September 19, 2025 • 39 mins
After her best friend dies under suspicious circumstances, Mila Flores uses magic to bring her back for one week to get to the bottom of what happened. Only thing is, she also brought two other recently deceased girls who bullied her and none of them remember how they died. That is the plot of Lily Anderson's 2018 book Undead Girl Gang. Join us as we dig into the mystery, friendship, grief and growth.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope my stuff. I never told you production of iHeartRadio.
Quick content warning. We are going to be talking about death, suicide,
and the grief that surrounds that. Nothing is too explicit,
but it is at the foundation of the book we're
(00:30):
talking about, so just keep that in mind. And today
we are talking about a relatively newish book, So spoilers,
go get it. I recommend it highly. But yes, we
are digging into the twenty eighteen novel Undead Girl Gang
by Lily Anderson. It's a dark horror ish comedy ish
(00:53):
mystery that is told from the point of view of
Mila Flores, an angry, fat Mexican American teen witch who
decides it's to take matters into her own hands after
her friend Riley's mysterious death is dismissed as suicide, despite
the recent deaths of two popular students Dayton in June
whose deaths are also ruled a suicide. So a lot
(01:14):
of kind of loosen's. One of the things is her
friend Riley like to dye her hair.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
There were just a lot of reasons why Miela was like,
this is not this is not what happened. This is
not what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So Mila uses her powers and she raises these girls
from the dead and together if they get to the
bottom of what happened. So, I mean, if that plot
alone hasn't pulled you in, I don't know what thinking.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This needs to be like a CW series.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm like, Yeah, who hasn't who's not a bought the
rice to this? Because this needs to be a series asap.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I saw some rumors that it was going to be
adapted live action, but I didn't. I don't know if
it went beyond like someone should do this, but I
did see some talk that it might happen, which would
be cool.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It would be really cool.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
All right, So let us break down the plot. But again,
if you don't want to be spoiled, this is a
really fun one, go go read it, come back, Okay.
So Mila Flores is a witch, largely through the influence
of her best friend Riley, who lives above a funeral home.
They live in a small town called Cross Creek, and
they go to school together. Both are picked on by
(02:31):
popular kids Dayton and June. Meela has a crush on Xander,
Riley's brother. Seemingly without any morning signs, Dayton and June
are found hanging from their necks in what is deemed
a suicide pact. Soon after, Riley's discovered drowned and her
death is labeled as a suicide too. Meela is furious
(02:51):
if she feels that the deaths might be connected and
that they might instead be murders. Of course, no one
believes her, so she sets about gathering ingredients for a
spell that will resurrect Riley for seven days, a spell
she discovered in a grimoire mysteriously delivered to the abandoned
Yarrow house that she and Riley used to practice spell
(03:11):
work in. She also steals an ingredient from a local witch,
a white woman named Toby, to complete the spell. Toby
is wary of any spell that would bring back the dead,
believing that it must be dark and dangerous in nature,
so she does not approve of this whole venture. Meela
performs the spell and it works, bringing Riley back to
zombified life, but it also brings back their vulleys Dayton
(03:34):
in June.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Due to the.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Wording of the spell, they soon discover that not only
do the undead girls not remember all of the events
leading up to their death, although all of them are
confident that their death warrant suicide. They also can't go
far from Mela without the decomposition and wombs of their
dead bodies manifesting on their skin, so they have to
stay kind of close. They start going through suspects and
(03:58):
decide that school in se Well and recently dumped Caleb
is at the top of their list, especially because all
of them were competing for the same scholarship, so the
scholarship becomes a big factor in who they're considering. This
is where we get a lot of growing pains and
mishaps as the group grapples with their past relationships to
each other and to other people. They hash out some
(04:20):
of those issues while learning more about each other. On
top of this, Mila grows closer and closer to Xander,
who is also warning the death of Riley. They go
on a kind of date. They start flirting over text.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
The next day.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Oh and on top of all this, Anaya, the school journalist,
the person behind the school paper, is sniffing around Mila
trying to figure out what is going on, but time
is running out. Soon the spell will be over. Mila
has the spell to reveal the rot within and then
lures Caleb to the house. Mela gives him a truth
(04:55):
potion and he confesses that he didn't do it and
was in fact in love with June. He'd been wearing
her necklace. They'd assumed it was like a creepy trophy thing,
but he'd been doing it because he apparently was in
love with her. June and Caleb talk, Toby shows up
on a motorcycle with her covin and a shotgun. The
(05:16):
girls in Caleb make a run for it, holing up
in Caleb's house while they figure things out. Mila goes
to Xander for help and the pair ended up making out,
but as Mila is kind of feeling him up, she
realizes he has mushrooms on his back, the rot within.
Xander claims that he thinks Mila just messed up the
spell and he's not mad about it. Mela flees, running
(05:38):
into Riley on the way. Riley desperately pleads that it
isn't true that Xander didn't kill her, and Riley confirms
that he didn't, but she has more to tell. She
remembered that her father the funeral director claimed that Dayton
in June's death weren't consistent with hanging. Later, Riley found
June's shoe in Xander's room and started to freak out,
(06:00):
wondering if he had in fact killed her. She decided
that just because he had the shoe didn't mean he
killed her and went to throw it in the creek,
but enduring so slipped, fell in and died. The two
friends fight. Riley calls Mila a bad witch. Mela calls
the police to anonymously report that Xander was in the
(06:20):
park the same night that June and Dayton died. June
remembers that she secretly was dating Caleb while she was
still with Xander. Then Mela learns that not only is
Xander missing, but she's got some messages from Anayah warning
her away from him and his family. She arranges a
meeting at Yarrow House, and Mila doesn't have time to
(06:41):
stop her from going, so she and the girls rush
over and Anya is there and she believes their whole
story miraculously. Soon, Xander shows up with a ceremonial knife.
He knocks Anaya out and continues to assert that Mila
made a mistake while yelling at the dead girls. He
(07:01):
sets the house on fire, yelling at Mela to escape.
He starts winging on about how June and Dyon were
mean to Riley and that the competitiveness of the scholarship
was killing Riley. June distracts him while Anea escapes, and
he screams at her about how she cheated on him
and alienated his family by making fun of the funeral home,
and that he wished he could have given her the
(07:22):
death he believes she deserved. June punches him, and Riley
jumps on his back. As Mila and June make their
way to the one escape route. The undead girls escape,
but Xander grabs Mela and pulls her back. She strokes
his hair and lulls him into thinking that she stayed
for him, while she grabs his knife and kills him.
(07:43):
She wakes up at home and is informed by her
mom that there was an accident, but she's more concerned
with the fact that this is the last day that
the undad Girls will be resurrected. She men's fences with
Toby and her coven, and they agree to be there
to make sure that everything goes smoothly. The girl girls
meet up at Caleb's and have a party to celebrate
their last night. They dance and they eat pizza, They
(08:05):
watch movies. When it's time, they return to the cemetery
and say goodbye. Xander's death is ruled an accident, and
Naya and me the strike up a friendship. Yeah, yep,
it's a lot more that happens, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You got that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, it's it's it's a really fun read. It is.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I was like, I think when I think about books
like this, and I think about like some of that
pass like why novels, like there's something so reminiscent and
wanting to have something brand new. You know. I love
this because, like I think that's why so many of
some of the biggest hits that's happening on like Broadway
and on like TVs like original concepts, and this is
(08:52):
one of those original concepts. I'm like, yes, it's juicy,
has got a mystery. You and I did talk about
whether or not you figured it out pretty quickly, were
like had it, but like there were some plots and
twists that I was like, yeah, nice, nice, unexpected, unexpected.
