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When Girls Talk Books
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When Girls Talk Books
Ep.18 Grave Matter by Karina Halle
What would you sacrifice to bring back someone you've lost? How far would you go to preserve a love that defies death itself? These are the questions at the heart of Corina Halley's mesmerizing psychological thriller, "Grave Matter."
When Sydney arrives at the remote Madrona Foundation on Vancouver Island, she's eager to participate in groundbreaking scientific research that could revolutionize treatments for neurological conditions like the Alzheimer's that took her grandmother. The isolation doesn't bother her – she's focused on the work and the opportunity to prove herself after losing her Stanford scholarship. But from the moment her fellow passenger Amani mysteriously vanishes upon arrival, Sydney senses something deeply wrong with the foundation.
The cult-like atmosphere becomes increasingly unsettling – surrendered phones, ironclad NDAs, and a disturbing mantra: "Don't try to change the lodge, let the lodge change you." When Sydney encounters Professor Wes Kincaid, the brooding lead researcher who also serves as the mandatory psychologist for all participants, their immediate attraction creates a dangerous complication. Their relationship evolves from tense therapy sessions to forbidden romance, all while Sydney experiences increasingly terrifying phenomena – visions of a girl hanging from a tree, a half-rotted wolf with a still-beating heart covered in fungus, and the persistent feeling that her reality keeps glitching.
The truth, when it finally emerges, is more horrifying than Sydney could have imagined. The Madrona Foundation's experiments with the mysterious "excandesco amanita" fungus aren't just about curing disease – they're about conquering death itself. And Sydney isn't experiencing these events for the first time; she died on the island and was brought back, her memories reset multiple times as part of an ongoing experiment orchestrated by the foundation's ruthless leaders.
As Sydney pieces together her fragmented reality and fights to expose the truth, she must decide if the love she's found with Wes is worth the terrible price they've both paid. Can something beautiful grow from such darkness? And when you've been rewritten by science that defies nature, can you ever truly trust yourself again?
Dive into this haunting tale of science gone wrong, the lingering power of memory, and a love that refuses to die. Your perception of reality will never be the same.
Editing done by Connor Luther @clfilms.co
Music by @thundercatlouis
Merch Here
hello, hello everyone, and welcome to another story time with when girls talk books. I'm kylie, I'm suzy, and buckle up, ladies and gents. Uh, because today we are doing grave matter, and this is by corina halley, which this is our second one we've done by her, love her. Two very different vibes. Yes, so we did the Royals Next Door, which was fun and cutesy. This one's more like psychological thriller, dark. I don't even know if I'd say dark romance honestly. Nah, it was. I think it is technically dark romance. I guess we could call it gray Gray romance. Yeah, that's good. Do you want to start off with the star rating?
Speaker 2:Seven out of five Best book. Oh, my God Loved it. I loved this book. I loved everything about it. It was great.
Speaker 1:I gave it five stars. A five star, yes. I really like this book. I thought it had the perfect amount of things to me. Perfect amount a little bit of spice, perfect amount of like romance, but then also throughout the whole thing, you're like what the fuck is happening, like I want, I need to know what is happening a book when you're reading it and someone knows that something ain't right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know why, but that's my favorite kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I'm like it was so good and I also felt like throughout the whole thing, I'm like I don't really know where this is going, like maybe it's going to this aspect, maybe it's going to this one. I don't really know what's going on here. Is she losing her mind? Is she not ghosts, maybe I don't know. So then, like when you do start to find out, it's like what? The which hindsight is 2020, of course, but while I was in it, I'm like I don't understand where this is going in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same.
Speaker 1:Okay, ready to go into it, yes, okay. So we start off with sydney, who's headed to Vancouver Island for a 16-week program with the Madrona Foundation. She's on a float plane, chatting the whole time with this super sweet girl named Amani, and as soon as the lane plans, sydney gets off and Amani is just gone, right, just disappeared. She looks back.
Speaker 2:The other passengers are still there, but no Amaniani, and it is a bit unsettling. Yeah, yep, okay sure already.
Speaker 1:This makes you wonder if sydney maybe imagined her, if she was even real, did she actually get off the plane? Those kinds of things. Um, would you be losing your mind if the girl you've been talking to was just gone off the plane? What would you think happened?
Speaker 2:person. After that, the gaslighting yes, that's what would have got me freaking out, like, okay, why am I not supposed to remember her? Like what's going on? That really freaked me out because I'm like, oh great, this place is sketch as hell, let's buckle up. I think this bush book.
Speaker 1:You're doing great. Don't worry about it, it's usually me this book should have been called like gaslight island or something, because it was so.
Speaker 2:The amount of gaslighting, I agree, was crazy and that just sends me into an immediate rage, like just under fair share.
Speaker 1:So on the dock she meets david chen, who is the manager of the madrona lodge. He's polite, but he seems a little off. Um, he's polite, but, like a little bit weird, shakes her hand a little too hard, so on and so forth. Um, and he makes her hand over her phone because there's no electronics allowed. Nah, no, no.
Speaker 2:And ironclad ndas, yeah, no one or the other like my thought was all my pictures and video before I leave. You can check stuff, but like yeah, no One. Or the other Like mm-mm, you can delete all my pictures and video before I leave. You can check stuff, but like no, so my thought was I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Pictures and videos. I just thought there's no service anyway, probably. What's the point? Uh-oh, yeah, but pictures and videos, I suppose. Anyway, and here's the first weird tech glitch right before she hands over her phone, the wallpaper of her grandma uh, she notices, looks different than the one that she took, so the one that she had on the phone. She was smiling, she was happy, and then when she goes to give him her phone, she looks very upset and she says it kind of feels almost like a warning. So on knowing what we know now, we're like girl, yeah. Um, then she's taken inside to meet michelle, the receptionist, who insists that amami has already checked in. Oh right, amami, total gaslighting moment. Um, we know that she didn't at our point, but michelle is insisting that she did. Upstairs. David shows sydney her room, he gives her a map and then there's also a foundation watch and schedule and he says that you should have this watch.
Speaker 2:that doesn't really come to mean anything, but yeah, that would have been an interesting way for the whatever Moving on. Yeah, I have lots to discuss Would have gone in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's when she meets Dr Everly Johnstone, who is the head of the foundation. Everly is powerful, she's beautiful, her dad owns the company and she calls Sydney special and that she personally approved Sydney's application. And here we get one of Sydney's big secrets that she lost her Stanford scholarship. So technically she shouldn't even be there and she's trying to keep this hush, hush.
Speaker 2:By standing out, being argumentative, talking to them a lot Like, lot like. Yeah, girl, you're doing a great job of blending in.
Speaker 1:I loved her character I'm not gonna lie sassy love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, big fan of that job.
Speaker 1:Um. So if that was your secret, would you have confessed it, or would you just not said anything?
Speaker 2:oh, I would have lied through my teeth. Hell yeah, I would. You have went in the first place. Yes, if I was like I can't say that, I would have done much different. I would have been weird about the phone. I'm telling you, I would have been a creeper and had a burner phone or something. I just get really weird about being able to yeah, totally, I could totally sneak this. I like to think that I'm so much smarter.
Speaker 1:But I, just I of played along a little more.
Speaker 2:I don't think I would have went well, also, we would go, especially knowing about the professor. Oh so I'm just saying Dr Daly, yeah, I'm going, wouldn't do for wes so um.
Speaker 1:So then we have the grand tour and everly shows her everything. So she takes her all around everything. She shows her the compound, the solar panels, the greenhouses um, they have a farm lab, uh, livestock area situation. And uh.
Speaker 1:She shows her the marine lab um, it's a very self-sufficient campus, but it's also very cult like red flags, ding ding ding um everly emphasizes that sydney can come to her at any time, even in the middle of the night, um, which sounds supportive. But then at the same time you are also kind of questioning her immediately. I think any person where they're like I run the show and you're like this is giving culty vibes, my dad started this billion dollar foundation.
Speaker 2:You can totally trust me no um.
Speaker 1:and then sydney spots a man stepping out of the forest tall, intense, smoking, hot, fabulous.
Speaker 2:Like I'll stay. Here's my phone, no worries, sorry.
