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Book Club: Mexican Gothic · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm going to Stephane
0:07
Speaker 1: never told your production of I Heeart Radio, and today
0:19
Speaker 1: we have a how do we in addition of book club.
0:25
Speaker 1: I'm very excited about this, but before we get into it,
0:27
Speaker 1: I just had a question out curiosity to Samantha. When
0:29
Speaker 1: you read books, do you picture like actors are people
0:34
Speaker 1: that you know visually when you read or hear like
0:38
Speaker 1: a character's description. No, I have a vague ghost like
0:41
Speaker 1: picture of them, and does have a generic picture of
0:45
Speaker 1: what they look like, but they're never of someone's specific
0:49
Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting. I thought about this before because when
0:52
Speaker 1: things turned into movies or things turned and I'm like, oh,
0:55
Speaker 1: that's not who I pictured. But I can't tell you
0:57
Speaker 1: exactly because it's not about what they say. But it's
1:01
Speaker 1: not ever of a person that I know. Yeah, you
1:04
Speaker 1: know that's really interesting because lately we've seen kind of
1:07
Speaker 1: a spate of people creating programs that are like, this
1:11
Speaker 1: is what the character would really look like based on
1:14
Speaker 1: the description. Um, I always have like an actor or
1:19
Speaker 1: somebody I have, I have a clear picture, uh in
1:25
Speaker 1: my head, and I just feel like that that this
1:26
Speaker 1: book was very descriptive and very easy for me to
1:30
Speaker 1: kind of put like, oh, it's the so it's this,
1:33
Speaker 1: so it's this, and I just it really painted a
1:35
Speaker 1: picture in my head for me. Okay, who did you picture? Well,
1:40
Speaker 1: I could tell you, but it would I would have
1:42
Speaker 1: to look up all the actor's names, because as you know,
1:43
Speaker 1: I'm not good with actor's names. That's fair, But I
1:47
Speaker 1: could do it. I could do it, uh, And I
1:50
Speaker 1: think it's part of that is also just the cover
1:52
Speaker 1: art can influence that. I've seen some stuff from the
1:56
Speaker 1: show they're they're shooting a show about this for Hulu.
2:00
Speaker 1: Some of that can influence it. I remember like when
2:03
Speaker 1: Harry Potter came out, I had such a strong like
2:08
Speaker 1: in my brain who everybody looked like? That? When the
2:12
Speaker 1: movies came out, I kind of almost had like a
2:15
Speaker 1: breakdown is too strong of a word, but my it
2:17
Speaker 1: was like a war in my brain of like who
2:20
Speaker 1: do they actually look like? And they sort of all
2:22
Speaker 1: kind of came together and created a composition of both
2:28
Speaker 1: um which is really interesting. But I can still remember,
2:31
Speaker 1: at least for a lot of the big characters what
2:33
Speaker 1: they looked like in my head versus what who was
2:37
Speaker 1: actually cast. So I just always find that interesting when
2:40
Speaker 1: people tell me like, oh, I always thought this character
2:42
Speaker 1: would like look like this person or this person or
2:44
Speaker 1: this person. Listeners, if you have any thoughts or experiences
2:49
Speaker 1: about that, please let let us know, because I really
2:51
Speaker 1: am interested in it. But today we have to issue
2:54
Speaker 1: a spoiler alert because we are going to spoil the
2:58
Speaker 1: heck of this recent book. Because we're talking about Sylvia Moreino.
3:04
Speaker 1: Gusse is novel Mexican Gothics, so it's pretty recent and
3:10
Speaker 1: I I really enjoyed it. If you don't want to
3:12
Speaker 1: be spoiled, leave now, go read it. It's a pretty
3:15
Speaker 1: quick cread um and then come back and then come back.
3:19
Speaker 1: And it was very very successful. It was critically acclaimed,
3:22
Speaker 1: and Yes, is now being made into a show for Hulu.
3:26
Speaker 1: A content warning. We are discussing a little bit of eugenics, um, suicidality,
3:35
Speaker 1: general grossness, death, murder, cannibalism. We're not getting too much
3:39
Speaker 1: into any of that. Lucinens, lucinugens. Yes, that is true.
3:44
Speaker 1: It's so funny sometimes when we put the like content
3:47
Speaker 1: warnings together and like this is making it sound so
3:49
Speaker 1: much worth this, But I just don't want to miss anything, right,
3:54
Speaker 1: But yeah, all those topics are on the table. If
3:56
Speaker 1: that gives you a taste for what this book is about, uh,
3:59
Speaker 1: And yeah, it does have influences of Jane Austen and
4:01
Speaker 1: Emily Bronte, which I wanted to talk with you about
4:05
Speaker 1: because before we recorded this, Samantha, one of the reasons
4:08
Speaker 1: I was like, I think we should do this one
4:09
Speaker 1: was because I know you like Gothic and I've rented
4:12
Speaker 1: it kind of had some stuff to do with like
4:15
Speaker 1: Jane Austen Emily Bronte. So I was like, I think
4:17
Speaker 1: Samantha will like this one. I'm interested in it. And
4:19
Speaker 1: you said before like you got that vibe right immediately,
4:25
Speaker 1: Like I was like, oh, is this supposed to be
4:26
Speaker 1: a retailing of Weathering Heights because it's kind of that
4:30
Speaker 1: ominous bit with and it's true with like the head
4:33
Speaker 1: of the household haunting the entire home type of thing. Um.
4:36
Speaker 1: So yeah, I was like, Okay, this is definitely that.
4:38
Speaker 1: And then they actually make mention of the authors and
4:42
Speaker 1: I was like, there, it is perfect. I wouldn't say
4:44
Speaker 1: Jane Austen necessarily because Jane Austen was not in Horror
4:47
Speaker 1: in any way whatsoever or that, but darkness. So I
4:50
Speaker 1: don't think that would be true of it, but the
4:52
Speaker 1: Bronte Sisters for sure, Mary Mary Shelley, maybe even which
4:57
Speaker 1: sounds like Katerina of those authors as well, but you
5:01
Speaker 1: know that's further down the road. Um, But yeah, I
5:06
Speaker 1: was immediately the style of it, the way that it
5:09
Speaker 1: sets up the characters. Boy, that it sets up the
5:13
Speaker 1: romance very ominous. You know, something's going down. You know,
5:16
Speaker 1: she's walking and thinking everything's fine, and they're like, oh,
5:18
Speaker 1: nothing's okay, and it's a trap. That's the entirety of
5:22
Speaker 1: the thing. And much like the Bronte Sisters, the home
5:26
Speaker 1: has a huge part in being part of the darkness. Yeah. Yeah,
5:33
Speaker 1: it's very like I said, the author does a great
5:36
Speaker 1: job of painting a picture because immediately you can see
5:39
Speaker 1: like this fog and they're going up this hill and
5:42
Speaker 1: there's this old mansion there and there's just something awf
5:45
Speaker 1: about it. Like the atmosphere was excellently done. And it
5:50
Speaker 1: did remind me of the Bronte Sisters of things I've
5:53
Speaker 1: read from the right. And yes, so they enjoyed it.
