The Honest Pause Book Club: Into the Blue by Emma Brodie

⚠️ This episode contains spoilers for Into the Blue by Emma Brodie.

Welcome back to The Honest Pause Book Club.

Each week, we read a book together and then take a pause—not just to talk about the story, but to explore the questions it asks about our own lives. We host our book club on Fable, where readers can join the conversation, share favorite quotes, and reflect together. We'd love for you to read along with us.

We're also excited to be hosting upcoming reading retreats, where book lovers can unplug, connect with one another, and spend intentional time reading, reflecting, and slowing down. We hope you'll join us.

This week, we're discussing Into the Blue by Emma Brodie.

Rather than giving a traditional review, we're exploring the themes that stayed with us long after we turned the final page. We talk about the complicated idea of "home," what it means to reinvent yourself, how our past continues to shape us, and whether it's ever possible to truly leave an old version of yourself behind.

Throughout the episode, we discuss questions like:

• Can you ever really go home again?
• How much of our identity comes from where we grew up?
• What parts of ourselves change over time—and what parts never do?
• When is it worth giving someone a second chance?
• How do we carry grief, love, and hope into the next chapter of our lives?

We also share our first impressions of the book, favorite characters and moments, surprising twists, and the scenes that lingered with us after we finished reading.

Whether you've already read Into the Blue or you're planning to pick it up soon, we hope this conversation encourages you to pause, reflect, and consider your own journey.

Because at The Honest Pause, we don't just review books.

We pause.

📚 Read with us: Join The Honest Pause Book Club on Fable and be part of the conversation.

💜 Reading Retreats: Looking for space to slow down, read, and connect with fellow book lovers? Join our reading retreat waitlist to hear about upcoming retreats.

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @thehonestpause for behind-the-scenes content, book announcements, and weekly reflections.

⭐ If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you followed the podcast and left a review. Your support helps more readers discover The Honest Pause and become part of our community.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to The Honest Pause. I'm Carol Rothri, actress, intuitive coach, and your co-host for Real Meaningful Conversations.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

And I'm Miriam Tyree, entrepreneur, business strategist, and your partner in navigating life's ups and downs.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Here we talk about what happens when you hit pause, when we reflect and embrace the messy beauty of life.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

So whether you're here to reflect, recharge, or just have a good laugh, we've got you covered. Let's get started. This episode is going to contain spoilers for the book Into the Blue by Emma Brody. Just as a quick reminder, every week that we do this, we will uh read together in our fable book club for the total of a month. And then we pause to not only discuss the story, but really explore the bigger questions that the book asks about our own lives. So it's not a traditional review, but we're asking thought-provoking questions about our lives to really think about ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

No, I'm gonna keep yes. Okay. Uh yeah, I love the fact that we do delve into ourselves, and that's why um both Miriam and I um are doing the book book retreat this way or the book club this way. Um I'm gonna give a full disclosure, like right out, right off the bat here. It was not one of my favorite books.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

