A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Part 3

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
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read along with us if that's your jam.
Anyway, that's all from me on to today's episode.
And I am really curious, I mean this is a ways away, to get back to Elaine's book and

(00:46):
see if she's such a con to her.
Like, does enough time pass that we forget?
Or now that we've done it twice?
You mean Nesta, right?
Yeah.
She's no one.
She's a cardboard box.
Nesta, my mistake.
She's a cardboard box.
She's a cardboard cutout of a human being.

(01:11):
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(01:35):
Also we do use foul language and talk a lot about sex.
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(01:57):
diminish the work and the talent of the authors in our community.
That said, we have some notes.
Katie, what are we talking about today?
Today we are talking about Akatar Part 3, which will cover chapters 33 through 45.

(02:24):
So if you haven't listened to parts 1 and 2 or read the book, do one of those things
because you're going to be last, Hanny.
Hanny.
Alright, so where we last left off, Pharah had run into Alice.
Alice told her all of the song and dance.
There was a huge information dump at the end of part 2.
Really should read the book or go listen to that because I'm not going to recap it.

(02:46):
But Alice eventually agrees to take Pharah to this quote, under the mountain place that
Tamlin is now being held along with.
Ostensibly, everybody else in this fucking world.
So I will say that even though we get the information dump, I'm still a little confused

(03:07):
on why Amarantha has so much power.
Yeah.
So I'm also confused and we'll get there when we get there, but Alice told Pharah that
she, Amarantha, stole all of the powers of the High Lords and can't use them, but keeps

(03:29):
them somehow.
Right.
But we'll see that she also has some magic of her own.
So where does that come from?
And even though she can't use the power of others, she can still, she can like siphon

(03:52):
it out, right?
Like she can give back controlled amounts of it.
Two people.
Yeah.
Yeah, like that was kind of weird.
Yeah, that was weird.
And then it also brings up this question that I don't know the answer to.
And having read the books a couple of times, do all Faye have magic?
I don't know because why would she not have her own magic?

(04:14):
Well, and if she does have her own magic, but not all Faye have magic, who has magic
and for why?
Right.
Is that what separates the High Lords?
Right.
Because if it does, like then who, what is Amarantha the High Lord of?
Under the mountain.

(04:35):
And that's the thing that I don't understand about her power because if she doesn't have
her own power and she also can't use the power she stole, but she, but she has some
power to some extent because she has, she put the curse on everyone, right?
Like she supposedly has Tamlin in Thrall, which like, listen, I, I'm not convinced that
Tamlin was just controlled the whole time.

(04:56):
I think he's also just a piece of shit.
Oh, I fully think he was not controlled the whole time.
No, like at the end.
I think he's supposed to shoot.
We'll get to it.
But the like, oh, I'm free now.
I'm like, no, you were just now given permission.
You weren't actually released.
You could have done this at any time is what I believe.
Yeah.

(05:17):
But that's why like going back to Amarantha having power, like Amarantha does have some
kind of power because she fucks Pharah up without touching her.
Yeah.
And like creates that energy shield or whatever that like fucks Rhys up.
But yeah, I just have questions.
I have a lot of questions and share point in our debrief.

(05:38):
We don't get to know her long enough.
Like you don't spend enough time with her for it to like really matter.
And then she dies, right?
So she's the villain of this book, but she's not the overarching villain.
But then I have new questions now about when we get in a future books on Rhys being like
the king of under the mountain, but like they destroy it.

(06:00):
I am just confused.
Oh my gosh.
I can't wait until we get that in part in book two or whatever.
Because what like, I don't remember how it's introduced, but like the end of this book,
and I know I'm jumping ahead.
They destroy it and seal it.
So then why is he the king of under the mountain?
I can't wait to get there.
I read that and I was like, wait, what?

(06:22):
Excuse me.
What?
So, fuck, excuse me.
Give me that one line fixer of why that was necessary.
Truly.
Well, okay.
And so going back to the Amarantha thing, like I fully don't identify with the fear
that people have from for Amarantha.
And I really wish that we had gotten to know Amarantha as like a fairy tale like thing

(06:53):
because she was a part of the war 500 years ago.
So she could show up in human lore as like the lady in red is going to, it's like Bloody
Mary when you were like five years old, right?
Like, oh yeah.
And she's really the root of like all the fair bad lore.
Right.
And so, you know, that could be something that favor is familiar with and that fuels
her fear of the fair.

(07:14):
And so when she realizes that she's got to go face the lady in red because whoopsie,
she's still alive.
And she's like, that's, and she's real.
That could be like really powerful.
But to just dump this person in the last third of the book that we're supposed to have
this like visceral fear of it's just hard to get behind.
Yeah.
And I'm just, I'm not, I don't buy it.

