Natalie Megan delivers a sharp intellectual autopsy of a genre that often hides its structural rot behind dark, provocative themes. She effectively proves that shock value is no substitute for literary craftsmanship and rigorous character development.
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Where's Molly? by H.D. Carlton | Rant Review追加:
Is it really how everybody mistakes your weirdness for coolness?
>> Hello. Welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Natalie Megan and this is Weirdo Book Club. If you can tell, I'm thrilled to be here with you today because we are re-entering the world of HD Carlton.
Y'all know I love it there. For those of you who are new, I have read and reviewed Satan's Affair. I've read and reviewed Haunting Advaline, book one in the cat and mouse duet, and Haunting Advaline in two parts. And now it's time for Where's Molly? I truly am happy to be here because if I'm reviewing this book, that can only mean one thing. We reached the fundraising goal to help my friend and her family evacuate safely out of Gaza. Woo! And remember, I said that if we did that, I would read this tragic book and review it for you happily. But for now, I just wanted to express my deepest gratitude from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for helping them get to safety. And now that that's said and out of the way and done, I can go back to being mad at you. So, first up, I'm going to start with my disclaimers. The first one's always the same. This review will contain spoilers, opinions, general [ __ ] talking. If none of that sounds good to you, you don't have to watch this. Disclaimer number two, just cuz I've gotten a few comments lately, I just want to let you know that if you liked this book, fantastic.
That's great. And I'm thrilled for you.
I really am. Don't I look thrilled? It's none of my business if you liked it, just like it's none of your business what I like. I didn't like this book.
I'm just trying to look out for you. If you don't think you're going to like what I have to say, don't watch me say it for 2 hours. That seems strange to me. Okay, that's done. Let's move on.
The details of Where's Molly by HD Carlton. Where's Molly? Both a question I did not ask and a book I did not want, is a 243page continuation in the Dark Stalker romance series, beloved by many, not me. Haunting and Hunting Adeline.
You may recall them. I have reviewed both of these on my channel, as well as Satan's Affair, the prequel novella that was also really bad. I didn't like any of these books, but hey, hours of content for you. Silver lining. And now, where's Molly? Oh, what fun. Whereas Molly was actually published just last year and it was right when I had finished my entire review of Hunting Adeline. I closed my laptop only to get a ping notification on my phone to let me know that she's publishing another book. Isn't that great? A couple of you even left it in my comments. Seems like y'all really like kicking a [ __ ] when she's down. Where's Molly? deviates from the original story line a bit and follows the whereabouts of, you guessed it, Molly, a mostly absent side character that we first met and heard mention of in Hunting Adeline. Adeline being held in a sex house traffic something, finds Molly's discarded, hidden away journal underneath the floorboards in the room she's being held in. And Addy is gripped by these entries. Okay, she is just tearing through the journal one by one. But then the entries just stop leaving her with only questions and her farts to keep her company. If you know, you know. Speaking of things that I know, I know. I never wondered. I didn't care where Molly was.
It I don't know. I none of these books are written well enough for me to care about anything that's going on.
Regardless, today we will hopefully end this review knowing the answer to the ever plaguing question, where's Molly? A better question would have been, why is Molly? Why?
>> I'll do you one better. Why is Gamora?
>> But I wasn't consulted on the title. All right, the synopsis, right? You ready?
Okay. Molly Deero has been missing for more than two weeks, and police are still searching for the girl who seemed to vanish out of thin air. The world still wants to know, not me. Where's Molly? In my dreams, I never escape the Oregon woods. Life after death isn't easy to accept, especially when I still feel like a ghost. Now, I live deep in the mountains of Montana, the paradigm of beauty. But they're also the home of horrors. Horrors that I only unleash at night, when my pigs are allowed to feast. It is strongly recommended to read Haunting Adeline and Haunting Adeline before reading Where's Molly.
Important note, this is a dark romance that contains dark subject matter.
Please refer to the author's website for content warnings. Don't worry, I got you covered. This is a dark romance that includes triggers such as murder, gore, graphic language, graphic sexual situations, child assault, and rape not depicted. Toxic relations between the main characters, child abuse and neglect, suicidal thoughts and ideations, human trafficking, drug and alcohol use, and animals being fed suspect. They're not abused, though. I promise.
This book also includes kinks such as biting, breath play, blood play, and degradation. Please proceed with caution and prioritize your mental health. HD Carlton. I am so ready to be done with this. So, let's go. We start with a prologue because we are just really lucky like that. And it's Molly Present 2022. We open to Molly in her barn watching and listening as her pigs eat someone. The loud crunch of blunt teeth biting through bone is a lullabi I could fall asleep to for the rest of my life.
I wrinkle my nose. The obnoxious sound of lip smacking that follows is not what do you like the sound or not. She drones on and on about the pigs a little longer and how lonely she is and her pig farm, but it's the choice that she made.
Her phone rings. It's a woman. She asks if it's done and she's like, "Yeah."
She's like, "Cool. I'll let you know when the next one's ready." Apparently, this woman calls her all the time, like on and off for four years now, but she's never learned her name. But since Molly is a quirky little [ __ ] just like Adeline was. She gives her a fake name, a new name every single time. She galls.
This time after the hang up, in her mind, she names her Patunia. And it felt like a threat. She gets to work cleaning up the remains of the man whose name is Carl, the late rapist and child trafficker that she just dismembered and and fed to her pigs. Yeah. So, that's what we've got going on. That's the setup. Molly lives in isolation on a pig farm in the middle of nowhere. She has people who bring her bodies to dispose of, all of them being some sort of child predator or whatever, you know, same [ __ ] different book. and her job is to dispose of them by way of dismembering them and feeding them to her pigs, which she has all named after spices. There's like a pig named paprika. There's a garlic. There's a rosemary. I don't know. It's stupid and it doesn't matter.
And they're pains in the asses, but she loves them. This is just Cibby, except instead of mannequins/h hallucinations, it's pigs. So, we're seeing some great lengths when it comes to creativity here already. And God bless. I hope she doesn't start [ __ ] the pigs. Chapter one, Molly 15 years ago, which would be 2007. And all of that is detailed in the front of every chapter. Honestly, I really wish that you would have picked one thing to do. Like, Molly passed.
Molly 2007. Molly 2014. Why do we need all of them? Molly passed 14 years ago.
2017. I don't need all of that. This is just as heavy-handed as the rest of the book. So, I don't know why I'm surprised. Let me just shut up. In 2007, why? I was 19 and in college in 2007.
Well, I mean, I was on academic probation in 2007. Molly is also 19. Oh god, we're the same age. Okay, you know what? No, that's good. Molly one night tells her dad, who's a drugaddicted, nobody, nothing loser, that she's going to the store for a few things for her four-month-old sister, Leila. We remember Ila, right? Yeah. If you don't recall, she is the name and stick figure that was often scrolled into that notebook that I told you Adeline found in the sex house. As I said, her dad seems like a real winner. And he's standing in the living room covered in track marks, surrounded by empties with a big old fat belly hanging out over his jeans. He's also old, wrinkly, and bald, just like every bad person in a HD Carlton book is. Because if her dad was like really hot, I think it would just be fine that he's a horrible person. But listen, don't take my word for it. If you don't believe me, just read the books yourself. If we were in a better book, this could be used as commentary on the themes and the patterns that we start to see in a society where pretty privileged and attractive people get away with things just because they're attractive, right? But we're not in a better book, are we? Anyways, he's fat and ugly and he's on drugs and so is her mom who's passed out on the couch as Ila screams from her crib upstairs. Molly is the only one who's doing anything to take care of that kid. She's like, "I got to go." He's like, "Nah, you've been gone all day. I need you here." And she's like, "Nah." Ila needs diapers and formula. And he's like, "Fine, but grab me some sigs and a six-pack." She leaves the house chest full of anxiety. And honestly, I get that. Feeling it right now. She wonders if when she's gone, he hurts Ila the way he hurts her. So, we have a big fat balding ugly old drunk drug addict who's also sexually and physically abusive. Predictable in this world. It's like if traumatic childhood experiences were Pokémon card HD Carlton's got to catch them all. Which I get it is start leave me alone. She goes to the gas station and she's friends with the clerk. He sees her in there a lot. He obviously knows something is not going right in her life. She's got a lot going on. And so he's extra nice to her on occasion, but she has begged him, even though he knows something's going on, she has begged him not to call the fuzz because Ila, they could take Ila and put her in the system. And quote, "Families love young girls to adopt, but so do predators, and I won't take the risk. At least at home, I can protect her." She's living with a predator now.
Plus, this is all just so exhausting to continue to read about. Like, the system, the flaws, the incessant fixation on this type of crime/criminal.
I'm tired already. We're only in chapter one. Mario, the clerk, he just totally gets it, though. And he made her pinky promise not to drink until she's old enough to do so. Thank goodness a stranger at a gas station had her agree to such a binding contract. She agreed, though, because she's seen firsthand what drugs and alcohol can do. Her mom was validictorian with a full ride before she met her dad, her ugly, fat, balding dad. Mario rings up her purchases and asks, "What's stopping her from just taking Ila and running?" Um, hi. Try everything. It's actually really difficult to live by yourself with nothing and no support system. But it's even worse when you have a little baby.
You know, just open up your brain nog in a little bit. Thank my parents have proof of me buying drugs. There are drugs, but it doesn't matter. It looks bad. They know I want her and they threatened to show it to the court if I try to take custody. Dad has pictures of videos I don't even know he was taking.
But he showed me them before he hid them. And if I just take her, I'll be kidnapping her. I'm legally an adult, but for the moment I found my mom was pregnant, I got comfortable in my prison. I can't leave her. Mario, I know this is common with abuse, right?
