April Book Club Discussion: Yesteryear

[MUZI] Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Yes, okay. Let's off the top for people who haven't read it. There's going to be a lot of spoilers in this because there have to be spoilers. And I have found since I read it, the ending has actually completely colored. How I feel about the rest of the book in not a good way. I don't, I'm not particularly like bugged by tradwife influencers. I think they're like setting, you don't think they're like setting feminism back 50 years. I don't because I actually think what they're doing is feminist in that they are fronting their own, but they don't know that way. They might not know that, but I know that. Right. Right. No, it's true. And that's like the irony of the whole thing. Yeah. But also, it's like what somebody does to me, like what one person is doing, like the whole tradwife thing. It doesn't, I think, actually affect the collective. And maybe that's like being in my little West Coast bubble. But like just because they're a bunch of tradwife influencers, like couldn't affect my life less. Sure. Yeah. No, it doesn't affect my life either, but I guess I do worry that. And like they touched on this in the book too, where it's like I do worry that this discourse about like women needing to be in the kitchen and not working. And like men should just expect that women stay home and like bake bread and take care of the children and don't want to work. Like I do think that that contributes to like the general political climate. Totally. The only thing I will say is, and maybe this is because we're also on Instagram, like I would never say that a tradwife influencer doesn't work because being on Instagram is so much fucking work. Exactly. Well, that's like the whole. What's her name? Piazza. She wrote a book on tradwife influencers. And yeah, that's what she says all the time is like it's the irony that they tell women to not work and to stay home and that their husband should be this will provide her meanwhile. They're like raking in thousands, if not millions of dollars for brand deals and doing this like content creation. Totally. And it's just such a scam. Totally. No, it is. I guess what I'm saying is like I just there's so many other things I can't. And a strong opinion on tradwife influencers is not something that I can have on my plate at this point in time. Yeah, so. Was there something else you want to add to that? No, I was going to just move on to talking about the book. Influencer who is very ballerina farm aka she's all about the tradwife life and she has like six kids her husband is of course like actually independently from a very wealthy family, which is very ballerina farm coded. And then one day she wakes up and she's in 1855 and she's actually like in this prairie life that she's been acting like she was living in this whole time in modern times. So you're reading it and you're like, how did that happen? How did she get back there? She's like trying to escape her kids in this life look like her kids, but they aren't her kids. Her husband is like the same but different and it kind of then flashes between her now in this 1855 life and her back in more like current present times before that happened. And then the final twist is revealed, which is that she is not in 1855. She is actually in a state of like deep psychosis essentially in the future in the future. She and her husband have decided to like actually live as if they are in 1855 because she had like a mental break and they are raising this second set of kids they have as if they're living in 1855. And then her kids are eventually taken from her and she is put into jail for 30 years for child endangerment. Very Ruby Frankie vibes. And if you're hearing that and you're like, wow that sounds like a fucking bummer. Yeah it is. Yes. Yeah. So let's talk about somebody wanted to know in our book club shot. What did you think the twist was going to be or what did you hope it was going to be before it was revealed. That there was just some time travel. That's something had happened. And she just was back in 1855. Like that was enough of a twist for me. I didn't need there to be another twist on top of what I thought was an already interesting story. Right. Yeah. I did kind of feel like I knew what was coming. I kind of like predicted the twist. But I was still kind of hoping for something different. Like I really liked for it to be and the book up until that point wasn't giving like supernatural vibes or anything. So that's why I was kind of like I don't think it's going to be like time travel or like a parallel universe or anything like that because that just it doesn't feel like the vibe. But I still was disappointed with the ending because it just need me sad. Okay, so I have to be honest. I did not like the ending. I felt like it kind of like yes, she was crazy at the beginning parts, but not in like an actual like you are now going to abuse your children kind of way. Right. And there were no like that felt out of the blue to me. And then it just was such a fucking bummer. And I was having such a good time reading it until that point of like I loved how bonkers she was as an influencer. I