November 9 by Colleen Hoover

[MUSIC]

Well, this is the kind of book that sticks with you because of how bad it is. You know, it was Bat-Shift, and that's what I want from Kaho. She could shit on the computer. [LAUGHTER] People would defend it. I also don't understand why nobody went to therapy. I cannot believe the moral of the story was that she needed to ask his forgiveness. [LAUGHTER] I bet Chat GPT could write a co-op of it. No, Dad. No, Dad. I bet it how. [MUSIC] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Mean Book Club.

This week, we read November 9 by Colleen Hoover. What's up? That's right. What do we do? Who heads out? Who heads? Who heads? Sarah, that was your most enthusiastic intro you've ever done. Well, you know, when I get to read a Hoover, I'm going to be enthusiastic about it. She loves a Hoover. Love a Hoover. We're very excited. As always, we are your hosts. I'm Sarah. Clara. Johnna. Yes. Sabrina is shut up. Oh my god, you're a reveal. Oh my god. Oh my god. We can edit that, I guess. Oh my god.

No, keep it in. People need to know what's going on. I guess so. I guess so. With our guests. Okay, Sabrina is not here, but we do have some guests who are revealing themselves too early. But Johnna, do you want to do the angels? Oh my goodness. I would be so honored. So these folks have their own podcast. I wanted to start with that baked and bookish. And we're going to hear more about that in a minute. But let me start with the intro as written.

A Maggie Boyer, they then there is a poet, catparent, and the author of various poetry collections, including allergies, 2023. And when I bleed, 2021, they've been published in the Abby Review, chapter journal, The South Dakota Review, Wishbone Words, and more. You can find their work on Instagram and TikTok at Maggie.Rights. Maggie collaborated with Savannah Cruz to make the podcasts that I just mentioned baked in bookish. And they're being inspired by being book club. Wow. Wow. Shut up.

A lot of people would say mean isn't a good thing to put out in the world. Well, look at us. Look at us. Inspiring. Yeah. Savannah is a reading enthusiast, but doesn't have any other qualifications to talk about books. Just. Savannah says, a dazzling personality that keeps her opinions afloat. Welcome. Maggie, too. Savannah, did you add Savannah says a dazzling personality just in a wall? I don't know yet. Yeah, I didn't qualify anything else in the bio today. She claims.

Yeah. A dazzling personality, but we'll be there. So we'll see. But I see. Ready? Because baked in bookish is really fun. I listened to an episode, your recent one where you both started and then three minutes in had to stop recording because you both got too high. And there was a time dash and you said three weeks later. Yeah, that's a lot of top of us. It was a little intense. Had to start it. That is that is I mean, how is recording high? I don't think we've ever we've only done drugs.

So I don't really I'm high right now. Okay, so it's going to come. This is a crossover. This is our first one. It is, it is. It truly is. I was going to say I have my parents. We have a nice lemonade cocktail because these are children that were talking about children. We did have to. Also, one of you one of you was on a liquid diet, but you were like, but I'm going to break the diet to have a edible, which I indeed loved. Indeed. I do that regularly. Yeah, I have. What was going on?

Were you getting a colon, colonoscopy or something? I have gastroporesis. So my stomach is just like, oh, I'm just like not going to do the stomach thing. That's really cool. You know that Kim Kardashian quote, no one wants to work anymore. That was actually my stomach. Right. Oh, definitely. It has been like what five months that you've been on a liquid diet? Yeah. Yes. So I achieved with that, that occasional edible. Really cool that a hard lemonade is part of the liquid diet as well.

That's really good. Yeah. It's like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Any liquid is so. I don't even know. I don't understand the question. I don't even know. I understand the question. I know what that means. I know what that means. I can't keep my, is it beer? Basically that, that question. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. So, the first question book is, is that we get really high and talk about books. And we rent five or five-year book clubs. If you guys can figure it out. Yeah. We rent five or five-year book clubs.

I stopped reading. We became friends because we read Twilight together. And indeed. Yeah. And I stopped reading. Yeah, I stopped reading for about a good five or six years because, well, spoiler alert, I relate to this book. My mom died. So, stop reading for a while. Savannah got really, really in to me in book club. And she was like, you've got to listen to this podcast. Don't get you back into reading. You're low and behold. Now we run a book podcast as well. So it did. That's incredible.

Awesome. I am very sorry for the loss of your mom. And just so you know, I also lost my dad. So you're in good company. Yeah. I'm sorry as well. I mean, I smiled as I said that, but it's bad. Yeah, it's a good, it's a good, it's a good, it's a glad. It's a complicated situation. Yeah. All right. All right, enough of this. There's no way to make this is going to make a book, I'm going to make a book. You would fuck. She's doing it. She's doing it.

I'll tell you what, if you get your mom sent us, Savannah's high. If either one of us ends up asshole of the cast, little fucker, you guys are going to be canceled. All of you. This has been politely quiet this whole time. Wow. They're still polite and respectful. Scary to speak. Hi guys. John, why are we reading this? Well, we're reading this all no thanks to Jenny D. Jenny said, I personally haven't read this. So first of all, didn't even put themselves in our boat.

Jenny said, this is a book that gets a lot of hype like all of hers do. But after some reviews on Reddit and Goodreads, IDK if I can. But I feel it would be perfect for you. Okay. Especially the main male character. And then Jenny kind of goes on, I won't read it all, but just like, I love you. You are really dragging her. You're dragging. For some reason. Yeah. I guess you didn't like the book, so you're mad. No, no, I love nice that she wrote in.

Yes. Yes. So you're actually blunt personalities, didn't mention anyone in particular, but Clara, I think that's a secret shout out to you a little bit. You blunt means you're the, in the bluntest. Now I couldn't, are you really blunt right now? That's true. About Jenny D. Wow. Wow. That's right. It's true. I might be Jenny's favorite. That's a really good point. And I would also argue maybe we're all blunt, but who's wonderfully blunt. Oh, yeah. That's back to Clara then. That's an answer.

Interesting. Great, great. Okay, how did you guys read this book? I actually bought it. You really like calling me in here. I read it on paper. You say it like it's a joke, but you really like it. You guys so excited about this book. Yeah, it's got really nice cover. There's a nine and a flower with chalk. November. It's a stupid name for a book. It's not November 9th. It's November 9th. Yeah. It's very confusing. It's very confusing. I'll tell you what. No, that's not about nine.

If the research feels a little light on the book, it's because it's really hard to research New York Times bestseller November 9th. Oh, yeah. Because it's a date. It's a date. It's a date. And it's not that significant. Like it could be any date in the book. It doesn't matter that it's fall, doesn't matter this new thing, skipping kind of, doesn't matter. I read it. I couldn't get it at the library. I had to get a membership to script, which is $10 a month.

And that was the cheapest way to get it. Okay. Because the autombo is like 20 bucks a month or something. It's way more. Script is good. Shout out to scribes. There's a real life genuine blunt shout out to script. I have to applaud the New York Public Library. They have, I believe, 67 copies of the book. So I was able to put in early and I got it. And I did finish it about two weeks ago. The only thing since a bit of time we usually finish it day of kind of.

Yeah. So it's, well, this is the kind of bridge sticks with you because of how bad it is. So. Yeah. But we were at Target together and we saw it. So we had to just grab a copy. So I also read it on paper. Back. Yeah. And I was supposed to borrow that and then I just downloaded it on my phone and started reading that way. So. Good work. But now my notes are way easier to look at. Yes. And so your notes are, you find notes easier to read when they're on the phone is just like in the margins.

Totally. Yeah. Now I can just scroll through and see all of my weird out of pocket things that I've said as I scroll down. You know. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Yeah. It's searchable. I think that helps. Searchable. I do that too usually and I'm really jealous because I miss my phone notes. Always think you guys didn't get this. I'm usually the literary ones. Savannah's the funny one on our podcast.

I'm the literary one and it's going to be really hard with this book to be literary and I don't even have good notes. I'm not the participation award. You know, I'm just there. I show up. This is a piece of literature. Maggie, so I don't know what you're talking about really, but let's get into it. Jon O. OK, Jon is Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Rundown. No, that's not. I think it's Jon is. Jon is jabbers. It's not. It's not supposed to be Jon. It's not what it is. And Sarah, you know, that's not how you say.

Jon is Ruh-Ruh-Rundown. You know, that's how it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be cool. Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Rundown. No, that's not what you're trying to do. Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Rundown. All right, well, everyone is going to feel really bad that they made fun of the run down because the summer is really good. I worked really hard on it. I wrote like a screenplay. So I noticed two parts. I noticed is not a compliment. So Sarah, you're going to play Ben. Cool. Savannah, you're going to play Fallen.

Oh, that's right. Those are our two leads, OK? Maggie, you're going to have you do all stage directions, all reading, OK? And Clara, if there is a part you see that wasn't cast, you may read that part. I got it. You may read that part. You're still pissed about that time. I was in order. My glasses didn't do a terrible job. And where are your glasses now, Clara? They're really good. Do you want to get them? Are you ready? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fade in into restaurant daytime.

On the second anniversary of the fire that left her scarred, Fallen or Neal, 18 meets her father, Jonathan and Neal, 15, a former actor for a month. I'm moving to New York tonight to pursue my Broadway dreams. Your opportunity to be an actor died with the fire. Nearby, a young sociopath, Ben, 20, overhears and slides into the booth next to Fallen. Hey, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I couldn't help overhearing. I am her boyfriend. Robin's now. He storms out. Fallen, I'm in love with you.

Okay. They have dessert together and Fallen invites Ben to help her pack because she's still moving to New York tonight to pursue her Broadway dreams. Where this dress, it shows off your fire scars and I fucking love your fire scars. This is not a red flag to me. They spend the night together. He gives her homework to do and I agree to meet at the same place, on the same date for the next five years. Cut to Ben's house, day. The following year, Fallen meets Ben's bro, Kyle Kyle.

Instead of saying he is having to meet her too, Kyle punches Ben. Does everything okay? Yep. Woo! Fallen goes Ben to get a tattoo and he gives her more homework. Cut to airport, day. A year later, Fallen learns that Ben's bro, Kyle is dead. I don't want to be apart from you anymore. A deal's a deal Ben. See you next year. Who? Restaurant? Day. A year later. I'm with my dead brother Ben's wife Jordan now. Two, Clown, Night, a year later. Jordan and I broke up and I love you again. Woo! Exactly!