(07:36):
No, I don't buy it.
Anyway, so Farrah's going to the under the mountain place, right?
So Alice shows her the cave, the magic tunnel cave that the atory used.
And we learned that there are magic caves throughout the countryside that lead other

(07:57):
places, specific other places.
They're like shortcuts.
But we don't know how many there are.
And this one is apparently not very well used because it leads under the mountain.
So no one wants to go there.
No one wants to go there.
So before they part, Alice tells Farrah a couple of things.
She says, quote, don't drink the wine.
It's not like what we had at the solstice and we'll do more harm than good.

(08:19):
Don't make deals with anyone unless your life depends on it.
And even then consider whether it's worth it.
And most of all, don't trust a soul in there, not even your Tamlin.
Your senses are your greatest enemies.
They will be waiting to destroy you.
She then tells Farrah that there's one last part of the curse on Tamlin that she and no
one else can tell Farrah because Amaranth doesn't want her to know.
So Farrah should listen and use her ears to kind of discern what people are actually trying

(08:43):
to say.
Does that last one actually come up?
Yeah, because it's the hardest stone thing.
Oh, OK.
I forgot about that.
Because everything else, I was like, cool, she broke that.
She broke that.
She broke that.
Yep.
Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
Really great listener.
So Farrah thanks Alice and tells her that if Alice ever needs a safe place that she

(09:04):
should go south of the wall to Farrah's family and ask for Nesta.
She knows that Nesta will protect Alice and her boys.
And I feel like that is not something she should have said.
Why would she think that?
Nesta did one semi-decent thing for Farrah and suddenly Farrah's like, oh, she's a decent

(09:26):
human who would do anything, blah, blah, blah.
For anyone.
Are you fucking kidding me?
No, she would kick these people out of her house in an instant.
And also, Nesta has her newfound money and status.
She's not going to risk that to take in a fairy.
No, especially since this fairy ostensibly can't glamour herself and nor can Nesta.

(09:50):
So she's just going to have these like fairies that look like tree bark.
I forgot they look like tree bark.
Bopping around in your house.
That's not going to, no, it's not going to fly.
No, that didn't make any sense to me.
I was just like, okay girl, like I'm glad Nesta did that one good thing, but she's not
redeemed.
Far from it.
She's not a different person.

(10:11):
No.
Unfortunately, that doesn't come up for poor Alice and the boys.
So they part ways and Farah enters the cave and it's frigid.
It's a fraught walk for what feels like hours in the dark until she finally comes upon a
break in the wall where orange light and all manner of weird sounds are pouring out of
it.

(10:31):
It looks like this crack is hardly used and it's barely big enough for one person to slip
through.
But Pharah remembers Alice's warning not to trust her eyes.
So despite this, she pushes through worrying for Tamlin who has now been under the mountain
for weeks, she tells us.
The time frame in here got a little weird to me.

(10:53):
Yeah, same.
I thought she was only gone for a couple days, maybe a week.
Yeah, but I could have missed it.
Pharah pushes herself through and finds herself in a hallway.
Before she gets very far though, the Ahtor intercepts her and Pharah recognizes it by

(11:14):
its voice.
But now that she can see it, she describes it as having leathery gray skin on its face
with bat-like ears and silver fangs, leathery wings, clawed feet, and a slithering gait.
Pharah doesn't say anything to it as it leads her to the throne room.
She only muses how remarkably similar it looked to how she had rendered the Ahtor in her paintings.

(11:40):
I did wonder about this, like, is that some kind of foreshadowing for Pharah having like
a second sight or something like that?
I wondered about that too.
Because why say it otherwise?
Right, but it feels like such a one-off, like we don't get similar things later.

(12:01):
Not that I remember anyway.
Yeah, I mean we might.
And I will say that for SJM, she does do a good job of leaving cookie crumbs.
I feel like her plot is well thought out.
So we get that information, so I feel like it must mean something, maybe it doesn't,
but I feel pretty confident that it was supposed to be.

(12:21):
Maybe it wasn't executed, but I think it was intentional.
Yeah, I agree.
It still makes me laugh to think that Pharah is actually bad at painting, and so she thinks
that it looks the same, but her paintings look wildly different to her than they do in real
life.
Versus like a stick figure with wings, and she's like, oh yes, that.
Ah, perfect, perfect rendering, god it could be a picture.