5:56
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it very much. I did too. I really
5:58
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I was telling everybody about it. They're like,
6:00
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Like you've got to read it.
6:04
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, and it really draws you in. At least
6:07
Speaker 1: that was my experience. It was kind of immediately like who,
6:09
Speaker 1: I want to know? What's going on? It painted these
6:11
Speaker 1: really vivid and often unsettling or disturbing images, and yeah,
6:16
Speaker 1: much of it does take place in this decaying mansion
6:19
Speaker 1: that is shrouded by fog, so the environment is a
6:22
Speaker 1: big piece of it. It is very atmospheric and very
6:25
Speaker 1: excellent building tension because you're like, something's wrong, something's wrong.
6:29
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is, and something's off. Just
6:31
Speaker 1: all these little things that you're like mm hmmmm. Alright,
6:38
Speaker 1: so let's get into the plot. The story takes place
6:42
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifties Mexico and follows Nami Tabo ad A,
6:45
Speaker 1: a young, beautiful, clever, stubborn, witty social lights who dates
6:50
Speaker 1: her fun is studying anthropology. Kind of gives that vibe
6:53
Speaker 1: of someone who's like trying a lot of things, but
6:57
Speaker 1: it's really into anthropology at this current juncture. After receiving
7:01
Speaker 1: a bizarre letter from her cousin Catalina, claiming that her
7:05
Speaker 1: English husband, a Virgil Doyle is poisoning her. Naami leaves
7:09
Speaker 1: Mexico City for the Doyle Home, which is called High
7:11
Speaker 1: Place and it's located in the mountains outside of a
7:14
Speaker 1: small town called trian Foe. And Nami does this at
7:20
Speaker 1: the behest of her father. Her father is like, you're
7:22
Speaker 1: so stubborn, You're so determined. I know you can get
7:25
Speaker 1: to the bottom of this. Something is wrong. Uh well,
7:28
Speaker 1: you please go and look into this. And I really
7:31
Speaker 1: want to read the letter that they received from Catalina
7:35
Speaker 1: that starts this whole thing, because I think it gives
7:37
Speaker 1: a really good vibe of like the writing and what's
7:40
Speaker 1: going on. Okay, he is trying to poison me. The
7:44
Speaker 1: house is sick with rot, stinks of decay, brims with
7:47
Speaker 1: every single evil and cruel sentiment. I have tried to
7:50
Speaker 1: hold onto my wits to keep this foulness away, but
7:53
Speaker 1: I cannot, and I find myself losing track of time
7:56
Speaker 1: and thoughts. Please please, They are cruel, unkind, and they
8:00
Speaker 1: will not let me go. I bar my door, but
8:03
Speaker 1: still they come. They whisper at nights, and I am
8:05
Speaker 1: so afraid of these restless dead, these ghost, fleshless things.
8:10
Speaker 1: The snake eating its tail, the foul ground beneath our feet,
8:13
Speaker 1: the false faces and false tongues, the web upon which
8:17
Speaker 1: the spider walks, making the strings vibrate. I am Catalina,
8:21
Speaker 1: Catalina taboada, Catalina, Kata Kata, come out to play. I
8:26
Speaker 1: missn Amy. I pray I'll see you again. You must
8:30
Speaker 1: come from me, na Amy. You have to save me.
8:32
Speaker 1: I cannot save myself, as much as I wish to.
8:35
Speaker 1: I am bound threads like iron through my mind and
8:38
Speaker 1: my skin, and it's there in the walls. It does
8:41
Speaker 1: not release its hold on me. I must ask you
8:43
Speaker 1: to spring me free, cut it from me. Stop them now,
8:47
Speaker 1: for God's sake, till and now, knowing the end, I'm like, oh,
8:54
Speaker 1: she was saying all of it. So Nyomy is transported
9:01
Speaker 1: to the High Place by Francis Doyle, and the road
9:05
Speaker 1: is treacherous and misty, and upon arrival she's immediately a
9:08
Speaker 1: nerd and annoyed by the strict rules of the house,
9:10
Speaker 1: a largely imparted to her by Francis's mother, Florence. She's
9:15
Speaker 1: not allowed to visit her cousin without a chaperone. There's
9:18
Speaker 1: no speaking at dinner, no smoking, which by the by
9:21
Speaker 1: the way, Annoymy smokes. Yes, she's one of those cool
9:24
Speaker 1: girls that like the way you picture it, they describe it.
9:27
Speaker 1: She's one of those cool girls. Um and things like that.
9:30
Speaker 1: Florence clearly does not want her to be there. Um
9:33
Speaker 1: And the house itself isn't welcoming either, dark and decaying
9:36
Speaker 1: with patches of black mold. Also, they are very behind
9:40
Speaker 1: in technology, uses lamps, oils, oil lamps and candles. There's
9:46
Speaker 1: no radio, there's no TV. Everything is a little dark
9:49
Speaker 1: and they like it that way, just so you know.
9:51
Speaker 1: And yes, the cane with patches of black mold everywhere.
9:54
Speaker 1: Even the wine is glowing and almost rotten, too sweet
9:59
Speaker 1: over the top. The head of the house, Howard Doyle,
10:02
Speaker 1: is old and ill and inappropriate. Namie is informed that
10:06
Speaker 1: Catalina is suffering from tuberculosis, but she is unconvinced. And yeah,
10:12
Speaker 1: by the way, Frances is somewhat important, and they are.
10:16
Speaker 1: She tries to flirt with them at the very beginning.
10:18
Speaker 1: She does. She does, and you can tell he's like, oh, yeah,
10:23
Speaker 1: he's not been around many women. So once no Amy
10:30
Speaker 1: is permitted to see Catalina, she begs no Amy to
10:33
Speaker 1: get her a tincture from a woman in town named
10:35
Speaker 1: Marta duval Um, and by tricking the family because they're
10:38
Speaker 1: pretty sure there, like, you can't go it's too high
10:40
Speaker 1: to get up here, you can't go down. So Nami
10:43
Speaker 1: tricks the family and is able to get a ride
10:45
Speaker 1: into town and to walk around unhindered, and she goes
10:48
Speaker 1: to talk to Marta, who tells her that the family
10:51
Speaker 1: is cursed and that one of the Doyle's ruth killed
10:56
Speaker 1: several of the family members, shooting Howard before taking her
10:59
Speaker 1: own life. Howard survived. In another instance of Francis's father,
11:04
Speaker 1: Richard was found dead in a ditch near the home.
11:07
Speaker 1: Naami then goes to visit the local doctor, asking him
11:11
Speaker 1: to come to high Place to give a second opinion
11:12
Speaker 1: on Catalina, and the doctor is really reluctant because he's like, oh,
11:15
Speaker 1: I'm not welcome. They don't want me up there, and
11:17
Speaker 1: Howard himself has made recent racist comments about how none
11:20
Speaker 1: of the locals are competent um, but he ultimately agrees.