Hey, part of me. What's this novel you wrote about? How you actually set that fire that burned me all over my body? A two, Fallen's house. Day, a year later. Mom, what is this book doing on my bed? You have to read it. It's Ben's book. It's sooo good. Isn't it about how he set that fire that I almost died in? And then he stalked me and found me and dated me and never mentioned any of it? Fallen, don't be a bitch. Just forgive him. You're right. I forgive him. And I accept your apology.

Ada. What is it? What are these pictures here, John? Beautiful. Look at the bottom here. Oh, that's a picture of. What is that? Oh, and her cat. Yeah. Her mudge in or crumpe and I just thought they looked alike and I wanted to see if you guys have that they look alike. Yeah, absolutely. Did she put those in eyes? Did she put them together? Did she have them side by side? I found them separately. I found a side by side and then I found a picture of her hair where it looks like she has cat ears.

Yeah. She's not doing herself any favors with the haircut. If she wants to look like the cat and then she's doing herself favors. Right. And then we off the shoulder top too with the semi-symmetrical hair. It's a look. It's a look and like a messy cat which is what her cat looks like. This photo seemed like a trick to me to get us from, you know, critiquing your summary. That's what I feel. No, Sarah, I think she was proud of the summary. I don't think that she thought there would be criticism.

I don't think there was. Yeah. This is something I wanted to actually talk about later. I wanted to get praised for some reason and later praise for this. Cool discovery. Okay. Praise all around. I think, thanks. We're certainly not going to praise because of the way I was treated before but I'd like to think that my performance and diligence, you know, I had to read every line constantly looking for an uncast. Roll and things like that and I just hope it was noted.

Okay. Yeah. I'm sure I'm taking off now. I can't emphasize enough how much of a nerd she looks like with the glasses on. Past tense because they're not on now. So I don't even know what you're talking about. So I don't even know. Yeah. Anyway, that was, I guess, an accurate depiction of what happened but like, so excited to talk about it. I think Sarah's problem with the summary might be that it made fun of her. One of the book and I think Sarah really liked.

No, no. It just, it was missing so much of the heart in the moments that really, really saved me in the, I think it feels harsh because it's true. I liked it. It's just reductive. Well, it's hard not to be okay. Okay. It's a summary. Let's go to John's, let's go to John's jugs. Okay. All right. So, John's jugs today, I'm going to treat you to just a little example of the kind of dialogue, the witty repartee that Colleen treated us to. Fallen and her best friend, Robin, I think, are at a buzzer.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You're never going to remember it. I'm going to forget it. Aubrey? Aubrey, sure. What a change of subject I say. Do you want to drink to pens, she says, are we drinking because we want to remember this night forever? Or because we want to forget the past? Definitely forget. So, that's just like the kind of tattooable dialogue that you're, are we drinking to remember? We drink it to forget. And then they, they get four shots. They clink their glasses.

Here's to waking up on November 10th and having no memory of the ninth. Sorry if you hit my door. Can I knock chewing a bone? I can't. No, it's good. Amber is the name. It's right there in the little poll quote. But you skipped that part. Yeah, what an obnoxious little little back and forth we had to read. Are we drinking to remember classic activity? Right. Like you said, study for your task at plaster. If you do that, you have to take the test plaster as well.

That's the rule that's what we learned. That's what we learned. You learned. I taught that in school. Uh-huh. Yeah, so what's the drink pairing? So the drink pairing? Oh. Um, for me right now is a Canada Dry ginger ale because I'm sick, but the real for everyone who's up for it is a cloud nine Pinot noir and you can purchase that little number twenty bucks. So a nice mid range Pinot. Is that what they were drinking or what's the um, it was a number nine in it. Oh, okay.

Oh, yeah, this is actually really good. My mistake. It's really thought that you're right. It's really good. Thank you. Really good. My mistake. My mistake. It's just the book title. So fucking stupid. I forgot. And is it, is it, is it so? It's just an okay. And is it cloud because they were on airplanes and airplanes fly through clouds? Very good. I love that the mom, cloud nine. She would write a line like that. That's true. She would write a line like that. Flu them to cloud nine, yeah.

Fluem to cloud nine. Romantro. All right, guys, guys, we, we got to talk about this book. We got to talk about the author and everything. But first we got to take a quick commercial break. So we'll be right back. [MUSIC] In retrospect, the summary was very long. [LAUGH] A little long. [LAUGH] She had me both. So we got to come in straight with the act out, a low intimidating, but I'm here for it. Okay, so you did great, everyone did great.

The whole book is too long, and that's why the summary was so long. [LAUGH] So true. A too long mirror. How many pages does it take to book? [LAUGH] 307? So 307 pages too long. [LAUGH] Thank you. Wow. Hot take. [LAUGH] Wow, really outrageous take. Okay, John, tell us about the book. No. Are the author. Are you going to tell you about the author? [LAUGH] [LAUGH] You tried to just make sense. [LAUGH]

Well, first of all, I'm not going to do a kind of normal author summary because we have done a co-ho book before. So if you want to hear basics, check out season 14 episode one, Verity. And pause here, stop, what you're doing. Go listen to that, come back, join us again to learn more what you're going to do right now. Uh, co-ho has sold more books than John Grisham and James Patterson combined. Wow. Yeah, people really like her. Yeah, people love her.

She's sold 8.6 million print books this year alone. I checked out her website, gang. She sells things on her website, swag, flag boxes. Gift cards she should. She's on website. [LAUGH] Bees. [LAUGH] Right, the number of crossover stuff she has, like, did you know that this book has, I didn't look, I don't think you have this information, has like a song. There's like a song that was released called November 9th. Oh, that's a good one. Is it a love song from like the band wrote for her?

I didn't listen to it, but it exists. So it's just, she's got a little, or I guess a large cult following, huh? Mm-hm. It's getting her bad. Oh, yeah. Yes. But she, if you recall, last time, we pulled some stuff from Twitter on calling in Hoover, because she had kind of a fun Twitter presence. And disappointingly, she's not there anymore. I don't know, I wonder when I asked it. But she's still on TikTok, so we could talk. Yeah. She's on TikTok. She is all over Facebook.

That seems right, that seems like a fit. How about this description she put on her Facebook author page, bestselling author of books that give you all the feels, even some good ones. Yeah, right. I hate that so much. Yeah. You're supposed to be a writer, you know, just take some cliche shit that was modern seven years ago. But we had it in the love, but we were booksting. It is the worst advertisement for a writer. I have read, honestly. Doesn't matter though.

It doesn't matter because she could shit on the computer. People would defend it in particular, her fan created Facebook group, Colleen Hoover's co-hort, which has 186.7,000 members. I have to redo the rules of this Facebook page because they're so funny. Rule number one, be nice, seriously, be respectful each other. We don't think that's so much to ask. We're not allowed in. See rule number one. Rule number three, seriously.

If you have something nasty to say, take it somewhere else, we respect your opinions, but this is a group of celebration. Colleen, welcome to use all nature, but post them in the appropriate place as this group is meant for positive post only. If you have a complainer issue, email Colleen. Email Colleen. Okay, do they provide? Yes. She loves to respond to them though. Yes. How much does she love it? Can we send her the app? It's ready. We'll make it tick. We can make a tick talk.

I bet she'll do it at it. She just actually got named. I thought I'm not wearing my glasses. Okay, go on. She was just named one of times, 2023, 100 most influential people, by the way. I found that after I did this research. I think it just popped up today. Wow. And so, yeah. In fact, now like Twitter blue and it's just meaningless. The time's less? 100. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they should never down to one the way people does with sexiest man. Just give us the top.

Yeah. And instead of influential, which is boring, do sexiest. There we go. They could use Collins to picture that you picked the picture with the cat. They should use that picture for her. I know. I was in a year. She would wish. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And if we have some criticism of this book, we'd be in good company because there's been some recent book lash. I made that up just now. I love it. I love it. Thank you. I love it. There's been some recent book lash because.

Just you can't say it again. OK. Do you remember the novel it ends with us? We read it on a copod that we did with book squad gals. And basically, it recently was made into a coloring book, which immediately TikTok got very angry because the book is about domestic violence. And yeah, many people said that they would no longer read co-host books. It just did so well. Wow. So the book content wasn't bad. It was just once it was coloring book material. One people could see it.

This is a dumb issue in my opinion. You're not. It's like for adults to color. I mean, why you would a color, a coloring book about domestic violence? That's another thing, but I don't think it's like, you don't have to cancel somebody because it does seem like I don't get a child. I hate to defend her, but it's like, I don't know. I don't feel like put in the scenes of the book where she's like getting thrown to the ground.

I feel like the romanticization of sociopaths should be like more of the issue than like the drawing of them. For me, it's anything that turns people against her. I'm fine with it. It's going to be a color. I don't care. I'll just get people off the cult out of the cult. I agree. Okay. I'm not surprised that that was your take. Yeah, so the coloring book to get pulled was shelved. The book itself was published in 2015 by Atria.

It's spent at least 22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller as of September 2022. I could not research beyond that. I don't really know how to use the internet. Is it not fine? You know what, whatever. Sarah just had a spike of anger and then decided to let it go. Just like, you know what, this is better than last time, so I'm going to just take it. That is the end of the book information that I was able to provide at the stop.

I can tell you that this book, after what it was first released, there was controversy around it and she had to go back and edit out or edit some scenes to make them less like non-consenti or rapey or, you know, which is crazy. I'm like, what's in there still makes me so uncomfortable. Yeah. It's like, I wanted him to stop, but I couldn't, I felt I couldn't say it. So he didn't stop. It's like that feels bad, that's bad. Yeah. And then she's so lucky.

I don't have one here where Ben was talking and Ben says, he and his about to, we are on page. Oh gosh. Why are, it's in this game novel. We're, oh, sorry. In this novel, where Maggie, there are no teachers. We're probably going to say computer. So, would you say, John, I couldn't hear you. Maggie, continue. So, it's just after page 271, but it's like two pages later because it is in this damn novel where there's nothing in it. Really bothered. Whoa, you're right. What the hell? What's going on?