(12:41):
No I'm keeping that head again in forever, that she's just bad at it.
So instead of saying out loud, Pharah internally chants for names of those for whom she fights,
quote, Tamlin, Alice and her boys, my sisters, Lucien.
You know who she doesn't make?
Which is like, her dad?
Yeah, fuck that guy.
Sorry.

(13:02):
It's also a little weird to me that she so easily takes on the mantle of basically strangers.
So I thought that was weird too.
These are also because she falls on the trap of our female main character who has no friends.

(13:22):
These are the only people she knows.
That's true.
She knows.
These are the only people she knows.
Because she's never really, I mean, she's met Rhys.
And she met the three fairies who were going to rape her, but like, she knows no one else.
She knows like a handful of other people from her town, but they don't like her very much.
And she doesn't seem like them.

(13:43):
That's a really funny point.
And I have to think that it's because like her life mission that she like promised her
dying mother is now gone.
And so she's like grasping at straws at what to do with herself.
Give me some meaning to my life.
Yeah, basically.
So it's the and, and just also really quick.
She's ever, she's actually never met Alice's sons.
That's true.
Because there aren't any else's sons or her nephews.

(14:05):
Correct.
So she also added in two Randos.
That's so true.
Okay.
Um, on the way to the throne room, she's clocked that there are many other fairies like Lesser
Faye around, but not many High Faye.
But once inside, she realizes that the vast room is filled with High Faye.

(14:27):
It's a place that's supported by pillars that are carved with figures depicting the
stories of Prithyan.
The walls and these pillars are made of light stone and the floor is red marble.
The High Faye here are having some kind of party.
The Ahtor leads her to the end of the room and throws her down before the throne.
And that's where Pharah beholds Amorantha for the first time.

(14:48):
She describes her thusly, quote, though lovely, she wasn't as devastatingly beautiful as
I had imagined, wasn't some goddess of darkness and spite.
It made her all the more petrifying.
Her red gold hair was neatly braided and woven through her golden crown, the deep color enriching
her snow white skin, which in turn set off her ruby lips.
But while her ebony eyes shone, there was something that sucked at her beauty, some

(15:12):
kind of permanent sneer to her futures that made her allure seem contrived and cold.
She then adds to paint her would have driven me to madness and quote, which would be a
very lovely and powerful line.
If I was convinced you were good at painting.
Yeah, sorry, Pharah.
I'm so sorry.

(15:33):
I'm just like, can't, can't.
Pharah also clocks that Amorantha wears a rather peculiar necklace that has a very old
bone on it as a pendant.
She describes it as being about the size of a finger.
Spoiler alert.
Spoiler alert.
It's a finger.

(15:53):
Neh.
It's a finger.
Next to Amorantha is Tamlin, and he doesn't show a modicum of recognition when Pharah
is brought before them.
Pharah tells Amorantha that she's come to claim Tamlin, the one she loves.
Amorantha is delighted and entertained, but the only reaction that Tamlin shows is that
he looks away when Amorantha gleefully claps her hands.

(16:16):
Pharah thinks that he must be under some kind of spell.
She then notices that Amorantha wears a ring with a human eyeball encased in silver.
Eyeballs are big, man.
That thing's big.
Oh yeah, yeah.
So this, it should be noted that that eyeball is like sentient, so it like moves around

(16:36):
and looks at things, which is just terrifying.
It's like a Mad Eye Moody Eye, but on her hand instead of her face.
Great description.
That's exactly what I pictured the whole time.
Amorantha directs Pharah's attention to the back wall, where the mangled body of Claire
Bedor is nailed.
Claire was tortured in Pharah's place.

(16:59):
And Amorantha asks Pharah if she would still claim someone who would let that happen.
Pharah says that she would.
Amorantha asks Tamlin what he thinks, and he says that he's never seen Pharah before,
that it must be Ruzan playing another joke.
But Amorantha sees through this and muses that Tamlin must really love Pharah, despite
the worlds in between them.

(17:20):
She says to her ring that Juryan is the only one who can truly appreciate the moment, and
Pharah realizes that it's Juryan's eye that must be in her ring, and somehow his consciousness
is tied to it.
Gross.
Gross.
So gross.
It was in here that I just like, I mean this whole time I really, as we continue, I continue

(17:42):
to question Tamlin as like, why he's not responding.
Like the easy answer is that he's trying to protect her by not responding.
But I just don't buy that he loves her, that he could have such a poker face this whole
fucking time.
Yeah, well I think, I have questions about that too, because as we'll learn with his

