Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, this is Christina and Carmen and this is
another episode of a Spooky Tales podcasts for all things
as Spooky true crime Hunter places myths legends in Latin America,
but not today. Today is a book club episode. Book Club,
book Club, book Club. That's right, we are finally recording
our book club episode for The Bewitching by Syria Garcia.
And just a reminder about how these work. Some months
before the episode comes out, we say, hey, we're reading
this book next. Whoever wants to read with us can,
and then we send out discussion questions. Whoever wants to
answer them can, and then we just recamp the book
and do discussion questions. At the end, there's like a
brief five minute spoiler free section where we do like
not even five minutes, but yeah that like two minutes. Yeah,
so yeah, that's uh, that's how these book club episodes work.
And uh yeah, hopefully we got some answers from people.
If not, we didn't, will we'll talk about it. And
I feel like a lot of people listen to it
after they read the book. A lot of people, yeah, yeah,
or some people. Some people listen to it and then
based on that decide if they want to read the
book or not. I have done that with other podcasts. No, yeah,
I get it too. I do that all the time
where I'm like, do I want to read this book?
And then I'll listen to a full last spoiler recaps,
full recap, and then I'm like, yeah, I do want
to read it. I do the same thing with movies. Yeah, yeah,
So I love a recap. I love I love a spoiler,
A recap full of spoilers. We do, we do, that's
just yeah famously. Yes. Yeah, speaking of spoilers, are you
ready for a spoiler free synopsis? Yeah? Quick little summary. So,
the Bewit Chain, by our favorite Yeah, follows three women
in three different timelines. Alba in nineteen hundreds Mexico, Beatrice
during the Great Depression in Massachusetts, and me Nedva in
the nineteen nineties. Who's connected to both women because she
is Alba's great granddaughter and she attends the same university
as Beatrice. She is the lynchpin between the timelines. Yes, yeah,
and then Beatrice is also the focus of Nerva's thesis.
She's a grad gradically yeah yeah, And all women are
facing dark forces, dark witchy forces that are possibly connected. Yeah,
don't don't don't. Yeah, And that is our spoiler free synopsis.
If you don't want any spoilers, now is the time
to leave. Yeah, but before we do the recap, did
you picture anyone any I did? I did? Okay, did
you cast anyone in the movie of the Bewitching? I
feel like Alba. I didn't have a specific actress in mind,
but I was picturing like someone from the you know
how they have novels that are based on like the
old times, like something like that's when I pictured. But
I don't think I pictured anyone specific, did you I
know exactly what you mean, and I pictured the same Okay, Okay,
you know what I pictured? You know the you know
the cover of the Escianda. Oh my gosh, kind of
like that. No, we're the same, because that's who I
pictured for Alba's Okay, okay, wow wow twins. Yeah, and
then if you're for Beatrice, I don't think really, I
don't really think I pictured anybody actually for Beatrice. But
do you know I pictured them? Yeah? H Do you
remember a Night of the Living Dead? Night of the
Living Dead? No, I mean I remember it, but I
don't think I remember Okay, Well, there's like a distraught
white woman in Night of the Living Dead. She's the
one with her the brother. They go in the beginning
to the parents' grave. That's where the zombies come out
of their brother's like they're I get you anyway, her,
that's who I pictured. Okay, I'm just picturing like someone
like a like a plane, you know, middle of the
road white woman from the Midwest. Oh, she's not like
I wouldn't say plane, but she is. Oh nope, I
didn't picture someone like that. Really feature someone more, you
know what. You know how I'm picturing. I mean, I
don't want to say plain like offensive, but I'm picturing
kind of like okay, and I don't I know you
didn't watch Euphoria, but everyone has seen clips here and there,
and you know, I think her name is Judd or
Mod No. Jud is a dad Apatow, the director. His
daughter is a Euphoria mod I believe is her. I
think her name is mod. I'm picturing her as Beatrice.
I see it, I see it. Yeah, what about for Ginny?
Did you picture anyone for Ginny? No? For some reason,
I'm picturing like a redhead, like maybe someone like, oh,
what's her name? From The Stranger Things and she's like
kind of more petty sync. Yeah, yeah, we're on the
same page. Oh yeah. And then I don't think I
pictured anyone like in my head specifically, No I was
someone like bitchy, real bitchy looking for uh. I'm like, yeah,
the younger version of what's her name that's in like
Midnight Mass and all the movies. But she was like
the evil woman in Mass. Okay, yeah, yeah, I know
who time. Yeah, just so the people listening can know
Samantha Sloyan. Maybe even Angela from the Office, you know what. Yeah,
maybe even bitch vibe. Yeah. And then the men, I
didn't picture anybody, No, same, same, yeah, except for the
guy that she supposedly ran off with. Oh sometimes. Yeah,
I pictured bad Bunny, but I think it's because I
had been listening to that's my number one artist this year.
That's hilarious. Wow. For all the white men I pictured,
like asi variation of Jonah Is from Superstar. Oh oh
my god, what the fuck? This is scary because I
did too, because he just has like that nineteen thirties face,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, generic white guy
for Noah Noah. I pictured for Noah like a young
Leonardo DiCaprio, but like snobby looking, you know, like what
the hair slips back and put him in a suit.
So he's not tall enough to be Noah. No, you're right, No,
you know what? Who would be good? Did you ever
watch No? Probably not the pit or Er. No, it's
funny because his name is Noah no Wiley. But here
let me show you. This is actually pretty spot on.
Oh yeah, because his character is rich and snobby, but
he becomes a doctor. He comes from like a rich
family and he when he becomes a doctor, they don't
like that. They think he should be continuing the family business.
Oh okay, while you're looking for that, you know who
I pictured for. What's his name? The other college douchebag
in minas Timeline. Oh, the other guy Conrad. Okay, what's
his name? Glenn? Glenn? Is it Glenn? Oh, Glenn Powell? Yeah,
but from Screaming Queens. Yes, yes, Chad, I could see that. Yeah,
so he's not in purple clothes here, but just picture
him in purple clothes. Okay, I could see that. I
could see that. Yeah, okay, so we've cast it almost Yeah,
what about he though, Oh, I actually didn't even think
about here. I am kind of picturing oh my god,
what's his name? Just because he seemed kind of like
funny and chill, you know, love Hard, the guy from
that movie Love Hard. Yeah, I don't know his name,
the guy who does the CAF machine Jimmy Yang. Yes, yeah,
he's a yeah him, yeah, yeah, you know what. Yeah,
I picture someone taller because he was so chill, oh
maybe yeah, and more serious, kind of like that serious
Asian actor who sometimes is a doctor. Really you picture
someone serious. I kind of did for some reason. Really Okay, well,
hence who you he was always trying to convince her
to party. That's why I'm like, he's not serious, you
know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's why I originally
pictured Oh my god, what's his name? Oh, Daniel day Kim.
Oh I know you're talking about No, no, no, no,
maybe version okay, Like you're just like, oh, yeah, I
haven't seen a young picture of him. That's why I've
only seen him like, no, no, you're right saying, but
maybe yeah, okay, okay, now that everyone's cast wait Neva,
oh my god, okay, you know I pictured specifically sees
and one of only mergers in the building. Mabel Gomez. Yeah,
that's why I picture agree. Yeah cool, and then she
gets like worse, you know, this season goes on instead
of getting better. So that's why I said specifically season one. Yes, no,
I concur then yeah cool. All right, Okay, everyone's been cast. Okay,
And so we have three timelines going on in the book, right,
and they are alternating, but we're gonna go through one
storyline at a time, one timeline at a time, because
it will be confusing to go back and forth. But
that's how you read the book. I think to just
recap it, that would be confusing. So yeah, keep that
in mind as we're recapping, because like, as something happens
in Nedva's story, it's connected to Betty's story or Beatrice,
you know what I mean. So and obviously we won't
have that as we go through the recap. Okay. So
the story begins in nineteen eighty eight with Minerva remembering
something that her visa Wila Alba, who she calls Nana
Alba and will refer to her that way used to say.
And she used to say, back then, when I was
a young woman, there were still witches and I just
love that and I'm sorry. When I read that line,
I was like, I'm okay. I was always going to
get this anyway again because it's Cela mon Garcia and
she is my If she writes it, I'm buying it. Yeah.
But when I read that line, I was like, I'm convinced.
If I hadn't already been convinced, if you need a reason, yeah,
those words would have convinced me. They're like right there,
like it's like the first line. Yeah. Yeah, then when
I was young, I could write the witches. Yeah. So yeah.
She's at at her university, Stone Ridge, taking in the
fall atmosphere when she hears a cry and she thinks
it's like a peacock or an owl since the hangout
on campus. Whatever. It's the end of the semester and
she's doing her rounds because she is a I think
they're called resident advisors. She's like one of the supervisors
of the ras. And besides being an RA, she also
has a scholarship and she works in the language lab.
So she's burnt out. She's a burnt out, girly, stressed, depressed.
She's been forced into like doing all this to try
and because she's a she's a foreign student, it's from Mexico,
and so she has to do all these things to
continue her education. But obviously it's gonna leave to burn out. Yeah. Yeah,
she's going through it. So because of everything, she feels
like she's behind on her thesis. And at the same time,
she's kind of used to juggling a lot of things
because when she was back in Mexico she used to
help take care of Nanaba, who lived to be one
hundred and one one hundred and one. But you know,
it's like that undiagnosed ADHD situation where you're doing so
much because you need to be doing so much other
why is you're depressed, But then you do so much
that you your body is now it's like a side
for now. Yeah, yeah, it's And then you lay on
the couch for like a month, Yes, doing nothing. Yes,
it's not healthy. I don't recommend not at all sidetrack
about DHD. You can cut out if you want, but no,
never I was. I was with our friend Nana the
other day and we were we had driven to San
Francisco for in Better with the Rite for their live show.
And then yeah, and as you should be, and uh,
we we didn't eat. I think we had eight before,
both of us separately, so we weren't hungry on the way.
And then we get there and then she's like, should
we eat before? But we didn't have enough time whatever,
and then I was like, oh, no, I'm not. I
was like I'm not. I was like, I'm barely starting
to get hungry. And I was like I usually wait
home starving to eat. And then she's like because she
she was like no with ADHD, like I took like
C last year, two years ago, and she's like, yeah,
that's because your neurodiverg And I was like what, And
then I was you not heard that word before. No,
I've heard that word, but I hadn't realized in relations
to you to eating, to my eating habits, because I
literally wait until she's like, yeah, you're you're diet, you're
eating cues or all messed up. And she's like, I
always bring snacks in me everywhere because if I don't
want to get hungry, she has snacks. Now you did something,
it's true, Yeah, well she was prepared. Yeah, yeah, I
guess she learned that in therapy. Wow, this is a
tool A tool that she and her toolkit. Yeah yeah,
I literally wait until i'm starving to I don't know
any other way to function. I did the same thing too,
when I have to pee, I feel like it's a
reward and this doesn't make any sense. So no, not
you making that fas Okay, I used to feel like
that more before. Now I really just go pee. But
I used to be like, Okay, after I finish this sentence,
I can go. I finished, yes, yes, and that again,
it's all related to damn in my experience. To add again,
we're not diagnosing anyone. We're just saying so in your experience,
I did diagnose me, Minerva and you okay, yeah yeah.