11:24
Speaker 1: The local doctor agrees to come and give his opinion,
11:28
Speaker 1: and Alista back a bit and talked about Howard and
11:31
Speaker 1: the Doyles at large, because al right, so during the
11:33
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, British companies and families flooded into Mexico in
11:37
Speaker 1: order to take advantage of local resources. The Doyles in
11:40
Speaker 1: this book are one such family, and the house is
11:43
Speaker 1: near a once profitable silver mine that was later flooded. Um.
11:48
Speaker 1: There's this cemetery on the property with some of the
11:50
Speaker 1: bodies of people who died working in the mine. Um.
11:53
Speaker 1: They are looking to reopen the mine, Nami learns, and
11:57
Speaker 1: she suspects that they intend to somehow make cattle in
12:00
Speaker 1: a docile in order to use her money without her complaints. Um.
12:05
Speaker 1: Howard frequently speaks of quote superior and inferior types and
12:09
Speaker 1: of survival of the fittest, and keeps books on the
12:13
Speaker 1: subject around something that angers Naomi, which in turn seems
12:17
Speaker 1: to amuse Howard. So the local doctor confirms that if
12:22
Speaker 1: it's tuberculosis, is unlike any he has ever seen. Um.
12:25
Speaker 1: And by the way, when Noemi was in a town
12:29
Speaker 1: and and means with Martha is too because Catalina sends
12:32
Speaker 1: her to her as the healer. She's a healer Um
12:34
Speaker 1: and gets a tint or to to Catalina. Finally, but
12:39
Speaker 1: oh dear, it caused have a seizure and makes the
12:41
Speaker 1: Toyals even stricter about when Naomi can visit her. Of
12:45
Speaker 1: course they I'll play the victim kind of guest lighter.
12:48
Speaker 1: Nami starts having disturbing dreams and visions of a gold woman,
12:51
Speaker 1: a buzzing coming from the walls, the mold moving, pulsating
12:55
Speaker 1: and almost calling to her, and her dreams that seem real,
12:57
Speaker 1: unpleasant ones that seems to almost Drugger having sex with
13:01
Speaker 1: Virgil and wakes up too after she hears place of
13:03
Speaker 1: open her eyes. She starts sleepwalking, something something she hasn't
13:07
Speaker 1: done since she was a child, and feels that she's
13:10
Speaker 1: losing her grip on reality early, similar to what happened
13:13
Speaker 1: to her cousin, and she begins to suspect that Catalina
13:15
Speaker 1: may not be ill and the house is haunted or
13:19
Speaker 1: at least coming for them. Yes. Um. Meanwhile, as all
13:25
Speaker 1: of this is happening, uh, Nami and frances do grow
13:28
Speaker 1: closer um. Since Naomi has to smoke outside um. They
13:32
Speaker 1: walk around the misty grounds together and know Ami learns
13:35
Speaker 1: that Francis, who is definitely the black sheep of the family,
13:39
Speaker 1: studies mushrooms and insects, is well read and interesting Nami,
13:44
Speaker 1: who has enjoyed many relationships in the past and continues
13:47
Speaker 1: to enjoy it like it's kind of funny and how
13:49
Speaker 1: often she'll be sort of like he's not my usual type. Um,
13:54
Speaker 1: but she feels herself growing closer to him. However, he
13:59
Speaker 1: is still somewhat distant and warns her that speaking Spanish
14:02
Speaker 1: is not allowed in the home and that they can
14:04
Speaker 1: hear you that she should leave. He's clearly very on
14:08
Speaker 1: edge um and worried about her. This is underscored by
14:12
Speaker 1: other comments from the family like smoking, Hurt says just
14:18
Speaker 1: things like that it's very sketchy. So growing increasingly frustrated
14:24
Speaker 1: and disturbed, too fright to sleep, and feeling cut off.
14:26
Speaker 1: After Martha disappears, Naimi decides to send a letter to
14:29
Speaker 1: her father requesting he senned help or at least trying
14:33
Speaker 1: to go out and get help somehow, trying to leave
14:35
Speaker 1: the place. She's done. She's done with this place. She
14:37
Speaker 1: needs to get out, But the night before her departure,
14:40
Speaker 1: the Doyles informed her they'll have one final dinner together
14:43
Speaker 1: and that she must see Howard before she leaves. Ton
14:47
Speaker 1: AMI's horror, Howard is covered in boils, one of his
14:51
Speaker 1: legs bloated, and he is clearly on desk door, and
14:53
Speaker 1: by the way, he's naked, like if she had imagined
14:55
Speaker 1: she was going to come into him being tucked in
14:57
Speaker 1: and sickly. No, no, he's naked and showing off all
15:00
Speaker 1: his bets um, including the boils um, and the smell
15:04
Speaker 1: of his body is terrible, and she tries to flee,
15:06
Speaker 1: but Virgil of Florence forced her to her knees in
15:10
Speaker 1: front of him, and he kisses her, really grows by
15:12
Speaker 1: the way, making her swallow the black liquid that from
15:15
Speaker 1: his mouth, that stains his teeth, that gets literally oozing
15:18
Speaker 1: out of his face, and she feels incredibly ill and
15:20
Speaker 1: passes out having visions Yeah. When she wakes, Francis is
15:28
Speaker 1: in her room watching over her, and she is understandingly furious.
15:32
Speaker 1: Francis explains that ours is actually hundreds of years old.
15:36
Speaker 1: Um he at one time he was quite ill and
15:38
Speaker 1: determined to find a cure for his illness, so he
15:40
Speaker 1: found locals in this area who were using a strain
15:43
Speaker 1: of mushroom to heal themselves. Howard exploited this and formed
15:48
Speaker 1: a symbiotic relationship with the mushroom and part after eating
15:52
Speaker 1: the infant of a local woman who had used the
15:55
Speaker 1: mushroom obviously against her will. Many others who partook died,
16:01
Speaker 1: but Howard believed his survival meant he could use his
16:04
Speaker 1: medicinal knowledge to make himself immortal, and to accomplish this
16:10
Speaker 1: requires a number of things. So firstly, the house is
16:13
Speaker 1: infused with the mushroom um. The air inside is full
16:17
Speaker 1: of spores. It heals the family in there and makes
16:22
Speaker 1: their lives last longer. It is what has been calling
16:25
Speaker 1: to Nami, dulling her senses, making her want to give
16:29
Speaker 1: into Virgil's advances and wants her to become part of
16:33
Speaker 1: the family UM. Secondly, the exploitation of the working class
16:38
Speaker 1: in order to fund their eternal lives. It's something that
16:41
Speaker 1: they have to do to achieve this immortality UM. Thirdly,
16:46
Speaker 1: they need children UM. Howard didn't want to quote dirty
16:49
Speaker 1: the bloodline, so he decided to have children with his sisters. Lately, though,
16:55
Speaker 1: the women of the family have not been producing as
16:57
Speaker 1: many children, and Howard, to Florence is chagrin believes introducing
17:01
Speaker 1: new blood like Catalina and n Ami, who are combatible
17:05
Speaker 1: with the fungus, is the key to their survival. The
17:08
Speaker 1: visions Nami has been experiencing are what they call the gloom,
17:12
Speaker 1: which is essentially a hive mind or like that kind
17:14
Speaker 1: of spiderweb thing that Catalina described in the letter at
17:17
Speaker 1: the top. Since the mysilium is connected and bodies can
17:21
Speaker 1: serve as mulch for it, it has absorbed the memories
17:26
Speaker 1: of those before it, and that means that Howard can
17:28
Speaker 1: transfer himself into a younger body. It also kind of
17:31
Speaker 1: explains like the haunt thing. It's sort of like these
17:34
Speaker 1: memories that you experience in the gloom. Francis tells Nami
17:39
Speaker 1: in Spanish that he will help her gather supplies because
17:41
Speaker 1: again they don't understand Spanish, uh, and that the tincture
17:47
Speaker 1: disrupts the effects of the scores but must be used sparingly.
