Starling House (Pt. 2)

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to BMC Book Club. I'm Kristen. [00:00:03] Speaker B: And I'm Summer. This is the podcast where we bring. [00:00:06] Speaker A: You all the comfort and gossip of. [00:00:07] Speaker B: A regular book club. But just between you, me, and her. [00:00:10] Speaker A: You may be wondering what the B and the C stand for today. The B stands for bonus and the. [00:00:16] Speaker B: C stands for catapult. [00:00:18] Speaker A: But how have you been, my lovely cousin? What have you been up to lately? [00:00:22] Speaker B: I've been good. The holidays just passed, so I'm, like, in a weird space between holidays and starting my new job. So that's where I'm at right now. [00:00:34] Speaker A: That's exciting, though. [00:00:36] Speaker B: How was your holidays? [00:00:38] Speaker A: It was great. I saw you and I saw a lot of other family, so it was a lot of fun. Now I'm just kind of in a holding pattern until work starts as well, so. [00:00:48] Speaker B: All right, so we are on the second half of Starling House by Alex E. Harrow. Let's just say that at the end of this, I wasn't as satisfied with how I thought I was going to be with this book. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Okay, maybe we should just start off with where we ended. Basically, Opal found out what was really happening at Starling House and she got her blood mixed with Arthur's and was able to actually see the beasts and everything that was happening. And she got hurt and they kissed, and that's basically where we were before. But yes, overall, I will say I probably like the French half of this book more than I liked the back half of this book. But I didn't mind the back half of this book. I just think it was probably more simple than what we were putting into it. But we also have been reading 400 page books lately and this one is significantly smaller than that. So I feel like we were putting more plot into what it actually has. [00:01:42] Speaker B: I guess that's very true. We start off the second half in chapter 17. Opal asks Arthur what he means about being the last warden. He says that he wants to end the cycle. She asks about checking under the sycamore tree, and he says he has, which is something that we talked about the last recording. And I knew that it was just far too simple. She realizes that when he ran away is when she began to dream of the house. And then this time, Opal kisses Arthur. He, like, pulls away from the kiss, and she's asked if he's ever been kissed before. He reveals that, yes, he had a girlfriend before, but he's also had a boyfriend that was much more serious. And then Opal kind of just pops onto the couch and she's getting comfortable, and he realizes that she's hurt and recalls the night on the riverbank vaguely, because we're in his perspective and he's still trying to be vague. But at this point, we know that he's the one who saved Opal that night. He realizes the house called her and that she belongs there, unlike him, because he inherited it rather than was brought there by the house. And that's why his relationship with the house is so iffy and hers isn't. And that's why she and the house get along a lot better. Then Arthur reveals that the beasts mainly go after Gravely blood, so that's why her mother was targeted and all of her family is. He reveals that there was a day he let the mist rise and he didn't chase the beast, and it happened to be the day that her mother died. And so he blames himself. He says it's his fault. Opal is crying, and she tells him about the dedication in the book that he didn't know about, which is basically telling him to follow the beast and then just leaves the house with the key and is like, I'm out of here. [00:03:29] Speaker A: And she runs away like she normally does. That's what they said in the book, was that he told her to run, and she did again. She's already done this four times of him telling her a big secret and then telling her to run, and then she runs and then comes back later. But, yes, you were right. He definitely saved her on the riverbank, and that's the warm feeling that she felt. That's what I got out of this chapter. And I guess it was too simple for it to be under the sycamore tree. [00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:56] Speaker A: There is no key, which is weird. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Considering the ending is a little simple, too. [00:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Because before it was just find it under the sigmar tree. And then I guess the dedication is like, well, you can't find it under the sycamore tree anymore. You have to just follow them down. So next she leaves, and she's very upset about knowing what's really happened to her mother and how it wasn't her fault, because everybody in the town basically said that her mother did this to herself and that she wanted to commit suicide. But this entire time, Opal was like, no, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't knowingly drive off of this bridge. And so now she feels a little bit more validated about it. And so she stays in her room for three days just chewing about everything, and her brother doesn't come back. It seems like he's still with his friends. She just is in there not doing anything. Three days. And then Bev comes and checks on her on the third day and tells her that everyone in town knew that she was a Gravely. Like, just look at her hair. They just turned a blind eye like they always do and did that thing, which really upsets Opal. She can't believe that this entire town knew something about her heritage, and she did it. Because of this, she goes down a deeper spiral. And so even when Jasper comes back, he can't pull her out of the funk. And so she is still just depressed in her little hobble hole under the blankets, not wanting to get out or anything. Then it switches to Arthur's perspective, and we see Arthur drinking himself to death, basically. And it turns out Jasper went to go talk to him to see what was up with him because he wants him to, quote, unquote, stay away from Opal, even though Opal hasn't been leaving the house in, like, a week. But he's telling Arthur to stay away from his sister. And Jasper reveals that he already knows that he's a Gravely, which he tells to Arthur. And as soon as Arthur finds out, then he's like, you really got to leave this town. You don't understand. Everything is trying to kill you. You should not be here. Jasper is like, people tell me that all my life. I really don't care. I'm just gonna do whatever I want. It's my choice. And Jasper also says that he wants to leave town, but his sister will never leave town. And so if Arthur's gonna do something about things potentially killing Gravelies, he should probably do it soon so that his sister doesn't die. And then he leaves. And right before the chapter ends, Arthur realizes that Jasper took off with his notes. And so I assumed he was going to give it to Banes or something, that he did this because his sister is no longer accepting the phone calls that, like, band got to him and, like, he had to go find something so that nothing would happen. But that's not what happens. He actually doesn't get corrupted at all. He's fine. [00:06:33] Speaker B: I mean, that was a good theory, though. Yes. Yeah, I was upset at him because this whole time he knew that he was a Gravely and he just didn't say anything. And I feel like, tell your sister if you've suddenly realized this, because obviously she hasn't. [00:06:47] Speaker A: They keep things from each other a lot, the two of them. They're like, it would upset you. I'm just not gonna tell you I. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Guess that's a good point. They do keep a lot from each other. I. I mean, I was basically begging her the whole front half of this book to not keep things from her brother. [00:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:06] Speaker B: Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. Opal finally gets out of bed in this next chapter. The next day, she was a library to get her books that are on hold. Charlotte's there. She's kind of being snappy with her. Charlotte offers for her to move with her when she gets her master's degree because she's about to graduate and she's going to get a new job in a new town and wants Opal to leave with her. Opal declines and says she has to be here for Jasper. And then she goes back to her room and cleans it all up in a little cleaning montage we get. And then suddenly it's like a week later, and Jasper comes back and asks her what's up, and she begins crying, and then she just says that she fought with her employer. Jasper knows that there's something between them, and he ends up apologizing to Opal, and Opal apologizes to him. And then they're in a good place. She says she's gonna go ask for her old job back. And then her old boss actually gives it to her because she threatens child labor laws, because I guess she worked more than, like, 40 hours when she was underage or something like that and complicated. So he just gives it back to her. And then she falls back into this routine that she was in before she ever started working at the Starling House. And two more weeks pass. The only remnant of the Sterling house at this point are her dreams, and Jasper suggests she takes pills to sleep better, but she doesn't touch them because she likes the dreams. [00:08:31] Speaker A: This is when I was thinking that she misses him so much that it seems like she's gonna break soon and go and see him. But instead, she goes down to the office and talks to Bev to turn on the AC since it's been super hot in their room, and goes and gets her mail. When she is at her mailbox, she gets a letter from Stoneload Academy saying that the tuition for her brother is paid in full, along with a bunch of other stuff for his tuition. Board, food, everything that they could need for him to be there. And she knows that Arthur paid it and just sits down on the curb outside and tries not to cry. And so Bev comes out and tells her, like, hey, even though you never asked for help, I could help you. I've kind of always been Here for you. And Opal insists that she doesn't actually need any help, and she doesn't take charity and, like, all this stuff. And Bev is like, do you really think that I just let you stay here for free because your mom won a bed for me? Do you really think that's what's happening? If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't be doing this for you. So maybe think about what you're doing here and who's helped you out. [00:09:37] Speaker B: I thought about that when they used that as the excuse in the beginning of the book. I was like, what is stupid, stupid reason. I could never see that, especially the way she described her, like, her personality. Hell, no. She's not letting anyone stay there because they want to bet for the rest of their lives. Come on. [00:09:54] Speaker A: Right? Even if you know that the person is a gravely, like, something or other, like, don't tell my daughter. No, she would still have you pay rent. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Come on. [00:10:06] Speaker A: So I kind of started crying because. Oh, I'm emotional just in general in my daily life, and I'll cry basically once a day. And so this was one of my cries for the day. I have multiple from reading this book, but this is one of the first ones where I cried because I'm like, yeah, obviously she was taking care of you, dude. Bev says that she didn't tell her because she didn't want her to be aggrievedly. She was like, find your keepers. They didn't want you. I got to keep you. You're mine now. Your mom also died. I'm gonna take care of you. So that's one of the reasons why I didn't tell you, because why would I tell you? You don't need anybody but me because I'm your mom. [00:10:36] Speaker B: Duh. [00:10:37] Speaker A: She leaves right after this, but reiterates to Opal that if you ever need anything, you can always just ask me, and I'll be there for you. Opal then texts Arthur and asks him why he did it, and he replies that he didn't want her to come back to the house. Meaning I don't want you to need money and have to come back here in order to pay for your brother's schooling. And so he just paid it in full for her. But she thinks that he still wants her back, which is true. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:03] Speaker A: More time has passed, and she goes to Jack to school one day during her lunch break, and she finds her brother there with Arthur's notebook, and she's like, how the heck did you get that? He was like, oh, yeah, I stole it from him. And he's not telling you things. Let me tell you the story of what happened to the Wardens. And so he tells you the story of what happens to the Wardens. And basically, after the original Warden, who is Eleanor, every single Warden that came to the house would have dreams and then they would be there for a few years and then randomly they would turn up dead. So dreams and then death. Dreams and then death. Every single Warden, over and over again. And he says that the house calls people without homes. The only cost of this new home is blood. Literally. You have to take a blood oath in order to live at this house. But then this will be our house forever. And Jasper says that he's also been getting called to the house. But it's a choice. You can choose to not do this. And he doesn't want this to be Opal's life. And so he's trying to make her choose a different path. But she doesn't really want that, I don't think, because even during the story, she's kind of like, yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. [00:12:14] Speaker B: I do think that's kind of a good plot reveal, is that Jasper's like, you're not the only homeless person in this town. The house has been giving me dreams too. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:23] Speaker B: But he's been way better at denying them and staying clear and far away. [00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker B: Jasper asks Opal if the dreams have stopped. He then reveals that the Wardens are starting to die quicker and quicker. And he shows Opal the other half of the letter that she had already read. The letter basically says that it's up to Arthur to choose to be the Warden. He then reveals that he has had bad dreams this whole time too. And then he storms off. This is her brother, so I guess I was a chapter early. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Oops. [00:12:58] Speaker B: She's back at work. And then Elizabeth Bain comes to see her. So she's at the tractor supply place. Elizabeth Bane tells her that she's gonna pursue the house and she would like the keys. Opal literally tells her to fuck off. And then she ends up punching her in the face because she threatens her brother. She's just like, alright, I've had enough of this, and shoots one right to the nose. [00:13:20] Speaker A: Good fur. [00:13:22] Speaker B: She hangs out by the river after work debates, going back to see Arthur until she rings her brother to settle things between them because he kind of stormed off earlier and he doesn't answer. [00:13:33] Speaker A: And I had a feeling that she was gonna do something stupid. She doesn't necessarily no, not necessarily. But I thought she was gonna walk into the river right then and there, and I was like, you're about to do something stupid. But we have a couple more things to go to before we get to there. We are now with Arthur, and he wakes up from a call from Elizabeth Bain, and they talk about Opal, and he gets very defensive of her. He tries to brush off the matter with his house, saying it'll be taking up in court. If you really want to do this, it'll be years and years before you can ever set foot on this land. And she's like, yeah, before I might have believed you, but now I think I have the right incentive, so never mind. And she hangs up. And so there's definitely something that she knows. She realizes that she found his weak spot, which is Opal. So now he is going to do something stupid because the mist is here. [00:14:27] Speaker B: I was thinking at this point that maybe what Elizabeth was talking about is Jasper, because she has Jasper. But it's two chapters later, she reveals that it's not Jasper that she's talking about. So Opal keeps calling Jasper, and he doesn't answer. She calls his friend to ask if he's there, and he says no. She looks up in the sky and realizes that night isn't taking over because it's getting dark. It's actually a cloud of smoke from a fire. The fire's at the motel, and she fights her way to her room, and everybody's telling her not to go and trying to pull her back, and she's fighting through, and then suddenly she's taken down by a bunch of firefighters, and cops slap some handcuffs on her. And now she's being blamed for setting the fire by some witness that she does recognize as one of Elizabeth Baines men that's been working for her, one of the drivers or something. [00:15:21] Speaker A: And I can't believe that they're going to try and pin this on her. Really? We're going to try and pin this on her. She wasn't even there. [00:15:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:27] Speaker A: How is that going to work? [00:15:28] Speaker B: Well, it doesn't. It doesn't. [00:15:30] Speaker A: So, yeah, they. They got what they wanted ultimately out of the situation. But at the time, I was like, that doesn't make any sense. So now she's at the police station and getting a ton of calls from Arthur, but getting nothing from Jasper because she's still trying to get in touch with her brother. But Arthur keeps calling her phone. She can't answer, obviously, because she's at the police station. The constable is still trying to get her to go into their room when Bev and Charlotte come in, and they tell him that there's no way that she did it. She wasn't even there. And he's talking to Bev, and he says, like, obviously you would cover for her her, because she's your tenant. And Charlotte's like, well, I also didn't see her there. And so he questions why Charlotte was there. And that's when they reveal that Bev and Charlotte actually have been dating for a couple of years. And so that's why she's over at the motel all the time. [00:16:18] Speaker B: Love that. [00:16:19] Speaker A: And this is when Bane comes out of a room and asks to speak with Opal. They go into the room, and she reveals that she and her colleagues set the fire. They knew that Jasper wasn't in the room, but they didn't intend for the fire to get so out of hand. She realizes that that's probably the case, and the mist helped it along. They also have Arthur's legal pad they stole before setting everything on fire in her room. And she says that she's just paid to get results. Doesn't really matter how she gets them. She's just going to get them no matter what. Dawn Gravely then walks in and offers Opal and Jasper help and dinner and, like. And you guys can come over anytime you want. You're a Gravely. Of course we can take care of you. Yeah, it's been a few years. Sorry we didn't get back to you. But, like, obviously, if you're our family, we have to help you in some way. But only if you are able to get us the deed to Starling House so that we can actually start doing all of our Gravely power stuff over there. And get the coal that's in the. [00:17:18] Speaker B: Ground, please and thank you. [00:17:20] Speaker A: She refuses. And he reveals that his dad was actually going to leave everything to her mother, but she was killed before they could actually inherit. And then he swept the other will under the rug so that he could get all the money. Then they threatened to keep Jasper here and have him work for Gravely so that he'll die. Since he has Asthma, he's only 16. They'll take over his guardianship, especially if she has an arrest on her record. And basically, like, worst the case scenario for what Opal is dealing with right now, and everything that she always thought would happen is happening. She reiterates that even if she wanted to, Arthur wouldn't give her the keys. And so she doesn't understand why she's here. This is when Bane is Like, oh, no, I'm just killing time until somebody else shows up. I don't know what you're talking about. It's just in time for Arthur to show up and walk in. He takes her handcuffs off and checks her to make sure that she's safe and everything before they tell her to leave because she's no longer needed here. Yeah. [00:18:21] Speaker B: Bye. [00:18:21] Speaker A: We don't need you anymore. I got what I needed. And so he goes into the room, and it's locked behind him. And they leave. [00:18:29] Speaker B: Arthur. [00:18:30] Speaker A: How do you know how he knew that she was there? I'm assuming that Bane told him, but also, maybe he just realized that something was wrong. Yeah, the mist came out, and he wasn't able to stop the second one, which helped the fire. So maybe he did know that something was wrong with her. I don't know. But they're so cute. [00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah, they are adorable. It was at this point that I realized he's just gonna kind of give her everything because he's planning on doing whatever it is he's got to do tonight. So once he's dead, he doesn't really care. He's like, whatever. That's my theory in this chapter. In our next chapter, Opal comes out of the detention center. She says she's gonna wait for Arthur. Bev and Charlotte wait with her, and they discuss how long they've been together, which has actually been a couple of years. Charlotte tries to tell Opal something, but she doesn't get it out before Opal brushes her off. This