What happened? It's so weird. I didn't notice this. It adds towards you. The book is just like, they're just like, let's just give them a page number every 17 years. Oh my god. I was thinking the Maggie was in any, I was like, do you know how to look in a book? She's not. It's crazy. It's crazy. I'm like, what the, but the beginning of the book every page is not break. No, it isn't. It was the first half of the book. And then it was just like that.

It's like in a bin novel, which also is a really, really lately, hot tactic of hers because she used it in Verity and this is literally Verity by my version. I have to, she does. She does. Yeah, I have to assume, but at the beginning of this page, it starts with his jaw twitching. He's so mad because Ben's brother, Ian is yelling at him and this is narrated by Ben. And he says, I think about this for a second, about how neither of them lives here. Ian is in flight school.

They just started college. My mother is dead. She went for real. Oh, yeah. She went to the brother. So she went and edited it. They edited this again. They still didn't catch that. I'm just bought this. They just bought this like two months ago, maybe. That raises me. I can let her know. I don't know. They didn't edit it for accuracy. They edited it for a little less. No, they didn't edit it for accuracy. They edited it for a little less consent. No, for a little bit more consent.

More consent less numbers. I got mixed up. More consent less numbers. I got mixed up. More consent less numbers. The nice thing about this book though is that we don't have that many characters. So we don't want to like confuse you by talking about a lot of people. It's, you know, pretty simple. This Fallon O'Neill, who is the daughter of a actor of some sort, who seems like, is he successful? Is he not? It's kind of confusing to me. Yeah, Don of O'Neill. It seems like he was successful.

The waiter recognized him. Yeah, yeah, I agree. But then he says something about his mom left the dad because the dad didn't have that much money or something. No, the dad slept with her best friend. Remember? Here's the line. Your mother. That was later. Leave me because of my personality. She left me because I slept with her best friend. All right, right. That's a example of how he is dense and Fallon is smart. It's a cool deal.

He is like a, yeah, like why, Align that nobody would ever say it was. I, as 68 year old man with a full beard and white bushy hair. Who was a mewist actor at that? Yeah, yeah, right, right, right. And so she's like burned and so there's a fire when she was six years old. I'm saying it like that because the way that she had, like you have a main character who is like, how it was in a fire and has scars. But it's the way she addresses it, the burn is so funny.

I just think it's such a light touch just to bring up such like an emotional, a huge issue. But he liked to touch them. He loves the way her scars feel. Now we're like, you know, that's like, you know, that's it. I will say I did appreciate that co-ho made her super scarred because I feel like a lot of times in in stuff like this, it'll be like, a stunningly beautiful woman walks into the room, but you can tell she's shy because of the tiny scar in the back of her neck.

She covered her with her hand, looks nervous around. It's like, okay, she's fine. This girl was scarred. But this girl was scarred. She was like, yeah, she was scarred, but she had dad asked and she had them titty. And so, when Ben is saying, they hear that she could pull into her mouth, they hear that she could pull into her mouth to hide her face. Yeah, it's sexy. It was so funny when Ben was trying to like build up her confidence and was like, I wasn't looking at your face.

I was looking at your boobs and your butt. It was like, what the f-? That's a bad idea. It was like hell, yeah. Yeah, bad idea. Also, I don't think we've said it. Ben's name is Benton Kessler. So it not Benjamin. Yeah. Ben said it a lot. Even though he got by Ben, I have to know that it's Benton. Koko loves weird names. She's like, she's so silly. Benton James Kessler. Also, if you've never seen, it makes me think of Benton. Do you all remember the dog, Benton, that gets loose in Richmond Park?

It's a YouTube video? No. No, I don't know. No, I don't know. Okay, just go to YouTube when you're done with this episode. No, that it's a classic. YouTube. Jesus Christ in Richmond Park. There's a man chasing his dog. It's really good. Sounds good. Let me do it. I had a friend in middle school named Ben Kessler. I'm pretty sure it was Benjamin. Weird. I don't know. Yeah, that would have been normal. Yeah. Benton. I remember very little about him. I don't think he was the inspiration for this.

No, no, I hope not. Because this guy sucks. I love how, I just like how the beginning of the book though, it starts, I love she loves to start with violence. She says the first slide is I wonder what kind of sound it would make if I were to smash this glass against the side of his head. Yeah. It's just like never again does she have such strong feelings of like violence, like an edgy violence towards her father or anyone's like not in her character.

It's just like might as well not have happened, but she needed a hook to draw us in. Oh, it's so funny. And also just like at the end she's like, oh, maybe my dad's not so bad. It's like why were you like so mad at him then? Oh, that pissed me off the reveal that like, you know, I thought about it and actually my dad tried really hard to be a good dad to me all this time. And you know, he's always been around. He's paid for me. He's showed me love.

He's been my caretaker like actually I was nobody would do that. Yeah, nobody would think that. Nobody would think that. No, and like, and they do the same thing with Vince mom, they do the exact same thing. We'll get there, but they do the exact same thing with Vince mom. Mm hmm. And uh, there's so much in this book that made me be like, that's not how humans would react to that. It's just like convenient plot devices is very frustrating.

And it made me, it made me feel like she isn't the same author that wrote Verity because this was so much worse. This was so much worse. It was. I have to argue with you. I have to argue with you on that because Verity is much better than this, but Fallen is literally like the same as Lowe and their names even sound the same. She just at least has an excuse.

She's freaking 18. She hasn't excuse to be that annoying, but it makes me think that co-ho must be this way because she writes all of her female protagonists this way. They all like no friends. Yeah, yeah. Super weird. Robin or Aubrey? The Amber. Amber. Amber. Amber. So I just think co-ho must be the most annoying person. She definitely is sadly. It feels like at least through her characters like attracted to sort of abusive men because Banton is so abusive.

We will get to the details of it, but it is truly this was worse than it ends with us. I thought in terms of Lowe. He's much more violent than that. I mean, it is crazy. I mean, this book is crazy. Yeah, I did at the beginning of this book though. I was like, okay, so it's setting up that he there, these two 18-year-olds and the premises. So she's about to be into New York.

He's in LA. It's November 9th and they really like each other, but she is like, oh, my mom said you should not fall in love before you're 23. Beak for Arbitra, like just because she got married at 18. I don't know. It was so stupid. It was such a slim, dumb reason that even though they have this spark upon meeting that they're she's not going to even give a phone number is because her mom said not to fall in love before she's 23. So she's going to listen to her mom.

Yeah, she's like got so stupid. So of course I will listen. Like as most people, you guys know, I'm sure throughout your life, several times you've rejected a friend or love interest because of something your mother said. I'm sure that's a reversal experience for anyone. It just makes no sense. And also we're not going to date, but the fact they're like, we're not going to exchange any information. Yeah, that was backed up by her.

I think calling Hoover was like trying to give a second reason other than just listening to the mom, because she had fallen, be like, if we exchange numbers, then I'm just going to be waiting for him to call or wanting to call him and talking him on the phone instead of figuring out who I am. And again, it's like, that makes no sense. Like this seems like it's part of who you are. I don't know. It's like when you fall in love, I don't know. Okay. It's true. It's true. It's true.

Wait until you're 23 because then you'll have your life figured out. And I want to know, did anybody have their life figured out at 23? No, absolutely, absolutely, fucking not. I don't know. You shouldn't be allowed to go to college before you're 23. That should be like the youngest. I'm so, I'm so, I'm so, it's like, okay, you can spend $100,000 now if you are certain. You have to like, yeah, you don't live. Why would you not be able to fall in love?

I feel like the mom's real issue was getting married, young. The mom should have been like, don't get married before 23. To not fall in love, that's stupid. And she certainly is stupid. She would. She wouldn't even say don't have a boyfriend before 23. Yeah, yeah. She's making these weird rules herself. Yeah. That's like, you totally should. I feel like personally like, date while you're 18, 19, 20 and figure out what you like and what you don't like.

Or what you don't like more importantly, maybe she would have learned she didn't like been actually. But then she wouldn't have been able to do the weird like abstinency, you know, take my virginity scene, which was so bad. It was so bad. How original of it. A virgin. Yeah, we'll get to that a little later. It was so gross. I want you to be my first and last. Ew, ew, anyway.

Also, the weird sort of creepy, so Ben would give her homework assignments and they involved like, cockleding him basically. She was like, so while we're apart, I want you to kiss at least four other guys and I want you to seem like he was into that. Tell me about it. It's going to be painful for me to hear, but I want you to come back and tell me exactly what they looked like and what they did. And don't look at where my hands are when you tell me like, just maybe turn around when you tell me.

I'm working on a Rubik's cube. Yeah, while we're talking. So dumb. And she was like, read romance novels. If you guys were in a situation like this where you agreed and we'll meet in one year and you really like the person, would any of us here, would you not look at social media, like not look them up at some point, not Google them at some point? Are you kidding me? I would be doing that. I mean, we'd be doing that before I'd walk the way home.

They walked each other, but it's like I would just make a burn or a cow. Yeah, there's so many ways around it. I'm so easy. Yeah, I'd be like, all this. Look this guy up on the media. You're my best friend. True. But honestly, Sarah, your question is just so ridiculous because no human would ever be in this situation where you like someone to agree to meet at the same day a year from now, for no reason. If you're not going to see each other again, don't see each other again.

If you're going to be in each other's lives, do it. But honestly, take that risk. Don't make me read it and not bone. Thank you. Yes. But, you know, if I met the possible love of my life, I'm not going to just let that person go off at 22 years old, the height of the fucking season of your life to just go and potentially fall in love with some other girl you meet to diner that you also nearly burned to death in a fire. Come on. No, I'm not going to be in that.

We have to consider the fact that she also has had a very hard time dating since the fire. Right. It's not like she's had guys all over her. I mean, it feels like this is the first person she's had a connection with in a while seems like it would be more meaningful. Clara, you just reminded me of the thing I hated most about this book. I'm so sorry. And this was, "Brayon, brayon, brayon, my first red flag." Oh, okay. Okay, bye. To break up the segment, I thought it would be fun.

