Latest / Dubious Creatures Presents / The Dubious Book Club Podcast Ep 2 - Her Soul to Take by Harley LaRoux Part 2 (Preview)
Transcript
- 0:00Hello everybody, welcome back to the Dubious Book Club podcast
- 0:04where I, Aubrey, inflict my taste in books on my friends and
- 0:11make them talk about it. And we're going to be discussing
- 0:14the second-half of her Soul to Take by Harley Little Rue and I
- 0:19have a bunch of dubious creatures here with me.
- 0:23Introduce yourself, dubious creatures.
- 0:26No one do it at once. Damn.
- 0:28All right, I'll go first. Hey, what's up?
- 0:30I'm misfit Miss at Playland. If you've ever interacted with
- 0:33their socials, that's me. Hi, I'm Ilona Kinsetta.
- 0:38I played Ambella in the holiday episode and I do a lot of the
- 0:43behind the scenes coordination. If you've ever read any of our
- 0:46audio transcripts, that's likely me.
- 0:52Hi Sawyer or pirate on the Discord.
- 0:56I'm the storyteller for the Vampire With No Name and also
- 1:00the lead creative for Dubious Creatures Press.
- 1:04If you've ever wondered what Circle of Daddy Issues flavored
- 1:08hell I've been consigned to in order to herd these particular
- 1:13brats around San Arroyo, that's me.
- 1:19I am that guy. And it's certainly true.
- 1:24Quick note before we really get into things.
- 1:27As before, the source material features depictions of death,
- 1:31sexual content, graphic violence, substance abuse, death
- 1:34by suicide, and in particular it has kink, fetish content, horror
- 1:39elements, non consensual drugging, depictions of heart,
- 1:42kink and edge play, and consensual non consent.
- 1:46So, yeah, if these are not your things, this is your warning or
- 1:52if you need to take a break, take a break.
- 1:53Do that. It'll be fine.
- 1:55We'll still be here when you come back.
- 1:57So we're. So the first half of the book is
- 2:02takes place in modern day Washington, a bellum this small
- 2:09fiction town. Ray returns home and through a
- 2:17incredibly unlikely series of events, finds a grimoire,
- 2:21summons a demon, learns that she needs going to be sacrificed to
- 2:25an elder God beneath the town, seduces said demon, has sex with
- 2:29him many times, and we ended things with her trapping him in
- 2:34a binding circle, which I'm sure is going to go great for her.
- 2:39OK, seduces is a stretch. More like consensually falls
- 2:43onto his crazy demon Dick several times.
- 2:47I think Leon did more of the seducing than Ray did, in all
- 2:51fairness. Ray was very into it the entire
- 2:55time, but it was initiated by Leon.
- 2:57Yes, Yeah. Just to clarify something.
- 3:01Yeah, Ray didn't seduce shit. She wanted to.
- 3:06She did. Think about it.
- 3:07She. Did.
- 3:11That would imply that Ray is an active participant in anything,
- 3:15including her own fucking plot line and.
- 3:18She's got some moments. She tries.
- 3:21She tries to look after her. Come.
- 3:24On OK are any of those moments like non demon Dick related?
- 3:29I'm genuinely asking. Yeah.
- 3:32Wait, no, yeah, there's some. She does technically, early in
- 3:39the book, decide to try to fake someone, a demon.
- 3:43That is a choice. She actively makes that.
- 3:46Was a choice that she made. Yeah, we made a choice to stab
- 3:49stab the God at the end. For her YouTube channel.
- 3:54She did that. I mean I don't know how that
- 3:56would help her YouTube channel stabbing the God.
- 4:01I mean OK, but in the end, like we know the demon.
- 4:05Land sorry the way that phrase is like yes she said stab a God
- 4:11for the gram. Which shit I read that book.
- 4:15It's not what happened to your. Folks, I.
- 4:19Don't know how the young people talk, OK.
- 4:24Fuck, my whole train of thought is gone.
- 4:26God damn it. There's a reason why Misfit is
- 4:28in charge of the social media. I just sort of lurk and
- 4:32occasionally do the sexy voice. That is the extent of my
- 4:34contribution. So plot wise, we're at the
- 4:40binding circle that she puts Leon in.
- 4:44Right. Yes.