loved how unhinged she was in that she actually like inside was a horrible person and was getting herself pregnant with like a turkey based or doing all and had all these you know workers and all this stuff. Like I love that. I thought it was so fun. And then the ending happened. And I was like, oh, it feels that's also now. Yeah. And like to me, that was also what made the ending feel kind of unbelievable because she never actually wanted that life. And she also like, she also didn't really seem to give a shit what people thought of her. So I was like percent. So the premise that the end was basically like she was doing this penance basically right for like this big scandal that they were going through. She was like, okay, I'm going to have to like disappear now. And this is like my punishment to myself is to actually live this way. And I was like, this girl would never do that. No, I cared about herself completely agree. I completely agree that it felt very out of character for her to do that. I feel like it would have been so much more in character her for her to just like go live at her in laws house and like have to deal. I thought it would have been interesting instead to see her have to deal with not having followers and not having lights on her and having to live. And her husband just like a regular teacher. Yes, like that would have been more interesting to me. I really did not like the ending and it totally changed. Because again, it was like, I was laughing when she was like, I know I was loving the book. Yeah. And now again, it's like made it feel icky to me where I'm like, oh, I feel like should I be embarrassed that I said that I was liking like the beginning part of it knowing that like this was how it ended. No, because I think the general consensus is still that people love it. Like people are saying it's brilliant. It's very popular. It's doing really well. I think it's still. And I will say like I enjoyed the book. Like I enjoyed reading it. I finished it very quickly. It was the type of book that I didn't want to put down. I also think she's an incredibly smart writer. Like I really love the writing. Yes. But I think you hit the nail on the head when you said in the acknowledgements. Yeah. And people pointed out in our broadcast channel like, oh, my God, and halfway bought the rights. It's going to be turned into a movie or a series or something. And in the acknowledgements, Carol does say the first draft was basically handed over to. Yep. And halfway in like her production, Amazon. Yeah. And so that tells us that they had a say. Yes, because in the book. Yes, this was not a situation where the book was done and published. And then the rights were purchased. She literally admitted in the acknowledgements that at the first draft. Right. These people came on board and were involved. Meaning they had to say in the story. And I feel like I could see that coloring the ending because they wanted it to be like a juicier ending. Right. And maybe a more, yeah, and maybe a more true to life ending like the Ruby Frankie of it all right, you know, all of these like influencers and reality stars coming out now as like child abusers basically. It probably does lend itself better to TV if they if that's the ending versus like some kind of mystical time travel or, you know, right. Something else. I don't know, but yeah, that that was disappointing. Now I will be seated for the movie or the show or whatever. Like I will be seated. So Natalie is going to be played by Ann Hathaway, I assume. Yeah, who do you think should be cow. I have no idea. I was thinking James Marston, but he's so I feel like he's so attractive. And I couldn't imagine having a mushy, you know, I think I was just thinking that because didn't he play a cow? and something else. Wasn't his character named Carl and said, I think. Oh, maybe that's why, because I just finished. I was like, wow, he's picturing. I don't remember if Caleb, though, was described as super attractive. And he also wasn't named Cal. He was named Caleb. Okay, these are good and like, these are wires being crossed in my brain. Okay, scratch that. No, you're right. He needs to be somebody a little bit less hot. You know what? The only thing else I would say is completely unbelievable to me is the fact that they were living in this 1855 life for like 10 to 15 years. And nobody discovered them doing this or called the author. That's also because the internet is obsessed with where they now stories. Right. Well, and their children all knew where they were. So how did that not get leaked? And the older brothers helping them keep up the charade made no sense to me. No, it didn't. Yeah, I just did not like anything about the ending. And it also just made me so incredibly sad because I did love the characters of Maeve and Mary. Yes. And I also, like, even though she was kind of a monster, I was kind of like, I hate that they're being taken from their mom. Yeah. Like, I just, I hated that because I didn't feel she, I didn't feel like she was like, abusing them. Right. I don't know. I just, I didn't like that. Yeah, I guess it's just like, I wish they were two totally different books. For sure. Yeah. Exactly. Because