like the, you know, they start getting closer, they start spending more time together. But again, edith is not about the propriety, she's not about you know. She even makes comments like what are you feeling weird?
Speaker 1:because, like I'm a girl and I'm stronger than you, or something like that, yeah um she pays like, like, as if she's like she's laughing at the idea of it, when in reality she would probably be like oh, if she's following the model of edward, she would be the most subscribed to it, right?
Speaker 2:yes, I um. So the scene at the restaurant. Let's get into it. Um, I read this and my note was like there is no way this would have been popular if she had written it as a man and this girl originally, because they would have called this girl insane. By the way she starts acting of like I can't stay away from you and you fascinate me. And like obviously it's weird when Edward says it too, but again like the misogyny of this world.
Speaker 1:Well, it's also like we expect bad behavior from men so the fact that she's the one doing the bad behavior makes what she's doing even weirder, because we expect her to act and you notice it more yeah, but like you said, again she like she pays for the dinner.
Speaker 2:She gives him her like scarf to stay warm, and it's like yeah, I do think that again, she would have wanted some chivalry for herself, if we're to believe how you know her socialization should have been. Also, I wanted to know is this relationship even consensual? Because there's a part later, after this is when he tells her he thinks she's a vampire, and she's like yeah and um, she's like every part of me is made to draw you in. So then I was like huh, is this like yeah, because he's always like you're beautiful and your breath smells so good and like you're so fascinating and I can't stay away from you, and it's like maybe there's a reason for that.
Speaker 1:Also and this is something that I guess I just didn't notice the other times I've read the actual Twilight, but there's one point where she's like I almost tried to kill you in a room full of children and he's like but they're all my age.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And she's like yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you recognize the fact that I'm a child. Yeah, so you recognize the fact that I'm a child.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you agree. It's weird that you're 100 and I'm 17.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, okay.
Speaker 1:So, and I think also okay, we're getting closer to the end, but Well, I mean, the whole middle part is so boring because it is literally chapters of them just being like I love you.
Speaker 2:Now, what's your favorite color? Yeah, literally, literally, literally, of them just being like I love you. Now what's your favorite color?
Speaker 1:yeah, literally, literally, literally or like you know I love you, like, but I'm gonna kill you, I know. But it's okay, I trust you. It's just that for like chapters on chapters it's fine again.
Speaker 2:Bella is also like this, so I agree.
Speaker 1:And also like royal, royal doesn't like you know, just like rosalie Royal doesn't like you know, just like Rosalie, it doesn't like um Bella bow, but I felt like it wasn't clear because it's you know the the point of it in the original is that Rosalie resents Bella because she wants to be human so that she can have a baby.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause that's the point of a woman's life, of course. And baby, yeah because that's the point of a woman's life, of course, and um and, but it was never really established like why royal feels that way about beau no, that's what I was saying earlier.
Speaker 2:um, because she changed his backstory and his explanation was like they, I could never be with my family again and I could never forgive. But it's like okay, and I could never forgive. But it's like okay, I get that that's obviously traumatizing or whatever, but if you live long enough, you eventually are going to lose family members anyways. And so I don't understand. Like that to me is not as strong of an argument, for Because if Bo chooses Like she didn't or whatever, royal slash Rosalie, they did not have a choice.
Speaker 2:But if Bo chooses like she didn't or whatever, royal slash Rosalie, they did not have a choice. But if Bo chooses it, that doesn't make as much sense because it's like, okay, well, he knows what he's getting into, you know he knows he's gonna have to say goodbye to his family. You didn't have a choice, but Bo does. But the baby thing makes more sense because it's like, hey, you're only 17, you may not understand, or like you may not, you're not probably thinking I would have a kid right now, but maybe in you know 100 years you're gonna think I did want to have a family and I couldn't and you don't like.
Speaker 2:that makes more sense that there's more stakes to that, because it's like that is something that you can never give back you know, and maybe a 17 year old wouldn't understand the gravity of what they might be giving up or might not care at all, which bella didn't really seem to until she decided she did care. Um, so yeah, I just thought that was really odd. I agree, um, what I was gonna say is also this being a, this is a standalone. The story wraps up, obviously, at the end, and that makes it even more obvious how quickly they fall in love and how yes, I was just thinking that, because in the original Twilight, you know, they're already like weirdly devoted to each other at the end of the first book.