is literally when I was like, oh, so we have, like, a hidden will or something that gives Opal whatever. [00:19:25] Speaker A: Yep. [00:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that one. The second that it was said, I was like, oh, that's. That's the ending there. Arthur comes out nonchalantly, and Opal asks what he gave them. He says nothing. [00:19:37] Speaker A: And then Opal gets a phone call. [00:19:38] Speaker B: From Jasper, and he's at the library. Arthur gives her back the car, and she drives to go see him and promises that she won't come back. And. And it's a little, like, solitude moment. She's like, I won't come back. I promise. And then he's like, yay. And he actually believes her, and he leaves. And then she's like, he believed me? [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:59] Speaker B: Opal picks up Jasper and they start driving. They're talking as they're driving until she pulls into this parking lot to talk to him. She tells him about the school. She already paid the tuition, and everything's paid for, the boarding, Literally anything he could want. And he is Horrified, he's like, you're effing kidding me. He tells her he can't go because he's actually already going to university. He has a full scholarship. He's been meeting with his counselor. He's been trying to get a job set up, and that's why he hadn't told her. And he has, like, a full schedule mapped out and everything. She asks him what his major is, and he tells her that it's business. And then she makes him promise not to major in business and that he needs to still be creative, and that if he's going to university before he's even old enough, that he needs to spend his time doing what he loves, which is fucking adorable. [00:20:54] Speaker A: It's so adorable. So nice. [00:20:57] Speaker B: And then she sends him off with a bunch of money and turns to go back to Arthur. [00:21:01] Speaker A: She loves them both. Both of them. Both of her boys. I put. She loves him in regards to. To Arthur, but she loves her brother, too. And she made sure, especially because it was a secret and she was trying to push something onto him that he didn't necessarily want, even though he was kind of doing that to himself when he was going to be a business major. But he made those decisions. I don't know, in a better way than she. She did. He actually tried to map out his future. She did, too, but just a different future than what he actually wanted. Yeah, But Arthur is still awake at Starling House, trying to get everything ready, because obviously tonight is when he is gonna do what he's gonna do. He says he's just waiting for the mist to reappear. He's gonna go and find a beast and try to go to the underland. Yeah, he signed the house and the land over and gave them the three keys. But obviously the fourth key is what he's going to be looking for now and have all this finished soon. Then Opal is there, and he tries to tell her to go, but he literally cannot let go of her. Like, he physically is holding onto her and cannot let go of her. And so they end up kissing and having sex. And then he takes her upstairs so they can go to sleep. She wakes up from a nightmare and realizes that it was him who saved her from the crash and made her warm on the riverbank. And she cries, since this whole time, she thought that she had let her mom go and that she had abandoned her. But now she realizes that Arthur actually went into the water to save her and pulled her out fully. And Opal comes clean about reading his letter from his mom. Then they have sex again, and they fall asleep without any nightmares. When he wakes up again is when the mist has risen. It was just a small little calm before the storm. [00:22:42] Speaker B: I didn't realize we were going to get so much of them together in this book. [00:22:47] Speaker A: Yeah, me too. Especially with how little they were interacting in the first half. I was not expecting them to be, like, full blown, full blown. By the end of this, I expected the epilogue to be that, but I didn't expect us to get them fully together. [00:23:00] Speaker B: Me neither. Before, like, the. The majority of the stuff happens. [00:23:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I was like, wow, that's crazy. All right. Opal recounts that it's Arthur's arms that held her the night of the crash because she woke up beside him, and she dreamed about that night, and it made her too familiar when she woke up. When she wakes up again, she finds the sword in his place by her, and she realizes that the mist has risen for the second time in one night, which never happens. She also finds a deed with her name on it for the house and realizes that he followed the beast and left the sword behind. She realizes then what she has to do when she makes a blood oath by slicing her hand with a sword. And then there's the little montage of her becoming one with the house and trying to detangle between what the house is feeling and what she's feeling and going back to her own body. She realizes that she's the new Warden. Arthur realizes in real time that he is no longer connected to the house, and he is no longer the Warden. And it's the first time that a new Warden has taken over while the last Warden still lived. He's conflicted about turning around, but now that she's the Warden, he decides that he needs to just keep going. [00:24:16] Speaker A: I didn't expect her to fully become a Warden. I don't know why I honestly thought they would share it, but I guess it's only one person at a time. [00:24:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Which doesn't make sense because his parents were the Wardens before. [00:24:29] Speaker A: I think technically, only his mom was the Warden before, but his dad helped. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Okay, that makes sense. [00:24:36] Speaker A: I think. You can have two people come, but there's only one that's fully connected. [00:24:41] Speaker B: Okay. I just wish that was like said. [00:24:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a little murky. [00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:48] Speaker A: So Opal, although she can feel the beasts leaving all the beasts that have gotten out because Arthur is no longer keeping them at bay, and he has opened the portal. So she feels a bunch of them coming out and leaving, but she doesn't go to stop them. Instead, she decides that she's going to go and try and find Arthur. She goes to the pantry, but finds that he exploded. The corridor that that room was in underneath the pantry. And so she tries to get through the door because the hallways collapse, but the door is still up. And so she tries to get through the door by, like, hitting it with a bunch of the rocks that are on the ground, but she can't get through. It doesn't work. She can then feel Bane and others arriving at the house. And she goes out to them, but the beasts are already taking care of them. They're not sure what's going on because everything is invisible. She's the only one that can see them. And so they're getting their shit rocked. She's hanging out, watching them die, basically, or very close to dying for most things. They're getting their bones snapped and all this stuff. And she's like, oh, weird. [00:25:53] Speaker B: I know. [00:25:55] Speaker A: She does end up saving Bane as one of the beasts almost knocks a tree into her because Bane was just going full throttle ahead. She wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening around her. She was just 100% determined to get into the house, and she wasn't paying attention. Eventually, Opal snaps out of it and is like, oh, I'm a human. Maybe I should save this human person before they die. [00:26:15] Speaker B: So she watched the other men get murdered, and she literally just watched it. And then suddenly, when Bane, the person who she hates more than any of them is getting hurt, she's like, I'm a human. I must save the other human. It is in my humanly nature. And I'm like, we just watched these men get torn apart. Come on. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Except one, they're not a named character, so we don't care about them. And two, she's a woman, so I care about her more inherently than a man. [00:26:48] Speaker B: That's just facts, I guess. [00:26:52] Speaker A: Anyway, after she saves Bane, she tries to get the beast to take her down to the Underland, but it just ends up licking her wounds and leaving. She's like, I'm not gonna hurt you. Please take me down. And she can tell that the beast seems Arthur like. And so it just licks her wound and leaves. I can't really explain it more than that. She thinks that there's something going on and that Arthur is already in the Underland, and because of this, his essence is, like, sort of in the beast. And so now she knows that he's for sure in the Underland, so she has to go and save him. Like, it's just this whole thing. But, like, whatever. [00:27:27] Speaker B: I didn't follow it either. And it sounds like you really didn't either. I was like, so is the beast him? Like, I don't get it. [00:27:36] Speaker A: I don't think it is. I think it. It's kind of like what we learn, how your dreams are manifested. And so I think by him going into that area, the beast coming out also had little pieces of him inside because he's also part of the dreaming if he's in that side of the land, that sort of thing. So technically, yes, any beast that now comes out also has a piece of him inside of it. So I think that's what they're going with. But it was just very weird to understand. She thinks that she can get in another way because she thought about all the stories that everyone tells her. And there is an original way to get into the Underland before the house came to be. So she's just going to use that route. And she warns Bane about going to the house before she leaves, saying, you're just going to have a bad time in there. Don't even try it. Then she drives to the river and walks into the mist. Dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. [00:28:25] Speaker B: I keep doing that too much today, so. Major thing that happened for me during that chapter was I feel the main character shifted perspective and the way she's been carrying herself throughout the whole book, like, she went from being. She runs away at any sign of trouble to literally, like, she's 150% sure that this is what she wants and this is what she's doing and she's gonna go and get it. And she's like, a lot more sure of herself and strong. And it was a very abrupt change for me. [00:28:55] Speaker A: It was abrupt, but I do feel like because she's now connected to the house fully, there isn't a place for her to run away to. This technically would be her place to run to because now she's connected to the house and the house is hers. And so this is now her home in her safe space, I would assume. So it's like, I literally cannot do anything that I've been doing before because this is it. This is my last stand. It's all or nothing. I guess. That's a good point. [00:29:19] Speaker B: It just felt. Maybe her connection to the house itself was also abrupt. So, like, it felt like everything changed far too quickly. They didn't give us a good reason for her to be like, this is my plan. I need to do this. Yeah, so it just felt weird for me. [00:29:35] Speaker A: It literally was just because she fell in love with Arthur. Like, that's the only reason they give. Yes, that's it. [00:29:40] Speaker B: In the further chapters. That's literally the only reason they give. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:45] Speaker B: She's in the river, and she gets dragged far enough so that she starts to climb the riverbank. She finds a sign in front of the mines, and she starts pulling at it and pulling out roots and vines that are blocking the entrance. And she eventually climbs in. She climbs through the tunnel and goes deeper and deeper. Every time that there's a split path, she chooses the one that leads further down. She goes deeper down and finds some bones. And then she goes even deeper down, and she sees a cavern that has a river running through it. She sees two figures in the river, caught in the current but kind of, like, staying in place. She realizes that it's Eleanor Starling and Arthur Starling. Opal realizes that she can't move either of them because she's, like, tugging at them and trying, but they're, like, cemented in place in that river. And the only way into the underland after this is to cross and go into the river. So she goes into the river, she takes a giant gulp of the water, and she ends up falling asleep, but she doesn't really fall asleep because she's asleep, but she's actually standing at the Sterling house, and this time she's between Arthur and the house, and she's surrounded by a bunch of beasts. She calls out his name and runs to him, and he catches her, and then she punches him. She tells him that she never wanted the house and she's only ever wanted him. He kisses her, even though the beasts are staring at them and, like, ready to attack. I was like, girl, we got. We need to prioritize right now, please. They both look up at the house, and they see a girl. It's Nora Lee. And then she slowly realizes that. That it's actually Eleanor, and she calls Eleanor. And then the girl snaps her attention towards her. [00:31:29] Speaker A: And because it's Eleanor, this is when I was thinking, is it her hurt and pain that's manifesting the beast? And because she hates the Graveleys, for the Gravelies specifically, that's why they're getting cursed in this town. [00:31:43] Speaker B: Honestly, you're smarter than I am. Because I never even remotely thought that that was, like, news to me. When I was revealed. I was like, wow. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Well, they did already kind of say that she cursed the town, but they thought it was for lesser reasons than this, I guess. There wasn't the full story when they said that the town was cursed. [00:32:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:02] Speaker A: Saying Eleanor's name causes the beast to attack. And Opal makes Arthur promise not to die because he's going to try and attack these beasts so that she can go into the house. And he gives her an opening and she runs in. She goes up to Arthur's room and finds Eleanor there with a beast behind her. Opal asks her to call the beast off of Arthur and asks what this place is. Eleanor thinks that the beasts come from her, not from heaven or from hell. The river is a river of dreams, and the only monsters there are the ones that they make. Eleanor, at first, doesn't want to tell her the story because nobody ever listens to her, but decides to tell Opal the story of what happened to her and why she made the beasts. So her mother was rich, and her father took off with her mother's money after they got married. And once her mom died, she was sent to live with her father and her two uncles. These were the Gravelies, and they were bad men. She was sleeping and dreaming of terrible things when she found out that her father was dead and she was to inherit everything, since it was her mother's money to begin with. When her uncle starts making eyes at her in the paper, they run their engagement. And they also run a different last name in every single newspaper so that people will stop thinking that she's a Gravely, and maybe they misheard when they said that she was a Gravely and that her father was a Gravely, and these aren't actually her uncles. Maybe we were just mistaken. And maybe she's just a random girl that showed up that they took in, that all of the men were in love with and that she tore their family apart. Maybe it was something like that. Maybe it wasn't incest. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Maybe. [00:33:37] Speaker A: Maybe everyone looks the other way when this is happening. They all know that she's a Gravely and that her uncle is forcing her to get married, but they don't do anything. Even the youngest brother, who seems the least cruel but is still not doing anything. So she was going to drown herself when she found out that hell was real, when she talked to the man that told her about the story earlier. And because of this, she walked down the aisle and went along with everything in the wedding until her uncle was supposed to take her to bed. And instead of going to bed, she runs into the mine and then goes into the river to find her beast. And they do exactly what she wants, which is kill her new husband, slash uncle don't. Forget this is her uncle. [00:34:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Gross. After she crawls out, she gives a more valuable half of her fortune to the remaining uncle. But she doesn't leave the town. She couldn't leave her beast, so she studied them instead, and they don't seem to have an origin. She doesn't know where they came from or manifested from. They're not exactly the same as any type of folklore that she's read. She was in the house for a long time until the final gravely brother came and told her that it was time to relinquish the rights to the house and the coal on the property. And he says that he will make her a criminal and basically make it so that she goes to jail and that she has to give up the house anyway. So instead of that, she goes back to the river and drinks the water there until she won't wake up anymore and stays. When she goes there, they look slightly different than they were before, and they changed with what she wanted the beasts in her actual book to look like. And so she realizes that these are her nightmares, and these are her beast shape, and so she lets them run free when she feels the house's defense is weakening, since her. Her home is in the underland. When the mist rises, she can feel the house weaken. And then she sends her beasts out to cause havoc and to find Gravelies and to kill them. So she is the reason for everything. [00:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And then again, like I said, I didn't realize it. So I was like, eleanor Starling is the villain. What a plot twist. [00:35:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it is a plot twist. [00:35:47] Speaker B: It is a good plot twist, that's for sure. [00:35:49] Speaker A: We didn't really think about this. [00:35:52] Speaker B: No. And I never once was like, oh, it's gonna be Eleanor Starling, the girl who started it all. [00:35:57] Speaker A: I did say they would have to rescue starlings, but I didn't think it would happen like this for a moment. [00:36:03] Speaker B: When she saw the two bodies floating in the river before she went down there officially, I was like, is this his parents? Because they never, like, truly died. Like, the past wardens never truly died because they were wardens or something like that. Like, I thought that was a plot twist coming to us. It was never. I never voiced it. I was like, that's ridiculous. But would have been a great plot twist. Just so you know. Opal tells Eleanor that she's sorry. Eleanor says everybody's sorry, but everybody still knows, and no one did anything. And Eleanor says that Opal has a choice to stay there with her because her dreams are hungry and dark. Like, Eleanor is. And. And other people had tried to come before, but they weren't like, you. And Opal is like, actually, I just remembered that I have a boyfriend that needs saving, and I have to get out of here. Eleanor then refuses to let her leave and tells her that the mist is getting thicker and, like, basically makes it so there's no doors in the room. And she's gonna be able to kill more people because the mist is thick tonight. And now with a warden gone, she's gonna be able to, because no one can stop her. Opal realizes that everything is still just a dream, so she just needs to dream to get out of the situation. And she takes them to room 12 of the motel. And then Eleanor is like, oh, this is just a dream. I'm setting fire to this room. And she, like, snaps her fingers, and the room erupts in blaze. Then Opal is like, okay, new place. And they go to the riverbed, and then Eleanor is taking her hand, and. And Opal lets her, and she's like, it feels like my mother taking my hand when we were by the river before. And Opal's like, yes, this feels familiar. And then suddenly, Eleanor drags them both into the river, and she's like, really? You were stupid to let me do that. She doesn't let go of Opal. And then finally, Opal takes them to the Sterling house, and Eleanor laughs, and she says, excuse me, ma'am. This is my home. This is the perfect place for me to be. Thank you. Opal then is like, actually, not anymore. Everybody else loves it more than you, and it's adapted to us, so guess what? It's ours. And then Eleanor says, take it. I don't care, and runs away. Opal says, let the people live. And Eleanor says, no, I'm opposed to letting the descendants of my torturers live and repeat the pattern, because this whole thing has been that she doesn't like the Gravelies because she was forced into situations with the Gravelies. So anyone who has Gravely blood, she wants to torture and kill, which I think is a horrible motivation, like, what the great, great, great, great grandchildren of your grandchildren need to die. [00:38:55] Speaker A: I feel like she doesn't realize how much time has passed being in that area. But, yes, she. It is just a lot of stewing. The same thing over and over. [00:39:05] Speaker B: A lot of stewing. But she does know how much time has passed, because Opal is like, you are related to these people. If you're redeemable, why aren't these great, great grandchildren redeemable? And she was like, no, I can't let them live. And I was like, okay. Eleanor says, no, I'm