Threats. Yes, of course. Like even empty threats can keep a person from leaving or rebelling or questioning anything that's going on. They're chatting a little bit more about maybe like squirreling some money away and maybe coming up with a plan when a man walks into the store and her dad and the man is looking at her very strangely. 10 bucks says that he's ugly. He's short and stocky with trimmed hair and a square pronounced jawline. His pale skin is covered in shitty tattoos and there's a cold gleam in his brown eyes. I mean, to someone, he's probably beautiful. Her dad tells her to go wait outside with the man, and she's like, "No." And he's like, "Go." She starts to go, but instead, she just darts through the store and starts like throwing things behind her to kind of break up their path. Mario gets a baseball bat and threatens the man, but the man has a gun and points it back to him. You can't bring a bat to a gun fight. Where is Luigi when you need him? His name's Mario. Get it? That's why. That's why.
That's why I said that. With running no longer an option, if it ever was one, she leaves with the man and they meet up with her dad and the other guy. I guess there were two guys in the alley behind the store. Chapter two. Molly 14 years ago, which means 2008.
June 18th, 20 I don't have it in me for all these dates. She's now in the house with Francesca and Rocco as we all remember it from hunting Adeline. Good times, good memories. It's like a family reunion I didn't want to go to. She's what? Journaling. Cuz of course she is.
She shoves it into the floorboards hoping that no girl ever finds it because that would mean that she's suffering the same fate Molly is right now. She thinks that an auction of the girls is taking place soon, but she doesn't care either way. She's got to bust up out of here. I feel like we've already done this bit. Like we've already done this with Adeline. I am so exhausted every single time I crack open one of these books. It's just more of the same stuff. This series is four books in total, right? I think there's another one actually. Phantom. Don't get me started. Don't you dare either. I know what you're thinking and don't think it. Just eject it. Anyway, the series has four books. Satan's Affair, Haunting Adeline, Hunting Adeline, and now this. Where's Molly? It could have been one book. It could have been one really wellthoughtout book that still had just this off-the-wall, dark as [ __ ] smut everywhere, but also a little bit more intention, world building, storyline, plots with no holes. like it could have been just one one 600page book. This is the laziest cash grab I've ever seen since the 37,000 versions of the tortured poets department. Carlton didn't have to work on the setting because we've already been here, right?
Carlton didn't have to build a new character and do any character work because we've already met this girl.
She's a mix of Zade and Zibi. Carlton didn't have to work on the plot because we've gotten fragments of it throughout the other three books. All of this is just a regurgitation. I just can't do this. Carlton played rippby bits with one storyline in order to make four books out of it and it shows. And honestly, I'm a Capricorn. I can respect it. Okay, I respect a good hustle. I like money. Don't anyone who says they don't like money is either lying or they have enough of it where they don't even think about it. But like this is exhausting and I wouldn't be surprised if when I read Does It Hurt by HD Carlton, it's just this with sharks.
Whatever. Anyway, back to it. Um, Adeline, I mean Molly is planning her escape for tonight. She turns the doororknob. It squeaks because this house was spilt when dinosaurs roamed and is filthier than Francesca's sins.
Sick burns. Can we focus? She brutally details the journey downstairs through sleeping girls and drugged out criminals. She reaches the hallway where there is a bouldershaped man standing in her way, but this is usually the time that he takes a pee break and goes outside or there are no bathrooms in the house. She's almost home free when she bumps into Rio, who we also met in the last book. You recall, he's the guy whose sister was being threatened, and so he had to help Francesca run this horrible operation to ensure that his sister was always safe, right? Yeah, we remember. He's a Puerto Rican with a strong jawline and haunted eyes from being invited into Franchesca's bed so long ago when he was a kid. He's one of the good guys, a good bad guy. You remember? After an exhausting standoff of sorts where she appeals to his sibling woes and begs him to let her go, he does. Chapter 3. Cage present. 2022.
Don't worry. Don't worry. God damn. Who the is Cage? And why the [ __ ] is his name Cage? Is this the Z to her Adeline?
Her mannequin hallucination to Cibby.
Don't let the job title deter you, man.
She's a pig farmer, but she's hot as hell. Eli says from the other end of the phone. I'll admit she showed up a few of my fantasies when I finish that sentence and I'll drive off the [ __ ] road. I growl, curling my lip in disgust. I'm really leaning into the choed energy here. He doesn't care if she's hot. He just needs somewhere to drop off that dead guy in the trunk so that he can tell Legion that it's done. Legion is some sort of society that gets rid of bad people. That's I don't Eli is usually the one that's handling the drop offs of the dead people, but he was grazed in a shootout and he's on bed rest now. So, we get caged in hisstead.
How exciting. After a few more minutes, I arrive at a lone ranch house nestled beside a massive barn sitting on over a 100 acres of land. At the entrance of the driveway is an old sign that reads Paladin Farm. The corner of my lips quirk as I recall what Paladin means.
How noble. something about chivalry.
Chivalous, heroic knights. I don't know.
I don't care. I do care about this girl and how she was able to somehow afford a house on a 100 acre plot of land with a farm in this economy. I would say that I hope it's explained, but I really don't want it to be. He arrives and she has a smooth voice and she's just as hot as Eli said. Go figure. They chat briefly.
It's boring. He's like, "I got two bodies in the trunk." She's like, "Bring them over." He goes to get them and recoils at the smell cuz they're already starting to bloat. And since in the last book, we had a little unofficial like crash course on the stages of decomposition. I just got to ask, my dude, why was this body in your trunk for 3 to 5 days? And I want you to remember that timeline. Okay? 3 to 5 days is when the body start to bloat after death. Okay? Keep that in mind.
>> That's a surprise tool that can help us later. Anyway, he unloads the body and she dons a hazmat suit and addresses him woodenly, which I think four times the word woodenly is used in this book to describe her overall demeanor and appearance and outward, you know, expression. Wooden responses, sitting woodenly, walking woodenly, and I know it's only four times, but it's still four times too many. Up until this moment, he hasn't seen her face somehow.
I guess she's just like turned or in shadow, but he has a hunch about this girl. So, he like looks over and he's right. She sigh and finally turns to look at me, stealing my breath. Even beneath the large protective glasses, I recognize her immediately. There's no mistaking that [ __ ] scar. Oh my god, the girl has a facial scar in this one. We are tipping things on their heads. She has big emerald green eyes, a gap below her irises that's always given her a natural seductive stare. And right below the right one is a permanent white slightly raised bite mark. A full mouth of teeth scarred into her olive skin.
How she got it, I still don't know, but it's evident. It's not a pretty story.
Yeah, someone bit her face and left scars.
>> Battle scars.
>> No, it wouldn't be a [ __ ] pretty picture. She's older, but doesn't look much different. Only more mature. Okay.
However, the light brown freckles better smattered across her cheeks and the button nose soften her features. 9 years ago, I told myself I'd count them, but I never got the chance to finish. I intend to remedy that. Literally, all these men give that that vibe that I did not get to finish that task, but I will get to finish it tonight. I will remedy it. I just like this Elmer Fud [ __ ] >> be very very quiet.
>> Anyway, she recognizes him too and she's like, "Come on, cage. What are you doing here? back and he's like, "Me? What are you doing here?" And she's like, "I live here." And then kills him and then the end. I'm just kidding. What are you doing here? I killed you and put you in Alaska. You're supposed to be in Alaska.
He He makes folks disappear if you didn't put that together. And I'm sure that you figure that out because you are smart. However, it's going to be told to us more than once just so we get it.
Just so we get what his job is. But I want you to hear me now. He runs a television shop called Black Portal as a front for his real business of disappearing people. And he's really upset to see her back, but mostly because of what he goes on to say.
Mainly because I [ __ ] her thoroughly before I gave her a brand new identity.
Then she disappeared on me just like she was supposed to and it enraged me. What the [ __ ] Now she stares at me like a tiny rabbit caught in a trap, squealing to be free. She escaped me once and I let her. I won't allow it a second time.
I'm hunting rabbits. Literally, it's Elmer Fud.
>> Hello from the void. I wanted to pop in really quickly and let you know that I will be using the Elmer Fud on and off for the rest of the review when I do some of my readings. I want to be very clear that I'm not making fun of people with speech impediments. I know there's going to be one or two of you in the comments cuz there always is. But I saw something online the other day and I have adopted it as my new way of thinking so that I don't make myself upset over nothing. If I'm not talking about you, I'm not talking about you. So once again, I just want to be very clear. I'm going to be using the Elmer Fud voice because these people give off internet incel mama boy Elmer Fud energy. I am not making fun of people with speech impediments. If I'm not talking about you, I'm not talking about you. All right, glad we cleared that up.
Back to it. Also a really good time to let you know that this is what the chapter titles look like. And as a fan of Nos Veratu and Gothic academia in general, I am ill. Chapter 4. Molly present. Present. She's upset because no one told her that Cage would be the one doing the delivery. I think it's a little weird to expect someone to give you the details of who's going to be running bodies by your house based on the fact that you told me you hardly ever speak to them more than the little clipped conversations they have with you every time they call. Why would you?
Whatever. We don't need to ask why.
we've learned our lessons. He's asking her when she came back and she's like, "No, it doesn't matter." And he's like, "It does. You were supposed to stay gone and you shouldn't be here." And so he steps towards her, towering over her at least 64.
I just love the taste of nothing. She takes him in though. Strong jaw, stubble, full lips. Oh my god. She shouldn't have slept with him that one night, but she did because she wanted to feel normal having sex. She just didn't expect it to be so good. And that is scarier than being gang by Rocco and his men. Is it? You know what it might be?
