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Book Club: Undead Girl Gang · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
0:06
Speaker 2: I hope my stuff. I never told you production of iHeartRadio.
0:18
Speaker 2: Quick content warning. We are going to be talking about death, suicide,
0:22
Speaker 2: and the grief that surrounds that. Nothing is too explicit,
0:26
Speaker 2: but it is at the foundation of the book we're
0:30
Speaker 2: talking about, so just keep that in mind. And today
0:36
Speaker 2: we are talking about a relatively newish book, So spoilers,
0:39
Speaker 2: go get it. I recommend it highly. But yes, we
0:43
Speaker 2: are digging into the twenty eighteen novel Undead Girl Gang
0:47
Speaker 2: by Lily Anderson. It's a dark horror ish comedy ish
0:53
Speaker 2: mystery that is told from the point of view of
0:56
Speaker 2: Mila Flores, an angry, fat Mexican American teen witch who
0:59
Speaker 2: decides it's to take matters into her own hands after
1:02
Speaker 2: her friend Riley's mysterious death is dismissed as suicide, despite
1:07
Speaker 2: the recent deaths of two popular students Dayton in June
1:11
Speaker 2: whose deaths are also ruled a suicide. So a lot
1:14
Speaker 2: of kind of loosen's. One of the things is her
1:18
Speaker 2: friend Riley like to dye her hair.
1:21
Speaker 3: There were just a lot of reasons why Miela was like,
1:23
Speaker 3: this is not this is not what happened. This is
1:25
Speaker 3: not what happened.
1:27
Speaker 2: So Mila uses her powers and she raises these girls
1:31
Speaker 2: from the dead and together if they get to the
1:34
Speaker 2: bottom of what happened. So, I mean, if that plot
1:39
Speaker 2: alone hasn't pulled you in, I don't know what thinking.
1:42
Speaker 1: This needs to be like a CW series.
1:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so good.
1:46
Speaker 1: I'm like, Yeah, who hasn't who's not a bought the
1:48
Speaker 1: rice to this? Because this needs to be a series asap.
1:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw.
1:53
Speaker 2: I saw some rumors that it was going to be
1:56
Speaker 2: adapted live action, but I didn't. I don't know if
2:00
Speaker 2: it went beyond like someone should do this, but I
2:03
Speaker 2: did see some talk that it might happen, which would
2:07
Speaker 2: be cool.
2:08
Speaker 3: It would be really cool.
2:09
Speaker 2: All right, So let us break down the plot. But again,
2:12
Speaker 2: if you don't want to be spoiled, this is a
2:13
Speaker 2: really fun one, go go read it, come back, Okay.
2:18
Speaker 2: So Mila Flores is a witch, largely through the influence
2:21
Speaker 2: of her best friend Riley, who lives above a funeral home.
2:25
Speaker 2: They live in a small town called Cross Creek, and
2:28
Speaker 2: they go to school together. Both are picked on by
2:31
Speaker 2: popular kids Dayton and June. Meela has a crush on Xander,
2:35
Speaker 2: Riley's brother. Seemingly without any morning signs, Dayton and June
2:40
Speaker 2: are found hanging from their necks in what is deemed
2:43
Speaker 2: a suicide pact. Soon after, Riley's discovered drowned and her
2:47
Speaker 2: death is labeled as a suicide too. Meela is furious
2:51
Speaker 2: if she feels that the deaths might be connected and
2:54
Speaker 2: that they might instead be murders. Of course, no one
2:58
Speaker 2: believes her, so she sets about gathering ingredients for a
3:01
Speaker 2: spell that will resurrect Riley for seven days, a spell
3:04
Speaker 2: she discovered in a grimoire mysteriously delivered to the abandoned
3:08
Speaker 2: Yarrow house that she and Riley used to practice spell
3:11
Speaker 2: work in. She also steals an ingredient from a local witch,
3:15
Speaker 2: a white woman named Toby, to complete the spell. Toby
3:18
Speaker 2: is wary of any spell that would bring back the dead,
3:20
Speaker 2: believing that it must be dark and dangerous in nature,
3:23
Speaker 2: so she does not approve of this whole venture. Meela
3:26
Speaker 2: performs the spell and it works, bringing Riley back to
3:29
Speaker 2: zombified life, but it also brings back their vulleys Dayton
3:34
Speaker 2: in June.
3:35
Speaker 3: Due to the.
3:35
Speaker 2: Wording of the spell, they soon discover that not only
3:39
Speaker 2: do the undead girls not remember all of the events
3:41
Speaker 2: leading up to their death, although all of them are
3:44
Speaker 2: confident that their death warrant suicide. They also can't go
3:48
Speaker 2: far from Mela without the decomposition and wombs of their
3:52
Speaker 2: dead bodies manifesting on their skin, so they have to
3:54
Speaker 2: stay kind of close. They start going through suspects and
3:58
Speaker 2: decide that school in se Well and recently dumped Caleb
4:02
Speaker 2: is at the top of their list, especially because all
4:05
Speaker 2: of them were competing for the same scholarship, so the
4:08
Speaker 2: scholarship becomes a big factor in who they're considering. This
4:12
Speaker 2: is where we get a lot of growing pains and
4:14
Speaker 2: mishaps as the group grapples with their past relationships to
4:17
Speaker 2: each other and to other people. They hash out some
4:20
Speaker 2: of those issues while learning more about each other. On
4:23
Speaker 2: top of this, Mila grows closer and closer to Xander,
4:26
Speaker 2: who is also warning the death of Riley. They go
4:29
Speaker 2: on a kind of date. They start flirting over text.
4:32
Speaker 3: The next day.