(18:03):
stone heart, like does that mean he can have any emotions really?
That's a good point.
So Amarantha muses that she's bored, and so she wants to play with Pharah, rather than
killing her on the spot.
So she offers Pharah to complete three challenges of Amarantha's choosing, and then she can
have Tamlin.
Pharah makes the bargain more specific, insisting that if she succeeds, Tamlin's curse will

(18:25):
be broken, and that all of his court may leave and be free forever.
Amarantha agrees, and also adds that Pharah can answer a riddle at any time instead of
completing the challenges, and be free instantaneously.
If Pharah answers the riddle wrong though, she'll end up like Claire.
Pharah asks what happens if she fails a task, and Amarantha tells her simply, quote, if you

(18:46):
fail a task, there won't be anything left of you for me to play with.
Oof, cool.
Okay, but I have questions about this later, because, okay, going back to not believing
Amarantha as a credible, like, threat, these challenges are kind of bullshit.
They're total bullshit.
Okay, especially, and we're gonna get there in this part, but especially the second challenge.

(19:09):
What?
What the fuck was that?
Yeah, I'll save my thoughts for when we're there, but what the fuck was that?
They're all bullshit.
And, and this is so mind game-y, because like, this, this warning, there'll be nothing left
of you for me to play with is only true of the first one.

(19:29):
Like the third task is-
Maybe the second one.
Maybe the second one, we don't know, because what the fuck was that?
Yeah.
It was purely a mind game.
Yeah, but there was no physical danger posed.
At all.
Amarantha tells Feyre that each task will occur on the full moon, so once a month, and
in between challenges, Feyre will do chores and or stay in her cell.

(19:51):
Feyre sees Tamlin widen his eyes at her ever so slightly as if to tell her, no, don't do
this, and from that gesture alone, she thinks that he still loves her.
Okay.
Feyre agrees to the terms that Amarantha put forth, and the ator and two lesser fei immediately
start beating Feyre up, breaking her nose and causing her to black out.

(20:12):
I immediately beat the shit out of her.
Yeah.
Okay.
When Feyre wakes up, she's in a dungeon cell.
Her nose is broken, but that's the worst of the damage, somehow.
Somehow.
Somehow.
Somehow.
She hugs her knees close to keep from panicking.
She hears tortured cries start up from somewhere further down the hall, and Feyre knows she

(20:34):
is in deep shit.
She blames herself for Claire's death, for Tamlin's situation.
She tells herself she deserves whatever pain and suffering she gets, but she vows to herself
to somehow make it right.
And this is where Feyre loves to be the victim.
She loves for everything to be her fault.
Yeah.
Like, the whole Claire thing, okay, you are partially responsible because you gave her

(20:58):
name.
Tamlin's situation you had nothing to do with.
Truly.
Like, he made his own bed, actually.
Yeah.
Years ago he made his own bed.
Before you even born.
And also, like, I don't know, he could have tried a little harder earlier in this book.

(21:21):
If he wanted to, he would.
And I don't think he wanted to.
Oof.
Oof.
Yeah.
Yikes.
But, sometime later, Lucian visits Feyre and scolds her for coming.
But he heals her enough so that she's not in agonizing pain, fixing her broken nose.
But he leaves the bruises so as not to draw attention to the fact that she's been healed.

(21:43):
Thanks, man.
Also, this one line fixery here, because Feyre is like, I thought you didn't have magic.
And he's like, Emyritha gave me some back.
I'm like, okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because she was trying to entice Tamlin to, like, bed her, and I'm like, why would you
give your, like, butt buddy, I don't.

(22:03):
Okay.
This is the other thing that I don't really understand.
Like, if Emyritha really wanted to, she could rape Tamlin, because she's raping Reese.
Uh-huh.
And I don't understand that.
No.
And she supposedly has Tamlin in such a thrall that he, like, can't respond, right?

(22:24):
Like, I know it's not like a physical thrall, but like, he can't even, like, emit any emotion.
So yeah, she's raping Reese.
Why not just take Tamlin?
Right.
But she's, like, giving Lucian back some of his power to try to get him to, like, accept
being her lover.
And I'm like, what?
Hi.
Excuse me.

(22:45):
What?
And there's a lot of things that Emyritha that I just don't get.
And I think it's because she's just supposed to be, like, unhinged.
But I'm not sold on her as a villain.
And I think a lot of that is because we meet her in the last 30% of this book.
She hasn't, like, to your point.
We didn't already know of her as a character.

(23:05):
So it's kind of like half-ass.
It's like getting through a Disney movie and you don't meet the villain until the last
20 minutes.
Yeah.
Well, and it's, like, we were shown the head on a spike, the guy with his wings ripped
off.
I'm sorry, but those things happen to other people.
Like, life in the spring court doesn't seem particularly, like, bad.