like, okay, that was if we were doing a Ruby Frankie story like that, that would be a very interesting book. But I would like to know that that's the story I'm reading from the beginning. Right. Yes. Exactly. Okay. So what were your thoughts? Because the other, some of the other critiques, there was a garden guardian article that came out. And I actually agreed with a lot of what they said. Number one, did you feel so the author is now pregnant with her first child? Oh, interesting. Yeah. So she's so she wrote this not as a mom. And like, I, I don't think you necessarily have to be a mom to a good story about being a mom. But I actually did feel like a lot of the way she described things like breastfeeding and having young kids, I didn't find it super believable or engaging. And this article kind of like hit it on the head for me where it was like, yeah, there was no descriptor. Like when she talked about breastfeeding, she just used the word breastfeeding. She never talked about like a lot down or a latch or like how it was painful or like those little details that make you feel like this really is a mother. I, I see that though. And to me, that fits Natalie because she wouldn't pay attention to that shit because she did it. She's dictated all of it. She's so disengaged that she wouldn't notice any of that was happening. She wouldn't even register it. I actually liked the way she described postpartum and the way she was feeling about her baby, which was that she thought her baby was evil because I feel like that is probably some people's experience. And that, and she was like so unbonded. And she just went on and that actually felt very appropriate to the character. Yeah, true. That's a good point. So like that didn't bother me. I was just like, oh, that's just so, I mean, this sounds horrific because like that said, but I was like, oh, that's so Natalie. But there were parts where she was like, yeah, my baby's looking at like, I think my baby is evil that I was like, I enjoyed reading that. Yeah, I mean, I think that is probably like you said, it's probably a feeling that lots of people have but won't ever say out loud. Now one other thing that did bug me about Natalie as a character and as a mother, you and I both have both boys and girls. Did you find it weird that she like literally never mentioned her sons and only had serious like strong emotional ties to her daughters? I didn't think it was weird. Well, what I noticed was that she referred to her sons in like more loving ways than she did her daughters. And that felt to me like, yeah, I guess that's true, but like she had very few interactions with the boys. I kept being like, where are the boys? She's only ever talking about her daughters. Yeah. No, we're interacting with them. I think that's like probably like a tradwife thing. It's like, I take the girls. You take yeah, which it was like Cal took the boys on that whole like journey when they did whatever I mean, she definitely had like postpartum deep postpartum mental health issues that no, yeah, addressed. Yeah, but I it's just such a bummer because like I loved the first part of the book. Like I love all of that. I know. And it really has like changed that for me. Like we couldn't have the author on this podcast because I wouldn't be able to pretend to be like, that was such an interesting choice at the end. I'd be like, what were you thinking with that ending? Yeah. No, I would be so curious though. And maybe she's talking about it while on book tour. I don't know, but I would be so curious to find out how much the production company I should never say the end she probably couldn't say. No, but don't you agree that would be too like, I also don't mind if I'm reading a book that has no supernatural things. And then it is just like, Oh, yeah, there was some weird ripple in time and then she time traveled 1855 and she was like stuck there. I would have been like a elaborate dream sequence or like something. Sure. Yeah. But I would have liked and again, I would still, I would still be interested in a Ruby Frankie style book where that is the ending of it. But again, I have more of an idea because I just feel like I was like misled or like bamboozled. Yeah. Yeah, it definitely felt like, Oh, okay, this is just the most logical explanation. Yeah. Like the most logical explanation is that like actually nothing supernatural happened. This is just your life. There's just no way. And I know there are probably families that do shit like that because did you ever read the book educated? Yes. Okay. So she similarly though was like living in a life where her and I know in religious circles, like there are communities. Yeah, very off the grid or they don't do school or like things like that. But it would be so unrealistic that the son of this like huge American family who had a failed presidential bid but was still very well-known would be living this life with no one knowing and no one intervening and no one talking about it for like 15 years. Right. Until the older daughter finally like took the kids. Like that would never happen. Yeah. No, it would be very unlikely that they would just be able to disappear like that for that long. Yeah. Yeah. Now, okay, there was one other thing that happened that I was kind of confused by. So remember when she was in the 1850s life and she was with old cow and he's like basically like, erasing her. And but she's saying that she's being like sexually satisfied by her husband for the first time. I've finally had an orgasm. Right. But like what changed? So what I had, when not because I went on Reddit and basically it was like, oh, he finally was like fully hard and like, right. But why? Because he was finally like the man of the house and in control and dominating over her. And like that this whole manosphere had like finally given him the power over her that he always wanted because she was now like a true trot wife, not an innocent trot wife. And also like deeply mentally unwell. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So and I guess that's but I was very confused. Also speaking of when she's attacking producer Shannon. Right. The lesbian of it all. Right. Because that I didn't do that. Actually, did that happen? No, because when she's describing it from her point of view, she's like, I was all of a sudden on top of her. Right. Her pants had like shimmyed down because I was choking her. Right. But then later it's described as this like erotic moment. Assault. Yeah. I didn't. To me, it was like, I wonder if she was what she was trying to get at like a commentary on like what's worse for a woman to be like, is it worse for a woman to be violent or to be gay? Right. In our culture. I don't know. I mean, I don't know if that's what she was trying to do. But like it was very confusing. And I know that also obviously Natalie is like a very unreliable narrator. Right. So who knows if her point of view is actually what happened? Right. But that came out of the blue to me. Totally. Did you have one? And there was no, yeah, there was no, for me, there was like no lead up to that either. Like there were never any other exactly like there were never breadcrumbs of like, oh, and then she hated rena so much, but then would go like masturbate thinking about her. Exactly. Which would be like a little breadcrumbs. That would have been like a tie and like maybe she's having these spots. Yeah. Exactly. Or like that that's where that's coming from. Right. Maybe it's implied and we're just not picking up on this. I don't know. It's entirely possible that I'm not smart enough for this book. I don't think so. Okay. And there was a time where when we read the compound and somebody had like this crazy like review of it. And we were like, whoa, I'm right. We were like, well, we didn't pick up on any of that. So the reality shown the desert. Yeah. I don't think we're missing anything in this case. No. And I mean, because I listened to the podcast of Kara, which is diabolical lies and it's a very, very good, really well done podcast. I subscribed to it. It's the only podcast I actually paid a listen to. I do know how deeply smart she is. Yeah. So throughout I was thinking like, I wonder if she's trying to do this or I wonder if she's really trying to communicate this. And like, I don't normally think about books. That way I kind of just read them for face value. And like if I pick up on a theme, that's great. That's a little treat like go me. But this one I was kind of like intentionally looking for things like, like that. Like what is she actually trying to convey here? What is she commenting on in our, in our current culture? 'Cause that's just what she does. And I thought like the political scenes were very interesting and the way she chose to describe those was really interesting. - Yeah, I wish a little bit more, like when producer Shannon comes up to her after the rally and she's like, did you not hear what he was saying? Like he's gonna win. I was like, what did he say? - Exactly. - 'Cause we didn't get to hear what he was saying. - No, and we didn't really get to hear Natalie's thoughts on any of it. - Right. - Like you were kind of left wondering if she believes in that stuff or if she's just performing that she believes in it because it hoves her too. - Right, right. - No, I'm very curious. - Would you, if somebody asked you about this book, would you say, oh my God, it's such a good book. Like what would you say now that you finished it? - It's a really good question because I did, again, like I did really like it and I enjoyed reading it and I think it's a well-written book overall. - I would probably still recommend it and say I really liked it. - Yeah, but I don't think I would be able to be like, oh my God, it's so good you have to read it. - No. But then I feel bad because if you had caught me at the first 60% of it, I would've been like-- - Even the first 75. - Stop what you're doing and go read this book immediately. It's so good. - I know. And for that reason, I still would recommend it because other people might feel differently about the ending and they may think the ending really made sense and it was like a logical ending and people might like that. - I'd be curious for anybody listening to let us know if you guys, either in the broadcast channel and we can put like a question in the broadcast channel or in the comments, like if you go on Spotify and leave