A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Part 2

We know you’ve been patiently waiting for it …this week your Traders finally travel to Pyrthian as we cover A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. This episode is part 2 of 3.

Triggers: abduction, claustrophobia, death, drugging, gore, emotional abuse, intentional amnesia, murder, physical abuse, sexual abuse and assault, torture, violence

Tropes: Beauty and the beast retelling, really old fae, forced proximity, enemies to lovers

KU: Nope

Recommendation: Yes

For more information visit https://sarahjmaas.com/.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey friends, just a quick reminder before we get into today's episode, come join us

(00:04):
over on our Patreon.
That's where we release bonus episodes every other week and we've already got over 20
episodes from 2023 that you can download and binge right now for as little as $3 a month.
We've covered so many good books there, Haunting Adeline, Chateau, Gotha Canna, and so many
more.
That's also where we'll cover any books in a series we continue, so Serpent in Dove,

(00:25):
High Mountain Court, Serpent in the Wings of Night.
You can continue those series with us on Patreon right now.
Finally, as a patron, we let you know what we're going to read every month so you can
read along with us if that's your jam.
Anyway, that's all from me on to today's episode.
The whole thing about this book is that it was like a bait and switch where he's not
actually end game.

(00:45):
But I don't, I have, I'm not invested in him at all.
No, can I give you a, can I tell you a secret?
Yes.
Not gonna be a secret.
I'm not a super fan of Reese in the scenes that we get him in.
I'm not either.
Also, he has purple eyes and fuck that trope.

(01:06):
Truly.
He just comes off as kind of a whiny bitch.
He is a whiny bitch and I'm so intrigued to see what happens as we get to know him more
if he just continues to be a whiny bitch.
I'm Liz and I'm hypercritical.

(01:41):
As always, we start every episode with three things.
The first is a generic trigger warning.
You can find specific triggers for this book in our show notes, so please check those out.
Also we do use foul language and talk a lot about sex.
If you have sensitivity to any of this, please give this episode a skip.
Secondly, we talk about books.
The whole book, nothing but the books that helped me got us.
If you plan to read this book and don't want something spoiled right now, don't listen

(02:03):
to this episode.
Lastly, we acknowledge that a good book can hit you at the wrong time.
The views expressed in our discussion are our opinion and we absolutely don't want to
diminish the work and the talent of the authors in our community.
That said, we have some notes.
Katie, start us off, please, on this journey.

(02:31):
Alright, so welcome, friends, to part two of our coverage of Akatar.
This is part two of three and we will be covering chapter 16 through 32.
It's interesting to me, arbitrarily, we cut this book into thirds, but this book really
fits into Act 1, 2, and 3 format.

(02:53):
It's spooky.
It really does.
I was impressed.
I mean, there's certain books and it's so interesting to see where we define, and by
we I mean you, that third or half point, that it's a fucking wild place to stop.
And other times where it's so clean and perfect, I'm like, did the author know that?

(03:14):
Like did Sarah J Maas plan this in three acts?
Because it very much feels that way.
But it's not split the way in the book, right?
We don't get parts.
But as I said in our debrief, I have been waiting since part one to go under the mountain
to the point where throughout part two, I was like, does that not happen in this book?

(03:36):
Where are we, but then we're part two ends.
We're going under the mountain, bitch.
We're going under the mountain.
Like, I get it.
I'm just, that being said, I am baffled that we've gone through 32 chapters and haven't
even gotten to like the crux of like what is the meat of this plot.
Yeah, it really does highlight for me.

(03:59):
And we kind of talked about this at the end of part one.
I'm not even sure if we recorded it or not, but we got through part one a lot faster than
I thought we were going to.
And there was a lot of like side chat from us, right?
And I think that's because like not a whole lot of things happen because there's so much
world building happening there.
And looking back on it, there is a lot of like, oh, let's show you how high-fay are

(04:25):
different from like lesser-fay and like how the world works and like how people spend
their time and like all of that stuff.
It does feel like we wasted a lot of time there, especially when we get to the end of
part two for us.
Yeah.
That chapter 32 like does a whole lot of information dumping that I did not appreciate.
That could have been sprinkled out across the other 30 chapters.

(04:47):
Well, and I mean, we just started this recording, but I kind of feel the same way about this
part.
Like, I don't have a lot to say about it.
Like once we're under the mountain, I think we're going to have much more to say, but
like there's stuff I want to say when we get to Cal and Mai, but all of their like fucking
f**king f**king through the tulips.
I'm just like, okay.
And?

(05:08):
And.
Well, and I think we'll get to it when we get to it, but there are parts of that f**king
that I guess are just never addressed.
Like they're brought up and then like we don't get a full circle read on it.
Yeah.
And that's to the detriment of like the dynamic between Farah and Tamlin because you said this

(05:29):
during every debrief and I agree with you.
Who we're being told she is isn't jiving with how she's acting or the choices that she's
making.
No.
And that I feel is almost more bait and switchy in like a problematic way because we get this
a lot, especially with female main characters who don't have friends.

(05:50):
I know that is not a direct parallel, but I think if you were to do a dissertation on
this, there is a line there that female characters who don't have friends don't have a set personality.
And Farah famously does not have friends.
She has sisters and then she acquires friends because her mate has friends.

(06:10):
But that's the thing.
And I'm excited to talk about that because she still doesn't really have friends.
Like, yeah, we hear like form independent relationships, but it's very much like I have
no friends.
It's like if my only friend was James or your other friends, not that you're my mate, but
like to flip that in another way.
If all of my friends were people that I met through Liam, like right, I don't have any

(06:32):
independent relationships of my own.
And she continues to do that.
She yeah, like Alice.
And we get the same trope to that I'm noticing when a female main character doesn't have
any friends, there's a female servant that's like friend is friend adjacent.
Yeah.
The staff is never your friend.
Like you can be friendly, but you should never make the mistake of thinking that somebody

(06:56):
that you're paying for their service is your friend.
Right.
And I just it frustrates me because I am it frustrates me, but I'm also curious to see
in the subsequent books how her personality shifts, because I have the concern that it's
going to continue to be defined by the man that she's with.
Yeah.
And I've heard, I mean, there are so many podcasts that cover Akatar and critique in

(07:22):
different ways and cover it.
And some of those talk about how Farrah as a main character isn't very strong because
she never actually gets an opportunity to take power for herself.
It's always given to her by other people.
And so I'm interested to see now that we have sat on this for two years, read a lot of other

(07:44):
books and kind of matured our point of view on these these types of things.
How much that's going to bother us.
Yeah, because it's already starting to bother me, especially when gosh, don't assassinate
me for this.
I'm not sure if I'm going to like Reese anymore.
I will say that I do remember, I don't have a lot of clear memories of reading this the

(08:08):
first time, but I do remember going through that quintessential like, oh, the bite in the
hallway is so sexy and like you meet Reese.
I didn't like him in this book anyway.
But why didn't you like him?
Because I thought he was a whiny little bitch who just like comes back.
So it's the same reason.
Cool.
It's the same reason.
It's the same reason.
But like, it's the same reason because he's a whiny little bitch.

(08:28):
I just feel like all the males in this book were whiny little bitches.
Yeah.
And that did shift for me.
But I am, but I, but at risk caveat to that.
I don't know if I thought he was a whiny little bitch because of what we actually see him
do, which is be a whiny little bitch.
Or because I was caught up in the romance that I was told was happening.

(08:51):
Yeah.
And so I was like, fuck this other guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I don't know if I, I don't know if that's what's happening now, but I do remember or
I don't remember, I'll say feeling like Reese was whiny ever.
But oh man, just with the exception of Cal and Mai, the scene in the dining room, I remember

(09:17):
being so powerful the first couple of times that I read it and reading it this time.
I'm just like, come on, all of you are the worst.
They're all the worst.
And it's very soap opera-y where I'm just like, really?
Yeah.
This is what we're doing.
Right.
There's, there's another like fringe theory that Reese is just actually evil.

(09:42):
And he's like hiding it or he's just like self-motivated the entire time.
Like he's neither good nor bad.
He doesn't actually get the flying fuck about anybody else except for himself and his own
ability to like gain influence and power.
And like what he does to Pharah in the dining room kind of supports that.
It super supports that.

(10:03):
Yeah.
I'm okay with that.
Yeah.
I'm kind of okay with that too.
And I hope viewing it through that lens makes him less whiny.
So that's actually really interesting because I'd never heard that like fringe theory, but
I saw this, it was on Instagram, but it was like a paint chip, like a paint swatch thing,
right?
Yeah.
And they were all the color gray and it was called like morally gray and it like listed

(10:25):
morally gray characters.
And Reese was on there and I was like, is he morally gray?
Like that's not how I would have categorized him.
But in that light, I'm like, yeah, I'm interested to see because honestly, like there were things
in this book that I didn't read both of the first times that I read.
The whole interaction with Nesta when like they're reunited, I didn't fucking read.

(10:48):
Cause like did not give two shits.
No, I was trying to get into the smacks, but which is such a let down.
Oh my God.
It's such a let down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Which is fine.
I don't want to read detailed sex between Farrah and Tamlin.
No, I don't either, but it, so we talked about the Nesta book and like where maybe we forgave

(11:15):
how much she is a county human being because the sex is so good.
Do Reese and Farrah have good sex?
I know there's a question.
Girl I got questioned, but I don't know.
I don't know.
I know they don't, at least in the novella.
So like, oh, that's the worst book.
I'm dreading it.

(11:40):
Anyway, so to finish my point, I wonder when I read the subsequent books more closely,
if I will pick up on more of the like morally gray stuff that Reese does because like he
in my head right now kind of does that thing that some of the authors do where he's like
a war criminal, but like he's actually a teddy bear like most of the time and he's got this
like persona of being like this cruel person.

(12:01):
But like if you asked him five questions, you would understand that he's not that.
Yeah, which is that's where we talked about this in the first book too, but his like persona
in the night court versus under the mountain like, are you supposed to be the same dude?
I still have that question and I'm not sure.

(12:22):
Because the other thing too, in that vein, I'm interested to get there when we get there
because like to make that work, right?
To make it work so that you can hide your capital city from everybody means two things
must be true.
No one can come in and no one can leave unless you fucking know about it, which is kind of
fucked up.
It's kind of like North Korea.

(12:45):
Yeah, a little bit.
A little dictator-y.
Yeah.
So anyway, that was a bit of a question.
Big detour, but let's get into the coverage of what actually happens in this book in this
part.
Let's shall.
So when we have last left our Mary band of assholes, Pharah had just survived an attack

(13:11):
by the Naga and Tamlin had saved her, blah, blah.
So back at the ranch at the mansion, Alice helps Pharah feel put back together after
a bath.
She gives her hot chocolate and brushes her hair.
She then tells Pharah that she was foolish for seeking the cereal out.
Pharah says that Alice would understand if she had a family, but Alice Bristol's saying
that thank you very much.
I do have two boys to care for.

(13:32):
I have a family.
Thank you so much.
You never bothered to ask.
It turns out that the two boys that she cares for are actually her nephews and they were
orphaned by the deaths of their parents 50 years ago.
Here we learn that they take four fucking ever to grow up.
So even though these boys are like 50 ish years old, they're still considered like adolescents

(13:54):
who need to be like tended to and having a newborn of my own.
That sounds horrendous to tend to it for 50 years at least.
Yeah, I was trepidation is about taking on 18 years.
50 years.
Holy fucking shit.
Yeah.
Well, anyway, listen, I do like that.
I also like you've never asked.