Speaker 1:But then they have like lots of obstacles to overcome. They break up for a little while, then there's like a vampire war.
Speaker 2:And then she gets married.
Speaker 1:And then she has you, you know, robitussin, otc, you know. So, like all that stuff happens, um and so, until before she is turned into a vampire, um, this makes it seem all that much quicker, so the climax starts like again the original book is so weirdly paced. This one is too Towards the end they're playing baseball with the family, and then the other.
Speaker 2:So in this book it's Victor, joss and Lauren roll up A completely different crew than Laurent, james and Victoria.
Speaker 1:Those are completely different crew than laurent, james and victoria, like those are completely different people. Five senses, lauren joss and victor also like joss. Like what is joss?
Speaker 2:I've never heard that it couldn't have been jamie. Like jamie can be a girl name, or like something better. Honestly, though, it does make sense how she got to remee knowing how she named all the people in these books Because, like, the names are crazy. Continue.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the same thing happens. The hunt begins and they make very stupid decisions about how they're going to care for Beau, and Beau does the same thing to Charlie about like I got to get out of this town.
Speaker 2:What I don't understand on the reread as well why couldn't they just like protect Bo's house and wait like and never leave? Him undefended 7v3 exactly and Laurent or Lauren bows out as like I will not 7v2.
Speaker 1:I know they mentioned this in passages too.
Speaker 2:I's just like what I, I know it doesn't make like, the plan does not make sense and having to hurt charlie does not make any sense and yeah, it's so stupid.
Speaker 1:so all of the things it follows, all the same plot, except for the fact that, bow, like the universe has kind of split. When Bo decides to dip out a little bit earlier than Bella does in the original book to meet Joss James at the ballet studio, right, joss starts, you know, messing with Bo, attacking him and bites his finger yes then the other yeah, he's.
Speaker 2:He's really hurt him a lot before the bite. He's like, yeah, broken his bones, thrown him up against the wall.
Speaker 1:He's like bleeding out, um, yeah, and then he bites him because he's like you won't scream, I'll make you scream, yes yeah, also, like it's so interesting because she's like in the original book, it's a ballet studio where bella had done dance classes before. Yes, well, it's just so. Gender essentialism isn't real, except for the fact that beau couldn't have done dance classes right so it's a studio where renee was the teacher, so again, just maddening how sometimes she makes choices to change attributes of people based on their gender.
Speaker 2:It's also kind of a dumb choice, because it could have been like oh yeah, my mom had me in like kung fu classes like it could have been like a martial arts studio. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:like if you're gonna make it, he can't take it or like you could change the boys do ballet, like well, yeah, I know, but I'm just saying if you're gonna make a change, like you could change the location, do ballet like well, yeah, I know, but I'm just saying if you're gonna make a change like it could have been a better change.
Speaker 1:It's just so dumb like okay, so edith doesn't care about gender roles, but yeah, but beau can't, can't, take ballet conceivably done a dance class when he was five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my god. So, um, so, uh, edith, and they all get there and uh, they're like, okay, well, it's beau's choice. So this is also different. In the original book they didn't really ask bella if she wanted to have the venom sucked out of. No, there was no choice. Yeah, they just edward just did it. But now because he's a man, he will have agency over his own body.
Speaker 2:So he gets to choose if he wants to continue the transformation it was also, I think, that um Archie saw that they were too late. Archie said he's either gonna die or he lives as one of us, like we're not, we didn't make it because in this world he left just a few minutes earlier. Yes, so um so continues the transformation does suck the blood out. She, she does, and he feels it leaving his arm. But then archie's like no, we, we didn't make it in time.
Speaker 1:You have to let it keep spreading or kill him yes, and so then he's given the choice, and because edith's like, I'm not gonna make him be like one of us and yeah bow was like no, I, I just do the transformation.
Speaker 1:So he explains in detail what the transformation is like and they're like in the car on the way back up to forks and he's sitting in the back seat of the sedan like changing into a vampire and edith is like telling him about the world. So this is where the reader then gets all this information dumped that we slowly, that slowly, leaks out and you learn, you know, a little bit by a little bit in the main series, but now it's all being condensed into like several paragraphs and there was actually no reason for it, like we actually didn't stand alone book.