comments. Did you like the ending of this book? Did you feel like it ended the way you wanted to? And I will say this, I don't judge the ending for a book based on if it ends the way I wanted it to end when I was reading it. Like I understand that there are gonna be books that end in ways that I wouldn't have dreamed, like that wouldn't have been my favorite way to end it. Or that just like make me sad and like that's okay. It doesn't always have to be a happy ending. - Exactly, but this isn't that for some reason. It feels like more, and I feel like I just keep going back to being like, I feel like I was like hoodwinked or bamboozled or it like came out of nowhere because it just kind of feels like it's the easy way out. And when you're reading a book that supposedly has this like crazy twist, you don't think it's gonna be like, okay, this is just the thing that makes the most logical sense. - Right, and with someone had said in the broadcast channel that they felt like she didn't know how to end it and like got lost at the ending. And then this is how it happened. And it does then again make you wonder like how much of that was like Amazon and Ann Hathaway, like steering the ending. - Right, and I'll be very curious to see what they end up doing because in the book they switch, right? They switch back and forth between Natalie, now and Natalie back then. And I'll be curious to see if they do the same thing in the show or if it's just like more chronological and like there's little flashbacks of things. 'Cause I think that could maybe make a difference too just like the format that it's laid out in. - I will also say though, like the behaviors of 1855 Caleb also did not fit at all with the Caleb that we knew the entire rest of the book who just like wanted to be a kindergarten teacher and like liked playing with cows and like now all of a sudden he's, and I guess maybe that's to say like that's how strong a poll the like red pill manosphere is. - Right, maybe. - That just felt like such a start, like why would he live his life like that? - Well, and his whole, yeah, 'cause his whole life had bad going along with whatever she wanted. So in that sense, like it kind of made sense. Like okay, I guess he's just like a passenger in his own life and he's just gonna follow along with whatever Natalie does. - Right, but he seems fine with that. - But yeah, I think towards the end it started to feel like who even is he? - Right. - And yeah, and like the sex thing didn't make sense to me. It just, he felt like a completely different person which was one reason why I think it's hard to guess the ending until you're a good way through the book because he seems like a completely different guy. - Yeah, and also because like when she says to producers, when he says about producer Shannon, like, oh, I'm gonna move to New York City with her. I'm in love with her. If she's pregnant, I want us to keep it. Like that is so, to me that feels like the core of someone just like golden retriever puppy dog idiot that we're then supposed to believe is like slapping his wife and like raising her and like, again, that it seemed like a totally different. - Yeah, and if there had maybe bed more background on like what exactly he was consuming online or like how has behavior changed over time? Maybe it would have made sense, but it really just felt very abrupt. - Well, also because the things they were saying he was consuming online were like about chemtrails and rad aliens, tunnels and aliens. Like if there was nothing about like, and again, unless I missed it about like women being the problem or like in cell stuff. - Right, which actually would have been more interesting. - Would have been more interesting and would have made more sense for then how he was acting. - Yeah. - And why do you like was all bought into this life? - Now one other thing that I didn't catch at all was that Maeve was apparently disabled? - Yeah, well 'cause Maeve, when you're reading it, you think she's like four and she's actually like 10. - Oh. - So she's mentally disabled. - When do we find out she's that old at the end? - We find out that she's that old because yes, when she's like, oh, I'm pregnant and they're like, you're 50. Even having Maeve 10 years ago was like a stretch. - Right. - Right. - And then they say that she gave birth and the baby was like blue until marriage even. - And it was a really traumatic birth, yeah. - Yeah. - Okay, I missed that. - I missed that. - Yeah. - Or I didn't connect that. - Okay, that makes more sense. - Very sad. - 'Cause the way she's described to you would think she's like four, maybe five. - Yeah. - See, that's another thing too. It's like, I don't want to be like 11 a book. That's about child abuse. - Well, that was kind of getting into that at the beginning. - I know, that was kind of where I was going with like, just, I don't need an ending to be happy. But to me, like there's really nothing that I want to read about less than child abuse and being taken away from their mother. - Yeah. - Like that just is not something I ever want to read about. - No, and then, if I can help it. - Like, do you ever hear the story of the turpins? They were like trapped in