(14:15):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Okay, but this goes back to the thing of like Farah, you don't have friends and staff are
not your friends.
No.
Because actually you don't care.
You don't know a fucking thing about Alice.
No, no, but God forbid Alice isn't there when she needs something and it's like a dagger
to the heart.
Like, yeah, the amount of emotional dumping that Farah and other characters do on their

(14:37):
like staff, female friend adjacent type characters is for her line of use.
It is.
It's revolting.
I feel so bad for Alice because like as we come to learn, everyone else is glamored from
Farah.
So she's just she's just the only one.
Yeah.

(14:58):
And I bet that people are like asking Alice what Farah is like, right?
Like she's like got the hot goss kind of thing.
Yeah.
And Alice is just like, I just want to do my fucking job.
Man, like I really I don't want to talk to this girl.
No.
Why was it me?
Anyway, Farah apologizes for assuming and Alice seems to accept that because she says the

(15:21):
next time that Farah wants to hunt the cereal, she should come to see Alice.
She says that the cereal would have basically trapped itself for a new coat.
So Lucian's advice was like totally off base.
Yeah.
I'd be like, oh, you got to put in the headless dead chickens or whatever.
She's like my ass.
Just get it a new coat.
I also love how it was like, you think I didn't know what you were doing.

(15:42):
Right.
I'm not an idiot.
Right.
And you're not subtle either.
So Farah goes to dinner and signals solution that Tamlin knows nothing of his involvement
sending her to find the cereal, which is probably great for Lucian.
They then reveal to Farah that Faye can actually lie and that they aren't affected by iron,

(16:03):
but Ashwood can indeed weaken them.
They like go through this like list of the things that Farah has been telling us are
true about Faye.
And they're like, yeah, no, no.
I forgot about the two because they're where I said that in part one, because I like the
whole like, they can't lie thing.
They're like, no, we can just we can lie.
Yeah.
I do think it's funny though that Farah was going around like, oh yeah, that must be the
truth because they can't lie.

(16:24):
Like trust but verify girl.
I know.
In retrospect, it's kind of like you're an idiot.
It reminds me there's so much about Farah in this book that reminds me of Cronk in the
Embers New Groove sneaking Cronk out of the capital city with his own theme music.
Yes.
Oh my God.

(16:45):
Oh my God.
I adore that visual.
Also, I learned recently that that entire scene like the made up soundtrack was totally
improved.
Was it?
Yeah.
I got to send you this article that I found.
It's fascinating about the making of that whole movie.
Please send that to me.
I love that movie.
Now I want to watch it again.
I do too.

(17:06):
So Lucian leaves and Tamlin asks Farah again why she was so deep in the forest.
She decides to tell mostly the truth.
So she tells him that she trapped the cereal but she didn't learn anything because the
Naga came and like interrupted their party.
He then pulls out her list of written down words that she didn't know about.
Like she was in the library writing down words as she wrote, read quote unquote a book of

(17:28):
words that she didn't understand.
And he asks her about it.
Because it's words, it's random words like Q and like slaughter and like all of these
like conflagration.
Right.
And Farah is too embarrassed to say what it actually is so she just tries to leave.
But Tamlin uses his super speed and blocks her path and again offers to help her write

(17:50):
a letter.
He goes on to say that her family are in a new place with means and their memories have
been glamored so that they don't think that she's in danger.
He's also implanted the notion that they should run at the first sign of danger.
Which then that Farah realizes that Tamlin has really gone the extra mile for her family.
In this exchange Tamlin asks Farah whether she even knows how to smile because she's

(18:11):
so serious all the time and he wonders aloud whether her family knows all that she does
for them is because she loves them.
And I'm like, is it that I'm not convinced.
It's not that.
It's not that.
We're told it's not that because it's just pure obligation.
I don't think Farah loves her family.

(18:31):
I don't think she loves her family in a healthy way.
I think she is desperate for their approval and love.
But I don't think that that feeling or that craving is love.
No.
And I do wonder if she would go to such lengths to care for them if her mom hadn't made her
make that deathbed vow.

(18:53):
Right.
But I mean like there's no way to know.
There is a part in the scene that I correct me up because Tamlin like compliments her
for killing the Naga and catching the Sturril and like being smart.
And she says like, oh, is it supposed to be hard?
And I just read it like Elle Woods like what like it's hard.

(19:14):
Oh my God.
It just made me so happy.
I just pictured that like what like it's hard.
Excuse me when like it's hard.
Yeah.
I love that.
So there's a couple of things in the scene and like Tamlin is just so incapable of treating
Pharah like a person.

(19:35):
Like he just doesn't have actually any empathy.
And like they kind of allude to this later when we learn more about the curse, which
we will learn about in this part.
Thank God.
About his like quote unquote stone heart or whatever.
But like he never approaches Pharah with any kind of understanding like the whole letter
thing.
He always says, you know, I can help you, but he dangles it in front of her.

(19:57):
Like it's a service that he's offering and it's not approached with like, hey, like
you had other things to do like survive and not learning how to read is like not very
high on your agenda.
I get it.
Like let me help you.
Like I'm not judging you for this.
I get why this never happened.
Right.
He always just rubs her face in the fact that she can't do it.
Yeah.

(20:17):
And that's where like again the issue with building this romance.
I'm just not, I'm not sold because there are a lot of opportunities that we could have
gotten these like little cookie crumbs of building trust and we just don't get it.
And like it's like suddenly there were no ingredients at all.
But then in like three chapters, here's a whole ass cake.

(20:39):
Yeah.
But like beyond like leaving like no cookie crumbs, right?
And actually leaving cookie crumbs of toxic traits.
Yeah.
And one of those toxic traits going back to the fact that favorite doesn't have any friends
is that Tamlin actually doesn't have a personality.
Like no, he is a graham cracker.
Yeah.
He's kind of a beige crayon.
Like he doesn't have likes dislikes.

(21:02):
He doesn't even have like hobbies.
No.
He doesn't even seem particularly passionate about like protecting his borders.
Like he does that because he has nothing else to do and he's like supposed to do it.
Yeah.
But he is so uninteresting.
Like in a little bit, we'll get the conversation with the ator and he's like, oh, cleaning

(21:22):
up your mess or whatever.
And I'm like, I don't, what else are you going to do, buddy?
Like they're just giving you something to do with your time.
Yes, exactly.
Because you otherwise he would be lounging about all day.
Right.
Well, and that puts it into other perspective too.
Or Pharah is like, well, what am I supposed to do all day?
And he's like, I don't know because I also do nothing.

(21:43):
Yeah.
It reminds me of like, this isn't this book.
This is not the problem that this book has.
But we've talked about before, like books that only happen in like two rooms.
Yes.
Tamlin has the problem where he only operates in two like personality modes.
Either he's like a disaffected Lord who's bored or he's hunting.

(22:05):
And that's it.
That is the personality.
Well, you know what, Katie?
You're not wrong.
Okay.
Anyway, so with her purpose in life, well and truly settled, Pharah finally asks for
paint because she wants to have a hobby.
Tamlin agrees and then asks if he can show her the gallery of the house in a couple of

(22:27):
days once it's cleaned.
And she's like, there's a gallery?
Oh boy.
Oh, and I'm like, okay, okay, okay.
Girl, how do you not know that?
How big is this fucking house?
Well, to your point, she talks about her like midnight wanderings.

(22:50):
And then when they do go to the gallery, she's like, I never found this even in my wanderings.
I'm like, it can't be that big of a house and no one else is there.
You've been there for months.
Do you know how long it would take me to like, even if, if we're assuming that this house
is like the size of a convention center, I would have that place mapped within a month.
Yeah.

(23:11):
I don't, I don't understand.
Like what do you, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
It kind of, it doesn't matter, but it leads more to the, and I've seen this criticism
joke trope online with her.
It leads to the, all of those things that farishes the fucking idiot that she's just
dumb.
She's just dumb.
Yeah.

(23:31):
Which I don't want to knock anybody, but I mean, look, if Elaine is also dumb and Nesta
got the brains of the family, that kind of makes sense.
Well, yeah, it does kind of make sense.
That's right.
Anyway, we get another dream sequence.
How did you feel about this one, girl?
I hate it so much.

(23:57):
It's such a, it's just so clearly a plot device that is unnecessary.
I don't understand.
Okay.
So let me tell you about the dream and then I'll tell you what's clearly happening here,
and then I'll tell you why it doesn't make sense.
So this time favorite dreams of a woman asking her name, but also cutting her throat so that
she can't answer.
This is foreshadowing.

(24:18):
We've seen this before.
This woman is Amarantha who we'll learn about later.
And this kind of happens just not so literally, right?
And so two things could be happening here.
One, she could be picking up on the like telepathic vibes from like Reese, right?
Yeah.
Or she's prophetic.

(24:38):
Neither of those things can be true.
So why are we dreaming about it?
That's what made me so mad about it because it's just trying to add intrigue, which in
SJM's defense, this book needed some intrigue because nothing is happening.
Yeah.
But it doesn't make sense for her to be dreaming about this.

(25:01):
Like for her to have any sort of prophecy, I guess, yeah, with Reese, but that also isn't
we know that's not true.
And the person you have shown fair to be, she is not intuitive enough to have this.
Like I guess you've been sprinkled.
There's this like mysterious she that everyone's afraid of.
Like kind of, I guess I see that.

(25:23):
But no.
But at this point, the mysterious she is just powerful, not necessarily cruel.
So it doesn't really make sense that this person would be like hurting her and her dreams.
Like it would have made more sense to add intrigue if like somebody was stalking Pharah.
Yeah.
That would have been interesting.
Like Amarantha learned that Tanlin's got a new like fuck buddy and sent somebody to like

(25:49):
spy on them, which are some of the like giggles and silver bodies and like those things.
Why didn't we lean into that?
Right.
Yeah.
Anyway, the dream sequence fortunately doesn't last long because favorite bolts awake because
she hears screaming.
So she goes to investigate.
She would not survive in a horror movie.

(26:09):
Oh my God.
Why?
Pharah.
Pharah.
Pharah.
Pharah.
Anyway, she goes into the foyer of the house and Tanlin has brought home a lesser Faye who
has been seriously injured.
His wings have been sought off.
Lucian is there too, but he doesn't last long.

(26:30):
He ends up throwing up into a pot and then like leaves the room.
Thanks buddy.
Pharah though somehow has the stomach to stay and she helps Tanlin hold the Faye down while
they see if they can do anything to help him.
The whole time the poor thing is screaming, quote, she took my wings.
There's ultimately nothing they can do though.
Tanlin says that he doesn't have enough magic these days to heal such a grievous wound and

(26:51):
so the Faye dies while Pharah holds his hand and tells him that it's going to be alright.
Afterward, Tanlin walks Pharah to her room.
He tells her he's going to bury the Faye alone.
Pharah wants to help, but Tanlin tells her no.
And this is where I guess we start to get a cookie crumb of like, oh look, he has a
heart but I'm not sold on it.

(27:14):
If anything, he's just being a dick or he's like, no, go to your room.
I'm going to do this alone.
Like he's the dark knight or something?
Yeah.
Well, so there's, there's a couple of things about the scene that I don't really understand.
One of them is like this Faye doesn't have a mask so he's not from the spring court.

(27:36):
So why does Tanlin give a shit?
And where did he find him?
Okay, that's the second thing that I don't understand.
He constantly says, or we're constantly told by him and Orlution or the ator that's going
to show up in a hot minute, that this guy and like other things are being dropped by
the quote border, right?