(23:28):
I don't know.
They're just wearing masks.
And even the head on a spike, they kind of chalk that up to Reese.
They don't even blame that on Emyritha.
Right.
And even the lesser fave that, like, are dangerous in, like, roaming the countryside, we don't
hear about any consequences.
Those posed to, like, the remaining citizens of the spring court is just, like, an annoyance
that Tamlin has to, like, deal with it.

(23:49):
Just has to go, like, hunt them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, like, they're dangerous, but with the exception of that one fave that got his wings
ripped off, who wasn't even part of the spring court, we don't, there seems to be no danger.
They're fine.
They're inconvenienced by their beautiful masks.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, Lucian goes on to tell Alphaira that Emyritha did indeed torture Juryyn before trapping

(24:15):
his soul in that ring.
Gross.
I don't know when we figure this out.
It might be here, but that bone around her neck is also Juryyn's.
Yeah.
But it's not sentient, right?
It's just the bone.
Right.
It's not sentient.
The bone can't sense.
Thanks.
Gross.
I hope.
I hope.
Lucian then goes to tell her something else, but he hears someone approaching, so instead
he tells her to try not to die before turning invisible, question mark?

(24:41):
This is, this is what it says.
It says, quote, Lucian vanished, just vanished into the dim light.
A moment later, a yellowish eye tinged with red appeared at the peephole in the door,
glared at me, and continued onward.
Since when can Lucian turn invisible and phase through objects?
Right.
Like, since when can he teleport?
Or does he simply go invisible and then sneak out later when Faira's asleep?

(25:02):
Well, because riddle me that, because that's supposed to be a benefit that only Rizan
has.
So why can he do this?
Right.
And that's where, like, okay, it's sort of a, a footnote to my point before where
I do feel like Sergium Mass is intentional.
This feels very much like a first book.

(25:24):
Like she's playing around with, like, the power she wants to have, and then sets rules
later that are contradicted in this book.
Right.
Exactly.
Also, in my head, Canon, Lucian is just standing there the whole time until Faira goes to sleep.
Because he can't, he can't phase through walls, so he's just like, well, shit.
Yeah.

(25:44):
I'm just stuck here.
I'm just standing here now, but I also don't want to talk to you anymore.
So.
No, I don't want to talk to you.
So just go to sleep.
Thank you so much.
Sleep.
So on some other day, when Faira's brought back into the throne room again, Amarantha
asks for her name.
Faira doesn't immediately give it up, so Amarantha has the ator poll, Lucian, from the crowd

(26:05):
and summons Rizan to go spelunking into Lucian's mind.
Lucian is determined to not give any secrets away that Faira won't give on her own, so
he grits his teeth as the rest of the court and his four remaining brothers watch with
glee.
Gross.
I thought he killed, oh, his remaining brothers, he had sex.
His remaining brothers, yeah.
But as Lucian cries out with pain, Faira tells Amarantha her name.

(26:28):
Then Faira tells us, quote, everything became thick and murky.
Why did Tamlyn do nothing, say nothing?
What had Lucian been about to say before he fled my cell?
Amarantha's dark eyes shone and I had cleared my mind as best that I could as she spoke.
Why is it thick and murky?
Like she's ostensibly fine, like she's not being beat up or whatever?

(26:51):
No, she doesn't, she's not being concussed, like, and to your point, I do think that something
else is happening here.
Yeah.
That allows her to clear her mind and, ah.
It doesn't make sense though because, again, isn't this something that's contradicted later?

(27:14):
How so?
Can Rhysand fuck with her head?
Yeah.
Okay, I thought.
Definitely.
I don't know why, but I think I'm bringing in some other book that I'm out placing right
now where, like, she's immune to it.
Is that in another book?
That's my book.
That's your book!
Yeah.
How do you feel about that?
I think that's a compliment.

(27:34):
I feel pretty good about it.
Because that is in my brain, it's like, this is a book I've read where this is a problem.
Yeah, no, I definitely think Rhysand is doing some tomfuckery here.
Yeah.
So, anyway, Amarantha goes on to tell Farah her riddle, and the riddle is this, quote,

(27:55):
There are those who seek me a lifetime, but we never meet, and those I kiss but whom trample
me beneath ungrateful feet.
At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair, but I bless all those who are brave
enough to dare.
By large my administrations are soft-handed and sweet, but scorned I become a difficult
beast to defeat.

