Speaker 1: Hi, This is Christina and Carmen, and this is another
episode of a Spooky Tales podcast for all things spooky, paranormal,
O other places, myths, legends, true crime in Latin America.
And today today's about Bruchas Brochas. Yeah, not your normal
like Brucha legend. This is Bruchas during the Spanish Inquisition
in Mexico. Spanish Inquisition. Mm hmm. But before we get
to that, we do have a listener's story and if
you have a story that you want to send to us,
you can email a spookyitos at gmail dot com. You
can submit it on Discord, you can send it via
DM on really any of the socials. We've had people
send them on Instagram, on TikTok, any of those work.
You can also call the a spooky hotline, which is
what this listener did. Yay. We love getting voicemails. There's
just something to heard about someone telling their own speaky story. Truly. Yes,
but really we love all forms of your stories, so
send them in also. Yes, yes, yes, Okay, are you ready?
I'm ready? All right, I'm gonna do one two three
and then we'll press play. Okay, one two three Hi guys.
Speaker 2: I'm Nati Viva from Texas. So I have a couple
of things. It's mostly my parents' house, which was my
popole's old house. So one day my little brother was
their at their house and he saw what looked like
my cousin like run to the kitchen, and so he
like went over there and he started calling his name,
and he would he would nowhere to be found. So
he called my cousin and he's like, hey, uh, where'd
you go? And he's like, I already left your house.
It's like, what do you mean you were just in
the kitchen. I just saw you like run by, and
he was like, no, I left, I left a while ago.
And my brother was so scared. He called my mom
and my dad home and everyone was looking everybody to
make sure there wasn't like a burglar or anything. And
from then on, we you know, we kind of just
tucked it up because we met my purple and he
should come and visit us and everything. And then like
a couple of nights later, my mom was like woken
up to the smell of my grandpa's cigarette smoke and
it was like right by her window, and she didn't
get scared or anything. She was like, oh, well, there
it is. There's there's our sign saying that. Yeah, what's purple?
That was here? But I thought it was pretty cool.
Thank y'all for listening. Uh, I love listening to y'all's podcast,
and I have a great day.
Speaker 1: Bye wow, thank you for setting that in. Okay, So
first I thought, no, that's not your your grandpa. I'm sorry,
that's something sinister, because anytime anyone like pretending to be
someone else, Yes, yes, and maybe it was. But then
what do they call him? Popo? Is that what she said? Yeah?
Then Popo came and got rid of the thing, and
that's why they smelled h city. That's what I think too,
because I don't know why Popo would need to represent
himself as somebody else, And the dida makes sense that whatever,
like evil sys or thing, it was only a couple
of days later they smelled popo scent because he was
there to protect them. Yes, yes, and that that that
turns this very horrifying thing into something beautiful truly, Yes, yes, yes, Okay,
should we talk about Brucas during the Spanish inquisition in Mexico.
Let's do it, Okay, and maybe maybe you're wondering why.
And that's because the other day I don't know why.
What the hell of me and you Carman, we're talking
about that. We were talking about the granddaughters of the Witch,
were yapping. We were yapping over at our other podcasts,
we talked about Latin American history, but on Patreon we
yap about not yep a lot. Yeah, And I don't
know why either. I don't know how this came up. Well,
we were talking about witches, so how that quote came up?
And I remember saying, like, no, y'all are the daughters
of the Confederacy because I remember laughing it's a joke
from the internet. I didn't make it up. Yeah, the
daughters of the people doing the burning. Actually, yes, you're
the daughters of the burners of the inquisitors. Yeah. So yeah,
that's why brucas are on our mind, exactly. And I know,
obviously that's like tied with the Sale Witch trials, which
famously did not happen in Latin America, right, they happened
in Salem exactly, fucking dumb, okay, And but you know
what Latin America did have was the Spanish Inquisition. And
while there was not big, huge witch trial hunts. There
was some. There were some more so outside of Mexico
than in Mexico, but they still happened in Mexico. And
that's what led me to these notes today. I have
a couple of witch trials during the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico,
and we have talked a bit about the Spanish Inquisition
in previous episodes. I don't know why it came up.
I think the Madia Pisatro. Yeah, yeah, we talked about it,
but that was in that was in Mexico, right, yes, no, no, yeah,
just the Spanish Inquisition in general we talked about. So
I thought you said Mexico in Mexico. For some reason,
the episode is in Mexico, but right now it's talking
about the Spanish Acquisition as a whole. Also, sorry, you
might hear my children more today, okay, but a quick refresher. So,
the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in
New Spain, that's the long way to say the Spanish Inquisition.
So in New Mexico what they called Mexico to the
colonized it. It was established in fifteen seventy one and
then disbanded in eighteen twenty and the main place where they,
you know, took all these accusations and reports and stuff
like that. It was an office located in what is
today the Museum of Medicine of UNAM, the University of
in Mexico City. That's where they did this. I went there.
Oh you did. Well, that's where they did it and
it's still there. Interesting, which is wild to me. And
the official number of those prosecuted under the inquisition is unknown,
but it's estimated that fifty people were executed, and twenty
nine of those fifty are Judaizurs, a faction of Jewish Christians.
And I guess if people don't know, there was a
persecution of Jewish people that started in Spain because of
queen fuck was the Queen Isabella, I forget their names.
One of the queens was like, we need to they
need to convert, and so then there was like this
whole movement of Jewish people pretending to convert. Oh I
did not know that, No, not at all. Oh wow, okay, yeah,
that's why there's a lot of Jewish people all over
Latin America. Oh, that was like the start of Jewish
migration into Latin America. But there's obviously a lot of reasons.
That's one of the many, and the original intention of
the Inquisition was to maintain Roman Catholic orthodoxy. But also
part of it, once they started colonizing the global South,
part of it was the conversion of the colonized indigenous
people into Catholicism. And then once that happened, there was
less punishing of the indigenous people. Like the Inquisition didn't
really have a say in what the indigenous people did
after the initial round of colonizing, so like in the
late like I don't know, seventeen hundreds or whatever, like,
they weren't punishing indigenous people under the Inquisition. It was
all mestisos, negros mulatos and that's their words, right, I'm
just reading my source. Because they had a cast system,
they had a whole wildcast system, and so the people
that were not just straight Indigenous, they were the people
that were punished by the Inquisition. And this they also
includes Jewish populations, but out of everyone that was persecuted
by an Inquisition, women usually were the targets, like were
the majority of people that were actually punished. And so
this leads to our first story from seventeen oh nine.