(27:59):
But the spring court is massive.
So why would Tanlin go and find this poor dude and then bring him back to his house
rather than wherever he was closest to in his massive territory?
Because remember this, this island that we're on is the size of England and the spring court

(28:21):
takes up like a strip of it toward the south, right?
So like it's not a small place.
So you're not just going to say that like his mansion and is in like a 50 acre park.
That's his land.
No, it's like hundreds of acres of maybe thousands, right?
So like, does it make sense to me?
And in that vein, it really doesn't make sense because he already knows he doesn't have magic

(28:43):
to help.
It's not like he has medical equipment at home.
Like he takes this being to the house to do miles away to do what with like you couldn't
fix him with magic.
It's not like he has a first aid kit.
Like, yeah, he puts them on the table and is like, I can't help you.
Like then why did you drag me here?

(29:04):
Right.
And prolonging his suffering on what was a miles long track, like he could have just put
him out of his misery when you found him.
Yeah.
What did you think you were going to do at the house?
It's just it again, it feels really plot devicey and not even for the reasons it should be.
Yeah.
And like this is this is used as like a, I guess an illustration of how Tamlin cares

(29:29):
for his people and like is a good leader and like blah, blah, blah.
I don't believe any of those things.
And also this like never comes up again.
Like we never learn who this poor guy was, why he got his wings torn off.
Like it's just like, oh man, that really sucks.
Man, Tamlin's such a great guy.
Like what?
And even like if you're trying to build the horror of like who we come to learn as Amarantha,

(29:53):
like there aren't any, there, this doesn't even happen again.
It's not like there's like repeated bodies of like maimed fairies.
No.
Well, and it would be, I think it would be more impactful or I would believe it more
if Tamlin like sought out this guy's family and like returned his body or like let them

(30:15):
know where he was buried.
Right?
Yeah.
But none of that happens.
No, he just buries him alone in the dark like a fucking weirdo.
Somewhere on his land.
He doesn't even like, we don't see a marker for that person.
They're like a graveyard or do you just like, I'm gonna dig a hole somewhere and dump this
body in.

(30:35):
Yeah, that.
Cool.
Basically.
That's why she doesn't, he doesn't want her to come because he doesn't actually know
how to bury someone.
He's just like, I don't know.
He's just going to push it into a ravine and hope that it's fine.
Enjoy your slumber in the land of milk and honey.
Yeah.
Anyway, the next day Tamlin and Lucia meet Fera with saddled horses to go just on a ride,

(31:00):
no hunting involved.
And they end up in a glen.
Fera is enraptured by its beauty and again she feels like she hears other people around
but she doesn't see them.
She just sees the silvery outlines of them.
Tamlin ends up taking Fera a little ways away from where the horses and Lucia are to an
area that has this pond.
But this isn't just any pond.

(31:21):
Oh no, it's filled with starlight rather than water.
But Tamlin apparently never met a follow-up question in his goddamn life because he just
accepted that at face value.
He says, quote, they never said and I never asked.
I, cool.
If I didn't dislike him already, that line really made me dislike him, which might be

(31:42):
my own personal preference, like in my own romantic interests, but like, I don't like
that you wouldn't ask.
Like I want that curiosity and he's just like, I don't know.
Isn't it cool though?
Not a modicum of give a fuck to be found.
Also, like there's something vaguely threatening to me about a pool full of starlight and he's

(32:03):
like, let's go for a swim.
Like you don't even know this girl can swim.
Why would she know how to swim?
Also, can you swim?
Do you need to add?
I love the way he said vaguely threatening because it's like, is something broken that
starlight fell from the sky where it's supposed to be and landed here?

(32:24):
Should we be concerned?
Right.
I, it's just, there's something wrong about there being a pool of starlight.
Like, yeah.
What?
And his royal, they never said, who is they?
Your parents?
Like.

(32:45):
Who knows, we never find out because he never asked.
He doesn't give two shins.
But this is what I'm saying in the debrief for like, he takes her on this date and also
brings his bestie.
Yeah.
He brings his bestie and a whole bunch of other fucking people, right?
Yeah, because he's a king and he needs all his servants, but she doesn't know that.
Because she's not at all.

(33:07):
And she's like, enraptured by this place.
And I'm like, it's a field.
Yeah, I mean, maybe she's never seen a field before because she lives in permanent winter.
I don't know.
But it seemed a little bit like, wow, the grass.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Very that.

(33:29):
Before they go for a swim, they have a little conversation.
And in this conversation, Pharah asks Tamlin if Lucian is okay after the night prayer.
Tamlin tells her that Lucian's had a hard life.
He is the youngest son of the High Lord of the Autumn Court, and he has six older brothers,
and they are all in competition for the throne because it's not like the oldest brother automatically

(33:49):
inherits.
It's whoever's the most powerful.
Except Lucian was never interested in that.
He made his own way in other courts, making friends and betting females.
He ended up falling in love with a female.
His father did not find suitable.
And so his father had her killed while two of Lucian's brothers held him down and made
him watch.
What the fuck?
Yeah, I don't understand why people are so mean.

(34:11):
I don't understand why people are so mean either.
What did that achieve?
Also, why does his father give a shit?
You have six other kids.
Also, him having a mate or falling in love doesn't stop him from being a ruler, even
if it was going to be.
Why does it matter?
Yeah.

(34:32):
Just to make him sad?
We just want to make him sad.
Like a control thing?
It's gotta be.
And that felt kind of weak to me for a backstory because I don't understand why that happened.
I don't either.
And honestly, I don't know if we ever get more clarity on that, but it did seem like,
whoa, it's dark in here for no reason.

(34:53):
What?
I don't like...
So, okay, just put this in perspective.
Tamalyn takes her to this vaguely horrifying pool of fluid, starts undressing, and she's
like, no, no, no, I want to talk about your friend and how he was clearly upset last night.
So he's like topless and she's sort of like, ogling him, but also I want to talk about

(35:14):
this dark shit.
And he's like, yeah, let me tell you all of his very personal details.
Now do you want to go swimming?
Can we go swimming now?
Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
It's weird.
It's so weird.
And like, just to add another layer of weirdness, they brought Tamalyn, I'm sorry, they brought

(35:37):
Lucian and he's just like back at the picnic, like drinking like...
By himself?
Well, he's not by himself.
He's the staff that they brought.
He's with the staff.
But he like lifts the wine bottle to them, like they're going to go off in the force
and fuck and he's like, yeah, boy, I am here for moral support.
Get it.
Get it.
Like, I just don't understand.

(35:59):
It's like Lucian is Tamalyn's security blanket.
I think he is.
I think he is.
Or like in case Farah decides to kill him or something.
Okay.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, okay.
So this whole thing with Lucian led Lucian to renounce his family name and flee to Tamalyn.

(36:23):
Free brothers ended up chasing him, but Lucian killed one of them and Tamalyn killed the
other, so only one went back.
Anyway, after that bit of darkness, they go for a swim because Tamalyn's like, can we
do this now?
I waited my 30 minutes after eating and I would really like to swim now.
I really want to see you naked.
Basically.
They don't get totally naked, but you know.

(36:43):
So as they swim, Tamalyn asks Farah how her family lost their fortune and Farah tells
him that it started with three generations of bad money management.
Their father took on a risky bet trying to repay those debts, but he essentially put
everything that they had onto this one plan and it didn't pan out.
Specifically, he sent all of their inventory because he has like a trading company or something

(37:08):
on three ships bound for Barat.
And they sunk before reaching their destination.
And this bothers me because I'm going to check right now, but I'm pretty sure Barat isn't
on the fucking map.
I looked for that too.
Nope.
It's not on the map.
It's not on the map.

(37:28):
Cool.
I'm vindicated.
Yes.
And this is just one of those things where it's like, why tell me the name of the place?
Just say, oh, it was going to the continent because you've already referenced the continent.
I don't need to know where Barat is.
And actually, I don't know where that is.

(37:49):
So why bring it up?
What's the problem of inviting information without giving?
You're providing information that just gives more questions and weakens everything else.
The other thing I didn't like about this was Farah's telling the story and Tamlin is basically
like, your dad's a fucking idiot because you can't go that way.

(38:09):
And she's like, yeah, thanks.
Yeah.
Okay.
But also, this goes back to what we were talking about in part one where Farah was brought
up in this household with trading routes and blah, blah.
She knows where fucking Barat is, but she doesn't understand what's on the map of her
own island.

(38:29):
Yeah.
How can she read a map?
How can she read a map?
But even if she doesn't read, how can she not have some kind of basic geographical notion?
She has for Barat.
Across this one sea that I absolutely know where that is in relation to where I am.
It's like, hey, you don't know what the bald mountain is on this map.

(38:52):
It doesn't make sense.
How does?
How does?
How do?
How do?
I don't understand.
Please, Spain.
Please, Spain.
So that concludes our swimming interview, which I feel like falls into the hot spring category
because this is very similar.

(39:15):
This is kind of steamy because she's watching him undress and they're treading starlight
together.
The disdain I have.
And I'm trying not to lean into the disdain.
I'm really not.
I just.
I just.
I just.
So as they all ride back, Lucien and Farah talk.

(39:38):
She thanks him for the information on the cereal, but jokes that he'll have to try harder to
kill her next time.
He only says that it wasn't his intention to kill her, but he doesn't elaborate.
And I'm like, girl, what were you actually trying to do then?
He then says that Tamlin told him that Farah's first shot was to save the cereal.

(39:59):
But how would either of them know that?
I don't know.
Did they talk to the cereal?
Because Tamlin wasn't there to see the cereal and we haven't seen Farah tell Tamlin.
So is that the continuity error?

(40:20):
That's one of the continuity errors.
It's not the most egregious one.
It is possible that they had a conversation about it that we don't see that this is trying
to reference.
I doubt that.
I doubt that because they don't talk.
When would they have had this conversation?
Right.
When they have this conversation and it's very clear, we're never introduced to another
instance of them having an off-camera conversation.

(40:42):
So this would be the only instance in this book where that happens.
I don't think that that's true.
I think it's a little bit of a continuity error.
Yeah, because you're right.
There's no way they would know unless they talk to the cereal.
Right.
Anyway, Lucian then tells Farah that he did hear her scream, but he hesitated to go to
her.
And for breaking his word, he gifts her a jeweled hunting dagger and asks that she

(41:06):
not bury it in his bag.
No promises, bitch.
Yeah.
Okay.
And so this is where I have in my notes, literally, I roll immediately incoming, so I apologize.
But the next day is the day that Tamlin takes Farah to his gallery.
Of course it is.
It's freshly cleaned and she muses, quote, all this.

(41:26):
He'd done this for me as if I would have cared about cobwebs or dust.
No girl.
I didn't do jack shit.
About 20 servants did that.
TamTam wasn't on his hands and needs scrub and no floors.
Get the fuck real.
I could not handle that internal monologue.
I couldn't either.
And my note is very similar where I'm just like, this, this is the turning point because

(41:50):
he brings you into a room that he did nothing to prepare.
That he had shut up because he doesn't find value in art?
Okay.
It seemed to me why it needed to be shut up because you just, you don't have to go in
that room.
You don't have to close it off like it's full of monsters.
And again, you're not the one that's cleaning it.

(42:10):
So why do you care if it's more things to dust?
And we get, no, like why is this gallery even here?
Where did this art come from?
Who collected it?
Why is he so against anything that's not just murder?
Right.
Why does he have no soul?
Which I find we sort of get an answer, but no, we don't though.

(42:32):
No, that doesn't.
It doesn't excuse this.
No, especially because like he opens this gallery for her and he doesn't even tour it
with her.
He basically like stops at the door frame.
He's like, well, here it is.
And she's like, this is beautiful.
He's like, I'll leave you to it and then fucks off.
Which is so, and that's where like I really had, I just had a really hard time understanding

(42:54):
the romance and where this came from.
And like I was waiting for this and it's just so, it's like a chapter was missed.
Yeah.
Or it would have made much more sense if he was like, I just had it shut up because,
you know, my servants are dwindling.
Like I don't have a lot.
It seems like a waste of time.
But then he's like very familiar with the art in the room.
And spends time with her forming that bond in relationship.