So anyway, Yeah, she's not doing her round, and she
stops by one of the residence dorms check their summer
stay paperwork, and turns out she hates his phone. This
is Conrad. Conrad and Conrad's are typical annoying douche drowning
in his privilege, and Mineva thinks that Conrad's annoyingness pushed
his ex roommate Thomas to leave after winter break. Thomas
never came back after that, and so Mineva's inspecting Conrad's
dorm and she finds out Thomas left a few boxes behind,
and we also get the hint that maybe there was
a little something between Minettva and Conrad because of how
they interact together, and later on we find out that
they made out. Confirms yeah. And so then later Minetva's
friend he There, comes over. They chat, we learned the
topic of Minneva's thesis and also about her love of
weird horror. So Mineva's doing her thesis on Beatrice Tremblay,
an obscure horror author who Mineva discovered through Lovecraft and
through her research. Minetteva comes across and I'm gonna call
her Betty now because that's how she's usually called Betty
instead of Beatrice. Yeah, Mineva comes across Betty's only published novel,
The Vanishing, and her plan for the thesis was to
look into the autobiographical elements of The Vanishing and tied
together with New England's history and folklore, which sounds super interesting,
sounds fascinating, very very and she was inspired to do
this because on the first edition of The Vanishing there's
a no one on the back that says was based
on a true story. Also In some other letters that
Betty wrote to other authors, she mentions that mi Nedva
also felt called to Betty because the vanishing reminded her
of something that happened to her Nana Alba when she
was young, a disappearance tied to witchcraft. And this brings
us to Carolyn Yates. Carolyn Yate, motherfucking Carolyn, who min
Neeva found out has a personal archive of Betty's papers
and letters. Min Neva's been calling Carolyn secretary to try
to meet with her, with no luck. But the next
night in min Neevah goes to a party that he
they'll peer pressure her into going social anxiety and she
doesn't like parties, so she doesn't really want to be there. Yeah,
she does end up leaving when it's too much, and
on her way out she runs into a drunk guy
and this ends up being Carolyn's grandson, Noah Yates. Noah
offers Minetta bout a ride for miss driver because they're rich.
Who has drivers, you know? And he drunkenly invents her
to brunch the next day and she shows up in
a ballsy move. She shows up, Yeah, nobody thought she would,
but she eats too. She needs to for her thesis,
and she's a go getter despite her anxiety. So min
Neva shows up to brunch the next day and Carolyn
tries to brush her away because this happens often where
Noah is drunk and invites girls over, but he's still
a sleep when they show up, so she's like, you
should just go. He's not going to wake up. And
she's like, actually, I'm here to talk to you, and
she's like what, But anyway, she explains all her effort
trying to get in touch with her to talk about
Betty's archive or to let her basically look into Betty's
archive for thee says, and so Minerva does make a
good impression on Carolyn, you know, with her work ethics,
studious studiousness. And so she makes a deal with min
Neeva that Minetva I can stop buying to look at
the archive as long as she makes appointments with her.
And during their brief talk, Minneva learns about Virginia Somerset,
the girl who went missing which the Vanishing is based on,
and Nouel referred to her as Genny because that's usually
how they referred to her, and Carolyn says that Genny's
disappearance wasn't reported because it was speculated that Genny ran
away with a young, handsome man from Portugal, and this
young man was named Santiago. Okay, bad buddy. And Carolyn
takes min Neeva to the archive, shows her some of
Genny's paintings, which she hates, but she kept because her
late husband, Edgar Yates, who used to be engaged to Genny,
kept out how weird writing Yeah. I was like, what
do you mean you married? You're missing friends, fiance, But
I guess she was never really her friend. Yeah. And
Carolyn also shares that Ginny was a witchy spiritualist and
that Betty also believed in the paranormal. And then she
also shows Netva Betty's unpublished manuscript about Genny's disappearance, and
this is how we follow that timeline through that manuscript. Yeah,
And later on min Neva and Hidel chat about the
manuscript and Minettva is making connections between Betty's story of
witches and what Nana Alba used to say about the witches.
Then they talk about moving needing to move Thomas's boxes
out of the dorm and they're like, why Mi Neva's
like why can't Thomas do it? And that's when they
find out that basically no one's been able to get
in touch with Thomas, not even his sister, since he
left after winter break, very similar to say Genny's disappearance
also around winter. Yeah, what a coincidence, very and min
Neeva thinks about the last time she saw Thomas and
realizes that it's been a minute again since late December,
and that he was acting kind of weird when she
did bump into him. It was straight up when her time,
and he was walking around without a jacket and he
seemed kind of like rattled. M That night, min Neeva
has a little tiff with Conrad when she's went a
rounds about regulations. He's broken. The next day she thinks
it's Conrad because they had a little argument, but someone
has painted two long black lines on the front door
of her house and that's weird, like why Yeah, And
then it wasn't regular paint, it was like a sticky,
stinky tars substance. Yeah. Mineva goes to Carolyn's house again
to review Betty's archives, and she chats with Noah before
getting into her research. She learns that Carolyn hates Betty's
book and again, I mean Carolyn mentioned this, but no repeaced.
Carolyn only kept the archive going because of his grandfather, Edgar,
and the same with Jenny's art. Two hours go by
and Noah fetches me Nedva for them to have tea
with Carolyn, and Carolyn asked her about the research, and
during the conversation, Mineva learns that a lot of Betty's
things got lost when she moved in with Benjamin Hoffman
after her cancer treatment. That's like one of their friends
from college, well not really Carolyn's friends. She's friends with
no one, no, no, yeah. And min Neeva asked about Santiago, like,
is there any employee records, you know, because it might
help her with their thesis, and Carolyn asks, all weird
about this, Yeah, She's like, how does that help you?
I don't see any importance in this at all. Don't
pursue this, yeah, But ultimately she does offer to have
Noah show me Nedva the old factory, her family's old factory,
and Noah drives min Neva back to her dorm before
dropping her off. They do stop at this factory, but
they only look at the outside because Noah doesn't have keys,
the keys to go inside, and Minerva learns that the
factory closed around nineteen eighty after it struggled for some time.
Edgar Noah's grandfather. He also agreed with Betty that something
paranormal happened to Genny like it was in a regular disappearance,
and she for sure didn't run away with bad Bunny, right.
Santanio santaniol yas Minerva goes to the campus library to
look into the old student newspaper to see what she
can learn about Jenny's disappearance. And these were stored I
didn't fully understand the mechanisms of this thing, but they
were stored in stacks or some kind of crank machine thing. Oh,
I pictured, like I'm forgetting what movie or what show
or what I was watching. Where basically they go down
to like some old library or something and they have
to like turn this knob okay, and then it like
goes through these like literal physical documents. I wonder what
that was, because I feel like I saw that too
here or whatever that was. Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, okay,
it's like you know how like posters are stored at
them all Yeah, and like sort through them, but something
bigger where like it flips through the old papers. It's fascinating.
And so there's this like warning message posted on it
for all the students, Like it says, before moving the stacks,
check to make sure there are new people or stools
between them. So Minerva looks to different issues and while
she's looking, she well, someone turns the crank and she's
about to get crushed by the stacks, but she manages
to get away and she just falls in the process.
And she looks around to see who the fuck almost
killed her, but doesn't find anyone. Scary, Yeah, only that
someone has crossed out the warning message. Yeah, there's like
a lot of little creepy things that happened. Yeah. The
atmosphere of this was Yeah, they weren't jump scartes. It
was just like a one long like h what is happening? Eerie?
Like eerie? Yeah. Yeah. So then he there and Minetta
moved Thomas boxes and sheants up rummaging through some of
his books. Then a piece of paper falls out of
one of the books and min Neeva recognizes that drawings
on it. She's seen it before at the Willows Building.
And the Willows Building is one of the dorms. I think, right,
is it not their old dorm, like, uh, Jenny and YADDI, yeah,
Carolyn's old dorm, I think so. So she looks through
more of his stuff and she finds a notebook full
of similar drawings, which also resemble Ginny's art. He that
was gone getting food, but Minetva, I hears something outside,
and so she looks outside, and it looks like it's nighttime,
but it shouldn't because not that much time has passed
since he then left to get food. And even though
she can't see anything outside, she knows someone is standing
outside in the porch. Oh, like she can physically feel it. Yeah, yeah,
like she's being watched. Someone is there. So then the
next day or so, Minerva goes to the library to
check out some of the books on witchcraft that Thomas
had been reading or something like that. Yeah, he had
like a list of like, oh, it's a list. Okay,
I'm like I forgot where how these How she got
these titles? Yeah, she came across. Yeah, yeah, and so
and she also goes to use the phone and at
the library, Minerva called thomas sister, and she learned that
Thomas was tutoring Noah and he spent Thanksgiving was Carolyn
and Noah. And then she also finds some of the
books a History of Witchcraft Floor and there in that
book she sees some of the drawings that Thomas and
Ginny had been d both both had that book, yeah,
and well, I don't think she knows yet that they
both had it, but she recognizes the art and she
learns that these oh I see. Yeah, she learns that
these uh marks are epotropaic Marx hopefully that's how you
pronounce that, and they're symbols of protection against which oh. Yeah.
So she checks out that book and another book on
medieval bitchcraft in England, and then she meets up with
Noah and she asks him about Thomas and he's like, well,
Carolyn invited him for Thanksgiving because she felt sorry for him.
And then while she's there, she also gets to you know,
look more into the archive and do her research for
her thesis. But she also talks with Noah a little
bit more, and she learns that that he's on ghosts
at the family factory and then he they basically agree
for him to take Minettava to the factory the next
day before Carolyn gets back, but once Minettava gets back home,
she sees a dead rat with us like sticking up
and this is something that Ginny also saw. Yes, yes,
the threats are getting more serious. Yeah, they're they're escalating.
Mine and Noah go to the old factory. It's creepy
and run down, and then they get coffee and he
shares a little bit about his family. Basically, they marry
for money, not for love. The great uncles were not
cut out for the family business. Carolyn is cutthroat, and
his parents died from a freak accident but a coincidence. Yeah,
and Noah also shares about something called the Blacklist, which
was something that Edgar and Betty kept going and it
was a list of mysterious disappearances from New England. Later on,
while doing her rounds, Minetra feels like someone is following
her and she realizes that the normal path she takes
just keeps going and going weird. Yeah, she feels Hella
frazzled and like. During her state of frazzledness, she remembers
Nana Alba's words, which is tricky, but she keeps walking
until she falls and she stumbles upon Conrad and Conrad
thinks she's drunk because how frazzled she is, and she
thinks he was the one following her, and he's like, no,
you're fucking weirdo. Yeah, he was a little he was
a little much here. I'm like, Conra, calm down. Yeah,
you see, she's frazzled. She starts recording her Conrad, Yeah,
come on, Conrad, fucking Conrad. And so then min Neva
when she gets home, she tells you that what happened?
And he's like, uh, girl, what because she s asks
someone invisible was following me? Yeah, and so he's worried.
He's like, girl, are you okay? The pressure is getting
to you? Yeah, please get some help. The next day,
min Neeva has tea with Carolyn, who asked about her
progress with the deil and the research. Min Neerva takes
this opportunity to ask if Genny was that thing we're
during the days leading up to her disappearance. But Carolyn
plays off Mineva's concerns and she's like, why are you
keep bringing Jenny up? Yeah? Yeah, And Carolyn asked me
Nedva about her scholarships, her financial situation, and she ends
up offering to pay for Minerva's room board educational living
expenses for the upcoming semester to allow Minerva to focus
on her thesis. And she's like, apparently she's done this
for many students in the past, is what she tells. Uh,
but she doesn't say what students here? No, she doesn't
like who was on her list of recipients. Yeah, and
but later we find out students like Thomas. Yeah, like Thomas.