Of course, it's sad to have to say a body
of us, Like that's still in the back of my mind.
I was like, oh no, there's still gone though there's
(09:13):
no way.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
To keep anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Great book, Great book A plus.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It was very sad that that part was a real
down but you know, they got to they got to
have like that, They got to have that kind of
last send off that they actually wanted, right, which is
how the book opens, is that they didn't get anything
like that. So that brings us to our first theme
(09:40):
is death is a big theme. Surprisingly undead Girl getg
But that's how the book opens is Mila is at
Riley's funeral and she's just getting angrier and angrier because
it feels so performative, none of this is about Riley,
and she's can't take it, like she storms out right.
(10:02):
So I have a quote. Oh and so the he
in question here is Xander. So Xander gives this speech
at Riley's the like eulogy at Riley's funeral, And so
she's thinking about that quote because now he isn't just
a hot guy with a dead girlfriend. He's walking talking
tragedy porn. People will call their way toward him the
(10:22):
same way they watch Lifetime movies or read Nicholas Spark's
novels and raptured with the pain clouding his formally perfect life.
No one who sent these flowers cares about Riley at all. Yeah, yeah,
and she's just That's part of what leads her on
this whole thing is she's like, no one here cares
to learn the truth, because she immediately is like, no,
(10:43):
I know this isn't right. I know this isn't right,
but everybody is so quick to accept that. And she
even has a oh okay, I'll just go into this
X quote from fictional hangover. Unfortunately, the school choir, which
Riley didn't give a shit about, stands up to sing
I'm always chasing Rainbows, which they just sang at the
other funeral. Uh, they must be competing with it. Meila
(11:06):
flicks through the program and notices the Christian quote, which
is ridiculous because Riley was pagan poetry written by another student,
and a picture of Riley her final selfie taken in
the bathroom. Mela can't stand this first one more second
and gets up to leave, telling Anniah Dorsey on the
way out that her poem fings sung.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
There's so many things so that the selfie, which Riley
does talk about because she ends up seeing the memorials.
She's like, really, you let them use this photo? How
dare you? Essentially? But yeah, like out of all of
the many of the many funerals that I think I
have attendant, and unfortunately he has been too many. Like
I often think that, well, especially with people that I like,
(11:47):
I know weren't religious or I know, we're like to
have this because the other people, like her parents specifically
wanted this instead of not doing it for her. It's
so obvious that it's kind of like this person has
no idea who she is. Why are you writing a poem?
Why are you pretending? And the like popular girls trying
to be more popular are girls who think that this
may be their time? Yeah, in the spotlight by saying
(12:10):
we were so close and they barely talk to her.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, let her perform a song. We know she doesn't, like, she.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Had no idea what the song is about. Like also
like sometimes when you, yeah, you hear a song like this,
is this definite? Is this even a song about death?
Or like in memory of this sounds like just like
you just made something up?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, well I mean and in this context, it felt
like very much they were using it as a like
almost an audition, like see how talented I am.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I also find it funny though, and I'd like, I'd
rather people will do this than not. But like taking
someone's favorite song and slowing it down when it's like
I think I've heard it, like it was a joke.
I think it's a come thing where they take things
like thong song or something. Yeah, oh yeah, does it
make it like slow to make it Sarah? But it's like,
this does not make sense. But you know what, I
(13:04):
appreciate that because at least they knew that was their
favorite song.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
At least you with what they like, you know what,
I could get on board with that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes. Another theme is that there's a scene where they're
kind of talking about how some of the other students
are profited, yeah, off of these deaths. So here's another
(13:35):
quote from fictional hangover. There is a horribly ironic bake
sale fundraising to plant a memorial tree for Dayton. It
seems the fundraisers for god Dayton and June were found
hanged from a tree. In addition to the bake sale,
the swim team is asking people to sign Dayton's framed
swim cap. There's a station for a yearbook tribute called Gone,
(13:55):
but first let me take a selfie. There's a raffle
for a Starbucks gift card to the person who can
list June's favorite things. And my little pony face painting booths.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, there's so many things that I'm like, you know,
it is funny, but I didn't laugh out loud because
it's too real.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, it's too real. Yeah, and you know, like this
is a heightened.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It is played for kind of that dark comedy example.
I mean, and at this point, the Undead Girl Gang
is with me and they're seeing this and like, oh no.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
But it's interesting. Is like Dayton's like, okay, cool, I'm
glad you remember me, as where like June is thinking
what is happening because you're not fully taking advantage of
the fact that I should be mourned, you should be screaming, crying,
And then Riley's like what.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You're like?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The reactions are mixed, But I say Dayton herself, who
ends up being such a lovable character even though she
is horrible, but like it's one of those things that
she just was like cool. The only part is that
she didn't get to be a part of it before
she died.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Mm hmmm, it's strange. I don't know. Oh gosh, it's
such such a sad thing.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But we we had death at our school and they
would do it wasn't like this necessarily, but you know,
they would have the.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Vigils and the like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Bring all this and people would speak and all of that,
and it just felt kind of strange, especially if you
didn't know the person, because it was sort of expected
that you would show up.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
And do it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I just remember kind of being like, I didn't know
this person at all, so I feel strange being here.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I would feel strange not being here.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It was both those things. Yeah, I felt that way,
and like knowing when people die that you knew or mean,
you know what I mean. And I came back with like,
but I don't celebrate them. What I remember is they
were bullies and death does not exempt them from their
past actions in their life and the people that they affected. Again,
(16:12):
June and Dayton are those exact people people were, like,
I don't they were not nice people. They were I
don't want to celebrate their life because their life was
to me miserable, you know, there's so many moments of
that that you were like, what do you do with those?
I don't want to see this lovely place turned into
that name that's going to haunt me forever for the
memories that I remember being bullied.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
There is And that was kind of the one of
the most interesting aspects of this book, which I think,
which we're going to talk about at the end. But
you know, these girls are dead and they only have
seven days, and right, you do see them get to
know each other more and hash some of that stuff out,
and they still fight and they're still hurt, and but
(16:57):
they discuss it more and talk about it more. And yeah,
we'll talk about that more at the end. But I
did think that was really interesting. I mean, another part
of this is, as you said, there was mixed reactions
to seeing this whole thing. But June, June, it's really angry.
And she also goes through she gets into a walker,
(17:19):
and she finds all those notes of what people say,
and some of them were.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Like, nah, I hated you.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But she finds out like what people really thought of
her because she's not around anymore, so people weren't feeling
like they had the necessarily.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
A whole book.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I will say one of the things that she was
mad about ended up being true.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yes, Yeah, she was very like she wanted to know
because Mila was very convinced it had to be one
of their friends. That's what statistically is correct. So she
was going through their friend group and June was like,
I want to know who that was.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I don't want to know yep, and she did find out.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I also wanted to add in here it was kind
of a poignant thing. But that whole idea of that
they explore in the book. It's like wanting to look
nice or two last things. So Dayton goes to see
her family, she kind of disappears and can't find her
get a certain drink for Data's gatorade even in death,
and like that. Really I thought it was a really
(18:27):
sweet moment when Mela helps Riley dye her hair because
that was so important to her. But just having those
moments of these were the things that were important to me. Yeah,
and I want to rectify it or experience it one
more time.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Another thing, of course, is yeah, people not believing Mela.
