Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros – Episode 118
On this episode, the Buddies jumped on their dragons and rode into the Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros; a Young adult book with heavy emphasis on the adult portion. If you like dragons, magic, and sexual tension that goes from zero to a hundred faster than Dom Toretto, then this book is for you. The Buddies got to talking about Basil Exposition, trauma counseling for students, and even played a game of 50 Shades or Fourth Wing. So, hop on your dragon if you were lucky enough to get chosen by one, bring your Signets, your love for Xaden (and hate for Dain) and join us as we jump into the first book of The Empyrean Series.
Intro/Book Report (0:00-3:43)
Stock Up/Down (3:44-29:11)
Favorite Scene/Character (29:12-36:16)
Love/Hate (36:17-46:21)
Listener Mail/Reviews (46:22-49:22)
Casting the Movie/TV Show (49:23-52:07)
Conclusion (52:08-55:46)
NEXT BOOK: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂
Alright. Welcome to Buddy Book Club. I’m Dylan, here with a man whose mind is as sexy as hell and yearns to mount a dragon euphemistically, of course. Keith, what’s up, buddy? I’m here with Dylan, and I hope you make it longer in this podcast than the Dylan in this movie.
Yeah. I was like, oh, great. There’s a Dylan in this. That’s always fun. Dead.
Anyways. Yeah. Well, here at the winning book club, we’re breaking down some best sellers, and this week we’ll be discussing twenty twenty three’s hit romantasy novel, Fourth Wing, the first book of Rebecca Yarrow’s Empyrean series. If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reach out to us in past episodes, you can visit our website, buddybookclub.com, sign and send us a message on x, Instagram, buddy book club podcast. You can listen to us iTunes, Spotify, wherever you podcast.
Please download. Give us five star review. You can write something terrible if you want in the comments, but five stars would be nice. And, nothing else, give us a follow on some social channels, please. And thank you, Keith.
This was, I think, like, the number one or number two book of 2024, even though it came out in 2023. So that’s saying something. Because it was a four five eight on Goodreads, which is astronomical, I feel like. Right? Yeah.
When it first came out, it was, like, a four eight. It was crazy. That’s when I downloaded it initially. Really? So she’s on to her third book now in the series.
I think it’s slated to be, like, four or five books. The third one just came out in January, and I’m loving it. I think they’re all, like, breaking number ones across the board, but we gotta get on board as well. So we’re doing fourth Wing. Keith, I think you had a book report for us before we get into our standard categories.
So do you wanna fire us up? Fourth Wing is a young adult slash very adult fantasy novel. The premise is frankly right up our alley. Let me ask you something, D man. Do you like dragons?
Yes. Do you like magic? Yes. Very much so. Do you like a Hogwarts type environment with more fighting and more death?
Yes. I do. Do you like sexual attention that goes from zero to a hundred faster than Dom Toretto? Indeed, I do. It’s all about family.
Oh, those things don’t collide though. Yeah. But you know what I’m saying. And then do you like the main character who constantly complains about being too small, too weak, not wanting to kill anyone, while it’s also complaining that everyone thinks she’s too small, too weak, and not lethal enough and that she shouldn’t need protection. Not so much.
Yeah. Okay. Alright. If you answered yes to any three of those, then this book is for you. But in all honesty, this is an entry level book into fantasy.
That’s what it is. It has some typical You tropes, love triangles, lots of complaining, and has some obvious holes and flaws, which that we’ll probably get into. But it all is made up for with the the amazing sex scene. I I mean, ultimately, this book isn’t really meant for us, but I can appreciate it and it was fun to read. Oh, interesting.
Yeah. I’m gonna give that a an a minus. That was a good that was a good Oh, wow. Good book. Thank you.
Yeah. I spent a lot of time reading this book thinking, who is it for? Like, who is this book for? Obviously, this book’s super popular. I get it.
And we’ll jump into our categories, but I just kinda wanted to say this off the top. People love it. I I understand that, and I’m okay there’s lots and lots of books out there. I’m okay with books not necessarily being for me and reading them. We’ve read a lot of books that I don’t think would necessarily be for us that we’ve enjoyed.
And we’ve read a lot of books that probably were for us and we didn’t enjoy. But I just spent too much time thinking, I’m not exactly sure what the target market is here. Because halfway through the book, I felt, oh, this is a young adult book with swear words. And then thrusting cocks and clitorises get dropped, and I was like, woah, hold on a second. If you saw your teenage daughter reading this, you’d be a little concerned.
Now let’s get into some stock up, stock down, stock up. What do you have first? Stock up Know Your Enemy. Oh. Rage Against Machine song featuring man named James Keenan, AKA The Tool Singer.
So great live version of this out there in YouTubes if you’re, you’re interested. That song, Know Your Enemy, I believe is about the American government being the real enemy. Mhmm. But I think Violet should have started listening to some rage while she’s in the, library because the last battle was pretty cool. There was a lot going on, pretty interesting, but I really didn’t feel like it was super earned because I had no idea who the enemy was.
The the whole time, they’re talking about griffins and a mother society. I’m like, oh, awesome. So what’s all that about? They’re like, yeah. We I’ve read all about it.
Like, you know, I don’t I can explain it to you. You know? I’ve been in the library. I know everything about the history. I’m like, so what is the history?
They’re like, don’t worry about what the history is. So we get to the final and the end, and they’re like, here’s the bad guys. I’m like, why are they bad? I don’t know anything about the enemy. There’s no history on, like, what what they are, who they are.
So when there’s this big reveal that, like, they maybe they aren’t that bad, I’m like, I didn’t even know they were bad. I don’t know why they’re bad. You know what I mean? Like, there’s Yeah. There’s, like, there’s no, like, buildup to, like, this huge bad guy that turns out to be good.
So I played DotA and there’s winter wyverns is, like, a character. I didn’t know what a wyvern was. So I still know. Even and I played DOTA. Yeah.
And I played DOTA. So I don’t know how you’re supposed to know when they just introduced this new thing that you’ve never heard of before. Yeah. It What is DOTA? Like, is that an acronym for something?
Defense Against the Ancient. Okay. Got it. I got nerdy. Don’t worry about it.
The last scene I thought was great except for the fact that I had no idea why or how or who was fighting in it. As always, we’re of like minds. One of my stock ups was Basil Exposition of Austin Powers fame. He He’s been stocked up multiple times. But he he comes in throughout the story, as is the joke, to explain what’s going on.
But he gives Austin a lay of the land and then also, naturally, the audience. And we need the Navarian version of Basil, because in the most basic terms, what is happening here? Who are they fighting? Why are they fighting? What are these cadets, like, dying in training for?
Oh, okay. There’s a Tyrus rebellion. I can get that. Some people rebelled, and it got squashed, but why did they rebel? I just need some background, and I understand it’s a multi book series.