I think that we both felt that way. I will say this is a very highly rated book, and I think there are many things about this book that are interesting. It is a romance that is also a little bit sci-fi, where there is there are two characters who basically start out working at this like small town video store. I think we all remember, or most of us remember, Blockbuster Video or like video rental stores. Yes. And um, one of the characters is like I guess you call it like an heir. He's like from this like famous acting family, and they fall in love and then they part ways, and then they reunite years later on a sci-fi TV set. So there's a lot that is kind of relatable here for you, Terrell. There's conventions and there's things. So I think I had really high hopes for the book. Um the book also has a lot of uh time jumps. So they start in one period of time in one place, and over the course of the book, you follow them over a significant period of time. And uh it is a romance. It is maybe, I would not go so far as to say this is like a sci-fi book or a fantasy book, but there are sci-fi elements. I think a disclaimer I would give is that if you are a hardcore convention or sci-fi TV show fan, you might be a little disappointed in the portrayal of the sci-fi TV show or the conventions, but I think there are some juicy bits that we should talk about here. And juicy bits and some deep bits. There's I mean there's some deep bits. I struggle because I think there were parts that I really liked and then there were parts that just didn't work for me. One of the big themes in this is um being a part of a legacy family, whether your whole family went to like one school or they're all dentists or they're all actors. Do you think, you know, I didn't have that, you know, I don't have that in my family where everybody like went to the same school or everyone's in the same profession. Would that be a lot of pressure for you? I could imagine it would feel like a lot of expectation and a lot of pressure to fall in this like one pathway.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Uh I'm I'm with you as in that I I I was not, I never had that pressure as a you know, raised as an only child. Um, but I can see where there would be that pressure because there's that, even if it isn't overt, there's still that expectation, right? That oh my gosh, well mom did this, dad did that, and then my older brother, like there's all of that. There's always going to be, I think, for the most part, where it would be a natural thing for a person to go, I just I'm failing. I'm not, I'm not living up to it. And you know, uh should I feel bad about it? I'm just not interested. It's just not my thing. Um, and following your heart and doing what it is that does make you happy, which you know, they did. That I mean, it there are like you say, there's some beautiful moments and beautiful writing in this book. So don't get me wrong. It just wasn't one that for me when I I start a book and I can't I don't want to put it down. I those books excite me to the point where it when it's about to end, I'll slow down my reading because I don't want it to end. I love getting immersed in a book like that. That did not happen for me this time around. Um, but again, we're not saying that it's not, you know, a lovely book. There's a reason it is, you know, one of the top-rated books right now. Um but yeah, there is a lot of expectation if we if we delve into that family, the family dynamics. Um what did you get from it?

SPEAKER_00 6:08

How did you I mean, I think I could imagine that if your whole family is like Oscar winners and then you decide to act, there's pressure to be like very good at it or to also win an Oscar, not just from yourself or your family, but from anyone in the public or anyone who knows. It's like I had a friend whose father was a very famous athlete, and he went on to play the same sport. And I there was just added scrutiny because of his last name and who he was, and he didn't go past college in that sport, and I can only imagine what it's like for someone like David Beckham's kids or Julia Roberts' kids, or you know, if they choose to follow in the same pathway. It's like the Scars Guards. I don't know how many boys are in that family. There's like a million of them. I actually saw this like funny article about that, but they're all actors, but they're all like very good actors. And I think also, who is it? Meryl Streep has four daughters, I think, and they're all actors too. Um, and there are legacy families where this is a thing. So I think a lot of the people in our book club, and again, if you're not in the book club, please join us on Fable, have that experience. It's not a personal experience I have had, but it is a big theme that shows up. And I can see how there's a lot of pressure. I definitely felt pressure and have felt pressure in many other ways, but comparison is a tough gremlin that we can all face. I think comparison can kill our happiness. And it is hard because it's not always just you know your opinion, but your family's opinion and being that legacy. There's a lot of a lot of pressure there. Another thing that comes up is not doing things because you're afraid of them. Everyone is afraid of things. Is there anything that you won't do in front of people because you're afraid?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I think everybody, I mean, I can't speak for everybody, I should take that back. Um, I'll speak for myself. Is there anything that I'm afraid to do? Hmm. No. If if I was younger, I probably would have said yes, but I mean, for me to get out, let's say, and attempt to play baseball, I'm I'm gonna tell you right from the get-go, I it would be a fail. Total fail. Even as a young girl, I was never really athletically inclined. It was because I grew up in the dance world. So when I tried to play baseball in elementary school, I remember they'd always stick me way out in the outfield because they knew there was no hope in hell that any ball would go that far and I didn't have to worry about it. Um, and did I feel embarrassed about it? Not really. I just knew I wasn't comfortable, but I still took part. And um, I remember sports days always thinking, oh my goodness, uh how am I going to do this? And then I also had, you know, I remember I have a family member who would say, Oh, I don't know how she's gonna be able to run because her feet are so big she's gonna trip and fall, or whatever. I mean, so you as a kid, you hear those things, and um I remember I would I would take it to heart. What is interesting for me is as a younger adult finding it on in my own way, then getting into sports and getting into run clubs and and loving it. Um did I just digress? No, I'm I'm still on topic. Oh you know how I tend to talk about it. You're gonna rein me in, rein me in. Um yeah, so yeah, when I was younger, I I could feel that. And I sort of empathize. Remember if it was the young man, how his family the one of the the moments that stands out for me, uh just to to go back to the to the scene between the two of them when the aunt makes them do those that scene and how both of them they just it's like they disappeared and the characters were there, and both of them had no desire to do this. It wasn't what they wanted to do, but oh my gosh, it was magical. So again, you go even deeper, you you don't want to do it because your family's done it, or you don't want to do it because it's really not for you and you're not sure, and yet they go and they do a scene, and the magic is already there. So, unless again, there's another lesson, you don't know until you actually try something, and sometimes that's when the wonderful things happen, right? We discover that, oh my gosh, I'm actually good at this, and not only that, it makes me happy, it brings me joy to actually do this.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