17:51
Speaker 1: Naami is hesitant to trust him also understandable, but agrees
17:56
Speaker 1: on the condition that he helped rescue Catalina too, and
17:59
Speaker 1: later she also decides he should leave with them. Francis
18:03
Speaker 1: informs her that the fungus keeps them from leaving. That
18:06
Speaker 1: that is what happened to his father, Richard when he
18:09
Speaker 1: tried to escape. That's how he ended up in that
18:11
Speaker 1: ditch Um. She may be able to leave, but he
18:13
Speaker 1: is part of the family as and much longer exposed
18:17
Speaker 1: to this fungus, will not be able to But no
18:20
Speaker 1: Amy does not give up and communicates with the women
18:23
Speaker 1: before her in the gloom like through her dreams uh
18:27
Speaker 1: to try to find a solution to this. Francis gives
18:30
Speaker 1: her the tincture and a razor blade after she asked
18:33
Speaker 1: for a weapon. Naami attempts an escape, but only makes
18:36
Speaker 1: it a few meters outside before the house and the
18:38
Speaker 1: fungus makes it feel like she can't breathe. Virgil carries
18:41
Speaker 1: her inside and humiliates and harasses her. She is told
18:45
Speaker 1: she must marry Francis, who in turn instructs her to
18:48
Speaker 1: play along. That their chance of escape will be when
18:51
Speaker 1: Howard's body dies and he transfers his consciousness into Virgil.
18:58
Speaker 1: Um that Ruth we and all of them when she
19:02
Speaker 1: killed some of the family and attempted to kill Howard. Right, Yeah,
19:06
Speaker 1: Ruth is one of the daughters who hated the process.
19:08
Speaker 1: I guess all the women kind of hated it except
19:10
Speaker 1: for Florence correct from what I can gather, Like we
19:14
Speaker 1: find out as later on I couldn't get a real
19:18
Speaker 1: read on Agnes I couldn't tell if she like willingly
19:21
Speaker 1: sacrificed herself or unwillingly. Sacrificers are all important, But yes,
19:27
Speaker 1: the women were not happy. Ruth was one of them
19:29
Speaker 1: that was very not happy and trying to get out.
19:32
Speaker 1: Try to kill everybody did not work. So all these
19:34
Speaker 1: things happened. Ruth was the voice, by the way that
19:37
Speaker 1: said open your eyes. One of the things that that
19:41
Speaker 1: was interesting. UM. The pair Frances and un Ami are
19:47
Speaker 1: married and they prepared to escape. However, Frances is detained
19:52
Speaker 1: UM and Virgil reveals he drugged them and makes clear
19:55
Speaker 1: he desires to make Naami his Naomi fights him off,
19:59
Speaker 1: knocks him off Uh, taking a sip of some of
20:01
Speaker 1: the at tincture and retrieving the razor. So all this
20:04
Speaker 1: has happened UM, while Virgil was pretty much attacking and
20:07
Speaker 1: accosting her. Catalina has them too, and they go to
20:10
Speaker 1: find Frances, only to discover his mother is co forcing
20:13
Speaker 1: him to giving his body to Howard. So it was
20:16
Speaker 1: always Francis and not Virgil. Oh dear the plan um.
20:20
Speaker 1: No Amy tries to stop him, and Florence attacks her,
20:23
Speaker 1: who was really strong at this point, leading to Francis
20:27
Speaker 1: killing her row Catalina stabs Howard in the eye because
20:31
Speaker 1: she comes awake and alive and starts stabbing the hell
20:34
Speaker 1: out of him, and the trio flees into the mines
20:36
Speaker 1: and tunnels as the house shutters around them, and they
20:39
Speaker 1: feel the pain because Howard's in pain and Francis is
20:42
Speaker 1: struggling under the influence of the fungus as well. It's bad. Yeah,
20:47
Speaker 1: it's not good. So they find Agnes's grave and Agnes
20:51
Speaker 1: is one of the sisters, one of Howard's sisters, um
20:54
Speaker 1: that he that he married, Yes, that he married. They
20:57
Speaker 1: find her grave and Naami realizes that she was sacrificed,
21:02
Speaker 1: buried alive so that the fungus could have a human mind,
21:06
Speaker 1: and that's something Howard like determined that it needed, was
21:10
Speaker 1: this human mind, and she exists as a living, waking nightmare,
21:14
Speaker 1: a body to grow spores out of so Howard can
21:17
Speaker 1: control his family and others in their orbit. Namy It
21:21
Speaker 1: tells her to open her eyes. She tells Agnes to
21:25
Speaker 1: open her eyes, which yea, just as she has heard
21:28
Speaker 1: in her visions. Virgil reveals that he always intended for
21:32
Speaker 1: Howard to die and now wants to truly take his
21:34
Speaker 1: place because he have. Virgil has just appeared and he
21:37
Speaker 1: wants to use Catalina and Nami for children. Um, just
21:41
Speaker 1: like Howard. Catalina says Virgil in the eye, and n
21:44
Speaker 1: Amy sets the body of Agnes on fire. All the
21:48
Speaker 1: mushrooms start to burn and the trio escapes down the mountain.
21:51
Speaker 1: They are cared for by the local doctor, though Francis
21:53
Speaker 1: takes several days to wake. When he does, he reveals
21:56
Speaker 1: he has a dream of high Place in better condition
21:59
Speaker 1: than ever. He is locked in and unable to escape
22:02
Speaker 1: its opulence. They also kind of questioned like if you
22:05
Speaker 1: burn mushrooms a lot of times mushrooms grow better out
22:08
Speaker 1: of the ashes, which also gave me goose pulps. It's like,
22:10
Speaker 1: oh um, but anyway, no Amy tells him it was
22:14
Speaker 1: just the dream and promises to take into Mexico City
22:17
Speaker 1: where they can be together. The end, it was ominous ending.