4:34
Speaker 2: Oh and on top of all this, Anaya, the school journalist,
4:37
Speaker 2: the person behind the school paper, is sniffing around Mila
4:40
Speaker 2: trying to figure out what is going on, but time
4:45
Speaker 2: is running out. Soon the spell will be over. Mila
4:48
Speaker 2: has the spell to reveal the rot within and then
4:51
Speaker 2: lures Caleb to the house. Mela gives him a truth
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Speaker 2: potion and he confesses that he didn't do it and
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Speaker 2: was in fact in love with June. He'd been wearing
5:01
Speaker 2: her necklace. They'd assumed it was like a creepy trophy thing,
5:04
Speaker 2: but he'd been doing it because he apparently was in
5:07
Speaker 2: love with her. June and Caleb talk, Toby shows up
5:12
Speaker 2: on a motorcycle with her covin and a shotgun. The
5:16
Speaker 2: girls in Caleb make a run for it, holing up
5:18
Speaker 2: in Caleb's house while they figure things out. Mila goes
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Speaker 2: to Xander for help and the pair ended up making out,
5:24
Speaker 2: but as Mila is kind of feeling him up, she
5:26
Speaker 2: realizes he has mushrooms on his back, the rot within.
5:31
Speaker 2: Xander claims that he thinks Mila just messed up the
5:35
Speaker 2: spell and he's not mad about it. Mela flees, running
5:38
Speaker 2: into Riley on the way. Riley desperately pleads that it
5:41
Speaker 2: isn't true that Xander didn't kill her, and Riley confirms
5:45
Speaker 2: that he didn't, but she has more to tell. She
5:49
Speaker 2: remembered that her father the funeral director claimed that Dayton
5:52
Speaker 2: in June's death weren't consistent with hanging. Later, Riley found
5:57
Speaker 2: June's shoe in Xander's room and started to freak out,
6:00
Speaker 2: wondering if he had in fact killed her. She decided
6:03
Speaker 2: that just because he had the shoe didn't mean he
6:05
Speaker 2: killed her and went to throw it in the creek,
6:08
Speaker 2: but enduring so slipped, fell in and died. The two
6:12
Speaker 2: friends fight. Riley calls Mila a bad witch. Mela calls
6:18
Speaker 2: the police to anonymously report that Xander was in the
6:20
Speaker 2: park the same night that June and Dayton died. June
6:24
Speaker 2: remembers that she secretly was dating Caleb while she was
6:27
Speaker 2: still with Xander. Then Mela learns that not only is
6:31
Speaker 2: Xander missing, but she's got some messages from Anayah warning
6:35
Speaker 2: her away from him and his family. She arranges a
6:39
Speaker 2: meeting at Yarrow House, and Mila doesn't have time to
6:41
Speaker 2: stop her from going, so she and the girls rush
6:43
Speaker 2: over and Anya is there and she believes their whole
6:46
Speaker 2: story miraculously. Soon, Xander shows up with a ceremonial knife.
6:54
Speaker 2: He knocks Anaya out and continues to assert that Mila
6:57
Speaker 2: made a mistake while yelling at the dead girls. He
7:01
Speaker 2: sets the house on fire, yelling at Mela to escape.
7:04
Speaker 2: He starts winging on about how June and Dyon were
7:07
Speaker 2: mean to Riley and that the competitiveness of the scholarship
7:10
Speaker 2: was killing Riley. June distracts him while Anea escapes, and
7:14
Speaker 2: he screams at her about how she cheated on him
7:17
Speaker 2: and alienated his family by making fun of the funeral home,
7:20
Speaker 2: and that he wished he could have given her the
7:22
Speaker 2: death he believes she deserved. June punches him, and Riley
7:27
Speaker 2: jumps on his back. As Mila and June make their
7:30
Speaker 2: way to the one escape route. The undead girls escape,
7:33
Speaker 2: but Xander grabs Mela and pulls her back. She strokes
7:37
Speaker 2: his hair and lulls him into thinking that she stayed
7:39
Speaker 2: for him, while she grabs his knife and kills him.
7:43
Speaker 2: She wakes up at home and is informed by her
7:45
Speaker 2: mom that there was an accident, but she's more concerned
7:48
Speaker 2: with the fact that this is the last day that
7:50
Speaker 2: the undad Girls will be resurrected. She men's fences with
7:54
Speaker 2: Toby and her coven, and they agree to be there
7:57
Speaker 2: to make sure that everything goes smoothly. The girl girls
8:00
Speaker 2: meet up at Caleb's and have a party to celebrate
8:02
Speaker 2: their last night. They dance and they eat pizza, They
8:05
Speaker 2: watch movies. When it's time, they return to the cemetery
8:09
Speaker 2: and say goodbye. Xander's death is ruled an accident, and
8:13
Speaker 2: Naya and me the strike up a friendship. Yeah, yep,
8:20
Speaker 2: it's a lot more that happens, but yeah.
8:23
Speaker 1: You got that's it.
8:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's a really fun read. It is.
8:30
Speaker 1: I was like, I think when I think about books
8:32
Speaker 1: like this, and I think about like some of that
8:35
Speaker 1: pass like why novels, like there's something so reminiscent and
8:39
Speaker 1: wanting to have something brand new. You know. I love
8:43
Speaker 1: this because, like I think that's why so many of
8:46
Speaker 1: some of the biggest hits that's happening on like Broadway
8:49
Speaker 1: and on like TVs like original concepts, and this is
8:52
Speaker 1: one of those original concepts. I'm like, yes, it's juicy,
8:56
Speaker 1: has got a mystery. You and I did talk about
8:58
Speaker 1: whether or not you figured it out pretty quickly, were
9:01
Speaker 1: like had it, but like there were some plots and
9:03
Speaker 1: twists that I was like, yeah, nice, nice, unexpected, unexpected.
9:06
Speaker 1: Of course, it's sad to have to say a body
9:08
Speaker 1: of us, Like that's still in the back of my mind.
9:11
Speaker 1: I was like, oh no, there's still gone though there's
9:13
Speaker 1: no way.
9:14
Speaker 3: To keep anyway.
9:15
Speaker 1: Great book, Great book A plus.
9:18
Speaker 3: Yeah it was.