Lorenzo Martinez Montano was a fifty year old Spanish horse
shoer living in Mexico City, and he went to the
Holy Tribunal, the office of the Spanish Inquisition, to report
a bruja, a woman named Bonificia Miranda. Do leave her alone,
man let her be? And Bonificia was a single mestiza
who dared to dress like a Spanish woman and also
happened to be his mistress. Oh my God, of course,
of course. Uh what is Spanish women dressed like compared
to Mestisa's. You know, I really am not too sure,
but I could imagine kind of like fancy dress or
some shit. Yeah, I imagine that there was an official
or maybe official dress code that people had to follow,
because I know the Mariachi chadro suit was originally designated
for indigenous people because they could not ride horses and
they had to like be singled out in this uniform.
So I remember you talking about that in your short
lived in my short lived podcast called a Little Bit, Yes, yeah, yeah,
and I want to bring that back. But I did
have an episode about the history of the chattel suit,
and just based on knowing that they did this with
the chattel suit. I imagine that there was some sort
of either official or an official dress code, but I
didn't look it up for this, but that makes sense. Yeah,
and I mean they had more money. So when the
inquisitor asked him why he was reporting her, he said,
Bonifisia had tied him, and now I had to tie.
What tying is, yeah, m hm, cursedly, cursedly, yeah, crist fully. So.
Tying or ligatura was a remedy done by Brucas. This
involved taking an egg, piercing it with a straw, placing
the hairs of your target slash victim in that hole,
and then burying the egg where the victim urinated, and
following these steps tied the target, making it so they
cannot have intercourse with any women. That's so wild that
this is from the seventeen hundred. I guess it's not
that wild. But in Rakan she mentions this practice because
you know, she teaches the woman or whatever these are
the old ways. But I'm like, of course she would
know that, like, yeah, you know these that goes into
a book, but yeah, passed down and that Yeah, I
mean that just shows how accurate research is done for
like horror. Yes, also, yeah, if you haven't read a
Hurricane of Seasons again, it destroyed us, but it was
do I recommend it? No, we're not going to do
this again. We already did this, right, yeah, I did
it as a speaker recommendation. I'll save my attentionent for later, right, Yeah,
let's still say it for but yes, so that's what
Tayan is and following oh, I already said that. It
makes it so they campen of course. Yeah, but it's
also something that can be undone. It's not permanent. So
the inquisitor then asked what made Lorden to believe that's like,
why would she tie you? Why do you think she
tied you? And he's like, well, when I first met
Bonnie Facia, Oh did I say Boni Facia earlier? What
did you say, Bonnie? It should be Bonnie Fsia. Sorry,
I may say it wrong, but it's Bonnie Fisia. But
I accidentally typed it different in a bunch of different places.
So sorry. When he first met Bonnie Ficia, she used
to give him Coco and we did talk about it
somewhere else a long time ago. In another episode, I
remember this about many women who made Coco being persecuted
under the Spanish inquisition in Guatemala. It was one of
our Blue Kaye episodes from before. But yeah, this was
a thing. And so she used to give him cocoa
and other things to eat, and that's how she probably
cursed him because he accepted these things from her. And
he said that during one of their meetups, he felt
a hair cross into his viral member yea, and ever
since that day he cannot get it up with his wife.
For his wife, sir, did you think that maybe this
could be because there's something else? But no, everything during
this time was woman's fault exactly. But he had been
able to perform the deed with Boni Fisia. Obviously this
was a curse, like it can't be anything else. Wow,
And to prove his case, Lorenzo brought in a letter
signed by five witnesses. And I don't know how you
have witnesses for that? How do you get five witnesses
for this? And they had to be president while he
was trying to get along with his wife, right like,
I can't imagine another way to prove this and then
right like questionable yeah, yeah. In that same letter, he
mentions a two year affair with Winifia, during which they
had a daughter. Oh my god, and he got tired
of the affair and wanted to end it, and he
offered to Oneificia to be her compadre and baptized their daughter.
And back then, I don't know about now, but back then,
compadres were considered spiritual kin, and that meant real kin.
So they were That meant they were going to be
a real family. And under the rule of the church,
compadrees couldn't be freaking together. They weren't allowed. Well that
makes sense, right, because that's like your sibling now, right right,
your spiritual sibling. Yeah, yeah, you can't do it with them. Interesting,
And this was like a sneaky way to try and
end their relationship without saying the words let's let's break
this up. I don't want to do this anymore. He's like,
why don't I be her compadre? Wow? Yeah, this is
like the original way of like, it's not me, it's you. Yes, yes,
And Bonnie Ficiah, obviously it was not cool. Wait, I
didn't even say that, right, it's not you, it's me.
It's wait to say I said it's not me. It's you. Oh,
and of course I would be like yes, yeah, oh
my god, what's wrong with us? I know, because it's
never our fault. No, exactly, And yeah, obviously when if
I was not cool with this, and so when he
said that to her, she was like, if you dare
do this, you will remember me for the rest of
your life, and also said she wished his wife would die. Oh,
Sachary catching strays this poor wife. Right first he teats
on her. He first, he cheats on her for two years,
and then the mistress is like, yeah, and she should
fucking die. Also, she was already sick. The wife was sick. Yeah,
she was already sick. She was just sick, like a
sick woman. Oh. I don't know remember you saying that before? No,
I just said right now, I hadn't talked about the wife.
Oh okay, yeah, and I didn't write notes. Oh, so
she was sick, she was getting cheated on. He was
out there having children on her, and then he couldn't
even have sex with her and then was like die bitch,
wow wow, yeah, like what it was messed up. But
Lorenzo ignored when Bonificia said this, He's like whatever, until
he just couldn't get it up with his wife. Then
he was like, all right, you cursed me, ruined my marriage.