It might be for you. So, I'm going to leave you alone. However, is it? Anyway, he steps over to her again. She says, "Don't." He says, "Feed the pigs, Molly." Which is really top grade like pillow talk. She gets to work dismembering the child rapist and the judge who acquitted him, which sure. She asked Cage if he killed him and he's like, "No, Legion does that." Legion is an underground organization run by an elusive no-faced man named after his company who employs hitmen to take out whoever they deem necessary. So it's Z.
Yeah, great. Okay. They specifically target those who frequent the dark web.
And much like their sister organization Z, they go after P. Yeah. No, I of course they do because if it was something different, you would have to have worked on it. While Z focuses on the trafficking rings and larger operations, Legion was formed to focus on the smaller fish, the psychopaths who lurk in plain sight, fitting into society as the bluecollar working class or with their corporate desk jobs all the while wreaking havoc on innocent souls when they clock out. Though Legion sees them for what they really are, wolves in sheep's clothing, beasts and human skin. Once again, the names of the pigs are brought up and it's just giving real big Cibby vibes. And again, this goes back to what I was saying. Same [ __ ] different book, same book, different font. I will say that if you're watching this and you're like, man, her jokes are getting really repetitive. What am I to do? Am I supposed I'm supposed to This is on me.
That is one of the reasons why I'm branching out and posting more positive reviews on my page this year because I just don't want to pigeon hole myself into one thing. Just want to branch out a little bit and give myself some more creative freedom and liberties because there's only so much I can do with this.
So, I hope you're excited for more positive reviews. Anyway, I've truly never been so disappointed in something that I already fully anticipated disappointing me. He's still staring at her and it makes her palm sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, mom spaghetti. They chat a little bit about when she started working for Legion and she says she came back, bought this farm for cheap, pigs included, and just called Legion up.
That's wild because when I had a question about something to do with like my yearly filings, it was real difficult to get a human being on the line to answer questions for me. So, it's good to know that this little shadow operative that targets people and is out of sight and no one knows who they are can just be. It's nice to know that not everything has been taken over by AI. He says he still owns his TV shop, Black Portal. He asked her if she has a boyfriend. She says no, but in a lot more words. And he's like, "Cool. So, you have no one." H well, she also is like, "Call me Marie now. That's my name now." And he's like, "You'll always be Molly to me." Which is the first example we see of him just not respecting her or what she says or what her boundaries are or what she asks him to do. He leaves.
As he's leaving, the nameless woman calls back to see that it's done. She hangs up and gives her the name Helga this time. She is so quirky. Chapter 5.
Molly, present day. It's been a week and then the sudden knock on the door causes me to jump out of my skin, nearly sending the wine in my glass, splashing in my face and on the fantasy novel from Adeline Riley that I've been reading. I God causing me to jump out of my skin, nearly sending the wine in my glass, splashing in my face and on the fantasy novel from Adeline Riley. So that Yeah, I guess that works. What the fuckever?
Shut the [ __ ] up. Her mind starts immediately panicking like, "Oh my god, what if it's the cops? What if I have to run again?" Blah blah blah blah blah.
She sets her wine down and then grabs her Glock with a capital G. And if you don't believe me, >> I got a Glock in my >> You don't need that though, baby girl.
It's just Cage. Who's like, "Huh? That's not usually how women greet me at the door. That's new." Then he notices the Glock and says, "That's also new. You going to use that on me, little ghost? I don't mind joining you in the afterlife." grown.
He presents her with a vase of tiger lilies and a movie and slides into her home without being invited. Thank god it's not a vampire story. And she's like, "What the fuck?" But she doesn't shoot him for some reason. And I am nothing but disappointed. What movie did he bring? Great question. Would you like to guess? Silence of the Lambs, The Notebook, The Most Dangerous Game, or A Walk to Remember?
It's Silence of the Lambs. He scans her new abode, updated, small, rustic. He notes her wine on the coffee table and to himself thinks, "Oh my god, my mom loves wine. She'd love you." He's like, "You'll love this movie. I'll make popcorn." She's like, "What if I didn't have popcorn?" He's like, "Everybody has popcorn." He's just walking around like he owns the place. Like, hello. What if she didn't have popcorn? He peers at me from over his shoulder. His beauty is wicked and I hate the way it makes my heart flutter. Aw, wicked beauty. I found that to be corny, but we cannot stop at every corny thing, can we? No, we shouldn't. We can't. He keeps wandering around the house like he knows it almost as well as he once knew the curves of her body. Okay. She chugs her wine. I wish I had some. He's like, "Don't worry, baby. I'll get more." This is all so weird. It's weird anyway, but it's made more so because they had one night together 9 years ago. Anyway, they watch the disturbing movie and eat popcorn and drink another bottle of wine and he rubs her feet and she is just so touched at all this because she's never had anything like it. Nor has she ever thought she would have it. And I get that. I absolutely get that. She's been through a lot. However, why are you here? Time skip. They have been texting the entire following week after the movie night. She just can't get enough.
And now she's at Black Portal watching him sell someone a television.
I know that it's a ruse, but it's dumb.
But they're keeping it cash. You know, nothing too crazy, even though she knows he is curious about what she's been up to all this time and what happened to her all those years ago. He wanders off to help some other little old lady pick out the perfect TV, leaving Molly to hang out and chill with the employee, Silus, who's been there the whole time and remembers her from back when they first disappeared. He's like, "He never got over you." No. She's like, "He barely knew me." And I agree. But then Silas says some crap about soulmates and how they don't just always know that they're soulmates once they're strangers too. And that legitimately makes sense.
But it's so stupid and I hate this place. So Cage then is done with the little old lady and he goes back to do some of his real work and then she goes back to watch him because quote black portal is just a front. His real job is making people disappear and reappear with new identities. Yeah, I got that.
clocked it a couple of chapters ago.
Actually, that makes total sense. Are you well? Anyway, they're almost finished so that they can go grab some beers and some zah. You know, nothing like some zah. And she's like, "Yeah, I'm allergic to beer, but I am also in your debt for introducing pizza to me."
He is the one to blame for her love of pizza. And he's like, "Hopefully that's not all I can take credit for introducing you to and making you addicted to." And then, no [ __ ] She says his implication is obvious and then goes on to explain it to me as if it weren't. His wicked grin widens. Come on, little ghost. Let's go stuff that pretty little mouth. Said mouth drops and he grabs my hand, pulling me after him as he laughs. What a day. He's lucky it's a really [ __ ] nice one. Chapter 6.
14 years ago, 2008. I guess it's Molly.
I didn't write it. She's just escaped Franchesca's house and is on the run on her quest to get back to Ila. She's going and going for days, it seems. She finally sees a nice black man cutting his grass one day and she just tears through the trees after him and being like, "Help me. Please help me." Blah blah blah. The man, the black man, calls for his wife, Latoya. And you let me know if that feels like a microaggression to you because it did to me. Latoya does come out and she is immediately submerged in the mammy stereotype, calling her baby and bringing her lemonade and putting aloe on her sunburned face. To be honest, if this was my first HD Carlton, it might not have raised such red flags for me. I might just skip right by it.
Unfortunately, it's not my first HD Carlton book. It is my fourth. Anyway, they call the cops and they're on their way, but Molly starts to like panic.
She's like, "What if I put a target on them?" Like, they're going to know.
Rocco's going to know they're going to send people. These people are going to be dead. I got to get out of here. So, she starts freaking out and leaves before the cops get there. She's like bobbing and weaving in and out of the neighborhood. She spots a kid and asks if he can point her in the direction of downtown and he does. So, she's making my way downtown.
>> As she runs off, she hollers behind her not to talk to a stranger. She's so quirky, even in the bowels of a traumatizing situation. Chapter 7. Cage.
Present day. He's driving to Molly's. I mean, Marie's I mean Molly's. Oof. That is difficult, isn't it? And how is he ever going to get used to calling her Marie when 9 years ago, that one night, he just moaned Molly all night long? I don't know. 9 years ago. 9 years ago.
Alexa, what year was it 9 years ago?
>> 9 years ago was 2016.
>> What the [ __ ] was I up to in 2016? In Root, he's also on the phone with Legion asking how he could not tell them that Molly came back. I'm pissed that he didn't. Not because she reversed everything I did to keep her hidden and safe. No, it's because she's been back within reach and I never [ __ ] She doesn't owe me [ __ ] Except there's a small part of my ego that hopes she'd want to see me again. The fact that she didn't only makes me want to prove just how [ __ ] wrong she is for feeling that way. Whoa, buddy. And the problem is, I don't know if she'll let me have her.
But I do know it WON'T STOP ME. WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA.
WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? What do you mean? She's been back for a long time.
She's been back for years. She did not seek you out. She doesn't want to talk to you. And that's not going to stop you from just being there and forcing her to do it. That's great. That's great.
That's like super hot. I'm hot. Anyway, he's a charmer. He's still on the phone with Legion and he's like, "What about her sister? Is that why she came back?
Do you know where she is?" And Leon's like, "Yeah." And doesn't tell him because he doesn't want her to mess it up. She's 15 and she's living with a good family and leave her alone. And I second that. I think that if you know that you provided a better opportunity for this child, leave her the [ __ ] alone. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. He hangs up and notes to us that the last time anyone saw the likes of Molly, she was running from nothing in the gas station, letting us know that the tapes had been tampered with, but also kind of setting it up a little bit to make us think that maybe she's hallucinating, too. But hey, we can't have more than one person hallucinating ghosts that she's running from, right?
That would be kind of weird. It would be weird and it would be redundant and it would be repetitive and it would really drone on and on and wear the reader out.