There is something to giving us a taste, but not giving us the full picture so you can lay it out in later books. I’m okay with that. But it seemed like the stakes at hand, which are legit life and death, were not aligned with our understanding of what was going on. It’s like, oh, this dragon training school is super important, but why? Oh, your sister’s out fighting.
Who is she fighting? Why I know there’s griffon riders, but why are they fighting them? For for land, for resources? It wasn’t clear what was happening on a meta scale, which made our little story with a few people less interesting because their the stakes weren’t understood. Yeah.
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So I I totally agree. It just needed a little more and I I understood when her when she got the book, the, you know, classic little You thing, and and that this book of, like, fairy tales similar to Beatles and Bard was going to be an important part.
The Wyvern and, you know, these made up things, like White Walkers in in Game of Thrones, these made up creatures were actually going to be important. So yeah. Okay. I get it. Cool.
I don’t need a full explanation of what those things are necessarily, but the general idea of we’re always at war. You’re at war with who and why. What else do you have for stock up? Not to pat ourselves on the back here, but stock up buddy book club clips. Oh.
Big big stock up here mainly because the author Rebecca Yaros Yeah. Loved to use that some of the terminology that we’ve used here at the BBC, specifically macabre. Oh. And one of our first episodes and our the first clip I made, you said you did a little bit of macabre research, which I was like, totally totally. I I I know what that is.
I thought it was something like, you know, sounded like a specialty on the McDonald’s menu, like, you know, corn in the cob. Try spelling that word. When you don’t know how to spell it. Yeah. I think it’s French.
So for those who don’t know, it means disturbing and horrifying because of the involvement with or depiction of death and injury. But she uses that a ton, which it makes sense in this book. But just wanted to pat ourselves in the back for, using that. She’ll the other thing she also used a lot of was grasping for purchase. Yeah.
A lot of grasping for purchase. I’ve never, like, heard that used before, and I’m going to use it a ton now. I’m gonna be grasping all over the place for purchase. I don’t know how it means still. I don’t even know how purchases also means, like, you purchase something online and you also can grab onto something purchasing it.
I don’t know. What does it mean? I feel like this is I feel like metaphorically you’re grasping for for purchase right now. Thank you. Yes.
Yes. I’m on Amazon looking to purchase something right now now to figure out what that means. But, both of those stock up, and Buddy Book Club stock up. Yeah. She had macabre used a lot, grasping for purchase, thrusting cock, was used a lot.
Yeah. But that’s normal. I mean, I use that every everyday everyday language anyways, so that’s not, like, that different. My mom, like, randomly will, for some reason just because she’s a great mom, will listen to the Buddy Book Club. Transition.
No. I’m just thinking about this right now because she’ll she’ll listen to a Buddy book club podcast here and there, and, god, I hope she does not listen to this is this is worse than any other one we’ve done, I feel like, and it’s like a You more on the a cap it’s a y capital a fantasy book. But alright. My first stock up is The Inherent Danger of Attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. So we we’ve discussed in our HP pods how Hogwarts is, you know, surely not the safest place in the wizarding world as it’s often touted to be, and kids must be dying every year of magical accidents, which somehow get swept under the rug.
Well, whatever happens at Hogwarts pales in comparison to best guy at War College. Students die every day of horrible accidents or outright murder. I mean, there’s an actual roll call in the morning, like, when you go to camp and they tell you the activities that day, except instead, they just list off the kids that died the day before. And if these two schools operated in the same magical universe, I feel like parents would undoubtedly feel much more comfortable sending their kids to Hogwarts. Mhmm.
So that’s pretty much my point. But now that I’m thinking of it, I’m also wondering I mean, more of a lingering question. But what kind of parent is sending their kid to to this school? It’s you’re gonna the odds are you’re gonna die. Violet’s mom.
Yeah. Well, that’s a whole another thing that I’ll get into at a different point. But just run of the mill pair, you got an average kid. Cool. Send my average kid to the school who’s probably going to die.
It’s not like the Red Rising series where the kids are almost training their whole chill childhood to get here, and the parents Well, I think they are. They’re they’re doing that because that’s what her sister was doing. Violet was just reading books. Granted, she thought she was gonna be in the scribe quadrant, but it didn’t seem like the other kids were that involved in, like, preparing for it. Or at least you would assume that every kid would have a balance beam.
The first challenge is the parapet. That’s what I was gonna say. Yeah. So I think that would be the first thing there to work on. Everyone has a balance beam in their house or is just perfectly balanced so that they can, you know, get past the parapet.
It’s, like, thirty percent of the kids just die in the parapet. Did you also have to look up what a parapet was too? Of course. Of course, I did. I still don’t really what it was.
I looked up images of with Fourth Wing, and I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. So it is literally a balance beam. It’s just a wall. Yeah.
It’s just the top you’re walking across the top of a wall. Instead of the wall that separates the outside world, I guess, from the War College. So you walk across this, you know, high up top of the wall and then watch your classmates die terrible deaths. Dylan, specifically. But yeah.
Yeah. Dylan. Sorry. Dylan Dylan ate the dust on the parapet. What else did you have any other stock ups?
Last one quick one. Stock up storm from X Men. Do you know what happens, d man, to a toad when it’s struck by lightning? No. Tell me.
The same thing that happens to everything else. Yeah. X Men r g. Yeah. That’s the That’s an x the first X Men movie.
I remember that. She’s just Storm. Right? Violet. That’s what she is?
Right? No. The other one is Storm. There is another there’s another Oh, isn’t her mom control weather? I mean, she can control lightning.
Weather, which I also didn’t understand how is lightning so much more powerful when the other person could control weather. Yeah. I guess you could, like, accurately shoot lightning, whereas she just creates a lightning storm or something like that. Okay. Maybe she’s, like, a Sith slash storm from X Men.
So the toad, doesn’t he, like, put his tongue onto, like, a pole or something and then she, like, zaps him? I don’t remember exactly. People made fun of it. I didn’t think it was that bad. I I rewatched it.
I was, like, waiting for that that they’re, like, you know, when you rewatch Anna Kennedy’s, like, I don’t like sand. You’re, like, holy shit. This is terrible. I can’t believe when I rush we watched that, I was like, that’s not that bad of a line. I don’t think it’s that bad, but people make fun of that a lot.
The that storm line? Yeah. That’s, like, one that people make fun of a bunch of, apparently. Whatever. But Halle Berry is delivering it, so you’re like, alright.
This is pretty good. Yeah. And I thought that was, that was early on in the whole superhero stuff or, like, this new age of superhero stuff, and I thought it was pretty good. My last stock up is Coping with Trauma. Okay.
Okay. We had just read a book, All the Colors of the Dark, where they show where the author shows the the ripple effect of childhood trauma and how throughout your life, it just kinda stays with you and, you know, leads to to so much other things. Basically, just turns your life upside down. Well, looks like there’s no trauma for the people of Navarre. They just don’t have that in their genes.