- 4:45That's plot wise. She puts Leon in a binding
- 4:48circle and I see that she does. Yeah, through Google, through
- 4:55the power of Google, you can find and circle a demon.
- 5:00I'm, I'm not saying I'm, I'm not saying you couldn't find
- 5:06something of that flavor if you look.
- 5:09For it. That and apparently she says
- 5:12that the site apparently has been updated since the 90s.
- 5:16And like that is the dial up Internet era.
- 5:19What the fuck were they doing in the 90s?
- 5:22Also, why was it not? Why was it not in the grimoire?
- 5:26Why did we need to go to Google for this?
- 5:28Like legitimate. She lost the grimoire because.
- 5:31She lost the grimoire canonically by.
- 5:32That point. Canonically, you forget what the
- 5:35grid what is in the grimoire when you do not have it.
- 5:39Because you because of the Mac guffin, it isn't there at the
- 5:44moment all right. The real reason why she gets all
- 5:48of her demon binding information off of Google is because the
- 5:51important characters are doing stuff with the grimoire.
- 5:56Yeah, just a little. But yes, it does lead to the
- 5:59fair play scene as a Leon does get out of the binding circle by
- 6:05making Cheesecake roll on this chalk to break the break the
- 6:09line, which is kind of a smart move.
- 6:12Genius move, by the way. Genius move.
- 6:15Is it OK legitimately though? Is it genius or is she just
- 6:20really slow and dumb? Because if my if I was in the
- 6:24situation that I'd made a chalk circle for a demon and I saw my
- 6:30cat slowly walking over towards it, I would just pick him up.
- 6:35I think she was just worried about like, I don't, I think at
- 6:38the book it says she doesn't realize he's there until he's
- 6:40like almost on top of the circle.
- 6:41And I think she's just worried about getting close to the
- 6:44circle so that Leon might grab her.
- 6:49But theoretically he can't exit even like a piece of his body
- 6:51can't exit the circle. To be fair, she's also unsure of
- 6:55how well it works. Like it's keeping it there for
- 6:59now, but who knows. It's.
- 7:01Are we, are we advocating? Like no, your honor, you see,
- 7:06she's just timid and stupid for like.
- 7:09Either way, Ray does not come out of this looking good.
- 7:15It wasn't it wasn't the best moment for her.
- 7:17I'll, I'll. Give you that.
- 7:19Defeated by Defeated by cheesecake of all people.
- 7:24I love that cat. I will defend that cat's.
- 7:27Honor Cheesecake. No cheesecake can do no wrong in
- 7:30this situation, just I'm stressing that many people get
- 7:35one over on Ray during the course of this book, including
- 7:38her own cat. Look, sometimes you're just
- 7:44really peek wet cat and unfortunately I have to
- 7:48empathize with Ray being a peek wet cat girl.
- 7:54Yeah, I get it. I Ray is more than just a wet
- 7:59cat, especially in this upcoming scene.
- 8:01She is the whole drowned basket of kittens.
- 8:08Because in this scene, like he plunges the whole place in the
- 8:12darkness again, she can only really see his glowing eyes
- 8:18staring at her forebodingly and. I don't know, I kind of like the
- 8:25scene kind of hot. It's a really good scene.
- 8:27Yeah, I. Know and like pretty good.
- 8:30That's the thing though, in that scene there is a.
- 8:33There's a split between what you would do normally and what this
- 8:40book would do, what this genre would do.
- 8:45I mean, I would sleep with the demon, but you know, that's just
- 8:47me. Listen, I would, I would done
- 8:50sold my soul like as soon as he was like, yeah, just give me
- 8:53your soul. I've been like back, cool, let's
- 8:54go. I I know, I know because there
- 8:57really there really doesn't seem even Elder Gods non
- 9:01withstanding. There really doesn't seem to be
- 9:02a downside to that whole arrangement.
- 9:04Right, there's no problem. And there's even there's a line
- 9:09early in the book where she's like, my soul was already his.
- 9:12And then it's the rest of the book before she actually gives
- 9:15it to him. And I'm like, why?
- 9:17Why are we doing this? Why are we continuing to have
- 9:20this discussion when you've already said it?