So when the book starts, she introduces that she is, of course, suddenly gorgeous. I'm sure I read had perfect, beautiful, amazing butt, but was half burned in the fire. But I hate to say it was half burned. I hate to say it was half burned. It's having some self-esteem issues. And she describes it as like, "I used to be so confident. I used to date. I've had, I had loves, but it's so long since I've been in a relationship." So I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm on board. Kaho, I'm with you.

This is a 30 year old woman that it's been a while since she's been in a relationship. She's lost her confidence." When I found out that she was 18 years old, I slammed the book close. Long could it possibly be since you've been in a relationship? Assuming the earliest possible is like 12 perhaps? Like, absolutely maximum. It's been like five years, which is not that long. I'm sure it's more like, it's been six months. And that it made me angry.

And I wanted to know if anybody else had a red flag moment. I was a little later in the book. It's when Ben was talking about his first girlfriend and her name was Abatha, not Tabatha. What the fuck is that? My red flag moment was the moment we met Ben and all he could think about was what color and type of underwear Fowl and was wearing. Even though we know the plot twist, like that's literally all you could think about. That's all you could think about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't notice.

We're going to miss the major thing, Ben. Yeah. She's burned. He literally like, look, he's staring at her ass. Yeah. This wasn't my first red flag, but it was a pretty big one for me. It was when on one of the visits when he spends $400 to buy a plane ticket just so he can leave a note on her. That's why he exchanged for him. So I was like, what the fuck? That the fact that these people can't or you can't tell that that's psychotic. They couldn't even be pin-pows.

They couldn't even be pin-pows. Right. Also, he got on the plane, right? And then left her nose and left the plane. That's how you get banned from a fucking airline, Ben. That kind of strange, creepy behavior. That's how you get flagged as a possible shoe bomber. Yeah. I think we do need a possible shoe bomber. Is that note a bomb? Yeah. Which is the possible shoe bomber?

Side note, I today just listened to Malaysian Airways, MH370 on Netflix, documentary about the plane that went missing and listened to it. Well, yeah, because I have a migraine right now, so. Oh, you had your eyes closed, so okay. My eyes closed, but I listened. Unfortunately, a lot of it was in French, but what I picked up, the United States, shot that plane down. Yeah. Yeah. From one life, I don't know. That's where the evidence is pointing. I know.

Well, what Ben did just to clarify was he said, bye, fine, bye, bye, and then she got on their airplane because she lives in New York. He lives in LA to go back to New York thing. We're going to see each other for another year. He was like, oh, shit, I forgot to give her her sex homework. Yeah, yeah. So he bought a plane ticket for her flight, so you could board the plane, hand her her sex homework, and then he was like, gotta go ahead and hand it. He left it on her seat, right? Or do they talk?

Yeah, they talk. They talk, or I think they can make sure you leave that on the right seat if you leave it on a seat. I don't know. I didn't know it was like date five guys, so you get some experience. Why don't you just like give it to a flight attendant and be like, can you give this to the hot burn shit? You can't get to the gate, Maggie. Honestly, it's the only option. It's not allowed. Oh, yeah. Oh, the option.

Yeah. Okay, so he gets all defensive because he's writing a book about this guys. So the whole time at the beginning, he's like, hey, you know, what, I'm going to write, I'm a writer. I'm going to write a book about you and about how basically I'm in love with you, even though I just met you, and about this whole experiment that we're doing. And he, not cool, but say the same thing. The weed is, are you high? Are you high right now, Maggie? I mean, I might be.

But yeah, so he just like, he's writing this book about her and he, say, I'm so bad. All right. I thought of it. All right. We'll go back. Wait, I want to hear Savannah's red flag, or whatever Savannah thinks karma is. Thank you. Thank you, John. I was like, dang. I skipped over. I'm not aggressive enough for this podcast. You do have to be really aggressive. You have to be mean. I will say that my first red flag was not for Ben. It was for Fallon.

And whenever her inner monologue said, grab my boob, Ben, that was the time. That was the full stop moment of the whole book. Why a woman in their mind goes, grab my boob, grab my boob and twist it. Yeah. Now the other one. telepathic? He was! I don't know. I for want to enjoy the boob grab. Perhaps it was the thing... She didn't say grab... She didn't say grab. She didn't say grab. She's not like, "Ooh, I'm turned on. I want to get sexy and hanky-hanky, including my boobs."

Nah. She's just like, "Grogf me please,grogf me." I can't remember the word she is, but when she described how he kissed her, it was really gross sound. Even it was like, "Tong, slid all over my throat." I can't read somebody who was like, "I don't think so." So she couldn't write any of the chemistry well. I don't feel like any of the kissing and chemistry went well. But when I was gonna say, "I remembered," he's writing this freaking book. And he's like, "My idea is so original."

Meanwhile, it's like the most cliche idea ever. And then it's like, "Transform via like very..." It's carried via very like cliche plot points. Like he's running through the airport for her and buying an airline ticket. Like, "No, this is so original. No one's ever done this before. No one." Yeah. It's also frustrating because his... So he's writing a book about the November 9th, once a year meetup thing.

And he's the book, calling Hoover's book is saying, "This is such a great idea, but it's her ID." You know, get the... Yeah, really complimenting herself. Well, that's kind of... You must be the most annoying person ever because she keeps using the same plot device and putting herself in like four characters. She's like, "You know what? I'm gonna be the writer in this book and I'm gonna be the love interest and I'm gonna be... You always have to have a writer.

All mean book books have a writer, but... I want to keep talking about this, but we got to take a quick commercial. Right, we'll be right back. And we're back. Hi. Hi guys. Sarah, your eye look green in the slight. They look as if we're in a green shirt. By really green. Do you mean shirt when you say eyes? Oh. Sarah, famous is very blue eyes. That's why it's just such a shock to see. It's a shock. Famous. I forgot. Famously. Page 52. The video. This is disgusting.

You're making me feel like Ben must have made. I'm... Grab my eye. What do you want to caress my eye? Yeah. All right. This is... I just like, "I want you to wear your hair up tonight. Don't push your luck. He laughs. Why the hell does luck exist if I'm not supposed to push it?" What does that mean? That's like the motto of someone who needs to seek help with their gambling addiction. Yeah, yeah. I don't... I don't understand what that means. Kouho was like, "This is gonna be a slam dunk."

It's like... Rules are meant to be broken, but Kouho was like... I can do that with anything. It doesn't matter what words are. At this point, I think she could put a phrase, "Were rules are meant to be broken into a chatbot?" And just be like, "Can you make up one like this?" And it would spit out... What's luck if it's not meant to be pushed? I bet chat GPT could write a Kouho, but... No, don't. No, don't. Yeah, yeah, she's gotta be using it. She's gotta be using it.

2015, no, little too early for that, John. I don't think so. This is a rigid one. Okay. That's why they already said it because the chatbot wrote it. Helped it, yeah. Ooh, man. There's tension. I just found this... This love part of it, I was just like, "Wow, this is really boring." I don't like either of them, and I don't care about them. This book was real... To me, it was real lame sauce until we got to the... -twist, but... -The twist.

And you know if Sarah uses language like lame sauce, she is mad. Wait, is it too bad? -It's a bit mad at Colleen. -That's cool. Her first thing... Well, I not push your luck, and then moments later say lame sauce. -This book was part of this killing me. -He's not mad at accurate description. Get out of here. I think part of what I found to be an interesting choice, literary-wise, is to have this...

Okay, so they meet only once a year, but we, the reader, do not get to see them during their years. -It's such a weird choice to let it... -It is. Gloss over... She's, you know, this brand-new half-burned girl goes to... -You know, and we gloss over how well it goes. -And we gloss over... -How well it goes. -It's like moving to a new city, and being alone and stuff. That's interesting. -You can write books about that. -Yeah, there's nothing huge.

-But she just comes back and is like, "I'm doing great. I have auditions." Anyway, it's like, "Don't you fucking dozen?" -Yeah, she doesn't. -That's what... I sometimes feel like what Colleen Uvertaz is. She sets up some kind of interesting characters or interesting plot points, but then it's all very servicies. She's just like, "Those it out there," and then she's like, "I'll never talk about that again, or I'll never go into that and death."

It's like, "Don't you think like every creative writing teacher from like, third grade through MFA programs would be like, "Tell us what happens during the year." -I'm just right about this. -It just seems like a really bad idea. -What? -What? Don't catch when she uses the wrong name, so I don't think they're giving her very much creative direction. -Yeah, I remember... -And the name of the best friend changed a lot. It was like, "What is her name?" -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -I'm not a good one.

But the lack of information served Colleen well in that... You couldn't see the twist coming, and then there was an info dump, which you were like, "Oh, this is a lot of information I didn't have, because I had no information." -Sara. -Sara's always... -I touched it Savannah. -The moment we met then. And I said, "This guy is so creepy, I thought there wasn't a villain in this book, is he the villain?" So, what do you mean? It was a twist.

-I don't even feel like this was a twist. -Well, that he was. -Set the fire? Did you know you knew he set the fire? -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm meeting you. -What? -I'm meeting you. -Yeah. -I was like, "This guy has something to do with her burns." He's being... What is he doing here? -Wow. -What is this? -This is so creepy. -Wow. -He's literally the creepiest character ever, immediately. And so, of course, and then why is he so obsessed with her burns the whole time?

I don't even feel like there was a twist in this book. That's why it's so much worse than Variety. Variety actually surprised me. -And that is because I read Variety? -No, I read that too. -Yeah, I didn't see it. -I didn't see it. I thought it was like, it was collied attempting to be like, "Oh, creepy." But like, "Oh, she's trying to be like pro scars. It's just really coming across weird."

I personally think, like, when you look back to what the things he said and did, knowing that he burnt her... His actions make even less sense to me. I'm like, "If you burn someone, why would you feel up their scars and say..." That doesn't make any sense to me. -He's literally a psychopath and you get that from the moment you meet him. He's so psychotic. He's so creepy. I see him as a future murderer. I see him as a future gerum. I don't know if you guys ever read the bonus chapter of Variety?