These kids are either watching classmates fall to their deaths or quite literally stabbing each other to death after presumably living a fairly normal childhood. And as for After Effects, none. None. I was waiting so long for someone to say anyone, any one of these kids, any one of these characters, to pretty much just say, holy shit. Like, this is fucked up.
I’m I’m not sure I’m cool with this and either have some sort of mental breakdown or you know, I’m I’m just thinking kinda like Red Rising, where after the initial I can’t remember what they call it when they kill everyone at the beginning. The kids kinda all sit together and they’re like, what the fuck did I just do? I just murdered someone with my bare hands. This is crazy. There’s human effect.
These people in this story are human, and they’re young adults. They’re killing other people. It’s not like they’re shooting them across a battlefield. They are stabbing them to death. Blood, gore everywhere, and then just going on with their day and not discussing it.
So I’m I’m sitting here waiting for someone to address this, and then finally, after Taryn turns Amber into a pile of ash, Violet has a moment where she thinks to herself, and it’s something along the lines of, you know, no one seems to care that Amber just got killed. So I’m like, yes. Okay. Yes, queen. Please continue.
Start getting fired up about the incessant murder and death going on at school and how it’s affecting your psyche and why they’re kind of forcing you to do this, to play this kind of Lord of the Flies type game. So did she follow-up with that? Well, no. She may have if Zayden didn’t walk by. So instead, she followed up that thought with something along the lines of, Zayden’s so hot.
His skin tight leather riding gear has no breathability. God, I’d love to treat the inside of those pants like my own personal salt lick after a long training session. So, yeah, it was a little bit frustrating. Once again, we’re talking about stakes here. You’ve built these stakes at life and death, but the kids just kinda go about their schooling and their lives as if murder and watching people fall terrible deaths or fall off dragons and die doesn’t affect them.
It’s only when Ian gets murdered at the end that Violet actually, like, kind of shows some sort of emotion. Well, to counter argue that, we don’t really know what their society is like before they go to this college. It could be like the 300 society where, oh, that baby is born and, I guess she was born. It was kinda weak, but they’re just like killing off babies. Maybe they maybe they’re like someone steal something, they just murder the person in front of the face.
You know, like, there could be the society norm where just killing is so accepted that it’s not as frowned upon. Whereas in, like, Red Rising is your example, they all grow up pampered as golds and they don’t see any of that shit happen and then they go and have to kill someone with their bare hands. That’s like a pretty big stark contrast. I don’t know. We don’t know if our society is like that.
Maybe it is. I I’m okay with that. If that’s the answer, I’m fine with that, but let’s bake that into the story where, you know, that’s what after the terrorist rebellion or whatever, like, that’s what it’s become. Because at no point did they make it seem like death was normal. You know, separate but related, Violet keeps saying it threshing after threshing that she didn’t think she’d be alive at this point, but to her, it doesn’t seem like that much of a big deal.
She never seems concerned about her mortality or necessarily overly bothered that her mother forced her into the riding quadrant and pretty much signed her death sentence. You know, they have kind of like a standoffish relationship. It’s never a screw her. She basically killed me or tried to kill me. And she seems so broken up about her brother’s death, so it’s not like, oh, he just died.
Whatever. I don’t know. It it seemed like, the stakes were all questionable in my opinion. Yeah. I I hear you.
What about stock top? You’re only as strong as your weakest link. This seemed to be a theme throughout the book that Violet was too small and not strong enough to be a rider, all these things. But ultimately, I’m I’m not even sure why her size mattered at all. Like it doesn’t seem like that was a big deal.
I would get it if to reference three hundred again. Hey, we’re gonna be in a line. If the person next to me isn’t able to cover my flank, then I’m gonna get killed. So I can’t have this person on my like line with me. Right?
Like they’re you can’t have a person that can’t hold a shield up and protect my my blind side. Or let’s say, like, hey, we’re gonna go into the last games. There are war games at the end and the team that comes in last, everyone gets killed. Like, they’re all dead. We don’t care how good you are.
Oh, shit. We can’t have fucking weaklings on our team then. We gotta get rid of everyone that’s bad. But what’s the reason that someone that’s not as strong other than, like, the hand to hand fighting, I guess, what you get into with some of the people. Like, what’s the reason you what do you care?
And then especially because the biggest thing is your dragon. So if you have a sick dragon, then what does it matter if you’re not strong? Like, the dragon makes up for that and your powers. If you have sick power, it doesn’t really matter if you’re not physically strong. So, like, the whole weakest link, call the, like, the weak out of the squad.
Like, why? It doesn’t like, if anything, you shouldn’t kill any people until they get to the dragon stage. Yes. And then if they match they don’t get matched up with the dragon, so be it. But if they get matched up with dragon and have a sick power, then great.
You know? Like, that’s what we that’s all that matters. Could not agree with you more. That is that was was the one thing for me about them killing everyone at the beginning. It just seemed like lost potential.
I mean, there’s so many questions I have just around the whole idea around why they’re allowing people to die so early on in the process. If dragons are gonna kill you with threshing, or there’s a potential a dragon would just, like, burn you with threshing, or when you’re doing that walk and dragons don’t find you worthy, then sure, let that happen because that’s, you know, that’s what you’re looking for, because what happens in situations like Violets, where she all of a sudden, like you said, has good power and a good dragon? And then, additionally, if they’re trying to limit the exposure of these rebels and make sure these these children of these rebel leaders can’t do it all over again, why are they forcing them into the rider quadrant, which is, like, forcing your enemy into the special forces, like, your own special forces to train? It’s like, oh, let’s take these kids to SEAL school and teach them everything and give them a dragon and But, yeah, I I agree with you. It didn’t make a lot of the only reason well, I guess there’s two reasons.
One is if you’re small, you can’t mount a dragon, which is like, okay. Cool. Like But the dragon will kill you now. That makes sense. And then the dragon just kills you.
And I think she was also Violet has this it’s not explicitly said, but she has this, like, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, which includes Oh, wow. A lot of it’s just on Wikipedia. I didn’t do any deep research or anything. But it’s joint pain, hypermobility, I don’t even know what that means, as well as, like, your hair getting grayer. And supposedly, Rebecca Yaros has it and is, like, trying to bring more representation of that syndrome Oh.
To Like, gray hair? Weakness? I got the both those things. Will we I got this thing? You gotta go back to the doctor.
I don’t know if that has anything to do with, like, her size or whatnot, but just for the other kind of things that she has going on. So just wanted to wanted to bring that up. That’s noted. That’s good to know. My first takedown is a specific training regiment designed for your role and and the conditions you may see in battle.