People thinking that she's lost her mind or that she's
traumatized and stressed, and can't see anything.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And she she recognizes that pretty early on. She she's
pretty quick to be like, I got to.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Take matters into my own hands here, no one's no
one's gonna listen to me, right Yeah. And then yeah,
getting these secrets from the dead, seeing these different sides.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Of Dayton and June, and like even.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Living people like Caleb, Uh, people contain multitudes. I feel
like I really appreciated that, even though, yes, if people
did bad things, I don't think you should excuse us
forget those things. But it was I liked that. It
was they were painted out their flesh right right. Yeah,
here's a quote from rich in color. But perhaps the
(19:42):
thing I appreciated most about the four girls was that
Mila was able to acknowledge the terrible things June and
Dayton had done while simultaneously refusing to victim blame them.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
For their deaths. Yeah. I really appreciated that too.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean, if she was super hyper focused on Riley
at the beginning, it had to do like, oh you doo,
Like when she brought them back to the life, You're like,
oh my bad, Yeah, I guess you do.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, because I guess really think it was them the
problem with the spell was she worded it in a
way that was like bring back someone who had died
incorrectly or something, and so she wasn't expecting them to
come back.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Also, she had she had buried June's flip gloss.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, and so that also helped with bringing them back
because it had their DNA essentially right. She didn't know
the slips yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I think it
is very interesting, Like she did do a good job
in understanding that they were victims too. Mm hm, but
she was really hyper focused on Riley, which ended up
being flipped because it wasn't who was wrong wronged necessarily
(20:50):
as much as June and Dayton was. But yeah, it
is I think said they did a good job, especially
like an understanding that there was a lot to their personalities,
but they also had still things to learn, Like June
learning is that she's racist, and she's like, no, I'm
just saying what is everybody's thinking to have a conversation,
but then coming around and be like, Okay, that was
a nice but I'm not saying I'm wrong, Like she
(21:13):
still ends up being that way. However, she does slowly
come to see like, Okay, maybe not that any of
these things are her fault, but I could have been
a better person alive.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think, And you kind of get to
see that happen and.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I really appreciated it.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Oh yeah, this is the thing that I know I've
discussed on the show.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I think about this a lot. But I think about the.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Last post, so the last text, so the whatever is
that you send and the people look up after you died,
and that's the thing that will come up. I think
about that all the time. And they have a quote,
there's a quote from the book about this, when you
brought us back. I thought that getting revenge on Kleb
was our unfinished business. But it's more complicated than that.
(21:59):
Everything is on finished, our whole lives. There's no amount
of catching up we could do in seven days to
make that better. Today I heard my mom's voice and
it wasn't enough to last me forever. Everything we ever
did together was the last time. There's the wet section
and slap of spandex stretching and snapping. I'm not going
to stop missing them.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh, she just wanted to be near them.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
That was the saddest.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, that was Dayton. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So yeah, it had turned out that Dayton had gone
to her house just to be quote unquote closer to them,
but every day was not enough.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the reason I kind of think about that with
the last post is I feel like you are always thinking,
You're never.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Thinking, usually I'm going to die tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I can send this very silly text and it'll be
totally fine and not the last thing someone has in me.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
But I thought that was really.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Is also really good in doing that where it's kind
of a lot of times comical and you know, over
the top, but it has these moments of like, no,
these girls died, yeah, and they're not gonna get to
live their lives, right, really reminding you of that.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
M m mmmm.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Another theme, I would say a big theme fat shaming
and shaming in general. So here's a quote from Mela
and for's sake, stop using normal as code for white.
I snap, your life isn't the ruler that the rest
of the world gets measured against. I never said that,
it was, June says stiffly. My face goes hot as
I think of all the reasons that June has ever
(23:41):
made fun of me. I'm brown and she's not I'm
fat and she's not. I'm wicking, shorter than her, live
on a different side of town, drive an older car,
prefer cocover pepsi, and on any given day when she
was alive, she found a way to make me feel
ashamed of that. Yep, and here's another quote. It's kind
(24:04):
of cool to talk to someone who gets how absolutely
tragically white this town is, and someone else who self
identifies as fat, who isn't using fat as a code
for ugly or you I ate a big meal. Even
Riley has only ever called me kurvy, no matter how
many times I correct her. So at the end of
the book, when she befriends Anaya, who is a fat
(24:25):
black girl, they have these commonalities and things that they
can bond over. Another thing is identity and language. So
Miila has a whole scene about not being able. She
doesn't feel confident in speaking Spanish, which I thought because
(24:45):
she's her family situation is very interesting because it kind
of felt like they were not around much.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
They were definitely controlling in like they yeah, did not
understand her and wish she was different. And a part
of that is religion, Like she wasn't wicked until much later,
but like they were very horrified, just kind of like
Riley's parents that that idea existed in their kids, which
you know, I think that happens especially as millennials who
(25:19):
if you went through any type phase, whether that was
emo or whatever whatnot, the parents got very concerned.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, okay said this might.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Be on that note, But I do find it interesting
with the language part specifically too, because as where Mila
never practiced, and it was kind of a shame thing
once again because she was being made fun of for
all the differences and her being brown, her being Latina
was one of those differences that got made fun of.
Then she has white girl June who studies Spanish to
speak it pretty well, and she's like, you know, the
(25:49):
difference in reality is that a white person who learns
a language is praised. They're like, oh my god, it's
so great, Like there may but if you're a person
of color who was from that ethnicity and you do it,
there's so much racist connotations latched onto you. So I
did find that interesting in that level because I know
a lot of first generation, second generation kids, refugees and
(26:10):
immigrants don't learn their languages because whether it's their parents
telling them not to because they need to speak English
and learn English and adapt, or whether it's their self
hating or even just laziness, I mean, or just because
it's not something that was important at that point. Like
I've seen that as a thing as well. So I
feel like, even though it's a very big, small blip,
(26:33):
it felt like that difference was there for a reason,
you know, especially in this moment, because she's bringing them
into her world, her side of the literally her side
of the you know, train tracks like this is the
grocery stores that I know of, and this is where
it's available, and then let me take you to the
restaurant that I love. And when you know, she was like,
we've already had burritos. She's like, nah, no, that's not
(26:54):
what you were eating here. You know, this is authentic,
and they're like, oh damn, it's good.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That was very much that scene that I love to
see because I feel like any person of ethnicity they
know this level of like being shamed into welcoming them
and also the comparisons.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah yeah, oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Okay, so this is the point where yeah, you and
I discussed we did, guess it was Xander yeah, yeah,
I I've told you. I was like, I think it.
I was completely confident with him, but I was almost
like so common. I was like, is it gonna Yeah? Yeah,
(27:36):
I read that in a lot of reviews I saw,
but they weren't negative.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
They were just like edge.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, it kind of felt like that part was obvious,
like the rest was really good.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
But yeah, So we've got this theme of revenge.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And also I would say like the nice guy, because
Xander is painted as a very He's nice, he really
misses his sister, he wants to get to know me.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
A little better.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
He's presented as this nice guy persona which we have
learned to be warriy of.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
To be wary. Yes, so I like this quote from him.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So this is at the very end, when the house
is burning. Miela has come back and he thinks that
she's gonna stay with him as the house burns. I
love you, he sniffles, I've always loved you. I would
kill for you. And the awful thing is that he
means it literally. He could fix my life the way
he fixed his and Riley's. He would stab or strangle
(28:34):
or poison anyone who hurt me. Toby Doctor Miller the
nouns my parents, my sisters, then you can die for me,
and that's when she kills him. I love that because
I've talked about this before. I totally get it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
But one of my.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Pet peeve tropes is romanticizing of this of the guy
being like, I'll kill anyone you and you're like.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I don't so much.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I mean, she would also kill me, so I'm a little.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
But again, I get it.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
It bothers me in a lot of context, but I
do get that.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
But I liked that here it was kind of addressed.