9:19
Speaker 2: It was very sad that that part was a real
9:22
Speaker 2: down but you know, they got to they got to
9:26
Speaker 2: have like that, They got to have that kind of
9:30
Speaker 2: last send off that they actually wanted, right, which is
9:34
Speaker 2: how the book opens, is that they didn't get anything
9:36
Speaker 2: like that. So that brings us to our first theme
9:40
Speaker 2: is death is a big theme. Surprisingly undead Girl getg
9:46
Speaker 2: But that's how the book opens is Mila is at
9:50
Speaker 2: Riley's funeral and she's just getting angrier and angrier because
9:55
Speaker 2: it feels so performative, none of this is about Riley,
9:58
Speaker 2: and she's can't take it, like she storms out right.
10:02
Speaker 2: So I have a quote. Oh and so the he
10:05
Speaker 2: in question here is Xander. So Xander gives this speech
10:09
Speaker 2: at Riley's the like eulogy at Riley's funeral, And so
10:12
Speaker 2: she's thinking about that quote because now he isn't just
10:16
Speaker 2: a hot guy with a dead girlfriend. He's walking talking
10:19
Speaker 2: tragedy porn. People will call their way toward him the
10:22
Speaker 2: same way they watch Lifetime movies or read Nicholas Spark's
10:25
Speaker 2: novels and raptured with the pain clouding his formally perfect life.
10:29
Speaker 2: No one who sent these flowers cares about Riley at all. Yeah, yeah,
10:35
Speaker 2: and she's just That's part of what leads her on
10:39
Speaker 2: this whole thing is she's like, no one here cares
10:41
Speaker 2: to learn the truth, because she immediately is like, no,
10:43
Speaker 2: I know this isn't right. I know this isn't right,
10:46
Speaker 2: but everybody is so quick to accept that. And she
10:49
Speaker 2: even has a oh okay, I'll just go into this
10:52
Speaker 2: X quote from fictional hangover. Unfortunately, the school choir, which
10:56
Speaker 2: Riley didn't give a shit about, stands up to sing
10:59
Speaker 2: I'm always chasing Rainbows, which they just sang at the
11:02
Speaker 2: other funeral. Uh, they must be competing with it. Meila
11:06
Speaker 2: flicks through the program and notices the Christian quote, which
11:09
Speaker 2: is ridiculous because Riley was pagan poetry written by another student,
11:13
Speaker 2: and a picture of Riley her final selfie taken in
11:15
Speaker 2: the bathroom. Mela can't stand this first one more second
11:18
Speaker 2: and gets up to leave, telling Anniah Dorsey on the
11:21
Speaker 2: way out that her poem fings sung.
11:24
Speaker 1: There's so many things so that the selfie, which Riley
11:27
Speaker 1: does talk about because she ends up seeing the memorials.
11:30
Speaker 1: She's like, really, you let them use this photo? How
11:33
Speaker 1: dare you? Essentially? But yeah, like out of all of
11:38
Speaker 1: the many of the many funerals that I think I
11:41
Speaker 1: have attendant, and unfortunately he has been too many. Like
11:44
Speaker 1: I often think that, well, especially with people that I like,
11:47
Speaker 1: I know weren't religious or I know, we're like to
11:50
Speaker 1: have this because the other people, like her parents specifically
11:54
Speaker 1: wanted this instead of not doing it for her. It's
11:58
Speaker 1: so obvious that it's kind of like this person has
12:00
Speaker 1: no idea who she is. Why are you writing a poem?
12:02
Speaker 1: Why are you pretending? And the like popular girls trying
12:05
Speaker 1: to be more popular are girls who think that this
12:07
Speaker 1: may be their time? Yeah, in the spotlight by saying
12:10
Speaker 1: we were so close and they barely talk to her.
12:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, let her perform a song. We know she doesn't, like, she.
12:16
Speaker 1: Had no idea what the song is about. Like also
12:19
Speaker 1: like sometimes when you, yeah, you hear a song like this,
12:21
Speaker 1: is this definite? Is this even a song about death?
12:24
Speaker 1: Or like in memory of this sounds like just like
12:27
Speaker 1: you just made something up?
12:29
Speaker 3: Yeah?
12:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I mean and in this context, it felt
12:34
Speaker 2: like very much they were using it as a like
12:37
Speaker 2: almost an audition, like see how talented I am.
12:42
Speaker 1: I also find it funny though, and I'd like, I'd
12:44
Speaker 1: rather people will do this than not. But like taking
12:46
Speaker 1: someone's favorite song and slowing it down when it's like
12:50
Speaker 1: I think I've heard it, like it was a joke.
12:53
Speaker 1: I think it's a come thing where they take things
12:54
Speaker 1: like thong song or something. Yeah, oh yeah, does it
12:58
Speaker 1: make it like slow to make it Sarah? But it's like,
13:01
Speaker 1: this does not make sense. But you know what, I
13:04
Speaker 1: appreciate that because at least they knew that was their
13:06
Speaker 1: favorite song.
13:07
Speaker 3: At least you with what they like, you know what,
13:10
Speaker 3: I could get on board with that.
13:13
Speaker 2: Yes. Another theme is that there's a scene where they're
13:28
Speaker 2: kind of talking about how some of the other students
13:31
Speaker 2: are profited, yeah, off of these deaths. So here's another
13:35
Speaker 2: quote from fictional hangover. There is a horribly ironic bake
13:38
Speaker 2: sale fundraising to plant a memorial tree for Dayton. It
13:41
Speaker 2: seems the fundraisers for god Dayton and June were found
13:44
Speaker 2: hanged from a tree. In addition to the bake sale,
13:48
Speaker 2: the swim team is asking people to sign Dayton's framed
13:51
Speaker 2: swim cap. There's a station for a yearbook tribute called Gone,
13:55
Speaker 2: but first let me take a selfie. There's a raffle
13:57
Speaker 2: for a Starbucks gift card to the person who can
14:00
Speaker 2: list June's favorite things. And my little pony face painting booths.
14:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many things that I'm like, you know,
14:09
Speaker 1: it is funny, but I didn't laugh out loud because
14:11
Speaker 1: it's too real.
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's too real. Yeah, and you know, like this
14:18
Speaker 3: is a heightened.