You know, the students face a few extremely dangerous challenges throughout this book, and these challenges are designed to mimic the skills they’d need to ride a dragon. It’s said a few times, so, like, the reason why you do the parapet walk is, for balance and likely comfort around heights, you know, the gauntlet, which is like ninja more warrior meets Takeshi’s castle. I’m not exactly sure how that vertical obstacle course mimics flying on the back of a dragon, but that’s pretty much what they say. And I get that. That makes sense.
You know, you’re going to be riding a dragon. You should be doing these crazy training challenges that allow you to ride a dragon. But then Zayden just goes and crafts Violet a saddle for her dragon. You know, at first people are like, woah, what the fuck is this? But Zayden informs everyone, hey, it’s the codex doesn’t forbid it.
And Violet is very easily and comfortably able to ride her dragon without the need for all of this these crazy training things. So why not give everyone a saddle if it’s more efficient and it allows you to keep your seat on a dragon easier? You could just give everyone a saddle. No one needs to die on a dragon. Dragons to use more of their powers too.
Yeah. Exactly. The dragons are dragons are focusing their power on keeping you in your seat. It’s like no one rode a horse bareback into battle once saddles were invented. In general, once people got saddles, they became better riders.
It seemed like the whole saddle thing was, wait. If she can do it, why doesn’t everyone? And it it just I don’t know. Once again, I I didn’t really get it. Save a dragon.
Right? A cowboy kid. Do you have any other stock downs? Last one. Chocolate, oysters, asparagus, strawberries.
Stock downs. Yeah. You got it. I was gonna ask if you know what they have in common. Yeah.
All natural aphrodisiacs, but who needs them when we found the ultimate aphrodisiac thanks to this book, kid? It’s murdering someone. That’s all you gotta do. I mean, three mores of this book, we get, like, the tension and some of, like, the the love triangle, the typical You stuff. And we get Zaden and it’s like, he’s such great lips.
Oh, my goodness. He’s so good. You know, all this stuff. And I’m like, yeah, whatever. You, you know, You, like, love story.
Whatever. Yeah. I’m fine with it. It’s all innocent. We murder one person who deserved to be murdered, by the way.
That jack dude sucked. Yeah. And the next thing we know, it’s Cinemax, and it’s, I don’t know what happened. It it was the most hardcore, like, stuff I’ve ever read. Mhmm.
It went zero to a hundred. I already mentioned it quicker than Dom Toretto or any of the race car drivers here. It was it was pretty insane, and I guess murdering people is just what is what gets people going. It fuels the engine here. So, that’s the answer.
Yeah. And the kid’s name is is Jack Barlow, which sounds a lot like isn’t there a singer Jack Harlow? Oh, that’s what I was like, why does this guy sound so familiar? And Jack Harlow has a song about how he is interested in, like, normalcyness. Not a matrix.
Right? No. Like, it’s he’s not interested in I don’t need no whips and chains. He wants lights out, missionary, you know, penis in a pajama pants. That’s normal sex.
Right? Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. Okay. Which is just a funny dichotomy to in my mind, it was Jack Harlow the whole time the character, and then he dies, and then all of a sudden becomes whips and chains.
Yeah. Oh, okay. He was holding every he was approved, though. He was holding everyone back. Alright.
That makes way more sense to me now. Okay. I have no problem with the romance and romance novels in this idea. Like, the this fantasy romance stuff, fine. You know what I mean?
And, I get the teen angsty stuff, the yearning, all that thing. He’s hot. I did and it’s, you know, probably in my loves. I don’t know. But I did like how it was you know, most of the stuff we see from a male’s perspective, so it was nice to see it from a female’s perspective and, like, give them some some power in this area as opposed to just, like, these big buxom broads who guys are all over, you know, to have it be more of his rippling biceps and sweaty chest and stuff.
I was gonna add in too, the, body standard. There’s a lot of unrealistic body expectations that I was kinda pissed about. You know? Like, what is this? She was like, then he ripped off his shirt.
He had, like, a 12 pack, and I was like Yeah. What the hell? She’s like, I would never be attracted to some pale piece of shit, Keith. I was like, what the hell is this? He was attacking me in this stuff the whole time.
I don’t know what’s going on. Well, two things are funny about that. One, I think the quote was along the lines of, I didn’t know the gods made that many abdominals on a man or something along those lines. And two, as of the last time I saw you, you have close to a six pack. So slow down.
Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. Good.
No one can see what I have because light is gleaming off me. You can’t even see it. Yeah. You’d be good in battle on the top of a on the top of a dragon because it’d be like Gandalf when he comes over the hill with the Exactly. Just let the light and staff just blinding all the Uruk hai.
That’s pretty much what you would do. Alright. My last stock down, 50 Shades of Grey stock down. Basically, watch out E. L.
James. There’s a new sheriff in town, and her name is Rebecca Yaros. So I’d like to emphasize this point or at least give you a display of this point, by playing a little game. Is that a double entendre there? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I’d like to play a little game we’re calling 50 Shades or Fourth Wing. So how this game works is I’m gonna read you a quote, and you’re gonna tell me, is this a quote from 50 Shades of Grey, or is this Fourth Wing? K?
I’ll have this. Yep. First quote. He takes my hand and slides it between our bodies, and my fingers curl around his length. I whimper with pure want want at the feel of how hard he is for me.
I always fucking want you, he groans, as I squeeze. I think that’s fourth wing. It is indeed fourth wing. Very good. Alright.
Alright. Thank you. Job. Thank you. Alright.
Here, we got this one. I’ll just pretend that I’m not remembering those breathy little sounds you make before you come. His teeth rake over his lower lip, and it takes all my willpower not to suck that lip into my mouth. 50 Shades on that one, or is it fourth wing? I don’t know.
50 Shades, I’ll say. Fourth Wing. That’s fourth Wing. Are these all gonna be fourth Wing? Maybe.
Maybe. Maybe. I’m just gonna see read a little bit more sexier so I can, get can I get to my point, if you know what I mean? Anyway, what? Okay.
Here we go. Why does he have such an unnerving effect on me? His overwhelming good looks maybe? The way his eyes blaze at me? The way he strokes his index finger against his lower lip?
I wish he’d stopped doing that. That one’s definitely 50 shades. Because I’ve never had a fascination with lips or whatever it was. Yeah. But the last one was he’ll suck that lip into my mouth.
So that was Yeah. I guess that’s true. Alright. I got I got a few more, so keep going. How does he do this to me?
He’s just touching a small area of my body, and the hormones are flying. I knew that’s 30 shades. Yep. 50 shades. 50 shades.
Okay. I arch my back, pressing the tip of my breast against his chest. His breathing changes, and there’s a war in his eyes I’m determined to win. Fourth wing. That’s that’s really good writing right there.
I thought that was terrible. If there’s a war in his eyes, I’m determined. All I ever want to do is kiss you even when you piss me off, so kiss me. That’s fourth way, I think. Yeah.