I'm the reader. He then pivots to how her obsession with finding Leila is familiar to him because he's also obsessed with the girl with haunted eyes and a perpetual frown who carried a sadness so deep that it permanently altered the shape of her lips. So, so you were attracted to a woman who was very sad and clearly showing signs of PTSD. That's what you were attracted to, not the woman. You didn't disagree. You didn't talk about the woman. You're talking about her sadness. That's what you liked. Hm. He rolls up to the house.
A light shone through a window which sends him into a spiral of imagining her naked in there. Her quote per dusty pink and creamy thighs. H. But hey, he doesn't want to just live in the memory.
Oh no, he hasn't seen her in almost a decade. He wants to see what she looks like now. So he shakes the [ __ ] off, pops a piece of nicotine gum in his mouth, and climbs out of the car. He sees her exiting the barn as he is lifting a body from his trunk. Remember that's that's what he does, and watches her as she just gets to work on him, shaving the head, extracting the teeth, you know the deal. Just girly things.
And he can't help but realize how attractive this particular skill set is.
Red flags all around. The person on the table did some horrible [ __ ] too. Like sold her kid to her boyfriend or something. And Molly's like, "Do you know where the kid is? Is the kid safe?
It's so boring. It's so droll. It's so predictable. I can't take it." And I know that these books are not meant to be like upstanding examples of literature. You're not meant to think, but I can't help it. But all of this prompts Cage to ask if that's what happened to Molly. Is that what happened to you? Your parents sold her. Cuz remember, Cage doesn't actually know Molly. He just banged her a couple years ago once. That's it. Helped her assume a new identity. Helped her disappear.
That's his basis of knowledge on this person. He doesn't actually know her.
So, for him to be like excited and obsessed and thinking about her and I can't believe she didn't call me. It's a one night stand, bro. I know you've had one before. She's not wanting to spill the tea about her life, though, so she just chucks an arm at him. So fun. It's fun to play with your loved one. She's like, "You don't get to come back into my life and demand answers from me." And I support that. She's right. He doesn't.
You bring the bodies, you leave. That's it. That's your job. To all of this banter back and forth. He's like, "You're breathtaking." And she's like, "Why would you say that?" And he goes on an internal spiel, thankful that we're in his head so that we don't have to miss out about how he knew it was her all along. Blah blah blah. He also low-key guilts her and says, "Because I tell you everything." Like, "Okay, cool.
That's you, though. That's you. You get to decide what you're comfortable sharing and I get to decide what I'm comfortable sharing." Yeah. He grabs her. She tells him to let him go. He's like, "No, I did that once. Never again." She continues to try to fight him off, but not really, you know, hot.
Kind of hot, whatever. He takes off his shirt and she's immediately goopy, saying, quote, "You have so many muscles now." And he's like, "I worked my ass off for these and a lot's changed."
He says, "I want to see everything that's changed with you, too, and some stuff that stayed the same." Quote, "Does that spot between your still get red when you come?" I'm s I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I I must be misunders What the hell are you talking about?
She unzips her kills suit and I'm sure that's only hot. And he gives us a little description of her house. She's like at least 510 with long lean curves and heaving beasts. All of a sudden, there's a loud bang and it's one of the pigs that's just banging up against the fence cuz they're still hungry. And he's like, "We're all hungry, baby. Who are you going to feed first?" Funny, my appetite is nowhere to be found. Is that the voice now? Is that the voice? I'm just going to see if it works. If it feels right. She saunters over to pick up another body part and chuck it into the pig pin, maintaining eye contact with him the whole time. Hot. Nothing gets me going. I don't know about you.
Nothing gets me going quite like the delicious combination of bunny disposal and a close proximity to a pig sty. They flirt a little bit more, but I don't want to. Chapter eight. Molly present.
Yay. we get to live through her. I'm like, I just love it. She's down bad in this moment and she's like ready to go, but she doesn't let him know that. So, she just starts fighting him off. They scuffle. It's sexy. She's clenching.
He's throbbing. She gasps. He growls. As they start getting busy, something sprays across them. And it's blood from the pigs eating. How close are you to the pen? Like, have y'all ever been to a farm or a barn or a place where outdoor livestock animals live? Like, it's not hot. I understand that farmers can be hot. I understand cowboys can be hot. I got, you know, I understand. I'm a little bit out there, you know? I can understand it. I can crack my mind open enough to see what you're talking here.
But if you've been near a pile of [ __ ] excreted by a barnyard animal, you know that the smell is so foul. I could ne I could never. But they sure can. It does not deter them. Oh boy. Neither of them really. I mean, one man's biohazard is I don't know. His eyes darkening like a forest fire within blackening with a hunger as potent as the flame. I've never been so ready to walk into a wild fire.
Um, forest fires aren't dark. His eyes darken like a forest fire within. FOREST FIRES AREN'T DARK. They are literally fire. Fire is is a light source of it's a source of heat. Yes, sure. It is also a source of light. I fear that I cannot follow you on this journey. She sits on his face and that's kind of fun honestly. And more growls, more gasps.
You know the deal. She arrives with a scream and a bunch of colors flash before her eyes. By the time I come down, I feel like I've traveled light years and back. like I have an entirely new lifetime of experiences. You know what'll give you this same kind of feeling without having to [ __ ] a cho?
Blesa. Use my code in the description.
But I do want to say just one real quick like almost compliment here. I think it's nice that they met when she was 25 and he was 27 and now it's been nine or so years. So that would make her 34 and him 36. We rarely get adults in these adult dark romances. It's almost always a freshly 18-year-old who's getting railed by a bunch of fully grown people.
Even though they're adults, though, it is still a little weird to me for an abused, battered woman who was a victim of sex trafficking to show up at your black portal ruse and request to have a new identity and be disappeared. And for you to not only do that, but [ __ ] her one good time for good measure. I It seems really weird, gross, abuse of power kind of thing. But I guess at least they're adults, right? So, um, yeah, after the whole facing thing and the blood splatter thing, you know, whatever, he's like, I'm still hungry.
And she's like, you can have me. And so, he like takes off his belt and wraps it around her throat. And she's living for it. Honestly, he is a masterpiece that Da Vinci wishes he would have invented.
And this further proves what we always see in things like this, that even the dead will not know peace in a dark romance novel. He's situated behind her right at her entrance. You know how it is. And asks if she's on birth control and she's like, "Yeah, but you could have asked sooner in case I wasn't." And he's like, "I still wouldn't have cared." Cool. Oh, cool. I love that.
Anyway, they're banging. It's super hot.
The pigs are nearby. There's more blood splatter. He calls her a good little And I'm living. WE GOT ALL THE CLASSICS. THE blood splatters one more time. He just rubs it all over her. And he doesn't miss a beat, honestly. He just keeps rubbing it all over her. and she knows that this should disturb her, but she's simply too close to an O to care. Me, however, I'm not and I do care deeply.
Blood, but I don't want to talk about it. This is so heavy-handed. And listen, I know who we're dealing with. I know where we are. I know what we got going on. But aside from the obvious insanity, the way she describes this whole thing is just so much. It's like she's traveling light years. Colors exploding.
This pleasure is a disease and she's a puppet to the infection, not a puppet.
Her nervous system shuts down. Her bones liquefy. Explosions are detonating through her body. It's just a lot. And again, I understand that those kinds of sensations are possible when you are having an intimate moment, either with a partner or with yourself. However, shut up. Then just as he arrives, he bites her face in the same spot that her dad did oh so long ago. And as he gets dressed, he tells her that he hopes that from now on when she looks in the mirror, she'll think of him. So now she has two scars. She has the first scar from the past trauma, and now she has this Twilight style battle scar from you on her freaking face. She also, I just tossing this in here, she has those bite marks all over her body from things that her dad did to her. Shenanigans aside, this is just yet another recycled plot point from the haunting hunting Adeline.
If you recall, Addie was with someone who abused her in a similar way with who would cut her during their interactions while she was living in Franchesca's sex house. And when she got back, in order to help her love her scars, Zade just sliced over top of them. and made new scars. Yeah, I love seeing creativity perish. Anyway, they decide that it's time for a shower and she's like, "Nuhuh, you're not coming back in." And he's like, "Careful with this hard to get thing or I will move in." He picks up his jeans and begins to slide them on and all I can do is kneel on the floor with my mouth a gape and stare at his bare ass being covered. I hate that it feels like it's too soon. Yeah. Okay, so this is really terribly written because I it took me like three times of reading it to decipher what the hell is being said. Okay, like what's too soon? So, I'm going to read it again. All I can do is kneel on the floor with my mouth a gape and stare at his bare ass being covered. I hate that it feels like it's too soon. Like, I thought all of this was too soon. Like, I can't help but feel like all of this is super familiar and all of a sudden and happening really fast and too soon. But what she means is she she's trying to say that she wishes he wasn't putting his clothes back on.
That's what she's trying to say. So allow me just as he slides his jeans over his bare ass. All I can do is stare and silently wish they were still on the ground. IS THAT NOT BETTER? I'M SORRY.
Is that not a better sentence? Just just a just a second of trying to actually write. Well, you could do that. You could. But I you know what? I don't know intentions. That's the thing. It's like all of this is me projecting and assuming because I don't know this person, this author. I don't know any of these people. So, I don't know what their intentions are. I only have what they give me to work with. And from what I can gather, it doesn't seem like writing a good book is the intention.
So, why am I even I don't even know what I'm talking about. Let me just shut the [ __ ] up. This is a great time for me to do a little aside here about a few of the comments that I get. I get a lot of comments and I try to read as many of them as I can. Some that stick out in my mind in moments like this are from authors who say that watching some of my reviews while fun. You know, Kiki, we have some laughs. My reviews also help them be better at writing because we're talking about this. I also want to let you know that if you did comment something like that, it's very kind of you to say. And I wanted to offer you this little bit of advice that I use when I'm writing things. Write something and then read it back to yourself out loud. It helps to be able to hear how the sentence flows out of your mouth so that you can make adjustments when needed. I stare at his bare ass being covered. That is not a way to describe someone putting their trousers back on.