-Oh, yeah. -Oh, sad. -I see him as a... -I feel like I'm a cubby now. -I see him as a cubby now. -I see him as a gerum. -Yeah. -Okay. -It just looks like a massive lady killer. Feeling up scars because scars have no feeling. So he's feeling up scars. It's just for his own pleasure. -He's out for his own pleasure to remind... And then he caused those scars. It's fucked up. I... And then the idea that, like, in the beginning of the book,

he's like, "Don't be so shy about your scars. You're beautiful. They're part of who you are." And then for Colin Hoover to be like, he was saying that because of guilt basically. -Yeah, yeah, exactly. -It makes it all much worse. -It was like... -It was like, "Nice." -The love your scars is if they caused them. And they don't really think they're nice. -But they know that... -They feel really bad. -But like, this is my artwork. I did this. -I made this by feeling bad about what happened to you.

-No, I haven't felt bad. He's getting off. He's like, "Ooh, I got this cap." I feel like he acts like he feels all guilty, but he really doesn't. -Well, he's the victim. -I also have to hang obviously with the cuckolding and the fire and the sky. -Yeah! -That's obviously a trope here. -Yeah. -And we haven't even gotten to the last twist. -And we're seeing some creepy things too. -What does that I'm saying is I literally immediately texted Savannah and was like, "He has to be the villain."

How do I like this guy? I thought he was the romantic beast. -But I did just so you say this, though, Maggie, because I do think in the end he was the romantic lead and not the villain. -He was the villain! -Yeah, I do think you made me go to bed. -Right, but in a backwards way, that was not a colline who has intention. -She didn't mean for that to happen.

-And it just goes back to what you said about her maybe picking the wrong people and her personal life potentially, because she just seems to have really bad tastes and understanding of love. -Do you know who else is a villain? -I feel that Ben's brother, Ben, period, but also Ben's brother Kyle, who the minute he meets Maggie is just like, "All fuck, that's a girl, my brother." -Oh, sorry, Maggie. -John is out of hell with time names, too.

-My goodness, the minute he meets Fallen, he's like, "Oh, shit, that's a girl, my brother, I'm a terrible spurred to death." -And he doesn't say anything to her. -He just, he angrily is Ben. -He's just bad. -He's just bad. -Ben, and you know what, I'm gonna go ahead and say, if you're my brother-in-law and I meet you and you find out that my husband tried to kill me, it's okay to say something. -Exidentally, I don't know. -I'm gonna stand by my sibling on that one.

-I'm gonna be like, "Look, that makes sense for you. -Look." -I'm gonna tell some sort of lie to get her the hell out of there. I might not out my brother, like, minimum. But at minimum, I'm gonna be like, "Look, bro, he hates you. Never come back here." -I really don't understand the reaction of punching of like, "I'm so mad that you are." -He caused a scene that made her investigate. -It doesn't make any sense, you're right. It doesn't make sense.

I also don't understand why nobody went to therapy. This is another book where there are any of these issues from the fire to the... Any of the step-along way if people went to therapy, we would not be having these weird issues. -I'm like the therapist. Literally couldn't even tell anybody if you started that fire. So, like, you just go to therapy and tell your therapist. -Talk it through.

You're not gonna be doing these weird things where you stalk people and... -But I think it shows their whole family, like, just has no skills at all emotionally. -Yeah, they were... Yeah, I can't even... -God, you're right. -Because... -I'm gonna keep going to the end or... -Yeah, I was gonna say, "We got to go away with another two weird twists where Kyle dies." -So, Kyle, if it was an accident, I can't even remember. -Yeah, it's a car accident. -So Ben can only have...

Yeah, Ben can only seem to have feelings for the person he caused the scars of... Or... -He's now dead brother's baby mama. -Yeah, it's so funny in this... -It's a maze. -Okay, so... -He lives in a house with his brother's wife and the wife is pregnant. Sad thing happens, the brother dies in a car accident, and he's very sad. And then he gets with the brother's wife, and the book doesn't make a big deal about it in that sense. -It's so weird.

-He loves someone, he's with someone other than Fallen, is how the book treats it. -It's like, he's with his dead brother's wife soon. -Who had a baby with the dead brother. -So she is like... -And she is nine months postpartum. Or less, actually, because when they get together, I feel like she's just like three months postpartum. -Yeah. -Getting with your brother's widow is a trope, but I do think the way she did it was... -It wasn't interesting. -It was never interesting.

-It was just like a perfectly reasonable relationship. -Yeah. -And they had been living in the same house. So it was like, how long had he coveted her or she him or what the fuck? -And we didn't get to see it at a moment. Like, this is again, if we had written, if we'd gotten to read some scenes where it's like they fell into each other in their grief. Like, it was at all grounded or made to feel real, but like, it just felt like it was just said. -It was just like... -In for me...

All this book was information dumps, and yeah, you're just like, this is ridiculous. -But also, I was like, fallin' shut up. Like, don't be mad at him. He was like, his fucking brother died and you were like, "Bye." -Yeah. -I skipped over. -She gets on a plane. -Yeah. -It was crazy. I was like... -And it all hit her. -And it all hit her. -To break the little deal. -Yeah, her.

-And Colleen Hoover tried to explain it away with some weird frivolous stuff, and you're like... -But you still left him the day of his death at all. -Yeah. -It was because he got an agent or something, and she was like... -She tried to justify it as being like, "I'm doing the right thing for Ben, because of I stick around, then... -If I stick around, he got it. -Then he... -He'll stop writing, he'll write the book. -And his life will become just about me.

It was very similar to why they can't exchange numbers. -It just seems like they need to come about each other. -It's like maybe that's okay right now. -I feel like if that's the fear, then maybe that's something you need to look at. Why am I the type of person who, if I start dating someone, I completely give up everything around me. Isn't that not a problem? Maybe I have an unhealthy use of relationships, if I think that's what you have to do.

-Even the idea that because they end their experiment, his book would have to end because he's writing what happens when you only meet once a year for five years. -It's like, and if we don't do it, we can't write it. -It's about... -He's your imagination. -It's supposed to be a writer. -You don't have to really do it. -It's your imagination. -Also, no one said like, "You can't go back to New York period. -You could have stayed an extra two or three days." -Yeah, all right.

-I think, stay for the... -I guess she was there for the funeral. -No. -No, she wasn't even there. -I don't think she was. -It was... -I don't think she was. -Yeah, I'd say, go ahead and stay for the funeral. -I'm still like, my thing is, this is one of the only times that Ben actually makes sense, and I agree with him, because he's like, you know, like... I feel like his thought process is, you know, one of us could die in this year, and we'll literally never even know.

-Yeah, it's funny though that Colleen had to be like, "I have to kill another one of your loved ones to make you a character. People might agree with her like, "Every year, it's like, yeah, dead, dead." Yeah, like, you were in a fire, your mom's dead, now your brother's dead, now you're a shady- -Yeah, it is. -Every year she didn't die. -She also never connected that. I don't think there was any point in the book that brought up that like, both his mother and brother were dead.

It was just like two isolated incidents. -Yeah, just say like, they both were very reckless drivers. Like, mom died in a car accident, she actually taught Kyle how to drive. -And that way I accept that. -Well, the deaths don't have to be connected, but someone to be like, poor Ben, both of these sort of freak things happened to him. That sentence is, that sentiment is not in there. Is that individually? -I'd say connect the death.

-Can I have a... -Okay, it's for me, like, mom was a death to be connected. -Mom was a drug dealer, she gets killed, and then someone from like, a rival gang kills Kyle for revenge sort of situation. -Yeah, you're thinking of the revenge they would kill for the son of the drug dealer that is dead. -Why would these people with drug addled? -They're in the hands. -They're high. -Good save, Jenna.

-Do you guys remember when she was movie to New York and she was like, "Oh, I'm so excited to remove New York." And she listed the things and it was like, "Time Square, the Empire State Bill." -The McDonald's on 34th Street, that one was there, but it's like, these are all not like, not even things that tourists go through. -She lived. -I'll get to see those dogs from LA. -She's from LA. -Yeah, for Beade out in New York in LA, there were no LA or York specific things. It was so generic.

-It was like, it could have been anywhere. -It could have been anywhere. -Yeah, she's like, "I moved to New York. I lived in the Empire State Bill. -I was on the floor. -I ate pizza and I had hot dogs. -I was in a play. -Yeah, yeah. -Oh, yeah, she had to keep plays way too easily. -I both did. -My thing, she did not get auditions. I think we can all agree she did not get auditions. -I think her ascendancy in the theater world was both too easy and too hard.

Too hard because, look, despite the scar, which I think probably did make her more beautiful. She's also the daughter of an extremely famous actor. -She was an ex-child actor. -She had her own... -Yeah, cashier. -They could write some sort of character for her. -Yeah, I think she had no trouble in our regard. -On the other end, she also moves to New York. Immediately starts getting cast and plays and doing stuff. It's a little bit harder than that.

-We literally did the drill of New York comedy and theater world in various different ways. Chevy, it takes time. -She probably should have been taking a lot of classes. -We know each other. -We're with famous family members had to take the classes and go through... -Sure, they go through a little faster, but... -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -It's been a few weeks at least. -Yeah, certainly. -But I liked her list of things she was excited for. -That was really good, Clara. -Thank you.

-The big yellow cars. -Then she ends up moving back to LA, but doesn't tell him. Now she knows where he lives. She could easily meet up before November 9th, but she chooses not to. -Even though she does love him really bad. -Then he brings the baby. When that scene happened, when he showed up with his nephew, I was like, "This is fucking weird." -I thought that could be a fun act out, maybe. -Okay. -Okay. -Okay. -Great. So just at the stage, it is November 9th yet again.

Fallen is waiting in a diner. Ben walks in with nephew Oliver. -So who wants to be... What? -I'll be Ben. -Great. -Just reprising her role. That's great. -I'll take Fallen. -Okay. -I will take waitress. -Can I be the baby? -Yeah, we need to be. -Perfect. -Dore opens in her... -All right. -Holding a child. -Oh. -Oh, hey! -Hey, Fallen. -It's been a year. It's been a year. -I know. It's so crazy. You just left last year. You just left. I was so sad. You just let... I was so sad. -Oh, yeah, yeah.