not letting these descendants live. And Opal says, you know what? They don't deserve to live. But you don't leave their fortune to the dead. You leave it to the living. And then Opal reveals that she's also a Gravely and begs Eleanor to just leave everything alone, because she was just saying that they're the same person and that they both are Gravelies. And she tells Eleanor that she'll tell the truth of her story. And Eleanor's like, no, no one's gonna believe you. And then Opal's like, it doesn't really matter if anyone believes me or not. I'm still gonna tell your truthful story, and you can, like, move on with your life. They're having, like, a sentimental moment, and she ends up tucking Eleanor into bed and, like, lets her fade away. And this is when Eleanor passes away, and she realizes that she can let the descendants live and she can move on with her life. Opal sings to Eleanor as she dies and fades. And then Eleanor Starling is suddenly gone. The room is no longer hers. It now belongs to Arthur. And the Underland now belongs to. To Opal. [00:40:23] Speaker A: You might not have found this satisfying, but I was definitely crying at the end when she dies. [00:40:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Yeah. But again, I'm just an emotional person who will cry at least once a day. [00:40:33] Speaker B: I am also an emotional person. I can see how it was, like, a very emotional thing. I feel like I was too heated by everything happening. I. I was not happy. It kind of ruined it for me because I was, like, not agreeing with the plot, which, I mean, like, it's a good plot, mostly. I'm not gonna debate that. I was just personally upset, which, I mean, not every author writes for everybody else, obviously, but, like, I was like, come on. Because she repeats that she. Opal is like, I'm doing this all for Arthur. And I'm like, you don't need a man to motivate you, babe. Come on. I get that I'm a little too feminist sometimes, but I felt like it was really needed. She was doing this all for herself. She found a home. She finally belonged to a house, and it's the Starling House because it chose her. And she's like, I literally have done this all for Arthur, and it was just upsetting me. [00:41:25] Speaker A: No, that's true. They reiterated multiple times. It's not about the home that you live in. It's about the people that you're with that's actually what constitutes a home. Whatever. I understand that. I also find that true. Like, it's more about the people that you're with than the place that you're at. I get it. But especially because they were talking about how she was home this whole time. There's a special connection to the house. And then for her to be like, I don't even care about it that much. I just want Arthur. [00:41:44] Speaker B: I'm like, babe, she spent all the time in the beginning of this book was her bonding with this damn house. I didn't think that was possible, but she was doing it. And it was conveyed that she was connected to the house and the house chose her. And she, like, has finally found a house or a home. And then the whole time, she's like, I'm only doing this for Arthur. And I was, like, so upset over it. [00:42:06] Speaker A: Yeah, well, let's finish it, and then you can tell me your actual final, final thoughts of everything. Okay, for chapter 32. Opal. Opal goes downstairs, and Arthur is still fighting the beast, since that's his nightmare and this is a place of dreams. That's what his dreams are manifesting is all of his loved ones dead around him, all the people that he couldn't save dead around him. And we switched to his point of view, and he doesn't even understand why he's fighting, but he knows that everyone is dead around him, and he just needs to keep fighting. Needs to keep fighting. That's all he can think about when suddenly the beasts calm down. He can hear somebody calling his name. The beasts part for her, and she comes walking right through and is like, hey, not dead. He's like, no, I'm pretty sure you are. And she's like, no, no, no, not dead. We're weirdly asleep or something. I don't know what we're doing, but we're not dead. That's good. And she tells him what happened and tells him that he can dream whatever he wants to now because he can do whatever he wants. And they lay down on the grass with the sword between them and the flowers grow around them, and he sleeps. So apparently, they did it. [00:43:14] Speaker B: They did it. [00:43:15] Speaker A: Yay. This is one thing I will have to say is when I turned the page and realized that the next page was the epilogue, I was kind of upset because I wanted at least one chapter fully post everything. Yeah, the epilogue gave me some, but it didn't give me enough for post life. I feel like, Yeah, I thought they were at least gonna get out of underland that was what I thought that was gonna end the book, was them literally emerging from Underland rather than them going to sleep and them merging later. But do the epilogue. We need to talk about it. [00:43:47] Speaker B: Yeah, the epilogue was a little weird because it's written from the town's point of view, not necessarily any of the characters. So it's kind of like a news story. That's how it reads. Third person, however you want to call it. The epilogue is the story of the Sterling House. That's how it's labeled. Remember that night back in June? On June 1, the motel burned and then the dam broke. There was a wreck by the old railroad bridge, and a string of out of towners wound up in the hospital. There was a dog that stared into the mist, and all the bad luck in town was supposedly used up in one June night. People healed. Eventually, Dawn Gravely gave an interview saying that everything is still going to plan for their expansion. Time is passing, the land is healing, so on, so forth. Finally, a librarian found a will that gave all the Gravely land to his daughter. But his daughter happens to be dead and she's survived by two children. So all of the land actually ended up going to her children. Except no one could find the children. The boy was rumored to be in Louisville, and the sister has been missing. The owner of the old motel, she's been looking for her everywhere. And she even went knocking on the Sterling House gates. But all she ended up doing was kicking the groceries that were piled up there and spoiled milk because no one had picked up the groceries in weeks. So no one knows where she went. And then even the boy who lived at the Sterling house was missing. Finally, at the end of September, a random light shows up in the window. And suddenly a boy and girl live there now. And the gates open every now and then, and middle aged women go in and out, and a boy with glossy black curls goes in and out. And they just make sure that the Sterling house will never fall. And they're doing construction and it's rumored that they're writing a book. So the ending that we got was nobody knows her as the Gravely girl anymore. Now she's just a girl who lives in the Sterling house. And Arthur and Opal live there together. They were missing from June till September, so I'm assuming they were asleep in the Underland, just chilling out. [00:46:03] Speaker A: I also assume that now. Yeah. Because I don't know exactly how