It wasn't him. I did would say marriage. He ruined
his marrige, but okay not according to Lorenzo. And he
tried to go to Bonnificia for a cure, because again,
tying someone can be undone, but she was awaiting him
as she should, right, And then one day he ran
into Bonnificia's sister and mother and they advised him to
cut his hair as a cure. I don't know, maybe
just know what that would have if that would have worked,
But he didn't want to be because the tying involved hair.
Oh my god, that makes so much sense because his
hair was put Oh is that smart? Yeah, you know
what that could be it, But he didn't want to
do it. He wanted to keep his hair and I'm like,
you can't have it. Look what happened exactly for being vain,
for our Spanish tent trends. And yeah, he didn't listen.
And then they told them to go to a surgeon
named Juan Guerrero, and he did do that, maybe because
it was another man. I don't know what would the
surgeon even do nothing, nothing except confirmed that Lorenzo was
definitely cursed. I'm sorry, how is the surgeon qualified to
make that determination? What do they know about witchery? He
looked at him, He's like, they know, I got let
me bring up my prescription pad. Cursed, cursed. You should
already know this cursed. Yeah. I wonder why he would know.
What did he do to know officially he was cursed?
But that was his diagnosis, interesting cursed and so uh.
Lorenzo's last recourse was going to the Holy Tribunal and
accusing Bon Monifsia, and the inquisitor then sent Lorenzo to
another priest at the same holy tribunal, where Lorenzo was
supposed to confess and hopefully, with this confession his sin
would be forgiven and thus he would be cured, he
would be absolved of his sins. And there's no other
record on what happened to Lorenzo after or if the
inquisition ever went after Bonnificia. I'm going to hope that
they didn't and she went on to live a happy
long life, however long that could be back then, and
that she went on cursing the men that she wanted
because they probably deserved it. And I mean Lorenzo did, yes,
and I wish the same for her. Okay. And so
this next story also comes from Mexico City, but some
years after the first one. So wait, how long did
the inquisition last? Oh? I sit her in the beginning,
but I had to go look again. Hold on fifteen
seventy one to eighteen twenty. Oh that's quite a while. Yeah,
towards the end, they were no longer interested in persecuting
people the way they did in the beginning, So they
were just putting them in jail. What were they doing
nothing at the end. It was like first when they
arrived into Spain, it was like all about converting all
the deshase people they could write. Then you know, came
like the rest of conversation. The mestizos, the all the
black people they uh trafficked into Mexico. They're offspring. And
so the that's part a bit. I know all this.
I want to know what happened. So these this time period,
Now they were in the late sixteen hundreds, so like that,
don't know, the end of the seventeen hundreds, this was
them looking for witchcraft all the accusations of witchcraft. Then
after that it became like looking for people that were
making quote unquote packs with the devil, and they wouldn't
do anything with them. They were kind of the same.
They would have trials and they would either like say
confess or exorcisms, right, things like that. Sometimes they didn't
do anything. Sometimes they just put them in prison. And
then later they just didn't do anything. They didn't like
look into these investigations anymore. It just wasn't like worth
their time. That was like the end towards the end
of the toward the end of the inquisition. So they're
just chilling. They weren't doing anything, nothing like this. I
forgot what their goal was after this, but yeah, there
was no more persecuting people like there was during these years.
And then yeah, so yeah, this happened. This one happened
a few years sins of the first film, but also
in Mexico City. Frey Diego Nunez was a Spanish and
slaver living in Mexico City, and in seventeen thirty three
his life started falling apart because he believed that this
was happening because of a curse by Bruca, and he
wrote a letter to the inquisition, and his letter kind
of told his like a life story and the curse
and all that. So his arms were so painful he
could barely manage to move them, and no medicine helped
at all. This went on for days until he tried
an incense and then he was healed. After his arms
were all better, he found that he could no longer pee.
He couldn't go pee, and this lasted eleven days. He
probably had a gone a rehab honestly, or syphilis. Syphilis
is the one actually working that in here, That's what
I was thinking of. Yeah, And when he was finally
able to go, he expelled twenty or more normal measures,
so he just like he peed insane pete wow, like
an ocean. After that, he started having horrible body aches.
And this ordeal went on for eight months. Like the
more I read, the more it sounds like sils No
cursed by Bruca. Then he started having horrible, horrible body
ech o. I'm sorry I read that. Oh, then things
got weird. He claims that after this eight month or
a deal of all those symptoms, he started having stones
come out of him over the span of two weeks,
like kidney stones, No, like stones from all or orifices.
Oh yeah, including his pee hole. Yes, isn't that a thing? Well,
kidney stones is a thing, but to come out, but
he was saying, stones were coming out from everywhere. Oh
that's the difference. But yeah, Cindy, stones do come out.
You had to pass them, and it's very painful, like
compared to childbirth. Painful. And I would say, like man
on the floor crying painful, But that doesn't mean a lot.
So these stones one of the many weird things about
all this. The stones that were coming out of him
were all different. Some were spongy stones, other were smooth,
and others were smooth and solid, and some were different colors.
And sometimes it wasn't even stones but wool wool. Yeah,
woo whoa, whoa, whoa, yes, wooa what mm hmmm? Did
other people see these things? Or you know, he didn't
have Winness sign a letter like Lorenzo wow, So I
don't believe him. So he said going to the bathroom
was painful and strange and unusual things came out of
his body when he went to go pee, and it
was terrible, things like emeralds, olives, what or stool that
looked goat like goat like yeah, like goat poop. I
don't know what got poop looks like me either, Yeah,
I couldn't. I couldn't. Citys. Yeah, we are not farm girls. No,
we're not from Adrancho at all. And all of these
weird ass symptoms were always worse on Sundays, which is
a day God's day, exactly the most holiest of day. Okay,
I believe it now. He is cursed. And these all
these things that were happening to him, combining with them
being worse on Sunday to Diego, all pointed to one thing, witchcraft.
This was obviously a curse. It couldn't be anything else.