And when min Neerva gets home, she has a horrible headache,
almost like the headache is warning her or something almost
like important. Yes, yes, sadly she does the Carnstein her cat. Yeah,
the cat is dead. Unnaturally it's Nick cather beIN twisted
a little bit, a little bit. Yeah, it's pretty bad
and he's dead. So then she calls he then on
a panic and she's like, someone's bewitched me, And he's like, girl,
are you okay, Chica? I think you need some help?
Yeah yeah, And so she agrees to contact heal services,
but instead she makes a protection charm as she should,
from one of the stuff birds. And it's a little
bird that we see in the cover. Yeah, yeah, this
uh one with the pins on it, like it's wing.
I love that she like someone else maybe would have
been like no, no, this isn't real, this isn't real.
But she immediately clocked in and she's like, I'm being bewitched.
I need to protect myself. And because of all the
stories her and how she was like no, and it's
it's wild because I got another book. This wouldn't have happened,
because you have this studious person in very deep academia
at this point who maybe wouldn't embrace this folklore stuff.
But she is not like that. Yeah, and maybe because
she's so into horror. And also all the stuff her
sugar with the Mexican Yeah, which tells and uh you
know kind of like oh it could be real. Yeah,
she's not denying, she's embracing. Yeah. Yeah, and it saves
her life really yeah. Yeah. The next day, Minerva meets
with Benjamin, the man who is Bessy's with Betty. Yes,
thank you. I was like, who's Benjamin? And Benjamin tells
Meneva he was friends with Edgar first, and that's how
he came to know Betty and they bonded over being
different because he was a sexual and she was a lesbian,
so they would be each other's dances, sorry, not dances,
dates for dances. Hasn't say beards? Yeah, yeah, they were
each other's beards for dances, you know, to keep up
with appearances and whatnot. Yeah. And Benjamin shares that Betty
spent the last years of her life with him. She
had no family around, not much money since she worked
as a copy editor. He never believed that Geny run
off with Santiago because he actually did some investigating into this.
He tried to report on it for the paper he
was working for at the time, but it was shot down.
But in his investigations he found out that the timelines
they don't add up. No, Santiago actually went missing five
days before Ginny, and it's unlikely they eloped because he
had just landed a full time job with Carolyn's family's company.
And Benjamin tried to talk to the other workers to
learn a little bit more about Santiago, but Carolyn's dad
shut him down. What a coincidence? And Benjamin also learned
that Santiago left all his belongings behind, so it's like,
really doesn't make sense that he ran away, right, all
his things are still there. They would have packed their
stuff up to run away together. You would think, right
to start a new life together. Yeah, you gotta have
some things, right. Yeah. So then Benjamin brings some boxes
of Betty's belongings and in them, Minneva finds the Blacklist,
where Betty and Editar kept track of all the weird
disappearances in the area. And Benjamin also tells me about
how weird he thought that it was that Carolyn swooped
in on Edgar real quick after Deny's appearance, and he's like,
that is so distasteful. Yeah, he's like, what kind of Yeah, distasteful, Yeah,
and yeah, and he also he's like, Carolyn, her dad,
they were just users of people. They're trash. Yeah, And okay,
this is when the light thing happens. When minever gets hold,
she's looking through the Blacklist, very eerie, when all of
a sudden there's light shines through her windows and at
first she thinks it's a car, but she looks outside
and there's no car there, and it's not really like
a car light. It's a soft green, wispy missed that
turns into a sphere or like a ball, a ball
a ball. And we say that because as mostly everyone
who listens will know the which is uh signed or
tell whatever? The ball of the fire and it's a
witch and so there's a little green also Theuci legend.
It one of the like supposed real accounts of in
somewhere in Mexico. I forgot where in like the nineteen
sixties people say they saw like a green mist. Oh
I didn't remember that. Yeah, that's what I liked here.
I feel like there was like a lot of little
like lore of different witches legends. If someone's gonna get
the correct lore from a bunch of different places, it is, Yeah.
And so this fear gets closer and closer to the window,
and then the phone. This part was so creepy. I
thought the phone start drinking, but when she answers, the
line is dead and it keeps drinking. So then she
does connects the phone classic core movie, y it was
it was. And then there's a knock on the back door,
which turns more into pounding, and then something starts scratching
under the windows, and then it spreads all over the
house and then the heart the house starts to shake, horrifying,
so creepy. And I mean Neva's from Mexico, so she
knows earthquakes and She's like, this is not a normal
earth squeak. Yeah, it calms down whatever. But the next night,
Neva goes to the same friends party from before, also
peer pressured into going by Hideo and but she ends
up feeling anxious and overwhelmed. She steps out for some air,
but when she's outside something it's the lamps un to
the ground. It's getting worse, yeah it is. And she's
still on the ground outside when Noah pulls up and
he's like, what happened? Are you okay? And he tries
to ask her what happened, but she doesn't know who
to trust, so she doesn't tell mem anything. And then
he's like, what the hell's wrong with you? Why won't
you tell me? He's like, I thought we were friends. Yeah.
And then the next day Minneva meets with Christina Everett
and this is Thomas's advisor. Oh okay mm hm, And
so Christina tells Meneva that Thomas was looking into for
his thesis into ectoplasm, spiritualism and art, focusing on American artists,
one who attended Stonewidge Ginny, and Christina shares that Thomas
was a little weird. He was a witchy guy, he
used a wigi board and Terry Card's and Minneva remembers
that there's a break in earlier at the Joys House
and she found a wigi board and lit up candles.
I see theead this is Joy's house, and then there's
the Willows, So I'm like, it's the Joys House at
the Willows. That's why I was kind of like a
little confused about Yeah, but these I know they are
buildings in the college. They't know. At the Joys House though,
I think is the old dorm that Ginny and Betting
were at. See, I thought that was the Willows, Okay,
but I'm not sure. I don't fully remember. And Christina
ends up giving me Nettva one of the books on
witchcraft that Thomas had left behind, and when Mineva opens
the book, she sees that Ginny and by this point
she recognizes Jenny's handwriting from everything she's been looking at,
but she sees that Genny wrote look beneath the floorboards
on the title page of the book dun Dum. That night,
Minevra goes to Jenny's old room, where she finds witch's
marks on the door and on the window frames, and
Minerva feels Genny's ghost there. She tried to She tries
to speak to Jenny's ghost, and Jenny's ghost seems to
respond by scratching a specific floorboard. So then she goes
to that floorboard and within the gap she finds a
note that Genny left behind, which has one name in it,
one name a wind Grave. Oh, Carolyn, are wrong, my bad?
And then man Neva hears footsteps in the hallway and
she finds Carolyn that's okay, that's when and that's what
I was thinking of when I was like, Carolyn, yeah,
And she's standing in the doorway smiling like a weirdo. Yeah.
And min Neva's she's put two and two together. She's like, oh,
Genny couldn't say her name, but she could write it down.
And Carolyn's like, well, not really me. It was my
dad back then. It was him that writes me right,
really with both of them, oh yeah, yeah yeah. And
Carolyn says, she'll tell me Neva the truth. If min
Neerva steps out in of the room, she can't touch
her in the room. She's safe in them, right because
all the protection marks and Genny's ghost mm hmm. And
Mineva is like I'm not coming out, but but yeah,
but Carolyn threatens to get he then onto a car accident,
so then she said she can't do Is this where
she mentions, no, one's parents are not yet it's on
the way. Yeah, okay, okay. So Minerva goes with Carolyn
because Carolyn threatens to you know, kill he. Basically she's like,
speaking of car accidents, don't don't don't. Yeah. So they
go to the factory and Carolyn's like, yes, this is
where I kill people at the factory, and here is
where I kill people. Yeah, cut me, and she tells
Carolyn tells me, Neva, what happened the night that Ginny
went missing. So it turns out that Ginny had attacked
Carolyn with a pair of scissors, then ran outside into
the snow where Carolyn's dad was waiting, because obviously at
this point she knew you know who was builting her.
And then they both chase Ginny and they'd hope she'd
last longer because fear makes the blood taste better, apparently, Yeah,
and they killed her, and they killed her because of
her ability, just he ghosts, it makes her blood better,
more powerful, right, They drink blood for saying young and
power to keep the found business going. Yeah, Santiago was
the same. He also had ability less than Ginny, but
that's why he was picked to be killed. And they
needed like a man and a woman for the ritual.
Mm hmm. And and I should remember if I know,
I did mention it later on because I remember we're
reading this and it's switching from tailand to timeline. Yeah,
we're doing one time at a time. Yeah, Like we
learned that Betty overhears Carolyn and her dad talking about
like but why him? Why him? Like about picking people
and this is what you know is going on. They're
picking who they're gonna kill for the ritual. M h
And it turned out that Carolyn was one storting with
Santiago and then she spread rumors about Ginny to cover
her tracks, like fucking cage the one that they also
supposedly saw with him was her. Yeah, and then yeah,
like it was all part of their plan m hm.
And if it wasn't for you meddling kids for Minerva. Yeah,
And Carolyn admits to killing Thomas again for his blood
because he has he also had some abilities that she
sends after shaking his hand at some event, so then
she plotted to get close to him and kill him
by having him tutor Noah, and she admits to having
killed several other students before, so she gets ready to
kill me Neva. She puts on this little red plastic
tunic to give the blood off for her. She's like,
let make a dress, put my gloves on to hold them.
It reminded me of Santa Cruid diet when they cover everything. Yes, yes,
So then mine was like, why are you even killing me?
You're already rich, And then Karen's like Carolyn's like, well,
I'm running out of time because there's no descendants to
pass on and show you know the way of their
evil ways. And she needs Noah to have a grandkid
to teach her evil what she waste to because the
ability skipped him. And she also admits that she killed
Noah's parents to get culture to him to teach him.
But that's when she learns he doesn't have ability. Her
ability skipped what her son. Her son rejected his abilities.
Her son had the abilities rejected him, and so then
she had him killed so she could take their baby,
yeah and raise him in her ways. But turns out
he didn't have the ability it skips a generation. Apparently
sometimes yeah, I can. So. Then Mi Nedva cuts her wrist,
but in the struggle she's knocked down by the goals.
She can't get back up. She cuts Carolyn's wrist or
her own rist. She cuts her own wrist, okay, thank you, yeah,
and so she can't get back up, and then Carolyn's
on her drinking from her wrist. But soon Carolyn starts
choking coughing of blood and turns out Nedva, on the
way to the factory, had been all day. She had
mixed witch is poison, poison for witches into her coffee
that she had been sipping on all day long, something
she learned from Nana Alba. Nana Alba to the rescue,
and Carolyn's like, you little bitch, how dare you when
just when I was about to kill you she poison me.
So then she's pretty much dying, but she still has
a knife, and so she's about to stab me Nedva,
but Mi Neva's like help from the ghost, and the
ghost helps me Nedva by turning the knife against Carolyn.
And this gives me Neva the chance to chop off
her head. Because you have to chop off a witch's head,
something she learned from Nana Alba. Yeah, and so then
she chops off the head and Carolyn's body melts away,
and it's now Halloween time. Noah stops spy while min
Neiva is carving a pumpkin on her porch, and he's like,
I'm dropping out to Boston because the Willows. Oh, I
think the Willows might have been their house. Oh yeah,
that's okay. The Willows is Carolyn's house. Yeah, that's very
close to campus. Yeah, and so on campus. Yeah. And
he's like, the Willows is too big for just me.