Goddamn. You’re getting good at this. Alright. He’s the worst kind of addiction, dangerous and impossible to sate. Tell me to stop, he whispers, his thumb skimming the hypersensitive skin of my inner thigh.
Don’t stop. I’ll die if he does. Fuck, he groans, slipping his hand between my thighs. Not great on that. That’s a poor thing also.
Okay. This one, you definitely won’t get. So an image of her shackled to my bench, peeled ginger root inserted in her ass so she can’t clench her buttocks cuffs to mind, followed by judicious use of a strap or belt. Yeah. That would teach her to be so irresponsible.
Did you pull that from your own journal? That’s weird. I think that’s not either of the books. That’s weird. Gingerbread’s big in fourth week.
Alright. So you did pretty you did you did pretty good. But I think my point was made that there’s a lot of similarities between Yeah. Yeah. Well, bloody.
Good research there. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. I was doing that during a meeting today, and and I realized that with my glasses sometimes, you can see the reflection on my computer screen.
I was really hoping that I’ve been realizing, oh, crap. Favorite characters. So we got Violet Sorenale, Zayden Ryerson, Dane Atos, Rhiannon. I don’t remember her last name. Liam, Mari, maybe her sister, Mora or Mara.
Did you have a favorite character? Yeah. It has to be Zayden, obviously, here. Really? Just the fact that Okay.
He comes in and he doesn’t show mercy, which I love because there’s way too much give a mouse a cookie type shit going on here. Jack Harlow, as you call him. He’s just the worst type of person. I don’t understand his motives. He’s actively trying to kill people that are on his side, and then he runs away when someone that’s bigger than him finally shows up.
So he’s just a bully. So just kill him. That’s the type of person you do not want in your fucking squad. So the fact that she finally kills him, you know, and then Zayden’s like, yeah. Like, that you did a good job.
That was great. And then she he also does the same thing when they the people that are cowards that attack her at night. Those people all need to be killed. Zayden doesn’t fucking blink. He just kills all of them.
And then he also brings the girl that’s responsible for opening the door, murders her. This is the type of justice we meet. This is where killing is all should be allowed, where it’s justified and it makes sense. So Zayden and I really like that about him. I was also a % on his side for not telling I I didn’t understand the ending why she was mad at him still.
I didn’t know. It made zero sense to me. Like, oh, you didn’t tell me this secret that ultimately I ended up revealing the a tiny secret to Dane. But if I had told you the whole secret, you would’ve got me and everyone else killed. I gave away a tiny secret, and it almost got off me and everyone else killed.
It’s like, it didn’t make any sense why he would tell her. Everything about Zaden, I liked. I I’m all on his team’s Zaden all day. Yeah. I’m okay with I’m okay with Zaden.
Zaden’s a decent pick. The fact that you have someone that can read minds by touching you, it’s like, okay. Well, I can’t tell you these big secrets until you’re on a need to know basis right now, and you don’t need to know this. But she she could get killed too if I told her something and she didn’t tell anyone. Right?
Like, so he’s anything’s protecting her. A %. I don’t know. Yeah. I mean, that lasted, like, two seconds.
She was like, oh, I’m so mad at you. And then she’s like, oh, at the end, she wakes up from, like, her coma and and, like, we’re in Zayden’s, head. And he’s like, oh, man. I’ll do anything to make up too. And she’s like, I’m still never gonna trust you.
I’m like, what? I don’t I don’t even get what are you mad about? It doesn’t make any sense. I think my character of choice was Liam. I thought he was the most well rounded of characters where, yes, he was the big badass, but he had a tender heart and could also joke around.
He had it all, really. His death was a was a tough one, I feel like, because I feel like he was a character that could grow in this, and he continued to be interesting. So just overall, I thought he was he was my favorite. Yeah. No.
I I like that. I like that pick. And when it comes to favorite characters, and this is I I hate to kinda, like, keep ripping on it, but they’re they didn’t flesh out any characters. The only characters they focus on was Zayden and Violet. And then outside of that, we got not really much Dane.
We got a little bit of Rhiannon. Like, Rhiannon wasn’t too bad. And then Liam, but this is a huge school. Like, you think about Harry Potter in the first book, you you meet tons and tons of characters, but teachers were mentioned in passing. Obviously, there’s dragon, you know, between Taryn and what’s her other dragon’s name?
Tinkerbell or something. I can’t remember. Yeah. Yeah. Between Taryn and Tinkerbell, like, those characters we have as well.
So I get that that they are they are characters. But it just it wasn’t it was really a focus of these couple people, and you’re trying to do some world building here. A little too much yearning and angst and brooding. Yeah. It was pretty repetitive too.
I agree. Yeah. It’s like every time they saw each other, it’s like, oh, my heart stops. He’s so hot. What do I do?
It’s like, let’s get to some of let’s get some world building. It’s the first book of a five book series. I wanna build some worlds here. Yeah. Then we can get to the full penetration later, which we love.
I know what? %. I’m all for it. I’m I’m not anti by any means on anti fan fantasy romance, but let’s put some fantasy in that romance or else, what are we doing? Yeah.
I agree. What’d you have for favorite part? My favorite was the stealing of the map. I thought that’s when things started to come together. They’re like, alright.
Let’s Yeah. Let’s everyone use their own powers. Fuck her mom because, yeah, that her mom sucks. Pardon me? Oh, yeah.
Her mom sucks. So going in there and screwing her over, I liked. And everyone’s kinda working together and I was like, this is what it’s meant to be. This is like the X Men coming together. Everyone has their own power.
They’re one using it for, you know, to help out achieve a mission. I thought it was great. The ending of it sucked. It was like she got gets up in front and presents to everyone. Oh, this is sick.
She’s gonna finally be like, yeah. You know how, like, everyone thought I was small and, like, everyone thought I never could make it here? Like, I’m here. Fuck all you guys. Fuck everyone here.
And here’s my mom’s map. Fuck her too. Like, I thought that was gonna be, like, what it was gonna be. And I was like, holy shit. Let’s go.
Instead, she’s like, I presented the map and I looked at Zayden and he had a smile. And so that was the best. And I was like, that’s it? What? Who gives a shit about Zayden?
You know what I mean? Yeah. I I agree. I felt like that part was, anticlimactic for what it should have been because it was a cool little heist moment. There’s a big fuck you.
Stick it to the man, but not really any, anything came of it. Are you talking about sticking it to men and coming of it? It’s like, I’m I’m right back in the book. You just gave me 10 lines from 30 Shades of Grey on this book. What do you want me to do?
I’m fully I mean, anyways. I get it. The blood’s rushing. Yeah. Yeah.
So I thought the challenges were okay. The parapet was cool, like, a cool intro to what the stakes are, but then the stakes didn’t really matter. The gauntlet, I didn’t really understand. It was just like a vertical obstacle course that it was very much like Wipeout or Ninja Warrior. And it was a team thing, but it didn’t really matter because each person went individually.