(28:16):
For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow, when I kill, I do it slow.
After hearing the riddle, Farah realizes that Amarantha had said that if she solved the
riddle they could be free immediately, and she wonders briefly if she fucked herself
on that other bargain by not stipulating a timeline, but she pushes that thought from
her mind as she grapples for an answer.
That is some fun foreshadowing on stipulating a timeline because that does come up in a

(28:43):
different way.
That she just doesn't think about here, but I was like, oh, oh, oh, I love that too.
Farah then thinks immediately about like, really literal things like typhus or other
sicknesses that could kill people, but she comes up with nothing that fits the bill of
the riddle.
And so as they lock her in her cell, she has a sinking feeling that she is destined to

(29:06):
lose this wager.
Which it makes sense that she would go that way, but because it fits in the character
of her that we know that she doesn't read, she can't read.
So she clearly doesn't know what a riddle is because it's never the obvious solution.
It's not going to be a poison.
It's not going to be an illness.
Right.

(29:27):
It's going to be something else.
So then all too soon, the first trial arrives.
And I think this is when we get confirmation that Rizan was actually looking around in
her head before because Amarantha tells her that Rizan told her that Farah is a huntress.
And she tells her this in the context of like, oh, I did some research, which I read as somebody

(29:49):
else did research for me.
And told me the answer I wanted.
Right.
And also because Farah didn't tell Rizan that and I feel like no one else would have
either like, unless he inferred it from the curse or whatever.
But like, it seems like information he could have easily gleaned if he was like casually
mind reading.
Yeah.
Like he may have gotten it from like, from Lucian's head, but.

(30:12):
Yeah, possibly.
But I think you're right.
That's probably Farah's head.
Because we're told that Lucian wouldn't have given anything.
And essentially that would be something that would be a benefit to Farah.
So wouldn't want Amarantha to know.
Right.
Either way, this trial takes place in an underground arena with a mud maze carved into the floor.

(30:33):
Farah is tossed into the maze with walls that are 20 feet high and there's a giant worm
with razor sharp teeth that is let loose in there with her.
Her task is to hunt this creature.
On a Riz platform overlooking this kind of pit, Amarantha and her court sit and wait.
All of the High Lords are there with her.
The only thing I can picture the first time I heard this book and this time is that giant

(30:57):
sand worm from SpongeBob.
Yeah.
That's the only thing I can see, which makes it not that scary to me.
Yeah.
It's kind of cute.
Well, like, and it's a cartoon in my head.
Like everything else isn't cartoony, but that sand worm is just like, it's like space jam
up in here.
Real actors and this cartoon sand worm.
But it's fully like 2D, like one dimensional for me.

(31:21):
Yeah.
Yeah, which is also weird.
Yeah.
It's like a little, a side scroller video game.
So Farah runs blindly, filled with terror from this worm.
She's able to squeeze through a crack in one of the walls and escape for a moment.
It's then that she realizes that the worm must be blind and rely on smell to navigate.

(31:45):
She can tell by reading the crowd that the worm is on the other end of the maze.
So it's then that she takes inventory.
She has landed herself in a pit and realizes that this place that she's at is this worm's
den because it's filled with bones.
She uses those bones to create a ladder to get up on top of the mud walls.
She also breaks a bunch and puts them in the ground like pike, setting a trap for this worm

(32:07):
that she prays will work.
Then she climbs up on top of the wall using her bone ladder and covers herself in mud,
camouflaging her scent.
Also in my head, this wasn't mud, it was just a bunch of worm shit.
I know.
That's what it is.
That's what she describes it as being.
Like it's decaying worm shit and a little bit of mud.

(32:28):
And a little bit of dirt.
Yeah.
Gross.
As she's doing this, she hears chatter from the platform above her.
She hears someone ask what the fuck she's doing and it's Rizan that says that she's
building a trap.
We get confirmation here that the midden guard, the worm, relies on sent to sea.
So Rizan says quote, Pharah just became invisible.

(32:49):
I do like this narration we get from Riz's point of view.
I do too.
So Pharah then goes to find the worm.
When she locates it, she cups her palm to entice it with the smell of her blood.
But her plan goes a little bit awry because she tries to entice it but it's disappeared.

(33:09):
And for a moment she doesn't know what to do but then it's Lucian who alerts her to
where it's gone a split second before it tries to eat her.
She then runs leading this worm into her trap.
As she jumps down into the safe spot that she's made for herself, a bone goes through
her arm but she barely registers the pain through the adrenaline and relief as the worm
impales itself on countless bones and dies.

(33:33):
Her trap works which is great.
Huzzah.
There is much rejoicing.
Well there's no rejoicing.
She rejoices.
Everyone else is like damn.
Damn.
She scales the wall and throws her remaining bone sword at Amarantha and it sticks in the
mud at her feet splattering her with foul smelling filth.
Yes, good.