22:22
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, so I must ask, do you
22:38
Speaker 1: know anything about Hulu series? I don't. I think it's
22:40
Speaker 1: the ten part series. That's all. Okay, So it's gonna
22:43
Speaker 1: be a limited series. Are they gonna try to open
22:45
Speaker 1: it up? Like a game of Thrones and we're all
22:47
Speaker 1: gonna be disappointed. I don't know about that. I don't
22:51
Speaker 1: think so, just checking, but it was, I mean, it
22:53
Speaker 1: was definitely to me, it felt like it there was
22:56
Speaker 1: room for a sequel. And this is so she did
22:59
Speaker 1: leave the open less if they could be haunted by this,
23:02
Speaker 1: as if there was going to be a call for them.
23:04
Speaker 1: Because it's also like the whole legends that a lot
23:07
Speaker 1: of the miners were burned alive on purpose or purposely
23:10
Speaker 1: killed lead to die so they could be fertilizer for yeah,
23:16
Speaker 1: mulch mult they were called Yeah, okay, uh, well just
23:23
Speaker 1: get into the themes. Then, let's get into the themes.
23:26
Speaker 1: One of the big themes, yes, is using women and
23:29
Speaker 1: using the working class. Um So I wanted to start
23:32
Speaker 1: with this quote. No Amy like any good sociality shot
23:36
Speaker 1: at the Palacio, painted her lips with Elizabeth Arden lipstick,
23:40
Speaker 1: owned a couple of very fine furs, spoke English with
23:43
Speaker 1: remarkable ease courtesy of the nuns at the Monteseta, a
23:47
Speaker 1: private school, of course, and was expected to devote her
23:49
Speaker 1: time to the twin pursuits of leisure and husband hunting. Therefore,
23:54
Speaker 1: to her father, any pleasant activity must also involve the
23:57
Speaker 1: acquisition of a spouse. That is, she should never have
24:00
Speaker 1: fun for the sake of having fun, but only as
24:02
Speaker 1: a way to obtain a husband, which would have been
24:05
Speaker 1: fine and well if father had actually liked Hugo, But
24:08
Speaker 1: Hugo is a mere junior architect, and know Amy was
24:11
Speaker 1: expected to aspire higher. So I want to include that
24:15
Speaker 1: because this is right in the beginning, Hugoes, this guy
24:18
Speaker 1: she's attracted to, she's hanging out with that this costume
24:21
Speaker 1: party in the beginning, And I feel like this code
24:26
Speaker 1: is a really good example of a lot of things
24:28
Speaker 1: we talked about in persuasion. But you know this idea,
24:31
Speaker 1: you have to get a husband, that's your whole goal.
24:33
Speaker 1: You have to get a good husband of good standing.
24:35
Speaker 1: But this was sort of this whole book was sort
24:37
Speaker 1: of the like horror of that. This whole book was, Oh,
24:42
Speaker 1: Catalina did that, and now she's trapped in this night
24:48
Speaker 1: like living nightmare where she's basically just a just a
24:54
Speaker 1: shell of her past self and someone to use for
24:58
Speaker 1: money so that they can open their mine again. And
25:01
Speaker 1: they're trying to do that to know Amy as well.
25:04
Speaker 1: And also just somebody used to create progriate to get children.
25:09
Speaker 1: This is like this whole statement of like, oh, you've
25:11
Speaker 1: got to find a good husband, that's your whole point
25:13
Speaker 1: in life. This book was like whoa, Okay, but look
25:17
Speaker 1: at the horror right. Well, also, you have to remember
25:21
Speaker 1: the reason she came. Yes, you wanted to save Catalina,
25:24
Speaker 1: but the bargain was that her father was gonna let
25:27
Speaker 1: her go to the university to continue to study anththology,
25:31
Speaker 1: and the only way she could do this was by
25:34
Speaker 1: doing this favor and her mother was very disappointed. And
25:38
Speaker 1: the fact that she wanted to go and set the line,
25:40
Speaker 1: uh that is supposed you're supposed to be a debutante
25:43
Speaker 1: to wife and anything in between, was a distraction from
25:47
Speaker 1: the true purpose. So like, that's the entirety, Like even
25:51
Speaker 1: though yes, they're a little more normal, I guess it's
25:55
Speaker 1: the word. And but like this at this point that
25:58
Speaker 1: that's the whole purpose of when in Mexico and she
26:01
Speaker 1: was talking about the fact that the Mexican women were
26:04
Speaker 1: not even allowed to vote, so of course this makes sense,
26:06
Speaker 1: this is their livelihoods. But yeah, the tragedy of it
26:09
Speaker 1: is holy crap. Look at what happens. We become a whole,
26:12
Speaker 1: whole trap, and we become a sacrificial to the patriarch,
26:16
Speaker 1: which is that conversation. Yeah right, And then this is
26:20
Speaker 1: the line girls were supposed to follow a simple life
26:22
Speaker 1: cycle from debutante to wife to study. Further would mean
26:26
Speaker 1: to delay the cycle to remain a crystalis inside a cocoon.
26:30
Speaker 1: And yeah, exactly, that's that line. She was not cool
26:34
Speaker 1: either way to being just herself. Yeah yeah, And I
26:41
Speaker 1: think there was a part of me that when I
26:45
Speaker 1: was reading it, like, you never really get to see
26:49
Speaker 1: Catalina before she's induced to this state. But the way
26:53
Speaker 1: that Nami describes her is she was a very vibrant woman,
26:58
Speaker 1: kind very like she was a very just lively interesting person.
27:05
Speaker 1: And now you just see her. She's in bed and
27:07
Speaker 1: kind of like a very a very shell of herself.
27:12
Speaker 1: And Nami I felt was a very I thought interesting,
27:17
Speaker 1: um hero and I thought she was like, oh, she's funny,
27:20
Speaker 1: she's witty, she's charming, she's got these uh interests and
27:24
Speaker 1: faults and all the stuff. And I liked her a lot.
27:26
Speaker 1: And then to see her like, again, I could be
27:30
Speaker 1: reading way too deep into this, but to see her
27:31
Speaker 1: kind of pulled into this marriage she did not want,
27:36
Speaker 1: which is what happened to a lot of women. And
27:37
Speaker 1: to hear you're going to be used for children and
27:41
Speaker 1: that's it. To see her reduced to that, I was like, oh,
27:47
Speaker 1: this is kind of what we were asking of women
27:51
Speaker 1: a lot at this time in marriages. Was like, you
27:54
Speaker 1: make yourself smaller, you reduce yourself, and you are secondary
28:00
Speaker 1: to whatever the man, the head of the household needs.
28:04
Speaker 1: Mhmm yeah, mm hmmmm mmm uh. Here's another quote. Mr
28:11
Speaker 1: Vasco de Seos makes it very clear that the unattractive
28:14
Speaker 1: will not procreate. Beauty attracts beauty, and begets beauty. It
28:18
Speaker 1: is a means of selection. You see, I am offering
28:20
Speaker 1: you a compliment. So this is by Howard and he's
28:25
Speaker 1: being all creepy, which is often all the time, but
28:27
Speaker 1: that was throughout the book too. Is kind of really
28:31
Speaker 1: reducing people to genetics. Um, that's where this whole idea
28:35
Speaker 1: of like superior and inferior and genetics comes in. It's
28:40
Speaker 1: just really gross. It's just really gross to hear them
28:45
Speaker 1: talk that way and to know that this guy has
28:47
Speaker 1: lived a hundred years and is really looking at it
28:49
Speaker 1: as just like, how can I prolong my life and
28:54
Speaker 1: the life of my family. How can you play a
28:57
Speaker 1: role in this? Right? And the thing is like, I
29:01
Speaker 1: don't think it's just even his family, He's just his life.