Speaker 2:Nothing else is going to happen. You don't need to know all this stuff.
Speaker 1:You don't need to explain every character's backstory.
Speaker 2:You don't need to like. All she should have said was this is gonna hurt, it'll take three days. When you wake up, you'll be different and you'll be really thirsty and we'll deal with everything else from there. Like she didn't need to tell him about the volturi and how earnest whatever threw himself off a cliff and here's this like really annoying thing too.
Speaker 1:She does all of that explaining about the volturi, explaining about the individual members of the volturi, explaining all of this irrelevant information, but when bow finishes the transformation, guess what he's? Just, he's not a shield, like bella is. Yeah, he doesn't. Like they don't ever close the loop on the fact that, like in the main, series, you also have a power.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the main series it's implied that because the reason that bella was resistant to other vampires gifts when she was a human was because she was destined to become a vampire and she has this gift of being a shield and having shielding powers is like a result of the fact that she had them when she was a human, but that's not brought to fruition at all in life and death. So that's annoying and that was not closed up. And then it ends with freaking Bo and Edith going to watch his own funeral.
Speaker 2:Yes, we have to talk about this in depth, because what the heck. So they're like?
Speaker 1:it's like he changes, he wakes up, oh and they establish that he has really good self-control, but they never name the fact that it's sealed. And Bella has good self-control too, and that's why she was actually eventually able to meet Charlie In this world, Bella doesn't get to meet.
Speaker 2:Charlielie in this world never get doesn't get to meet charlie and show that he's a vampire no. So they go on a hunt, they um, and either it's like they're both so annoying because, either it's like I thought you just wanted to yell at me in private because, oh my god, please. And he's like what are you talking about? I am so happy, I am 17 and in love for the first time, and I barely know you.
Speaker 1:I've been here for a few months and I just said goodbye. Let's be together for all eternity. Everyone else in the world that I love is burying me.
Speaker 2:But does he love anyone else?
Speaker 1:I don't think so, actually, because I think he has no real connection to anyone. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway. So he's like they're going on a hunt. And then she's like he's like oh well, yeah, if you guys just like teach me for maybe a couple years, then I'll be fine and you guys can leave me. I don't expect you to have to hang out with me forever. And she's like no, I also am obsessed with you, so it's good. They are both mutually annoying. Then it's like epilogue okay, this is I was so shocked edith and um.
Speaker 1:I honestly I was like rolling my eyes and signing and like I was angry.
Speaker 2:I was just so angry about the whole way that this finished up so edith and beau are like sitting in the distance watching a row of cars and you're like, what is this? And they're like he's like I think I should watch the event happen. And they're like they're going to the funeral and at first I thought maybe it's charlie's funeral, like, maybe he killed himself or something. I don't know like I thought it was gonna go really dark. So basically they decide that there they explain that they have found a burnt up corpse and faked beau's death. They think they're burying beau. They um like this.
Speaker 2:This thing was so stupid till they watched the funeral. Their explanation was edith was too distraught to come to the funeral, which is so stupid because, if you're like, they went on one date, as far as charlie knows, um, so like. And then they broke up, as far as Charlie knows, and I was so mad that the last thing that Beau ever said to Charlie was mean and there was no closure for him. And then his son just dies and he's going to always blame himself for that because he didn't like stop him. It's so selfish.
Speaker 1:They couldn't have faked a last letter like they couldn't like. You're telling me that you can engineer or you can fake someone's death by digging up a corpse, putting it inside of their truck, then like burning out the truck. So there's no identifiable remains, except for some bones, and you think that's gonna pass. But you're. You can't do anything to offer charlie any closure that's going to pass, but you're.
Speaker 2:You can't do anything to offer charlie any closure. Yeah, it was horrific to think about charlie in this, in this world. And then what made me even more mad is edith they were just like lol I guess, yeah, it's fine, nope, not. Okay. Bow is straight up a psychopath, the same with edith, probably, and they're like maybe there's another world where you know we could have had more time and this wouldn't have happened like this.
Speaker 1:And charlie, we could have had a wedding with all of our.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could have had a wedding with our friends and family and they're like oh well, I guess and it's like a wink, like in twilight, yeah then to me there was absolutely no reason for this part like that would have been stupid enough. Then the wolves show up again.