It's so clunky. It makes no damn sense.
And if somebody had read it out loud to themselves before hitting publish, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So yes, ser it's not a serious cap, but this is a moment where we can have this together where we can just talk about how it really does help when you're writing something if you take a step back from it for a bit and read it out loud audibly to yourself so that you can hear how it sounds and think to yourself, hm, that's great. Flows well, makes sense. Love it. Or I feel like it needs some work. And then you can do that work. Isn't that something? Chapter nine, Molly, 14 years ago. So, she's standing outside of her childhood home.
She has made it back to her childhood home and she is like nothing's going on in there. So, she decides to sneak in.
She's worried about Fran and Rocco Taylor. She's worried about like maybe her dad found out that she left. And I understand that when you're in a trauma response, it is very easy to spiral in those thoughts and just start thinking like everything is good. It's a trauma response. I know. I've had them before.
and all logic and reason go out the window when your trauma responses are activated. So, I get that. So, I'm not going to say anything about that. But anyway, she sneaks into the house and doesn't hear anything from anywhere. So, she sneaks upstairs to Ila's room and she's like really frantic because Ila's there and she's worried that maybe she won't remember her or she'll scare her and she'll cry and they'll find her all this other stuff. But Ila does recognize her, it seems, and reaches up to her.
And this just causes like a great emotional reaction. Like, she's crying.
Obviously, I can only imagine. But just then, it's all interrupted when her dad shows up. Apparently, her mom died from an OD and Rocco already called him and said that he'll give him another 50 grand if they get her back to him. Also, remember how the gas station footage was said to look like she was chasing and running from nothing? It was edited. We already talked about this, but he reveals that in this moment to her. So now everybody thinks that she's just running away from ghost, hence the nickname little ghost. We love it. I get it. I Yeah, great. Anyway, they bicker back and forth a little bit. He threatens to sell both her and Ila, and this has her seeing freaking red. She's disgusted. Join the club. She decides to be koi and try to lead him away from Ila back downstairs because she doesn't want Ila to see what she's about to do. He does go downstairs and she woodenly follows him. Anyway, he's like, "You want a piece of me?" And she's like, "Yeah, I faced scarier men and lived.
Bring it on, old man. Bring it on." He walks towards her. She grabs an empty coffee mug and slings it at his head. It shatters. So, she grabs a piece of glass and presses it to his throat, gouges his eyes out, and her thoughts start to race on just how she's supposed to cover this up. Light bulb pig farm. And I know just where to find one. Great. Do y'all see all that gray coming up in my hair? I can't say that it's directly because of this. I can't say that. Chapter 10, Molly present. Shower time banter. My personal fave. We got a lot of that in credence. She says that despite him showering, he'll still probably go home smelling like pig [ __ ] because that's a secret that she's not sharing with him that she has a special soap that'll get it out. And this is what I'm trying to tell you. Like this smell, the smelly smell that smells smelly, you can't just How are you having sex next to it? I I just ah it's not sexy. It's not even pleasant. Do you get used to it over time? Sure. I'm sure you do. But nobody is making a scented candle that smells like this. Let alone one to set the mood. I I'm just stunned. I'm stunned.
Anyway, she's frustrated because his down was so good. Now she's obsessed all over again. And he's like, I want to know you. And she's like, well, you know what my box feels like from the inside.
And that's more than most people could say. There were others, both like abusers that raped her and people that she voluntarily was with, but only one is still alive. Everybody else is dead now. Some guy named Kenny from her time with Francesca and dude is like big mad's not sitting right with him and she's like don't kill for me. But that won't do because he wants to be the only one. I want to be the only man on this entire [ __ ] planet that knows what you feel like. And if I'm sharing that knowledge with a single soul, I will be removing them from it. Hot. Is this exclusive to criminals? Are you going to take out like a guy that she had two dates with? Like what are we talking here? Anyway, she's like, "I'm not discussing this with you." And he's like, "Cool, so don't." She's annoyed.
What are you doing this for? What do you want from me?
>> What do you want from me?
>> She hesitates for a little bit, but then she starts kind of spilling a little bit. She says that her favorite name in the world is Leila, and I think we all could have guessed that one. So, to encourage her to keep going, he just starts spilling. His favorite flower is the tiger lily. He was raised by a single mom, and her favorite flower is also a tiger lily, and he brings them to her very often. Mama's boy, love it.
They bicker a little. It's boring. He says that he knew that the footage was altered and that he's been obsessed ever since because his soul recognized hers.
I don't know what that means, but good.
He keeps on with the blah blah blah. I want to know you. And she's still hesitant, but he's like, I wasn't going to tell anybody. And she spills a little bit about killing her dad. I killed him.
I confirm quietly. And I didn't even feel guilty about it. You shouldn't have. He deserved that. And so much worse. See? Okay. What is this? I am and I don't feel guilty about it. You shouldn't have. What do you mean by that? What you meant to say was you shouldn't. That goes back to feeling guilty. When you say you shouldn't have, that makes it read like you're saying she shouldn't have killed her father.
And I don't think that was what you meant to say, but that's how it read.
Words can be really fun and they mean things. And you should care about the way you say things since writing and using language to tell a story is literally your job. When words aren't used right, they tell a different story than the one that you might be trying to tell. And it would have just been cool if you snatched up an editor, pllopped them on this project. I'm just saying.
Anyway, she keeps spelling about how she packed up Ila and drove to the farm and snuck in while the farmer was sleeping and fed her dad to the eggs. She had Ila at this time and she renamed her Emma and she was like scouting out people around the area to leave Emma with. She ended up finding like a really rich family. They seemed really nice and she left her on the porch like a pound puppy with a a name tag around her neck. I honestly don't know what a better solution would have been, but what who cares? Chapter 11 is Molly. nine years ago. She is working at a mechanic shop and getting sexually harassed by some incel guy who's spitting some lines at her that she's not impressed by. I lean heavily on the counter, separating us, staring at him like he's a fly that's expecting me to be impressed with its crooked wings when it has [ __ ] smeared across its upper lip.
Flies don't have lips, baby angel. They just don't. And actually, it's a huge joke in my Discord now because I had to run there and tell them about this because I knew that flies didn't have lips. So, I Googled it and then I came up with this and flies have mouth parts.
So, now that's an inside joke that me and my Discord have. If you want to be on my Discord, by the way, I highly recommend it. It's really fun. You can sign up for any level of membership on my bindary page and you get access.
Anyway, flies don't have lips and this guy is the boss's cousin. She's like supposed to go get him. I don't think any of this is relevant. She goes back there. He's like, "Tell me what his name is." She's like, "He didn't say like, find out." So, she goes back out there.
She just fails and goes back to the woman's shelter that she's been staying at for a while. She eventually does get her own little shitty, dingy apartment that she stays in, but she's miserable and cries all the time and struggles with some ideation, which honestly that makes sense. It's understandable. She doesn't want to be here, but she doesn't want to die type stuff. I mean, it's familiar to me. I don't know about you.
But this is when Legion finds her, slips his card or a note or something under the door and she it's got his phone number on it, whoever Legion is. And she's like, "What the heck is this?" She calls him. He's like, "I saw what went down with you and your boss. I followed you here, but I didn't want to scare you. I just want to help you. I recognize you, Molly. No strings. I just want to help you disappear and start all over again." He gives her instructions on how to go about meeting up with a man who I can only assume is Cade, and he will give her a new identity. So, and for some reason she trusts him. I guess it it is understandable because she has very limited options right now, but I would be wary of trusting anyone for the rest of forever. Chapter 12. Molly present. She's at a soccer game. Ila's soccer game. Emma's soccer. Emma, Ila's soccer game. Emma, Ila is 15 now and she's watching her from the stands. Laya Emma is crushing it. She's a star in the making. But Molly's trying to lay low.
So, when Leila scores a goal, she says, "I jump out of my seat and clap like there's a hornet in my face."
I don't know how clapping like there's a hornet in your face would support your whole Lelo mission, but hey, Leila, Emma's parents are there named Margot and what's his name? Colin. I don't know if it's important, so I just wanted to note it. Emma, Ila's team wins. It's all very exciting. Molly leaves with tears in her eyes. sad she can't share in the celebration. And honestly, that probably is really hard. None of these jokes are aimed at people who have dealt with things like this or these circumstances in general. All of them are aimed at the book. The book sucks. Time skip. She and Cage are at Target buying condoms. He's still been delivering bodies to her and he's also bodying her. You get it? I don't even know if I use that right. I don't care. But it's been a few weeks and they've already run through an entire 50count box of condoms. That's great. Just then, his mother, Winterfred, pops up and starts being absolutely abhorrent. And Molly is mortified. They're literally standing by the condoms, and Cage is like reaching for the extra-L large size. Okay, down boy. All of this is uncomfortable, but it's nowhere near as uncomfortable as I am when I have to read the way Wifred talks. I didn't know Cage had a new lady friend, she exclaims warmly, pulling away, only to capture my cheeks between her soft hands. Oh, the beauty of you.
Your eyes are quite sexy, you know that?
And that bite mark. Dear lord, it must have come from a horrible person. But dare I say, you make it look very edgy, my dear. Like another flower here because I think that this characterization is pretty spot-on. Old people just be saying stuff. They have no sense of physical boundaries. I was doing some food shopping with a couple of friends of mine a few months ago. One of my friends was holding a pillow that she had found and she was going to buy.
and a woman, a stranger we do not know, came over and physically turned her around so she could see the pillow and I had to hold her for the rest of the trip at the Why do y'all be doing that? Stop it. So again, I do think that this characterization of an elderly white woman seems pretty on point, but it's also stupid because here we this is where we are. She goes on to TALK ABOUT HOW HOT SHE WAS when she was a young buck. His dad used to bend me over.