(43:17):
Right.
And says, oh, this one was done by an old friend of mine who died in the war.
And so it was painful for me to look at it, which is another reason why I had it closed
up.
Yeah.
Give him some depth, please.
Or like when I was a child, I would come in here and spend time.
And so it's also, it's also painful now because then my family died and like I, like give,
give him anything.
But he is a piece of paper.

(43:39):
And stop.
He's less dimensional than a beige crayon.
Yes.
Yes.
That's true.
God damn.
So.
Pharah marvels at the paintings and tears up and is like, okay, but get this Tamlin's
like, I never knew humans appreciate art.

(44:00):
And I'm like, like you appreciate art.
He is just a beast.
He is just a beast of a being.
He has no thoughts in his head.
Zero thoughts.
No thoughts.
No thoughts, just vibes.

(44:20):
And it surprises him that humans have emotions.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Yes.
Then why does he have such a problem in slaving humans?
Because we're told that repeatedly and it comes up again later when we get the fucking
diatribe about like what actually is going on.

(44:41):
And it really churned his stomach and it was something that he was fully against.
He didn't think that that was right.
If you think that humans are so less than that they can't appreciate art that you yourself
don't appreciate, why do you think it's a problem to like harm them, keep them as slaves?

(45:07):
Like what the fuck are you even talking about?
I'm literally cognitive dissonance.
It's just wild.
I have no words beyond the leaps my brain has to take to like make that make sense.

(45:31):
Seriously.
It's impossible.
It's impossible.
So Pharah stays there alone because this is when Tam's like, oh, here's my art.
Okay, bye.
I have better things to do.
So she stays there alone and looks at the art for hours and then Alice shows her favorite
studio of her own, which has been furnished with supplies and she immediately starts

(45:51):
painting.
Cool.
Pharah's got a hobby.
Again, something that Tamlin had nothing to do with really besides ordering servants
to do that.
Right.
Exactly.
So the weeks go by and Pharah throws herself into painting and living her new life.
She never lets anyone see her paintings and this is where the sub theory that she's actually
shit at painting is just like so hilarious to me.

(46:14):
Like in my head that's Laura and no one's going to change my mind about it.
No, that is that is canon for me.
And she even says that she's not good at it.
And I just picture, I cannot wait to get to whatever book it is where there's the cabin
with the Bat Boys.
Oh my God.
They just like painted all over their clubhouse and they're like, wow.

(46:34):
Yeah.
And they're like looking at Reese and Reese's like, I will fucking end you.
Don't say anything.
She's got good pussy and I need her to be happy.
You let her do it on our walls.
Okay.
We'll get a new clubhouse.
We'll get a new clubhouse.

(46:55):
Anyway, one day Farrah realizes that spring is dawning in the mortal world and it makes
her think about her family.
Specifically, she realizes how much she's let Tamlin erase her from their lives, cared
for or not.
And it builds resentment in her.
One night she's in the Rose Garden and Tamlin joins her, but she's in no mood to entertain

(47:17):
him.
So she rips a rose from one of the bushes and crushes it in her hand, making herself
bleed.
Like a fucking child.
Tamlin comes over and kisses her bloody hand, healing it.
And this is when she tells him that it bothers her that her family so easily forgot her and
didn't try to save her after everything that she did for them.
And that feeling that she has, she's actually ashamed of.

(47:40):
But Tamlin tells her that it's nothing to be ashamed of if it's causing her grief.
She's feeling it and that makes it real.
He also admits that he's drawn to how intensely she feels things.
He goes on to say, one day all of her questions will be answered, but that day is not tonight.
It's the first time that Farah realizes that she doesn't mind his company.

(48:02):
I hated it.
I hated it.
And we get this line that like, oh no, I don't mind him now.
And then the next two nights, like, I worried for his safe return.
I'm like, why?
Also, you don't know.
Okay.
This is also just really selfish.

(48:25):
You're saying that your family forgot about you, but they're taken care of, so you're
free of your burden.
And also, you don't know that they're not mourning you.
They're probably not because they're assholes, but you don't know that.
Yeah.
I mean, so this is one of the only times that I will defend Tamlin because fully he offered

(48:47):
to help her write a letter.
He didn't do it in the right way.
No.
I'm going to be fully upfront about that.
However, she was going to write a letter to them and then realize that they were taken
care of and then immediately let that thought die.
Yeah.
Then it was like, oh, they're fine.
They don't need me, so I'm not going to check in on them anymore.

(49:07):
So yes, Tamlin did erase you from their life, but you were complicit in that too.
Yeah, because he did offer twice.
Right.
And only twice because you were obsessed with it for a week and then you left it.
Right, so why would I bring it up again?
And you were a bitch about it.
Right.

(49:28):
Which is fine.
Like, fine.
You'll only defend him so far.
But I can't blame him for not being like, are you sure?
Are you sure?
Yeah.
Anyway.
The next day, she goes for a walk in the forest and she knows that Tamlin is following
her, so she sets a trap for him.
There's a snare, which basically pulls him up into the air and I don't know how he was

(49:51):
caught by that or how she managed to set this trap without him noticing.
Anyway, he gets caught by it, but he immediately cuts himself loose and then he gives her a
pile of limericks from the words that she had written down that she didn't know and
each limerick is like filthier than the last and this is supposed to be like a skill he
has.
Right, like somehow he honed the skill of writing poetry because they had like poetry

(50:16):
battles at the war zone.
At the war camp.
It's the only note about his personality we get and it doesn't make any fucking sense.
Also the fact that he's writing dirty poetry also doesn't match.
No, because we're repeatedly reminded that Tamlin doesn't have a sense of humor.

(50:36):
Right.
But somehow he can write filthy limericks.
Okay.
I don't buy it.
You paid someone to write those and you're paying them off as your own.
Yeah.
He didn't write that shit.
As they walk back to the house, Farah asks about his parents.

(50:56):
Tamlin had mentioned earlier that his father planted the rose garden for his mother.
So he tells her now that Faye can marry and can also be truly mated.
When they are truly mated like his parents were, marriage feels like kind of an insignificance
after that.
It's clear that Tamlin doesn't like talking about his parents, but he tells her that his
father was just as bad as Lucian's and that he and his brothers all kept slaves.

(51:19):
And even if his mother was against it, she wouldn't say anything against her mate.
He tells her that he wanted no part of the contest to be his father's heir, so he went
into the army, his father's army.
But eventually he became too powerful and no one could deny the fact that he was his
father's heir.
But before things could come to a head, another High Lord from an enemy court killed his entire
family.

(51:40):
And he still doesn't know why he was spared.
We don't follow up on this for our way too long.
And she asks not a follow up question.
She's like, wow, that's awful.
Anyway.
Well, even though he delivers it, as he's like, and luckily for me, they were all slaughtered.
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
This is another, this is another instance where he talks about like, oh yeah, slavery,

(52:06):
blah, blah.
Okay, but do you think humans are people worthy?
Like people?
Yeah.
But like, I guess that, you know what I mean.
But you know what I mean.
Like, which is it girl?
Yeah.
Are they functioning beings that have feelings and emotions in lives or are they slaves?

(52:31):
Right.
Because this is one where I don't think both things can be true.
Not for someone like Tamlin.
No.
Because of this conversation, Farrah feels a kinship with Tamlin because it's clear he
is rough around the edges, having missed that training that his brothers received in terms
of like social graces.

(52:52):
And she sees herself in that.
She hears her sister, Nesta, calling her a half wild beast in her head.
As she walks with a literal wild beast.
Yeah.
And again, my note was like this, really this is the bonding point.
Now it's love.
Yeah.
It's interesting to me how Farrah makes all of these false equivalencies and this is one

(53:16):
of them, right?
Like she, she thinks that they're the same because they're both half wild beasts.
Farrah is basically just uneducated and a little feral.
Tamlin is legitimately like a war criminal.
Like there's a difference there, you know?
There is a difference there.
And Farrah, even though I'm complaining about it, does have a personality where Tamlin literally

(53:39):
is just a beast that sometimes has a flesh body.
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Like, and actually it's kind of offensive to dogs because they have personalities.
He is a piece of paper that sometimes has fur or flesh.
Right.
Yeah.
He doesn't, he doesn't think very far.

(54:01):
His thoughts are not deep.
He's, I don't think his thoughts go past what he's currently doing in that very moment.
Yeah.
That's, I think that's accurate.
Anyway, so they're, they're still walking and they see bonfire set up or they see bonfires
being set up and Tamlin tells Farrah that it's for a festival called Callum, Callum,

(54:26):
Callum, Callum, my, I always want to switch the M and the N and say Callum, my.
I want to say Callumari.
Callumari.
Yeah, that's a good one too.
How do you say it?
Callum, my.
Callum, my.
I don't know if that's it.
That's how I say it.
I'm going to say that.
Callum, my.
Are you?
I don't know.

(54:46):
I might river back.
Callum, my.
Callum, my.
Oh, okay.
Callum, my.
There's part of this.
It doesn't matter.
But I thought it was funny because Tamlin's like, yeah, it's a festival, you know, like
it's the one thing we do every year, some shit like that.
And Farrah's like, we don't celebrate holidays since you took them from us or some bullshit

(55:08):
like that.
And I'm like, you don't have holidays.
What do you mean?
Yeah.
What did the they have to do with you not having holidays?
Yeah, that was a weird thing.
She's like, oh, yeah, we don't have nice things like that anymore.
And I'm like, make that make sense.
Because it also implies that you remember a time you did have nice things or are you
trying to say like your family doesn't do shit because you're poor.

(55:31):
But that's not what she's saying.
She's saying like the human race doesn't have holidays because somehow the Faye ruined
it for them.
Yeah, they took their holidays with them when they put the wall up.
Okay, you know, you can do that, right?
Like you can just make a holiday.
You don't need their permission or their support.
It's fine.

(55:52):
It's fine.
Like.
It was just like anyway.
Someone goes on to say that Faye was not invited to Kalan Mai.
Maybe just call it the festival.
It's also called the fire festival, which I think is pretty funny considering there

(56:12):
was a really infamous fire festival in the real world.
Anyway, that went really poorly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He tells her that somehow during this festival, the Faye create magic and lots of Faye visit
for that night from other kingdoms.
Anyway, all right, just not invited.
Just not invited, but also real quick.
You have demon Faye and slaughtered Faye just being like dumped at your borders, but everyone's

(56:36):
just cool coming to visit for the fire festival.
No big deal.
Don't worry about it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And okay, so there's another thing that comes up a little bit later or maybe it's in this
conversation and I didn't note it down, but he says that all of the other seven High Lords
do this at some point.
Like it's not always the Calamni or whatever Calamstim of doing the M and the M so together.

(57:02):
The fire festival is not always during the fire festival, but like I don't remember reading
about the other seven doing it.
How do they do it?
How does Reese do it?
And then to your point, like why are other people visiting for it?
It seems kind of weird that other people would be invested in Tamlin getting his rocks off

(57:22):
to like make some magic.
But he's really only making magic for his own court, right?
Like he's only feeding his own magic.
And yeah, when we get to the description of what it is, I think that's so fucking weird
that so many people show up just to watch this one dude fuck someone else.
It's not even like it becomes like an orgy where everyone's in on it.
It's just like one guy has sex in a cave.