And he suspected Yeah, and he suspected one person, a
woman named Manuela, who prays the woman right always, That's
what I'm saying, always a woman. And Manuela had been
enslaved by Diego. It was one of his enslaved people
that he enslaves. Well, then he deserved to be curbed, right.
So it's like, if she did it, I'm on her side,
no doubt about it. Yeah, support her rights and wrongs.
And all of Frey Diego's troubles began after he caught
Manuela with another man, a young painter, and he scolded
them and punished them. Who cares if she's with another man?
The hell he does, because this is his property, according
to him, disgusting and so obviously the things that were
happening to him was Manuela seeking revenge for him punishing
them and keeping them apart. And this, this, to him,
explained the spongy rocks and the wool coming out of
his body, because these were tools painters used. Oh and
now I'm like, hmm, well maybe maybe maybe, And I
kind of love her for it, me too, And you know,
it made sense to him. Manuela had access to curse him.
She made all of his food, his drinks, she prepared
his clothes everything. You know what this is similar like
to who was the other guy for all Lorenzo. Lorenzo's like, oh,
she made me food, she feded me, so she had
access and like the ability to curse me. I'm like, man,
this wouldn't be our problem if you just cook through
yourself and find yourself. No for real, but no, they
can't do that. And he also accused her of putting
love potions in his chocolate hot chocolate. The cocos again
a common thing. Yeah. Also it's like the there's another
layer to it because the preparing of the coco, how
coco was this sacred thing and a lot of like
especially like the Mexika. So I don't know about other
indigenous groups, but specifically the Mexica who were in Mexico
City right like then, but the making of the haw
coco was the sacred thing used only for rituals or
to like relieve pain for like women, and the preparers
of this hot coco traditionally were always women anyway, and
so this practice would have continued, but now it's this
demonized thing instead of this sacred thing. So I found
that fascinating too, because you know me, I love to
uh look into like what else is going on here? Yeah.
Diego eventually found another African woman named get through These
uh to help him with the curse. She was a
healer and she had the knowledge to get rid of curses.
And he improves a little bit after reaching out to
get Through These for help, and he sent Manuela away,
but not before punishing her with daily beatings bitch, And
so I stand by him deserving it. He should have
been cursed even worse, honestly, right, Yeah, but after he
sent Manuela away, he was not getting fully better just
a little bit, and get through these at all, right,
get through these told Diego that the reason he wasn't
healing because he's a bitch. Yeah, I get through these.
Told Diego the reason he wasn't healing faster is because
Manuela had a doll of him and she was using
the doll for witchcraft. And the only way for him
to be fully better was for Manuela to get rid
of the doll or give him the doll. And so
he went to Manuila and demanded the doll and told her,
if you give me the doll, I will set you free.
I don't know if he actually did, but get through
These went to her to Manuela and did get the
doll back, and still there was no improvement with Diego.
And so when he wasn't getting better, he began to
suspect that Get Through These and Manuela were working together
Wow to curse him. And just as he was like,
you know what, she's probably in on it, he ran
into some Spanish woman who told him that she saw
get through these performing black magic. It's like they were
just getting people to snitch on each other. Oh yeah,
that was whole, the whole like dynamic that was set up.
It's like this long history of snitching on people. Yeah,
and he's like, yeah, you know what. She probably wasn't
even trying to help me from the beginning. Her and
Manuana were working together to curse me. Wow, they should have.
And we only know this because he sent a letter
to the Spanish Inquisition. He didn't go in person. But
other than that, there's no record of what happened to
him after Manuela de Bocanegra or get through these like,
there's no nothing. Well I hope that nothing bad happened
to them. Yeah. Same. But you can find his letter.
I have the link if anyone wants to read it
in Spanish. It's in the archives of the Spanish Inquisition,
which is archived under like the Mexican government has a
section of things under that, and that's where that letter is.
So yeah, those are two cases of bruchheria during the
Spanish Inquisition, which we really have to wonder was it
actually bruckheria more likely not, Yeah, but if it was
and whatnot. But even if they did, I don't care.
I'm right for them yeah. Same. Hopefully these these girlies
lived out their full lives. They continure to their full
thirty years old life. Yeah yeah, and continue to set
their crisis upon the world, so we can only hope.
Yeah and yeah. That's it for this episode. Also, I
didn't say this at the beginning, but I'm trying to
do short episodes because we need to create a backlog,
like I have a little mini vacation coming up this
weekend and then again at the end of the month.
At the end of the month, Carmen and I will
be can we say what we're doing? Oh? We should? Yeah?
Do you want to say we're going to leave y'all? Yes?
And for those that don't know, it's the la that
the National Film Festival. Yes, we were invited by. These
are the one of the writers of Madris who reached
out and says she wrote or directed, wrote and directed.
I forgot already. Wow, this is terrible anyway, this short,
this Western horror called The Hour of Blood. I love
Western horror, Yes, I can't. I only read like one
Western horror Vampires. Oh wait two? Oh, okay, Let's own
Woman by Victor Lavelle. Oh what yes? Okay? Oh? How
was that, so good bye bout All. I'm gonna add
it to my list. You would love it. I loved
his other book that I already forgot, the one with
the Devil. The Devil I can't remember. But yeah, she
uh invited us to watch her short, and even though
it's a very short short, UH worth the whole trip
for us. So we're gonna go Karmen is gonna pick
me up or leaving the children with our Mathenet, and
then we're gonna head to La to watch that. So
and I don't know, maybe we'll do some other stuff too. Yeah, yeah,
that'll be fun. Maybe we'll run into some listeners somewhere.
If you see us, we don't know who you are,
so you can say hi. Yeah. But yeah, I'm excited
for that movie. I was gonna say it's gonna stout
the movie. Oh. The name of the movie kind of
reminds me of this other occurrence in Texas history called
the Hour of Blood, where they went killing Mexicans, and
I remember if it was I wonder if Bill has
to do with that, I wonder, I wonder. I don't
know it's set around that time period, because I think
it was set in nineteen fifteen or was it maybe
before that. They don't quote me on that, but yeah, so, yeah,
we're gonna be doing things, so we need to create
a little backlog for us so we can still release episodes. Yeah,
and it's hard. It is hard now here. It is
it is. But do you have any spooky recommendations? I do,
because I feel like I don't know what I've been doing.