that worked. [00:46:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And then they came back and the house seems to be like a normal house. It didn't seem like it was still animated, but maybe that's just our third person view because we're looking at them from afar. Afar. [00:46:23] Speaker A: I do think it's still animated, especially because they still say that there's a breeze and that she's technically in charge of the Underland. So I feel like, because it's just an open portal to the realm of dreams, that technically the house would still be sentient because they didn't get rid of anything. They just made it better. [00:46:40] Speaker B: I guess the vibe I got was that the house wasn't animated anymore, but it, like, never said that specifically, so it could honestly be either way. [00:46:49] Speaker A: My feeling, the way that they ended this book was basically. The book that we just read was what she wrote for the town. That's what this is described as. Then basically every footnote is the librarian doing the footnotes for the town. That's what the end of the book is saying is like, she's gonna write a book. It's saying that, oh, the librarian is gonna put footnotes in it and fact check the whole thing. But everyone knows that that's probably just a rumor and it's gonna go away soon. But, like, obviously they did it because this is the book that has all the facts, and then it also has the stuff at the bottom. So, like, I'm assuming that this is the story of what actually happened. Do you know what I mean? [00:47:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no, all that makes perfect sense. But I did need you to explain that to me because I did not pick up on that by myself. I was like, those footnotes things, by the way, pretty weird sometimes. They were, like, interesting. Most of the time they weren't. [00:47:39] Speaker A: They were very weird. I'm assuming that that's how it is, because that's the only explanation that I have from the whole book of why this would have footnotes. Which is why they said, like, briefly in one line, like, oh, we're pretty sure that there's a librarian that's gonna fact check the book and put little footnotes in there. I didn't realize that this was going to end so happily. Like, they very easily wrapped everything up and nothing bad happened for the most part. Yeah, I think it was very sweet and nice. And I'm very happy that after all of their hardships, that they seemed like they're going to be good for the rest of their days. So I'm happy about that, that they got to keep their house and they have each other. But now you need to tell me all the things that you didn't like about it. [00:48:20] Speaker B: So first of all, can I just say, this is an amazing book and I loved it. It is one of my favorite reads, really, of 2024. Yeah, I liked it. I don't love books very easily. I just got my wrapped up analytics from Storygraph. My average rating was like a 3.5. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:48:41] Speaker B: So I don't give a lot of books very high ratings. I gave this one like a 4.8. It was a really good book. I really liked it. I do have some problems with the ending here. I feel like the ending, like you just said. As much as I needed for the epilogue, I needed something to conclude it before the epilogue happened. I'm just assuming they slept there. They were missing for two months. [00:49:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:06] Speaker B: Why do I not get to know why they were missing? It feels very intentional that they were missing, but I don't understand the reason why. On top of that, I'm really upset that. And all I needed was her not to put this line twice. I think it was in there twice. I already went on a side tangent about it. She said that everything she wanted was Arthur and she didn't want the actual house. And it upset me because, like, she has this bond. She spent months cleaning the house. The only quote unquote character or like essence she spent time with in the beginning of this book was this house. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:49:39] Speaker B: And so I felt like it deserved more than what she gave it. [00:49:44] Speaker A: And to that point, I also want to say I understand that her not wanting the will to the house and not wanting to be the owner in that way, just because he's going to die and have it be like, no, I have to save you so that we can live in this house together. But I don't think it needs to be the full blown. I don't even want this house even a little bit. I only want you. [00:50:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:03] Speaker A: It's like we should have a little bit more of a balance. [00:50:06] Speaker B: I completely agree. [00:50:07] Speaker A: I understand why you're not gonna like, fully just want the house and like nothing of Arthur, but you also kind of want the house, baby. You do. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And it also felt like she's been searching for this answer her whole life. She's been having these dreams. She needed answers. She was searching for the answers actively throughout the whole book, especially in the beginning. She's going out of her way to get answers about the house. Right. And then all of a sudden that the only thing driving the plot forward is her love for Arthur and the romance. When she was openly intrigued about this house from the very beginning and wanted to figure it out. [00:50:43] Speaker A: And then she becomes warden, and she still says, it's only Arthur. I'm like, you are connected. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Yeah. It's driving me nuts. [00:50:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:51] Speaker B: I loved this book. And that fact is just driving me nuts, because I didn't even know this book was a heavy romance at the end. It didn't even feel like that in the beginning. Not for the full. [00:51:01] Speaker A: The full. [00:51:02] Speaker B: Like, maybe towards the end, like, yeah, we've got romance, but, like, it was supposed to be subplot by the end of the book. It's the main plot. Right. [00:51:08] Speaker A: So maybe just a little bit more consistency throughout the whole thing. Like, if we were more consistent with Arthur at the end or if we're more consistent with the house at the end, it would have felt a little bit more smooth. But because it felt disjointed, it was very heavily on the house in the first half and then very heavily on Arthur in the second half, especially because we did read it split up. It does feel like it was kind of abrupt. [00:51:29] Speaker B: Right. Okay. So it's not just me, but I did. I really did love this book. I swear to God. [00:51:35] Speaker A: No, it was good. It was very entertaining. It was very entertaining. [00:51:38] Speaker B: It was very entertaining. It's an easy read, too. [00:51:41] Speaker A: It was. Yeah. [00:51:42] Speaker B: I just needed that, and it. It just didn't happen. [00:51:45] Speaker A: All right, well, anything else you want to add? [00:51:48] Speaker B: No, I don't have anything today. What about you? [00:51:50] Speaker A: No, I don't think so. [00:51:52] Speaker B: I'll see you next week. [00:51:53] Speaker A: See you next week. Bye.