(57:46):
And like I think other people do like pair off and like get their own rocks off, but
it's weird that like people watch to begin with.
It's the public sex act of the book.
Yeah, which like has done it for me in many other books.
This one's just fucking weird.
Yeah, not this one.

(58:06):
Nope.
Anyway, Farah does understand that this is a dismissal and it makes it awkward between
them as it should.
But when they get back to the gardens, Tamlin tells her like he stiffens and he tells her
to hide and not make a sound.
He and Lucian then meet with someone that Farah can't see but whose voice alone shivers
down her spine.
This Faye tells Tamlin that his behavior has garnered a lot of interest at court where

(58:30):
a quote she wonders why he hasn't given up yet.
On what?
We don't know.
What court?
We don't know.
Who is she?
Couldn't tell you.
No, I don't know.
Tamlin tells this Faye that he's tired of cleaning up trash like the Naga and it's clear
that the she is letting them loose on his lands intentionally.
The Faye tells him quote, though you have a heart of stone Tamlin, you certainly keep

(58:51):
a host of fear inside of it.
Cool.
Lucian and Tamlin both tell the thing to fuck off and it does.
When Faye reveals herself, Lucian demands to know what she heard and she tells them
nothing that made sense.
Lucian refers to the Faye as the Ahtor and warns Tamlin that it would be a bad thing
if the Ahtor saw Farah.

(59:11):
But Tamlin is sure that it did not.
Then Farah is dismissed.
Again.
And Tamlin does a lot.
I'm noticing.
He does just dispense her.
He doesn't want to talk about it when he's bored, when he's moving on.
Yep.
Dismissed.
So because of this interaction and probably because of the fire festival, Tamlin broods
at dinner and then Farah doesn't see him again until the night of the fire festival thing.

(59:36):
This whole like broody moody blah blah just like miss me with that dude.
Because I also I'm not invested as to why you would be moody.
Like and if I try to think through why you would be moody, I don't give a shit.
Like are you moody because you have to go sleep with someone else for this?
Fast.
I just don't care.
I just don't care.
I don't care.

(59:57):
And it gets worse because the night of the festival, Farah runs into him and the foyer
and Tamlin snarls at her to go to your chamber, lock your doors, set up a snare, whatever you
do.
What a dick.
With my small peanut butter woman brain you fucked hard like don't tell me to do that.

(01:00:22):
Right.
Also okay so I can't go to the festival but why can't I live in the house that I'm in?
Yeah I am I am inside.
I'm indoors.
Thank you so much.
Yeah I am inside and I will not go outside.
And he's made it abundantly clear that locks on her doors wouldn't stop him from getting

(01:00:43):
into her room anyway so why does it matter where she is in the house?
Right.
But it's the tone.
It's the tone.
It's the tone.
So she eventually does do what she is told despite the fact that she feels almost like
a string from her middle pulling her to where the bonfires burn and the drums beat.

(01:01:04):
Is that the magic?
No.
It's her bond.
It's the resend.
Yes.
After a while she gives into that feeling of wanting to go look so she saddles up her
horse that Tamlin has given her, the white horse she's been using this whole fucking
time and rides off over to the festival.

(01:01:24):
She kind of pauses at a mountaintop, dismounts and then has her horse with her the entire
time and she realizes as she's like walking toward and amongst the crowd that she can't
make out the facial features of the people that are around her when she looks directly
at someone.
They become cloudy and dark and it's better seen in the corner of her eye like those

(01:01:45):
silvery outlines of people that she's been seeing this whole time.
So she realizes that there must be some kind of magic or glamour put on her so that she
can't see other people.
She sees people standing around a cave with pelts and candles inside but nothing seems
to be happening and she feels deflated that this was what she was banned from attending.

(01:02:06):
It seems so benign.
Because there's not even a lot of revelry, there's people around and there's bonfires
but it's not like, it's a pretty boring festival.
Yeah, pretty boring so far.
As she lurks around the edge of one of the bonfires, she's cornered by three females
who very clearly intend to rape her but she's saved when a high female intervenes.

(01:02:28):
He is described as the most beautiful man the Favre has ever seen with quote short black
hair gleaming like a raven's feathers offsetting his pale skin and blue eyes so deep they were
violet.
The purple eyes of it all.
And I knew he has purple eyes because all the fanartists with purple eyes.
I'm just over the purple eyes.

(01:02:51):
I decided, because I'm over the purple eyes too, I decided that his eyes were just gonna
be navy for me.
Yeah, I'm just gonna make them navy.
Yeah.
But this is where we get the phrase Allah howls moving castle because the first thing
that he says to her is quote, there you are, I've been looking for you.
This person is of course, Rizan.

(01:03:12):
So I do like that line because I love howls moving castle and I like that vibe.
And this line still holds up once we know like that he has been looking for her in other
ways, so I wasn't mad about that.
No, I wasn't mad about that either and I still have hope that like Rizan will be better.
Better in the next book.

(01:03:34):
I mean, certainly better than Tamlin.
I don't know.
But we'll see.
At least he has a personality.
He may be a whiny bitch, but at least he's not a piece of paper.
That's fair.
So, you know, take what we can get.
So Pharaoh of course doesn't know that yet.
She doesn't know who this person is and she's incredibly wary.
She even wonders if she traded one evil for another because the three fei that were cornering

(01:03:59):
her fuck off immediately, but this guy doesn't.
She realizes that he's not from the spring court because he doesn't wear a mask and he
goes on to ask her why she's there.
So Pharaoh lies and says that she's come with two female friends that she's known all of
her life.
They're fei.
Rizan clearly finds that odd, but he doesn't detain her any further in the part ways.

(01:04:21):
Yeah, because it's a, I was just like, it's a weird lie because he knows you're human.
Right.
They're like, oh, I just came with some friends.
Like girl, what?
How did you get here?
And he like asks follow questions.
He's like, where are your friends?
And she's like, they went to go get refreshments.
He's like, that's very far away.
And she's like, I know.

(01:04:43):
He's like, okay girl, have fun.
Like girl, whatever you say.
Okay.
So this is where the continuity error shows up because she very clearly had a horse,
was walking with the horse and as soon as she gets cornered by those three fei, it's
gone forever.
I didn't know.
No horse to be seen.

(01:05:05):
I didn't notice that.
You're so right.
Where did the horse go?
I don't know.
It would have been better if she got off the horse and then like smack its ass and told
her to go home.
But like, nope, horse is still there.
She says, I'm leading my horse around by the bridal or something for that effect.
And then the horse is just poof.
I did think that was weird that she like led the horse through the crowds.

(01:05:25):
So I'm like, aren't you trying to be inconspicuous?
Why are you just walking a horse through here?
Like this is girl, you got this big ass white horse that you're walking around with.
Like who brings a horse to a party?
It's like showing up on stilts to a music festival.
It's fucking weird.
Yeah.
Anyway, this horse is gone.
Do we ever see this horse again?
The horse is gone.

(01:05:46):
I mean, she has her horse.
Like it is, it's, I don't know.
It's like the horse in breath of the wild.
You whistle and it shows up.
Like, I don't know where it goes in the meantime.
It just goes, it goes in that weird pocket that like Reese has.
He put her horse in that weird dark pocket.
The poor horse comes out traumatized like, please let me stay.

(01:06:06):
I'm sorry for whatever I've done to hurt you.
So Farah goes back to the line of onlookers near the cave as the drumming increases, but
she sees Lucian across the crowd who immediately like uses his super speed to like get to her
throw her over his shoulder and speed run back to the house, which is also fucking weird.

(01:06:30):
Yeah.
And this is where we finally understand what the great right is because Lucian tells her
that the fire festival is all about a mating ritual whereby Tamlin allows ancient magic
into his body to become the hunter.
As the hunter, he hunts and kills a white stag and then he chooses a female to mate with
and their coupling refreshes the magic.

(01:06:51):
That's what was going to happen in the cave.
Lucian tells her that it's bad enough that Tamlin is going to show up and smell Pharah
there.
So now she really should stay in her room all night.
And this is where we, Lucian says that Tamlin does this as to the other seven of the High
Lords, but like I don't, it's not in the same way that the other seven High Lords do this.

(01:07:12):
So I don't know if that ever becomes a thing.
Yeah.
I know I kind of read that as if like all the High Lords do something to replenish their
lands magic, but it can't all be the same embodying the hunter.
Like I just, it can't be.

(01:07:33):
So Lucian tells her to stay in her room and then leaves, but does she listen?
Absolutely not.
Nope.
She goes to the kitchen for a snack sometime in the wee hours of the morning and she feels
bitter about the great right.
She's jealous that Tamlin is sleeping with somebody else because she feels like that's
her place right now.
I don't know.
Which like why girl?

(01:07:54):
Yeah.
As she heads to her studio from the kitchen, she intends to distract herself by painting.
Tamlin of course corners her.
He's clearly still feeling the effects of the right.
So he's more pushy than he usually is.
And speaking of pushing, he pushes her up against the wall telling her that he looked

(01:08:14):
for her, but when she wasn't there, he had to pick another.
Bitch, you told me not to come.
Yeah, you told me not to come.
But I went anyway.
Whoops.
I was there.
You just couldn't find me because you're stupid.
Tamlin tells her that he was not gentle with the female that he picked, but that he would
have been gentle with Pharah.

(01:08:36):
She tells him to back off, but he bites her neck instead.
Pretty hard.
And that gets Pharah all hot and bothered, so he takes that opportunity to tell her to
never disobey him again.
For that, Pharah slaps him and tells him, quote, don't tell me what to do and don't
bite me like some enraged beast.
I appreciated that Pharah in the scene was at once kind of turned on, but also like this

(01:09:02):
is not the vibe.
Right.
Like I am intrigued by you and kind of turned on by you, but also don't treat me like this.
Yeah.
I remember reading the scene the first time it gave me like the butterfly whooshes, you
know?
Yeah, it gave me the butterfly whooshes.
And reading it this time, I'm just like, ew.
Yeah, I remember reading this and I texted you and Des and I was like, oh my God, the

(01:09:27):
bite scene.
And you're both just like, mm-hmm.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
But I don't even think that like, I don't even think it's because like I know what happens
later so much as like, I just don't like Tamlin at all.

(01:09:48):
No, I don't like this.
I didn't get any of the butterflies in the scene.
I was sort of like, get the fuck off me.
I just want to have a snack because you sent me to bed without dinner.
Right.
And like I'm going to compare it to like the mafia romance, the billionaire romance, like
the guys that are like really domineering, but like back it up with like a personality

(01:10:09):
and like a backstory that I give a shit about.
Yeah.
And like treating the person like a human that they just want to protect, but also like
has their own agency.
Like there is that line that you can walk like that and this is not it.
This is not it.
Because you haven't established any of that for me.
No.
You haven't even established Tamlin as a believable person.

(01:10:32):
No.
Because no, you've given me nothing to root for.
You've given me nothing to understand about him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because it's like he shows up with a backstory and then like that's where his life ended.
You know, and he's just been in stasis until now.
Yeah, basically.
Yeah.

(01:10:55):
So the next morning, Faye decides to show off the bite rather than hide it.
And really she wants to rub Tamlin's nose in it.
At breakfast, Lucian obviously asks about it and Faye tells him to direct his questions
to Tamlin since he's still in the gavitour.
To which Tamlin says, quote, if Faye can't be bothered to listen to orders, then I can't
be held accountable for the consequences.