I feel like I haven't been recommending anything. Oh well,
last time I wasn't on you went here last time? Yeah,
and yes that was Christina's fault. I gave her the
wrong date time both time time. Okay, the date was correct. Okay, Yeah,
I did I talk about No, I think I did.
The reason I don't remember is because you had already
recommended this cursed houts and then I read it, yes
after you, And I think that's why why I didn't
talk about it, because you had already talked about it. Yeah,
it's so good anyway, yes, so good. But I listened
to two was it two pretty Hendrick's books? Oh? Yeah,
the new one. I didn't recommend that either. Huh yet
I remember I talked to you about it. Oh wait,
I listened to three Grady Hendricks books. You've been on
a Grady Hendrix kick, Yes, and you know what why?
You know why? Not what? Anyway? And you know why? Okay,
why because I so on Libby. I had a hold
for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, which is his newest book,
came out probably like what last month, I think or
two months ago, and I had a hold on it.
It took like two months so it finally became available.
So I listened to that, and then recently I learned
about this free library like app to for all California residents.
Oh yeah, I think I had told you about it,
but I don't think I've talked about it on here.
I thought I told you about it. Why would you
tell me? I send you a Threads post I saw,
Oh yes, maybe that's how I found out about it. Yeah,
I'm like, why would you tell me about it? By
the fun why would you not? Kelly Resident? You fucking
wash it him, bitch, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, I'm
just kidding. Uh anyway, Yeah, Christina told me about it
after all that. But anyway, it's super simple and there's
a pdf online about how to sign up for it.
But it's still pretty simple. You do have to be
in California because it uses your GPS thing. Okay, No,
I remember I was visiting you when you told me
about it, and I'm like, I'm gonna wait till I
get back right. The app is called Palace, and then
you search California's bookshelf and there is a whole shit
town of books on there. Oh, no, wonder you've been
reading so much more? Yes, yeah, one of them, this
Chris House, I read on my phone because that's the
thing is, so if you have if you like to
read on Kindle, it doesn't you can't send them to
your kindle. Oh, so I read it on my phone,
This Chris House, which is it wasn't bad because I
finally got a new phone with the biggest screen a
while ago. But yeah, they have a lot of audiobooks too,
and they even have a Spanish section. I haven't listened
to any Spanish books. Wow, But you know, it's the
funniest thing. I was on there looking to see what
they had, and then I even screenshirted it because when
I read it, when I read the title just from
the small like little screen that was there, I thought,
so a Colleen Hoover book is on there in Spanish
and it's called rob It's it ends with us. But
when I read the title, I thought, oh, my fucking god,
it looks like you're from far away. So I was like,
excuse me. And then I was like, oh, it's miss
Colin Hooper. What Colleen? Excuse me? But anyway, so, yeah,
they have a lot of audiobooks on there and so,
and they have way more Grady Hendrix than Libby my
library does, and Liby is different for every county. So
I mean, yeah, mine has a lot of books that
yours doesn't, way more. Yeah, but yeah, I listened to
so wait, first of all, which word which craft for?
We Were Girls? Was super interesting? You talked about that
one I sent you like a voice message or text
about it. That's what I'm taking. Yeah, sorry, all right,
So I did. I was telling Christiane about it that
I could see it being very triggering because there's a
lot of like body horror and like, I don't know,
pretty graphic descriptions of like child births, and they're pretty
mean back then to those girls, those teen girls also that,
so they treat them even worse. And you know, back
then there was even less respecting of like the person
giving birth of their wishes and everything like that. Right,
there's like a lot of that going on. But I
did think it was gonna be a little bit more witchy,
but the like the witchiness happens in the background of
what the girls are going through. But it was still
super interesting. I would say, I think I would have
preferred to read it then to listen to it, because
when one of the girls is giving birth, like the
narrator straight up screams, Oh that's right, you did tell
me that. Yeah, And it's a little it's a little much,
am much. Yeah. I was like, I feel like I
almost fast forward it. I probably would have. I should have,
because I'm like, I don't need to listen to this. Yeah. Yeah,
but it was still good and I liked it, and
I did end up breating it four and a half
out of five for me, Okay, And then I listened
to my best friend's Exorcism. That one. I loved. It
was amazing. Yeah, that was good. And my favorite thing
was the friendship. There's nothing that I love more than
a writer die friendship. Friendship, and that's what these girls
had till the end. Yet a full variant and the
end I literally almost cried. That takes a lot for
Carmen to cry yeah, because she's dead inside exactly exactly yes.
And then I listened to Stickum dead and sign oh
yeah is dead insigne No, just the inside, Okay. I
listened to We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendricks, and
I think that I need to I need to just
like got that that books about heavy rock or like
rock pands are not for me. Oh yeah, I would
probably just skip on that, skip that yeah alone. Yeah,
I some parts were grabbed. They grabbed my attention. So
I did end up braiding it three because so I
don't know if it just didn't catch my attention and
I missed a lot, and then I'm like, what happened?
So that's I'm like, I feel like I couldn't give
it less than three like I wanted, because I'm like, okay,
what if it was my fault for not paying attention,
but also it didn't grasp it didn't keep my attention,
and then out the book has to be like interesting
and good for me to pay attention if not in
my mind goes elsewhere, and that happened with this one.
So I did see like a lot of the reviews
were like, you know, if they liked rock and like
listen to that music, then they liked it more than
others who didn't. So I think I just fall in
that camp that it's not for me, because I felt
the same way about what was it called the other
book by Oh I did not much care for that either. Video. Yes,
Ghost Radio gave off the same vibes as this one. Yeah,
our souls And you know, maybe it's my fault. I
was expecting something like Jennifer's Buddy Oh okay, yeah, because
you know that band sells their souls. Yes, yes, and
that was my bad because also another thing I don't
like about Palace is that you can't read a summary
of the book. You just have to just the title.