And he's like, I haven't received any updates about Carolyn
going missing. But turns out she was more sick than
she let on, so there's speculation that she ended her life,
and some message boards probably read it, yeah, are pointing
to him as a suspect. And so they talk about
that for a bit, and then they also talk about
Neva and no One's like, oh, I can't imagine spending
my life in academia. We're so different, but actually we're
more like than you think. And she's like what On
the inside, She's like what, because she's like, is he
saying he also has does he know it's what she's
thinking about the whole time? Likely? What does he know?
So she doesn't say anything, tell him anything. She's just
in her very quiet, observant way. She is so observant. Yeah,
I feel like I reserved, am like her. But not. No,
you're not. No, you would never keep it to yourself.
I could be like that. I could. No, No, we're not.
We're both being delusional here. No, are you serious? I am.
I spent a whole year depressed on work. Nobody knew why.
You're right, You're right, you're right. I don't even tell
you twill months later. Yeah, I can't believe I am
very reserved, Christina. That's not I'm a negative coping skill.
It's not good. It's not. No. No, like like we
were saying earlier, it's not only. But my point is
that I could keep a secret like me Neva. Yeah. Yeah,
and so really I am mean Neva And anyway, no
one tells me Neva. And he's like, oh, hopefully we
can be friendly, you know, keep friendly after I move away,
And she's like, oh, we're friends, and he's like, well,
we're not enemies, not yet. And she's like what what
Inside She's like what. But so then she's like, well,
she's feeling weird about this now because she's like Keith,
this bitch knows something. So she's like, I'm gonna I'm
gonna hind aside because I have to get ready for something.
And he's like, oh, you're not gonna invite me inside
and she's like no. But in the inside, she's like thinking,
you never invite a witch inside your house. And but
like he didn't have this power, so and Carolyn told her.
But Carolyn could have just been saying that that's true.
She doesn't know how much he knows. I feel like
Noah's not like that, though he has like little moments
where it seems like he knows more than he does. True,
So I understand, See, you're already talking yourself into into
sharing your secrets. You're right, min Neva's reserved because she's
protecting herself. Yeah, it's yeah, it's an unhealthy coping mechanism
that has saved her thus far. Yeah, but I just
feel like the way that he the laziness, the the
stuff that hurt that Caroline has been saying about him.
But what if Carolyn left like a letter she's like, oh,
this and this happened. You know, you don't know, right,
And Carolyn was a sneaky bitch, she was she was,
so yeah, it's kind of left up in the air. Yeah,
and you can't trust the white man, so sorry, a
rich white man exactly. So that was a min Neva's story.
Alba's story, it begins with her busy prepping, getting the
house in order and all bossing everyone around for the
arrival of her uncle Arturo. And she's especially annoyed at
her brother because he's like, what are we doing all
of this for that bitch art He sucks, he fucking sucks.
He but we hate him by the end, we really
do hate him. Wait wait oh yeah, actually Arturo from
from Teresa Prophet. Yes, wait yeah, that's so people know
who we're talking about. Anyone who said yes, yeah, something
like that. Yeah, that is who I pictured. But I
think just because of the name Artudo. Oh anyway, although
that there could be annoyed sometimes Alba is super close
to him because they were born. Only when you're apart,
which has a name. But that's apparently offensive. I heard
it's offensive. Yeah, yeah, twins Albado seems to be in
love or infatuated with Arturo, so there's it's a lot
of uncomfortable moments between them. Yeah. Yeah. And Alba and
her family are grieving their dad died only four months
before he arrives and they're about to hold a mass
for him. Ardro didn't come for the funeral, but he's
there now for the mass, supposedly, but he's there to stay,
supposedly to help the mom. Alba tells Artudo how hard
things have been lately and how she hates all of
the household duties that she's responsible for. What is she like, seventeen?
I think so sixteen seventeen? Yeah, so yeah, it's her
job now to help. And here we learned that when
Alba's mom, Luisa, was sixteen, her mom died and Arturo
was only two, so Louisa and the older sister Julia
took care of Arturo because their dad had no interest
in physically caring for him. And then when Arturo was nine,
he went to live with Luisa and Alba's dad in
the rancho Piedras Guebradas, and Arturo's eventually sent to a
boarding school because he didn't really care for the rancho life.
He wasn't built for it, despite Alba's dads ever to
teach him, and so he was like a city boy,
you know. He that's where he thrived TVH. Arturo is
a dick and thinks he's better than the quote unquote
simple people of the Rancho. But right now Alba is
blind to Arturo's air of super superiority. Oh my god,
air of superty, some superority, yeah, secret the mass, and
she hasn't noticed he better than everyone. Yeah, he's very
arrogant and above these people. They're beneath him. Dado, on
the other hand, questions Arturo all the time, and he's like,
why is this city boy here? And so he's like
why is Arturo? Why did he bring so much luggage?
And this is where Arturo says that he plans to
stay and help Louisa out because their father's death had
been very hard on her, and immediately is like, we
don't need or want your help. I've been doing everything.
I've been handling everything, and you don't even know shit
about running the Rancho like you were sent to boring school.
That's how much you don't know about it this life.
And he's right later ur Tuo knocks on Albazdor And
this is an awkward moment before you get in to that.
I was just going to say, real quick, I asked,
I really, I especially loved that those hatred of Dudo,
same same, I loved it. I was there for it,
I was seated. Yeah, and I like, I understand those
were different times that things like that did happen. Yeah,
oh that the Tuo and albating, Yeah Alba, but no,
this is a real thing that does happen. Like because
I know a lot of the reviews, a lot of
the reviews incest. I can't get behind this discussing incest,
but like, this shit did happen, and not only in Mexico.
It happened everywhere where, every everywhere. And I I don't
think by writing about it, it's not like she's not
supporting it. She's not saying it's okay. Nah. If anything,
I think it shows the the dynamic of the unhealthy,
you know, inappropriate dynamic, and that Alaba was obviously, you know,
the powerless one who couldn't help, but have this infatuation
of you know, one of the only men she was around, Yeah,
who she thinks is cool. And I think it happens
living the life that she wants. Yeah, she admires him.
It turns into something a little more, you know than that,
because maybe she's growing up, you know, yeah, hormonal whatever.
And sometimes it happens like younger people will get crushes
on their older cousins, their older uncles, and it's on
the uncle the older people to not act on it
because it's inappropriate exactly. But it's not like like, oh,
this is completely okay, Like it's never comes across like that. No,
not at all. But we needed to say that because
some of the reviews people have been leavings like they
think she's condoning it. Yeah and no, so yeah, this
is aquamment number one. He knocks on alabaz door to
give her a trinket that he bought her. It's a
necklace with a pearl on it, and he helps her
put it on in a very creepy, lingering, gross way
to read about. And they're low key flirting. A few
days past and it's now after the mass and friends
of the family, the Molinas among them, were invited to
visit them after the mass, and Alabaz chatting with friends
and one of the friends points out how hot. Valentine
is who works for the Molinas. Did you cast anyone
for Valentine? Okay, maybe what is the show with a
little girl of kids in La and my block? Yeah,
the low gangster from that one that was Spooky's younger brother. Oh,
because you know there's like young their teens Alba and Valentine. Yeah,
like seven, sixteen seventeen, right, yeah, okay, diego tinoco. I
could see that. I could see that. The friends also
mentioned that Valentine is alba sweetheart, but al was like,
oh my god, no he's not. But then Valentine walks
over and he gives Alba some pink roses and he
asks to ride with her back to Pierre Squevradas. And
once almost everyone's gone, mister Reelina asks Tadeo if he's
thought about his offer to buy the farm from Taddeo
and was like nah, and Arduo's like unwarrantedly, but in
the conversation he's like, oh, this sounds like a good idea.
Fucking bitch that gets mad at Ardudo and he mean
mugs him so intensely that the Molinas are like, yeah,
we're gonna go. It's a company now. Yeah, we're gonna go.
And then and Arthur don't argue about selling the farm
about talks to Arturo about the argument. And this is
our first glimpse. This is our first red flag, a
real red flag about how shitty Arturo is. He manipulates
by asking, are you mad at me? You want me
to leave? I'll leave if you want me to, like
turning around the situation, like, yeah, poor me, I have
to go now if you want me to. Yeah. Yeah.
I was like, no, I don't want you to leave.
Actually I nodded a corner around a piece of yellow
cloth just so you would come visit. And this is
like little things people do, like wearing red underwear for
love on New Year's same kind of shit. Yeah, And
Arturo judgmentally asks where she learned that nonsense from talking
down to her, saying that she's too old to believe
in simple superstitions of peasants like a bitch. Yeah, And
Alba tried to defend herself, saying her father used to
believe in these things and he had portents just like her,
and that she knew when Artua was coming because of
the portins that she experiences. And they talk the more
and Arduro is just fucking creepy. He tells Alba that
Tado may belong there in the rancho but she's far
too pretty for the rancho life. Gross disgusting, and again
Alba is blameless here, Yeah, Alba, Tadeo, and Arturo go
into town to run errands. Alban and Arturo goes to
the pharmacy where they're weirdly flirting again. They run into Valentine,
who interrupts her disgusting flirting and he excitedly tells Alba,
you won't believe what I have. Arturo is so fucking annoyed,
and he tells Valentine to properly greet his niece, and
he's just so fucking rude to him this whole time, like, oh,
is this how you say hi to a ladys? I
hate him. Araba leaves with Valentine though, because he wants
to talk to about issue that he's having with one
of his horses. And then they see that Theo who
seems to be arguing with the witch. And they noticed
the witch because she wears out with the red stripe
bringing down which all of the local witches from Los
Pinos were Daalel tells him the witch was trying to
sell him something, and he invites Valentine over for dinner.
Daleo also agrees to stop by early the next day
to look at the horse. At dinner, Daaleau mentions that
the arm where the witch scratched him hurts, and he
tells everyone that the woman talked to him about evil spirits.
Valentine doesn't think that the woman bet Petoins meant him
any harm and says that his family has bought he
medos from her, remedies from her before. Artuau is a
little bit about this, like nobody's even asking for his
stupid fucking opinion, and he's like, people from the countryside
are stupid for believing in superstitions, and it's like, shut
them up. Louisa even tells Uda to stop being rude. Yeah,
because he used to be obsessed with her late husband
stories of w and spirits, and to me, this was
another red flag right here. Yeah, what do you mean
obsessed with this stuff? M hmm. Like and if you
were so obsessed, then all of a sudden, you know,
you're like, oh, you're acting like you're not, like, well,
what's going on? What's going on? Yeah, what's going on?
Especially the bloodiest ones, and they even caught him going
to Los Pinos with the Destto Boy plenty of times,
and Arduo defends himself by saying he only went because
of the Destto Boy, but Luisa manages to change the
topic again and this was all weird yeah already. When
everyone leaves, Arduo has an inappropriate conversation with Alba about
Valentine courting her and where he basically says in this
conversation that as the man of the house, Taddeo will
be the one to choose who's best She'll she'll slip into.
But he says it all grossly like Bulger Dan's your
uncles trying to be saying to you. Yeah. But then
they make up and they have another gross flirting The
next morning, after serving breakfast, Alba finds that Tao is
not there, but she thinks something of it since he
said he was going to leave early to go check
out Valentine's horse, But then she starts getting worried once
she walks into Dado's room to find a broken pitcher
and a patch of blood under one of Dalel's boots
which had been tossed by the headboard, and no one
else in the family is really worried for some reason. Well,
obviously Ardudo is gonna dismiss all this. Yeah, and then
her mom is just too busy to be worried. I
think at this point, yeah, at this point, yeah, I
can tell that something is wrong her and that they
will have this deeper connection. Yeah. Is there're only one
year apart, so there are twins. Yeah. Albac goes to
Valentine's place and her mom takes her, makes her take
Arturo there. They find out that that theyo never made it,
and Valentine ga there's a couple of men to go
looking for Taddeo and promises to spling by later to
give a an update. And Valentine does come back, but
only with Taddeo's horse. There's no Tadeo, and he says
that they found they found the horse by the river.