(01:11:15):
And Faye and I have similar reactions.
Hers is a little bit more childish, but I would have tried to kill him.
Yeah.
This is where like, I mean, I already hated him, but just the lack of accountability.
Listen to orders.
You don't give me orders.
You don't give me orders.
You kidnapped me and made me live here and then told me I could do whatever I wanted

(01:11:39):
with the exception of this night.
You still are responsible for the consequences.
Yes.
Don't, don't let's pretend, right, that you're not.
So Faye reacts by calling them both Faye pigs and storming out of breakfast and then rage
painting the rest of the day.

(01:12:00):
Rage painting.
This Tiff is really short lived though, because they make up that evening because Tamlin gives
her flowers or some shit.
And then they make up so much that one night Faye decides to wear a dress to dinner as
a part of a gift to Tamlin.
And she shows up, he's clearly pleased by this and Lucien excuses himself and probably

(01:12:23):
one of my favorite lines in the book.
He says quote, well, I'm late for something incredibly important.
And then fucks off.
I did really enjoy it.
He's like, I'll just see myself out.
You two seem like you're busy.
Goodbye.
Goodbye.
So, okay, this is where Farah starts to become like someone I don't like.

(01:12:49):
A little bit because she's like, she's in the dining room with Tamlin.
They're alone.
And I guess they're sitting at opposite ends like, I'll love Beauty and the Beast and did
at the dinner scene.
That long ass table.
Yeah.
And she says, you're so far away.
And I'm just like, whoa, who are we?
Because how did we get here?
Okay.

(01:13:09):
And that doesn't drive with any of the favor that I've seen this entire time.
No.
Like the favor that I've seen, even despite the fact that you're telling me that I'm
an independent woman who don't need no man and then subsequently like doing everything
to negate that, I still believe that you have a backbone, that you have hobbies, that you
have interests and that you're only kind of interested in Tamlin.
So then why are you suddenly like, baby, you're so far away.

(01:13:32):
Baby, come closer.
No.
It doesn't kill it.
Kill it.
Kill it with fire.
And again, it just doesn't make sense.
You haven't sold me on this relationship.
So I'm not here for any of that.
And I feel like not to defend Tamlin, but if you said that to me, I'd be like, ew, get
the fuck away from me.
Yeah, exactly.

(01:13:53):
Go to your room.
Go to your room and think about what you said.
He doesn't do that.
And instead shows off his magic by shortening their tables so that they are like now physically
close again.
And this is when we learn about the pocket that you can just shove things into with magic.
Anyway, I don't think it's the same pocket.
I don't think it's the same pocket.

(01:14:14):
I feel like everybody has their own pocket.
Like you have a pocket in your code.
I have a pocket in my code.
Okay.
Because it'd be funny if it was just like everybody's shit is in that room of requirement.
Yeah.
That's cannon for me.
Everybody shows the same magic pocket.
Magic pocket.
And it's just chaos in there at all times.

(01:14:34):
That would be such an interesting thing though, if like the magic pocket was the room of
requirement and you could really fuck somebody's day up by going in and like grabbing the stuff
that they put in there.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
Anyway, they have dinner at this shortened table and then afterwards, Farrah takes him
to her studio.
It's the first time that he or anybody else has been allowed inside because she actually

(01:14:56):
locks the door.
And she's got this painting set up on the easel that she's gifting to him.
And it's a picture of the Glen with the starlight pond.
But he looks at that picture and then immediately looks at other pictures and is just like,
that's nice.
What about these?
Because they're all bad.
It's like cartoon drawings or not cartoon crayon drawings.

(01:15:19):
Yes.
Anyway, Tamlin is more intrigued by the renditions of her bleak life before showing up in Prithian,
the memories of the mortal world.
Specifically, he asks to have the picture of the forest in which she used to hunt.
It's whites and blacks and grays and desolation.
He tells her, quote, I've had many lovers, females of noble birth, warriors, princesses,

(01:15:41):
but they never understood what it was like, what it is like for me to care for my people,
my lands.
What scars are still there, what the bad days feel like.
This just reminds me of it, that I'm not alone.
Several things.
Oh my God, you delivered with that.
It was perfect.

(01:16:02):
Several things.
One, you're not going to sit there and tell me that females of noble birth and princesses
don't also have the same roles and responsibilities and feelings that you do in this world that
Dr. Ohn Hunt.
No.
Two, don't brag about how many people you've been fucking to a girl you try to be fucking.
Don't do that.

(01:16:22):
That's not cute.
It's gross.
Three, she painted this picture for you.
Take the art and say thank you.
Don't say that sucks.
I want this one.
Right?
Or this false equivalency between Pharah and Tamlin understanding the same thing about
each other because Pharah has a family that she gives a shit about and Tamlin is a literal

(01:16:45):
king with responsibilities just doesn't make sense to me.
And again, I feel like we're given these scenes to be like, oh look, they're in love.
And I'm just like, what are you thinking is happening here, SJM?
Yeah, are you trying to gaslight me or like, do you think this is romantic?

(01:17:09):
It gives me the similar vibe as being like, like one person, their entire family died
in a tragic car accident that they were also a part of that they were the sole survivor
of and somebody's like, oh yeah, I know how you feel.
My goldfish died last year.
That's exactly what it feels like.
And like, look, I'm not trying to like, everybody struggles unique.

(01:17:32):
I'm not trying to say that Pharah's life is easier than Tamlin's.
I'm just saying that they don't have the same experience.
And for Tamlin to say that he's not alone because Pharah understands what he's going
through because she has a family that she cares for, doesn't track.
It doesn't track, especially when you've told me that like, you didn't care about your
family and they were all slaughtered and you asked not a single follow up question.
Well, and especially because like, you're sitting there telling me that that's why

(01:17:54):
you feel like Pharah and you have this connection and it makes you feel seen.
Are you sitting there telling me that you've met nobody in Prithyan who gives a flying
fuck about their family?
You hired Alice, who clearly cares about her family, arguably doing the same thing that
Pharah is doing for her family.
Girl, which is it?

(01:18:16):
Is it because she's a lesser Faye and they're less than and you can't fall in love with
a lesser than?
Then how does the mortal fit into this?
Hmm.
Interesting.
I just.
Damn.
I can't.
Oh boy.
So because of this conversation, this is the first night that Faye doesn't lock her door

(01:18:40):
when she goes to bed.
Okay.
Falling in love.
Which.
Just brief.
Just real quick recap.
You painted him a picture.
He came in and said, no thanks.
I'll take this one.
Listen to all these other women I fucked.
And also you make me not alone because your family is also basically dead.

(01:19:06):
Here's this Krem of affection that I have for you.
But now we're in love.
Wolf girl.
Wolf.
And this goes back to what we were talking about in the debrief where like, I don't believe
that Pharah's in love with him because I feel like Pharah doesn't know what love is.
Like she's.
Is this love?
I think that she loves her family, but really she's desperately seeking their approval and

(01:19:29):
like acknowledgement even.
That's not love.
And the same thing is true with Tamlin because Tamlin is like, there's nothing, there's no
common ground there.
Not really.
No, they haven't really found a common ground.
The common ground that he's saying they have doesn't track either.

(01:19:49):
No.
No.
And to your point earlier, she's not an autonomous like equal to him.
Like she never will be.
And she never will be.
No.
No.
Because he's not actually less alone because he continues to not share anything with her.
Right.
And she doesn't really share anything with him.

(01:20:13):
They're just, they're less alone in the fact that they are two beings taking up space.
Yes.
100%.
Anyway, woof.
The next day, Tamlin takes her to a place in the forest where they doze under a willow
tree.
It's there that he uses his magic to heighten her senses so that Favre can experience the

(01:20:35):
world as he does if briefly.
He does this in exchange for a kiss, but she hoodwinks him and kisses him on the hand instead.
This is when we learn that he's been glamoring himself to look less intense.
And so she experiences this for about 30 seconds and quickly falls asleep after this
interaction.
And I have to assume that that's due to some after effect of the magic.

(01:20:59):
We don't get an answer.
We don't.
That's the only thing I could think that it was just like overwhelmed her system.
Yeah.
Kind of like a newborn gets overstimulated and just like conks out.
Yeah.
Sorry.
All of my analogies are baby related.
These days.
Works for me.
I realize it's not relatable to people.
I honestly like didn't even notice, so I think it's pretty relatable.

(01:21:19):
Cool.
Anyway, she falls asleep and when she wakes back up, she's in her room and she sees an
unfamiliar woman kind of putzing around and she's like, who the fuck are you?
Because this woman has skin like the bark of a tree.
But she realizes pretty quickly that this is Alice and Alice has been glamored the whole
time to look more human like to Favre.

(01:21:44):
When Favre leaves her room, the mansion is now full of other fey and it becomes clear
that this whole time Tamlin has shielded her from interacting with any fey beyond those
who are absolutely necessary.
And she justifies it in her head because quote, she would have been, she was a cowering human.
And Tamlin knew she would have locked herself in her room and never come out if she had

(01:22:04):
seen them all in their true selves.
I don't think that's true.
I don't like, I don't believe that.
And I don't like that because it just goes again to those red flags and like the potential
abuse and he's just controlling her entire experience.
Yeah, he's controlling the way she gets to interact with the world, which is like literally

(01:22:24):
the definition of abuse.
And when she now gets the privilege of interacting in other ways, because I would constantly be
questioning like, well, what else is there?
What else is there?
What else is there?
Yeah.
What else is there?
Why not being allowed to interact with?
Yeah.
And we don't actually get a good answer to this, but I think the only reason that she

(01:22:45):
can do that now is because there's another surge in the quote, magical blight.
And between that and the stunt the day before, like Tamlin just doesn't have enough magic
to keep it going anymore.
Yeah.
You're right.
We don't get an answer that it's weird.
It's not like he gifted this to her.
No.
Intentionally.
It's almost like he wanted to gift her the senses and then realized he fucked up and

(01:23:05):
then it's just going with it.
And she's like, couldn't take it back.
I was like, well, now you can see everything.
Awesome.
I never meant for you to see.
As a part of this, we learned that the night that she tried to sneak out and see her father
slash the puka, she actually had an audience and wasn't being sneaky at all, which is like
just doubly embarrassing, which is that's the only thing I could see with the serial

(01:23:27):
if like she was being watched, if she's been watched the whole time.
Right.
Which goes back to that date that they had with the Starlight Pond.
There were other people there.
It wasn't just like the three of them.
So what if they had like got it off?
They're just having these spectators?
Like, you're not going to tell her that?

(01:23:48):
Wouldn't have been the first time for Tamlin, so he probably doesn't give a shit.
That's true.
Fuck that guy.
Fuck that guy and the horse he put in his closet.
Poor horse.
So anyway, she learns all of this at breakfast and she wants to help Tamlin with this new
threat, but she knows quote, Tamlin wouldn't allow her to keep to help whatever with whatever

(01:24:12):
the conflict was.
Like this wouldn't allow her like cutting her off, like keeping her at arm's length.
Like this is something that Farrah is very aware of because she mentions it in her internal
monologue, which again, leads me to believe that she is actually not in love with this
person.
She's just in like with this person and thinks that this is what she should want.

(01:24:36):
Like she thinks this is the standard.
Yes, and doesn't have any other wherewithal to be like, can I have more or different or
other?
Yes, very much.
The next morning, Farrah finds a head in the garden staked on a statue in the fountain.
Gross.
Lucian and Tamlin don't recognize the fey and it's a high fey and as they retrieve

(01:24:59):
it, they tell Farrah that it was likely put there by someone from the night court.
The night court is apparently filled with gleeful sadists and murderers who all do what
they want.
But this was only a prank and Farrah is definitely safe.
Don't worry about it.
This is more like court posturing and nothing more and her tiny wooden brain wouldn't understand
it.
Did I say wooden brain?
You said wooden brain.
I meant woman brain.