It's like, ah, that's kind of a problem.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Right, You're you're sociopath the psychopathe Okay, but I think
that's where we get The difference is with Riley being
the one, like she ended up ultimately dying trying to
get those answers and trying to excuse Xander and then
even hiding things after the fact that she figured everything
out again and she really was trying to use that excuse,
(29:41):
hiding him, lying for him because she hoped that that
was it. But in understanding she started to figure out, no,
but that doesn't end. He's gonna keep killing if it
means he feels threatened. Yeah, yeah, which is why she
was okay with.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Brother on his He's got to go.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
That's where we're at, which I do appreciate too, because
you can tell she was struggling with it. But then
I will ultimately was you know what, I want to
save my friend. I got my undead friends. He's got
to go.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I also wanted to point out because one of my
favorite books we've ever done on book Club is Mexican
Gothic that also featured mushrooms as a horror element, and
this one did too.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I was like, hey, yeah, I still love him. Oh,
but I wouldn't eat him from the woods. I'm not
smart enough to figure out what's not poisons or what is.
So I just brought to me in a bag.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I was walking along today and I saw this huge
thing of mushrooms and they looked like in of the wood.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
I would never eat him, don't do it. No, never.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But I had a moment of like, I should take
a picture of this and see if someone could identify.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
By it for me, because it was a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Another theme paganism and witches and religion. There is a
lot of discussion around this. One of the things that's
reiterated throughout the book is gratefulness. So Riley and Mila
always say being a witches about gratefulness, that you're kind
of grateful for what you can get out of the universe.
(31:37):
It's not something you kind of expect, you're grateful. Here's
a quote, Wika doesn't mind if you work in metaphor.
Wicka never minded that Riley and I didn't really know
what we were doing. The only eventful deity in witchcraft
is yourself. Do badge get badge, do good? Get good?
Or be like me and Riley and do almost nothing
but giggle over in SnSe and get perfumed smoke in
(31:59):
your nose in return. And here's another one. Spells are
just prayers with more steps and a name that scares people.
Toby's voice floats through my head. Any book that purports
to have the answer to death isn't Wicca. I'll tell
you that much. This is some dark I wonder if
she'll ever do a sequel because I was curious about
(32:23):
I was curious about that they kind of explained the grim.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
War and where it came from.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
But right, not really, but I don't like how did
Riley find it? Did I miss that part?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I thought Xanderson it to her, but I don't know clearly.
I would like some more answers about where this.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I guess I missed that part because I was like,
how did it get there?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, it might have been. I think you're right. I
think it was Riley. Maybe I just had a suspicion
it was Xander, and I was.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, because I know, like the whole explanation of her
aliases using fictional witch characters, and it was a fictional
witch character that had or historical one of the two.
So that's how it came. But I was trying to
figure out where Riley found it even and.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Why she found it.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I would be into a sequel. Oh yes, speaking of
that's another theme older versus younger generations in here. So
you have Toby and kind of her coven and how
they go about things and how they think things should work, and.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Then you have Mila and Riley and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Just seeing those differences and then at the end having
them kind of form an alliance or at least, you know,
not be all out fighting on there.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
I love that the other older coven bent, but people
were telling on each other, like you've made mistakes too.
Maybe it wasn't raising the dead, but but you know,
but you know what you did quiet so like it
is something.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I liked that too.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I liked that too, and I always kind of I'm
happy when stories include that of the younger versus older
generations and how it's changed.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And then lastly, obviously friendship.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Major theme impetus for this whole story is Mila wanting
to do right by her best friend Riley and wanting
to belong. All of them really want to belong, and
it is you know, reading it, I did have flashbacks
of being in high school and all those kind of
cliques and the drama and having that best friend or
(34:42):
having that person that you you could get away from
that with. So it was really well written in that
regard to of I remember that, and I remember being
assigned the partner in anatomy that you're like, why did
you put me with him?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Everything?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I think that we all chose our own partners. It
was never a thing.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I got to sign my legitimate bully. Yes, yeah, unfortunately
for him.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Unfortunately for him, uh.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
He well, he was in my he was on my turf.
Then he bullied me in another class where I was
in his turf. I was the oldest in the whole class.
He was younger than me, but in this class, he
was the youngest in the whole class. So everybody else
in there was my friends and he didn't have any friends.
And he looked at me and there was fear in
his eyes, Samantha, and I was like, it's fine, let's
(35:38):
leave him be. So I had.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Mercy change his attitude with you in that class, Yeah,
he had like alid well by then.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Oh my gosh, I would love to tell this whole story.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
By then, I had kind of I had gotten out
of that class where he was bullied me. And then
I won, like I'll say, I won pretty much every
award that year, and he was just shamed. He lost
everything to me.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So I was like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Nope, yeah, and his sister came up and apologized me.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
It was a whole thing.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Wow, But anyway, No, he didn't know and he lived
in my neighborhood. To conclude this, the drama, the drama,
but I did not I did not pick on him,
but I had a moment there was a silence when
(36:41):
he was looking at me. I was like, hmm, but
I didn't want to be his partner in anatomy.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I think, uh, I think there's so many things when
we talk about this fiship because also we got to
see a click with the dead versus the undead. There
was a moment where Mela's feeling some type of way
because she seems like that Riley's walking away from her.
But a little bit of that is like Riley being
upset that she died, that.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
That Mila was able to do the spell.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, she dies, there's a little jealousy in that. And
then also like realizing that her death wasn't murder, but
like it was an accident as well as by that
as her brother. But so many things that they had
to work out in seven days as well as have
some kind of closure and death. There was a lot
(37:35):
even in that small moment.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
It was and it's not that long of a book,
and it packs in it did it packs in quite
a bit. I want to end on this final quote.
The four of us take one last moment together, The
urge to rip the grimoar out of Riley's arms and
find the recipe for putting off this goodbye is almost
too much to bear. But our past are diverging, and
(37:57):
all I can do is be grateful that we have
this week, that it extorted from the universe.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
I'm a witch. I'm always grateful. It was. It was
really moving, It was really moving.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
I also gave the dead closure because they were like
they were like ready to go since they couldn't return.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, and like like we said, they had that they
saw what their dance led to this, like profiting these
bad poems.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It's bad singing Dayton sings the song yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Yeah, so they have like the goodbye that Yeah, what
they actually what they could do.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Yeah, and what they could do as well in that moment.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
But it was bitter. So it was. It was.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
But I highly I highly recommend it. It's a great
read for as we're moving in to Fall. Yeah, absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Zombies, Zombies which class zombies.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
And marked high school.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Mystery. Hello, yeah it's fall.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah Yeah, so go check it out. I think it's
I think it's really fun. In the meantime, if you
have any other suggestions for this segment or any thoughts
about this book, please let us know. You can email
us at Hello at stuff. I neever told you dot
Com you've had us on Blue Skype mom Stuff podcast
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told
You for us on YouTube. We have new merchandise at
(39:25):
Cotton Bureau and we have a book you can get
wherever you get your books. Thanks, It's always to a
super produced Christina executive producer, my intercontruder Joey, Thank you
and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told
Yous Friction by heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, you can check out the heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts or regular listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I hope my stuff. I never told you production of iHeartRadio.