29:03
Speaker 1: So he just needs to use the children for him
29:07
Speaker 1: to continue to live, which I thought was interesting too,
29:10
Speaker 1: because I feel like that's you know, we've talked about
29:14
Speaker 1: this before, but that idea of your children being more
29:19
Speaker 1: a representative view then actually something like you're you're more
29:24
Speaker 1: concerned about how they represent you than themselves. And that
29:28
Speaker 1: was definitely shining through in this in this book, because yeah,
29:33
Speaker 1: he you know, I just realized I thought Fences couldn't
29:37
Speaker 1: be his next in line because that wasn't his kid. Yes,
29:40
Speaker 1: it was his grandkid, but not his kid. I thought
29:43
Speaker 1: it had to be his kid. I think they thought so,
29:45
Speaker 1: but they were so desperate so they because they did.
29:48
Speaker 1: Why didn't he use Virgil just for because he liked
29:51
Speaker 1: Virgil better? So Vert right, but that was his actual kid, Yes,
29:56
Speaker 1: but he wanted Virgil to like, he actually wan at
30:00
Speaker 1: him to live and have his own life because he
30:02
Speaker 1: was the quote better one. So Francis was more expendable.
30:06
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna try it with him and if it
30:08
Speaker 1: doesn't work, then I'm sure they would have gone pro Virgil,
30:10
Speaker 1: which is why, probably why Virgil was like, no, I'm
30:13
Speaker 1: going to kill this guy, because yeah, if I remember correctly,
30:17
Speaker 1: it was never like it had to be his kid.
30:20
Speaker 1: I think they really tried to keep it very in
30:23
Speaker 1: the blood, and this was there like, oh god, it's
30:25
Speaker 1: not working. We have to branch out because we're dying off. Yes, yes,
30:34
Speaker 1: but here's another quote to underline this point. A woman's
30:38
Speaker 1: function is to preserve the family line. And I think
30:41
Speaker 1: that that was throughout. Yes, this idea, we need the
30:46
Speaker 1: women to have the children, but after that, like that's
30:52
Speaker 1: all they're they're all they're good for um. And you
30:55
Speaker 1: see the suffering of Agnes especially which again, as I said,
30:59
Speaker 1: I wasn't clear, and maybe it could be because I
31:02
Speaker 1: read this in one sitting, because I was like, oh, um,
31:06
Speaker 1: I wasn't clear. I felt like Agnes did agree to
31:10
Speaker 1: sacrifice herself. She was like, Okay, I'll do it. But
31:12
Speaker 1: then after because essentially involved bearing her alive and so
31:18
Speaker 1: in that she was scraping out in that process, she
31:21
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, maybe I didn't want this, or maybe
31:26
Speaker 1: I was wrong, But from that the spores grow and
31:30
Speaker 1: the mysilium grows, and so it's like her living nightmare.
31:33
Speaker 1: But it's the pain of this one woman who's keeping
31:36
Speaker 1: this whole thing alive. Um, and she's yeah, she's having
31:43
Speaker 1: this nightmare. It's really pretty disturbing and descriptive of when
31:47
Speaker 1: you finally realize what's going on and how it describes
31:51
Speaker 1: her as just this like trapped woman who was just
31:55
Speaker 1: in this nightmare and that's her whole existence, and like
31:59
Speaker 1: to have that woman's pain at the suffering of all
32:02
Speaker 1: of this at the heart of all of this, I
32:06
Speaker 1: think is a pretty telling about how we treat women.
32:15
Speaker 1: It's something we've talked about a lot in our horror
32:18
Speaker 1: things about how we'll just use women's pain for all
32:21
Speaker 1: kinds of things. In this case, Yeah, and then something
32:26
Speaker 1: else is definitely the suffering and expendability in the minds
32:31
Speaker 1: of this family of the working class. Because the servants
32:35
Speaker 1: our scene is kind of like test cases for this
32:39
Speaker 1: fungus are either they are husk like they are literally
32:43
Speaker 1: servants that are living in the house that are just
32:46
Speaker 1: kind of hollowed out and controlled by this fungus, and
32:51
Speaker 1: that is what kind of props them up you've got
32:56
Speaker 1: the miners, Yeah, who who are buried? So just using
33:01
Speaker 1: people in that cool way and throwing them away. And
33:04
Speaker 1: then there was a lot of stuff, especially in the beginning,
33:06
Speaker 1: because I would say this book took a turn in
33:09
Speaker 1: the middle about what you thought where it was going.
33:13
Speaker 1: Maybe you knew it was ominous, but you weren't quite sure.
33:17
Speaker 1: But there was a whole there's a whole lot of
33:19
Speaker 1: stuff I noticed about women navigating men and social situations.
33:24
Speaker 1: So here's a quote. I wouldn't stay demanding, exactly concerned,
33:28
Speaker 1: more like she replied, taking care to smile, to show
33:31
Speaker 1: him this was really a small matter that might be
33:33
Speaker 1: easily resolved, and it must have worked for He nodded,
33:36
Speaker 1: And I just remember reading that being like, so, yeah,
33:38
Speaker 1: this is still we still talk about doing this stuff
33:43
Speaker 1: as women of like you gotta put on your smile,
33:45
Speaker 1: You've got to manage this man's anger and his expectations
33:48
Speaker 1: and whatever. And you know at first when she first
33:51
Speaker 1: gets there, like you know, something's off, but she's still
33:53
Speaker 1: trying to be polite and still trying to get what
33:56
Speaker 1: she wants by managing these people. And you just see
34:01
Speaker 1: so many instances of her having to deal with like
34:05
Speaker 1: real nonsense and having this fear of what will happen
34:10
Speaker 1: if she doesn't play kate them. She definitely has to
34:14
Speaker 1: control her temper office. Yeah. Um. And then there's another quote.
34:18
Speaker 1: It bothered her to be thought of poorly. She wanted
34:21
Speaker 1: to be light. Perhaps this explained the parties, the crystalline laughter,
34:25
Speaker 1: the well clothed hair, the rehearsed smile. She thought that
34:29
Speaker 1: men such as her father could be stern, and men
34:31
Speaker 1: could be cold like Virgil, but women need to be
34:34
Speaker 1: liked or they'd be in trouble. A woman who is
34:38
Speaker 1: not light is a bitch and a bit can hardly
34:40
Speaker 1: do anything. All avenues are close to her. Yeah right, yeah,
34:46
Speaker 1: but she she definitely had like an inner war of
34:48
Speaker 1: She was very strong willed, so she felt this, tried
34:53
Speaker 1: to do this, tried to fit into this, all of
34:56
Speaker 1: these customs and expectations around her, but in the was
35:00
Speaker 1: ultimately like, no, I need to see my cousin. You're
35:05
Speaker 1: not listening to me, Like got fed up. But I
35:08
Speaker 1: did think that that was interesting. Um. And here's another quote.