You have to go off five.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I've been finding books that I already know
about and know what they're about, so it had him
been a problem for me, But this one, I was like, well,
I like every Grady Hendrix book that I read. I like,
so I was like, I'll like it too, But it
was for me, I don't think, Okay, okay, Yeah, I
have heard critiques of him, especially in the way word,
which is one about the way he writes black women.
But I haven't read it, so I don't know. I
heard the same thing about the Southern Women's Book Club Guide,
whatever the hell was called. You know what you're talking about, right, Yeah,
i'd about both of those killing vampires or whatever it
was called. Yeah, I don't know if I'm just dumb
and I miss you know, we have said we are
dumb in other books. I grasp when something's a little off.
Oh my god. You know what I haven't talked about
and I haven't even wanting to make a tick talk
about talking shit about this book. Incidents. No, it's not
called incidents. That's another one, okay, because I liked incidents around.
I haven't even read that anyway. I think that was
basically it about. Okay, but now I want to know
what book you're talking about right now. It's because I
was saying that I do. I usually do catch like
things like, wait, this is a little off, this is
like like racist, this is like depiction of this race,
this is very flat. Yeah, yeah, sometimes I can catch it.
I I don't know if I if I just like
Grady Hendrix, then it misses me because I'm an apologist. Yes,
I'm a Grady Hendricks apologist, I am. But yeah, because
I think they say, hey, you, this is a magical
Negro trope. That's what I That's what it was. I
couldn't remember what it was, but yeah, I think that's
what I heard too. Yeah, and his books are very white,
but he's white, and I think it's hard. I don't know,
I don't I an, I just kidding. I'm not defending.
I'm an apologize. You definitely a white man. Don't make
me defend great handed. I'm just kidding. I think that
it's a tricky area because you also don't want to
get into a white author writing people of color or
black people and then stereotyping and not doing a good
job about it. And so I'm like, I don't know,
do I prefer them to stick to the what they
know or not? Also another critique I saw, I saw
people saying, you can clearly tell this it's written by
a man. Oh, I have heard that about the way
he rants women. But I don't know. Maybe I'm not
one of the other girls because I haven't noticed me either.
That's what I'm saying. I think because I am a
signe no, in a way. Same because I sighed about
The Final Girls Support Club. Oh, I haven't read that.
On Saturday, it is on Polis, so it's on my list. Yeah,
you should read it. But I'm like, I don't know.
I mean, there are traumatized survivors. I don't I don't know.
I don't notice. I didn't notice that. And I feel
like I have noticed it in other books or like
when I've watched I don't know. I don't know if
it's just easier to miss for in his books, but
I haven't felt any kind of way about his women characters. Yeah, same, same,
And and I found that critique about the Southern Women's Guides,
and I keep forgetting what it's called the exact title
of Southern Guides book Club Vampires some feeling, I think
something you know, people will people will know, but I
don't know. I didn't get that vibe because to me,
all the women were so different, but they were all
in some way being like controlled by the men in
their lives. But I don't think that's wrong. I think
that's true, especially in that time because it was. It's
not current, so I don't know, And I think the
same thing may be said for which word wayward? Ever,
which way weard? School for girls? Yes, everything like that
gets worse, It gets more incorrectly as we say it. Yeah, yeah,
more wrong as I go on. But yeah, I mean
the thing can be said like to me, each character
was different and it was written of those times, you know.
So I don't know. I don't feel like that when
I read his books. But maybe other people are smarter
than me. That's true for sure. But yeah, I listened
to Hidden Pictures. Have you heard of this book? I haven't.
It's by Jason Ricculac, and I had heard good reviews
about it, but then as I was listening to it,
I'm like, what the fuck? So then I go. I
whenever i'm feeling like what the hell, I go and
look at the reviews. You go searching for opinions. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
see if they match with you with what you're thinking.
Of course. Yeah, and some people felt as weird as
I did. And I've been wanting to look more into
this author to see what he's about because of how
weird the book was. What is this book about?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 1: Fresh out of rehab, Malory Quinn takes a job in
the affluent suburb of Springbrook, New Jersey, as a babysitter
for ted and Carolyn Maxwell. She is to look after
their five year old son, Teddy. Malory immediately loves his
new job. She lives in the Maxwell's poolhouse, goes out
for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves, and
she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who
is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are
the usual fair trees, rabbits, balloons, but one day he
draws something different, a man in the forest dragging a
woman's lifeless body. As the day's passed, Teddy's artwork becomes
more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve
into more detailed, complex and lifelike sketches will beyond the
ability of any five year old. Mallory begins to suspect
these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago,
perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest
behind the Maxwell's house. With help from a handsome landscaper
and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the
images and save Teddy. While coming to terms with the
tragedy in her own past before it's too late. So
from that description, yes, okay, it's called hidden pictures. Okay.
And the cool thing I guess from people that read
it the drawing. There's drawings that the kid draws are
in the book, So I mean that's a cool aspect.
So I was suspecting I guess, like, you know, something supernatural, paranormal.
It was weird. So this couple and spoilers ahead this couple,
Ted and Carolyn are like super liberal, but like you know,
like like liberal in the bad sense, which is a liberal, yes,
derogatory in the sense of derogatory, And so I don't
know if it's supposed to be like satirical or if
like so they have all these rules that Mallory Mallory
is supposed to follow, and does it even say anything
about her oh Fresh Shadow rehab it does say. Okay,
so Malory is super into AA or n A whatever
the hell. She's always talking about God, which is fine.
People believe in God. I'm not against that, and but
not Mallory. Ted and Carolyn are against that. And so
they don't want her to to talk to Ted about
her religion because they're all about science in science, which understandable,
but it's fine. It's dark kid blah blah blah. But
there's like little like equips here and there about that,
and I don't know, it's it's weird. Mallory also loves JK.
Rowling and Harry Potter, and to me in this day
and age, it's weird. And this book was published in
twenty twenty two, so to be for me to be
praising and mentioning Harry Potter as much as this book does,
it's fucking weird. It's weird, Okay. So that was a
red flag for me. And then this liberal couple they
have all these stringent rules that are over the top
with with what they allow and don't allow for Teddy, right,
And one of those things is that I forgot what
Teddy asks that he asks something like about biological sex
or whatever. And then the mom Carolyn, did I say
her name was Carolyn? I think you're forgetting their names? Yeah, Carolyn.