Speaker 1:This is the epilogue so bonnie, who is billy, sees like from the distance, um that them sitting in a tree, yeah, yeah, and it's like okay, and they're like we have to go to war with the vampires, like because they broke the treaty, and instead of just like letting it all rock, they've explained everything to bow about the werewolves and all this stuff and they have this like confrontation. Yeah, it's, it's so dumb.
Speaker 2:I it's so stupid sam who's also sam in this book, but but a girl all the way with our girls. She is like, okay, well, I believe you, but actually I'm not. The true rightful chief, like Julie is slash Jacob and so she has to make the decision if we're going to go to war with you or not.
Speaker 2:Which also that's a huge change, because that is not what sam thinks in the original at all yeah at all um, to me also because, okay, the whole problem is, the wolves don't even want to fight them, they just want them to leave town. So my thing is like I think it is actually extremely logical that a family, if their child's partner, boyfriend, whatever, suddenly died in a horrific way, that they would move towns, like if it's like hey, this is too traumatic for her to be here. I do not think it would be suspicious, I don't think people would be like edith killed her like no one even knew they were together, like the school barely even knew that they were dating. You know what I mean. So I just find that they should have just left.
Speaker 2:But anyways, they go over to julie. Julie's like bo, I hate you, you're evil now and he's like no, jules, it's still me and I am just me and which, by the way, they haven't even really established a friendship yet no, like they hung out one time, a couple times, and like he was like oh yeah, I don't even remember you from before when I lived here, but I remember your sisters, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then he, finally jules, is like I accept this. And then they, that's it the end. Oh, and then edith, low-key, proposes to bow, because that's normal for a woman from the early 1900s. Uh, she's like, yeah, we could still get married. And he's like, oh, cool, yeah, sure. And she's like, wait, are you asking me? And he's like, yeah, I guess. I don't know, I'm 17, I'm an idiot like what do I know?
Speaker 1:so yeah, they're not getting married they just like, like low-key are engaged, do not like.
Speaker 2:Don't read this book. Don't read this book, but it is kind of funny, so maybe read this book. I mean, I feel like we covered it pretty good though.
Speaker 1:Don't read it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is. Don't read it.
Speaker 2:But some random thoughts I had. Why don't vampires get spray tans, so they'll blend in more Also? Why don't vampires get spray tanned, so they'll blend in more also? I just gotta cover all my also. I wanted to know no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Also, this is a point that's been made by some tiktok creators. That was it reminded me in this book that you know your hair, like a vampire's hair, stops growing after they turn into a vampire, right, and so your hair is like supposed to, just, it's like in the style that it was when you were right, right, but they get in these fights and their hair gets like pulled out and stuff, so they just got like bald spots.
Speaker 2:Right, would they be covered in bald spots? Yeah, that seems like a plot hole or like if you change the style of your hair. It's like, because it was mentioned that archie alice, the reason they had a buzz cut is because they were in an asylum right right and it can never grow back which was weird in the movies, because they changed alice's hair like a lot they changed everyone's hair a lot.
Speaker 2:Remember jasper's hair and like oh my god okay, then I also wanted to know vampires are supposed to be crazy fast. So how is going to the airport, going through security, sitting at the gate waiting to take off, boarding, getting landing, deplaning, leaving the airport how is that faster than them just running from forks to phoenix? I don't know that that math is mathing, because they do fly um the family. I feel like they could have gotten there in time to save bow if they had run.
Speaker 1:That's my other thought or swam, yeah, even like hopped in the ocean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just go down the coast anyways, anyways, yeah, don't read this Stolen a plane. I was wondering why don't they have a private jet? These guys are so rich, they should have a private plane. Oh my god, anyways.
Speaker 1:It's so like it's just irresponsible. Yeah, this book was stupid. This is a woman who has been given so much influence and power, yeah, and she has just wielded it for evil. She just has not, like she had such an opportunity to correct the blind spots that she made in Twilight. She did To make it better, and she just squandered it. Yeah, do not read this book.
Speaker 2:But we did.
Speaker 1:But we had fun and don't read.
Speaker 2:Midnight Sun. Do not read Midnight Sun. Do not, if anything, read this book. Do not read midnight sun. Do not, if anything, read this book. Do not read midnight sun.