Please, for the love of God, time for one of your loved ones to seek out a better living situation, more catered to their needs. Call 1800. Anyway, she invites Molly over to dinner so that she can continue telling her about her groupy days and feed her peach cobbler.
And honestly, I would like to come. I love peach cobbler and I love mess.
Molly is reluctant, but she ultimately agrees to go. Chapter 13. Cage. 9 years ago. Someone's in the TV shop requesting a return. She's not happy with the product. Silus handles it. I'm bored.
Okay, so we get some backstory on Cage and why he set up Black Portal and started doing this kind of work in the first place. Okay, so apparently he had a younger sister named Olivia and she got some phony fake ID from some guy so that she could sneak out and go to this bar with her friends, right? And since the ID was so badly done, they clocked it pretty early and called the cops on her. The cop was bad. He was a bad apple and he came and picked her up and she was never seen again. Apparently, he was supposed to take them home. He did not.
He took her and her friend to a house in the middle of nowhere and tortured them and ended their lives. And inside of Teenage Cage's mind, he realized that if she had just gotten a decentlymade fake ID, she wouldn't be dead right now.
It's a weird lane to take, but sure. So, that's when he started crafting people's identities and helping them disappear.
Started Black Portal as a front. Legion started to notice all of his good work and started referring people over to him. I mean, we love word of mouth. We love networking. Only rule, he doesn't help rapists or pedophiles. Cool. It's just That's weird, isn't it? Isn't that so weird that his sister is tragically unalived by a man whose job it is to serve and protect the community and he jumps to, well, if her fake ID had just been real good. It just it's it's an offshoot. It's adjacent to like a victim blamy thing. I know he's not blaming Olivia, but like the real person to blame is the criminal murderer cop and not the fake whatever. Him doing this job is what led Molly to wander into his shop and request her new identity and made their paths cross. So that's yeah, great. So he tells her upon their first meeting, not knowing anything about this girl, what she's been through, any of this stuff, he tells her that people with eyes like hers, San Pacu eyes, are destined for a tragic death. Why would you say something like that to someone that you don't know that is obviously in dire straits or else they wouldn't be here? Why would you say that? Anyway, that's when they meet. She pretends to buy a TV. They banter. It's dumb. She's like, "Didn't Lein tell you I was coming?" And he's like, "He didn't that fucker." But he's already in love with her, already mentally counting her freckles. She requests Alaska and he's like, "Cool, 24 hours." And she's like, "Is there somewhere I can stay in the meantime? Like, I don't have anywhere to go." And he's like, "Yeah, I'll find you a hotel." But what he does instead is book all the rooms in all the hotels in a 30 mile radius. Chapter 14. Molly 9 years ago. This is the exact same moment. We've just switched POVs. So Molly is waiting on Cage to whatever.
While she's waiting on her new identity, Cage tells Silas to call some hotels and try to find her a room. And this was really confusing to me at the time because I was under the impression that he had booked her a room and also all the other rooms so that she could have some privacy, but that's actually not what happened. Uh he he says that he's going to order some pizzas because they've been hungry and she probably is too. And what does she want? And she's like, "I don't know. I've never had pizza before. And so he's like, I'm going to get one of everything or whatever. And she's like, no, don't.
That's too much food. And he's like, it's okay. I like to eat. And she is tongue tied over the quote raw anim animalistic energy that radiates from him. It doesn't seem like he's talking about food. Huh. Really? Wow. That is wild. She's tempted to flirt back, saying something about like how she's not very good at eating, but she's good at swallowing, which is wild. Hello from the void. I just realized how dumb this was. And I again am taken back to the first book that we read where Adeline said, "I need a bigger mouth. More alcohol will fit into it." I don't know why we're back here. Why does this author not understand the components that go into eating? Because I'm not very good at eating, but I'm good at swallowing. Swallowing is part of it.
That is what eating is. I don't Okay.
All right. I just thought it was funny.
Not funny. Haha. Funny. Get me out of here. But then she also thinks this isn't something I'm interested in. Not after going through everything that I have. In fact, I'm perfectly content if I never see another P for the rest of my life. Yet, the weight cage stares up at me now. I wonder if that's really true.
One day to cure them all. I love this trope. I do recognize, and I hope you do, too, that it is a common thing for survivors of things like this stuff um to struggle with intimacy. Whether that looks like complete abstinence or promiscuity, there's a wide spectrum.
and no one's journey is the same. So, I understand that it happens. I'm not shading that. I'm just It's just so badly done. Anyway, Silus breaks through screaming, "God damn it, there's no rooms available anywhere." And this is when I realized that I had given this man far too much unearned credit because he didn't book all the rooms so that she could have her pick of the rooms and also no weird people slinking about. She could just be by herself in solitude and safety. No, he booked all the rooms out so that he could casually mention that he has a guest room and she's welcome to come stay with him. Ew. So, it's on me.
That's on me for thinking that he was doing something thoughtful and nice instead of manipulative. My bad. My bad.
Serious cap. I found mine. And this is a very low-key controlling, manipulative, abusive man. And I, like I said, I made this mistake. I was under the impression that maybe he was a little aggressive, you know, like showing up at her house, not taking no answer, but I was still giving him the benefit of the doubt that he was doing this just as a good guy and not someone who was trying to swindle her or manipulate her in some way. And a man who is this shady, manipulative, abusive is sometimes more insidious than a character like Zade. Zade was a lot more upfront and obvious about his abuse, stalking, like breaking and entering. His flags were vermilion and he wore them like a scarf. But these kinds of men, the men who are masquerading as just nice guys, and they deserve your love because they're so nice to you with no strings, but there are only strings attached to the nice things that they do. They're just as dangerous, if not more so. He's coming over uninvited. He's bringing flowers.
He's being overly familiar, but in like a charming way. But it is still abuse.
It's laying the groundwork to lower your defenses and make you more susceptible to the controlling tactics he's going to use on you. It's just it's abuse. It's just less in your face about it. And honestly, those are a little bit more sinister human beings because they know what it takes to earn your trust and then use it against you. So, I just wanted to note that. Honestly, by comparison, if you line them up, Zade and Cage, which god damn, those names are stupid. But if you line them up, you just look at them, you know, and what they do. One of them is blaringly worse than the other, but actually they're both really bad, just in different way.
That's all that's all I wanted to talk about. I don't even know if it warranted a serious cap, but we did it. Also, if you want your own serious cap, I sell them in my Etsy link below. Anyway, he offers his spare room. She's like, I don't even know you. He's like, I'll totally just protect you and you'll be safe and I'll let Legion know so he knows that you're there. you can call him right now. So, she does and thinks to herself like, "What if Legion is a bad guy, too?" Yeah, I don't know. I'm You're running out of You have very limited options and I understand that, but like I said, I wouldn't have called any of these people. I would have just moved as gradually over time as I could to get my distance and never trusted another living soul ever again. But I also am in therapy, so what do I know?
She just decides to trust them because what other choice does she have? Fair enough. Time skip. She's at his house and she's aruck by his what can only be described as some sort of 80s bachelor pad. If there's one thing HD Carlton's going to do in her books, it's write poorly with subtle racism and romanticizing hot men committing crime scapes women sprinkled throughout. But if there's one more thing that HG Carlton's going to do in her books, it is mention a gorgeous house and then go on to describe the ugliest [ __ ] I've ever heard. They share a pizza. Supreme was her favorite. She found cheese to be too boring. And then she tells us that she grew up eating ketchup sandwiches and then soup with Francesca. So quote, "Greasy fried foods were a luxury I never knew." So I guess she didn't get to partake in the post Hunger Games calling celebratory dinner that was McDonald's. Hm. Weird. There is somewhat I want to mention that there is somewhat of an unspoken spark between them. A tension like they're both very much into each other, but like she's acting like she's not. So they eat the pizza. She's stuffed. And he says even though she's full now, she might be hungry later. and she expects him to just rail her right there. And it's odd, but fine. He gives her a tour and then offers to let her shower and says, "I have everything you want, like shampoo, even razors." And she's thrilled. And he shows her to the guest bedroom, which is big and beautiful, but there are black sheets and black beams on the ceiling and the bathroom with a black stone. And I just making everything in the [ __ ] house black to not only depict like high standards, but also like an edgginess.
Like I am so [ __ ] tired. She rushes into the bathroom and closes the door behind her, but she tells herself that she's going to emerge and she's going to rail him. Chapter 15. Cage present. They're at dinner with Cage's mom. She's insufferable as always. His her yapping used to embarrass him. But ever since his sister died, he just kind of like finds it endearing. He brought her tiger liies because of course he did. And listen, I'm not trying to knock flowers.
I [ __ ] love flowers. give them to me any day of the week and I will be happy to receive them. However, I would like to mix it up a little bit. Where's the creativity? Where's the sauce? Like, like, like, bring me a smoked pork shoulder and some some sides. Like, bring me that. My husband brought me a book when we first met 15 years ago, and now here we are. Just mix it up. Mom serves her peach cobbler, but he tells us I'm not much of a sweets person, unless of course it's Molly's. And I just want to pause it here that there is nothing that his mother could say out loud that is more embarrassing than the silent things that this man thinks to himself. Mom offers her up some more wine because she is so wooden. She is worried that her son will have to pick splinters out of his dick when he [ __ ] her later. And then she also asks her how viable her uterus is. Eggs haven't shriveled yet, right? I've been waiting for grandkids. She is so fun. I love her. I love him. I love everyone. Time skip. He's taking her on a tour of the house. I think they're in his childhood bedroom. He apologizes for how his mom behaved, but he also says, "She loves you. She doesn't just talk about every woman I bring home's uterus." And she's like, "She doesn't even know me and we aren't dating. So what if she's wrong?"