14:22
Speaker 2: It is played for kind of that dark comedy example.
14:27
Speaker 2: I mean, and at this point, the Undead Girl Gang
14:32
Speaker 2: is with me and they're seeing this and like, oh no.
14:37
Speaker 1: But it's interesting. Is like Dayton's like, okay, cool, I'm
14:40
Speaker 1: glad you remember me, as where like June is thinking
14:44
Speaker 1: what is happening because you're not fully taking advantage of
14:48
Speaker 1: the fact that I should be mourned, you should be screaming, crying,
14:51
Speaker 1: And then Riley's like what.
14:55
Speaker 3: You're like?
14:55
Speaker 1: The reactions are mixed, But I say Dayton herself, who
14:59
Speaker 1: ends up being such a lovable character even though she
15:01
Speaker 1: is horrible, but like it's one of those things that
15:05
Speaker 1: she just was like cool. The only part is that
15:08
Speaker 1: she didn't get to be a part of it before
15:09
Speaker 1: she died.
15:10
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm, it's strange. I don't know. Oh gosh, it's
15:16
Speaker 3: such such a sad thing.
15:18
Speaker 2: But we we had death at our school and they
15:21
Speaker 2: would do it wasn't like this necessarily, but you know,
15:26
Speaker 2: they would have the.
15:29
Speaker 3: Vigils and the like.
15:31
Speaker 2: Bring all this and people would speak and all of that,
15:34
Speaker 2: and it just felt kind of strange, especially if you
15:36
Speaker 2: didn't know the person, because it was sort of expected
15:41
Speaker 2: that you would show up.
15:42
Speaker 3: And do it.
15:44
Speaker 2: I just remember kind of being like, I didn't know
15:46
Speaker 2: this person at all, so I feel strange being here.
15:49
Speaker 3: I would feel strange not being here.
15:51
Speaker 1: It was both those things. Yeah, I felt that way,
15:54
Speaker 1: and like knowing when people die that you knew or mean,
16:00
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And I came back with like,
16:02
Speaker 1: but I don't celebrate them. What I remember is they
16:04
Speaker 1: were bullies and death does not exempt them from their
16:08
Speaker 1: past actions in their life and the people that they affected. Again,
16:12
Speaker 1: June and Dayton are those exact people people were, like,
16:15
Speaker 1: I don't they were not nice people. They were I
16:18
Speaker 1: don't want to celebrate their life because their life was
16:21
Speaker 1: to me miserable, you know, there's so many moments of
16:24
Speaker 1: that that you were like, what do you do with those?
16:26
Speaker 1: I don't want to see this lovely place turned into
16:28
Speaker 1: that name that's going to haunt me forever for the
16:30
Speaker 1: memories that I remember being bullied.
16:34
Speaker 2: There is And that was kind of the one of
16:37
Speaker 2: the most interesting aspects of this book, which I think,
16:40
Speaker 2: which we're going to talk about at the end. But
16:44
Speaker 2: you know, these girls are dead and they only have
16:46
Speaker 2: seven days, and right, you do see them get to
16:50
Speaker 2: know each other more and hash some of that stuff out,
16:54
Speaker 2: and they still fight and they're still hurt, and but
16:57
Speaker 2: they discuss it more and talk about it more. And yeah,
17:02
Speaker 2: we'll talk about that more at the end. But I
17:03
Speaker 2: did think that was really interesting. I mean, another part
17:06
Speaker 2: of this is, as you said, there was mixed reactions
17:09
Speaker 2: to seeing this whole thing. But June, June, it's really angry.
17:16
Speaker 2: And she also goes through she gets into a walker,
17:19
Speaker 2: and she finds all those notes of what people say,
17:20
Speaker 2: and some of them were.
17:21
Speaker 3: Like, nah, I hated you.
17:25
Speaker 2: But she finds out like what people really thought of
17:28
Speaker 2: her because she's not around anymore, so people weren't feeling
17:30
Speaker 2: like they had the necessarily.
17:32
Speaker 3: A whole book.
17:33
Speaker 1: I will say one of the things that she was
17:34
Speaker 1: mad about ended up being true.
17:36
Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, she was very like she wanted to know
17:46
Speaker 2: because Mila was very convinced it had to be one
17:49
Speaker 2: of their friends. That's what statistically is correct. So she
17:54
Speaker 2: was going through their friend group and June was like,
17:56
Speaker 2: I want to know who that was.
17:58
Speaker 3: I don't want to know yep, and she did find out.
18:06
Speaker 2: I also wanted to add in here it was kind
18:08
Speaker 2: of a poignant thing. But that whole idea of that
18:13
Speaker 2: they explore in the book. It's like wanting to look
18:16
Speaker 2: nice or two last things. So Dayton goes to see
18:18
Speaker 2: her family, she kind of disappears and can't find her
18:21
Speaker 2: get a certain drink for Data's gatorade even in death,
18:25
Speaker 2: and like that. Really I thought it was a really
18:27
Speaker 2: sweet moment when Mela helps Riley dye her hair because
18:31
Speaker 2: that was so important to her. But just having those
18:35
Speaker 2: moments of these were the things that were important to me. Yeah,
18:40
Speaker 2: and I want to rectify it or experience it one
18:45
Speaker 2: more time.
18:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
18:48
Speaker 2: Another thing, of course, is yeah, people not believing Mela.
18:53
Speaker 2: People thinking that she's lost her mind or that she's
18:56
Speaker 2: traumatized and stressed, and can't see anything.
19:00
Speaker 3: And she she recognizes that pretty early on. She she's
19:02
Speaker 3: pretty quick to be like, I got to.
19:04
Speaker 2: Take matters into my own hands here, no one's no
19:07
Speaker 2: one's gonna listen to me, right Yeah. And then yeah,
19:13
Speaker 2: getting these secrets from the dead, seeing these different sides.
19:18
Speaker 3: Of Dayton and June, and like even.