Quick content warning. We are going to be talking about death, suicide,
and the grief that surrounds that. Nothing is too explicit,
but it is at the foundation of the book we're
(00:30):
talking about, so just keep that in mind. And today
we are talking about a relatively newish book, So spoilers,
go get it. I recommend it highly. But yes, we
are digging into the twenty eighteen novel Undead Girl Gang
by Lily Anderson. It's a dark horror ish comedy ish
(00:53):
mystery that is told from the point of view of
Mila Flores, an angry, fat Mexican American teen witch who
decides it's to take matters into her own hands after
her friend Riley's mysterious death is dismissed as suicide, despite
the recent deaths of two popular students Dayton in June
whose deaths are also ruled a suicide. So a lot
(01:14):
of kind of loosen's. One of the things is her
friend Riley like to dye her hair.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
There were just a lot of reasons why Miela was like,
this is not this is not what happened. This is
not what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So Mila uses her powers and she raises these girls
from the dead and together if they get to the
bottom of what happened. So, I mean, if that plot
alone hasn't pulled you in, I don't know what thinking.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
This needs to be like a CW series.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm like, Yeah, who hasn't who's not a bought the
rice to this? Because this needs to be a series asap.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, I saw.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I saw some rumors that it was going to be
adapted live action, but I didn't. I don't know if
it went beyond like someone should do this, but I
did see some talk that it might happen, which would
be cool.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It would be really cool.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
All right, So let us break down the plot. But again,
if you don't want to be spoiled, this is a
really fun one, go go read it, come back, Okay.
So Mila Flores is a witch, largely through the influence
of her best friend Riley, who lives above a funeral home.
They live in a small town called Cross Creek, and
they go to school together. Both are picked on by
(02:31):
popular kids Dayton and June. Meela has a crush on Xander,
Riley's brother. Seemingly without any morning signs, Dayton and June
are found hanging from their necks in what is deemed
a suicide pact. Soon after, Riley's discovered drowned and her
death is labeled as a suicide too. Meela is furious
(02:51):
if she feels that the deaths might be connected and
that they might instead be murders. Of course, no one
believes her, so she sets about gathering ingredients for a
spell that will resurrect Riley for seven days, a spell
she discovered in a grimoire mysteriously delivered to the abandoned
Yarrow house that she and Riley used to practice spell
(03:11):
work in. She also steals an ingredient from a local witch,
a white woman named Toby, to complete the spell. Toby
is wary of any spell that would bring back the dead,
believing that it must be dark and dangerous in nature,
so she does not approve of this whole venture. Meela
performs the spell and it works, bringing Riley back to
zombified life, but it also brings back their vulleys Dayton
(03:34):
in June.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Due to the.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Wording of the spell, they soon discover that not only
do the undead girls not remember all of the events
leading up to their death, although all of them are
confident that their death warrant suicide. They also can't go
far from Mela without the decomposition and wombs of their
dead bodies manifesting on their skin, so they have to
stay kind of close. They start going through suspects and
(03:58):
decide that school in se Well and recently dumped Caleb
is at the top of their list, especially because all
of them were competing for the same scholarship, so the
scholarship becomes a big factor in who they're considering. This
is where we get a lot of growing pains and
mishaps as the group grapples with their past relationships to
each other and to other people. They hash out some
(04:20):
of those issues while learning more about each other. On
top of this, Mila grows closer and closer to Xander,
who is also warning the death of Riley. They go
on a kind of date. They start flirting over text.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
The next day.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Oh and on top of all this, Anaya, the school journalist,
the person behind the school paper, is sniffing around Mila
trying to figure out what is going on, but time
is running out. Soon the spell will be over. Mila
has the spell to reveal the rot within and then
lures Caleb to the house. Mela gives him a truth
(04:55):
potion and he confesses that he didn't do it and
was in fact in love with June. He'd been wearing
her necklace. They'd assumed it was like a creepy trophy thing,
but he'd been doing it because he apparently was in
love with her. June and Caleb talk, Toby shows up
on a motorcycle with her covin and a shotgun. The
(05:16):
girls in Caleb make a run for it, holing up
in Caleb's house while they figure things out. Mila goes
to Xander for help and the pair ended up making out,
but as Mila is kind of feeling him up, she
realizes he has mushrooms on his back, the rot within.
Xander claims that he thinks Mila just messed up the
spell and he's not mad about it. Mela flees, running
(05:38):
into Riley on the way. Riley desperately pleads that it
isn't true that Xander didn't kill her, and Riley confirms
that he didn't, but she has more to tell. She
remembered that her father the funeral director claimed that Dayton
in June's death weren't consistent with hanging. Later, Riley found
June's shoe in Xander's room and started to freak out,
(06:00):
wondering if he had in fact killed her. She decided
that just because he had the shoe didn't mean he
killed her and went to throw it in the creek,
but enduring so slipped, fell in and died. The two
friends fight. Riley calls Mila a bad witch. Mela calls
the police to anonymously report that Xander was in the
(06:20):
park the same night that June and Dayton died. June
remembers that she secretly was dating Caleb while she was
still with Xander. Then Mela learns that not only is
Xander missing, but she's got some messages from Anayah warning
her away from him and his family. She arranges a
meeting at Yarrow House, and Mila doesn't have time to
(06:41):
stop her from going, so she and the girls rush
over and Anya is there and she believes their whole
story miraculously. Soon, Xander shows up with a ceremonial knife.
He knocks Anaya out and continues to assert that Mila
made a mistake while yelling at the dead girls. He
(07:01):
sets the house on fire, yelling at Mela to escape.
He starts winging on about how June and Dyon were
mean to Riley and that the competitiveness of the scholarship
was killing Riley. June distracts him while Anea escapes, and
he screams at her about how she cheated on him
and alienated his family by making fun of the funeral home,
and that he wished he could have given her the
(07:22):
death he believes she deserved. June punches him, and Riley
jumps on his back. As Mila and June make their
way to the one escape route. The undead girls escape,
but Xander grabs Mela and pulls her back. She strokes
his hair and lulls him into thinking that she stayed
for him, while she grabs his knife and kills him.
(07:43):
She wakes up at home and is informed by her
mom that there was an accident, but she's more concerned
with the fact that this is the last day that
the undad Girls will be resurrected. She men's fences with
Toby and her coven, and they agree to be there
to make sure that everything goes smoothly. The girl girls
meet up at Caleb's and have a party to celebrate
their last night. They dance and they eat pizza, They
(08:05):
watch movies. When it's time, they return to the cemetery
and say goodbye. Xander's death is ruled an accident, and
Naya and me the strike up a friendship. Yeah, yep,
it's a lot more that happens, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
You got that's it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, it's it's it's a really fun read. It is.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I was like, I think when I think about books
like this, and I think about like some of that
pass like why novels, like there's something so reminiscent and
wanting to have something brand new. You know. I love
this because, like I think that's why so many of
some of the biggest hits that's happening on like Broadway
and on like TVs like original concepts, and this is
(08:52):
one of those original concepts. I'm like, yes, it's juicy,
has got a mystery. You and I did talk about
whether or not you figured it out pretty quickly, were
like had it, but like there were some plots and
twists that I was like, yeah, nice, nice, unexpected, unexpected.
Of course, it's sad to have to say a body
of us, Like that's still in the back of my mind.