A week goes by and the search continues, but there's
still no sign of Tadeo. Albert, her mom, and ar
Tudo go into town with the hopes of getting the
mayor's help to put out a reward for anyone with
information about Daddeo's whereabouts, which Artudo thinks is a waste
of money because he wants all of that money, right,
He's like, stop wasting my money. Yeah, that's my money,
but Louisa insisted on it. That's her son, like yeah,
come on, come on now. Albert pretends she needs something
from the pharmacist so that she doesn't have to go
to the mayor's house when she runs into Valentine, and
Valentine shares rumors being spread by the townspeople about Tadeo's disappearance.
These rumors include that Tadeo was robbed and death were dead,
that he ran off with the girl, and that a
witch from Los Pinos put a spell on Tadeo and
killed him. But through her own she senses Alba knows
that that they was still alive. Valentine suspects Alva's family
has been cursed with bad luck. Luisa and Arturo get back,
and Arturou suggests the higher a pi from the city,
while Valentine suggests that they get a cleansing first, which
Arturo immediately shouts down because he's a little bit yeah.
When Valentine leaves, he starts tucking shit to Alba about him,
calling Valentine foolish and dumb and believes blah blah blah. Yeah.
Once at home, Artuau apologizes to Alba and she ends
up breaking down in tears and he comforts her. But
there's always this discussing weirdness when it comes to these
two because of Artudo. Again, he is the inappropriate. We
can't be normal. She's just a girl and he is
a freak. But he's a freakish monster taking advantage of
his knees. Yes, exactly, after all, he is a man.
That night, Alba hears a shrill, whiny noise outside, but
she can't figure out what kind of animal it is,
and she opens the window and she hears it again,
along with these scuttering noises, and she hears her a
couple more times, but she still can't figure out what
kind of animal this is. The next morning, the family
finds that Theo's horse dead, dead Animalsanda Rancho keep dying
and Albert keeps having nightmares of Taddeo. Valentine slops by
and he insists to Alba that her family has been bewitched,
and she low key agre agrees with him. Albat tells
Valentine about the noises she heard the other night, and
they fear it. It might be a de yo yokani,
a kind of witch who sucked human blood and devoured
the hearts of men. The worst kind of witch. Yeah.
Valantine tells Albat to stay calm because witches get more
power as her victims become more fearful. He tells her
to put a pair of scissors in a bowl of
water under her bed to keep any which away. He
also gives her his necklace because it's been blessed, and
they make a plan to go to Los Pinos next
Tuesday while Arturo's gone. Before leaving, Valentine gives Alma one
more warning once, which is get a taste of their
victim's blood. Things get worse and they only get more
powerful as they drink more blood and their victim falls
under their spell even more. That night, Alba does the
scissor thing. At the next morning, she finds the scissors
are hell arrested overnight. It's like they were left out
in the rain for months. Alba and Valentine go to
Los Pinos to visit Missus Jovita for her help. Missus
Jovita immediately tells Alba that there's a shadow upon her
and that at the Yoyokani is hunting her family. She
then tells them that at the Yoyokani is dangerous and
that she needs to make Alba a talisman for protection,
but it's gonna cost more than a bottle of ram
and coins. Albas stars to feel dumb about having to
come to miss Hobbida in the first place, because she's like, well,
she wants her money. She's she's a calm woman, even
more so when missus Kobita, missus are you're saying? Miss
when missus Hobita asks for Alba's ring as a payment.
But then missus Hobda correctly guesses that Alba has potents,
and she warns Albat that that the yoyo Kani wants
to feed from the blood of his victims, bewitches them,
and that it was the yoyo Kani that ate that
they all. Alba finally hands over the ring after hearing
all this, and Missus Hobita gives Alabat the talisman. A
dead dove was seven pins on it, the one on
the cover of the book. She tells Alba it's stronger
than the scissors. Then she tells al about to prick
her finger on one of the pins because her blood
will protect her, and warns her not to allow the
the yo Yogani to drink her blood. When Alba asks
about destroying the the yo Yogani altogether, missus Hobita tells
her it's not that simple to do. Alba mentions to
her that her dad used to say, to kill one,
you have to cut the head off or carve their
hearts out. Then they leave. Alba recognizes a woman this
is the wish that she thinks curstadeo, but Valentine says
that Dona Petua wouldn't do anything like that, and then
they have a little argument about it, but then they kiss.
Then they kiss, yes, and I was like, yes, this
is an age appropriate relationship for you. And they were
so sweet, like he was so sweet, and it was
just like young love, so innocent, your age appropriate again,
like you said, yeah, yeah, yeah, no weird no, weird
things yeah on here in this relationship. Yeah. And he's
respectful and kind of not working, you know, all those
valid use and apparently good looking according to Alba's friends. Yeah,
things keep going wrong at the Rancho chicken stop laying eggs,
things like that. Alba's emotional and she tells her mom
in front of their house staff that they're cursed and
that it was dead, and this upsets her mom. She's like,
don't be saying that in front of the staff, Like
they're gonna swear and leave. Yeah, So Albad runs off
to her room, where Arturo finds her. They have another weird,
gross moment. During these weird moments, Alba always notices a
shift in Arturo's moods or eyes, which she describes as dark.
That night, Alba sees a ball of light near the trees,
which she immediately clogs as a witch. This ball of
fire emits an owl like sound, but Alaba knows it's
not an owl, and she's overtaken by an immense by
any mental fear that she's never felt before. She runs
to her mom's room, but it's gone by the time
they make it back to Aliba's room for her to
show her mom, and her mom doesn't want to hear
this shit. She doesn't want to hear about witches from Alba.
She tells Alba she's acting like a child. I have
enough on my plate. Yeah, She's like, I don't need
to be thinking about fucking witches. On top of all
this shit. She's like, your dad died, that they all
was missing, and I still got to keep this house
running and shut the fuck up. And now you're over
here talking about the witch. Shut up, shut up about
the witches. Shut up a bus and son. Yeah. Alba
finds herself remembering her kiss with Valentine, and then her
thoughts drifts off to wishing her Doudle her Deol would
kiss her. Sorry. Yeah, and she's like what the fuck
and reads the Bible as soon as she can to repent.
But you know, in a repressive society where church is
so important, you you have these kind of gross thoughts
instead of normal, healthy sexual thoughts. That's where the taboo, really,
what's the word I'm looking for drives? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
and this repression yeah, and that's why predators can find
such easy find dollus in these high control environments. Yeah yeah, Okay,
back to her repenting. That night she dreams that's someone sorry,
she repents for no reason. Yeah, okay, So that night
she dreams that someone kissed her, was kissing her neck
when all of a sudden she fell. Whoever or whatever
it was bit her, and all she sees that night
is two large eyes fixated on her, and the next
morning she sees that she has a cut above her heart.
She scared and so she asks Valentine to go to
Los Pinos with her. But before she leaves, l Rancho
Arturo's acting kind of weird, asking if she's getting sick,
that she looks tired. Weird things. Yeah. When they get
to Los Pinos, they see Jovita, who pretty much tells
Alba she's fucked because she's learned that the witch has
bitten Alba. Valentine tells Alba they can lure the witch
and trap it, just like the old stories, say, let
me find it, and are you going to read this part?
This part was fucking cool. Yeah, that's why I'm in it. Okay,
So Valentine says, we'll do as the story say, We'll
lure it and trap it. Alba looks at him. Valentin
was nodding, yes, like in that story. My grandfather used
to tell. We wait until night falls, skin an animal
and lay its dead carcass upon the ground. Then we
wait in the shadows until the scent of blood draws
the the yo yokani out. When it approaches, we take
a cord and tie a knot, then say some words,
then tie another knot and say more words. Once you've
tied twelve knots, it will be trapped. Then you can
kill it. And the word are. The first word is earth.
You tell it that you're holding it with earth. Then
you say you're holding it with water, then with fire
and air. You say it again. We reach twelve. Once
you've begun tying the knots, you can't stop speaking. That's
a trick. It might try to scare you or trick you,
but you must keep going. Amazing. They kiss before going
their separate ways, and Valentine says he'll go into town
that evening to get his bullets blessed. And he tells
all about that, Sorry, I said the word. And he
tells all about that he should start, Oh, that he
should start properly courding her instead of this what they've
been doing. Yeah, and they're the cutest, Like I know,
I love them. I was also, Yeah, I was devastated.
We'll get there, We'll get there. Yeah, No, I was too.
Alba's dream keeps. Alba's dreams keep getting worse, and Alba
ends up getting a portent that's a terrible will happened
so she asks her mom she can ride to the
Molinas because she's worried something has happened to Valentine. She
tries to make up an excuse to go over there,
and Ardudo convinces her mom to let her go, but
offers to join her. When Alba gets to the Molinas,
she learns que Valentine he just died thirty minutes ago.
Her portents are like very spot on. Yeah yeah. Alba
gets overwhelmed at the church service for Valentine, and when
she steps out for some air, she overhears some of
the talentspeople say that a mountain lion couldn't have clawed Valentine,
like that that was witchcraft, and that he was on
his way to Piedrasquevradas, which is cursed, which is their
rancho Yah, their curse Rancho. Arturo finds Alba Sabin and
promises her that they'll leave this curse rancho. But Alba
gets a portent or image of Valentine's death and she
vows to event his death and kill the witch and
just so sad, yeah and so yeah. She literally gets
a play by a play in her mind of how
that died. That's how she knows Valentine. Oh my god, sorry,
I keep getting the confused Valentine. Yes, Valentine. Yeah. And
so she's gonna avenge her man. She's gonna follow the
plan that her and Valentine had in the first place
to kill the witch. And she does this first part.
She sets the trap with a dead rabbit, and soon
a creature appears. And now you're going to the page, Yeah,
because I want to describe what the creature looks like.
This was so insane as a thing closer to the
dead rabbit, sniffing and hissing, it seemed to drag what
did a veil of shadows so that she could not
see clearly, even as she noticed certain details of its anatomy.
She saw the line of feathers running down its bony spine,
the talons like those of an owl, the slick skin
of an eel for those for this was a creature
of impossibility, neither mammal nor bird, but something in between
that moved the gliding smoothness of a snake. Creepy, very creepy.
And so once the creature starts eating the rabbit, she
starts biting it with magic. But during the spell, the
creature tells her to stop Indadel's voice. She tries to
keep going, but it's having hard time, and then it
springs forward, pinning her down. The creature starts choking her,
so she shoots it. As it's dying, the creature turns
into Dadeo. I'm like, how much can she fucking go through? Man? Yeah,
that's enough. Yeah, and then she nails her brother. Oh
my god, because the witch turned him into this creature.
But she didn't know it was him. She thought with
the witch, oh my god. Oh and sorry, Dale's body
just disappears after she Spanish just kills him. Yeah, and
he's like, you must live on Yeah, very beautifully said, yeah,
I was crying. Yeah. Alba's mom and Arduro leave for
the town to meet with the mayor, and while they're gone,
Alba takes advantage of their absence and goes to Los
Pinos to speak to the witch that she thought bewitched Dado.