-Oh, you were. -That's true. -You have a baby now. -Bizzy year. -No, no, this is my... You remember this is my nephew. -You remember? -She was a pregnant. -Remember. -Yeah. -You were. -That was a lot. -You know, my dead brother, again, my dead brother. He's out of the picture. So I've kind of become a dad in some ways. -Oh, yeah, that doesn't affect how I feel about you. -It's crazy. -It's a lot of work. -Excuse me. -It was... It's not to see yourself. It's way to be seated.

Can you not read the goddamn sign? -Wow. -Okay, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But we have a baby, so if you don't mind just letting us... -That doesn't point. -That makes you a king of the restaurant because you have a baby. -Very smart, baby. -Wow. -Hey, baby. Baby, no. -Bad, baby. -Bad, baby. -She has a fourth. -Bad, baby. -Bad, baby. Anyway, anyway, you know what? I'm just going to put them down here. I'll give you it here.

You can like dot that fork, but you can play with the spoon and the sugar packets. -Okay. -Just wait for the window. You know when a table is ready. -We're just going to stay here, all right? -We've got one, so it seems ready. -This is ours from years ago. -Are you looking at my scars? -I know. -I don't like them. -He likes them. -Yeah. -I could see that. -He's touching them. -Yeah. -Yeah, yeah. -Sauftor! -Sauftor! -Sauft! -She's so brilliant. -This baby is so smart.

-Sauftor, then a baby's bottom, these scars. I'll tell you that. -He would know. -I would. -I would. -I'm so spinning here. -I'm still... -I'm still kind of into this. -What? -I'm supposed to fall in love, but I still did, even though... -Oh, shit. -Oh, man, that's... -Oh, because I'm fucking my dead brother's... -Widdo. -Oh, that is fucked up. -It has not been that many months. -She is probably emotional wrecking her... -It's not, look, it's not my fault.

-It's the baby, the baby started calling me daddy, calling her mommy, and then the baby was like... -Daddy mommy, kiss! Daddy mommy bang, bang, bang, I just... -Just be happy, baby, so... -Yeah, yeah. -Oh, wow. -That's fucked up. -Sauftor, sex, sex, sex! -See? -Does it know what you're mean? -No, okay. -Well, if it... -Well, do you... -What? -Is that what the baby wants? -If we have to, if we have to, for the baby... -Because... -Uh-huh. -I'm sorry, can you put your shoes back on?

-You can't take your shoes off the right... -I can't take my shoes off. Is this because I have scars? -It's like Federsguard too, is that why? -It's not... No, you have socks on, I can't even see your feet. -Oh, okay. -Wait, why would you get into your shoes off? Is it because... That's not something you do in New York, is it? -Yeah, it is. -Futeless. -I just thought perhaps you moved to LA or something. -Somewhere... -No, no, no, no, no, I would never do that. Anyway, here are my car keys.

-Flip them up, get them. -What? -So, can I roll these down? -Why are you car keys? -You caught me. I live in New... I live in Los Angeles again. -You didn't want to come tell me? You know where I live. -Of course I wanted to, but I wanted you to keep writing your book at the same time. -I'm not writing that book. I'm writing away, weirder, more fucked up book. I'll let you read it, so... I mean, I'll never let you read it, but... I will print it out and leave it conspicuously on my desk.

-Okay, I could, so I could find it. -No. -You're not writing the book? -Shit. -It based a lot of what I did on you writing that book. -Excuse me, this is a laptop free zone? -Oh, sorry. -Baby, baby, put your laptop away, baby. -Sorry, she's doing the taxes, doing her taxes. -Taxes, taxes, taxes. -Okay, great. -I think it might be a really good debt. -I think that covers that. -A scene. -A scene, everyone. -Yeah, incredible.

-That reminded me, Sarah, a bit about how he prints it out the many script, and that's how she finds out. -What have you printed? -And, you know, fucking Verity did it too. -Yeah, oh, my God. -You can't. -Both of you are books. -I can't have this bullshit thing that would never happen, which is how author prints out their book and leaves it lying around. -I can't keep happening. -I can't keep one book. -Two, a book that I can't even read. -I can't even read a book only. -I have finished books.

-As an author, I have finished books. I would never print. I have finished books. I'm sorry. -I would just print anything for any reason. -No one has a printer that can print hundreds of pages. -I was going down the FedEx, we've spent $35, and we have my half-in-ish book. -I've got this girl coming. She comes one day, one day a year, and I'm not gonna look around my room, see if there's anything. I'm not gonna clean up a little for her. I'm not gonna be like, "Oh, what's on my desk?

Let me take all the shit off my desk, put it in the drawer." No. -I'm gonna leave it in the pouch. -So if it's not clear, the book he's actually writing is the truth, which is he started a fire that is the one that burned up fallen. -She was understanding, basically. -And the next one just burned a car down. -But he burned a house down accidentally. -He didn't know there was anybody in it.

-It was kind of the most interesting part of the book, because you find out interesting information, which is the mom killed herself. -Benz, Ben's mother had killed herself a few years ago. -Then he was there, he discovered the body. He did not read the note. But he didn't read the note. But he somehow went in her email and read some email. We never read what these emails were. -We know what happened.

-But they, in Ben's mind when reading them, he was like, "Oh, she killed herself because of this man she was dating." And then, like, it doesn't make any goddamn sense. -This is so not the emails. -Because they were misleading. It was misleading. -Yeah. -What were they? -Yeah, we don't know. We get the idea that she broke up with her boyfriend, so that must have happened through email. -They fought a lot, but somehow he didn't understand that his mom was fine about it all.

-Yeah, and she didn't like, she's, yeah, so then he's like, "Oh, I'm gonna go find this guy because he's the reason my mom killed herself." -Even though, no real evidence of that, but... -Yeah. -But I guess he's upset. He just found a body. -The idea that he didn't read the note, but then he went into her email to find a body. -Yeah, it's so much harder. -He's so much harder. -It's not a privacy concern at that point, right? -It's just like... -Couldn't he still even invade her privacy?

What are we to start with then? -Like, that's the easiest place to start from. -It's so funny. So, yeah, he stalks, and it ends up being... -Donovan, he's not dead. -Yeah, that's what's dead. -And then he's... -Rowlin, I think her name is. -Where? -Sorry, but... -Then he's like, "Why?" -Yeah, and then he's like, "I'm gonna light his car up, but then I guess the car eventually lights the house and..." -And then he's gonna... -I don't know what to do.

-And there is an interesting detail where the father forgot that that found was in the house, so like the fire department came and he was like, "No one's in there to worry about it." -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Let's talk about this. -I love this. -I love this. -So, go ahead. -So funny. -It's very funny. -The excuse is that Fallen does not live there very often, so he forgot. -Yeah, yeah, but later Fallen in her being like, "Oh, actually, he was a good dad."

She's like, "Oh, he was grieving. He just found out somebody died. Of course, he would forget about me in a fire. He was like, "What?" -She's like, "No." -Now that I think about it, it was nice of him that he forgot me at the fire. -He was like, "He is capable of love." -That's really cool. -He loved his girlfriend so much that her death been in it. -Thank you for letting me die. -His girlfriend, I didn't know. And then also, she didn't know, he didn't know the woman's sons.

That was like another weird, weird, like, didn't add up. -I'm not gonna be in that deep of a relationship. Remember, it wasn't why she killed herself. -But he was upset about it that she died. -Well, we don't really know that. -Well, not to mention. -He sees him get a phone call and assumes that the phone call is him learning that she died. -Oh, he seems a little upset, but not upset enough. -He only throws a bag. -And he only, yeah, he doesn't. Ben's like, "Pound your car. That will show you.

Love my mom." -I don't. -He's a precious car. -I don't get that. -It's so ridiculous. -It's like an adult that is able to actually deal with his emotions without punching something. -Yeah. -It's not necessarily a toxic person. -If that was a phone call in which he learned someone died, which we don't know. -We don't even know. -Yeah. -It could be a call from the bank. Ask you do a review of his account. Like, what happened to me today? -I found him like, I didn't think that.

-Just because of this. -Yeah. Anyway, but found first just to go back to the book that she finds. She reads the first four pages, realizes that he set the fire and then is just like, buy. -I took four years to fall in love with you and four pages to fall out of love. Even though it's like you're clearly still in love with him. -In what world would you read that he was the person who set the fire? His admission, his confession on paper.

And then there's more words behind it and you push it away and you'd say, I don't want to know why he set the fire. -How he set the fire and he couldn't have had it. -It is so infuriatingly not how humans react and that's why people keep reading your stupid book. It's a cliffhanger that you shoved in there that doesn't deserve to exist. But it's like you know, it's calling you over. You know it's an enticing thing that naturally people would want to know what happens.

That's why you put it in there. So of course, Fallen would want to know if you're infuriating. -That was infuriating it. -So she literally leaves. -He's like, "Comp of the window." -She's wings of the taxi and she throws the manuscript out the window of the taxi dramatic. -No, it's... -I'm the one who started the fire and the wind. -It is going to be hard because it looks like she set her place on fire and then stalked her and like... -That's what it looks like. -What's accurate, I think.

-So then a year later, she's like sad and oh my God, it was so stupid that her mom... At the very beginning, she mentions like her mom's her like so important in her life. And that's why she'll listen to anything she says, including the like waiting till your 23 thing. And then we don't hear any goddamn thing about the mother until the very end. -No, no, it's the club first. -The good of the club first. -Oh, I am skipping the club scene. -I am skipping. -They're coming years.

-There's more years than they agreed to, I'm pretty sure. -So she starts dating someone else and then she goes to a club and he... -Oh, this was before the book though. We skipped that. -This was... -Oh, yeah. -This is before the book. -It's inconsequential. -It's just one of the other things. -They're all inconse. -Yeah, they go... -Nothing happens. -She's not going to meet him and then she does meet him at a club and they go in a closet and feel each other's scars. -Yeah, kind of. -That's it.

-They're all inconsequential, it doesn't. -Change things. I guess we get to know that he broke up with his... -Dorning. -Dorning. -He's got to be a real complicated relationship. -I don't know if I'd want to wait into that, but... -It's like, all right, did you adopt him? -I would... -Jesus. -All right. -I don't know if you're dead, brother. -Okay. -Okay. -But moving back to the board... -Of course. -Flash forward, never back. Okay, then the little bell.