Speaker 1:Very intimidating, of course, because he has a moody, broody quality to him. Yes, and that's our professor, Professor, professor.
Speaker 2:I understand I can't speak around him either.
Speaker 1:Professor Wes Kincaid, who is also a doctor AKA.
Speaker 2:Dr Daddy.
Speaker 1:This is Dr Daddy for the rest of the episode. In the group chat, everly tells her that he is both a professor, lead researcher, and then he is also the student psychologist and she's required to meet with him once a week now well, well well, look, you might be thinking there's a power imbalance here okay you'd be correct.
Speaker 1:We just go with the flow, we listen and we don't judge. This is the one thing that I did feel a little bit icky about was the power imbalance of a psychologist and a girl who's losing her mind.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't know if I can trust you. I'm so toxic. I was like, yes, I hope they lose their minds together.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just her, just her, losing her mind. The counseling is mandatory for everyone because of the isolation and the no internet, because, you know, we live in a time of technology where we're going to lose our minds. Sydney immediately hates the idea, but Everly shuts her down with the foundation's motto don't try and change the lodge, let the lodge change you. Creepy, that is a cult mentality saying that. Um, how would you feel about being forced into therapy with your professor hell yeah, but what if he didn't look like him again?
Speaker 2:they're like you gotta go. It'd be kind of fun, I don't know, especially if I wasn't taking it seriously. I would purposely act a little fucking nuts just to scare him like.
Speaker 1:He's like how are you doing? Good, it's just the voices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, or be sitting there and then just randomly like switch, oh, it'd be fun. Gaslight him when you come in for another session. Be like I never discussed that. I literally don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, are you stalking me? That didn't even happen to me. It's so, so fun. Very, not go with the flow.
Speaker 1:We're just here for the plot lines. Yeah, exactly, we're just making up stories about stuff. Yep, at some point you just realize I could lie about anything. I could make up any story. Yep, what if you did look like Dr Daddy? Then I'd be begging for more sessions. You'd be there every day. Oh yeah, I'm feeling real down today.
Speaker 2:Yep, I would be a basket case. I would have new disorders all the time they're sending you out too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, got it, man. So next we get a little bit of Sydney's childhood. She always wanted to be a scientist. Her grandmother did very much encourage her to follow through with this, because she was raised by her grandma for the most part. Her mom died when she was young. Her dad was a fisherman, so he was gone all the time I gotta be honest.
Speaker 2:I thought that because her dad was a fisherman, there would be some type of dark siren tie in a little bit.
Speaker 1:That'd be cool just you're really hoping for that dark little mermaid. Um, I kind of thought maybe it would tie in back to the lodge and like he was working there or something. Oh yeah, yeah, that's kind of how I thought, because he was gone for such long, extended periods of time doesn't happen, but the spoiler I thought maybe that was going anyway back in the boat here.
Speaker 1:Sydney she loved experimenting. She does have ADHD, so she gets very tale as old as time, hyper fixated on things, and that's why she was so good at science and discovery and the experiments she really loved to do. She loved to test on bugs, on fungi, whatever she could. Um, she loved to test on bugs, on fungi, whatever she could. She felt like if she was open about what she liked to do with her experience, people would call her crazy about it because she liked to not cruelly dissect things, but she was very curious about, yeah, what was inside not in, not big animals, thank god, yeah, um, but so she was. This is one of the reasons why she was very anxious about her therapy sessions with kinkade, because she felt like he was gonna think that she was crazy, which is interesting, and she also didn't want him to feel, see, that she was like broken in her own way.
Speaker 1:Then we continue the tour. They go to the beach, the cabins, the labs, the learning center and we eventually hear the name of the secret fungus. Okay, so science here. People, I don't even remember what, I don't know how this was pronounced. You did audiobook. How do you pronounce that?
Speaker 2:uh, excandesco that one, excandesco amanita amanita excandesco.
Speaker 1:I was calling this the magic mushroom.
Speaker 2:I was calling it the magic margarita.
Speaker 1:You know, fair, for my own, tripping over my words, I will be referring to this as the magic mushroom, because I'm not going to repeat that a hundred times. But so she finally gets to know what it was. And that's because they're very hush-hush about what they're working on at the lab, and even to the general public, like, there's not a lot of information you can find out about the place. Well, the trade secrets Heavens, but Everly hints that it's a breakthrough, but she doesn't really give much details about it.
Speaker 2:Which I'm like. Don't even tell me that there is one. If I don't get to know everything, don't fucking tell me at all.
Speaker 1:You don't work there, Susie.
Speaker 2:Too bad, I'm entitled to know everything, about everything.
Speaker 1:Then Sydney meets the other students during the class with Professor Nick nick. Such a great group um. He gives they refer to him a lot as like surfer boy vibes. So we have professor nick. Don't trust him, he. I didn't trust him immediately because he made her feel like kind of uncomfortable immediately and with I'll tell you two things about yourself or whatever he said, I didn't really love you, yeah. Um. She also meets lauren, who she ends up sitting by. They end up becoming good friends. Um, we also meet monowar, who is like the funny guy, justin, he's nice. Patrick rav, uh.
Speaker 1:So there's a bunch of other people clayton is one of them, uh, who immediately is very arrogant and hostile towards her, um, and everly has warned that there's always a bad apple in the group, and so we kind of get clayton is the vibe of the bad seed. I guess you you could say Naughty, naughty, yeah. Class ends, sydney lingers and she bumps into Kincaid outside and their handshake is too long, so they have like a little moment and she's like what should I call you? He's like what should I call you? And she's like my friends call me Sid. She flirts with him off the bat. Yep, like what should I call you and she's like my friends. Call me sid. She flirts with him off the bat. Yep, she's inappropriate um, and you know shoot your shot girl.
Speaker 2:Yep, you're all adults, I suppose. Yep, she's psychologist, what do I know? Yep, um, so she's like, technically I'm not crazy, crazy, so I won't be his patient, so it's just a formality. So technically we could be together.
Speaker 1:Do-loo-loo. So she ends up going outside and on the picnic bank there's things carved into it and she notices, like initials, you know the usual, probably the S that we all did in middle school. Like initials, you know the usual, probably the s that we all did in middle school. Um, and also on there it's don't trust any of them and they're all lying to you. Which can you imagine? Seeing that, I felt like that, just kind of scooted over really quickly, yep, um, because then a mommy pops up and she says come on, sid, you're gonna be late for dinner. Sydney chases her, but then she loses her again and at dinner she can't find her anywhere and no one else knows where she's at. That would drive me nuts, yeah.
Speaker 1:Then at dinner we have kind of the formal introductions of all the professors. We meet Everly's husband Michael, who is the COO of the foundation. I love this guy, everly's husband Michael, who is the COO of the foundation, and the vibe is immediately cold and controlling. He gives bad energy. The other professors are Dr Janet Wu, isabel Gabriel Hernandez, and Michael makes a creepy welcome to the family speech Very cult vibes. And then also Kincaid gives his introduction. It's very short and to the point, sydney can't stop watching him. I get it, girl. And then Sydney makes a note that there are 12 students at dinner but Imani is not one of them. Later, when she's unpacking her room, she realizes that some of her belongings are missing Her NyQuil, a hoodie or a t-shirt shoes, and she just is kind of like, oh, I don't know where I put them. But she kind of shrugs it off, yeah but like girl, but I get it.
Speaker 2:What are you going to do about it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Then she looks out her window and she sees a man standing under the tree, a cigarette glowing, and she recognizes him.
Speaker 2:Well, well, well, kim Cade watching her. We love and obsessed with me, true.
Speaker 1:Oh sick.
Speaker 2:Give me that all days of the week. I was driving to work listening to this and I went. God, I hope he's stalking her.
Speaker 1:God I hope he's stalking her. God, I hope he's stalking her. So you find this romantic. Yes, okay, we'll get it. Um, so, to be so honest with yourself, would you be a little freaked out, or no, if you saw him outside?
Speaker 2:I'm a pretty toxic person. No, I would be like excited, like oh, it's working. I'm gonna turn this up. I really want it oh, that's so funny.