I think what I've learned, especially in motherhood, is that it doesn't matter what you do, and if you're good at it or if you're not as good at it, someone will have something nice to say, and someone will judge you, and someone will have something super not nice to say about it. And you could be doing your best and having the best intention and trying your best, and someone will criticize it. You know, this is big on social media. You look at anyone's post of like, oh, I'm trying this new thing, and like for every 30 people that are like, wow, that's so amazing that you did that. There are 30 people who are like, what a loser, you know? And I think there's like pros and cons of social media, but it's like there's this thing about being online that people like people never say this stuff to your face, but they like forget and they just say whatever is on their mind online. I think at the end of the day, you should do like there are many things that I feel uncomfortable doing because maybe I don't feel super confident in it. I think there's a lot of things I would do that I felt uncomfortable doing because I wanted to do it. But you just have to be really okay. You know, it doesn't even have to be on social media or televised. Like, let's say you go and join a volleyball league and you've never played volleyball before. There will be a million people who are like, you're doing amazing. Um, and then there will be people who are like, what a loser, you know, and I think you have to just be comfortable with yourself. I mean, take a look at like any person out there. Taylor Swift is, you know, recently got married in front of a thousand people at Madison Square Garden, and you have all the people who are like, oh, this is amazing. And you have all the people like, oh, this is so stupid, and like billionaires just doing billionaire things. Like, everybody's gonna have an opinion on anything that you do, whether it's in front of like one person or 10 people or you know, a hundred million people. I'm kind of like just like do whatever you want. Like, if you're afraid to do something or uncomfortable, like do what's gonna make you happy and understand that like people are gonna think what they're gonna think and they're gonna say what they're gonna say, and they don't matter. I I mean at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

They don't. What matters is how you feel about what you just did.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

You know, there's a quote, so again, spoilers are included here. Um, so do not listen to the rest of this if you haven't read the book. But um one thing that comes up pervasively um throughout the book is this concept in this quote that no one should know how they're going to die. What do you think about that? Would you want to know how you were gonna die? How would you feel?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Hell no.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