So it wasn’t, like, people helping each other out there. Yeah. Not sure I was a % on that. And the general hand to hand combat training, like, the sparring stuff Mhmm. I was I was alright with.
But I guess for me, the my favorite part was probably the fight at the end, which we’ve talked about. At that point, I felt like we finally got to the point of this thing as opposed to just sexual interest, yearning, intercourse, post coital feelings, and then, you know, whatever. So like I said, Liam’s death hurt. Wyvern, this battle with these, you know, these crazy dragons and, like, non dragon things, flying beasts. There’s, like, sorcerers and stuff.
I was in. I was in for it. That is what that’s what I came for. Yeah. And it felt like then the stakes matter.
Everyone’s in a fight, and they’re trying to help each other and make these calls that are either gonna sacrifice innocent people or sacrifice their friends, and they have to make these calls. Like, yes. Okay. I’m I’m here for this. And it seemed like the stakes mattered then, so I just didn’t get why they didn’t matter before.
And that part made me interested in the lore. Like, what’s going on here? Because we didn’t we didn’t really get any of that. What about Love Hate? What’d you what’d you love about Fourth Link?
I thought it was entertaining. I already mentioned that. I don’t think you’ve read, but Skyward is very it’s somewhat similar to Skyward meets, like, Divergent vibes. I don’t know if you’ve read either of those. I haven’t.
No. Skyward’s a Brandon Sanderson one. Just expectations wise, I had read the first chapter, I think, and I told you this we shouldn’t read this book. That was, like, a year ago. And then we finally, like I was, like, I already have it downloaded.
Let’s just let’s just knock it out. The first chapter, I thought, was pretty bad. I was, like, this is gonna be bad. And then it actually doesn’t it gets better, I think, from there. So I thought it was expectation wise, I was I had pretty low bar.
I thought it surpassed that. Okay. Yeah. One of the things I loved, and you touched on this in in your book report, was the general premise is is a fun one. You know, dragons, magic, dragon powers, rebellion, griffins, unknown dark magic, a school where, you know, we as the reader can learn about this magical world and grow in our knowledge and powers with these characters.
So I I can dig that. I thought that idea, if someone came to me with that as an outline, I’d say, yes. This is gonna be sweet. I think it focused a little too much on the the romance aspect, really. And and and even in the first half of the book, the romance was just kind of, like, unrequited love or lust or whatever the case was.
And and then it got, like, intense where there was, you know, extremely long passages that were just devoted to to sex. And, you know, I’m I’m no prude by any means, but I I got the point. You know what I mean? I I I got it. There was more buildup, which I appreciated than than, 50 Shades of Grey.
50 Shades of Grey, I buy, like, halfway through. I was like, alright. I don’t really care anymore about this. It’s you know? Give me give me some give me some buildup.
And there’s only two sex scenes in this book. They’re just they just happen to be super long sex scenes where I could have done with a super long I could have done with a moderately long, exposition of the world Right. Right. Right. You know, or or just growing a little characters, you know, grow grow some other ancillary characters, make them grow.
You know what I mean? Yeah. I understand. What else did you like? I already mentioned it too in the book report, but I do think this is like a Don’t say internal You.
Yeah. Jesus. I like want more people to get into fantasy because I I really like fantasy and, you know, make then you can talk about with other people. If you’re a person that’s more into romance, this, I think, gets you into more into fantasy because it’s like, oh, all these elements. She’s not putting her toe into fantasy play.
This is like a very, very heavy fantasy element in this Mhmm. Which I I appreciate. I think this is a good stepping stone until getting into more more stuff down the road. So I appreciate that. Yeah.
If you’re just picking up books off of, like, $1, I think, at the library where you can buy books for a dollar that are used books, and they’re all, like, Fabio romance novels, and, some guy shirtless riding around on a horse, and you want and you picked this one up thinking you were getting romance, you you got your romance. But, yeah, you also get a lot of fantasy. So, yeah, this would be a a good gateway drug to fantasy, I guess, if Exactly what I was trying. I’m trying to get people hooked, get on them on the rail thing. You know?
I like the the dragon rider relationship. I thought that was pretty well done, how they can kind of talk to each other through their thoughts while also talking to them directly. And the Taryn, Violet relationship with him kinda jumping in to her ideas. Because she’s kinda narrating the book or it’s first person, and then you think that you’re reading along with her, like, her thoughts, and then he jumps in because he can, like, follow along with what she’s thinking. So I I like that aspect.
I thought that was that was creative. That was good. Mhmm. For sure. I like the idea that she put this together as a as a diverse cast, and and it makes sense.
Everyone comes from different parts of the world, and they’re not all a bunch of white people, which I feel like happens a lot in fantasy. It’s just like Are they different? I I feel like I never read any of that stuff or I just I forget immediately a screen. Of characters? I just build them in my own mind, and then that’s who they are.
So Yeah. Yeah. I’m trying to do better at that in general just because I do the same thing. At the beginning of the story, so much is happening that they and they always give, like, these brief explanations of characters, and then that’s the only time they do it. So you don’t really you build the character in your mind as opposed to, like, listening for that moment.
So I don’t know. I’ve been trying to do better at, like, actually focusing on them. What about hates? Hate wise, after she kills the psychopath Jack Barlow or Harlow, I really did feel the book went pretty downhill. It became a lot of the things that I always talk about not liking.
Uh-huh. So, I mean, like, I think Jack Harlow deserved to die. He was a shitty person. She hated him. He tried to kill her, like, 10 different times.
She he was killing innocent people. He’s killing people on his team. He’s a huge He’s killing younglings. Yeah. Yeah.
He was a huge coward. He just didn’t he didn’t meant to be in this world. But then, like, we get the whole her crying about it for the next, you know, five hours of the book. It’s like Yeah. That’s the only death that mattered to her for some reason.
It’s like, this is a war. You know what I mean? Like we’re we’re about to go in your training. There’s tons of death going on just in training. You’re about to go in and have to training.
You’re about to go in and have to murder people that have families, that have kids. That’s just what’s gonna have to happen. So the fact that you’re crying over an absolutely horrid person, like you you’re not cut out for this. You should quit, you know? Like, you should go to the scribes.
I know you said you don’t want to, but if you can’t handle this, then, you know, you you should leave. At least cry over Dylan on the parapet. Right. Exactly. It it would have been better if she if she used the lightning and accidentally hit one of her teammates, like, hit someone she didn’t wanna kill.
Then it’s like Yeah. Oh, shit. You have this huge power that you can’t control that you just use and now you feel bad about it. It’s like, yeah. That makes sense.
I’d feel fucking terrible. Yeah. She’s like rogue in X Men. She kissed her boyfriend at the beginning of that movie. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Sucks his body out. Yeah. Yeah. I think and this is a tough hate for me, but I’m gonna say it.