Speaker 1:Um so our next chapter, we open with a very explicit dream about kinkade yeah, oh dear, I've that was this seems to just be a general theme in the book. I do think this is the majority of where we get our smut is in these dream scenes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was weird for a while, because I'm like, yeah, I hope it's a dream. I assumed that she was stress walking or sleepwalking from her stress and that she was actually like going to his place and they were banging and stuff.
Speaker 1:They were like how is he?
Speaker 2:hooking up with a girl that's sleepwalking. He's a psychologist. Psychologist like this is so dark okay, so we have our dream.
Speaker 1:Uh, she is very rattled from it. She goes to take a shower.
Speaker 2:A cold shower a cold, cold shower.
Speaker 1:And then, uh, clayton is outside the door and he's like banging on it and he's kind of a jerk to her and he kind of corners her in a way and she, yeah, I love this he's very uneasy about it.
Speaker 2:Hey, I feel like we got him on the wrong foot.
Speaker 1:You're like hey, whoa I have a fan cast for we're not going to say it. You know who I'm going to say. He's a total jerk In class. Kinkade rolls out tablets for everyone. He starts talking about the Moderna mission. He explains about the magic mushroom that it could rewire brains, possibly curing Alzheimer's, parkinson's strokes and even ADHD. A quick little note here Sydney's grandma did die of Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2:That's why she was so passionate about getting into this program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, During this, Sydney pushes back saying that ADHD doesn't really need a cure.
Speaker 2:Thanks, girl. Sometimes I do kind of like my sparkle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, because it it makes her so focused on things. So, like to her, she does kind of see it as like a superpower, and I don't think she's the only one who kind of sees it that way. So in hindsight, this is pretty interesting that they're like we could cure it but like, how would I get through that much the summer?
Speaker 2:I turned pretty this quickly in time to be caught up. Guys, I need that. How do?
Speaker 1:you think I read so much edit.
Speaker 1:Now, um, after class she confronts kinkade about being outside her window being a sexy ass motherfucker. He admits that he, uh, patrols at night and he just happened to stop there. Bear patrol, bear patrol, yes, of course. And then she brings up Amani and he says that Amani left that morning on a plane and she wasn't feeling very well. And then she says no, I saw her last night. So he's like where, when, what was she wearing? He seemed a little concerned, he was rattled and he shuts down the conversation. He seemed a little concerned, he was rattled and he shuts down the conversation.
Speaker 2:He's just like we're not, but nope, we're not doing this, which, knowing what I know now, yeah yeah, yeah, so, oh my gosh, okay.
Speaker 1:So, um, next we have some science things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's get through this fucking bullshit so we get back to the good stuff look, I am not a scientist.
Speaker 1:science was never my best subject, so while I was reading this man, science things right. Anyway, I get the basics of it, okay. Um, but so some of them are going to go on this foraging hike and some of them are going to the floating lab. Sydney goes with the foraging hike. So while they're on the foraging hike, sydney and Lauren wander off and they stumble on like a makeshift grave completely covered in mushrooms. Yep, feels a little sketch, sketchy. Sydney tells Lauren not to touch them and Nick does confirm to not touch it. It was Everly and Michael's old dog, grover, and those mushrooms are the magic mushrooms.
Speaker 2:Remember that detail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also during this. I'm pretty sure I can't make a note of it, but I'm pretty sure now this is where she has that vision of the girl in the tree, right yeah, I'm pretty sure I can't make a note of it, but I'm pretty sure now this is where she has that vision of the girl in the tree, right yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1:She has a vision of a girl hanging from the tree in a nightgown with long dark hair.
Speaker 2:And stuff like that would happen to her anytime. She would touch things in the forest.
Speaker 1:She would have weird visions of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which made me think of that. So raping a little bit. Oh my god, this poor girl, just like every time she's out there touching anything that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:Um, that night she uh heads out, hangs out with everybody for a little bit, and then she goes up to her bed and what does she see in her window? Kinkade, kinkade. Dr daddy's still sitting there perfect her little guardian angel yeah, um, next we have her first counseling session.
Speaker 1:Um, she walks in and he hides oh, my god, I'm like having these moments as I'm reading this. Um, he ends up hiding a small white square piece of paper in his pocket. Um, maybe a photo, maybe a letter, we don't know, but it's small and white. Now we know. Um, he tells her that the sessions are videotaped. Um, and it creeps her out a bit, but she just kind of goes along with it, because this is an interrogation room apparently. Yeah, um, that during the sessions they talk about her sleep, her appetite, her meds, because she is on medication for adhd. Um, he asked her to keep a diary and to stop taking the adderall for two weeks and to see if that makes her feel any better. Because they did. He did say you're taking such a small dose of it that maybe you don't need it while you're here, which?
Speaker 2:is interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting. But she agrees and then and he ends up he probes her about masking her feelings because she is kind of quick with it, and back to him and he kind of she's kind of argumentative, questions her about that and then also like she's had all this loss, and she gets very defensive.
Speaker 2:Like no, we're not talking about vulnerable feelings. Thank you, we keep those tucked away. Let's get back to how hot you are, Mr Hottie McHudderson.
Speaker 1:But what is therapy for if it's not to seduce your psychologist?
Speaker 2:It didn't make me think of that girl on TikTok that's been going off the rails.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, hey don't watch this. If you're her, don't read this book. It'll just feed into your delusion. So by the end of this session, he tells her that he's worked there for five years and that she'll find her purpose here. You know, just give it time, just keep on keeping on, and that it'll break you in slowly, which is an interesting statement. That night, sydney ends up joining her friends, uh, for the sunset. They're all kind of joking around, um, and then sydney hears somebody in the trees calling her name and she swears that it's, uh, amani I'd swear it was a skinwalker, so I wouldn't even respond.
Speaker 1:I'd be like no no, that's valid, and so she ends up kind of like chasing it and lauren runs with her, because I'm not letting you run in the woods by yourself. Facts Especially when there's people on bear duty. Facts Sorry, yep, sorry.
Speaker 2:Even if this was a normal lodge Bitch what?
Speaker 1:are you doing? There's no. I think I would tackle you and say get back to the lodge. Are you crazy? How are you going gonna bang the hot guy if you die out here by a bear? You dumb bitch. Get back inside, uh, okay, so anyway, they end up chasing it into the woods. There's nothing there. Uh, back at the lodge. She's like going up to her room and she hears a door slam and she swears it's her door and who comes down the stairs? Dr daddy, dr daddy. Um, and like going the wrong way. Handsome, that way, my bed's up there. I'm gonna be honest at this point I wasn't sure if we could trust him. Still, me neither so, and I feel like I felt that through a majority of the book, like oh really, I don't really know if we can actually the whole time I was like man, I really want to like you.
Speaker 2:Because I really like you, please don't be a dick please don't be horrible.
Speaker 1:Um, and he comes down the stairs and he like doesn't say anything to her and she's like, well, all right, then you're on a mission, yep, and uh, she goes back to her room and everything looks normal, but she notices her lost black nikes.
Speaker 2:Um, are kind of like under her bed, where she didn't see them there before yeah, because at the beginning of the book she was all upset because she couldn't find she was stuck with her white ones. Like I, can't wear these everywhere. The pacific northwest white shoes, full-time job keeping them clean, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to get that van spray, so nothing gets on them. Anyway, at this point did you think Imani was a ghost, or did you think she was real and hiding, or what did you think?
Speaker 2:I thought that she was a hallucination. I thought that Imani was someone from back home and she was so freaked out and by herself that she was hallucinating her.
Speaker 1:I was on the ghost train. Okay, imani was All aboard, all aboard, boo-boo, yep.
Speaker 2:You weren't sure if it was a boo-boo or a.
Speaker 1:Okay, so Cindy the next. Next, you know she goes to bed, so on and so forth uh, she has another, really pg-14 she has another explicit dream. Uh, she wakes up. I think on this one she ends up like on the floor. That was.
Speaker 2:Which is interesting. This was so weird.
Speaker 1:I have so much to say. Once we get into, like, what's happening, I have so much to say Okay, keep going, you're doing great. So she wakes up from the dream and then she ends up hearing whispering outside her door and this is about 3 am. She hears like please, and just, she's terrified. She never goes back to sleep because I wouldn't either. I, I would probably be out of there at that point, fair enough.