(33:54):
Amarantha tells Pharah that her court lost a lot of money based on her performance.
Only one person bet that she would win.
And we guess who it is?
Spoilers.
As Pharah's taken back to herself, she's too drained and in too much pain to glance
a tamlin or thank Lucian.
She just passes out.
As the days pass, her arm doesn't improve and eventually fever overtakes her.

(34:17):
It's then that Rizan pays her a visit.
He offers her a bargain.
She lives with him in the night court for two weeks each month of his choosing and he'll
heal her.
It wouldn't start until after the trials and Pharah doesn't clock immediately that he believes
that she will succeed.
He's just like yeah, after all this nonsense, we'll do this.
When you're clearly still alive.

(34:37):
Right.
I'm trying to keep alive right now, but okay.
But fine.
So Pharah says no, but Rizan puts her situation in terrifying terms.
He tells her that no one is coming to save her, especially not after tamlin had to give
Lucian 20 lashes for Lucian helping Pharah in the trial.
And Pharah is dying.
This is her only chance.

(34:57):
Well.
So just as Rizan is about to leave, Pharah tells him to wait.
She bargains down to 10 days rather than two weeks and accepts his offer.
He heals her arm and also bathes her in the process somehow.
It's not like she like takes a bath or gets naked.
It's just she's clean now.
Yeah, he just kind of like cleansed her body of all the worm filth.

(35:19):
Yeah.
But she's now left with basically a tattoo on her left arm sealing the deal.
It's described as looking like a black glove.
It goes almost all the way up to, I think her shoulder.
Yeah.
But it's like very noticeable.
It's not a little inside the wrist like stamp.

(35:40):
It is a full sleeve.
Yes.
So over the next couple of days, Pharah has given a series of tasks.
The first one is she must clean the floors in some hallway.
And if she does not do so, she will be roasted over a spit.
But she's only given dirty water to do so.
And she realizes the harder that she tries to clean the floor, the more mud she's creating.

(36:02):
But then Lucian's mom appears somewhere in the hall and turns the water clean and tells
Pharah that her debt is paid for Pharah sparing Lucian's life when she like stopped Rizan
from going spelunking.
Cool.
Thanks, mom.
I'm also so confused by everything that's happening here because don't these people

(36:24):
have shit to do in their own courts?
And again, Tamaritha's power, how are they all held here?
Why is Lucian's mom not in the autumn court?
So we do get a one line fixer for that specifically.
No one's allowed to leave until after the trials are over.
That's one thing.
Okay.
I didn't find that.
My question is, how do you, if you want to have your thumb on everybody so badly, how

(36:51):
are you not doing it better?
And like, how is she not being guarded right now?
Like, are people just going to her cell?
That's the thing.
Like your guards just walked away.
Yeah.
I mean, because Lucian gives a little one line fixer, like, oh, the guards are drunk
and then like Rizan, I guess, can teleport.

(37:13):
But like, what?
Yeah, but these, I mean, so she says that like something about this hallway, she can't leave.
Like there's doors, they're all locked or something and I'm like, what fucking hallway
has doors?
Like that's a room, not a hallway.
Oh, so this whole thing of like, if you don't clean the floors, you're gonna be roasted

(37:33):
over a spit.
No, you're not.
Because the whole point was that I wanted to play with you and she'd be violating the
terms of her own bargain, which they can't do.
Right.
So like Lucian's mom, cool, you didn't repay a debt.
You just made her afternoon less inconvenient.
Like she probably would run the shit beat out of her, but she wouldn't have been killed.

(37:54):
Probably.
Like, I guess it doesn't just matter.
But why are you here?
And if she can't leave, how did people get into the hallway?
That's the thing.
Like the math is not mapping.
The math ain't mathin.
Anyway, the next task is to pick lentils out of a fireplace and it becomes clear relatively

(38:16):
quickly that this fireplace is in Rizan's room because Rizan waltzes in.
He was previously unaware that that Farrah was being forced to do these tasks and Farrah
suggests that it might be Amarantha getting back at him for lying about Claire slash Farrah.
He shrugs that off saying that things get boring down here day after day, but Farrah
points out that he gets out pretty often.

(38:37):
The fire night, head on the fountain, blah, blah.
And she's any so.
And it's like one, she told me to put that head out there to fire night cost me, but
he doesn't say more.
Cool.
Good talk.
Good, good talk.
So then Farrah gets really fucking chatty and she goes on to ask about the power that
Rizan retains, but he tells her that his power was a whole lot bigger.