I I didn’t really like the signet powers. I like the idea of having a signet power. I think it’s actually a very cool magical element, you know, to bonding with a dragon. Mhmm. And I think it’d be a lot of fun in a board game, you know, where there’s, like, a stack of cards and you happen to pick one out, and it’s, like, that’s your signet power for the round, and you have to figure out how to work with that power or even a video game, whatever the case is.
But the reason why I don’t like it, perhaps, in this book is it doesn’t seem like there are any rules or limits to what they can be, which seems like that would be cool, but for me, it’s just not because the powers are just like an an obscure X Men comic where it seems possible in this world that someone’s signet power could be, like, ability to open a stuck pickle jar. People have everything from being able to see it into the past to being able to steal people’s powers, to shoot lightning, to change the weather, to read people’s minds. It it it just felt there, like, wasn’t a structure to it. It could legitimately be anything. You kinda wanted classes for their powers almost?
Yeah. Because it just seems like it’s it’s just like, almost like a crutch for the author to just work in a power based on what they know. Like what they do with the the force powers in Star Wars where they just started making shit up. They’re like, oh, yeah. They can survive in space.
What? Exactly. And then all of a sudden, someone’s gonna die in book two or three, and someone’s gonna reveal their powers. They can raise someone from the dead. Oh, I see exactly.
So you’re kind of already pre hating that there’s gonna be some power introduced that that can’t be allowed. Yeah. There’s gonna be some, like, meta power that just makes the whole thing pointless. No. I get that.
I I would say that I I like it when there’s, like, a much more opportunity to to fill in the blanks, and it was based off your personality, which I thought was a cool element of, like, well, this person’s, you know, wants to know everything. So they’re a mind reader or whatever it is, and this person wants to do this. Personality and, like, the strength of your dragon. Like, if you have a stronger dragon, you’re gonna have a stronger power. I’m not gonna give it a hate yet.
I think I I I get what you’re saying that it eventually could be, well, we’re just gonna open up Pandora’s box and anything can be a It could be a cop out. Yeah. Exactly. So and I and I want it to be if there is that. I want there to be the other side of the coin where someone has totally useless powers, like, extremely useless useless.
Yeah. Okay. Like, pretty much their magic power that they keep talking about, which is people’s ability to open doors that they get once they bond with their dragon. It’s like, you can unlock a door? Like, cool.
What? Any other hates for you? The I mean, there’s more whining stuff of the and I’m whining, which is on brand. Yeah. Whinging.
When she finally sees her sister, she’s like, oh, I didn’t know you’re here. This is crazy. And there says, like, well, I gotta go off to battle. And she’s like, no. What do you think she’s been doing this whole time?
She gets us all of a sudden, like, surge of, I need to go out there and everyone else on my team and me who cares about us. We need to go help. It’s like, do your job. That’s not your job. Know your role.
Do your job. You’re a student. There’s a battle going on. You’re not gonna save anyone. Get out of here.
Do what you need to get done. You if anything, you’re a hindrance. Yeah. You know? This is like the her whole character which I didn’t really like a lot at times.
At a certain point, she’s like, I’m the weakest person and no one thinks I can do it and I’m so fragile and all these things, but I’ll I’ll prove them wrong. And then the next second, she’s like, I don’t need protection. I’m the strongest person here and no one needs to help me. And then the next thing she’s like, I don’t wanna kill anyone. That’s not very what it was like.
Well, you had it If you’re gonna fight, you you help your sister, you’re just gonna go pee like, cut people with knives on this like, the shoulders. Can’t have it every single way. For for me, my last eight and some some of the dialogue and in general, the writing, it just wasn’t great. Some of the things that were said, I was like, what? We’re coming off two very well written written books too.
Or there’s there’s a new book too. Yeah. So The Zayden says to her, like, I can’t stand the thought of you being cold. It’s like, what? She was just like, I’m cold.
He’s like, I can’t stand the thought of you being cold. It’s like, oh, I’m That’s gibberish, sir. How dare you? It just it really it read, like, fan fiction to me, which is funny because, like, the whole E. L.
James, you know, corollary. But, yeah, I just kind of read, like, someone who was writing fan fiction for something and, like, through that came up with the story. And I’m not trying to throw shade Zaden’s power at at Rebecca Yaros because I I couldn’t do it, but that’s why it was, like, You writing. Like, this is, like, oh, this is, like, writing for a kid, but then there’s clits involved. So I got some listener mail Oh, okay.
Because it it came in via our our email. You’ve got mail. It’s from, Care in Cape Cod. It says, apologies for the sick crying baby in the background of the latest episode regardless or irregardless as as Dylan would say. Appreciate that.
Love the episode and love the book. This is about, all the colors of the dark. The show Dylan was referencing but could remember was called America’s Most Wanted. Yes. America’s Most Wanted.
That’s the show where they would go on every night and talk about people that had, like, abducted kids and stuff like that. It was like Sunday prime time title. Right? Like a former cop? No.
It was I I don’t know if he was a cop, but his kid was abducted Oh, okay. And I think murdered. And so then he, like, made that his life’s passion or something. But, yeah, you know the guy. If you saw his face, you’d be like, oh, that guy.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No. I’ll blame the sound engineer for the the baby crying, which which is me.
So Yeah. Don’t do that. But I want to use the other listener mail section to to give a shout out to a boy named Doomtrain on Reddit who I was just kinda, like, looking up people’s, like, normal people’s reviews and not these terrible Goodreads reviews. And I thought his or I assume it’s his because it’s a boy named, was was pretty on point. He says, I was expecting Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones.
What I got was an oddly voiced romance novel where someone occasionally dies as an aside, but where there’s two sex scenes that last dozens of pages, 25% of the book is, oh, boy. These boys sure are sexy. I don’t know if I can stop myself. And they finally fuck, and the last 50% of the book is 80 there’s a lot of percentages going on here, but the last 50% of the book is 85%. Oh, my god.
I just wish you were inside me again, but I can’t give in, and 50% dragons doing cool shit. Beyond that, it’s just not a very well written book. It’s not Twilight tier bad writing, but it’s not good either. Just very bland. Tropes galore.
Everything is obviously foreshadowed out of time, so there’s not many surprises. Characters lack individuality or unique voice to separate them from each other, which makes the dialogue feel even more bland than it all it already is. The world itself feels bland and indistinct. And I completely agree with you on the rest of your criticism. I have somebody else.
But I mean, Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones where Yeah. Yeah. That I okay. Guy hide. I think there’s a couple things there’s a couple things off with that.
Yeah. Let me take the best book series ever and match it with the best fantasy book series ever, and that’s what I’m expecting as the child. Yeah. I guess for context, it was about the blurb on the back of the book, what the blurb says. And if you read that well, if you read that, it’s like, oh, this is gonna be a crazy fantasy with dragons and stuff.