Perpetua tells Alba that she is not the one hurting
her family. She was only trying to warrant Dado, and
Perpetua is surprised that Alba hasn't figured out who the
witch is yet, since she has you know, yeah, she
has to know, but she doesn't want to know because
Alba has a gift of portents and he is also gifted,
and it seems to run in the family. Before revealing
that she's talking about Arturo, Perpetua says that he used
to come with the DeSoto Boy. And this is where
I was like, oh my god, really there, Yeah, I
didn't realize it was I do. Oh wow, I was
a little slow when I was reading this. Anyway, Well
I knew something was wrong. Yeah, like I knew he
was there was something super off about him. So here
I was like, yes, that's right, he is the one
doing all this anyway, So he used to come with
this the boy, and he soon asked a lot of questions.
Abat doesn't believe, and I'm like, come on, but she
doesn't want to. You know what's so funny when when
she was like, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet.
The which craft whatever runs in the family, and he
whatever has abilities like you blah blah, and like I
kept picturing them the same from the office, when Oscar's
asking Dwight where him and Angila did it, and he's like,
you know where, and then yeah, was like, he's like,
where do I where? And he's like I just like smiling. Yeah, pictured,
But you know what I think at the same time,
Artudau really did well for himself when he he did
what was talking so he ar Tudo really did well
for himself when he was talking shit about these superstitions. Yeah,
because he like, it could never be him. Yeah, exactly,
And he's this sophisticated city boy who would never stoop
to that lave. So yeah, I think that's one of
the biggest reasons she doesn't believe it's him. She can't
even fathom that it's him. Alright, where was I? Alba
doesn't believe pert Petua so Berbeto was like, all right,
set a test for him to place. The test is
for her a place of flower against his lips while
he's sleeping, and if he's a warlock, it's going to wilt.
Alba refuses to accept that her uncle would be evil,
and she accuses Perbeta of cursing him to become evil
to what end? Al to what exactly? Yeah, come on, Alba.
Perta is so chill about this because she's like, no,
you'll see, child, you will see. And she also tells
albat that Arturo killed her daughter, Elena. And in an
earlier scene that we might have skipped and Arturo are
having their gross flirty moments and Alba tries to guess
the name of Arturo's supposed girlfriend and she actually guesses
the name Elena, and he gets so upset at this,
and this is why, and I wonder if it was
like her subconscious and her witchid senses, Yeah, that told
her to say the name Elena, but she didn't even
think about that. She just was guessing randomly, so she
was writing, and yeah, he gets super upset at this.
Perpetua tells Albada Arturo is a te yo yo kani
and that he ate Elena's heart raw because she had
gifts too and it would make him more powerful. Perpetua
shows Alba her hands. She's missing three fingers from one
hand from when she tried to kill Arturou, and she
explains that he turns his enemies into animals. And I
think this maybe is when Albert starting to realize, oh
my god, that's what happened to Dado and so yeah
it is Ardudro. So yeah, just like the wild animal
that killed Valentine and Perpetua tells Alabad that nothing can
kill Arturo, and she tells her to just run away,
but begs to know how, and so Perpetua tells her
a story of a young woman who was being bit
by a sorcerer and falling under the sorcerer's spell until
they make the girl's blood poison to the sorcerer, and
once the sorcerer was a sleeper unconscience, they cut its
head off, which this is where Minerva got the idea. Yeah,
she learned it from and he learned it from Peto,
and this on the story goes. Just because I thought
it was super cool. There is one story. It's about
a young woman who finds herself under the spell of
a sorcerer. He flies into her room each night and
bites her on the neck. For six nights this happens,
and her family is distraught because each day she grows
weaker and sicker. But on the seventh day, her brothers
consulting wise woman. The wise woman tells him to burn
a painting of their mother, who loved the girl and
has died. Mix the ashes with salt and the crush
the wing of a moth, and place them in a
cup filled with wine, whispered to the wine, telling it
to protect the young woman. Then have the girl drink
the wine and open the window to the chamber so
that the sorcerer may fly in. The white woman tells
him the sorcerer will drink. Actually, that's the clodest part, oh,
the first part. Yeah, that's how you make the poison
the poison. Yeah. Yeah, So if anyone, if this happens
to anyone, just try that, remember that poison recipe. Keep
that in mind for the Yes. That night, Alba does
the flower thing, and sure enough it wilts once it
touches Ardo's lips. But before she can leave the room,
Ardros creepy ass, wakes up like he was he knew
this was going to happen, like he has an Alba
radar or some shit. He probably does, No, he probably does.
He threatens Albyan to not screaming for help and confesses
he needed to get rid of theo because he wouldn't
sell the farm, and he also killed Valentine because of
his medaline. He tells her he wants her to be
his woman, that he knows she wants him too, and
that she basically summoned him before letting her go, he
bites her and kisses her. Alba is sick the next day,
and when her mom checks on her, Alba tries to
tell her the truth about Arturo, but she can't get
the words out because her tongue is hied. Similarly to
Jennie and god Jinny who couldn't write Carolyn's name or
her dad Carolyn's dance name, and she wrote wing Grave
because she couldn't say it, very same thing. Arturo and
her mom talk about selling the farm when Alba's mom leaves,
and when Alba's mom leaves, Ardudo to Alba is like, haha,
I did that because he's a bitch. Yeah. Alba resolves
herself to get rid of Arturo and end all of
this because he's just gonna keep doing this. Alba goes
to Arturo and asks what his plan is, and Arturo says,
once he sells the ranch, they can live in Bachuco
while he travels with the money, their money, the money
he makes from them, and he implies that he's going
to kill his dad and sister Julia to collect their
inheritances too. All right, I did it, and he's like,
come along so I can keep drinking your blood. He
also confesses to hurting her while drinking her blood because
he was jealous of Valentine and that's what when she
has that dream of something biden her, it was actually
him and it hurts her because he does that apartments. Yeah,
because he's a bitch. Yeah. Arturo's like, I'll have you
no matter what. So Aliba proposes a deal. She'll comply
with him if he doesn't sell the farm, which Arturo
agrees to. So she because this is she needs to
do this to make her plan happen, right she They
do it sex with Yeah, okay, it's disgusting. Yeah. After
the data is done, she tries to cut off Arturo's head,
but he wakes up as soon as the blade touches him.
Albat manages to run away, but he catches her pretty quickly.
He pins her down and starts shrinking her blood again
with no restraint. This time, she kisses him as a
way to distract him, and he falls for it because
he may be a brujo, but he's a man above all.
He does keep drinking her blood though while they're doing it. Wait,
they do it again. Yeah, oh my god, it's like
her way of distracting him. No, I know, I know.
So they're doing it again. But after a while something
forces him to slow down. His breathing becomes labored, and
he's like, what have you done. Alba tells Artudo she's
poisoned him, but she doesn't stop there. She swings and
acts over Arturo. He tries to get her to stop.
He tries to convince her they belong together, but she's
like nah, nah, and she cuts his head off. Six
weeks go by and Alba experiences important and she knows
she's pregnant with the girl and yeah, no, not Mina's mom,
Minira's grandma. Yeah, yeah, yes, m hm and yeah, and
that's that. And in this part it's no longer like
separating the chapters, like as Minerva is basically ending Carolyn,
you also get like the paragraphs of this of Nana
Alba and her like that's super cool. I thought, yeah,
I agree, I agree. Okay, geminy De Beatrice, Yeah, okay,
so now we're almost done. One more storyline, Beatrice, this
is the shortest one, I think, Yeah it is. It's
because it's the manuscript of Virginia of Jinny's disappearance. So
it starts off with Betty reminiscing how hard the Great
Depression was for the family, really everyone, and how hard
it was for a woman during that time too, like,
for example, they wouldn't get hired if they were married,
and so, you know, she talks about her only options,
and she's not rich like Carolyn, right, so she has
to get her English degree so that she can have
that to fall back on, you know, if things don't
work out for her. So Betty talks about putting up
with Carolyn's bed attitude when it came to Ginny, which
was her then was her new roommate, because really it
was a matter of survival for someone like Betty to
be friends with someone like Carolyn who was rich. Right. Yeah,
Carolyn came from the wind Grave family who owned the
wind Grave Manufacturing Company founded in the eighteen thirties and
had expanded all over Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire Hampsphere Hams. Sure,
I've never said that state. I think. I don't think so,
you Hampshire, Hampshire. I was about to say it the
same way I heard, and Betty mentioned that Genny transferred
to their college in the second year and that she
was beautiful but she was new money, so she wasn't
readily accepted by Carolyn and the other girls. And then
on top of being new mini, she was Catholic, not
Protestant like all the New England people. And she was
a spicy white you know, they had barely become white Italians.
Yeah yeah, so yeah, she was looked down upon by
people like Carolyn and uh yeah, Genny was eccentric. She
was a spiritualist, and she worded everyone out. But Betty,
they became close friends, they became besties. Also, Beatrice liked her. Yeah,
Betty had a girl crush. She liked her. Yeah. Yeah.
And Carolyn and Jenny argued all the time, and this
put Betty in a hard place because she couldn't really
side with Ginny because she had to, you know, keep
being friends with someone like Carolyn, have someone like that
on your side. But you know, she loved she loved Ginny,
but her love for Jenny was unrequited because soon Ginny
and Editar got together. Yeah, Jenny was straight, she was not. Yeah,
she wasn't for the girls like Betty was. Unfortunately for Betty.
Yeah yeah, but would it happened so cute? It would
It would have but then Carolyn wouldn't have wanted to
kill her because of Edgar, you know, true, well that
wasn't the only reason. Whatever. Eventually everyone in the house
became friends with Jenny, at least amicable, and so things
were financei October up until the Halloween Ball, when Betty
notices a darkness in Jenny's eyes. Two weeks before Halloween,
a young man named Santiago, a bad bunny, the man
later rumored to have run away with Ginny, shows up
at the house to work as a handyman, and the
rest of the girls start making fun of Ginny that
she's being flirty with Santiago, and really she's just being friendly.
She's the only one talking. She's just being kind, She's
just being a normal kind of person, right. But although
back then we should know, like there was different gender
norms and rules, of course, you know. Yeah, but so yeah,
everyone makes in her. They think she's being flirty. She's
not really being fluty because she loves Edgar. And so
at the Halloween ball, everyone thinks it's weird that Carolyn
is being overly flirty with Edgar. But more importantly, Benjamin
tells a group about the wind Grave business not doing
too hot, and he warns Ginny that Carolyn probably wants
to steal editor from her for the money, and Jenny's like, no,
there's no way Edgar would ever do that, and in fact,
we just got engaged. Betty's heartbroken of course for Betty. Yeah,
and my dream would have been for her and Jenny
to just live together forever. Yeah, I would want that
for Betty. Yeah. At the end of the ball, everyone
realizes that Ginny is missing, and it's been over half
an hour since anyone's seen her. When she does finally
show up, she is She's running towards them and something's wrong.
She's sobbing. She tells them that she was looking for
Betty when all of a sudden there was a bend
on the road and she couldn't see anyone. Oh, but
she felt like, yeah, just like Thomas. Yeah, well, I
mean this happened to yeah, And she felt like she
was being stared at and followed, and she heard footsteps
that didn't sound human, and she felt like breathing, there's
breathing down her neck, but nobody was there, and everyone's like, oh,
it's probably just some guy pranking you. Of course it's
not yeah. So three days after the dance, Betty and
Ginny and the friends they hold the seands also Virginia.