Speaker 1:Um, she and they end up going on a boat trip. So they're gonna get on the boat, get off the island to do science, got it. They go to this remote beach, um, and they're gonna survey some fungi. So during this, sydney asked this is the appropriate time to do it, of course. So everybody goes out. They're like oh yeah, he, oh yeah, he helps her off the boat. Sydney asked him if he was up in her room and he was like why would I be in your room? He's like no, I was helping a student. It was kind of an urgent thing. I had to go Right, yeah, and he asked her if she is taking her meds or not.
Speaker 1:Fucking mother fucker, don't, do not do the one outside his door with your shirt off. What do you mean, don't?
Speaker 2:but like if someone tells me, don't take my meds, and then they like throw it in my face, like oh, are you not taking your meds? Or like, are you off your meds?
Speaker 1:like I will fucking kill you I'm gonna start texting you that are you? Are you on your meds today? Um, so she ends up going out exploring to do science, things of forms and percentages. That's what suzy thinks I do for a living. Yeah, Forms and percentages, man, they get ya Anyway. So she ends up seeing something and it actually is Clayton and Clayton is very unhinged and he kind of makes her start questioning like why do you think they're making us do all these busy work? There's no real lab.
Speaker 2:What's going on Like? Yeah, he looks like the conspiracy theorist.
Speaker 1:Actually I would be Clayton, probably A little bit, Don't you think it's kind of weird to never see the lab? And during his rambling he ends up saying that he went to a fortune teller before he left and they said that he would never leave the island. Yet he went anyway I didn't even think of that. Can you imagine who?
Speaker 2:but maybe he thought I'm gonna work there oh, yes, yeah, yeah, that'd be like us, we'd be like oh, it's a positive affirmation we have to go, but the so-and-so of cups is up in an upright position Anyway.
Speaker 1:so Cindy ends up like running away from him and she runs into a half rotted wolf and it has. Its heart is pulsing.
Speaker 2:Halloween display. It's like Halloween display style Kind of the rib cage is open, yeah, but everything inside is still functioning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like parts of its face is decayed. This is how I picture it, yep, but its heart is still pulsing with the white fungus surrounding it. Question during this.
Speaker 2:I wondered if this was actually the dog that was supposed to be in the grave.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't.
Speaker 2:No, they're in a whole different area, oh okay, I thought maybe they did a fake out and went to a different area right off the island um, never mind, so yep, just another woof.
Speaker 1:Yeah, poor doggo and it ends up hissing like release me.
Speaker 2:And he lunges for her is all I thought when anytime this would happen in the book, and it was so bad because I would just crack up laughing and I'm like this is serious.
Speaker 1:This is the scary part and it ends up kind of rushing at her and it grazes her arm, but it doesn't break any skin and then it kind of slinks away. And then Kincaid rushes in and he grabs her face.
Speaker 2:She screams, hits her head on a rock.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, she hits her head. So then he, dr Daddy, comes to save her. He rushes in, he cups her face and he are you okay, love? You're like no, actually I'm not, I'm going to need you to carry me out of here, I need to be resuscitated. He ends up kind of looking at her wound and he she's like there was a wolf and he's like, okay, you know, I feel like this whole time. He's like be cool, shut up, don't say anything. And he downplays it to the rest of the group that she had a fall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just totally like kind of lies about it.
Speaker 1:And that they need to go see Dr Everly Ruined the name a little bit for me. I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2:The whole time I was like why it could have been anything else.
Speaker 1:So back at the lodge Everly, she kind of looks her over, she cleans up her head and then she ends up saying that she needs to get these shots.
Speaker 2:Rabies shots? I'm pretty sure. Yeah, and like hella red flag right there, yeah, because like that's only a three-round situation.
Speaker 1:Oh also, Sydney has to take off her shirt during this and she can tell Kincaid's looking at her, however, every girl knows that whenever this situation happens, it's always when you're in your oldest, ugliest bra.
Speaker 1:that does nothing for you, or just you know it's always like it shows down, she gives her the shots, cade watches her and then later she ends up going to him and tells him more details about, like, what she saw. And he listens and he promises to talk to Clayton and insists that the wolf was just sick, but also at the same time, don't say anything. Mm-hmm, okay, weird. And then on the way out he grabs her arm and says don't make me worry about you. And then she's like don't make me worry about you.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll make sure that you're so worried about me. And then she's like don't make me worry about you.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll make sure that you're so worried about me At this point. Do you feel like you trusted Dr Daddy or no? Unfortunately, yes.
Speaker 2:You did. I was like he's clearly, like clearly he cares about her. He's probably the only good, like the good one in the group.
Speaker 1:My guess is he's in too deep Fair. That's what I was thinking, because he does talk a lot about like they're doing good here. I wouldn't be here if they weren't doing good things. Yep, which is interesting. But um, and then do you still feel like sydney's hallucinating at this point? Or did you think it was just they were gaslighting her?
Speaker 2:kind of like a little of both. I think that like the little bit of hallucinations that she had was being enforced by everyone's weirdness, because then she's like, oh god, oh god, oh god, and then she's gonna get weirder and more, sleep deprived and scared. So it seemed like a recipe for disaster fair. Also, I thought that this book. I truly thought that like they were purposely using the students as the experiments the whole time. I kind of felt that way too. Right from the get go I was like no, you guys are all just going to be like. I knew immediately there's no way those are rabies. I thought they did. I thought they planted the wolf on purpose so that they could start ejecting her. That's how. Put my chin head on for this book. When is it not on? Eric asked can on for this book? When is it not on? Eric asked can you describe this book for me? And I said it's like sexy jurassic park with mushrooms and a little bit of I don't know.
Speaker 1:I was like I guess dark romance, I guess and he was like oh okay, mushroom jurassic park, huh I finished this and I gave justin a play-by-play because I was losing my mind. I was like and then, and then, and then it looks like that guy with the wall.
Speaker 1:He's like whoa, that's crazy honey um, so then we have class and they go into this class and it does again. It looks like they're put in there to do busy work. So then she kind of like clayton's looking at her and she's like, okay, okay, I get it. And uh, the teacher who's supposed to be teaching this is dr janet woo. And when she gets into the class she ends up, she's upset and she's crying I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this. And she leaves.
Speaker 2:As the other doctors say, her little outburst.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she runs out of the room. What did you feel like was happening to that specifically?
Speaker 2:That's when I felt like she knew that they were going to do something horrible to these kids. She just like you know what. I thought that I could take the money and I thought that I could compartmentalize it, but like I'm gonna need a lot more than six million, like yeah, um, I had no idea what her deal was like. I was like everyone else seemed fine, but can't you just get it together a little cry, baby, I don't know um, and so then they decide okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess class is dismissed and they leave um and she ends up telling her close friends about the wolf that she saw, and they do believe her, or at least they kind of entertain it in a way.
Speaker 2:Lauren and the guy that wore the cool mushroom shirts.
Speaker 1:Yes, manowar, yep, yeah, and then there's also Rav, yep, and he's kind of sprinkled in there sometimes, but Lauren is kind of her main. Her main gal pal is lauren, um, and rav kind of tries to calm her down. I guess like, oh well, it could be this thing, it could be that, and she's like I know what I saw, I don't know about that. Then she notices her arms are really getting sore from these shots that she's getting, so she is starting to kind of eat more. Her appetite is back, because that was a problem when she got there. Her appetite wasn't very good. So she has started eating, but she's still not sleeping very well and her arms are in pain. Not sleeping very well and her arms are in pain.
Speaker 1:Um, also during this lauren picks up that dr kinkade can't stop looking at her and she kind of tells her to go for it. You know, in a way she's like I mean, and she's like I couldn't, girl, you and I both know what you're about to do anyway. Uh, so that night sydney wakes up to a whisper and it says wake up, sydney. And she sees um two feet kind of under her door and she follows this girl that's in a white nightgown down the hall and she ends up in the shower room. Besides, it's not really the shower room very harry potter coded right there.
Speaker 1:Oh, like what's myrtle up to now yes, um, it's a black void, is the way that they describe it. There's nothing there, um. She then hears her bedroom door close and lock. She panics, um, and then she goes straight to everly's cabin. And why?
Speaker 2:not lauren? Why not your bestie? Why creepy?