And then he is on her like Zade on a registry, growling through clench teeth.
You think I need an date to put my baby inside you? You might need her consent.
At the very least, maybe a conversation about if she even wants kids. Do Do you know what she's been through? Do you know what she She might not want kids.
Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Oh my god. That's so hot. You wouldn't. She breathes. We hardly know each other. No, I agree. Not yet, at least. I place a kiss below her ear, but I would. I absolutely [ __ ] would. I kiss. Hated kiss. Every kiss.
second kiss of kiss that kiss she's like what if you hate me or I hate you or you're sloppy or my nightmares bother you and he's like I have nightmares of my own and then takes her down to the sister's room and it's been kept the same way since she died of course it has time capsule I understand that he spills in a paragraph what we already lived through in one of the flashback chapters where he explained why he started the business that he's in fake ID never came home killed by the cop that picked her up and supposed to bring her home all this stuff yeah blah blah blah blah Molly starts to self-deprecate, but not in a fun way. Kiki, no, not like that.
Just like she she shouldn't have gotten home either. Olivia should have gotten to come home. Not me. I'm a waste. Which makes him angry. Yeah, I'm sure you guessed it. How could she even think such a thing? SHE'S A GODDESS walking on this earth. I know they all are, aren't they? He says, "I'll always miss my sister, but I'm so [ __ ] glad you came home." She has to hear about more about Olivia. And and this moves him, so he just starts spilling. And I'm not going to because I doubt any of it's important. I will say that she apparently loved the song sunglasses at night when she was a kid. So, she wore sunglasses a lot. So, Molly like puts them both laying on the bed and turns the song on. He's starting to like what the [ __ ] you know, get up and she's like, "Sh, what if Olivia's here and she wants to listen too?" And this just charms him in such a way. Fire exploding in his chest and he hopes that it spreads to her so they can both burn together. Get you some times, my man.
Knock that right out. I will chase away all your nightmares until they grow wary of returning. Then they will fear me, my little ghost. But you never will. That's cool, guy. I didn't think I needed to fear you. Why are you bringing that up?
Why was that disclaimer needed? What do you have planned? Chapter 16. Molly, 9 years ago. She's out of the shower, fresh and clean, and ready to rock his world. But she's also anxious, saying, quote, "I'm standing at the door, staring at it as if it's the mirror on the wall from Snow White, and it's going to tell my future. Will I like sex?
Great question. I have one. You'd never had pizza before, but you knew the lore of Snow White. You know, fine, whatever.
It's none of my business. We Good for you. But she gathers herself and leaves the bathroom unsure of what to do next.
What the [ __ ] am I even supposed to say to him? Hi, excuse me. Can you put your dick inside me? I'm not sure if I'll like it, BUT LET'S FIND OUT TOGETHER.
I'm going to embarrass myself. I just know it. going to she finds a stack of what appear to be men's clothes left for her on the end of the bed and she smells them and says that it smells like vetiviver and sandalwood and here we are again with a similar question how the do you know what those smells are called even I had to look that up veter is apparently an aroma extract of a root from Indian grass you just know scents like that you just smell something you're like vetr sandalwood Pete moss Pete Davidson bergammont want. Why? Why this? And they never explain this one.
At the very least, in Satan's affair, when Cibby starts shouting out the different smells of flowers that she knows, she walks that back and lets us know that her stupid abusive cult leader dad taught her about flowers for some reason. So, that's how she There's no reason for her to be a smaller of sense.
Oh, this is ridiculous. I don't even know why I'm yelling. He walks in on her in a towel holding one of his shirts and he's like, "You like what you smell?"
startling her so that she almost drops the towel. Again, at this point, I'm unsure if the signals are being exchanged within their the dynamic, like if she knows he's hot for her or if he knows that she wants him. I don't know that because it's not well done. But I do know that it is not a good move to invade the space of a person who was recently a victim of sex trafficking when they're in a state of undress. When she does fumble the towel, he notices that she has those battle scars all over her. And he just starts stalking towards her. Which again, this is not a good move with a battered woman back up. This is not about you. Stop being outwardly angry at her. But I'm alone in this because she is hot about it. And what am I to do? Have at it. I don't know. Go nuts. She's hot about it, but she's also nervous because all the men before her wanted to cry. Yes. But now, quote, "Cage easily makes my [ __ ] weep, and he hasn't even touched me yet. Where is my water cup?" All of this [ __ ] weeping threatens to dehydrate me. He asks her if she wants him to leave. She's like, "Not sure what to say." She's not very good at this. Of course, you're not, honey. You need some space to heal and figure yourself out, and that's fine, but whatever. But he just wants to make her feel good. And her only job is to let him. He asks her where she wants to be kissed first. Right here for me, but with an ice pick. She touches her lips.
So he does. It's fire. It's magma. It's the surface of the sun level hot. They bang. I don't know what you want from me. I'm not going to chronicle it, but I'm going to give you some low lights.
Okay. His hand slides along my jawline and dives into my damp curls, directing the angle of my head so he can lick along the seam of my lips. And like a greedy little puppet, I eagerly open for him. Not a puppet. Cupping both of my breath and his large palms as if he's feeding them into his mouth. I hate that. He also starts to leave fresh bite marks all over the scarred one so he can claim the pieces of her that they tried to steal away from her kindling for the win. And then in the afterglow of such a sexy time, she says, "Jesus [ __ ] Christ." And he says, "If you're asking for him to save you, then I will nail him onto that [ __ ] cross again. You will be my ruin, but only I will be your savior." Chapter 17. Molly 9 years ago.
We're back in the same moment. We just get to continue down the same path.
Isn't that exciting? She isn't sure she can handle the D, but he's like, "It'll fit." Cool. I wonder what'll happen if it doesn't, though. He pops on a rubber and she's impressed at how good he is at doing it. And like, I didn't know that was a skill. I just know that I learned how to do it um from Never Been Kissed.
I'll feed my [ __ ] into your p nice and slow. Okay, baby. I'll make sure you're still fuckful. Then just when you think you can't take it anymore, his lips pull up into a savage snarl. I'll go deeper.
The feeding. What is it with the feeding? Then she asks him, "What if she can't take it?" And he says, "You've survived much worse." Anyway, I'll proceed with the low lightss. Oh, that's so good. I mule. Look how [ __ ] greedy your [ __ ] is, baby. Brace yourself, little ghost. I don't kindly.
All of this still wouldn't be hot for me, but it would have edged a little closer in that direction if there had been any palpable sexual attention between these people at all. Like, sure, I know that it's like a vibe, a look, whatever. It would have been nice to have a little bit more than what we were given and have it happen instead of us being told that it was happening. It just feels so abrupt and out of place.
There's no control over a natural disaster, only allowing it to wreak havoc, embracing yourself for the outcome. The storm building inside me is catastrophic. It'll be devastating and I'll be in ruins. Show me how a dirty little milks my she does and she arrives and he does too. Too bad the dang condom is there to prevent her from really feeling it. Gh. She thanks him for showing her how to enjoy something she never thought she would. And honestly, this is none of my business. If that helped you, whatever. That's good.
Great. Chapter 18. Molly present. She's on the phone refusing a Legion delivery and she requests that Eli be brought in for any future delivery. She's just feeling a lot for Cage and she isn't ready to do it. So, she's like cutting and running. And honestly, that's her right. Legion agrees. So, Eli starts bringing bodies back. They hang up and she fully expects Cage to show up and demand answers. So do I. Because despite telling you, I didn't mention this before, but despite telling you just a chapter ago that he will always respect your boundaries, I bet he doesn't. Time skip. Eli's there making the delivery.
They banter. I'd rather not. He mentions that the Basilus Brotherhood are interested in what she does for a living because they want access to the organs and stuff. And I we've arrived at the moment when you remember I told you to keep something in your mind. The time has come for you to bring it back out.
Okay. So, I don't know much about this and I refuse to do any research because this book has taken enough from me. But if you know more about like organ harvesting and how that looks and how that goes, let me know because my question is, isn't organ harvesting a bit of a tedious process? Like everything has to go right. The manner of which they've died, their health, how long they've been dead versus when they did the harvesting of the organs, the transporting, you got to get them on ice. Like, I just feel like there's a lot more to that. And remember way back at the start of the book, Cage said that the body in his trunk was already beginning to bloat. And what did we learn from our unofficial lesson about decomposition in the last book? Bloating occurs around the 3 to 5 day mark. So I don't think any of those organs would have been viable to harvest and give to someone who was in need of an organ transplant. Once again, I don't know much about this, but if you do, please let me know because it doesn't seem like this system is running smoothly enough for organ harvesting to even be on the menu. Chapter 19, Cage. 2 weeks later, he's journaling his feelings because he can't believe that she left him behind yet again. But he is respecting her boundaries because that's what a good man does. That's not what's going on.
He's at her home. He's watching her from the woods. He has been for two weeks.
He's just been camping out. Yeah. He knows that she likes him, but this is how she is. She just wants to run. She can't handle her feelings, so she runs.
How do you know that? How do you know that? You don't. That's the answer. But he will never give up. God, how tempting it is to walk up behind her, wrap my hands around that dainty little throat, show her the only reason she can breathe is because I [ __ ] allow her to.