Ginny can't talk to ghosts, and so she holds a
seance because she wants to find out more about what's
happened to her, and she wants to talk to her mom,
who is dead, so her mom's ghost and so four
of them are needed for the sands. So Betty, Ginny, Carolyn,
and some other girl named Maryatte all participate and everything's
chill until Ginny asks spirits, maybe seek your counsel, and
then all of a sudden there's two knocks, quick one
after the other, and the knock can get so loud. Well,
then the knocking gets loud on the table shakes. Then
Ginny gets all stiff, her eyes are wide open and
she's like she says, you're in deadly peril for Ginya
in a voice that's not hers. And when Ginny comes
to she's just hella drained. She doesn't remember anything. And
the next day is Sunday, and Sundays are when most
of the boyfriends come to visit. Because all all contact
between the two genders, it has to be supervised at
the house so that's why they all come on Sunday.
So all the boyfriends come on Sunday, but Edgar doesn't come,
so Ginny stays in her and Betty's room alone. Betty
wants to go upstairs to check on Ginny because she's
worried about her, and then Carolyn butt in and she's like,
can you be a third reel for me and David?
She doesn't like David because she likes end her right, right,
and she's only she says, I'm only keeping him around
in case things don't work out with someone else, and
she's talking about her yeah, but no one knows An
is engaged right to Ginny, and Betty feels like she
can't say no again because of Carolyn's position, right, yeah.
And so then during this, Carolyn also tells Betty that
she thinks Ginny just made up the whole saying thing
that was an act and that Genny just wanted attention.
So she's already like starting the bad reputation rumors of Genny. Yeah.
And so when Betty's finally able to go check on Genny,
Jenny's in her room and she looks outside and she says,
sees Jenny talking to Santiago, but it looks like a
normal conversation, nothing weird, and once Ginny gets back inside,
she tells Betty that she was talking to Santiago about
him needing a job and that she might Carolyn about
it if there's a position for Cynthiago at the mill.
And then they talk about the sands and Genny says
that the spirit was frightened, So something's going on, you know,
something that spirit would be scared of. M h. While
they're talking, Ginny does end up sharing that back in California,
she did almost run away with the guy that her
dad didn't like. So that and she's saying this too
to Betty, to Betty okay, not Carolyn, No, not Carolyn okay,
because Betty goes to check on Ginny and they talk
about Carolyn right, maybe getting a job for something that
goes right, But Jenny tells Betty that Jenny almost ran
away with the guy. Yes, right right. I just feel
like she would have sent this to Carolyn, who then
would spread like, oh, well she's did it before. Yeah,
And she doesn't share it with Carolyn, but it does
get around later and it is part of the reason
her investigation her disappearance not really investigated. So it's November
now and Betty finds that Genny's been reading books about witchcraft.
She's obsessed, and she's also been acting weird, like she
thinks someone's following her, watching her from the window. She's
seen floating orbits of the lights hovering in the trees.
And one morning, Ginny wakes Betty up and she rushes
her outside to show her footprints by their window, proof
that someone's been watching her. And that morning Betty hears
Carolyn and Carolyn's dad. She hears Carolyn's dad telling Carolyn,
you need to pick up the pace. Things are getting dire,
and Karlyn's like a little bit easier if we only
needed one, and she's like, why do we need two?
And then the dad's like, well, you know why symmetry.
Wow Wow, Okay, I must have not been paying attention
because I don't remember this. Yeah. Yeah. So then Betty
goes to talk with Carolyn. She's like, hey, I'm kind
of worried about Ginny, and Karen's like, gosh, she probably
just you know, wants attention again, and then they hears scream.
So it turns out there's a dead rat in Genny's sheets.
That's why she's screaming, just like the yeah, the dead
rat that she saw. So then r after that, it thinks,
give me a break. Everyone leaves and Betty comes back
earlier because she needs to work. She's a working goal. Yeah,
she needs money. Yeah, And she's surprised to find Ginny
there at the house because everyone usually comes back way later.
And it turns out that Ginny came back earlier than normal,
earlier than planned, because Edgar got mad at her because
she was playing. She was placing in prospective charms at
his family's house, and she's just trying to protect herself.
But he thinks doesn't accept anywhere except that he thinks
she's creepy. But he regrets that. Oh, I'm sure because
later on he does. But this has to do. This
has to be why. He later asks, like obsessed will
find out what happened to her? He's like, if only
I had believed her, Yeah, yeah, And they also have
another fight because during her trip, she comes back early
because while she's over there, Ginny's dad calls her because
someone sent him a letter expressing concern of her mental health.
Probably Carolyn, I can only assume, Yeah, and so yeah, everyone,
because then if the dad is like, you need to
come back home, and then she goes and she disappears, right,
make her job easier, Yeah, And so yeah, everyone thinks
Genny's losing it basically, Yeah. After Thanksgiving, Ginny only gets worse.
And who's there to step in, Carolyn? Wow, what a coincidence.
So at this point Edgar is so worried for Ginny
and he asks Betty to talk Ginny to seeing a doctor.
And it's now December and one night Betty and the
rest of the roommates can't find Ginny and one of
them is like, oh, she's probably with Santiago, just a
baseless rumor, and this actually pisses Betty off. She's like,
stop fucking spraying shit around. They all the fuck She's not,
are you, dumb bitch? And Genny gets home after curfew
and she ends up telling Betty that she got lost
coming back from the library because the path just changed again.
This has happened before. Yeah, and Betty's then after right, yeah,
and Betty is like, maybe she's seeing a doctor, but
this only pisses Ginny off, and Genny talks about feeling
like there's an invisible noose around her neck tightening every day,
and that something terrible is chasing her. And Betty's like,
maybe you should see a doctor. But Jenny, she's frazzled,
right she walks out, She's like, it's there between the trees,
hiding in the shadows. But they don't see anything once
they get outside. But that night both of them hear
a high pitched noise like an owl. Yeah, an owl.
And so then we're at the day that Genny goes missing.
Betty is working at a dinner party in exchange for
being allowed to stay at stone Ridge or the win
or break, and she's expected to work during the whole party.
Betty tries to convince Ginny to stay somewhere else until
two PM, which is the time that Edgar's supposed to
pick her up. But Ginny's like, I'm fine, I'll be
I'm fine. I'm safe in my room for many curses
because she puts up those protective charms, you know, yeah,
And Betty's like, oh my god, because she thinks, you know,
Jenny's lost a goddamn mind. Yeah, And so before leaving,
she's like, hey, if something happens, call me at this number.
I'll be here. And around seven pm, Ginny calls Betty
and she's like, I know who'll bewitch me, but I
can't speak their name because I've been tongue tied. And
then she's like, if something goes wrong, find bell, book
and candle before hanging up. Whatever that means. Betty never
finds out what that means. Yeah, and Betty streaked out, understandably,
so she leaves a party. But when Betty gets to
their room, Ginny isn't there, but her and her knitting
stuff are still there. All her stuff is still there,
everything mm hmm. And she's nowhere in the house either.
So then Betty goes outside and she find the trail
of footsteps and follows them. But soon the footprints just
become a jumble of steps and they end near a tree.
And on this note, there's a single drop of blood.
And then Betty at you know, her story ends by
just her sharing how botched the investigation into Genny's so
the parents was and how over the years Edgar was
only one who understood how she felt about Genny going missing.
And then of course we learned what actually happens in
min Neva's story when Carolyn tells her how did she
get her to get out of her protected room? It
just wasn't strong enough for both, for both of them,
her dad and her. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, this makes sense.
Oh and later when min Neva is in the same room,
Carolyn can't go in. But it's just Carolyn, it's not Carolyn.
And she's also protected by Ginny's ghosts like robbers, not
allowing Carolyn to enter the room. Yeah, okay, but they
also could have drawned her with something too. We don't
know that's true. True. I'm curious, I wonder, but I
think it was that that it was just she wasn't
strong enough against both of them, especially the dad being
an older warlock. Yeah that makes sense, all right, And
this is all timelines. Now, yep, we did it. We
got through it. And you know what, for three separate timelines,
that was pretty good. Good discussion questions. The first one,
as min Neerva investigates Beatrice Tremblay's life and the events
behind the vanishing, she recalls stories her grandmother told her
about witchcraft. Well, lessons do you think Minerva draws from
her grandmother's stories? I mean, I think that she has
learned to just like everything, no, well everything, but like
that these things are real, that things this. Yeah. She
has learned to believe in witchery yeah yeah, and it's
real and dangerous and her Nana Alba taught her how
to protect herself. Yeah, and she follows those things and
she wins. She also I think she gets more in
tune with her own patents because at the end she
realizes like, oh, these aren't just migraines. Yeah, that too,
That's true. So much so that she can't even trust
Noah at the end, even though they were friends. I thought, well, actually,
since you said that, I think that kind of brings
us to the next question. Oh, what did you make
of the relationship between Minneva and Noah. How would you
describe their relationship? What do you think it draws them
to each other? Oh? Okay, So I thought she was like, oh,
he's just another Brady kid, privileged Braddy, you know kid.
But then as they talk more, I thought they were
getting close, and not in a romantic way, but I
thought like in a friendly way, like they were going
to be friends. I kind of felt like there was
vibes between them that even me. Nedava's like, you know,
when they're like going on coffee dates, he's like talking
to her a law more and he's like, you're so
close off blah blah blah, and there I feel like,
I feel like he tries to like flow with her,
and she's kind of like because I think there's even
some parts that She's like, I could I could see
something there, you know, So yeah, I feel like I think, yeah,
I feel like, if obvious, leave the witchcraft, the bewitching
hadn't happened, take away who his mama or who his
grandma is, I feel I mean, I don't think anything
would ever happened serious, right, because he has his future
planned out, he has he's engaged. I think I skipped over.
I don't think I mentioned any of that. But he's engaged,
you know, because these this Foumily does arranged marriages and
whatnot to keep the riches and the business going. But
he clearly doesn't want that life, although at the end
he kind of resigns himself to it. And at first
they're kind of like opposite, right, Like she she's like,
I'm way better than you. I'm like, waste more than you,
but I earned this. I yeah, it's just a baby
worked for this. Yeah, I'm Barbie and you're Can not
the can I want to be with. Yeah, right, although
she kind of does. I think she kind of does. Yeah,
well maybe in the middle. Yeah, not at the end. Yeah,
not at first and then yeah yeah yeah yeah, I
don't know. I mean I think that she does kind of,
you know, is drawn to him a little bit more
like in the middle. But if I had to think
about what draws her to Noah, I feel like I
can't really say. I mean, he's kind of charming and
he's funny, he's he's friendly. I would say his like
not honesty, but like he well, no, I guess his honesty,
like he says things how they are like yeah, I know,
that's why. I like they're kind of like opposite. Yeah.
I think that's what draws maybe each other yea for
her to him that she is not like that, yehond
But also she kind of she doesn't have time to
waste on friendly like ten conversations. She wants to get,
you know, into the thick of like the deepness of conversations.
That's one of the what the one of their fights
is about. I think after he takes her back to
the dorm after the party and she's like, oh, so
you only want to talk to me when you need
something from me, And she's like, I didn't ask him
for anything. Yeah, yeah, so yeah. I think they're the
Their differences in personality and upbringings and just way of
being is what draws into each other. Yeah, but I
guess they're not friends. They're friendly a little bit. Okay,
let's see me. Neva story is set at Stone Ridge,
a fictional university inspired by the school the author attended.
What makes university such popular settings for spooky and dark tells?
What are some of the local legends you learned about
your own schools? Oh? My god, schools, they're scary. They're
scary places. There're a nightmare. That's why there's the perfect
setting for a spooky story. Let me tell you my
recurring nightmare is that, like when I'm stressed and I
know I'm stressed, is because I had this nightmare. I'm
in school. It's usually high school or college. Sometimes it's college,
and I'm like, I don't have my schedule printed out.