Speaker 1:doctor everly said if you need anything, just come to me. Um, okay, but the issue is everly is not there, but michael is. He's very unsettling, um, and he knows more vibes, yeah, more I don't know. Very disconnected, yeah, very cold. Yeah, yeah, very Dexter vibes to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, but also off-putting, Like not sexy like Dexter. This guy's like off-putting. Sorry, I really like Dexter.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So while they're talking, he kind of knows things about her that she didn't tell him and that he probably shouldn't know, considering her dad passing um, he calls her bad luck and you know, everybody in her life has passed away um. And he also calls her a miracle at some point and is really like I'd be really staring into her soul. Yeah, it gives a weird like power vibe to it. So everly and david end up showing up and they gaslight her. Oh, they went to go check out the room to make sure if anybody go look for the monsters under your bed. Yeah, god, um, they gaslight her.
Speaker 1:They say the key was in the lock all along and on the walk back, everly drops a bomb that she knows that sydney had lost her scholarship. Um, and then you clever little bitch, yeah, instead of punishing her, she twisted into a praise and calls her a sneaky little bitch, um, and it shows that she is ambitious enough for madrona. And then gives the colt saying again don't try to change the lodge, let the lodge change you. Um, she feels relief, but she also feels very uneasy at the same time about her knowing that yep, um, she, they, she ends up walking her back to the lodge. The next day she's going for a walk on the logging roads and it she hears I don't think I'd be walking much of anywhere with all the weird vibes on the bear duty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's on bear duty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, um, but she runs into kinkade well, I guess I'd be going on a whole lot of bear walks yeah, she gets a nose nosebleed and he gives her a handkerchief.
Speaker 1:He stands too close, of course. And then he admits that four people have died at Madrona Three students and one researcher. Sorry, then he invites her to his boat to clean up Inappropriate. Let's go.
Speaker 2:This is where we get more of the romance vibes, if you want to call it romance.
Speaker 1:He makes her coffee. Right now. It is not a whole lot, it's just a slurty, cheeky banter. He makes her coffee. He does admit that he put the blanket on her. So, yes, the night before she fell asleep in the um main area and he put the blanket on her. She it's kind of weird and all by it, but also at the same time, like because she notices that there's, uh, the same symbol that was on the blanket is all over his boat. Apparently she goes to wash her face. She notices a few things. There's an expensive skincare, um, and there's a tube of lipstick in every girl knows if there's a tube of lipstick.
Speaker 2:Every girl knows if you find a tube of lipstick that year.
Speaker 1:It's like what? Yeah? And she asks him if he's married and he's like nope, do you have a girlfriend? Nope, he said that the lipstick is going to stay there and he's not. He doesn't really want to talk about it. Hindsight is 20-20. She then ends up kind of saying that she had talked to michael the night before, and he gets kind of aggressive, I guess you could say, and shuts down and says that she needs to stay away from michael and, uh, he only cares about profit. Yes, and she's like is everly kind of the same way and he says, no, she does care about the mission, a shred.
Speaker 2:But she's different. It's like one's a sociopath and one's a psychopath. That's kind of the difference between and they're not happily married, they're just married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're just married. And Sidney ends up telling him about the girl in the nightgown and he thinks it is this girl named Farida who was the first student to pass away, oh yeah, and was in the tree. So we get a connection and she's going aha, yeah, um. So and then Sydney knows that her vision kind of lines up with what she was seeing on the tree and what she's seen in real life the nightgown, the dark hair that is her, and what she's seen in real life the nightgown, the dark hair that is her. And then, because you know, of course we have to have a little sprinkle of romance in here he insists that she is lying about something and he makes her breakfast and there's, you know, the tattoos. He's rolling up his. You know what is this called? Shirt sleeve, sleeve to cook her breakfast. It's very like hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. And she says something about taking his shirt off. It's all very like you're going to take your shirt off now it's like nicely coded yeah.
Speaker 1:Back school stuff, science Everly is taking over the class for Dr Janet because she is having her episodes After class. Sydney is kind of pulled aside and she is stroking her hair. She's calling her her star pupil and then tells her that the real labs are downstairs and she takes her Down the stairwell. Then there's Fungi. Okay, that's kind of it. She shows her the lab because she's special, the chosen one Sydney has. I don't want to be a sacrifice. Sydney has more dreams. This one may involve some rope.
Speaker 2:She is a nasty girl. She is a nasty girl, she is a nasty girl and she is big into it.
Speaker 1:She is, she's a big fan of that. Yeah, and I think this one's in the boat actually, yes, so she's like I've seen that boat and but she wakes up to a knock at her door and it's a girl whispering Sydney, hurry, it's happening. And so she follows outside and it's a girl whispering Sydney, hurry, it's happening. And so she follows outside and it's snowing. But it's June and Imani is there and she ends up pelting her with snowballs and she's kind of mocking her about being special and the star pupil and oh, of course you are and taunting her and then her nose bleeds because of the snowball that she threw and then Imani's gone. Weird, yeah, did you think at all that Imani was like haunting her a little bit, a little bit? Yeah, I thought in this moment because the way that she was talking to her wasn't very nice.
Speaker 2:I also had wondered I'm gonna be totally like honest because, of course, like I loved dr daddy, but I was like, did he like is amani like the ghost of his ex-fiance? Like, oh my god, is she trying to save sydney? Because he like? Because he's crazy yeah, yeah, which was just gonna make me love him more if he's deranged like we need to get you a list of books to read I I think. I think so You're like oh, my star pupil is ready. Okay, so then.
Speaker 1:I am the chosen one, I am special. So then we have a moment where she is going to her counseling session. She's a little bit early and she hears Dr Kincaid and Everly talking. This was terrible, this, I actually really like this. So she overhears them talking and everly is telling him that he's being too obvious with his obsession with sydney why are you?
Speaker 1:so obsessed with me. Yeah, and he says that he can't help it and it's something that you know is is inevitable. It was going to happen. So then she hides and everly leaves. Everly is a jealous bitch, also point that out.
Speaker 2:She wants the only head in the head house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and uh, so she hides. And then she goes into her counseling session and she confronts him in a way a little bit, and also tells him that she's been having dreams. She's like, yeah, you want to know what those dreams are about. And he's like stupid, stupid, yes, I would. Um, but he ends up kind of snapping and drawing that boundary. Um, she storms out because she feels rejected in a way and embarrassed Are you kidding me? Yeah, and he grabs her and he's like I'm sorry. And she Then he freezes and he's like looking out in the rain and who does he see? Michael? And then he walks away. She's like yeah.
Speaker 1:Come on, we were just getting somewhere. Oh, she has to get another rabies shot Because, yeah, Feels a little weird and I don't think at this point I think she was supposed to already be done with them. Yeah, and Everly's like. Well, just in case.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh no, you have one more week and like all these bad lies, yeah, I wonder what this was about. Because this doesn't actually get explained. I feel like they were trying to inject more and more of the fungus into her to get it to like well, maybe we can just restart her if we just give her a little oomph like yeah but then after that we do kind of have a nice moment where the students end up having, like this party, there's wine, it seemed fun, they seemed like a really fun group there was, uh, bioluminescence glowing in the water, so they were playing with that.
Speaker 1:Um, and sydney kind of has a moment where she feels kind of at peace. Um, and then she goes back to her room and what did she find? Cameras all over her room.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I gotta be totally honest, I would not be cool about this. I would not because I wouldn't think it's kinkade, I would think it's the creepy guy michael and I would be losing my shit. Be like oh. Everly and michael are like a creepy, nasty couple.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, um, so she finds the cameras. They're in the vents, they're in the picture frames. Um, the bathroom is only an audio one, though, so we know we have boundaries here. Yep, that's us. And she's like I know who this was. And she storms down to kinkade's boat and slams them on this desk, and he admits that they were his and he did them just to observe her and keep her safe. She slaps him in the face, reasonably so I get it girl.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, once I found out it was him and not the creeper, I'd be like, okay, like I would be so embarrassed.