I was like, oh no, there's still gone though there's
(09:13):
no way.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
To keep anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Great book, Great book A plus.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It was very sad that that part was a real
down but you know, they got to they got to
have like that, They got to have that kind of
last send off that they actually wanted, right, which is
how the book opens, is that they didn't get anything
like that. So that brings us to our first theme
(09:40):
is death is a big theme. Surprisingly undead Girl getg
But that's how the book opens is Mila is at
Riley's funeral and she's just getting angrier and angrier because
it feels so performative, none of this is about Riley,
and she's can't take it, like she storms out right.
(10:02):
So I have a quote. Oh and so the he
in question here is Xander. So Xander gives this speech
at Riley's the like eulogy at Riley's funeral, And so
she's thinking about that quote because now he isn't just
a hot guy with a dead girlfriend. He's walking talking
tragedy porn. People will call their way toward him the
(10:22):
same way they watch Lifetime movies or read Nicholas Spark's
novels and raptured with the pain clouding his formally perfect life.
No one who sent these flowers cares about Riley at all. Yeah, yeah,
and she's just That's part of what leads her on
this whole thing is she's like, no one here cares
to learn the truth, because she immediately is like, no,
(10:43):
I know this isn't right. I know this isn't right,
but everybody is so quick to accept that. And she
even has a oh okay, I'll just go into this
X quote from fictional hangover. Unfortunately, the school choir, which
Riley didn't give a shit about, stands up to sing
I'm always chasing Rainbows, which they just sang at the
other funeral. Uh, they must be competing with it. Meila
(11:06):
flicks through the program and notices the Christian quote, which
is ridiculous because Riley was pagan poetry written by another student,
and a picture of Riley her final selfie taken in
the bathroom. Mela can't stand this first one more second
and gets up to leave, telling Anniah Dorsey on the
way out that her poem fings sung.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
There's so many things so that the selfie, which Riley
does talk about because she ends up seeing the memorials.
She's like, really, you let them use this photo? How
dare you? Essentially? But yeah, like out of all of
the many of the many funerals that I think I
have attendant, and unfortunately he has been too many. Like
I often think that, well, especially with people that I like,
(11:47):
I know weren't religious or I know, we're like to
have this because the other people, like her parents specifically
wanted this instead of not doing it for her. It's
so obvious that it's kind of like this person has
no idea who she is. Why are you writing a poem?
Why are you pretending? And the like popular girls trying
to be more popular are girls who think that this
may be their time? Yeah, in the spotlight by saying
(12:10):
we were so close and they barely talk to her.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, let her perform a song. We know she doesn't, like, she.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Had no idea what the song is about. Like also
like sometimes when you, yeah, you hear a song like this,
is this definite? Is this even a song about death?
Or like in memory of this sounds like just like
you just made something up?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, well I mean and in this context, it felt
like very much they were using it as a like
almost an audition, like see how talented I am.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I also find it funny though, and I'd like, I'd
rather people will do this than not. But like taking
someone's favorite song and slowing it down when it's like
I think I've heard it, like it was a joke.
I think it's a come thing where they take things
like thong song or something. Yeah, oh yeah, does it
make it like slow to make it Sarah? But it's like,
this does not make sense. But you know what, I
(13:04):
appreciate that because at least they knew that was their
favorite song.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
At least you with what they like, you know what,
I could get on board with that.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Yes. Another theme is that there's a scene where they're
kind of talking about how some of the other students
are profited, yeah, off of these deaths. So here's another
(13:35):
quote from fictional hangover. There is a horribly ironic bake
sale fundraising to plant a memorial tree for Dayton. It
seems the fundraisers for god Dayton and June were found
hanged from a tree. In addition to the bake sale,
the swim team is asking people to sign Dayton's framed
swim cap. There's a station for a yearbook tribute called Gone,
(13:55):
but first let me take a selfie. There's a raffle
for a Starbucks gift card to the person who can
list June's favorite things. And my little pony face painting booths.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, there's so many things that I'm like, you know,
it is funny, but I didn't laugh out loud because
it's too real.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, it's too real. Yeah, and you know, like this
is a heightened.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
It is played for kind of that dark comedy example.
I mean, and at this point, the Undead Girl Gang
is with me and they're seeing this and like, oh no.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
But it's interesting. Is like Dayton's like, okay, cool, I'm
glad you remember me, as where like June is thinking
what is happening because you're not fully taking advantage of
the fact that I should be mourned, you should be screaming, crying,
And then Riley's like what.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You're like?
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The reactions are mixed, But I say Dayton herself, who
ends up being such a lovable character even though she
is horrible, but like it's one of those things that
she just was like cool. The only part is that
she didn't get to be a part of it before
she died.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Mm hmmm, it's strange. I don't know. Oh gosh, it's
such such a sad thing.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But we we had death at our school and they
would do it wasn't like this necessarily, but you know,
they would have the.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Vigils and the like.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Bring all this and people would speak and all of that,
and it just felt kind of strange, especially if you
didn't know the person, because it was sort of expected
that you would show up.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
And do it.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I just remember kind of being like, I didn't know
this person at all, so I feel strange being here.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
I would feel strange not being here.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It was both those things. Yeah, I felt that way,
and like knowing when people die that you knew or mean,
you know what I mean. And I came back with like,
but I don't celebrate them. What I remember is they
were bullies and death does not exempt them from their
past actions in their life and the people that they affected. Again,
(16:12):
June and Dayton are those exact people people were, like,
I don't they were not nice people. They were I
don't want to celebrate their life because their life was
to me miserable, you know, there's so many moments of
that that you were like, what do you do with those?
I don't want to see this lovely place turned into
that name that's going to haunt me forever for the
memories that I remember being bullied.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
There is And that was kind of the one of
the most interesting aspects of this book, which I think,
which we're going to talk about at the end. But
you know, these girls are dead and they only have
seven days, and right, you do see them get to
know each other more and hash some of that stuff out,
and they still fight and they're still hurt, and but
(16:57):
they discuss it more and talk about it more. And yeah,
we'll talk about that more at the end. But I
did think that was really interesting. I mean, another part
of this is, as you said, there was mixed reactions
to seeing this whole thing. But June, June, it's really angry.
And she also goes through she gets into a walker,
(17:19):
and she finds all those notes of what people say,
and some of them were.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Like, nah, I hated you.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
But she finds out like what people really thought of
her because she's not around anymore, so people weren't feeling
like they had the necessarily.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
A whole book.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I will say one of the things that she was
mad about ended up being true.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yes, Yeah, she was very like she wanted to know
because Mila was very convinced it had to be one
of their friends. That's what statistically is correct. So she
was going through their friend group and June was like,
I want to know who that was.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I don't want to know yep, and she did find out.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
I also wanted to add in here it was kind
of a poignant thing. But that whole idea of that
they explore in the book. It's like wanting to look
nice or two last things. So Dayton goes to see
her family, she kind of disappears and can't find her
get a certain drink for Data's gatorade even in death,
and like that. Really I thought it was a really
(18:27):
sweet moment when Mela helps Riley dye her hair because
that was so important to her. But just having those
moments of these were the things that were important to me. Yeah,
and I want to rectify it or experience it one
more time.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Another thing, of course, is yeah, people not believing Mela.