No one can tell me where my classes are, No
one can help me find my schedule. Sometimes I find
you and you're like, bitch, I don't know where you're
supposed to be. No one's helping me, and I'm in
the wrong class, and actually I don't even know because
I don't know where I'm supposed to be. I have
had that I'm like in high school, and then I
go to the school counselor's office and they're like, you
don't even go here. And then I have a different
version for your college and that's that's the one where
I find out I have a class I'm in and
I have gone all semester because I didn't realize I
wasn't enrolled in this class. So then I show up
and it's the final, okay, and it's mad final. No. Yeah,
same actually have that version too. Yeah, I have a
work version where and I just dreamt this. I'm not
even stressed out really about again, but I dreamt this
like just the other night, and it was that I
had to be at work early because I had a
deadline and I had to file something by like in
the morning, early in the morning, and then I wake
up that I missed my alarm and it's like ten am,
and I never I think I haven't been to work
and I missed my deadline. That's funny anyway, past our
nightmares of school and I did I did love all
the tali ins with New Hampshire and Boston and the
I was gonna say that missing people and yeah, and
of course that we didn't really get into in the recap,
but the book goes into a little bit like about
that the people like missing and the uncanniness, the mysterious,
uh mystery of it, and like other like when Noah's
sharing his ghost story with Mi Netava, they talk about
some other local legends like it's so spooky that i'mosphere,
I love it. Yeah, and that side of the country
super haunted. Yeah a school and that side of the country, oh,
super haunted. But yeah, no, schools is a place of
huntings and there's so many different energies, so many different
people going, and sometimes traumatic things happen at school more
now than ever unfortunately before. Unfortunately, but I mean that's
why there's so many legends of like, oh, the school
theater is haunted, and like the ghost of a kid
who was in theater and then like died, my suicide
haunts this theater. There's so many sorts like that, and
if for a local college, for us. It was a
Mills College. Is that what it's called. Yeah, and that's
a really old college college and more confidence. You passed
by the gates and it looks I literally driver them
all the time because that's the exit that I take
to go visit our dad. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah it
looks scary, it looks haunted. I don't remember the legends anymore.
We did. We do have an episode on them. Yeah,
one of our school episodes. We I think I was
a guy stat that way before I was from in it.
Yeah you were, yeah, yeah, but there's like at least
three or four stories in that college alone. Like yeah, So,
was there a scene that you found most frightening or unsettling?
Oh yeah, I think the one with well it happened
to mine and Jenny, but I think we really get
a more feel for it in minette Ra's timeline. But
when she is lost in the the wherever she's walking,
like yeah, it changes and it's dark and she hears
someone following her. I think that's that was the scariest.
There's like footstep, but there's someone there and she feels
like she's being watched. That was I think the most
un settling scene. For me, either that one or no,
I think that one. Okay, for me, it was the house, Uh,
when Minette vs at the house and then what happens first?
I don't remember what happens first, but she hears like
a knock at the house, the phone rings and they're scratching,
and that was so eerie. Yeah, you know what? Yeah,
that one was. That one was pretty bad too. What
similarities you notice between the women and there are timelines? Man,
what similarities? Well, I guess I should say the rest
of the question, and what are some differences in the
way that they respond to the supernatural happenings they encounter,
and what do you think accounts for those differences? Okay,
I so before I get into the similarities, I guess
the differences. So Alba and Minerva, it's part of their
culture and their traditions, right, because Nana Alba passes on
this cultural way and took a while to get there. Yeah.
But the only reason she's able to be at Doudo
is because she takes the lessons from Valentine and she
and her dad and Petru Petua and she you know,
she's able to to fight because she believes and she
she did even when Valentine was the one saying you're
being bewitched. She believed the bewitching is true. She just
didn't know who was caused. She didn't and she didn't
want to believe it was causing it. But it's not
because she didn't believe in which crist right. And once
she learns and and she has a way to fight it,
she's fighting it, you know what I mean? Yeah, and
that's something she passes on to what is the thing
she says, you learned to live with it or something
like that. Yeah, and then me Neddva, she has all this, like,
like I said, cultural wisdom from Nana Alba, and so
it's part of her survival. Like that's why she's able
to fight because she she knows how to beat Carolyn.
No one else knew how to be Carolyn. And that's why. Yeah,
that's why she lives. Yeah. Yeah, and Genny. Nobody believes her,
you know, Okay, Genny, I was like, what about Jenny,
But like nobody believed me nedda Ba either, But but
we never took it upon herself. She doesn't need Yeah. Yeah,
and Jenny, I don't think Genny knew I need to
Genny was more in tune with like the ghosts and
the spirits, just like commas. Yeah, oh my god. Jenny
and Thomas were basically the same. Yeah they were, and
they just didn't they didn't have like that knowledge about
which is like Neda did. Yeah. Yeah, and even though
all of them believed, yeah, they didn't know how to
fight it. Yeah, Genny didn't have the knowledge. Yeah, what
about to Marty's can you think of any I'm sure
there are that they all believed that. They all believed,
like I'm all like, I'm sure there are, yeah, the
other otherness, paranormal, normal, Yeah, yeah, it's just the only
the difference is that Jenny didn't know how and they
all had the abilities which made them targets. Yes, yes,
And just the difference with Alma and Alba and me
Neva is that they were able because of their culture
and these stories being passed down and where they lived
and you know, their background, they knew how to fight
it or they learned how to fight it, and Jenny
didn't have that. And also I guess Genny was alone
because me did well, No, I don't think anyone really
believed me Neva. Me never had her ancestors with her,
but Alba had Valentine and Valentine and Perpetoin. I was
so so devastated, but yeah, she had them, and her
dad also imparted like this knowledge on her although he
wasn't there, but she knows she had his wisdom with
her too. Yeah, and I think even though in the
sense of like Jenny and mi Nevra were both like alone. Yeah,
but min Neva again had her ancestors with her basically,
and Jenny didn't have that, And I don't really chose
important of ancestral knowledge. Yeah yeah, wait, wait, what do
you think will happened to me Neva after afterward the
story ens, Like do you think she's going to get
more into the witchery stuff? Like she's I think she's
fully in now, Oh, she's fully in. And I think
she's gonna become a famous author. She's gonna become Syria.
I think that's who is going to Yah. Yeah, she's
gonna finish her dissertation, She's going to publish. This book
is going to be like written in a way where
it becomes so popular. She's going to finish like Beatrice's
unpublished manuscript about Jenny that's going to be completed. She's
gonna tie it into her her. She's gonna write the
bewitchy She's gonna write and then she and then she'll
write more books. Oh yeah, no, I'm serious. No, yeah, no,
I'm believing. Okay, okay, I'm picking up what you're putting down. Yeah, okay, good, good, Okay.
Should we rate the book final dots? Okay? This book
for me ten out of ten, ten carn stains out
of ten, carn steins r P. Yes, the cat, yeah,
thet Yeah. I mean this book had everything that I
would want in a book. It had timelines. Oh sorry,
I was gonna say. It also gave me the most
perfect fall vibes, even though it doesn't exactly happen in
the fall, but for some reason, it just gave the falls,
except from it's set from like October to or yes,
it starts in the summer break, remember, yeah, from Netta.
But yeah, just I don't know, it's just the college settings.
Let me pictures that beautiful, those beautiful pictures of the
East coasts in the fall. I started reading this in
the summer beach and I finished it in the fall
with all the trees changing colors. Amazing that was the
perfect time to be reading this, Yeah, yeah, it really was.
But you could even be reading this in December, because
there's December timeline. This is it's a season book and
all the scenes that's happened, which means, uh, no, I
had everything I needed in a book for me. Is
a ten out of ten, Like you said, a timeline
I love like a different timelines, especially with the Nana
Alba and the Minetteva tie in like a yeah, generational,
But it also didn't feel it didn't feel disconnected with No,
it all tied in together. Yeah, with Beatrice, yeah, through
through Mi neet Ba and all tied together. Yeah, because
sometimes timelines can go wrong where they feel disconnected, yeah,
or disjointed or switching back and forth as unnatural, and
this was not like that, especially how the end of
I don't remem if it. I think it was min
Neva's chapter. How you have the end of nan Alva's
story there as well, Like it was just perfect the
way it was written. It just blends into the other.
And yeah, again I'm seeing the critiques. I know I
saw one of them. You haven't seen any critiques, oh
the the the Alba, Oh well yeah I did see
the about that. We did, say, I feel like our
thoughts on that a little bit earlier. No, we did.
It's because I saw one specifically. Okay, like share they wrote,
well it was normal back then. Okay, well it was normal.
It doesn't mean I gotta like it. You don't have
to like it to read. No one's liking it. We're
all cringin she she didn't write it. Okay, when I
was reading it, it was it didn't look like it
was meant to be like you're supposed to like it. No, No,
that was a critique. I think these practices that did happen,
it still happened, unfortunately, So what happens, it still happens,
like to say, and this isn't a celebration of that relationship.
I don't know, never at any point in fact, it
almost I feel like I feel like Alba was taken
advantage of one hundred obviously, like yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah,
So I don't know. I don't understand those critiques either.
And even at the end, Alba never like, yes, she
admires him, she you know whatever, has this crush on
him that he took advantage of. But at the end,
she's not thinking of him, like in any positive way.
She's like, I survived him, Yes, yes, like that was
the worst thing that happened to her and she survived him. Yeah,
that's how she describes it, Like, come on, Yeah, so
I don't understand those critiques at all. Yeah either, but
yeah otherwise, Yeah, perfect book for me. Ten out of ten.
What about you? Definitely? Yeah, ten out of ten. Okay, Yeah,
again we're biased, Like, well, I feel like I'm obviously
I love everything she writes, but I have rated other
stuff like three and a high never twenty five. Yeah,
it means I still like it. It doesn't mean it
is a fair Yeah, this is a fair rating recommendation
from us. Yes, ten out of ten for sure. Yeah, okay,
I think that brings us to the end of the episode. Yes,
and we do have our next book already picked and
read by me, we do. What is it? Oh my god,
Oh my god. It's The Possession about It by the ass. Yes,
I'm halfway through. I'm almost done. Yeah, I gotta start
working on those, I guess, but I mean that'll be
probably January. I think January. Yeah, I'm sure you'll be done, right.
That's going to try and be done. We were ambitious,
we were overly ambitious. So I finished, I'd finished. It
was me this time. Yeah, we said we were hoping
to finish both of these books by the end of
the year. But look, we got done with one. They'll
be witching, yeah with one. And uh yeah, we'll be
back with our next book Club episode for the Possession
of the Ads. So I won't share anything, even though
I'm dying too. I've been enjoying it, all right. So yeah,
other than that, let us know what you thought of
this book. Did you love it as much as we did? Yeah,
let us know, did you not? Even if you disagree,
you can let us know. Yeah, yeah, and we'll fight you.
And I'm just kidding, but okay, I guess that brings
us to the end. Thank you everyone for sitting with us.
Hopefully you stayed the whole time. Hopefully and even if
you heard it in pieces, we had a good time
party about it. So we did. We had a great
time talking about it. And yeah, I don't know, watch
out for dead rats and balls of fire outside that too. Yes,
all right, stay spooky, we'll catch up one next time.
Bye Bye. A Book Tells is hosted by Christina and Carmen,
produced and edited by Christina by Christina Carmen and with
the help of Don Shout Out Don. If you aren't
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