Speaker 1:You're having I get that these erotic dreams about him. You're ending up on the floor of your bedroom, yep, and he's just down in his boat watching big chilling. It made me think about lights out and josh was like I swear I wasn't being creepy like yeah, yeah, um, and anyway he restrains her, he's gripping her by the neck um, it's a little bit and he tells her from the moment he saw her that he was obsessed with her and he can't help it oh, that would just disintegrate um, she ends up having kind of, uh, meltdown, and she does kiss him, because that's what we do after we melt down.
Speaker 1:Yep, um. So a big question here is is this love or is it manipulation? Because it is her, yes, yep, um. But you know, hey, we're going with the flow here.
Speaker 2:Yep, real life, this is wrong yep, but if he's pretty enough in real life, well it is wrong.
Speaker 1:Um, they end up taking it further. They do kind of hook up in his office. They don't have sex, but they do hook up, um, and it's full of like this push and pull. She definitely has a praise kink, uh, he calls her pet, gives her some orders, she's into it, she loves it, um. And then I think at this point he's like it can never happen again and she leaves boring. Yeah, anyway, um, the chapter after that she sneaks into the barn after a class and she sees a baby goat dude, this was so it was and it's a baby goat. It's on the wall, it doesn't have any fur on it and it has the fungus all over it, yeah, and it's growing out of its eyes and it's screaming. So sad this.
Speaker 2:Get me out of here. I think I would leave after this. This might be my last. I'd go get Dr Daddy's boat and be like you and me off this island right now, we're done.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing this.
Speaker 1:Yep, she ends up getting caught, essentially by Nick, and he tells her. Yeah, he tells her, he threatens her with lawsuits and says you know you can't say anything. If you say anything you will have nothing because of they will sue you into the ground. Heard, say anything. If you say anything, you will have nothing because they will sue you into the ground. Heard, sidney, where does she go? Straight to Kincaid Tattletail, desperate for answer. He tries to soothe her. He even restrains her, saying he will tell her, you know when the time is right. And he keeps saying this. And he also keeps saying to trust her, to trust him, to trust him, and she's like I don't trust you. Also, during this, clayton ends up, uh, showing up and kind of ranting to her about the experiments and all this stuff, and he's very, uh erratic, he's losing it for sure. Uh, kincaid swoops in and pulls sydney away and then come to find out that he essentially Kincaid, had him removed from the island, had him removed from the program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very touch her and die coded.
Speaker 1:Next she wakes up and she's outside in her pajamas. Catch me outside, how about that. I don't want to be caught outside here. She doesn't know how she got there. She is in the dog's grave.
Speaker 2:Duff, oh, I forgot about this.
Speaker 1:And it's glowing Be freaking out, yeah, freaking out, yeah, and the coils like are trying to grab onto her and kind of bring her in, and she ends up running out of there and she's essentially chased like by something, but she doesn't know. And she makes it to Kincaid's boat, she tells him about it and he tells her that it's stress and it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, that she's hallucinating. Thanks, pal Really appreciate that. Yeah. And then he admits that he's hallucinating. Thanks, pal Really appreciate that. Yeah. And then he admits that he did send Clayton away for her.
Speaker 1:Romantic, not romantic, maybe, yep, oh, okay. Things get spicy. So Sidney ends up confessing to Kincaid that she's scared and all these things and he essentially tells her that you are my future and this is where we have some light bsm activity. Yes, not for you, you could skip ahead, but you know, 10 out of 10, fantastic, um, he's very tender. He cleans her up love, it came with good aftercare tucks her on in, um, and so the next morning so at this point they're together. So the next morning they have this hiking trip that has been talked about, camping trip that's been talked about, um, and they have, like these at these ATVs, sketch, sketch what's happening?
Speaker 1:here. Really I thought, yeah, get him away from the lodge, yeah, but like I was so nervous.
Speaker 2:Fair In my head I was picturing like the Last of Us mushroom monsters out there.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought of this the whole time, the Last of Us the whole time. Yeah, so they have to hike at some point. She's exhausted. He ends up helping her set up her tent, because she's just a girl. And then he's like you want to go for a walk? She's like, yeah, I want to go for a walk. So they end up hooking up in the forest. This got weird. This got weird because it was the same thing of like she felt like things were wrapping around her arms and her legs and the flowers were giving her kisses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was weird it was weird, but you know she had a good time. We all got somebody's yum pop-off queen.
Speaker 1:They end up getting cleaned up. And then she does run into a man in a blue cap who calls her everly um and essentially is like oh, are you gonna screw me over again? And she's like sorry, what are you talking about, um? And kincaid kind of explains that they are the natives of the land and madrona had leased it and then tricked them out of the profits. So they were supposed to get some of the profits from the pharmaceuticals but Everly screwed them over and Sydney is really disgusted by it and Kincaid is relieved in a way about that, which I don't really know what that means. But that night, what do you do? You're out in the woods, nothing to do. She sneaks into his tent.
Speaker 2:Naughty, naughty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lauren ends up noticing this and kind of tells her be careful, he's taking advantage of you. Which bro?
Speaker 2:Like what's rich coming from her? It's like what you mean? You're just mad because it's working out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the trip does get cut short when a storm is rolling in. Half the group hikes out, thank God, but Sydney stays with Kincaid. Lauren and Manoir, rob and Patrick, and they start walking down. Oh, they all have bear bells on them, just a note, but they all start walking down.
Speaker 1:I'm dinner, I'm over here Come eat me Like. But they all start walking down. I'm dinner, I'm over here, come eat me Like. No, but something in the fog is stalking them and they have broken gates. They're walking a little funny. They don't look like normal animals. Something ain't right here, yeah, and Sydney and Lauren both see them. So she knows this isn't a hallucination. I'm not crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they end up escaping on the ATVs Just in the nick of time. Yeah, so back at the lodge that night. Alarms go off, shutters slam. There is a dangerous Purge style.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a dangerous animal alert. Attention, attention. Dangerous animal on the loose Attention.
Speaker 1:But it's just the downstairs that everything locks down. So her room is upstairs. So sydney rushes to her window and she sees clayton out there, naked. He knees up in a tree and, staring at her, stapled up his chest. There's staples of his chest like he had an autopsy done on him, yes, and he looks at her and she's looking at him and he ends up collapsing. He was taken out of the tree by one of the staff and he's dragged away. Sydney loses her mind, which I get it Reasonably, so I do get it.
Speaker 2:Could you lose your mind a little quieter though? No, Don't trust these people.
Speaker 1:They're lying to us.
Speaker 2:This is happening.
Speaker 1:Oh, I was so nervous because someone they're all upstairs I'm like she's fucked yeah so all the students are up there and everly and michael come in and they give her a needle, um, because she got violent, yeah, and they end up, uh, telling all the students it was just a cougar and sydney's kind of screaming they're lying to us. I saw clayton, I saw him, and nobody believes. Her gets darker, she's drugged um, she's getting hauled down to the lab. No, no, no, no by everly and michael. And she hears them talking to her like she's an experiment, experiment that they need to rest, reset, um, and she they're like we need to check her brain, we need to look to see what's going on, and dr daddy pops up and he's like, saves her life he is my patient and I'm gonna take her and they were like whatever, everly has a huge attitude about it and he ends up taking her down to the boat.
Speaker 1:They, um, are down in the boat and she sleeps. He's like go to sleep. She wakes up the next day. It's not safe because there is a storm coming in. So he's like you need to go back to the lodge. Oh yeah, she goes back to the lodge and then she is like washing up and she's in the mirror and she looks at herself and her hair is different and her nails are painted and he's behind her and she's like that's really weird. And she sees, uh, the girl in the dress, the ghost girl, and she sees her and the ghost is kind of like having her come with her, but she's not scaring her anymore. She's like let me show you, let me show you. And so she ends up following her. And where does she go? The lab. So they go downstairs, bypass all security, because ghosts Yep, and down in the lab is Clayton and he's on the table and he's like you came, you came. And then Everly comes down and he's like you got to hide.
Speaker 2:So she's literally just like okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so during this, cindy comes down and she's talking to Clayton and we find out that he's died a few times and they were able to bring him back with the magic mushroom. Huh, and she's very snooty towards him. Not good stuff. So we find out that they're experimenting on students, essentially.
Speaker 2:Ding, ding ding.