Speaker 1:That was so disturbing. Torture that was torture, it's so disturbing.
Speaker 2:The stupid thing is actually we didn't even do an episode on midnight sun, so I just did that to hurt myself, like I did that to to like I don't know that was self-harm, yeah read midnight sun. Okay, have you read anything good lately?
Speaker 1:yeah, um, okay, I have two things to talk about, uh okay, um one of them is the women by kristen hannah finally read it, finally.
Speaker 1:Um, the premise here is about um.
Speaker 1:The main character is frankie and she um.
Speaker 1:It comes from a family with a long history of military service and she is like trying to her mom wants her to get married, trying to figure out what to do, and she decides that she's going to follow her brother to Vietnam and cause he, uh, was sent off to the war and she's going to be a nurse, cause she's, uh, she studied nursing Um, and it's her experience as in like the women that she served with as nurses in the Vietnam war and, uh, you kind of follow her journey from being very like, optimistic and bright-eyed about serving her country and, you know, doing what needs to be done, to being extremely skeptical about the war in Vietnam.
Speaker 1:And then this is the whole. First half is like her experience there, relationships that she forms, people she falls in love with, and the second half is her experience being back home and it was really interesting, it really colored for me. You know she came home to a culture that had was really upset and angry about the war, as was she but everyone. You know she's not being welcomed home and like thanks for her service, but more like discriminated against for having served in vietnam and then also as a woman, she wasn't really given services um to help treat like the ptsd that you had from being an or nurse in vietnam.
Speaker 1:Um, like you know and talks about trying to access services at the va and being told that, like there were no women in vietnam and the history of women in vietnam being erased, um, so it was really interesting. I felt like I learned a lot and, um, it really made me think, on an optimistic note, about how there's really nothing new under the sun and that the worst things that we go through as a country, as a society, they're things that have been experienced by people in the past. Things that have been experienced by people in the past, sure and um. So take that as you will and um, so yeah, it was, it was good. I would say it's like not her best book, it's not, it's not my favorite of her books, but, um, she wrote a little note at the end of the book about how this is a premise she's wanting to write about for a really long time, but as a earlier in her career, she felt like she didn't have the chops to write about it and she wanted to do it real justice.
Speaker 1:Um, and I think she did, and um, so, yeah, I would recommend it to folks who like her other books if you want to maybe give it a spin. If you've never read kristen hannah before, I don't know if I would start with this one, but she definitely did. She does a lot of research on her books. It definitely shows there's lots of details and act like and things that really color it and make it seem like she really does justice to the time period she's writing about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's very well researched, so I do like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the very least like yeah, that is the vibe. And then another, just small one. I uh went to the library recently and did a little, uh, graphic novel haul um, so cute. Yes, I was like you know what, I need to pick back up on these and also, like, kickstart my reading a little bit, although you know I don't do number goals officially.
Speaker 1:I lagged behind a couple months this year, kind of below what I normally read in a month yeah and if I pick it up a little bit, I can reach 100 books this year, so which is less than last year, but I really it's possible if I just pick it up a little bit and so I was like okay, let me get some graphic novels to help add some in and pad my those definitely are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can fly through them. Yes, for sure you can read it in an evening. Um, so I read honor girl by maggie thr. It is a graphic novel. It's a graphic memoir about her experience, told through one summer at a all-girls Christian summer camp. Oh, uh-huh, in the 2000s, uh-huh, and she realizes she's a lesbian. Oh my gosh, and the experience of what that was like. And she's from, she's from Atlanta, um, her dad? Well, she went to a K, I know. So I thought the camp was actually in Kentucky, but it's like, still very similar to our, like, camp experiences.
Speaker 1:But um she, uh, it's really good. I really liked it and it's it's like heartbreaking and touching and a lot you know it's good and it's it's her story and the art is nice and the story was good and I recommend it. That's love it Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:So I have two books I read recently. I'm going to save one for our next episode because, okay, it was so unhinged. I can't bring that energy into this already unhinged episode so I'm talking about a really good book I read which was heartstopper volume five by alice osman.
Speaker 2:and I just have to talk about this book again because, even though we talked a whole episode about Hard Stopper, which you should listen to, this is maybe my favorite volume so far. I bought it because I've been reading them all on Hoopla and that's on your phone, so I wanted to own one at least. I wanted to support Alice Oseman financially and because I think these are really really good books, so I'm like, well, you know, it's like kind of nice, yeah, and I wanted to hold you know at least one of them and look at the pages and not just like on my tiny screen.