35:13
Speaker 1: And then you won't help me. You're afraid of them. Oh,
35:15
Speaker 1: and here I am without a friend in the world.
35:17
Speaker 1: She said, clutching her person, standing up slowly, her lip
35:19
Speaker 1: quivering dramatically. Men always panicked when she did that, afraid
35:23
Speaker 1: she cry. Men were always so afraid of tears, of
35:25
Speaker 1: having a hysterical woman on their hands. I just thought
35:29
Speaker 1: it was funny. She's clearly learned the game right well,
35:33
Speaker 1: the woman hysterical women has been had been used again
35:37
Speaker 1: when they were trying to when she was trying to
35:38
Speaker 1: talk about how do I get my cousin out of here?
35:41
Speaker 1: Think we're just too hysterically. Yeah, And I thought that
35:45
Speaker 1: was really I liked that twist where she has that
35:48
Speaker 1: moment of like, maybe Catalina is perfectly sane and there's
35:53
Speaker 1: something wrong in this house. There is something wrong here. Yeah,
35:57
Speaker 1: I really really liked that. I just note again I
36:00
Speaker 1: thought na Amy was a badass, um if it's not clear,
36:04
Speaker 1: I really liked her a lot. There was a lot
36:21
Speaker 1: of stuff that we've talked about before, in horror of
36:23
Speaker 1: not believing women, dismissing women, gosslighting women. Here's a quote
36:28
Speaker 1: I want you to gon Amy. Virgil says, she's been
36:30
Speaker 1: asking for you. She here being Catalina. Besides, I think
36:32
Speaker 1: this is a matter that may be best handled by
36:34
Speaker 1: a woman, it might turn out that this is nothing
36:38
Speaker 1: but exaggerations and marital trouble. It's not as if your
36:40
Speaker 1: cousin hasn't had a tendency towards the melodramatic. It might
36:43
Speaker 1: be employed for attention. In that case, why would Catalina's
36:47
Speaker 1: marital troubles or her melodrama concern us? She asked that
36:50
Speaker 1: she didn't think it was fair that her father little
36:53
Speaker 1: Catalina as melodramatic. She's lost both of her parents at
36:57
Speaker 1: a young age. One could expect a certain amount of
36:59
Speaker 1: turmoil after that. So this is early in the book
37:02
Speaker 1: where noim me and her father are talking about whether
37:05
Speaker 1: or not know Ami should go visit Catalina. And I
37:09
Speaker 1: thought this was interesting where she's sort of immediately like
37:12
Speaker 1: defensive of Catalina, like she's, oh, no, I agree something's
37:16
Speaker 1: going on here. I don't think she's being melodramatic, like
37:19
Speaker 1: maybe I don't want to deal with it, But she
37:21
Speaker 1: does become very protective of Catalina. She's a big defender
37:26
Speaker 1: of Catalina. She won't leave her behind. So I did
37:29
Speaker 1: like really seeing that where she was not ever like, oh,
37:32
Speaker 1: I think she has lost her mind or I think
37:34
Speaker 1: she was always always thinking, oh I remember how she was.
37:39
Speaker 1: This does not match with how I remember her, and
37:42
Speaker 1: I'm not going to just dismiss her. So I really
37:45
Speaker 1: liked that. Um, especially like the doctor. So the Doyles
37:50
Speaker 1: have a doctor that they use who turns out to
37:54
Speaker 1: be kind of like influenced by the fungus as well. Um,
37:59
Speaker 1: and he's so dismissive of Catalina and of Nami. He's
38:04
Speaker 1: he's a part of the family. Yes he is, but
38:08
Speaker 1: I feel like they kind of like don't treat him
38:11
Speaker 1: that way. But yes he is. No, yeah, he's a
38:13
Speaker 1: like he's a descendant of them, So therefore he cleeps
38:16
Speaker 1: close to them. Yes, um, and he's incredibly dismissive and
38:21
Speaker 1: us to see Virgil laughing at Nami's suggestion of the psychiatrist,
38:25
Speaker 1: which was also racist, because yes, again, this was that
38:29
Speaker 1: whole thread through line with the Doyle family of like, oh,
38:32
Speaker 1: the Vocals could not possibly have like a therapist, that
38:36
Speaker 1: would be ridiculous. And then like when you see the
38:39
Speaker 1: blurring of dreams and reality and the gas lighting, because
38:45
Speaker 1: they knew what was going on, They knew what was happening.
38:47
Speaker 1: To know Amy, Catalina went through the same thing. I
38:49
Speaker 1: don't think we said it, but Catalina tried to get
38:51
Speaker 1: away too, and just playing on like, oh, you're sleepwalking again,
38:57
Speaker 1: or maybe something's wrong with you, Oh, maybe your stressed,
39:00
Speaker 1: like turning it on her. They also blamed her for
39:04
Speaker 1: Catalina's seizure, which had happened before, and they, you know,
39:08
Speaker 1: was did not relate that part at all. They're like, what,
39:10
Speaker 1: you knew this and you're trying to pretend like I
39:12
Speaker 1: did this on purpose and then you said it was
39:14
Speaker 1: opoi opioids and that was none of that. That doesn't
39:18
Speaker 1: You are every bit as the gas letter of the
39:21
Speaker 1: entirety of the thing, and they bade her feel so
39:24
Speaker 1: guilty that she felt guilty and therefore was like I
39:27
Speaker 1: almost killed my cousin. Yeah. Yeah. They were very very
39:33
Speaker 1: effective at cast slighting, especially with the dreams, because they
39:37
Speaker 1: would kind of try to get her to admit to
39:39
Speaker 1: the dream and kind of succumbed to the dream, and
39:41
Speaker 1: when she wouldn't, they would be like, oh, no, it
39:42
Speaker 1: was just a dream, even though she had a real
39:45
Speaker 1: sense that it wasn't and she was right, but they
39:50
Speaker 1: would just be like, oh, no, you walked into my room.
39:53
Speaker 1: What There was also the idea which we talked about before,
39:57
Speaker 1: of no amy building off of the word women have
40:00
Speaker 1: done the past. So she was able to hear these
40:02
Speaker 1: other women like ruth Um and later Agnes and hear
40:07
Speaker 1: like what they went through, and they would talk to
40:09
Speaker 1: her and try to give her advice as the story progresses,
40:12
Speaker 1: and then Naami is sort of able to take that
40:14
Speaker 1: advice and use it for them. And yes, as we said,
40:18
Speaker 1: feeding off of woman's pain, because that's sort of what
40:22
Speaker 1: this whole thing was about, literally, yeah, including eating children.