So at one point she tells Mallory like, no science,
only this, and that we bought him this book that
supposedly is like a sex at a book, but in
the book she talks about, oh, it teaches him about
how men have sex with each other, and it has pictures,
And I'm like, what kind of mother would teach a
five year old like you can talk to them. You
can talk to five year olds about their bodies and
or production in a way that is age appropriate and
it would not involve any kind of image of pictures
or description of sex. Right, yeah, but this sounds this
sounds like it's like yes. So I was like, all right,
we probably got there, but that's what I felt. And
then so there's that, and then it turns out that
Carolyn couldn't have children and she stole this fucking kid.
Oh oh, and she's a girl. And to hide what
they did, they made her be a boy and so
they made her dress up like a boy, and so
then they wouldn't Can Maori help help her out with
anything like having to do like with the bathroom whatever?
And the reason that may Malorie finds out is because
they go swimming and then she's rinsing. Oh you know
what I just remembered. Sorry, I'm like, I can't talk
in a straight manner direct mat Yeah. So anyway, so
I was saying that Carolyn bring mentions this book that
talks about sex between men and blah blah, which, of
course no one in the right mind it doesn't. This
sounds like what they think sex at is at school.
It sounds like propaganda and right wing brain rot. Yes. Yeah,
So the reason that comes up is because the kid
asks Mallory if she has if her body part sticks
out or something like that, and then Mallory, I forgot
what Mallory tells her. But then Carolyn is like, oh, oh,
I would appreciate if you didn't talk about these things.
And we have these books for Teddy so that he
can learn. And then this one talks about never remember
if she talks about it and describes with in it
or if Mallory looks at it, but either way, the book,
which is supposed to be for a five year old,
talks about sex between men and then talks about like
trans things and whatever like yeah, which again, no one
in the right mind is teaching five year olds about
self and graphic descriptions or even descriptions of sex, Like
nobody does that, you know, ridiculous, So it is it
feels like it's like dog whistling. Yeah, yeah, so that
was weird. So what that's two weird things so far. Yeah.
And then the landscaper that Mellory meets, I keep saying
her name, weird matory. She was saying Mellory like melody
or something. Yes, I know, I heard you. And then
the landscaper that Malory meets is its Latino, but his
family owns the landscaping business or they're well off, and
she's surprised they're well off, you have money. And there's
this part where they the guy and I forgot his name,
he talked to his dad in Spanish and it's not
even correct. It's I wish I remembered what they told
each other because I heard it and I was like,
excuse me, that's wrong. Nobody talks like that. Oh no.
And so then you know, the paranormal things are happening.
And Mallory of course believes in the paranormal because she's religious,
but some religious people don't whatever, so you know what
I mean. But she does, yeah, and then she tries
to like help. And then this neighbor, exentric neighbor who's
described as eccentric, she's a racist. She goes on a
rant and I'm like, okay, she could have been eccentric,
but she didn't have to be like this. Yeah, she
goes on a rant to Mallory about illegals and this
and that, and then Mallory's like, yeah, she has her
she said in her ways, but she's nice. No, And
then the neighbors are like or the Carolyn and the
husband are like, don't talk to her. I don't know.
Everyone is just like a everyone's weird in this book.
This sounds very weird. Yeah. So then yeah, they they
couldn't have kids themselves, these parents, so they steal liberal parents,
these liberal parents who are teaching, who forced their girl
daughter that they took because they couldn't have kids, so
they forced them to be a boy. Forced this girl
to be a boy. And then the girl is all
confused about I'm sorry, this sounds like a right wingers
a wet dream. Yeah, no truly. So then in the end,
Mallory figures it out because of something that the girl asks,
either she sees her in the shower, because she asks
for help after they swim whatever, So she figures out
the secret. But that's her only hint. It's not enough.
So it's like it doesn't make sense how she figures
this out either, like their whole plan. Yeah, and so yeah,
it turns out that Carolyn took this girl from a
European immigrant who was a bad mom because she was
in the park being an artist drawing and not paying
attention to her daughter. That sounds like another right or
another whistle there about how well more attentive to their children. Yes, yeah,
it was so weird. And and then the husband just
goes along with it with the plan. Yes, because a
liberal man and a liberal couple doesn't have the pants
to say no, that's wrong. We need to give back
this baby, right right? Yeah, And it was it was weird.
And then overall the book has four stars, and I'm like,
four stars, Yeah, that's animate treading. It's kind of shocking.
But I did see some reviews that felt the same
way that I did. I'm trying to pull one up
to see if there's anything that I missed. But it
was super weird and so yeah, I mean, besides all
the weird shit with the liberal couple, I was, I'm
so over that whole. I've read a few other horror
books that have the same trope about infertile woman being
crazy and stealing kids. Oh yeah, it's a thing, and
I feel like I never noticed before and then now
everything I fucking read is that even that book I
liked the what I thought it was called Lone Woman,
that lady wants to steal a kid. And then someone says,
didn't realize it was sci fi. It's not even sci fi. Okay, okay,
let me see this one. Maybe they gave it a
one star, says spoilers. Throughout this book was a three
at best for the first three fourths and goes completely
off the rails from their flat characters that are all
tired cliches. The neighbors an old lady who hates immigrants.
The protagonist is a Christian with a troubled history and
the heart of gold. The parents are crazy liberal atheists
who scoff at religion and use what the author characterizes
as the evils of transgender ideology to hide their crimes
at the expense of a poor And it's a little
girl who just wants to wear purple or rights right.
They don't let her win certain things, and she like,
I don't know that's a thing in the book. After
her kidnappers forced her to live as a boy. And
one of the things that gets them caught is because
the school is forcing them that's right to provide basic
vaccination history, which is a standard at any school. So
now it's also anti vax Oh god. The twist initially
reads as a trans reads as trans identity as a
plot device, which is already annoyed, but then it turns
out to not even be trans identity. It's a plot
contrived by the evil atheist liberals whose lack of faith
caused them to have no morals at all, solving their
infertility problems with murder, kidnapping, and a Fox News pundits
idea slash worst nightmare of a couple of a god,
of a couple of godless atheists forcing a child to
be trans. I read that Regulac. The author was asked
if he hates trans people, and he said he supports
the transmitter community. But what else was he supposed to say?