(01:25:20):
Your tiny woman brain wouldn't understand it.
Also just them.
Again, the mental gymnastics to go through a fully decapitated head is here.
But it's just fun and games, Farrah.
It's just all fun and games.
All fun between friends.
NBD, don't worry about it.
Don't think about it too hard.

(01:25:42):
It's fine.
Everything's fine.
Farrah is like, should I be worried and Tamlin's like, no, this was a message for me.
They don't give a fuck about you.
Why would they care about you?
They don't even know you're here.
They don't even know you're here because I'm going to keep you locked up forever.
Forever.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
Don't worry about it.
We never find out who this is.

(01:26:04):
Nope.
Spoilers.
Because Tamlin doesn't give a shit.
Because he doesn't care.
Okay.
Okay.
But this is another thing where it's like, who is this person?
If Tamron.
If Tam.
If Tam really gave a shit, really felt the way like a responsibility, the way that Farrah

(01:26:25):
feels a responsibility to her family, he would like try to find out who this was, tell their
family that they're dead and return their remains to them.
Like with the blue guy, like nothing, nothing.
Is he buried next to the blue guy?
Probably.
In an unmarked grave somewhere in the forest.
That's super useful.
Probably.

(01:26:45):
Well, Jesus.
Oof.
So next we see the summer solstice celebration and Farrah realizes that time is rapidly moving
on.
She wonders whether her family really believes that she's going to be gone with some dying
and forever because that's the cover story that Tamlin implanted in their heads.
At the celebration, Tamlin leaves Farrah to do whatever and she ends up drinking fairy

(01:27:09):
wine which makes her punch drunk.
She starts to dance and she realizes pretty quickly that Tamlin is in the band playing
fiddle.
What?
What?
This whole thing is just like, what the fuck is happening?
And he like, okay, at some point I can't with this.
So he's like playing a mean fiddle and I just have the devil came down to Georgia like
in my head this entire scene.

(01:27:29):
That's not what I'm going to see always.
But like he gets up from like the bandstand and he like goes in front of Farrah and he
like kneels and like plays like furiously while she dances and like wiggles in front
of him and I'm just like so awkward.
So uncomfortable.
I am uncomfortable.

(01:27:49):
Is everybody else as uncomfortable as I am because this is not cute.
I can imagine everyone else being like, guys?
Guys?
Do you guys, do you want us to get the cave ready or like?
He's like this is fucking weird but okay.
So toward the end of the night, Tamlin abandons his fiddle and dances with Farrah and then

(01:28:10):
he takes her to a secluded gland.
There's so many fucking glands in this book to show her the willow the wisps dancing and
singing in the moonlight.
Okay.
He tells her that they are spirits of air and light.
Okay.
And there he kisses her neck and they dance along these wists.
They get closer and closer and as the wists leave them in silence, Dawn approaches.

(01:28:35):
This is when Tamlin kisses her for the first time.
Then he takes her to the crest of a hill to watch the sunrise.
Farrah feels herself finally free of any expectations able to be whomever she wants
to be and in that moment she wants to be happy.
So as they sit there and watch the sunrise, Tamlin kisses her again and she finally finds
herself hoping for a brighter future.

(01:28:59):
How lovely.
I just, you're still not finding any of your own agency.
Yeah.
That's really my problem here.
And it's a very passive thing.
Yeah.
This reminds me a lot of relationships that I've had, relationships that we read about

(01:29:19):
in YA where it's like the main character is a passive character.
Life is happening to them.
They're not living their own life is what I'm trying to say.
Yeah.
They're hardly even engaging.
They're in a lot of things to happen.
Right.
They're more intrigued with what other people want or they're more invested in what other

(01:29:43):
people want than they are with themselves and what they need so they can't advocate
for themselves or think critically about whether this is good or whether this is healthy or
any of those things.
Which, whoof.
Which I'm just not here for at all.
No.
I'm not here.

(01:30:05):
So during breakfast the next day, which is actually lunch because they partied all night,
Pharah and Tamlin are like al-Muni, but Lucian has business to discuss.
He's had a letter from a contact in the Winter Kingdom that says the Blight claimed 24 younglings
by burning through their magic.
The contact also says that other courts are hit hard, but the Night Court remains unscathed.

(01:30:28):
Their discussion is interrupted though by a visitor that has Lucian and Tamlin scrambling.
Tamlin pushes Pharah behind him as he stands near a window so Tamlin can glamour her as
not there.
Basically like somewhere between the curtains and Lucian, she's just invisible.
She's just not there anymore.
When the visitor arrives, it's Rizan and it's here that we learned his name and who he is,
the High Lord of the Night Court.

(01:30:50):
Whoops.
Whoopsie.
Tamlin and Lucian are clearly hostile toward him and he's arrogant and cruel.
Read whiny.
Yeah, he's not arrogant and cruel.
He's just a whiny little bitch boy.
Yeah, it's written like he's trying, like the author wants us to believe that he's arrogant
and cruel, but he really just comes off as whiny and like, well I'm gonna tell Mommy,

(01:31:12):
kind of thing.
100% that.
I don't get any of the arrogance or cruelty that we're told we should have.
Which makes him, okay, not that I want him to be arrogant and cruel, but he's unattractive.
Yes, he's unattractive.
Like this entire scene, I'm just like, ew.
Yeah, ew.
I don't like that either.
Get out of here.
I don't want any of you.
Get out of here.
There's nothing for you here.

(01:31:32):
There's the door.
So during this conversation, Farah is reeling because she recognizes him and realizes that
he's the guy that saved her from the three rapists.
And as Rhysand talks with Tamlin and Lucian, we learn that he's the lover of a woman named
Amarantha and Farah wonders if that's the she who has the boys all on edge.

(01:31:54):
Spoiler alert, it is.
Yep.
So, Rhysand tells Tamlin that Amarantha is waiting for him to reconsider her offer since
his time is running out.
Just as he's about to leave, Rhysand notices the table is set for three.
Lucian immediately lies and says that his betrothed was their third guest, but she was
sent away when they realized Rhysand was on his way.
Okay.
Rhysand doesn't buy it.

(01:32:15):
He sniffs Farah out and though Tamlin is dying to kill him, Tamlin doesn't make a move
against Rhysand as Rhysand pushes Lucian out of the way and reveals the glamour that
has Farah hidden.
He approaches her and recognizes her.
Then he infiltrates her mind using his magic and reads it.
He reveals all of the dirty things she's been thinking about Tamlin.

(01:32:37):
And Rhysand tells Tamlin, quote, if it's any consolation, she would have been the one for
you, and you might have gotten away with it.
A bit late though, she's more stubborn than you are.
Tamlin asks Rhysand not to tell Amarantha.
Please don't tell him.
Please don't tell him.
Please don't tell mommy.
Don't tell mommy.
Rhysand tells him to beg so Tamlin gets on his knees and puts his head all the way against

(01:32:59):
the floor.
Rhysand demands the same from Lucian.
He then goes on to say that maybe he'll tell Amarantha and maybe not.
And this is where I'm just like, oh, whiny.
Maybe I'll tell her, maybe I won't.
Gross.
So gross.
He's so gross in this scene.
Before he leaves, he asks for Farah's name and she tries to keep her mind as blank as
possible to lie and tells him the first name that comes to her head, which is Claire Bedor,

(01:33:25):
the name of one of her sister's friends whom she's never met before.
Which how?
It doesn't matter.
Cool.
How do any of you have friends you've never met?
But OK.
Yep.
All right.
OK.
Rhysand tells Tamlin he looks forward to seeing all three of them under the mountain and vanishes.
Cool.
Cool.
Why are we even here?

(01:33:46):
I'm sure that you can guess what happens next, right?
Tamlin talks about his feelings with Farah.
Oh, sorry.
That's a different book.
Tamlin dismisses both Farah and Lucian immediately.
I was so good.
As Farah locks herself in her room dealing with the trauma that just happened to her
alone, she hears Tamlin taking his rage out on the furnishings in the dining room in a

(01:34:08):
healthy way.
Well, you know, he is but a simple beast.
But a simple man with simple needs and an inability to deal with his own emotions.
Yif.
When Farah sees Tamlin again, it's the following night and he comes to her room.
He tells her she has to go home.

(01:34:28):
He thought that he could protect her, but now he knows that he can't.
Obviously Farah doesn't want to leave and wants to know how long she'll be sent away
for, but Tamlin doesn't know.
Only that it won't be forever.
He says that he can't bear the thought of her in the hands of his enemies.
And then they have sex.
It's not closed door, but it's less graphic than you might expect, especially if you've

(01:34:49):
read the last book in the series so far.
Yeah.
But for example, there's no explicit language, right?
She does talk about coming to fruition, but she doesn't talk about cocks or tits or anything
like that.
It's just like, love making.
It's very simple.
Yes.

(01:35:09):
As Farah falls asleep against Tamlin, she hears Tamlin whisper that he loves her, but
by morning she's convinced herself that she dreamt it.
I'm not confident you didn't dream it, because I don't think he knows what love is either.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he said it.
I'm just not sure he meant it like you would want him to.
No.

(01:35:30):
Alice dresses Farah the next day and they say their jilted goodbyes.
Alice tells Farah, quote, make the most of your freedom.
Tamlin sees Farah off.
He tells her the mortal realm remains safe from the blight.
Then he tells her that he loves her.
No Farah feels that she doesn't say it back, quote, because beneath it all, he was an immortal
and I would grow old and die.

(01:35:50):
Maybe he meant it now and perhaps last night had been as altering for him as it had been
for me, but I would not become a burden to him.
I would not become another weight pressing upon his shoulders, end quote.
Girl, I don't believe that's why you're not saying it.
No.
No.
I don't believe anything she said.
No.
I believe that that's the excuse that you're giving yourself, but I also think that you
feel like it's not true.

(01:36:15):
Yeah.
Or something about it feels wrong to you to say and you're putting it on this reason,
but that's not it.
Which I would like to dig more into that, or I would like her to dig more into that rather.
Right.
Stay tuned for book two anyway.
It's then that Farah is reunited with her family.

(01:36:36):
Turns out Tamlin had gone above and beyond taking care of them, making them immensely
wealthy, returning all of those ships that went astray and giving them a wealthy benefactor.
Like listen, four or five years later, those ships are just like, we're here guys.
We were lost the whole time.
Guys, we got super lost.
You'll never guess.
We've just been going in circles out there in the ocean.

(01:36:58):
So now her family lives in ease.
They wrote Farah, but of course she never got those letters, nor would she have been
able to read them.
Nesta is the only one who seems carefully blank about the whole thing.
Farah for her part only feels hollow at Lucy Tamlin, whom she now feels is her true home.

(01:37:19):
When she's settled, Farah talks with Elaine in Elaine's garden.
Elaine tells her that the season was weird because all of their old friends just pretended
they were on a trip or something for the last eight years.
Oh, eight years.
The ships were lost and now they found their way back.
Yeah.
What the fuck Tamlin?
Yeah.
Nesta started acting weird at the end of the season though and started refusing invitations.

(01:37:45):
Elaine tells Farah.
She also apparently tried to visit Farah, but her carriage broke down and so she turned
back.
And Farah finds this odd.
She chalks it up to Tamlin's glamour, but she keeps no divin in her head.
I also found it odd.
Yes.
As the days go by, Farah hopes to see Tamlin or receive a summons from him, but worse than
not getting either is the suspicion that she has that he's in danger.

(01:38:08):
He did send her home with enormous wealth though, so she takes some of that back to
the poorest people in her village.
And while she's there, she runs into Isaac with his new wife and finds that she wishes
them nothing but the best.
Why did we have to see that?
That's the thing is I feel like I was supposed to be like, oh, she's grown, but she didn't
give a shit anyway.
Yeah.