- 9:24Is a powerful drug. It is, and it's also kind of
- 9:28necessary for her to keep holding off giving him her soul.
- 9:32So we continue to have a book. Respectfully, why?
- 9:36Why exactly is it necessary for it to be an artificial he for
- 9:42for it to be Leon's choice versus it being a contract?
- 9:47Because a lot of the subtext in this book is just text.
- 9:52Yeah. All right, like I complained
- 9:58about this in the previous episode, shit just sort of
- 10:03happens to these characters, man.
- 10:06Like, this book entirely exists to set up both the setting and
- 10:11the plot for other characters who, funnily enough, we meet
- 10:16over the course of the book. The rest of it is just excuses
- 10:20to, you know, marvel at the prehensile Demon deck.
- 10:24Is it prehensile? I'm.
- 10:27Convinced that it is, given some of the shit they get up to.
- 10:30I was never explicitly confirmed.
- 10:32I checked, but I don't know man. Normal and look as the only as
- 10:38the only possessor of that particular plumbing in the Zoom
- 10:41call. I'm going to go out on a limb
- 10:43here and say yeah, no we don't. You jet.
- 10:47Most guys I know don't have that Swiss Army function.
- 10:52Well, get better. Ouch.
- 10:57OK, say what? You're really thinking Misfit.
- 11:05Yeah, so. So they fuck.
- 11:09Yeah, I mean. Obviously there's a bit more to
- 11:12it than that, but that's, you know, he's scary.
- 11:18She soils or britches, but not in the usual sense.
- 11:23And yeah. Wait, you've never been so
- 11:27scared? You've like come in a little.
- 11:30No, that is your stick. Just the digital high 5 for you
- 11:37Misfit. Bam.
- 11:40I know better than doing fringe on your territory.
- 11:45But yeah, it's it's it's all of the like.
- 11:51Say what you will about like other things around the smut
- 11:53scenes, the scenes, the scenes themselves are all written
- 11:55pretty well. I very well, yeah.
- 11:58Minus I, I. I loved the nipple piercing
- 12:04scene. I fucking adored it actually.
- 12:09It was great. Everyone out there listening to
- 12:12this, please don't fucking try that.
- 12:15Go to a proper. Piercer.
- 12:18That that is 100% fantasy. It's a great fucking amazing
- 12:20scene. And we'll probably talk about
- 12:22more more when we get to it in context.
- 12:25But yeah, it's, it's an amazing scene.
- 12:27And but don't do that at home. Please don't see that at home.
- 12:32As somebody who has had her nipples cursed, please.
- 12:35Don't do a lot of this at home really.
- 12:37Unless I don't know, man. Like again, the sex scenes are
- 12:44good because we theorized that the author probably has some
- 12:48experience in a few of these particular situations.
- 12:55But yet, like seriously, make sure your partner's both up to
- 12:59date and fully down the clown if you try to replicate some of
- 13:05these things. Otherwise, remember folks, it's
- 13:08a fantasy. Yeah, but then after after the
- 13:13the fear play scene, which is is really good.
- 13:16And I don't really have like, too much to like actually say
- 13:19other than, hey, you know, they continue to practice safe words,
- 13:24which is good. We we kind of we went into the
- 13:31sex scenes a bit last time they released it much more.
- 13:34It doesn't get we'll we'll talk about the the piercing scene in
- 13:42a bit, but that's about as it doesn't get much kinkier.
- 13:47Yeah, we we got the consensual non consent scene too.
- 13:50I know I. Know, but like that was I'm
- 13:54going to be honest, I have my issues with that scene and that
- 13:57it has nothing to do with the IT has nothing to do with the
- 13:59kinkiness of it and everything to do with the is there really
- 14:04time for this? Yes, yes, there is always time.
- 14:10There's always time. There's always time.
- 14:19I feel like there wasn't time for a lot, but we just suspend
- 14:23our disbelief. OK, we'll get into it more, but
- 14:27I feel like the things that this book is trying to be keep
- 14:30pulling it in different directions and contradicting
- 14:33with each other in ways. Thank you.
- 14:36Just make everything more difficult to suspend the
- 14:41disbelief. Yeah, no, we'll definitely get
- 14:46into that later. So next is the scene where Leon
- 14:49and Ray kind of get high. And Leon is like, hey, I got to
- 14:53leave because I still got to find my mark.