He's not JK. Rowling, No matter how many positive mentions
of Harry Potter he sneaks into this book, Oh my god, yes, exactly.
That's how he felt. It was so fucking weird. I'm like,
why are you even talking about Harry Potter so much? Right? Like,
I know it's big in a lot of millennials childhoods
but you'll never see me, you know, praising JK Rowling
because it's not only even Harry Potter. She like directly
mentions J. K Rowling a couple times. I don't know
if it's a couple of times or what, but I
don't know. It's just weird, like in this day and age. Okay,
I think that's pretty much like the main thing. There's
another one that says right wing propaganda and unearned twist
conservative dog whistles on specific topics such as liberal parents
and atheism versus religion. I can't in good faith recommend
the book because I ultimately feel some of these messages
are quite harmful to put out in the world. Oh
see that. So it says, for a book released in
twenty twenty two, if you referred to Harry Potter, I'm
going to give you a pass initially, but when you
very directly positively highlight how good of a writer jk
Rowling is, alongside how this book discussed the story issues,
the trends issues, you know what you're doing. So yeah, yeah, yeah, wow,
I can't believe I hadn't talked about that. Well, I
feel like you gave enough recommendation. Sorry, Yeah, I went
on because I have not watched anything except Er. Still. Yes,
I've been watching Er in my free time and then
listening to Jesus and John Wayne. I'm almost done with it.
I was like, why did I think you? I keep
stopping to finish other books, but I haven't been reading
horror books. I read a fantasy series which I honestly
don't know how I feel about, by N. K. Jefferson.
I loved her Broken Earth series, but this is her
first series, and I already forgot what it was called.
There's a lot of there's a lot of incest, and
the first book it starts with like what the protagonist
who ends up going to like the sky world where
the gods are enslaved by this family that's also like
a race slash family, and like the world. Oh, the
one hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the book? Oh right? And
so like the first book is about her, and then
suddenly it like, but that book ends right, and then
we go to the second book, and then suddenly it's
about someone else. But it's like, there's no easy transition
from the first book to the second book. It just
doesn't like you're reading it. I'm like, am I is
this in the right order, because it's suddenly it feels
like something's missing between the two because it's about someone else,
and there's a certain amount of years that passed from
the first to the second, you like forgot who they were. No,
these are complete new people. And then it's not until
like the six chapters so that the main person from
the first book pops up. Oh, and I'm like, what
the fuck? Who the fuck is this person? Like what
is happening? Oh? And yeah, so it was okay, but
you can tell it was like her first series. I
think it's very evident because of the Broken Earth series
that shit is top notch, like sci fi. That's like
a really good sci fi fantasy book series, Like it's
like three books. But yeah, this one, I don't know.
So I read that, and then I also read the
one you're reading two something Migrant but no, the undocumented,
the documented? Is that what it's called the undocumented? I
could easily check. I don't know, why did you finish it?
I'm almost done with it? The undocumented Americans? Yeah, so
I'm also reading that. That is so good. It's so
you're five times already and I think you have like
an hour left. Yeah, same, same. So that's that's what
I've been reading outside of trying to catch up on
my work because yeah, I have a vacation coming up
and then another one after that. So yeah, anyway, I
don't have any speaking reforminations for the reasoning because all
I've been doing is reading other things. I'm watching er.
I've also been reading a lot of romance and then
I'm like a little over right now because I'm like,
I need, I need I get a little happy endings. Yeah,
I want to be enraged. I want to Yeah, I
want I want to feel angry at when I'm reading
really quick. I was talking with my coworker about this
one book we both read, and in it, the girl
main character has She thinks she has als because her mom,
her sister, and an aunt all had it and it
runs in their family and they all died from it,
and she starts feeling symptoms, so she thinks she has it,
but then she doesn't want to go get tested because
there's like a roll out kind of diagnosis, so she'd
have to like basically live in the hospital and in
the doctor's office, And so she gets a diagnosis, and
if she's diagnosed, she there's no cure for it, so
she doesn't She just doesn't want to know, and she
starts having symptoms, but that turns out she doesn't have it.
But the whole conflict between the couple is this disease.
And they break up because the guy's like, no, you
need to fight this, you need to do this and this,
and she's like, no, I want to live life on
my terms and blah blah, and then they break up,
which is stupid also because I'm like, just accept how
she wants. It's her disease that she might or might
not even have, but then after all the drama, she
doesn't even have it, and it was just like boo yeah,
and they end up together happily ever after. And I'm like, Okay,
I felt kind of like I was emotionally geary enough
for her to die. And I'm not saying she should
have died, but if it wasn't a romance book, I
am she would have and I would have been fine
with that, you know, I was. I was growing up
for that. And then you were rip like a band
switch like, oh she lived happily ever after? The phone?
What is this die? We both said that, and we're
like are we horrible? It's a little bit and so yeah,
wow wow, Okay, well this brings us to the end
of the episode that was a long speaker recommendation says
this was supposed to be sure. I so sorry. This
was all Carmon's fault. But yeah, if I don't know, actually,
don't drink hockckoa. It's okay if you man, if you
don't want me, someone is a man. Yeah, and yeah.
Other than that, I don't let us know if you're
going to lalif we might see you at lalif we
will see you there. Yeah, that's at the end of
being We'll be there. Man. If only we knew ahead
of time, then we could have organized a little meet up.
We never know. We never know ahead of time. Yeah.
So yeah, Unfortunately, all right, stay spooky, We'll catch a
ruin next time. Bye. My As Book Tells is hosted
by Christina and Carmen, produced and edited by Christina, researched
by Christina Carmen, and with the help of Don Shout
Out Don. If you aren't joining the podcast considerably going
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If you don't want to The Professor review just don't
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