Speaker 1:And she wants Everly find out that they're experimenting on students, essentially ding, ding, ding. And uh, she once everly goes back upstairs. He, she's like did dr daddy know about this? Obviously not what she said, but did he know about this?
Speaker 1:and he says, yes, she, I'd be so upset, I was so upset, I was so upset I was like, oh, she is in on it, because I was like he's not going to lie to us. And so they go. She goes out to the boat, pissed, reasonably so, and they're fighting about it and he's like we do not have time for this. I will explain everything to you. I promise we have to go right now. You have cameras in the lab, they have cameras in this boat. We have to go.
Speaker 2:And what does she do? Sabotages everything and doesn't help at all.
Speaker 1:Well, she just found out that he's a part of it, so yeah, but like, come on, girl, come on, because now I know how it ends, hindsight is 2020.
Speaker 1:Me. You're out of your mind. I probably wouldn't have went down to the boat, honestly, but that's just me. Um and so, but anyway. So they get into this whole argument. What does he do? The reasonable thing, ties her up, puts her on the seat and goes upstairs to get the boat on course to where they need to go. During this, she's trying to get out of the ropes. She finds a knife. She's trying to like out of the ropes. She finds a knife. She's trying to like get herself and she ends up bumping something Do-do-do-do-do. Down comes a Polaroid.
Speaker 2:Hindsight is 20-20, the picture he had.
Speaker 1:Yep and on. I'm so sorry. On the photo is her and Wes Dr Daddy, dr Daddy, from 2023. And it's a Christmas photo. It is currently the year 2022. So she's like.
Speaker 1:I'd be so confused I'd be terrified because they're all. They're like very clearly together, they're all lovey-dovey and she's like what the heck from the future? So my mind, are we in a time loop or something like what is happening? And uh, so he ends up coming downstairs and she's like what is this and fair? Yeah, so they have a fight about it. She, she, I don't. I think this is where she sees the other Polaroids. Yeah, she finds the other Polaroids and it's like her and Everly, her and Dr Janet, like all these memories, her and Imani, and it's all these pictures of her, and she's getting kind of these flashes of these memories. And then when he comes downstairs, they get into a fight about it and she's like explain it, explain it. Like she's so tired of his excuses, of like, oh, explain everything.
Speaker 2:And like seriously, dude, start talking. For God's sake, what?
Speaker 1:is this, and she ends up almost falling and hitting her head on the table.
Speaker 2:She remembers, she remembers, but I didn't. It frustrated me because I guess know, stupid blind love suzy. I'd be like, why would you assume that he killed you? Yeah, like he's had every opportunity to do so over and over and over. But you think, like what?
Speaker 1:yeah, whatever. So she ends up. It ends up coming back that she did die in this boat. So she's like you pushed me. How could you? You put your hands on me duh, you clearly like that bitch.
Speaker 2:Don't come try it. I can like miss ma'am, um.
Speaker 1:But so she also remembers her real arrival from a few years ago. Yep, she remembers falling in love with him. They had their first kiss on the boat. They snuck around for a while, um, and then, uh, she kind of like freaks out. She thinks that he killed her, hits him over the head with fire hydrant reasonable response and then gets buoy on her and pops out the boat that's what I could get behind.
Speaker 2:You have the boat and the safety and you're getting away and you've subdued him, so you don't throw his ass overboard, you throw yourself overboard and go back to the psychos.
Speaker 1:But she thinks that her and Everly are friends. That's true, because now she has these memories of her and Everly being friends. It's so true, so in her mind she's going to help her.
Speaker 2:I was so pissed off brushing someone's pool while listening to this portion of the book, Like are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, Doctor Daddy. Like I was so upset I thought he was dead for sure. How dare you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was so upset. But so she ends up going back to Everly's room or it ends up being david that's in there, I believe, abernathy acting up we hear you bud, anyway. Um, and then henry gives her a tea and everly and michael come and she's like, gaslight her some more. If you want to press charges on him, you you can, and all these things and it ends up at some point Everly had said to Dr Daddy that she's just not smart enough about Sydney. She's just not smart enough. So she's drinking this tea and we get some more information about before when she was there and we get some more information about.
Speaker 1:You know, before when she was there, she wasn't the best person. So the first student, the girl who in the tree, farida she was actually the one that she suggested they use the fungus on her to see what it would do to the brain. I guess you could say Scary, but she wasn't necessarily. When she found out that they were killing students, she wanted to go to the police and then. So things got really bad there for a while. Also, everly was the one who kind of made her and Wes break up, because she was jealous for one, but also she told Sydney that she wasn't focusing so much on her research and that she was focusing too much on Wes, and so that's what broke them up, and she also. So Sydney is talking to her. She's very nice at first, but then she kind of gets very like condescending to her. The mask starts to slip. Yes, yeah and um, we're just gonna have to reset you.
Speaker 2:We've reset you so many times and you know, this time it's just not working out and that's when I start to be like oh yeah, you have empathy, let's reset you, bitch, let's give you a try.
Speaker 1:They end up dragging her she's drugged, obviously. They end up dragging her down to the tunnels, to the down to the layer, to the layer, and she has, like this uh little scab on the back of her head that she, you know, didn't really notice, but they're like that's where we reset her from, apparently. And they've done this we don't know how many times, like half a dozen times. Yeah, crazy, crazy. And Everly loves it because she gets to watch Wes be miserable, because he's in love with her, and they can't really, like, say anything. So gross. And it's happened time and time again where they keep coming back together and, uh, she does say something about, uh, you lasted longer this time than you did last time, heart-wrenching, giving in to him, so sad, um, and she can't really move, and so she's just kind of like paralyzed, but she gets she's sitting there yeah, um, and they're like we don't, we can't give her any um, we can't like put her out because she already has this other sedative in her.
Speaker 1:It'll be too much. And michael is actually the one who says, like she can still feel pain, like that's wrong, you wrong, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep and Everly's like is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, she snaps back at him and says it's too late for morals now. Yeah, it's crazy, so messed up. So one of the things with Swoon when they brought her back with the magic mushroom this time, supposedly it got rid of her ADHD, so she didn't need the ADHD meds anymore because it was doing more harm than good. But also that's why they think that she's not smart enough anymore, because she doesn't have that trait where she's not fixated on things anymore.
Speaker 2:She lost her superpower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then who shows up? Dr Daddy? Dr Daddy shows up. His nose is broken, he's all bloodied, he's all fucked up. He's alive because they had one of the other people go out to the boat, One of the henchmen. Yeah, he ends up calling them out and throws you know that they murdered Clayton and he reminds them that he has footage of the boat proving that he didn't kill Sidney, Like that didn't happen um, and the whole time she's just listening on a table like um everly kind of tries to spin it back on him, but he's been busy.
Speaker 1:He went ahead. He came with receipts, he went ahead and woke up everybody in the lodge and they have his ipad which is synced to his cell phone so they can hear everything and sit. Uh, everly did admit to killing students to experiment on, essentially. Um, and he is like can't kill us all, what are you gonna do about it? Um, she manages to turn her head, half paralyzed, and uh wes is kind of looking at her as if saying trust me, and then lights out straight mayhem. Uh. So the room goes dark, the students are screaming, machines are crashing. Sydney's table ends up getting tipped over. A ventilator ends up getting pinned to her legs. She's trapped. There's gunshots. Oh no, we end up seeing that Michael drop dead and then the chemicals ignite and flames kind of start run racing across the room everybody run for your lives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, everly tries to bolt but gets stopped by hernandez, one of the staff, uh, and wes, of course. He finds sydney, he pulls the ventilator off of her and he carries her out. Um, everyone stampedes up the stairwell. There's smoke, heat is chasing them.
Speaker 2:Tunnels picturing like a mission impossible movie where stuff is just blowing up behind them like crazy um, outside the storm is still going on.
Speaker 1:Uh, buildings are catching fire because the tunnels connect to the whole thing. Um, so the whole compound is just burning west um, shield city body, um, and then on the dock, uh, everly escaped.
Speaker 1:Escape like the roach that she is yeah, um, and he says something at some point about like she's probably burning paperwork yep, all the research and things. Um, the students are reasonably very shaken and sydney finally shaken out. Third, uh, sydney hears the truth that everybody else has been lying to her too. They were told she thought it was 2022 and they weren't allowed to break the illusion which was so.