- 14:56This is what you do. Don't fucking leave the house.
- 15:01Like, unless you're like, during that night, stay in, burn all of
- 15:05this stuff. And we also learned later that
- 15:07he's coming back every night to essentially watch over the
- 15:10house. Is this after he like fake
- 15:14breaks up with her? Or whatever, find a it's kind of
- 15:22a fake breakup. It's like super fake fake.
- 15:26Up. Yeah, like I have to go.
- 15:30I have to go find my mark. This is where I had an issue
- 15:35with Leon. I fucking hate that bullshit.
- 15:38Don't fake, don't like bring big emotions into this and then like
- 15:44just bail out, talk to me, give me like give me a heads up, be
- 15:48like, hey, I actually have shit that I need to go do like really
- 15:51important things. Don't make it seem like, oh, I'm
- 15:53mad at you for XY and Z and I gave you X amount of time to do
- 15:58sad thing and then now I'm going to leave because you didn't meet
- 16:01my expectations, because that's neat.
- 16:03He's. Very busy.
- 16:05He's got a long day of not winning fights ahead of him.
- 16:10I mean that is that was kind of a bit during like right before
- 16:15the fear play scene where he was doing that because of the scene
- 16:19where they're they're getting high and just sort of sitting
- 16:22there talking. He doesn't see it.
- 16:25It's it's a very small scene. It's it's very short where he's
- 16:30just like, hey, I still haven't found my mark and you have not
- 16:35given me in your soul. So I'm going to go, this is what
- 16:41you need to do. And you know, you know how to
- 16:45find me if you change your mind. Even though he comes back every
- 16:48night and but she doesn't do that right.
- 16:52Yeah, OK, I remember this now. Yeah.
- 16:56I mean, it's not the most awkward morning after I've ever
- 16:59seen, but it's up there. Yeah.
- 17:03And then we get like time passes, like we get a we get
- 17:08some stuff that happens over the course of like a couple of weeks
- 17:10where Ray decides to stay with Anaya for a little bit, which
- 17:16Leon is like, great people around, less chance the elder
- 17:20are going to come get you. Great.
- 17:21This is sort of what I wanted, but you just didn't go far
- 17:23enough. And then we find Leon learns
- 17:28where the grimoire is from Zayn. We confirmation that Zayn and
- 17:31Juniper are a thing and the Juniper's back here to to kill.
- 17:36I didn't, I didn't care to begin with, but OK, good for them.
- 17:43Yeah, the thing the thing about Zayn and Juniper is that the
- 17:47shit, they are the pair where shit actually happens, but we're
- 17:50not allowed to see it. So, oh, so there's this fun bit
- 17:55where Leon is like, all right, I'm going to go off and do my
- 18:00thing and probably get killed because again, we've established
- 18:04I do not win fights. And Zane, almost as if he knows
- 18:09full well what the plot has in store, literally grabs the
- 18:12little fucker by the throat. And it's like, don't get, don't
- 18:15do that. Don't be a dumb ass.
- 18:19It's kind of a relationship. Yeah, and you get to see Leon be
- 18:23a brat for a little bit, and it's fun.
- 18:24Yeah. Yeah.
- 18:30The role of reversal kind of thing.
- 18:33It's less heartening because it's almost like Zayn is
- 18:36Preacher natural awareness of Leon's actual role in the plot.
- 18:43Because he's not there to be cool, he's there to make
- 18:48everybody else look cool by virtue of whooping his sorry
- 18:52ass. Which is what happens when he
- 18:56does. Finally tracked out Everly
- 19:02because there's an arch demon named Callum and that's about as
- 19:06much information as I got about it because this is the only
- 19:08scene where he fucking shows up. Yes he he really doesn't come
- 19:13into play until book 3. Like he also only has one scene
- 19:16in book 2 as well. Yeah, he he basically, he
- 19:21basically shows up long enough to beat the redheaded stepchild
- 19:27out of Leon, and then Everly shows up is like, OK, you're
- 19:36falling hard for book talk, Velma, so I guess you're cool.
- 19:42And then she leaves to go do plot stuff.