19:21
Speaker 2: Living people like Caleb, Uh, people contain multitudes. I feel
19:28
Speaker 2: like I really appreciated that, even though, yes, if people
19:30
Speaker 2: did bad things, I don't think you should excuse us
19:32
Speaker 2: forget those things. But it was I liked that. It
19:34
Speaker 2: was they were painted out their flesh right right. Yeah,
19:39
Speaker 2: here's a quote from rich in color. But perhaps the
19:42
Speaker 2: thing I appreciated most about the four girls was that
19:44
Speaker 2: Mila was able to acknowledge the terrible things June and
19:47
Speaker 2: Dayton had done while simultaneously refusing to victim blame them.
19:51
Speaker 3: For their deaths. Yeah. I really appreciated that too.
19:56
Speaker 1: I mean, if she was super hyper focused on Riley
19:59
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it had to do like, oh you doo,
20:04
Speaker 1: Like when she brought them back to the life, You're like,
20:06
Speaker 1: oh my bad, Yeah, I guess you do.
20:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I guess really think it was them the
20:11
Speaker 2: problem with the spell was she worded it in a
20:14
Speaker 2: way that was like bring back someone who had died
20:17
Speaker 2: incorrectly or something, and so she wasn't expecting them to
20:21
Speaker 2: come back.
20:22
Speaker 1: Also, she had she had buried June's flip gloss.
20:26
Speaker 3: Yeah that's right, that's right.
20:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so that also helped with bringing them back
20:31
Speaker 1: because it had their DNA essentially right. She didn't know
20:34
Speaker 1: the slips yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I think it
20:37
Speaker 1: is very interesting, Like she did do a good job
20:39
Speaker 1: in understanding that they were victims too. Mm hm, but
20:42
Speaker 1: she was really hyper focused on Riley, which ended up
20:45
Speaker 1: being flipped because it wasn't who was wrong wronged necessarily
20:50
Speaker 1: as much as June and Dayton was. But yeah, it
20:54
Speaker 1: is I think said they did a good job, especially
20:56
Speaker 1: like an understanding that there was a lot to their personalities,
21:02
Speaker 1: but they also had still things to learn, Like June
21:05
Speaker 1: learning is that she's racist, and she's like, no, I'm
21:07
Speaker 1: just saying what is everybody's thinking to have a conversation,
21:09
Speaker 1: but then coming around and be like, Okay, that was
21:10
Speaker 1: a nice but I'm not saying I'm wrong, Like she
21:13
Speaker 1: still ends up being that way. However, she does slowly
21:16
Speaker 1: come to see like, Okay, maybe not that any of
21:20
Speaker 1: these things are her fault, but I could have been
21:23
Speaker 1: a better person alive.
21:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think, And you kind of get to
21:28
Speaker 2: see that happen and.
21:31
Speaker 3: I really appreciated it.
21:32
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this is the thing that I know I've
21:35
Speaker 2: discussed on the show.
21:37
Speaker 3: I think about this a lot. But I think about the.
21:38
Speaker 2: Last post, so the last text, so the whatever is
21:41
Speaker 2: that you send and the people look up after you died,
21:45
Speaker 2: and that's the thing that will come up. I think
21:47
Speaker 2: about that all the time. And they have a quote,
21:50
Speaker 2: there's a quote from the book about this, when you
21:53
Speaker 2: brought us back. I thought that getting revenge on Kleb
21:55
Speaker 2: was our unfinished business. But it's more complicated than that.
21:59
Speaker 2: Everything is on finished, our whole lives. There's no amount
22:02
Speaker 2: of catching up we could do in seven days to
22:04
Speaker 2: make that better. Today I heard my mom's voice and
22:06
Speaker 2: it wasn't enough to last me forever. Everything we ever
22:09
Speaker 2: did together was the last time. There's the wet section
22:13
Speaker 2: and slap of spandex stretching and snapping. I'm not going
22:16
Speaker 2: to stop missing them.
22:19
Speaker 3: Oh, she just wanted to be near them.
22:22
Speaker 1: That was the saddest.
22:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was Dayton. Yeah.
22:28
Speaker 1: So yeah, it had turned out that Dayton had gone
22:32
Speaker 1: to her house just to be quote unquote closer to them,
22:36
Speaker 1: but every day was not enough.
22:39
Speaker 3: Yeah.
22:41
Speaker 2: And the reason I kind of think about that with
22:42
Speaker 2: the last post is I feel like you are always thinking,
22:46
Speaker 2: You're never.
22:46
Speaker 3: Thinking, usually I'm going to die tomorrow.
22:49
Speaker 2: I can send this very silly text and it'll be
22:53
Speaker 2: totally fine and not the last thing someone has in me.
22:57
Speaker 3: But I thought that was really.
23:00
Speaker 2: Is also really good in doing that where it's kind
23:01
Speaker 2: of a lot of times comical and you know, over
23:06
Speaker 2: the top, but it has these moments of like, no,
23:09
Speaker 2: these girls died, yeah, and they're not gonna get to
23:12
Speaker 2: live their lives, right, really reminding you of that.
23:18
Speaker 3: M m mmmm.
23:21
Speaker 2: Another theme, I would say a big theme fat shaming
23:24
Speaker 2: and shaming in general. So here's a quote from Mela
23:28
Speaker 2: and for's sake, stop using normal as code for white.
23:31
Speaker 2: I snap, your life isn't the ruler that the rest
23:34
Speaker 2: of the world gets measured against. I never said that,
23:36
Speaker 2: it was, June says stiffly. My face goes hot as
23:39
Speaker 2: I think of all the reasons that June has ever
23:41
Speaker 2: made fun of me. I'm brown and she's not I'm
23:44
Speaker 2: fat and she's not. I'm wicking, shorter than her, live
23:48
Speaker 2: on a different side of town, drive an older car,
23:50
Speaker 2: prefer cocover pepsi, and on any given day when she
23:53
Speaker 2: was alive, she found a way to make me feel
23:56
Speaker 2: ashamed of that. Yep, and here's another quote. It's kind
24:04
Speaker 2: of cool to talk to someone who gets how absolutely
24:06
Speaker 2: tragically white this town is, and someone else who self
24:09
Speaker 2: identifies as fat, who isn't using fat as a code
24:12
Speaker 2: for ugly or you I ate a big meal. Even
24:15
Speaker 2: Riley has only ever called me kurvy, no matter how
24:17
Speaker 2: many times I correct her. So at the end of
24:20
Speaker 2: the book, when she befriends Anaya, who is a fat
24:25
Speaker 2: black girl, they have these commonalities and things that they
24:30
Speaker 2: can bond over. Another thing is identity and language. So
24:37
Speaker 2: Miila has a whole scene about not being able. She
24:39
Speaker 2: doesn't feel confident in speaking Spanish, which I thought because
24:45
Speaker 2: she's her family situation is very interesting because it kind
24:52
Speaker 2: of felt like they were not around much.