Speaker 1:That's so weird yeah, and clayton was actually trying to warn her, just in his own unhinged way because he did not necessarily agree with it. Um, and wes of course tells her he never stopped loving her, um, that bringing her back was the only way he could stand living. Sydney says that she loves him too. They kiss on the dock, madrona's burning in the background, very cinematic. Um, a week later they've all sailed on the boat to a different area, all 14 of them cramped in there, and then, once they hit land, the students kind of scatter, they go to different hotels and Sydney stays back with Wes. So this chapter we just kind of summarize. You know, she did die, she slipped, she hit her head. Wes offers many times to show her the footage. She refuses to watch it, but she accepts that he didn't push her, thank God, yes, they debate kind of if they want to go to court for this. Is it worth it? What do they go?
Speaker 2:to court for Do they just go home.
Speaker 1:Uh, what do they want to do? And one of the things they could get him for was the animal experiments, turns out you can't just take animals and experiment on them. Uh, fun fact, yeah, wes. Uh says I have one more thing for you and she's like is it more polaroids? I can't, I'm not my wits end, um, and it ends up being all her notes from the alzheimer's research, because she is actually the one who found out how to cure. It's so cool. And uh, all the formulas, everything she needs. And sydney had always hid them in her boat, in his boat, when she started to not trust everly, so he had just kept them for her. He essentially gives it to her and it's your choice. Do you want to pick it up again or do you not? He kind of leaves it up to her. Wow, um, she, reasonably, is very overwhelmed by this. She cries, she kind of breaks down. Poor girl. She feels like she has a choice now.
Speaker 1:Yep, so epilogue. We jumped to 2027. Um, everly is finally on trial for illegal wildlife experience. Her billionaire dad is trying to shut the whole thing down, of course, uh, michael's dead, david's dead, clayton is unfortunately also dead and the official story is the fire was just a storm accident. Everly explains several times she's very adamant that she wants to have her day in court and these are just disgruntled employees. Yes, dr Janet Wu is also one of the employees who is taking her to court.
Speaker 2:So back, back, back, janet and, uh, sydney were really close and that's why Janet had her emotional outburst. She's like I can't pretend.
Speaker 1:I don't know her. Yeah, Um, and Sydney and Wes, they're married now. They're sailing the world together Um stopping where Wes can work, uh, for Doctors Without Borders, and they are kind of like no one's ever going to know the full extent of everything and it just kind of is what it is.
Speaker 2:At least we have each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so sad. A couple things that are explained. So when they reset her, wes has to do all this work to get her to that point because while she was there the first time she had let her natural hair grow out and they didn't have her phone, and there's all these things that they had to change back to when they were resetting her. When she got off that plane so she did originally fly in with Imani she did have different colored hair. When she got there, her phone screen was different, it was her grandma and the shoes had gotten ruined when the Miss Piggy shirt had gotten destroyed.
Speaker 2:It was an accident.
Speaker 1:And so when they were resetting her, he had to redo all these things. So he ends up saying like, oh, did I get the photo wrong? I knew it was a photo of your grandma, but I didn't know which one. So he ended up having to dye her hair and she's like you dyed my dead body's hair. He's like look, I was committed to the plot. Okay, yeah, so that's how all that is kind of explained. So he did have to order new shoes and bring them and put them into her room.
Speaker 2:So he wasn't stressed so she wasn't crazy. All this time there was weird glitches in the matrix yeah, so it was all just a big gaslight, yep one big mind fuck.
Speaker 1:So the big question do you think sydney and west got there happily ever after, or do you feel like the magic mushroom in her body is still a problem? No, you think it's gonna reset her, or is it gonna restart?
Speaker 2:no, I'm just toxic. This is just all working out perfectly. They're all tied up in a happy little bow and she's his little mushroom princess, and it's just gonna work out perfect I thought it was interesting.
Speaker 1:They're just like um, and eventually she'll be fine. Yeah, like okay, I thought she was gonna be like tied to the place, like she couldn't leave. She would because she yeah, I was brought back to life by it. I could see that yeah, that's not a bad theory. Yeah, but that's not what happened. Nope, yeah, thank god. Fan cast fan cast.
Speaker 2:What's fan cast? Fan cast is if we were going to make this a series or a movie, who would we choose to play the characters? Yeah, suzy's favorite part.
Speaker 1:She loves this okay, who do you want to start with?
Speaker 2:everly everly, yeah, okay, evelyn, everly, whatever stupid evil, everly, e-lady, okay, who? Uh, I went ahead with a classic. I went with, uh, mirage from the incredibles and uh, now I can't find my script. There it is. Yeah, there you go, everybody, perfection um, I did.
Speaker 1:Uh, have you seen gone girl? No, okay, well, I did rosamund pike. Uh, she's also in the show. I care a lot on netflix I feel like I'm. No, maybe her. Oh, I've seen her and stuff before. Yeah, yeah, I casted her, she's probably. She was a good one. She'd be perfect. Yeah, um, who do you want to do next?
Speaker 2:sydney. We'll save the best for last. Okay, uh, for sydney, I went with jennifer lawrence because I had noticed multiple times in the book it referenced that she was like pretty tall and that she wasn't like a really tiny girl. Because I also thought anna kendrick would be great, yeah, but she's such a little girl, yeah. I was like, oh, I gotta pick someone a little taller. So jennifer lawrence was my sydney because she's also argumentative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it'd be perfect. Have you seen um her movie mother? No, you should. Okay, it's like a thriller. Ooh, that sounds good. I actually think there's some sort of fungus that's growing in the walls. Yeah, it's pretty good. I'll add that to my list. I hate to say this, I think.
Speaker 2:I have the best the best.
Speaker 1:This is no surprise. My biggest girl crush in the world, florence Pugh. Yeah, when I was thinking about perfection, that'd be great. Have you seen? Don't worry, darling, yes, okay. So when she finds out that everything is fake and she's like this was my life, and when she's yelling at him, immediate her in midsummer, when, like, she's having these meltdowns, yeah, I was like this is perfect Because, consistently throughout the book, sydney is having these moments of like what the fuck is going on here? And I just feel like Florence would be so good. I'm biased, obviously, because I love her, but you're not wrong, she would nail it. I just those scenes in those movies I was just picturing and I'm like, oh, excellent, she would do so good. Anyway, sorry, but I was very, I was very passionate about that yeah, I don't disagree at all.
Speaker 2:I think that that would be really good. I almost feel like, uh, jennifer lawrence would play a good the bestie as well, because she could be like what the fuck are you doing with your shrink, bro? Like that's.
Speaker 1:That's the way she would talk to him and finally Dr Daddy Dr. Daddy Kincaid.
Speaker 2:I went with Pedro Pascal. He's so pretty.
Speaker 1:I even chose like she's like this one specifically. I do love him a lot. I did start season two of the Last of Us. I probably won't finish that. Okay, have you seen the Last of Us? I probably won't finish that.
Speaker 2:Okay, have you seen the Last of Us? We just started it. Erica and I are only on episode three or four. I'm not even kidding. Yeah, we're very.
Speaker 1:Let me know, my Dr Wes Kincaid was Oscar Isaac.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So good. Yeah, I was like I like how we didn't choose, uh, because he's described as like dark hair, blue-eyed, just all-american guy. We're like he needs to have a little something, add a little bit of spice, yeah, literally. Um, so that was mine. I was pretty proud of that too. Final thoughts Give me more. I loved it. I loved it. Yeah, I thought this was really good. It had the perfect amount of things in it Yep, perfect amount of everything and it was a mind twist.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think she's great. I want to read more. I do, I do too, and I like how these are two drastically different. So she did like the. These are two drastically different.
Speaker 2:So she did like the fun rom-com thing and then she did like the darker scary skeleton.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, you can do it. I thought it was really good. Ten out of ten.
Speaker 2:Most importantly, let us know what you think. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just do be aware there's some some, some spice in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this book might not be for everybody, that's OK. Yeah, I like it more for me. This book might not be for everybody, that's okay. Yeah, I like it More for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, everyone, that'll be it from us. Make sure to like, subscribe, follow, share.
Speaker 2:And we'll see you guys next time. Okay, bye.