40:29
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And then there was a lot of weaponizing
40:33
Speaker 1: of sexuality, especially against new Amy from what we see,
40:38
Speaker 1: a lot of using her desires against her um because
40:43
Speaker 1: she was which may have been planted, yes, very much
40:45
Speaker 1: influenced by the fungus, but she was somebody who likes um.
40:51
Speaker 1: She likes dating, and she liked being with men. If
40:54
Speaker 1: I'm remembering quickly, she had never actually had sex because
40:57
Speaker 1: she was too worried about the reputation san what they
41:01
Speaker 1: would say about her. But she did like like that aspect.
41:04
Speaker 1: She flirted, but then also she would lose interest after
41:07
Speaker 1: a couple of days. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, But um,
41:11
Speaker 1: Virgil in particular, you see him manipulating and dehumanizing her,
41:15
Speaker 1: harassing her, trying to make her feel certain ways. Uh,
41:20
Speaker 1: here's a quote another pretty Girl for his collection, which
41:24
Speaker 1: is something that was said about Howard. I believe about
41:28
Speaker 1: no Ami, but kind of this idea of like, oh
41:30
Speaker 1: she's pretty, let's bring her in, which, yeah, because that's
41:35
Speaker 1: the whole Like if Francis had been possessed by Howard,
41:38
Speaker 1: that would have made her his, which was that intent,
41:43
Speaker 1: And then Virgil soon on talks about how he was
41:46
Speaker 1: going to take her for himself essentially, and then when
41:48
Speaker 1: Francis came to her rescue essentially or defense, he was
41:51
Speaker 1: that we can share her. I was like, oh yeah,
41:54
Speaker 1: no angry, no, no, yeah, just talking about her. Yeah,
41:59
Speaker 1: she's an object grows asting. There was a lot of
42:02
Speaker 1: stuff about family in here. We've already talked about a
42:04
Speaker 1: lot of it, but yeah, um, I would recommend reading
42:09
Speaker 1: it for more because it's sort of hard to break down.
42:11
Speaker 1: But I mean essentially, you've got this fungus family, the
42:17
Speaker 1: fungus family, and the drama within and uh, sort of
42:21
Speaker 1: the tears within of ideology, and then you've got, as
42:25
Speaker 1: I said, Naami and Catalina Anno Ami really not giving
42:30
Speaker 1: up on Catalina. And then yes, there's a lot of
42:33
Speaker 1: stuff about eugenics and racism, the superior inferior ideas, natural selection, immortality. Um,
42:41
Speaker 1: there's incest, good blood versus bad blood. There's wanting to
42:46
Speaker 1: use Catalina n Ami for different such harder your blood.
42:50
Speaker 1: The whole idea of uh Nami and Francis speaking in
42:55
Speaker 1: Spanish because they never bothered to learn Spanish, as in fact,
42:59
Speaker 1: it was almost forbidden, that is forbidden in the house.
43:04
Speaker 1: That there's a lot of imagery around the snake eating
43:07
Speaker 1: its tail, so like it's just a circle of the
43:12
Speaker 1: creature eating itself, which is sort of what is going
43:15
Speaker 1: on here with trying to keep this bloodline going. And
43:19
Speaker 1: it's all all of this is rooted in sexism, misogyny, racism,
43:23
Speaker 1: and colonialism, this family and their immortality. Yes, and they
43:28
Speaker 1: should be noted that they obviously the villains, and this
43:31
Speaker 1: is the Englishman coming to Mexico to take advantage of
43:35
Speaker 1: the silver minds which they've always made their money in. Yes,
43:39
Speaker 1: that is bigger than a metaphorically more obvious metaphor. I
43:46
Speaker 1: think so. And then I wanted to end on the
43:51
Speaker 1: horror because this book is really very good, like getting
43:56
Speaker 1: under your skin. It's really creepy. I really really enjoyed it,
43:59
Speaker 1: so I just want to include this quote to close
44:01
Speaker 1: it out, so you kind of get a taste of
44:04
Speaker 1: of what's going on here. Next to Nami, the wall
44:08
Speaker 1: had started to quiver, beating to the same rhythm as
44:11
Speaker 1: the golden woman. Beneath her. The floorboards pulsed to a
44:14
Speaker 1: heart alive and knowing, the golden filaments that had emerged
44:18
Speaker 1: together with the mushrooms, covered the wall like a netting
44:20
Speaker 1: and continued to grow. She noticed then that the woman's
44:23
Speaker 1: dress was not made of place, but was instead woven
44:26
Speaker 1: with the same filaments. The woman raised a gloved hand
44:29
Speaker 1: and pointed at Naamy. She opened her mouth, but having
44:32
Speaker 1: no mouth, since her face was a golden blur, no
44:35
Speaker 1: words came out. Nami had not felt scared, not until now,
44:39
Speaker 1: but this the woman attempting to speak. It made her
44:42
Speaker 1: indescribably afraid, a fear that traveled down her spine to
44:46
Speaker 1: the soles of her feet, forcing Naami to step back
44:49
Speaker 1: and press her hands against her lips. She had no lips,
44:52
Speaker 1: and when she tried to take another step back, she
44:54
Speaker 1: realized that her feet had fused to the ground. The
44:56
Speaker 1: golden woman reached forward, reached toward her, held Naomi's face
45:01
Speaker 1: between her hands. The woman made a noise like the
45:03
Speaker 1: crunching of leaves, like the dripping of water onto a pond,
45:06
Speaker 1: like the buzzing of insects in the pitch black darkness,
45:09
Speaker 1: and Naomi wished to press her hands against her ears,
45:12
Speaker 1: but she had no hands anymore. Naomi opened her eyes,
45:15
Speaker 1: drenched in sweat. For a minute, she didn't remember where
45:18
Speaker 1: she was, and then she recalled she had been invited
45:21
Speaker 1: to high place. She reached for the glass of water
45:23
Speaker 1: she's left it by the bedside, and almost knocked it down.
45:26
Speaker 1: She culped down the whole glass and then turned her head.
45:29
Speaker 1: The room was in shadows, no light, golden or otherwise
45:32
Speaker 1: dotted the wall surface. Nevertheless, she had an impulse to
45:36
Speaker 1: rise and run her hands against the wall, as if
45:38
Speaker 1: to make sure there was nothing strange lurking behind the wallpaper. Oh,
45:45
Speaker 1: I love it, I really really enjoyed it. Um it
45:49
Speaker 1: was very good. Yes, highly recommend Great Halloween read great
45:56
Speaker 1: all the time, read uh to be honest, and it's
46:00
Speaker 1: got a lot of going on that we didn't even
46:02
Speaker 1: talk about. So yeah, check it out if you're if
46:06
Speaker 1: you're interested and you haven't already. Um and as always
46:10
Speaker 1: we're looking for those recommendations for our next book club.
46:14
Speaker 1: You can send those to us at our email which
46:16
Speaker 1: is stephaniely your mom Stuff at I Hurt me to
46:17
Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom
46:19
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast or Instagram at Stuff Whenever Told You. Thanks
46:22
Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Chris do Know, Thank you,
46:25
Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told You.
46:28
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Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, check out the Year a Apple podcast
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