-The mom is coming over in the morning, but she like... I don't know, is... -It's... -She... -Found Falls asleep. -Found Falls asleep. But right before she fell asleep, she had found the manuscript that he had left on her doorstep. She put it on the kitchen tape and she's like, "I'm not going to read it." Again, crazy. -Right. -She falls asleep. -It's not racking. She's not like, "Oh, I'm so interested in reading this. I'm really trying hard not to." She just doesn't care so much.

She can just fall asleep. Anyway, she wakes up and her mom's like, "Red at all." -So funny. -Her mom is like, "I don't know. Just... -Sure. And she's like, "You gotta read it." -Pretty much, would you? -Yeah, I think the mom said, like, "You have physical scars from November 9th. Well, this boy has emotional scars." -That was said... -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -She doesn't have emotional scars. -Yeah, it's like...

Yeah, as if the scars were like the worst part of it is like, "I'm being in the fucking fire." -Yeah. -It's like, "I'm dying." -And then you're dead abandoned you while you're dying and burning and in pain. -Let me get rid of my hair at 16. -Yeah, and also it makes sense as to why he agreed to a relationship with such little information shared because it was easier to lie. Like it was easier to not tell her about, you know, this crazy, crazy lie. -That's true. -I don't know. -No. -I loved it.

-I love it. -I can't think of it. -No! -So anyway, Fallon reads it and we get another information dump because her mom tells her to us everything her mom says, "How convenient, what a convenient little literary device." And what happened was Ben's mother killed himself. -Wait, we already talked about it. -He thought the dad was the reason so he started to do the car. Then he found out, "Okay, so here's the information." -His mom wasn't upset about a boyfriend.

She had terminal cancer and didn't want to just suffer until I killed her. So she wanted to do like a euthanasia but those things is so she's sh-- -I don't know how to digest this state. -Insane, the rut, the most crazy shooting herself in the head. And also, it's, look, it's so ridiculous. You wouldn't tell your kids or let them know. -In the beddie part, I know. -Also, I'm in the news. I've made my decision. I'm so sorry, my youngest child, you had to find.

I know you're going to have to find my body after she-- -That's fucked. -Figure, do it somewhere else. -I don't know. -Anywhere else? -Why are you doing your childhood dream? -Yeah, also, like, why, what about insurance payouts? Like, isn't this-- -Yeah, that's not happening. -Yeah, like, I don't know. -It's not happening.

-You're really-- -And like, yeah, I feel like not talking to the adult kids, friends in college, and he's the youngest, so you're the adult children, you're not talking to about this. Like, you could've said goodbye, you could've, like, -Yeah. -I'm sorry, it's all very painful, but this was the absolute worst possible way I should have chosen to do it. -Yeah, the awful-- -It was awful. -It was awful. -It's so realistic. -No one would ever choose this way.

-And then it's supposed to make you sympathetic for Ben. -Because like-- -Oh, for-- -I mean, yeah, yeah, you do-- It does make you sympathetic for Ben, because-- -Yeah! -He was too unrealistic. -He was too unrealistic. -It's too unrealistic. -It takes, yeah, I get it, you know. -Okay, I can still have a little sympathy for someone, -I'm clear even if their behavior seems a little unrealistic. -Yeah, I'm a heart-worthy. -I'm a heart-worthy. -I'm a heart-worthy.

-Alas, the difference between-- -Well, you guys made me-- -You should be harder. -Because I actually-- -I actually cried during this part, and I hate that. -Oh! -I cried during the time-- -Oh! -I was like-- -I just couldn't help myself. -I was like-- -I was like-- -I'm crying, and it's not even sad. It's not even well written, and I just can't-- I'm crying, and I'm mad, and I'm crying. -But-- -I mean, it's not even because it was good writing.

It was because my own trauma, and I'm just sitting here, and I'm like, "I'm crying over myself. I'm not even crying over you. Ben and get over it. You're calling me a bitch right now." -That's the smart play on Colleen's heart part. She's like, "Look, if I put enough different types of trauma in a book, it will connect with someone. One of these things is going to connect with people." -Really? -Money, baby. -That's what she does, and so she shows as much shock value into her book as possible.

Like, she started with a traumatic brain injury in both Verity and this book and used manuscript plot device and Chronix. Like, that's the book's-- -It's so funny, baby. -What's Verity the one that started-- -Verity is the one they call Chronix. -Yeah, watching somebody die, and they don't look like-- -Yeah, so funny. -That is so funny. -This is the same book. This is Verity like-- -It's like, "This is YA Verity." -It's very different. -It's very different. -It's very different.

-It's very different. -It's very different. -I can't-- I honestly was like, "How is this the same writer?" Like, it was-- -It was so bad. -I mean, because they do the same-- -It's because I used my regular-- -It's very similar devices, but-- It was hard-- -Did she not play for herself? -What? -Did she not play for herself? -Plan for herself? -She did. -She definitely did. -I feel like Verity had less of that reaction from me that is no human would be like this.

-But it would be-- -No, the whole main-- -No! -The whole character of Verity is insane, but I loved it. I felt like there was a lot of tension underlying the entire book, but like this, it was just like, "This is a boring romance," and then all of a sudden it's like, "Ugh, just kidding. It's like hot and sick." -Sick, yeah. -I wonder if part of what made it so boring was that they were young? It was like, "I don't care about 18-year-olds." -Yeah, they were-- -I don't, I don't.

-But yeah, it wasn't a very-- I would have loved to hear subrita's thoughts, but we have to take a quick commercial break, but we come back. You know, we're gonna do Goodreads, Five Star Reviews, "RabBuff our Thoughts, Hate Rates, et cetera." We'll be right back. [music] -And we're back. All right, guys, I want to serve you up some Goodreads, Five Star Reviews. -That's all right. -We'll do some quick, some just selects from them, because there are a lot of really long reviews.

All right, first is Angela. And she says, "Colleen Hoover, you cold-hearted she-demon. How can you do this to people? I must seriously love abuse because I keep coming back for more of it when it comes to your books. November 9th is stunning." -What was her-- -Where? -What did Colin Hoover do to her? -I don't know. -I was just craving for it. -I was just craving for it. -I'm a little bit-- -The plot. Oh, my God, the plot. It's a sucker punch from all directions. Let me break this down for you.

The first few pages I was all Latita, Mindy My Own Business, being all swoony over all the possibilities of where the story could head. When out of nowhere I get freaking throat punched by the most romance scene I read in my entire life. And this is from a girl who had read a butt ton of books. [laughter] So I just keep going. I just really like-- -I read her writing the most. I really like this author. This is from my cut off. -This reviewer yet. -I'm truly like-- -It's from romance.

-Yeah, yeah. It's so silly. Like she's clearly a teenager. [laughter] -I'm sorry. -I'm about to load a book. -Yeah, butt load. -Butload. -Butload. -Yeah, that's the-- -That's the turn. -That's the you. -All right, Galian says, "One word to describe it, perfection." Every time I see a Colleen Hoover book, I shit my pants because it's so unexpected and the characters can end up being some psycho. And I'll just be like, "Well, thanks for killing my vibe and my heart, Colleen. Always a pleasure."

But this one was not the case. And it makes me hopeful for her other books. -That was confusing because I was like, wait, wait, but the sheet in the end, the psycho and fallen getting there. -Right, I guess. -And it's a happy ending. -I guess it's whether that you think that he is redeemed by his story? -I don't know. -I'm assuming that's what she's saying, that she's-- -He can be redeemed from a story for the fire, but the subsequent stalking and scarved touching.

-He can be redeemed and move on with somebody else. -And heal himself and not problem. -All right, that's enough. I think we can go to our hate rates. -That's a wish from people like that. -That's enough. I'm fucking down. Maggie Savannah, you might probably know, but we do hate rates out of five, five being like in the world of mean book club books. So like, you know, not like great literature, but like these types of books. Who wants to go first? -Angle.

-One out of five was infuriatingly bad as we've talked about the, you know, the plot devices, the react. You guys know I've been saying it the whole time, it's not how people act. The writing was really bad. There was one little aspect of the writing that I'd like to bring up that it-- -I don't know, I just didn't fit in the wrestler cast. I'll bring it up now. She kept being like, like people kept getting information about each other based on facial expressions.

It was like, I could tell from his face he was raised by a single mother in early 2000s. I could tell he was a sophomore in college and that he had fish sticks for lunch. Like that happened a lot in the book. And that should be made fun of and it shouldn't be a huge success. This book shouldn't be a huge success. This author shouldn't be a huge success. One out of five. Clara Moore's. -I second that one out of five, one out of five definitely.

It was like, verity taken down a level and then you turn all of the tension that Sarah was talking about into absolute nonsense, like a fake tension. It's like this made up rule that they have that they can't hang out past this day and that's the tension that Colleen, like, leans on the whole time. -Yeah, both of her characters were insufferable. Definitely. Savannah Cruz. Savannah Cruz. -Johnna Scrabus, one out of five.

I hated the ending of this book so much. I cannot believe the moral of the story was that she needed to ask his forgiveness. She was like, you know what? I was really hard on you about the book thing and the fire thing and I'm not going to let a little thing like you burning 50% on my body and not telling me about it for five years. Stop R incredibly romantic long story.

-I feel like she needed to ask our forgiveness, like the readers, for making us having to wait to find out what happened because she wouldn't read the goddamn book. -It's unnecessary. -Johnna Scrabus with interruption from Sarah Bern. -Oh, can you guys hear that Alfi's barking in his sleep? -Oh, I can hear that. -I can hear it. It's so cute. -Don't edit it out. -No, no, whatever. -All right. -Team dreaming about... -Good boy. -Chasing. -Do you think it's a good dream or nightmare?

-It's always a good dream. -It's a good dream. -It's a good dream. -He's not growling. -Yeah. -Come on. -I think it's easy to be having fun, growling. -All right, Sarah Bern. -He's here. -So, Verity's a 5 out of 5 for me. It's just comparison so we compare. I'll say the beginning of this book, the first half of this book, where it was the romance was not my cup of tea, not great sex scenes, really upsetting, virginity type sex scenes, not into it.