24:56
Speaker 1: They were definitely controlling in like they yeah, did not
25:00
Speaker 1: understand her and wish she was different. And a part
25:03
Speaker 1: of that is religion, Like she wasn't wicked until much later,
25:07
Speaker 1: but like they were very horrified, just kind of like
25:10
Speaker 1: Riley's parents that that idea existed in their kids, which
25:14
Speaker 1: you know, I think that happens especially as millennials who
25:19
Speaker 1: if you went through any type phase, whether that was
25:21
Speaker 1: emo or whatever whatnot, the parents got very concerned.
25:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay said this might.
25:26
Speaker 1: Be on that note, But I do find it interesting
25:29
Speaker 1: with the language part specifically too, because as where Mila
25:34
Speaker 1: never practiced, and it was kind of a shame thing
25:36
Speaker 1: once again because she was being made fun of for
25:37
Speaker 1: all the differences and her being brown, her being Latina
25:41
Speaker 1: was one of those differences that got made fun of.
25:43
Speaker 1: Then she has white girl June who studies Spanish to
25:46
Speaker 1: speak it pretty well, and she's like, you know, the
25:49
Speaker 1: difference in reality is that a white person who learns
25:51
Speaker 1: a language is praised. They're like, oh my god, it's
25:54
Speaker 1: so great, Like there may but if you're a person
25:56
Speaker 1: of color who was from that ethnicity and you do it,
26:00
Speaker 1: there's so much racist connotations latched onto you. So I
26:04
Speaker 1: did find that interesting in that level because I know
26:06
Speaker 1: a lot of first generation, second generation kids, refugees and
26:10
Speaker 1: immigrants don't learn their languages because whether it's their parents
26:14
Speaker 1: telling them not to because they need to speak English
26:17
Speaker 1: and learn English and adapt, or whether it's their self
26:21
Speaker 1: hating or even just laziness, I mean, or just because
26:24
Speaker 1: it's not something that was important at that point. Like
26:27
Speaker 1: I've seen that as a thing as well. So I
26:30
Speaker 1: feel like, even though it's a very big, small blip,
26:33
Speaker 1: it felt like that difference was there for a reason,
26:35
Speaker 1: you know, especially in this moment, because she's bringing them
26:37
Speaker 1: into her world, her side of the literally her side
26:41
Speaker 1: of the you know, train tracks like this is the
26:43
Speaker 1: grocery stores that I know of, and this is where
26:45
Speaker 1: it's available, and then let me take you to the
26:47
Speaker 1: restaurant that I love. And when you know, she was like,
26:49
Speaker 1: we've already had burritos. She's like, nah, no, that's not
26:54
Speaker 1: what you were eating here. You know, this is authentic,
26:56
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh damn, it's good.
26:57
Speaker 3: Like that.
26:58
Speaker 1: That was very much that scene that I love to
27:00
Speaker 1: see because I feel like any person of ethnicity they
27:03
Speaker 1: know this level of like being shamed into welcoming them
27:08
Speaker 1: and also the comparisons.
27:11
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, oh absolutely.
27:15
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is the point where yeah, you and
27:19
Speaker 2: I discussed we did, guess it was Xander yeah, yeah,
27:25
Speaker 2: I I've told you. I was like, I think it.
27:30
Speaker 2: I was completely confident with him, but I was almost
27:32
Speaker 2: like so common. I was like, is it gonna Yeah? Yeah,
27:36
Speaker 2: I read that in a lot of reviews I saw,
27:39
Speaker 2: but they weren't negative.
27:41
Speaker 3: They were just like edge.
27:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of felt like that part was obvious,
27:43
Speaker 2: like the rest was really good.
27:45
Speaker 3: But yeah, So we've got this theme of revenge.
27:49
Speaker 2: And also I would say like the nice guy, because
27:50
Speaker 2: Xander is painted as a very He's nice, he really
27:55
Speaker 2: misses his sister, he wants to get to know me.
27:58
Speaker 3: A little better.
28:00
Speaker 2: He's presented as this nice guy persona which we have
28:03
Speaker 2: learned to be warriy of.
28:05
Speaker 3: To be wary. Yes, so I like this quote from him.
28:13
Speaker 2: So this is at the very end, when the house
28:15
Speaker 2: is burning. Miela has come back and he thinks that
28:18
Speaker 2: she's gonna stay with him as the house burns. I
28:22
Speaker 2: love you, he sniffles, I've always loved you. I would
28:25
Speaker 2: kill for you. And the awful thing is that he
28:28
Speaker 2: means it literally. He could fix my life the way
28:31
Speaker 2: he fixed his and Riley's. He would stab or strangle
28:34
Speaker 2: or poison anyone who hurt me. Toby Doctor Miller the
28:38
Speaker 2: nouns my parents, my sisters, then you can die for me,
28:43
Speaker 2: and that's when she kills him. I love that because
28:48
Speaker 2: I've talked about this before. I totally get it.
28:51
Speaker 3: But one of my.
28:51
Speaker 2: Pet peeve tropes is romanticizing of this of the guy
28:58
Speaker 2: being like, I'll kill anyone you and you're like.
29:01
Speaker 3: I don't so much.
29:03
Speaker 1: I mean, she would also kill me, so I'm a little.
29:07
Speaker 3: But again, I get it.