People thinking that she's lost her mind or that she's
traumatized and stressed, and can't see anything.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
And she she recognizes that pretty early on. She she's
pretty quick to be like, I got to.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Take matters into my own hands here, no one's no
one's gonna listen to me, right Yeah. And then yeah,
getting these secrets from the dead, seeing these different sides.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Of Dayton and June, and like even.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Living people like Caleb, Uh, people contain multitudes. I feel
like I really appreciated that, even though, yes, if people
did bad things, I don't think you should excuse us
forget those things. But it was I liked that. It
was they were painted out their flesh right right. Yeah,
here's a quote from rich in color. But perhaps the
(19:42):
thing I appreciated most about the four girls was that
Mila was able to acknowledge the terrible things June and
Dayton had done while simultaneously refusing to victim blame them.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
For their deaths. Yeah. I really appreciated that too.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean, if she was super hyper focused on Riley
at the beginning, it had to do like, oh you doo,
Like when she brought them back to the life, You're like,
oh my bad, Yeah, I guess you do.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, because I guess really think it was them the
problem with the spell was she worded it in a
way that was like bring back someone who had died
incorrectly or something, and so she wasn't expecting them to
come back.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Also, she had she had buried June's flip gloss.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Yeah that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yeah, and so that also helped with bringing them back
because it had their DNA essentially right. She didn't know
the slips yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Like I think it
is very interesting, Like she did do a good job
in understanding that they were victims too. Mm hm, but
she was really hyper focused on Riley, which ended up
being flipped because it wasn't who was wrong wronged necessarily
(20:50):
as much as June and Dayton was. But yeah, it
is I think said they did a good job, especially
like an understanding that there was a lot to their personalities,
but they also had still things to learn, Like June
learning is that she's racist, and she's like, no, I'm
just saying what is everybody's thinking to have a conversation,
but then coming around and be like, Okay, that was
a nice but I'm not saying I'm wrong, Like she
(21:13):
still ends up being that way. However, she does slowly
come to see like, Okay, maybe not that any of
these things are her fault, but I could have been
a better person alive.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think, And you kind of get to
see that happen and.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I really appreciated it.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Oh yeah, this is the thing that I know I've
discussed on the show.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I think about this a lot. But I think about the.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Last post, so the last text, so the whatever is
that you send and the people look up after you died,
and that's the thing that will come up. I think
about that all the time. And they have a quote,
there's a quote from the book about this, when you
brought us back. I thought that getting revenge on Kleb
was our unfinished business. But it's more complicated than that.
(21:59):
Everything is on finished, our whole lives. There's no amount
of catching up we could do in seven days to
make that better. Today I heard my mom's voice and
it wasn't enough to last me forever. Everything we ever
did together was the last time. There's the wet section
and slap of spandex stretching and snapping. I'm not going
to stop missing them.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh, she just wanted to be near them.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
That was the saddest.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yeah, that was Dayton. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So yeah, it had turned out that Dayton had gone
to her house just to be quote unquote closer to them,
but every day was not enough.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And the reason I kind of think about that with
the last post is I feel like you are always thinking,
You're never.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Thinking, usually I'm going to die tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I can send this very silly text and it'll be
totally fine and not the last thing someone has in me.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
But I thought that was really.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Is also really good in doing that where it's kind
of a lot of times comical and you know, over
the top, but it has these moments of like, no,
these girls died, yeah, and they're not gonna get to
live their lives, right, really reminding you of that.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
M m mmmm.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Another theme, I would say a big theme fat shaming
and shaming in general. So here's a quote from Mela
and for's sake, stop using normal as code for white.
I snap, your life isn't the ruler that the rest
of the world gets measured against. I never said that,
it was, June says stiffly. My face goes hot as
I think of all the reasons that June has ever
(23:41):
made fun of me. I'm brown and she's not I'm
fat and she's not. I'm wicking, shorter than her, live
on a different side of town, drive an older car,
prefer cocover pepsi, and on any given day when she
was alive, she found a way to make me feel
ashamed of that. Yep, and here's another quote. It's kind
(24:04):
of cool to talk to someone who gets how absolutely
tragically white this town is, and someone else who self
identifies as fat, who isn't using fat as a code
for ugly or you I ate a big meal. Even
Riley has only ever called me kurvy, no matter how
many times I correct her. So at the end of
the book, when she befriends Anaya, who is a fat
(24:25):
black girl, they have these commonalities and things that they
can bond over. Another thing is identity and language. So
Miila has a whole scene about not being able. She
doesn't feel confident in speaking Spanish, which I thought because
(24:45):
she's her family situation is very interesting because it kind
of felt like they were not around much.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
They were definitely controlling in like they yeah, did not
understand her and wish she was different. And a part
of that is religion, Like she wasn't wicked until much later,
but like they were very horrified, just kind of like
Riley's parents that that idea existed in their kids, which
you know, I think that happens especially as millennials who
(25:19):
if you went through any type phase, whether that was
emo or whatever whatnot, the parents got very concerned.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, okay said this might.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Be on that note, But I do find it interesting
with the language part specifically too, because as where Mila
never practiced, and it was kind of a shame thing
once again because she was being made fun of for
all the differences and her being brown, her being Latina
was one of those differences that got made fun of.
Then she has white girl June who studies Spanish to
speak it pretty well, and she's like, you know, the
(25:49):
difference in reality is that a white person who learns
a language is praised. They're like, oh my god, it's
so great, Like there may but if you're a person
of color who was from that ethnicity and you do it,
there's so much racist connotations latched onto you. So I
did find that interesting in that level because I know
a lot of first generation, second generation kids, refugees and
(26:10):
immigrants don't learn their languages because whether it's their parents
telling them not to because they need to speak English
and learn English and adapt, or whether it's their self
hating or even just laziness, I mean, or just because
it's not something that was important at that point. Like
I've seen that as a thing as well. So I
feel like, even though it's a very big, small blip,
(26:33):
it felt like that difference was there for a reason,
you know, especially in this moment, because she's bringing them
into her world, her side of the literally her side
of the you know, train tracks like this is the
grocery stores that I know of, and this is where
it's available, and then let me take you to the
restaurant that I love. And when you know, she was like,
we've already had burritos. She's like, nah, no, that's not
(26:54):
what you were eating here. You know, this is authentic,
and they're like, oh damn, it's good.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Like that.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That was very much that scene that I love to
see because I feel like any person of ethnicity they
know this level of like being shamed into welcoming them
and also the comparisons.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah yeah, oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Okay, so this is the point where yeah, you and
I discussed we did, guess it was Xander yeah, yeah,
I I've told you. I was like, I think it.
I was completely confident with him, but I was almost
like so common. I was like, is it gonna Yeah? Yeah,
(27:36):
I read that in a lot of reviews I saw,
but they weren't negative.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
They were just like edge.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, it kind of felt like that part was obvious,
like the rest was really good.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
But yeah, So we've got this theme of revenge.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
And also I would say like the nice guy, because
Xander is painted as a very He's nice, he really
misses his sister, he wants to get to know me.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
A little better.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
He's presented as this nice guy persona which we have
learned to be warriy of.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
To be wary. Yes, so I like this quote from him.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So this is at the very end, when the house
is burning. Miela has come back and he thinks that
she's gonna stay with him as the house burns. I
love you, he sniffles, I've always loved you. I would
kill for you. And the awful thing is that he
means it literally. He could fix my life the way
he fixed his and Riley's. He would stab or strangle
(28:34):
or poison anyone who hurt me. Toby Doctor Miller the
nouns my parents, my sisters, then you can die for me,
and that's when she kills him. I love that because
I've talked about this before. I totally get it.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
But one of my.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Pet peeve tropes is romanticizing of this of the guy
being like, I'll kill anyone you and you're like.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I don't so much.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I mean, she would also kill me, so I'm a little.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
But again, I get it.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
It bothers me in a lot of context, but I
do get that.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
But I liked that here it was kind of addressed.