-It's okay because they worry a teen. We can talk about it. -Yeah. -It was gross. -All right. -But that being said, you know, I was like, where... -This is just not the coho I know. And then we got to like, oh, he burned her and all that stuff. And I was like, this is what I was expecting. This is what I wanted. So that helped, so that bump, bump it up. I'm going to say this is going to be up to this three and a half in my book. You know, it's, it's, it's, they're definitely stronger.

They're stronger coho books, absolutely. But, you know, it still is a pretty quick read and, you know, it was bad shit. And that's what I want from coho. -Okay, Maggie Boyer and I'm going with the story graph rating of 0.5 because... It only gets 0.5 because it made me cry. Otherwise, it would have been a do not finish. -Oh, yeah. -I would have just slid it back onto the shelf and I would have tried to donate it.

And my fiance would have been like, we have to fill our book shelves, even if it's with bad books. And I would have still donated it. -That's kind of mean, though, to donate it to someone, someone else might have to read it. -It's selfless of your fiance to want to keep it. -Yeah, I think, yeah, I think, I would have gotten a couple of sides. -Okay. -Let's see, they, somebody else with like a wood burning stove could use it as like, kindling and like, I can use it for anything.

-Really good point. -I do, like, what is, I just to go, sorry, you can't see because it's at a blur. But if you can see this cover at all, I got to do it. -Thank you for holding it up. -Like, why is there a pink flower that has like... -That appears to have chalk on it exploding. Like, I don't understand the color of the fire. -That is just fire. -It just flowers are fun. -The like, bullet going through a flower is sort of the theme. But why is there chalk on the flower? I don't get it.

-Is that the, it's pollen? -You know why? -It's pollen, it really, it really, it's pollen's out that color. -No, I think it's, you know, fire is in your phone. -Oh, no, I don't think it. -No one extinguishes the fire, she got it. -It doesn't make any sense. -It just doesn't make sense. -All right, when that being said, great transition to little fucker of the cast. -Oh, yeah. -Okay, I have one. -Okay, wow, okay. -Okay, minus Savannah. -Coming out of heart on a guess. -Love it.

-Okay, here's why during Savannah's hate rate, she was like blah, blah, blah, and reference Sarah. And it made me feel like she sort of chose Sarah as a favorite from the app. -And it did, it like stabbed me with a lot of jealousy in my heart. And for that reason, I was really so wrought with jealousy. And I couldn't stop thinking about it. You connected with Sarah so much. So for that reason, Savannah seems like a personal problem. -I graciously accept. -She might be willing.

-She might be willing personality, you know. -Savanna, well that's okay. -Yeah, that's willing. -I'll start, because I think I'm going to vote, I'm going to go for Maggie. -Start. -And she's like, "I'm going to go for Maggie." -Maggie, you're clearly making it in one second. -I'm going to go for Maggie because their audio kept being really silent. And, you know, I could tell Maggie was trying to speak, but I couldn't hear her. And it was real like, oh my god, yes, you're right.

I couldn't hear them. And, yeah, I was just like, what's going on there? -You know, it felt awkward. -Wow, and I didn't like it. -I just sold Roode to the last-year guest. -Especially after what I said at the beginning of the cast. You can't go after Maggie or John had this episode or you said. -That's what you said. -I didn't say that. -Yeah, that's right. -You said. -All right, I'm voting for John. -Okay. -She started the trend of going after a guest for a miniscule reason.

She tried to make herself... what's the word immunity? -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, from the little fucker of the cast. And I won't stand for that. I always picked John, so it seems like she just dried that one. Oh, yeah, you were rude to me during the summer anyway. You were like, you may do all the parts that haven't been cast. -I wanted to protect your eyes and make sure you had your glasses on. -And I aligned to my face. -I aligned to my face.

-I just wanted to tell you about you, looking at that computer all day without... without your necessary... visionate. That's great. My vote's been cast. So I don't know what you're campaigning for. -I'm gonna have to go Maggie, for sure. -Maggie tried to throw me under the bus. -For sure, Maggie tried to throw me under the bus by outing me to Sarah about my opinion on koalas. Before we even began the podcast... -That's true, that didn't happen. -And that was a direct hit.

-So... -You don't like koalas? -Is it because I've all read about... -Clamydia? -Yes, it's about the chlamydia, the brain size, the eating, their parents' shit. There's so many things. -She said they've been cast. -They're cute though. -Have you ever seen Savannah panda up close? -No, I don't think that I have. -Okay, well let me tell you something. They are also really disappointing. You know how they look black and white? -Yeah.

-The truth is their butts are like dirty brown, because they're always on it and against trees. -What? -Okay, basically this is so weird. -This is so weird. -It was the black and tindy sea zoo. -Why are you looking at the butt? -What? -It's everywhere. -Sara, they're... -What are you looking at? -They're actually having a lot of time. -What are your... I just don't understand, like, what are your standards for zoo animals? -They like to be pristine. -I've seen the...

Have you ever gone and see the gorillas and chimpanzees? They're like throwing shit. -It's just like... -That's a zoo animal. -If they might be, but they're fur... And their hair, whatever they have, looks fine. It hides the shit. The issue is with the way pandas have been portrayed in the media and what you've come to expect and what the reality is. -I don't think it's gonna take one zoo experience and hold that up and say, "That's real" and everything else we've seen in the media is not real.

-Well, check it out the next time you see a panda, Clara. -All right, all right. We've seen a lot of pandas on Instagram and they are really cute. -So you're telling me they clean them every before every Instagram shoot? -I say that they're filming them in a really strategic way. -All right, Maggie. -Good for them. -Maggie, it's your... You're the last to go. You're in a situation where there are two votes against you. There's one for Savannah, one for Janna.

And I don't know, you might have had somebody else you wanted to attack, but it's hard. -Thank you. -I... -No, I'm not gonna remember that. -You're being so nice to me now. -Find! -You were my vote! -Okay. -Hey, hello! -All right. -Hello! -Hello! -Do you not think? -Ben is absolutely psychotic! -The minute you meet him! -Wait, this book is 3.5! -Wow, she's done in four-three book as retaliation. -It's just because she really had to do it. -Okay, you guys.

-I thought he was psychotic in a different way. -Oh, sorry, sorry, my bad. -You're good, thank you guys. -You guys are sweet. -Yes, sorry about that. -Wow! -They aren't even voting for you in revenge. -They just really hate you. -Okay, okay, okay. I feel like Ben was psychotic just in a different way than you thought. And I stand by my rating, like... I mean, you know, the cohorts behind me, I feel safe. I feel supported. -I don't mean you. -Because... -The fingering book.

-They're abandoned in you because of the colorering book. -I'll make one. I'll make one for this book. I don't care. -What would be your coloring book for this book? -Uh... -Skars. -Five. -Car accident. -Underwear. Car accident. -The flower? -No, I don't even know what the... -I'll do it for a play. -Stay a few of Liberty. -An airplane. -An airplane. A booth at a diner. The breaking glass on the head. -Yeah. -I'm not kidding. -He tries to put on her dress. -The whale pants. -All those clothes.

-A lot of things to color. -All right, but anyway, that means Savannah years. -Oh, my God. -Oh, wow. -That's fine. -Focera, you have two votes. -Nive one vote. -Nive one. -Do your math, Claire. -I'm in my limit. -Oh, Maggie! -I have two votes. -You're right. I'm so sorry, Maggie. -Oh, my God. -But I'm pretty sure Sarah has two votes. -Nive one vote. -So I'm sure we're tied. -No. -I've voted for Sarah. -Nive one vote. -I've voted for John and John. -You're trying to buck this so hard. -I know.

-I know, Maggie. -I'm trying. -I'm trying. -Okay, sorry. Maggie, you're a little f***er of the cask. -I am. -I am. -It's kind of like bragging the dead mom joke way too early. -I'm sure that you've got to shield it. -That's what turned me against you, certainly. -I really thought that was a foolproof. Like, well, I know it's not going to be Maggie. -But... -That's what happens. -You guys are disgusting. -It's not only you and me immediately. -It's fine. We have fun.

-I guess I thought even though there was only you in my head. Savannah looked like she wanted it. Savannah's acting like she wanted it. That's all. -That's just gracious. -I'm just gracious. -And high. -So Savannah's like, "Yeah, I'm a little f***er. What of it?" -That's fine. -You guys just wanted to get on a go. -I wish I had that attitude when I get a little f***er. I wish I could be so jealous. -You guys just wanted to depend it on a guest. -That's all.

-It's just so amazing that it's not me. -We'll just remember it. -And it does get inconsistent. -And now that you've kind of met me, you're probably like, "Wow, it's like so sick that it happens to me so often." -Really, John? -You're making me feel good. -After you came to me, you were trying to save that. -Maybe you should examine your behavior, John. -Wonder why you get it every time. -All right, guys. -Just wonder. -So, we are a meme book club.

You can find us, meme book club on all the socials. Please join our Patreon. You'll get cool things like photos of Alfie, maybe a bookmark. Can we, do you guys want to plug your podcast again? -Yeah. -Or any of your socials? -Yeah, we're baking bookish on... -And all podcasting platforms on Instagram and TikTok, baked.and.bookish. And you can find everything linked there. -All right, awesome. And what is our next... I think this is a final book of our season is next week.

Our next episode and it is... -The Hotel New Hampshire by John McRae. -The Railway. -I don't like it. -Okay, I'm sorry. -I'm going to have started it. -I have not started it. -I don't like it. -I don't know. -Preview. -All right. -Let's remember that you gave this one a one out of five. And so... -We'll see. -Okay, we'll see. We'll see. -We'll have to see. -We'll have to see. All right, Savannah Maggie, it was so fun. Thank you for being here. -Yeah, thank you so much. -You're awesome.

-Yeah, yeah. We appreciate it. We know we're very intimidating and we talk a lot. And again, Maggie, I'm sorry. You often have things to say that we didn't let you say, but it's also your audience. -I'm sorry. I was like... -Aaaaah! -Everyone just did a coffee at 5 p.m. for me. -Coffee. -Coffee. -I texted Savannah. I said, "It's coffee going to make me anxious or awake." -Both. Both. The answer is always both. -We're done. -All right, all right. -You're wonderful guests to have.

Thank you so much. -Thank you so much. -Thank you guys. -Thank you so much, guys. -All right, thank you guys. And to our listeners, we'll see you next time. Bye!