a house horribly abused. Were rescued, one of the girls like escaped and got help and they were all rescued. - So this is very similar to the Ruby Frankie story. - Yes. - Okay. - And that though, then their lives after were like horrible because they have to like try to assimilate. And so like, it's like, oh, we're reading about this horrible abuse happening in the moment on this prairie farm. But now I'm also thinking about like when they were like, oh, Mary's really not doing well. Like the boys are really not good. I'm like, oh, so awesome. - Yeah, no shit. - Now I have to think about how they're so fucked up and miserable even 20 years into the future now. - Right, and like Maeve loved her mom. Like even though she was not, like Natalie was not well. Like Maeve loved her so much. And like for her to picture her being taken away at the end, like really just, I did not. I did not want to picture any of that. I didn't want to picture that either. And then I guess also too, it's like what was Natalie's psychotic break choosing to be live this 1855 life or how she keeps like snapping out of it and thinking she's somewhere else. Like and how often was that? - Right, well had to have been a little bit of both because like, but also that was a part of the ending that I was like, okay, so you're remodeling your entire house again to make it look even older. - Yeah. - Like they're removing their appliances. Like they're doing a lot of actual work to this house to make it feel like they're like replacing all of their bedding, replacing all of their clothing. - Right, taking their out house. - That's those, yeah, those things are not being done by a mentally unwell person, I don't think. Like that takes a lot of planning and time. - Right. - And it's, yeah, so that, yeah. So I don't know if that's, if it was supposed to be like, okay, this was her punishment to herself that she was just gonna like go all in on this old lifestyle and do this to just disappear from society. But then also she's like coming in and out of consciousness all the time. - Right, and like how often is that happening too? Where they're like, this isn't like new for them. - Right, because that was very clear that they were used to dealing with her this way. - Right, but like to deal with 10 years of that. - Right, right. - And then for the older daughter Clementine to be like, oh yeah, well it took mom finally stumbling in for the brothers to realize how crazy she was and to stop like helping them live this life. And it's like that's what it took. It didn't take you seeing like an emaciated child, like trying to milk a cow. - Right, yeah, yeah. It was just, I mean, I don't know, just really disturbing at the end. And like you said, the beginning was kind of like funny. - It was so funny and fun. I loved it. I took screenshots of it was like loving me because also as people that are in the influencer life, well that's what I was gonna ask you about next was like how close to reality did you feel? It was describing being an influencer. - Very close. - Yeah, did it make you rethink anything? - No, because I already don't show my kids and I don't include my kids. And if I do, it's like a picture of my kids doing something, like they're not in any ads, I'm not filming them. So I was very glad about that. it did make me laugh when she was like thank you Lord for we're at almost five million and souls on our YouTube channel. And I was like, oh, yeah, I could see that happening. It was so funny. It was also so funny to hear about her like being approached in public. Yeah. And just like how that feels and how she felt like, I mean, she did something really agree just by leaving her baby in the car when she was at the store. But it was unfortunately a feeling that I can relate to just like being out in public and feeling like you're kind of being watched or like people are judging everything you do. And like they're going to go back to Reddit and like report on what they found or something. Like that has happened. That has happened to me. Somebody reported about you on Reddit after they met you. Somebody saw Marley in a Walmart parking lot when we were in Connecticut back visiting my parents and they like posted about it on Facebook. And like in a very nice way like, oh, I just thought, I just thought, hey, these sleepy babies husband at Walmart. But I was just like, oh, that is crazy. Like that's, yeah. I will say, this is what bothers me too. It's like when she left June bug or dresser whoever it was in the car. I just was like, oh my God, that's like so classic Natalie. And like it was so horrible. But like I loved that addition to like building her character. And now I feel like it was an unpopular opinion that I had when I was like, I love her. I love her. I think she's so funny. I thought that's the thing. Like I thought she was so funny. I loved her. She was so fucking insane. She was a horrible person. But I loved it. Like I thought that was such an interesting character. Like I don't need likable characters. Like she was a monster. And I loved it. Until we found out she was an actual monster. And that has been how ruined. At least that frame from psychotic breaks the reality. Yes. But now