It's like, ah, that's kind of a problem.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Right, You're you're sociopath the psychopathe Okay, but I think
that's where we get The difference is with Riley being
the one, like she ended up ultimately dying trying to
get those answers and trying to excuse Xander and then
even hiding things after the fact that she figured everything
out again and she really was trying to use that excuse,
(29:41):
hiding him, lying for him because she hoped that that
was it. But in understanding she started to figure out, no,
but that doesn't end. He's gonna keep killing if it
means he feels threatened. Yeah, yeah, which is why she
was okay with.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Brother on his He's got to go.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
That's where we're at, which I do appreciate too, because
you can tell she was struggling with it. But then
I will ultimately was you know what, I want to
save my friend. I got my undead friends. He's got
to go.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I also wanted to point out because one of my
favorite books we've ever done on book Club is Mexican
Gothic that also featured mushrooms as a horror element, and
this one did too.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I was like, hey, yeah, I still love him. Oh,
but I wouldn't eat him from the woods. I'm not
smart enough to figure out what's not poisons or what is.
So I just brought to me in a bag.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I was walking along today and I saw this huge
thing of mushrooms and they looked like in of the wood.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
I would never eat him, don't do it. No, never.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
But I had a moment of like, I should take
a picture of this and see if someone could identify.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
By it for me, because it was a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Well.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Another theme paganism and witches and religion. There is a
lot of discussion around this. One of the things that's
reiterated throughout the book is gratefulness. So Riley and Mila
always say being a witches about gratefulness, that you're kind
of grateful for what you can get out of the universe.
(31:37):
It's not something you kind of expect, you're grateful. Here's
a quote, Wika doesn't mind if you work in metaphor.
Wicka never minded that Riley and I didn't really know
what we were doing. The only eventful deity in witchcraft
is yourself. Do badge get badge, do good? Get good?
Or be like me and Riley and do almost nothing
but giggle over in SnSe and get perfumed smoke in
(31:59):
your nose in return. And here's another one. Spells are
just prayers with more steps and a name that scares people.
Toby's voice floats through my head. Any book that purports
to have the answer to death isn't Wicca. I'll tell
you that much. This is some dark I wonder if
she'll ever do a sequel because I was curious about
(32:23):
I was curious about that they kind of explained the grim.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
War and where it came from.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
But right, not really, but I don't like how did
Riley find it? Did I miss that part?
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I thought.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
I thought Xanderson it to her, but I don't know clearly.
I would like some more answers about where this.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I guess I missed that part because I was like,
how did it get there?
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, it might have been. I think you're right. I
think it was Riley. Maybe I just had a suspicion
it was Xander, and I was.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah, because I know, like the whole explanation of her
aliases using fictional witch characters, and it was a fictional
witch character that had or historical one of the two.
So that's how it came. But I was trying to
figure out where Riley found it even and.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Why she found it.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I would be into a sequel. Oh yes, speaking of
that's another theme older versus younger generations in here. So
you have Toby and kind of her coven and how
they go about things and how they think things should work, and.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Then you have Mila and Riley and.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
Just seeing those differences and then at the end having
them kind of form an alliance or at least, you know,
not be all out fighting on there.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
I love that the other older coven bent, but people
were telling on each other, like you've made mistakes too.
Maybe it wasn't raising the dead, but but you know,
but you know what you did quiet so like it
is something.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
I liked that too.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
I liked that too, and I always kind of I'm
happy when stories include that of the younger versus older
generations and how it's changed.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And then lastly, obviously friendship.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Major theme impetus for this whole story is Mila wanting
to do right by her best friend Riley and wanting
to belong. All of them really want to belong, and
it is you know, reading it, I did have flashbacks
of being in high school and all those kind of
cliques and the drama and having that best friend or
(34:42):
having that person that you you could get away from
that with. So it was really well written in that
regard to of I remember that, and I remember being
assigned the partner in anatomy that you're like, why did
you put me with him?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Everything?
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I think that we all chose our own partners. It
was never a thing.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I got to sign my legitimate bully. Yes, yeah, unfortunately
for him.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Unfortunately for him, uh.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
He well, he was in my he was on my turf.
Then he bullied me in another class where I was
in his turf. I was the oldest in the whole class.
He was younger than me, but in this class, he
was the youngest in the whole class. So everybody else
in there was my friends and he didn't have any friends.
And he looked at me and there was fear in
his eyes, Samantha, and I was like, it's fine, let's
(35:38):
leave him be. So I had.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Mercy change his attitude with you in that class, Yeah,
he had like alid well by then.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Oh my gosh, I would love to tell this whole story.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
By then, I had kind of I had gotten out
of that class where he was bullied me. And then
I won, like I'll say, I won pretty much every
award that year, and he was just shamed. He lost
everything to me.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
So I was like.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Nope, yeah, and his sister came up and apologized me.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
It was a whole thing.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Wow, But anyway, No, he didn't know and he lived
in my neighborhood. To conclude this, the drama, the drama,
but I did not I did not pick on him,
but I had a moment there was a silence when
(36:41):
he was looking at me. I was like, hmm, but
I didn't want to be his partner in anatomy.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I think, uh, I think there's so many things when
we talk about this fiship because also we got to
see a click with the dead versus the undead. There
was a moment where Mela's feeling some type of way
because she seems like that Riley's walking away from her.
But a little bit of that is like Riley being
upset that she died, that.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
That Mila was able to do the spell.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, she dies, there's a little jealousy in that. And
then also like realizing that her death wasn't murder, but
like it was an accident as well as by that
as her brother. But so many things that they had
to work out in seven days as well as have
some kind of closure and death. There was a lot
(37:35):
even in that small moment.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
It was and it's not that long of a book,
and it packs in it did it packs in quite
a bit. I want to end on this final quote.
The four of us take one last moment together, The
urge to rip the grimoar out of Riley's arms and
find the recipe for putting off this goodbye is almost
too much to bear. But our past are diverging, and
(37:57):
all I can do is be grateful that we have
this week, that it extorted from the universe.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
I'm a witch. I'm always grateful. It was. It was
really moving, It was really moving.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
I also gave the dead closure because they were like
they were like ready to go since they couldn't return.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, and like like we said, they had that they
saw what their dance led to this, like profiting these
bad poems.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It's bad singing Dayton sings the song yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Yeah, so they have like the goodbye that Yeah, what
they actually what they could do.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Yeah, and what they could do as well in that moment.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
But it was bitter. So it was. It was.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
But I highly I highly recommend it. It's a great
read for as we're moving in to Fall. Yeah, absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Zombies, Zombies which class zombies.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
And marked high school.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Mystery. Hello, yeah it's fall.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah Yeah, so go check it out. I think it's
I think it's really fun. In the meantime, if you
have any other suggestions for this segment or any thoughts
about this book, please let us know. You can email
us at Hello at stuff. I neever told you dot
Com you've had us on Blue Skype mom Stuff podcast
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told
You for us on YouTube. We have new merchandise at
(39:25):
Cotton Bureau and we have a book you can get
wherever you get your books. Thanks, It's always to a
super produced Christina executive producer, my intercontruder Joey, Thank you
and thanks to you for listening Stuff I Never Told
Yous Friction by heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
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