And it’s only, like, love is a lover. Lovers is only mentioned once, and, like, that’s the focus of it. So, obviously, saying it’s Game of Thrones. Like, the only thing that attaches it to Game of Thrones is dragons. So, like, that’s just not fair.
Harry Potter, I would also assume there’s a school. Like, you get some of that. And occasionally dies is not a thing. People are dying all the time. I understood where he was coming from, but, it was a little excessive.
It was it was a bit botched. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cast the movie.
So this is getting adapted into a TV series. It’s gonna be on Amazon Prime. The cast is not announced. I feel like there’s only a couple people we could potentially be casting. Did you have any any potentials here?
Yep. For Violet, I went Jenna Ortega from, Wednesday. She’s, like, very petite. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Feel like she she could have the, the fire behind the eyes. So yeah. That’s a good one. Yeah. I like that.
Thank you. I had for Violet, I had Daphne Keen, which I guess this is just turning into an X Men episode because she is the little girl in Logan. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. I like that.
Yeah. And she’s small ish still. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Exactly. She’s smaller, but we already know that she can do the badass stuff because she was crazy as a kid at location. I saw her in something recently that she was good in as well. I can’t remember what it was. But, yeah, I like I like her in that too.
Did you have someone for Zaden? Yeah. I had which I think is a sleeper pick here is Aaron Pierre. I just saw him in Rebel Ridge. He’s a very attractive person.
Dreamy. Yeah. I know to say that, but, he looks a little older, but I think he’s supposed to be older, Zayden is. So I think that’s okay. Keep on looking looking, like, young actors, and then they’re like, yeah.
This guy is 39. I’m like, alright. Well Yeah. I had a tough time with that as well because, you know, you have to cast someone who’s younger, presumed. And he’s supposed to be jacked.
I looked up shirtless pictures of all these guys, obviously. I just had to do the research. So Yeah. Of course. I had Caleb McLaughlin, who’s the kid from Stranger Things that is now more grown up, but it was more of just like a age because this is gonna be for five seasons.
You know? And he’s supposed to be younger. But I kind of forgot, and I’m not throwing shade at Caleb here, but I forgot about the the the muscly factor that obviously Nathan has to have. So Get him on a steroid regimen. I mean, we can talk about that.
We can figure it out. Yeah. I feel like we could figure it out. But, I think I think your your pick’s better. So I’ll go with either of our Violet picks I’d be cool with, but I think your Zayden pick is is is better.
Sorry, Caleb. I’m not trying to throw shade. The guy you said has dreamy eyes too. I also casted, Ayo, the girl from, Yes, Chef, Ayo Edeb Edebri as Rachel. Yeah.
Yeah. I needed a comic relief. She’s actually a comic. Who’s Rachel? What’s her name?
What’s the her friend’s name, best friend? You’re talking about Rhiannon? Yeah. Sorry. I that’s how I process names.
Rachel? Yeah. She’s the Jewish Rhiannon? I don’t know. Anyways, yeah.
But I thought she was big. And she’s Massachusetts native, so I needed to throw her in there. Oh, that’s good to know. I didn’t know that. Alright.
Well, how many, how many buddies do you give this out of four buddies? I’m gonna give it for what it is, I think I also went in thinking way, way worse. So I’m gonna give it 2.25. I don’t think it’s that bad. I think you’re gonna go way below me, but I think would I recommend it to anyone?
Probably not. But Your mom? Absolutely not. I understand why it’s popular. That’s all what I’ll say about it.
So I’m not gonna trash it too much more. Yeah. I mean, my ranking is a personal ranking. It’s not you know, this is for you know, like I said, the book’s super popular. So I’m sure there’s tons of people that this is right up their alley.
It’s just not up my alley. I thought the writing was terrible. If you thought this was the the next Dickens, then I think you’re probably not that smart, even though I’m not that smart. So that means you’re just really not smart. But, I’d give it a 1.5.
If I can just get through it and I’m not angry at the end, then it’s then it’s a I think it deserves at least a two. So Yeah. I also think that we’ve started a lot of trilogies on this podcast or multi book reads, and we haven’t finished many of them. I was trying to think back to all of the ones that we’ve started and haven’t finished. For the most part, we didn’t finish those because we didn’t like them.
It was just like we’re moving on to something else. Yeah. But I would rather move on with every single one of those series before I read the second book in this one. When you texted me, you’re like, let’s go straight into the second one. I I wanted to be like, are you high, or did all the blood rush from your big brain to your little brain because you’re in the middle of a sex scene?
Because the this book was just not not Oh, okay. I appreciate you telling me I really feel at the end here. I really weren’t weren’t as, angry as I thought you would come off if if you hated it that much. But alright. I I didn’t I didn’t hate it.
Like I said, I just think the premise was there. There’s a lot of stuff that was there, but I would rather finish the blade itself or that other fantasy one where the guy’s fighting demons in his head or whatever that one is. I’d rather do that. I’d rather read Dune Messiah, obviously. There’s so many other ones I would rather continue out of trilogies than than this one.
Like I said, I’d rather get be apathetic to something than to be hate it. So that’s where I’m at. I told you I’m apathetic. So, you know, is that the word? Fair enough.
I don’t know. We maybe we’ll come back to this series later. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, it’s so popular that I feel like We’ll probably get a great response to this pod.
Yeah. People will just think we suck, but that’s fine because we do. Yeah. Alright, Keith. What do we got coming up next?
Next, we have a nice light reading again. Demon Copperhead It’s too real. By Barbara Kingsolver? Kingsolver? Yeah.
Kingsolver? I don’t know. Sorry. So that’s coming up next. Nice light reading.
Only twenty hours of, making you feel bad about yourself and everything that’s in the world. Yeah. It’s a bit of fun time. Yeah. So we got Demon Copperhead coming up next.
So also super popular. And, we’ll see how we feel about that. Mhmm. Hopefully, a little little bit better. We’re switching genres, switching back and forth, changing genres, keeping people on their feet.
I like it. Keeping ourselves on our feet. Mhmm. Alright, Keith. Well, thanks for, doing fourth Wing.
Alright. Thank you. Thank you so you hated so much, so appreciate it. I didn’t hate it so much. It just I I expected more.
I expect I used I burned one of my credits on it. We had to do it. So sorry. Yeah. I’m just I’m just disappointed.
You know? You’re not upset with me. I’m just disappointed. I didn’t burn a credit. I had it on Libby.
So I got credits to burn, kid. I have piss credits at this point. I got so many credits to burn. I actually just put Audible on pause for ninety days, which you can do every year. So Oh, okay.
That’s good to know. I should probably Yeah. I was like, I gotta put this thing on pause because I’m just racking up credits here. Okay. Cool.
Well, I’ll catch you for doing a copyright. Alrighty. Alright. Bye now. Bye now.