I don't want to know.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Hell no. If I don't want to know if I had a you know sell by date, you know, on my head, would I want to know? I mean, there's there's two, I mean, there's two thoughts, right? There's the one that you go, okay, I've just been been given this, you know, sentence that this is how long I have. So I'm gonna go out and do whatever it is I want to do and just enjoy it. And then the other thought is why would I want to know? Would it would it would it affect how I do things, where I go? Would I ever want to venture out of the house? No, I I wouldn't want to know. I just want to live in the moment day by day.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah. And I think there's so many benefits of things like modern medicine and genetic testing and information that we now have at our fingertips that gives us information that can be helpful. It can also be harmful. It's not something I would want to know. Um if I had the choice, I would not want to know. I would not want to know. Um, another quote that I really liked from the book was I never had the guts to go for what I really want. And I think many of us at many times in our lives have had that experience of like missed opportunity and not going for what they wanted. But like whether it's say you have a crush on someone, or like you're like, maybe I'll audition for this thing, or maybe I'll like apply to this school or this program, and we don't do it. Have you had that experience?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Always. Yeah. I mean, in any, you know, various auditions, or like you say, regrets. We're always gonna have some regrets. Um what was it? Oh, my I remember for my grad, my grandmother was like, Do you want to go to England? Because I wanted to go to this theater school. And and I said, I oh, and I I remember distinctly going, Oh, I don't know if I want to go by myself. There was like, I just wasn't that wasn't the time for me. I wasn't ready. Um, and as it turned out, out of high school, I started working. I started performing. I was already on camera, I was doing theater, and then I was working in the industry. And then I thought, you know, maybe I'll just pull out for a bit, take a little sabbatical and go to an actual, you know, I want to go to that. I mean, I did go to the theater school, two-year program, but I did it locally. But then I thought maybe I should go abroad and go somewhere else. And I remember talking to the um organizer of this one particular school and saying, you know, I I'm looking at this, and and so we had a discussion, and I remember him saying, But you're already a working actor, you're already doing what you want to do. I said, Yes, but I was thinking there's always that yes, but because I felt again the regret of what I didn't do at you know, 17. So now I was at this whatever age it was, I can't remember. And I remember her him saying, You're already doing what the students who come into this school are trying to be where you already are. So maybe took a take a look at where you are. I I I I don't know why you'd want to. It's not like I I'm trying to discourage you, but I want you to think about it. And that was the best advice because it just opened my eyes to go, oh my gosh. I can't go back because I made a decision those years ago, and here I think I can fix it, and yet he just put it right in front of my face. There was the mirror. You're already doing what you've always wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

I love that. I think it is so hard. And another thing that comes up in the book, like in a similar vein, is the not saying what we really want, right? Leaving things unsaid. And I think like a lot of the time we don't, most people aren't fully honest, whether it's honest with themselves or honest with other people, it can be really scary to be rejected. This is one area of my life that I don't have a problem with, unfortunately or fortunately. I have had some rough conversations with people because I'm just like, I'm like, let's just like put all of our what do you call it, like eggs on the table, ducks on the table. What is that?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

There's a cards on the table.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Yeah, not eggs, uh, cards. Just like, what do I have to lose? I'm like, do you want to do this or not? Like, like, where are we at? And I think there was a really long period of my time, like my life where I wouldn't do that. And then I was just like, you know what? There's no point in leaving things unsaid because it just is hurting me. But I think overall, a lot of people leave a lot of things unsaid. Or, you know, I remember a long time ago, I was dating someone and it was so awkward. So we were, I don't even know if we were dating. It was awkward. Okay. The truth is we were dating. Like we went on dates, but like never called them dates, but were hanging out all of the time. And his best friend had said to me, he was like, you know, he's like super into you. You guys should like be together. And like you should just like say something because you guys are basically dating. Like he brings you to everything, you're always his plus one. And I was kind of at the point where I was like, what are we doing? Like, are we dating or are we not dating or whatever? And I finally said something and he was like, I just like can't go there. And I was like, that's cool, but like we can't, like, you realize that we're basically a couple without being a couple and the romantic stuff. I can't just be like your plus one to everything. Like it was weird. Um, and I we never talked about it after or again, but I was so glad that I said that like super, I like blew up the friendship for sure. But I was super glad that I had the conversation, and I don't have any regrets about it because it was weird to be in this limbo thing.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

So did it change? Like it shifted your relationship?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