- 19:47Yeah, small, very small. Point of order about that whole
- 19:51scene is that it's described that like they hear the piano
- 19:55from upstairs and then wheneverly comes down she's got
- 19:59like imprints of rope from play. On her wrists.
- 20:04And I'm like, either you were able to play the piano or you
- 20:07were in the middle of a scene, not both.
- 20:09Very. Confusing.
- 20:11What if she was tired of playing the piano?
- 20:14It's a fun fact is I've I've read all three books and I know
- 20:18the context of this scene if you want.
- 20:21To. Please I will take any
- 20:24explanation. The house that they're in
- 20:28belongs to Everly's coven, so the house is fucking magic.
- 20:33That much I got. So there are spirits and ghosts
- 20:37in the house, and one of the spirits and ghosts is playing
- 20:39the piano. Oh well.
- 20:44So the ghost is providing the mood music for their scene
- 20:48because they're a homie. Yes.
- 20:51I love that though, what a good. Ghost.
- 20:54What in the Mickey House Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is this shit?
- 20:58I fucking, I want to. I want a ghost that's going to
- 21:01play my mood music. That's hot.
- 21:02Let's go. Or Spotify.
- 21:06You know that works. No I Why Spotify when you have a
- 21:13ghost? Why Ghost when you have Spotify
- 21:22Presumably doesn't involve death, just.
- 21:26The idea of live accompaniment to a scene where like they will
- 21:32adjust the dynamics of the piano playing based on what's
- 21:37happening is just so funny for me.
- 21:41Like changing changing the meter, changing the pace,
- 21:44changing the the dynamics. Like it gets more intense as the
- 21:47scene gets. Intense or like see this
- 21:50happened at a cake club before. Life.
- 21:52OK, just. Like having Jeremy in your house
- 21:55all the time. Well, I mean, was there a chair
- 22:03in the corner? The odds were he probably was
- 22:05there the entire time. Piano bench, yeah.
- 22:10Piano bench. Well, oh God, the tumor, it
- 22:22grows. We are.
- 22:30We get the scene where we can meet Everly and Callum and Leon
- 22:35gets his mark from the grimoire. And there's a big whole thing
- 22:39where it's. Yeah, it's essentially is.
- 22:41Oh, you're falling in love with her.
- 22:42OK, I guess you're. You know, I can trust that you
- 22:45haven't been sent by my dad to bring me back.
- 22:49Yeah. The the Callum and Everly
- 22:52relationship, I'm assuming as part of one of the later books
- 22:56it it just gets dropped in here and it just immediately seems so
- 23:02much more interesting than everything going on with with
- 23:05Ray and Leon. It's just a shame.
- 23:09That might as well be the tagline for the entire fucking
- 23:11book. Yeah.
- 23:14I'm sorry but reading rereading the final chapters just reminded
- 23:18me of just how much of a fucking anti climax this book has this
- 23:22is. More of like a spooky love story
- 23:28than. With a lot of sex.
- 23:32A love story implies that there was some kind of will they won't
- 23:37they or push back or any kind of element wherein their
- 23:42relationship is not it. Her reluctance doesn't make any
- 23:48sense. The only reason why she's
- 23:51hesitant is because the plot still needs to happen, and
- 23:56that's a problem. Yeah, and it does play into some
- 23:59of the themes that we'll definitely talk about like later
- 24:03as well. Just sort of like.
- 24:05Generally, yeah, it's I am aware.
- 24:09I am aware of how your brain works.
- 24:12I get why we're here. I understand.
- 24:18I understand why we're here. It's not for deep provoking
- 24:22commentary on the nature of relationships, said, among other
- 24:31things. Yes.
- 24:33I just, I don't get why the the whole the whole plot with the
- 24:39Hadleys and the sacrifices and the God the elder God or
- 24:44whatever the fuck is really just so much filler at a certain
- 24:48point. Speaking of which, we should
- 24:56talk about the Halloween party. Yes, yes, next is the Halloween
- 25:02party. Which finally, you made a joke
- 25:05about this. I, I don't know what the context
- 25:09was Ilona, but you made a joke about fucking Ray losing her
- 25:14glasses like the old Velma. Like she dresses up as Velma.
- 25:19Or. Halloween party.