29:10
Speaker 2: It bothers me in a lot of context, but I
29:13
Speaker 2: do get that.
29:14
Speaker 3: But I liked that here it was kind of addressed.
29:16
Speaker 3: It's like, ah, that's kind of a problem.
29:19
Speaker 1: Right, You're you're sociopath the psychopathe Okay, but I think
29:24
Speaker 1: that's where we get The difference is with Riley being
29:27
Speaker 1: the one, like she ended up ultimately dying trying to
29:30
Speaker 1: get those answers and trying to excuse Xander and then
29:34
Speaker 1: even hiding things after the fact that she figured everything
29:37
Speaker 1: out again and she really was trying to use that excuse,
29:41
Speaker 1: hiding him, lying for him because she hoped that that
29:45
Speaker 1: was it. But in understanding she started to figure out, no,
29:47
Speaker 1: but that doesn't end. He's gonna keep killing if it
29:51
Speaker 1: means he feels threatened. Yeah, yeah, which is why she
29:55
Speaker 1: was okay with.
29:58
Speaker 3: Brother on his He's got to go.
30:01
Speaker 2: That's where we're at, which I do appreciate too, because
30:04
Speaker 2: you can tell she was struggling with it. But then
30:06
Speaker 2: I will ultimately was you know what, I want to
30:11
Speaker 2: save my friend. I got my undead friends. He's got
30:16
Speaker 2: to go.
30:16
Speaker 1: Yeah.
30:18
Speaker 2: I also wanted to point out because one of my
30:22
Speaker 2: favorite books we've ever done on book Club is Mexican
30:25
Speaker 2: Gothic that also featured mushrooms as a horror element, and
30:31
Speaker 2: this one did too.
30:33
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, yeah, I still love him. Oh,
30:38
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't eat him from the woods. I'm not
30:40
Speaker 1: smart enough to figure out what's not poisons or what is.
30:42
Speaker 1: So I just brought to me in a bag.
30:46
Speaker 2: I was walking along today and I saw this huge
30:49
Speaker 2: thing of mushrooms and they looked like in of the wood.
30:52
Speaker 3: I would never eat him, don't do it. No, never.
30:55
Speaker 2: But I had a moment of like, I should take
30:57
Speaker 2: a picture of this and see if someone could identify.
31:00
Speaker 3: By it for me, because it was a lot of money.
31:15
Speaker 1: Well.
31:16
Speaker 2: Another theme paganism and witches and religion. There is a
31:20
Speaker 2: lot of discussion around this. One of the things that's
31:24
Speaker 2: reiterated throughout the book is gratefulness. So Riley and Mila
31:28
Speaker 2: always say being a witches about gratefulness, that you're kind
31:32
Speaker 2: of grateful for what you can get out of the universe.
31:37
Speaker 2: It's not something you kind of expect, you're grateful. Here's
31:41
Speaker 2: a quote, Wika doesn't mind if you work in metaphor.
31:44
Speaker 2: Wicka never minded that Riley and I didn't really know
31:47
Speaker 2: what we were doing. The only eventful deity in witchcraft
31:50
Speaker 2: is yourself. Do badge get badge, do good? Get good?
31:55
Speaker 2: Or be like me and Riley and do almost nothing
31:57
Speaker 2: but giggle over in SnSe and get perfumed smoke in
31:59
Speaker 2: your nose in return. And here's another one. Spells are
32:04
Speaker 2: just prayers with more steps and a name that scares people.
32:07
Speaker 2: Toby's voice floats through my head. Any book that purports
32:10
Speaker 2: to have the answer to death isn't Wicca. I'll tell
32:13
Speaker 2: you that much. This is some dark I wonder if
32:18
Speaker 2: she'll ever do a sequel because I was curious about
32:23
Speaker 2: I was curious about that they kind of explained the grim.
32:26
Speaker 3: War and where it came from.
32:27
Speaker 1: But right, not really, but I don't like how did
32:31
Speaker 1: Riley find it? Did I miss that part?
32:35
Speaker 3: I thought.
32:38
Speaker 2: I thought Xanderson it to her, but I don't know clearly.
32:44
Speaker 2: I would like some more answers about where this.
32:47
Speaker 1: I guess I missed that part because I was like,
32:49
Speaker 1: how did it get there?
32:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, it might have been. I think you're right. I
32:55
Speaker 2: think it was Riley. Maybe I just had a suspicion
32:57
Speaker 2: it was Xander, and I was.
32:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I know, like the whole explanation of her
33:02
Speaker 1: aliases using fictional witch characters, and it was a fictional
33:06
Speaker 1: witch character that had or historical one of the two.
33:09
Speaker 1: So that's how it came. But I was trying to
33:11
Speaker 1: figure out where Riley found it even and.
33:14
Speaker 3: Why she found it.
33:15
Speaker 2: I would be into a sequel. Oh yes, speaking of
33:22
Speaker 2: that's another theme older versus younger generations in here. So
33:25
Speaker 2: you have Toby and kind of her coven and how
33:28
Speaker 2: they go about things and how they think things should work, and.
33:32
Speaker 3: Then you have Mila and Riley and.
33:35
Speaker 2: Just seeing those differences and then at the end having
33:38
Speaker 2: them kind of form an alliance or at least, you know,
33:44
Speaker 2: not be all out fighting on there.
33:46
Speaker 1: I love that the other older coven bent, but people
33:49
Speaker 1: were telling on each other, like you've made mistakes too.
33:52
Speaker 1: Maybe it wasn't raising the dead, but but you know,
33:58
Speaker 1: but you know what you did quiet so like it
34:02
Speaker 1: is something.
34:04
Speaker 3: I liked that too.
34:05
Speaker 2: I liked that too, and I always kind of I'm
34:08
Speaker 2: happy when stories include that of the younger versus older
34:12
Speaker 2: generations and how it's changed.
34:15
Speaker 3: And then lastly, obviously friendship.