(01:38:28):
She already told us like the very first time that she told us about Isaac, she's like,
yeah, I don't love him, but I like his dick.
Yeah, the most emotion we got was like, she said something to the effect of I hadn't
lost my pride enough to ask if he would still want to sleep with me after he got married.
That was the end of the emotions related to Isaac.

(01:38:51):
And now she got some, so no one gives a shit.
So the entire time that she's back home, Pharah doesn't feel like painting.
She feels what she describes as a shadow trailing her and makes her every thought circle back
to Tamlin and to Perthian.

(01:39:13):
Then one day Pharah is digging in Elaine's garden and Nesta approaches her.
Nesta tells Pharah that she knew there was never a sick aunt.
Tamlin's mind tricks didn't work on her.
She kept a shard of their shattered table to remind her that she wasn't baddie because
Elaine and her father were so convinced about this story.
Rather than try to visit Pharah with the sick aunt, what she actually did was she hired

(01:39:34):
the mercenary from the square that Pharah sold those pelts to to take Nesta to the wall,
but she couldn't find a way through.
She said she was through with everyone, even Tomas, because she realized that they wouldn't
help her save Pharah.
She then asks Pharah to tell her what happened and so she does and then after that Nesta asks
Pharah to teach her how to paint and I guess this is supposed to redeem Nesta, but it doesn't.

(01:40:00):
Also, I just realized that Pharah never teaches her how to paint.
They do it once in this book and that's it.
This redemption arc for Nesta is so weak and there is the intrigue of why didn't his mind
tricks work on her, but I don't care enough to ask that question.

(01:40:24):
I didn't the first time.
No.
And I mean, so Pharah tells us, oh, Nesta is so strong-willed and such a breed of her
own that she's not surprised that it didn't work, but I just don't believe that Nesta
on her own is strong-willed or powerful enough to resist that.

(01:40:46):
No.
No, there's no way.
Why would she?
Yeah.
The other thing that I don't quite believe about the story is that you're not going to
tell me that this mercenary doesn't know how to get beyond the wall.
Yeah, because she totally knows.
You're also not going to tell me that Nesta was so like, reclaimed about this lie that
gave her back everything she ever wanted that she couldn't enjoy it.

(01:41:09):
Yeah, I don't believe that either.
She doesn't give a shit about Pharah.
I just don't understand why she would after her.
Well, I do understand why she went after her.
Rather than a love for her sister, I think she just has this massive amount of curiosity
that she had to say.
And she needed to know.
Yeah, had nothing to do with Pharah.

(01:41:30):
Right.
So shortly after this, there's a ball that their father throws to welcome Pharah home.
And that night, Nesta tells Pharah that she despises their father.
And when Pharah reminds her how awful Nesta was too, she tells Pharah this, quote, I
always knew that you could get more money, that is.
And if you couldn't, then I wanted to see if he or father would ever do, would ever

(01:41:52):
try to do it himself instead of carving those little bits of woods.
If he would actually go out and fight for us, I couldn't take care of us.
Not the way you did.
I hated you for that, but I hated him more.
I still do.
And this is supposed to be like the justification for why Nesta is the way that she is.
And I just don't care.
I don't think that's a good excuse.
I don't think that that's a really good way to treat your sister, even if you quote

(01:42:13):
knew that Pharah could get more money, like you could see with your own eyes how much
you were killing your sister and that didn't stop you from being a greedy cunt.
So exactly.
So I just, I'm sorry, I don't forgive you.
No, I don't forgive you.
And they're like moment of sisterly unity.
I'm just not here for.
No.
Then one morning over breakfast, Pharah's father talks about buying the bed or land.

(01:42:38):
And that's when Pharah realizes that the bedders were murdered, likely because she told their
name to Rizan.
Whoops.
She, whoops.
She tells Nesta at the table to be careful and to leave as soon as they send Stanger.
Don't look for her and don't even speak her name.
Nesta tells her not to come back that Pharah's not needed there.
Not as an insult, but as a gift.
This warning makes Elaine and her father's glamour drop and they remember everything.

(01:43:01):
Why?
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
So Pharah leaves and heads north to Tamlin.
She finds a gate in the wall where the magic breaks and she can pass through, which again
you're not going to tell me that that mercenary didn't know about.
Right.
When she goes to the mansion though, she realizes that it's too late.
The mansion is a wreck in Tamlin and everyone else is gone.

(01:43:22):
Except for Alice because as she looks through the mansion looking for someone, for anyone,
she runs into Alice, who apparently is the only one left and she's scavenging.
Why?
Make this make sense.
The only reason this happened was because we needed two things.
We needed somebody to stick around and tell Pharah what the fuck is going on and how to
get to where she needs to go next in Act 3, which is exactly what Alice proceeds to do

(01:43:45):
for probably 10 pages of information.
It's holy shit.
It's so much and I don't understand why it didn't come out the last 300 pages and half
of it I don't even think we need to know.
I know we don't need to know.
Yeah.
Like why Amarantha hates mortals so much?
Like that's something we could have learned about in a history lesson that Tamlin or Lucian

(01:44:08):
was talking to her about.
Which would have also been great because then that builds more time with them talking instead
of just existing in silence but somehow simultaneously falling in love.
Right.
Yeah.
No.
So like I said, holy information dump back in.
Buckle up.
It's exhausting.
So what we learned from Alice as she is scavenging and Pharah is helping her is the following.

(01:44:30):
Amarantha is the curse, the blight that we've been talking about.
She is also the deceiver from Highburn that the Surreal mentioned.
100 years ago she came to Prithian and spent 50 years gaining the trust of all of the High
Lords and their courts despite her role in the war 500 years ago.
In that war she was fierce and cruel though she had a weakness in her sister, Clithia,

(01:44:52):
who loved a mortal general named Juryan.
Amarantha knew Juryan was using her sister for information and low when Juryan was done
he butchered Clithia and left her pieces for Amarantha to find.
Thus Amarantha hates humans.
Why is this important?
You'll find out in Act 3.
Back to the present, Amarantha wanted world domination so she tricked all of the High

(01:45:15):
Lords into drinking a poison at a party once that let her steal their power which she now
holds but can't use.
Tamlin tried to reason with her and bargain for their freedom.
He sent Lucian as his emissary to do so but Amarantha wanted Tamlin as a lover.
Tamlin refused via Lucian so she ripped Lucian's eye out and that's why Lucian has that golden

(01:45:35):
eye.
Then she wanted to hold a masquerade to say fake sorry and she suggested a masquerade
so nobody had to look at Lucian's horrible eye.
At the mask she cursed everybody there to permanently wear the masks and specifically
Tamlin to find a human lover within 49 years.
This person had to specifically hate Faye and prove it by killing one of Tamlin's own

(01:45:57):
men.
Thus Andrus.
To his death.
To his death.
Thus Beauty and the Beast.
But Faye didn't say I love you so Amarantha came and took Tamlin and his court back under
the mountain with her.
Faye demands Alice show her how to get under the mountain.
Alice says no.
Faye says please.
Alice says no.
Faye says please.
Alice says no.

(01:46:18):
Alice says no.
Faye says please.
Alice says fine.
That's how part 2 ends.
It becomes so Scooby-Doo.
Let me tell you everything.
Let me explain everything that's happened in the last 32 chapters.
And why it's happening.
Yeah.
So I have a lot of questions.
I have many questions and I don't think they're going to be answered.

(01:46:41):
I don't know if they're going to be answered because I'm learning in my rereading the third
time of this book that I skipped over a lot.
And so I want to say or I hope that we find out why I'm going to be answering this question
and I hope that we find out why all seven High Lords were so dim-witted to be tricked

(01:47:02):
into drinking poison.
Girl, right?
But I'm not sure.
I'm not sure we're ever going to get that answer.
I don't remember that answer and it's kind of a big deal.
Yeah.
But I also didn't clock the fact that Faye couldn't read until Act 3 when it becomes

(01:47:23):
a problem the first two times that I read this book.
That's true.
I didn't clock it either.
Like I thought the limerick thing was fucking weird, but then I just drove right past that.
And then when Amaranth is like, dear girl.
Yes.
Gentle non-reader.
Gentle non-gentle illiterate reader.

(01:47:46):
Yeah, anyway, the other thing that I have a question about is why did we need to know
about specifically Clithia and Jurya or Juryan now?
We didn't.
Like we could have truncated this to the information that Pharah needed to know.

(01:48:06):
Yeah, just about the curse.
And left that whole, yeah.
And then she could have found that out from like Rizan or someone in Part 3.
Relevant, but yeah, we didn't need it right now because it's not relevant for a while.
Or we could have not found out about that at all in book one and we could have just assumed
that she was racist against humans like a lot of other people.
Exactly, which would have been sufficient.

(01:48:27):
Like I didn't need, this doesn't make me think one way or the other about Amaranth or her
motives.
Right.
Yeah.
But it really was difficult to get through.
And this is one of those things where just people don't talk like this.
No.
Like unless you're in a class giving a lecture or you're giving a presentation or like whatever,

(01:48:51):
like people don't tell uninterrupted stories that go on for pages and pages in real life.
Especially with so much chaos, like for Pharah to never be like, wait, what?
Right.
Exactly.
And more with feeling.
Yeah.

(01:49:11):
So this was not a great information dump.
I stand by my position that like you could have learned about a lot of this stuff.
Going back to the Jurian and Clithia thing, you could have learned about Jurian in the
war when Tamlan brought up the fact that they fought on the sides of mortals in the war
500 years ago.
And he could have mentioned Jurian and he could have mentioned like some of the other

(01:49:33):
courts that were on his side.
And then we could have been like, oh, Jurian, this is a character that might come up.
A character that we know.
Right.
But instead we're introduced to a bunch of new people here that I don't know if I'm
going to care about.
And spoilers, you don't have to care about Jurian or Clithia for probably another book
and a half.
Exactly.
Because they don't matter for a while.

(01:49:55):
Right.
Also, Lucian doesn't sound like a very good emissary if he didn't refuse Amarantha in
a way that didn't make her rip his eye out.
Yeah.
I've always wondered how that went down.
Like, whoops.
Whoopsie.
Was he just like, hey girl, Tamlan says no.
Sorry.
Sorry about it.

(01:50:15):
He thinks you're smelly.
He thinks you're smelly and you should probably do something about that.
So.
Oh.
Anyway.
So that's where we're going to end part two.
So join us next time for part three in the stunning conclusion of Akatar along with our
ratings.
I have, I'm excited for Act Three because I thought Act Three would have started in Act

(01:50:38):
Two and I'm a little baffled why we're still not under the mountain.
Yeah.
It's like really clean.
Yeah.
She does pack a lot into effectively like 180 pages.
She does.
She really does.
Which is impressive.
So.
Gotta give her that.
Yeah.
I'm still having a great time.
I'm still having a great time.

(01:50:58):
Look, criticism's aside.
Like we knew that this, this book in particular was going to be rough because Akatar has like
the first book set up and then the rest of the books like Chern.
Yeah.
And they're good.
I'm just, I'm still hoping that that holds true and that Rizan becomes less of a whiny
bitch.
Yeah.
I'm hoping we get some of that redemption in part three.
Yeah.
Me too.
All right guys.

(01:51:19):
We did it.
Those are our thoughts on part two of Akatar.
What did you think?
Let us know on the socials.
You know where to find us.
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And if you really, really like us, drop us a review wherever you listen.
Until next week.
We'll see ya.
Bye.
Love yous.