- 25:21She dresses up as Velma and it is a personal pet peeve that
- 25:24this girl needs to get her freaking glasses tightened
- 25:27because of the number of times it is described that she pushes
- 25:30up her glasses or needs to adjust her glasses very much in
- 25:36Velva. I am one of those people who
- 25:41constantly pushes off their glasses.
- 25:44The same. Get them tightened, it's free.
- 25:50Never. Don't tell me how to live.
- 25:52My life. Elona don't.
- 25:56Elona, don't argue with them. They might come, trust me.
- 26:03I've tried. Ray decides to go to the
- 26:07Halloween party at the Hadley Mansion to try and find anything
- 26:11supernatural she might use to protect yourself, among other
- 26:14things. It's sounds idea bad.
- 26:19Execution. Bad execution.
- 26:22It it doesn't go to plan. Jeremiah nearly roofies her.
- 26:27Granted we'd already established.
- 26:29I mean OK. I think the book was trying to
- 26:30assess that Jeremiah was a great a creep to begin with.
- 26:35Here's the thing, Jeremiah has such a fucking non character
- 26:38that it's hard for me to tell whether or not this is
- 26:41consistent to his actual character or not.
- 26:43He's always portrayed as a creep.
- 26:45He's. He's.
- 26:47Portrayed as a as a great a asshole from the start.
- 26:53I know, but he's like a. 0 stepping boundaries and like
- 26:58being like oh you wouldn't he didn't hang out with my sister.
- 27:01Maybe you'll hang out with me, or hey, I found you.
- 27:04Why haven't you been hanging out with us at lunch?
- 27:07I know again, but he's not a he's not really a character, is
- 27:10the thing. No more so than really any of
- 27:12the Hadleys. Yeah, he kind of reminds me of a
- 27:15really sad frat boy. Yeah, just a little.
- 27:21He's just sort of there, much like a lot of the characters in
- 27:24this book, he's there to either be an obstacle or no.
- 27:32Actually, he's really just there to be an obstacle.
- 27:36Yeah. But yeah, but she gets roofied
- 27:39by the obviously roofied drink and get saved by Juniper and
- 27:45meets up with Leon again and it's like, Oh my God, you're
- 27:48here. Because we know that he's been
- 27:51coming back, but she does not. Yeah, he also does not tell her
- 27:55in this moment that he found the sigil.
- 27:57Keeps that part in. But there's no time for the
- 28:01thing that he's literally spent the entire book looking for.
- 28:05We need to get nasty somebody else's.
- 28:08House haven't seen each other for a couple of weeks at this
- 28:12point. It's just been dreaming.
- 28:16About the demon Dick. It's the demon Dick.
- 28:19I'm sorry. I get it, She wants to sit and
- 28:23spin on that thing. The thing probably rotates.
- 28:26That's not the point right now. That's not the point right now.
- 28:33You're you're in. You're in the middle of your
- 28:35fucking infiltration mission. Arguably the reason that she was
- 28:41doing the infiltration mission was because she felt unsafe with
- 28:44Leon not being around, and now Leon is around, so we can wait a
- 28:47little bit. Just so she felt more she felt
- 28:50more safe infiltrating the house.
- 28:53The people that Leon's already confirmed to her are trying to
- 28:56sacrifice her to Cthulhu. Yeah, she was there already.
- 29:02She willingly went there. Genuinely.
- 29:07Battling choice, but it was already made.
- 29:10Yeah, I mean, I get. It on the level I've made some
- 29:13pretty dumb choices like that in my life, so like, I get it.
- 29:18And if. She was able to Google a demon
- 29:21binding circle successfully and and get it off of a site from
- 29:26the 90s. I imagine she's would have been
- 29:29able to Google a couple extra spells is all I'm saying, you
- 29:33know? I'm genuinely curious who what
- 29:38who was putting the the fucking goetic magic out on the
- 29:42interwebs back in the dial up era.
- 29:45I want to know about that guy. What's his?
- 29:49What's his deal? Yeah.
- 29:51Do they come up again in the series?
- 29:52I need to know. Not as far as I remember.
- 29:56Aw Dang. I thought it was her dad.
- 29:58I genuinely thought it was her dad.
- 30:00That would have That would have been a really cool twist.
- 30:02But.