it's like, that made it less fun. Exactly, so I'm saying like it was so fun before. And now I'm like so bummed that I like can't be like, wasn't that so funny? Because it's like, no, she was having a psychotic break. And that was really exciting. And I'm like, oh, well, it made me laugh. Yeah, I know. I mean, I still would recommend it. I still am happy I read it. Because again, it's like everywhere. It's going to be everywhere all year. So I enjoy having my finger on the pulse. Yeah, but you know what, I'm curious how many people that are like, oh, my God, it's so good. Like I want to hear what the thought of it is. Like, in a month after everyone's actually read it. And a few months after the fan fair dies down, yes. And they've actually read the whole Guardian, the Guardian article that I mentioned. I can link for people to read. Because that was the first like non-praise I had seen. Yeah. But I do think that influencer aspect of it was very interesting. Her online Natalie and her offline Natalie. And I did, but again, I liked that her offline Natalie was like a terrible person on hand. And it just horrible, and again, I loved it until we were like, oh, and now that's translated to her like literally abusing children. Yeah, and her kids are fucked up forever now. Yeah, but such a bummer, such a bummer, such a bummer, such a fucking bummer. All right, well, I'm very curious to hear what everybody else has to say. We could be totally out of pocket. And maybe everybody else loves the ending and thinks it's brilliant. So yeah, which is the beauty of a book is we all get to have our own opinions. A thousand percent. And I actually would love to hear people's takes if they did really love the ending, if that-- Tell us why. Yeah, tell us why. And not in like a combat of what I would love to hear. It's like when we had to, when we read, conform. And Carol Chambers had a totally different insight into it. And it actually changed the way I thought about the book in a more positive way. So I'm very open if people are like, oh, no, I loved it. Yeah, like please share that for sure. Yeah, agreed. OK, how many stars would you give it overall? It's so hard because 70%. I'd give it 10 out of five stars. I would give it so many fucking stars. I would shower it with stars. And now I'm like, I can't award stars to a book about child abuse. Do you know? I can't even do that. So maybe like four. Yeah. I think, again, it's hard. It's to me to completely different books. And like how do you review? The way I felt-- that is one book. So I know. I know. It's hard. It's really hard. I think I would give it my lowest rating out ever give a book, which is a three. Really? And that's only because I'm really upset by how much joy the ending took from the rest of the book for me. OK. Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's fair. I would say I give it a four just for like my overall enjoyment. Yeah, I probably give it a fact that it was like very well written overall. That's a good point. And I loved the initial premise. Like, I wish it had just been like-- and then she was stuck on the farm. Yeah, or something. No, I think your idea about like, stuck on the farm forever has been becomes a kindergarten teacher. Like, that would have been so funny. Yeah. Like, I would have loved to see her be like lower middle class-- Yeah, like just fall from grace. All of her money could take in from like lawsuits or something. Yes, like having to go through the world or nobody is saying anything to her. Like, I think that would have been an equally like fascinating study of this whole still world of like influencing and all of that. And like, no, they were saying like Shannon took all the footage of like the workers on the farm and all of that. Yeah, like what happened with all that? Yeah, like having that be the big expose that happens. Right. Would have loved that. Oh, well. Well, maybe she'll remember. She'll be seated for-- Yeah, I'll still be seated for Anne Halfaway's adaptation. Absolutely. We'll see. Yes, sure your thought. We love you guys so much for listening. If you are not already in the broadcast channel, you can find it on Katelyn's Instagram profile bio. It's the broadcast channel link. But it's there. Also, how dystopian is that we're ending this with like, and please rate and review. Yeah, please subscribe. Please subscribe. Follow us on Instagram. We need all the souls the Lord will send to us. This is not lost on me. Like, that us talking about this book is so fucking funny. You know what I kept thinking the whole time, though? I kept waiting for her to have to eat a meal and be like, oh, my God, you guys are eating so many bad parts of chicken. Because that would be my number one problem. But I don't think on a farm, you can have a bad piece of chicken. You have to just eat all of it. That would never survive. My number one problem. Be like, you're trying to serve me that part of the animal? Absolutely not. No. No, you would never be able to make it. I would never make it. And that's why Natalie is just incredible. She's an incredible character. All right, we love you guys so much. Thank you for listening. Rate, review, subscribe, follow. And bye. Yeah, bye.