>> I'm sorry. He does this. silently stalking up behind her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and says, "For a little ghost with so many bones, you're just begging me to break them." I'm sorry. First of all, all people have the same bones. Okay, 206. I googled. You have more when you're born and you lose them over time, but everybody has the same amount of bones. You got too many bones for me to be What are we talking about? No. Second, why are you wanting to break her bones in the first place?
What What are we doing? She's like, "What are you doing here?" He's like, "You're not disappearing on me again."
and quote, "She's lucky I don't sew her goddamn flesh to my own." How romantic.
And this just proves what I was saying earlier, like the red flags were there, and he's been manipulating and controlling and subtly abusing her this entire time. And he's just dangerous.
He's a bad guy. But he's hot, so it doesn't matter. Let's go. He carries her into the house. She's fighting him the entire way, and he thinks to himself, "She made me like this, so now she has to [ __ ] live with it." And continues to threaten her physical safety. I just don't get it. Like there is a world where stuff like this could be hot, but this isn't the world. That's the the world is not with us in the room. It's not here. From his perspective, she hasn't spoken to him or reached out to him in 2 weeks. After asking her boss or his boss or whatever to take him off of the job that would have them interacting with each other, those are some pretty clear lines to me. and he doesn't know if she chose to do all of those things and is distancing herself because she likes him so much and it scares her or because it just scares her cuz he's crazy. We do, but he doesn't. So, his answer is to just blow right past those boundaries and stalk her. Hot. Hot. He starts to finger pop her to which she shakily says stop. And then he tells us that it isn't shaky because she's afraid. No, just because she wants him so badly. How do you know that? How do you know that? The heat between her legs and nails digging into my leather jacket give her true feelings away. Hi. Heat between your legs is present all the time. Kind of like your underarms or your underboob. It's a real warm area.
There's always going to be heat there.
Two nails digging into your jacket might be because you just ambushed and attacked her and threatened to break her bones. I just They talk a little bit.
It's dumb. She's like, "Leave me alone."
He's like, "Never." They kiss and she gives in. Epilogue. Molly. Three months later. Hm. They're both at another Leila Emma soccer game cheering along with everybody else. She's been sad on and off about the sister that she'll never know. But deeply she's happy and that's enough. She knows that Ila Emma is happy and that is enough. But Cage not having it. Cage found out that Emma has posted some questions online on some anonymous forums asking what she should do if she thinks that her parents have been lying to her about her childhood. So now Cage's whole thing is like convincing her to disrupt this child and her parents whole life and introduce herself to them, right? But she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to mess anything up and so she's torn. She's not sure what to do. Then we have a time skip at the end of the soccer game. I should mention that all the time skips are noted in the book with a little outline of a pig. Anyway, the game is over. It was a victory. Everybody lifted Leila Emma up. Everybody was cheering. It was super great. and they're waiting outside the field now to literally ambush these people with this horrific truth and introduction that could have been done in 900 better ways if you actually cared about her. To be so worried one minute about messing up her entire life to 10 minutes in the future deciding to just spring all this horrible information on all of them without any preparation whatsoever. It's just an odd leap.
Traumatic for no reason. Who cares? She introduces herself like I'm her sister.
I don't want to take her away or anything. I just want to know her if that's okay with you and I understand if it might. Ila's right there. Emma is right there. What you should have done if you cared the [ __ ] at all. If this wasn't about you and your selfish need to be involved in her life and you were actually worried about her, then what you should have done is approach the parents alone when she was not around.
Introduce yourself then and tell them I've thought about nothing except Ila Emma for the last several years and I understand why you wouldn't want me to know her and why you want to protect her from the truth of who she is. However, I would love the opportunity to know her and I'm going to leave it up to you.
This is my number. Call me anytime. This is what I'm up to. Blah blah blah blah blah. And I whatever that would have been a better way. Also, um, you dismember and dispose of bodies for a living. Maybe you don't need to know Ila at all. Maybe you don't want her anywhere near that. But this isn't about Ila, is it? No. Anyway, what she ends up doing is just, like I said, ambushing them, dropping all the information, saying, "Here, call me if you want her to know me. I'd really appreciate it."
Just seems really [ __ ] like I said, traumatizing for no reason. And to be honest, this is on me again. I don't know why I thought we were going to actually have some self-awareness here that led us down a good decision path.
Like maybe this whole time we were building up to her deciding that what's best for Emma is for her to just watch her from afar and maybe wait till she's older and see if she starts looking for her anyway. That would have been a better option, too. But no, it's on me for giving credit where it is literally not earned or due. Wait, that was chapter 20. Sorry, I'm trying to fly through here. So, this is the epilogue.
Okay, that's that's the end of the book, right? She's just not sure if she's ever going to see Ila again, but she just trauma dumped on her at the end of a soccer game in public in front of her parent. Great ending. Epilog Molly one month later, she and Cage are 69ing to see who can cross the finish line first.
If he wins, he gets to do a If she wins, she gets to him. Prizes for everybody.
He wins. Shocking. Time skip. Eli is there dropping off a few bodies. I don't know if Cage moved in or not. I guess he did. I don't know why they wouldn't move. I I don't care. Let's just keep going. Cage has another body to add to the pile and it's Kenny. Kenny was the last living person who was in Franchesca's house who also abused and raped Molly. Remember, he's the last one of them that was living until now. And honestly, I feel like this would be a very good time for a South Park. Oh my god, they killed Kenny clip, but that feels a little lazy and obvious. And I'm better than that.
>> OH MY GOD, THEY KILLED KENNY.
>> NO, I'm not. She says, "I love you for the first time over the whole Kenny death thing, and he's like, "I'll keep taking out people left and right if it means you keep telling me you love me."
So sweet. Time skip. She and Cage are dismembering yet another body together, extracting teeth, whatever. Her phone rings and it's Margot, Emma, Ila's mother. She says she's Googled them and she wants Molly to know that she knows exactly who she and Ila are from all the coverage of her disappearance a couple years ago, remember? And she's hesitant at first, but she has decided that she is going to allow Emma Laya to speak to Molly. So, she will text a time and date for them to meet. Cage comes over covered in blood, gives her a hug. Love it. She cries. It's very exciting. And it would be if they weren't also cutting up a body amidst all of this. Just then, the phone rings again and it's Zade calling for a body disposal. How fun.
Everybody is connected. The end. All right, we've reached the end. Here are my final thoughts. I didn't like this one either. It's not nearly as terrible as the three that came before it, for sure, but it's still not good. Badly written, poorly structured. It was wordy and somehow boring in spite of the subject matter. And for all the Lelaya Leila, Leila, Leila, Leila pages that we got in Hunting Adeline, that whole plot point felt like an afterthought. The entire book read very clunky, very halfbaked, and just as shitty as all the other books, if I'm being honest.
They're all bad. I gave it one star and I feel like that was a little too generous. As are all of the ratings. I rated all of the books in this whole universe one star. I have nothing but low hopes for the next one phantom, which I am not commissioned to read yet, and it better stay that way. However, I do feel a little bit better at the tail end of this because I read this one for a good cause. If you missed it at the front, there was a fundraiser one of my friends from high school was doing to help her family members evacuate safely out of Gaza, and you guys showed up and helped her reach that goal. I don't have a very good update because there is a lot going on in the United States right now. And if you are living here, or even if you're not, you're probably seeing the coverage of that. It's like one nightmare after another. However, they did manage to evacuate Gaza and go north to stay with some of their family members that live in a less hostile area. So, that's good to know. And you guys are the reason that they were able to do that. You guys did a really good thing and you're really cool people and I'm really thankful. I know Hanine and her family are really thankful and you guys are really cool company to keep.
Thank you for watching this review.
Leave a pig emoji in the comments if you made it this far. I do really appreciate you being here. I know everything sucks right now. It's very heavy, very tense.
There's a lot of fear amongst the communities that I'm in, and I'm just trying to do my part to be present and do what I can for the people that I care about. I'm happy to be able to bring you these videos that maybe just brighten up your day ever so slightly. Whether you put me on and do all the chores in your house or you check out one of my videos as you're trying to go to sleep, whatever way you consume this media, I hope that it makes your day a little bit better. That's one of the things that I can do. We have to take care of each other, even in the small ways that seem unimportant. You never know what you're doing that might make someone else's day completely turn around. If you're here and you like what I do and you want to support the work that I bring to this channel, I have a boundary page. It's called Boneyard Picnic. By signing up to Bindary, you not only support me and the work that I do here, but you'll also get things like Discord access and weekly emails for me to let you know what I'm reading and what I'm up to, a heads up about upcoming videos that you can get excited about, stuff like that. You can sign up for a free tier and get all the stuff that I just mentioned or you can sign up for one of my paid tiers and you'll get early access to rant reviews plus bonus content like unhinged Bible study podcast things like that. You can also join as a YouTube channel member.
All the links for this stuff is below.
It just really helps me out and helps me continue to be able to bring you quality content like this and like buy food for my family and stuff. That's really kind of vital and I very much appreciate it.
I love you. You don't have to say it back. Thank you for spending this time with me and I will see you in the next video. I've decided to start filming every time he gets in my lap in order to prove my theory that he knows I have something to do. My realtor and friend will be here in less than 20 minutes to help me start trying to organize this house and he just sat down right before I turn the camera on. I know that you know and I don't know how you know, but I know that you do. I'll never be able to prove it, but maybe this will get me a step closer to that. So, in 10 minutes, I have to leave to go get my kids from school. And look who decided to show up. Caught you red-handed again.
I have a doctor's appointment in 30 minutes. He just got here.
Yeah, I'm talking about you.
Just opened my laptop. Just Just opened it.
Yep. Go ahead. Yeah. No, that's fine.
You just go ahead and sit. I wasn't doing anything. I'm not on a deadline.
You're the sweetest. Who cares about work?
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