34:18
Speaker 2: Major theme impetus for this whole story is Mila wanting
34:23
Speaker 2: to do right by her best friend Riley and wanting
34:28
Speaker 2: to belong. All of them really want to belong, and
34:31
Speaker 2: it is you know, reading it, I did have flashbacks
34:34
Speaker 2: of being in high school and all those kind of
34:37
Speaker 2: cliques and the drama and having that best friend or
34:42
Speaker 2: having that person that you you could get away from
34:45
Speaker 2: that with. So it was really well written in that
34:50
Speaker 2: regard to of I remember that, and I remember being
34:53
Speaker 2: assigned the partner in anatomy that you're like, why did
34:56
Speaker 2: you put me with him?
35:01
Speaker 3: Everything?
35:01
Speaker 1: I think that we all chose our own partners. It
35:04
Speaker 1: was never a thing.
35:06
Speaker 2: I got to sign my legitimate bully. Yes, yeah, unfortunately
35:12
Speaker 2: for him.
35:13
Speaker 3: Unfortunately for him, uh.
35:15
Speaker 2: He well, he was in my he was on my turf.
35:19
Speaker 2: Then he bullied me in another class where I was
35:23
Speaker 2: in his turf. I was the oldest in the whole class.
35:25
Speaker 2: He was younger than me, but in this class, he
35:27
Speaker 2: was the youngest in the whole class. So everybody else
35:30
Speaker 2: in there was my friends and he didn't have any friends.
35:32
Speaker 2: And he looked at me and there was fear in
35:34
Speaker 2: his eyes, Samantha, and I was like, it's fine, let's
35:38
Speaker 2: leave him be. So I had.
35:40
Speaker 1: Mercy change his attitude with you in that class, Yeah,
35:46
Speaker 1: he had like alid well by then.
35:50
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I would love to tell this whole story.
35:53
Speaker 2: By then, I had kind of I had gotten out
35:57
Speaker 2: of that class where he was bullied me. And then
36:00
Speaker 2: I won, like I'll say, I won pretty much every
36:04
Speaker 2: award that year, and he was just shamed. He lost
36:07
Speaker 2: everything to me.
36:07
Speaker 3: So I was like.
36:11
Speaker 2: Nope, yeah, and his sister came up and apologized me.
36:19
Speaker 3: It was a whole thing.
36:20
Speaker 2: Wow, But anyway, No, he didn't know and he lived
36:29
Speaker 2: in my neighborhood. To conclude this, the drama, the drama,
36:37
Speaker 2: but I did not I did not pick on him,
36:39
Speaker 2: but I had a moment there was a silence when
36:41
Speaker 2: he was looking at me. I was like, hmm, but
36:45
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be his partner in anatomy.
36:48
Speaker 1: That's fair.
36:49
Speaker 3: That's fair.
36:51
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I think there's so many things when
36:53
Speaker 1: we talk about this fiship because also we got to
36:55
Speaker 1: see a click with the dead versus the undead. There
36:58
Speaker 1: was a moment where Mela's feeling some type of way
37:01
Speaker 1: because she seems like that Riley's walking away from her.
37:05
Speaker 1: But a little bit of that is like Riley being
37:07
Speaker 1: upset that she died, that.
37:11
Speaker 3: That Mila was able to do the spell.
37:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, she dies, there's a little jealousy in that. And
37:18
Speaker 1: then also like realizing that her death wasn't murder, but
37:23
Speaker 1: like it was an accident as well as by that
37:25
Speaker 1: as her brother. But so many things that they had
37:27
Speaker 1: to work out in seven days as well as have
37:31
Speaker 1: some kind of closure and death. There was a lot
37:35
Speaker 1: even in that small moment.
37:37
Speaker 2: It was and it's not that long of a book,
37:39
Speaker 2: and it packs in it did it packs in quite
37:42
Speaker 2: a bit. I want to end on this final quote.
37:47
Speaker 2: The four of us take one last moment together, The
37:50
Speaker 2: urge to rip the grimoar out of Riley's arms and
37:52
Speaker 2: find the recipe for putting off this goodbye is almost
37:54
Speaker 2: too much to bear. But our past are diverging, and
37:57
Speaker 2: all I can do is be grateful that we have
38:00
Speaker 2: this week, that it extorted from the universe.
38:02
Speaker 3: I'm a witch. I'm always grateful. It was. It was
38:08
Speaker 3: really moving, It was really moving.
38:10
Speaker 1: I also gave the dead closure because they were like
38:13
Speaker 1: they were like ready to go since they couldn't return.
38:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like like we said, they had that they
38:21
Speaker 2: saw what their dance led to this, like profiting these
38:25
Speaker 2: bad poems.
38:26
Speaker 3: It's bad singing Dayton sings the song yeah.
38:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they have like the goodbye that Yeah, what
38:35
Speaker 2: they actually what they could do.
38:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what they could do as well in that moment.
38:40
Speaker 3: But it was bitter. So it was. It was.
38:47
Speaker 2: But I highly I highly recommend it. It's a great
38:49
Speaker 2: read for as we're moving in to Fall. Yeah, absolutely fantastic.
38:54
Speaker 1: Zombies, Zombies which class zombies.
38:58
Speaker 3: And marked high school.
39:01
Speaker 1: Mystery. Hello, yeah it's fall.
39:04
Speaker 2: Yeah Yeah, so go check it out. I think it's
39:08
Speaker 2: I think it's really fun. In the meantime, if you
39:11
Speaker 2: have any other suggestions for this segment or any thoughts
39:14
Speaker 2: about this book, please let us know. You can email
39:16
Speaker 2: us at Hello at stuff. I neever told you dot
39:18
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39:20
Speaker 2: or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told
39:22
Speaker 2: You for us on YouTube. We have new merchandise at
39:25
Speaker 2: Cotton Bureau and we have a book you can get
39:28
Speaker 2: wherever you get your books. Thanks, It's always to a
39:30
Speaker 2: super produced Christina executive producer, my intercontruder Joey, Thank you
39:33
Speaker 2: and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told
39:35
Speaker 2: Yous Friction by heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
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Speaker 2: heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
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Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or regular listen to your favorite shows