No, I mean our relationship shifted in that like I refused to pretend to be his girlfriend. I was like, we can't like we're like best friends, but like I'm like at level girlfriend level. We're doing that kind of stuff. Like, this doesn't make sense. Like, I should be doing this with someone that I'm actually gonna date. And I was pretty young at the time. Um, but I was so glad that I had that conversation. But I think so many people just like leave things unsaid. I've even had like people tell me who it's like very good friends with later who's like, I should have asked you out. And I was like, I would have gone out on a date with you if you had asked me out, but like never did. Like, I mean, that's like um one example of that. But I I think that people don't always say what they want or don't say the uncomfortable things. I will say something that pissed me off in the book is how much it felt like people and Noah like wasted time. They could have had all this time together, but they didn't have because they were so stubborn. I was like, and then I was like, do people really do that? And I do think there are instances of people doing that where they're like they years. I mean, we I have I I won't speak for everyone, I have wasted, I had wasted many years of my life in relationships or jobs or situations that were really not good for me. Um, I think we all do that, and so not acting like staying in situations that aren't good for us and don't serve. And not acting on the things that are good for us are like the same. It's super frustrating. Like I was in a five-year relationship with someone who treated me terribly and I should have left. But I was like always making excuses and young and stupid. And I take full responsibility for that. And I don't think that's any different than like also not telling someone how you feel or like not getting involved. You know what I mean? So I do think that was super frustrating for me, but I think most of us can relate to that in some way.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Completely. And and the fact that the the character that we're discussing felt that distance had to be, I'm trying not to give too many spoilers. Um, wanted to sever himself in this relationship because he wanted to protect her. It came from a place of I want to protect her. But in the end, you don't get to choose. You don't get to choose. You can't make a decision for her. And think of all the time the years wasted, wasted that could have been spent. I mean, time is so precious. You can never get that time back. So that that just irked me so much in in the book.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

That yeah. I don't think I really learned how to do that until I was like mid to late 20s. Like, I think it took me a lot of time to get to the place where like I was like, I don't care. Like, I'm just gonna like ask the question, blow the thing up. Like it might be uncomfortable. It's better to be uncomfortable and like get through it than like not. Ultimately, that's how I feel. Um, I struggled with this book with and again, spoilers, but Noah getting this like incurable diagnosis. And I just felt like I had read this book. I have like seen the movie that is similar to this. Like I've read this book like a bunch of times, and I I think I went into it again, really excited about this like sci-fi TV angle and this convention angle, and I just I struggled with it, but I also think it was like really emotional and really, really challenging, and it was people are complicated, and love is complicated, it's complicated, but it's worth it too. It is it is so we love to read a lot of books, and we hope that you will join us in our book club on Fable. The next book that we are reading is gonna be called The Silver Elite. So we're going a little bit back into romanticity. Yes. Uh, the author is Danny Francis, and it is set in a dystopian world where psychic abilities mean death. And so lots of things, it's a dystopian romance, and I will say there are rumors about the author Danny Francis being a pen name for someone else. So there are many people that think that Danny Francis is another author, and there are a couple authors that people have thought it was. So I'm really curious to read the book.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

I was gonna say, look at you with your big teases here.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Okay. I'm really curious to read the book and see who if we think Danny Francis is like a real person, or if we think that Danny Francis is the pen name for someone else. Uh and I'm not gonna spoil who these other people are, but I'm really excited to read it and see what we think. We hope that you will join us.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

And get your friends to come and join us too. The more the merrier. We'd love that.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

We love to read. So we will see you in the next book.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Thanks for spending time with us today. We do hope you're feeling inspired, entertained, or at least had a moment to breathe.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

And if you did enjoy your time with us, do us a little favor, leave a five-star review wherever you're listening, and let the world know what you love about the show.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

We'd really love to connect with you beyond the podcast. So you can find out uh all the details about staying in touch with us in the episode notes.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

And hey, if you're interested in working with us or you just want to chat, all the details are there as well. We'll see you next time. And remember, you are never too busy to take a pause.