Speaker 2:So anyways, this one I mean, if you know heartstopper, it's charlie and nick, it's like I love that they don't break up. Like she can build tension between a couple over five books and they're in high school, obviously but like there can be problems that they have to overcome and stuff they have to deal with but they don't have to break up for it, which I think most like a poor or a worse author would break them up. Yeah, in the second book, I don't know, and have one of them run off and uh, but I just thought this book and lie about why they're breaking up with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah um it's deals with. Like um nick's about to go off to college, so, or university he's, and I don't totally understand how the education system works over there, because there's some stuff that some like this is not the same, but he's trying to figure out should he stay close home to be close to charlie, who's a year younger, or should he maybe do what he wants and go to a someplace farther away? And so I just loved it. There's it, just again there's. I don't know if you it cuts right to the core.
Speaker 1:It does in the lightest way possible yes, there is a scene to the core with a butter knife.
Speaker 2:There's a scene of charlie talking to a therapist that had I read it when I was 16 or 17, like genuinely would have like healed a part of me or changed my life in some way. It's just so. But it's so like again light-hearted, but so serious and the stuff it deals with like so lovely. I also really like there's a scene where, um, charlie's mom and him kind of get into it and she like screams at him or like says something mean or whatever, and they're fighting and you know he wants to go be independent in his own way and she like wants to protect him and later she comes back and is like, hey, you know, like my parents were really harsh. I didn't want to be like that and I was just like that and I'm sorry and I am just doing that because I'm scared, because you know, like you've gone through a lot, you have some struggles and I want to protect you and I thought that was so healing as well, like I have great parents. It's not like my parents would never do that, they definitely would but it's like I imagine reading that at that age, if you're 15 or something, and how that would be so amazing to see of like or like to discuss with your parent and be like, hey, we're both just like figuring this out, you know. And I just liked how. Discuss with your parent and be like, hey, we're both just like figuring this out, you know. And I just liked how I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think so many books about teenagers or high schoolers like the parent is like maybe the antagonist, so they have to overcome, and there's part of that. Like she, they disagree and they argue or whatever. But, um, you know, when certain parents aren't as accepting or whatever, like, there are parents who might, may be more antagonistic, but I liked that she was able to, like they were, have this moment where they could understand where each other was coming from, and I just liked that she wasn't like she did something that he didn't like and was mean or whatever, but that didn't make her like a bad person or a bad parent. They were still able to have a relationship and overcome it. So I just really like that this book.
Speaker 2:It's so lovely and there's gonna be one more, I think. Uh, she said in the end of this book that the next volume will be the last uh installment and I'm sad because I want to grow up with naked charlie. Like I want to watch them, I want to learn their stories forever. But, um, I do understand, like you have to, all the good things have to come to an end. But I, I mean really honestly, I think these books are so good for anyone, but especially, like if you had teenage children or if you are a teenager, I think they could be really like because, like you said, they deal with some really heavy things, really serious topics In a very thoughtful way, but in the most thoughtful and lighthearted and fun way and they're still like so, like, like you feel so warm inside when you read them and the art is gorgeous and the art is beautiful and they're easy to read, and so I really really like it.
Speaker 2:Five stars.
Speaker 1:You know I read um I I attempted to read recently. She wrote a novel about charlie's older sister, um, called solitaire. It wasn't for me, it was a lot more. I mean, it's a ya book all of these books are ya and it was very much like. It just didn't feel as like applicable to me. Yeah, maybe, because maybe if heartstopper was longer or like, yeah, if it wasn't just a novel, I would not finish it because it's a graphic novel.
Speaker 2:It's like different.
Speaker 1:Um, and this was just a straight novel, um, but just for awareness. She for people who like the world of hard stopper.
Speaker 2:She also wrote a novel about her yeah about charlotte orson stein and I think they're both in the book. I think there's like one or two, um like mini stories also about charlotte. Yeah, just little short things that she's written, so there's more to explore. Yeah well, yeah, I loved it, thank you for making me read the series.
Speaker 1:I am so glad you like it. All right, everybody. We'll see you next time.