(39:00):
And so the party tricks that he's left with seem like a lot more, but it's a false equivalency
to say that he gets more of a longer leash.
He just had more power to begin with.
And so if you take 20% of a bigger number than everybody else, it's going to say that
it's going to seem more powerful or it's going to seem like he's gotten more favors,
which fine, but that still brings up questions about the math with a Marantha because why

(39:23):
didn't she take everyone down on the same level?
Or is this just a good question?
Like the 1% where like you just get to benefit because you're more powerful.
I don't know.
What do you want?
Yeah.
What do you want to cripple the more powerful people even more?
Do it think so?
I do wonder and I feel like maybe we get some confirmation of this later.

(39:47):
I do wonder if Rizan actually did get a little bit more of a longer leash because Marantha
was convinced that he loved her most of the time.
Yeah.
I think he says this to Pharah, but I do think he gets a bit of a longer leash in other respects.
Also he's, well, this is where I'm still confused where he's the head of two courts,

(40:10):
like why does this court exist after this book anyway?
Too many questions.
It's going to bother me until the second book.
So then Pharah asks about the beast forms and so he shows her most of his beast form

(40:33):
and he tells her that all High Lords have one.
And he shows her his, it has black talons for hands and feet, and then huge membranous
bat wings.
Well I was just thinking that because we, and I'm jumping into future books, we meet
the bat boys and that's not a High Lord beast form.

(40:54):
It's a different like species.
It's a different species of fey.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So like that's not really what's happening here.
I had questions about that too because like I wonder if the bat wings would have been part
of his beast form if he wasn't a half breed.
You know?
Yeah.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Or if it would have just been like the claws and shit.

(41:15):
Yeah.
But he gets the wings as a bonus because he does have that half breed.
Interesting.
One thing that I will say about like this interaction and then the other interactions that Pharah
has with Rizan is that the language that Pharah uses to describe Rizan is very different
from how she describes Tamlin.
Yes.
Like she calls Tamlin, oh, he's so handsome and good looking and strong and he's everything

(41:41):
that a woman would want, right?
And then with Rizan, she's just like, he's fucking gorgeous.
Like the way that he smarks is perfect.
Yeah.
It is a stark difference.
Like it's like recognizing Tamlin as a good looking guy.
You're a good looking guy.
I can recognize this.
And Rizan is like, I would like to jump your bones right now if I wasn't near death.

(42:03):
Thank you.
Immediately.
So after he's put on his little show and tell, Rizan like snaps his fingers and he cleans
the ashes that she's covered in, fills her bucket with lentils and also makes his fireplace
cleaner.
So when the lesser fay that are like her guards or whatever slave drivers come to grab her,

(42:26):
he mind controls them into not manhandling her and to also stop making her do chores
and to tell their friends and if any of them go against this order that they're to take
their own sword and gut themselves.
My question is, isn't this on the order of Amarantha?
Yeah.
So if he can do this, why not just control anyone to go kill Amarantha?

(42:49):
Great question.
Great question.
The math ain't mathin.
Yeah.
So then one night, two Hai-fei come to get Fae-ra from herself.
They are wreathed in shadows and they like walk in and out of the walls like Rizan can

(43:11):
do.
And so this leads Fae-ra to assume that Rizan sent them.
These two bathe her and then paint her body and put her in the skimpiest dress possible.
And it's then that Rizan shows up and says that she's his date to a party.
The paint is to let him know if anybody has touched her and he adds that her own movements,

(43:32):
the dress in his own touch won't affect it.
That's not true though.
Does he say his own touch won't affect it?
I don't know because later his touch affects it.
I have to look this up.
Yeah.
Also, is she painted blue?
Yeah, like dark blue, like her tattoo.
That's it because in my head this was very gild and she was gold and then later when

(43:54):
Rizan's hands are blue I was like why the fuck are they blue?
In my head they were like blue man group blue.
I was like that's weird.
That is so attractive.
I thought he said his own touch is fine too but later that's not true.
So I don't know if that's a plot hole.
I'm glad you're looking for it.
Okay, so he doesn't say that his movements will or that his touch won't smear the paint

(44:18):
but he, this is what it says.
Quote, he ran a finger along my shoulder smearing the paint.
As soon as his finger left my skin the paint fixed itself returning the design to its original
form.
That doesn't happen later.
It doesn't happen later but maybe it's because it's magic paint and he doesn't want it to
happen later.

(44:39):
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a tough one for me.
That's a tough one too and it also kind of gets into the gray area of like is Rizan
actually evil because he's just doing whatever he wants to fair up while she's drunk and
like he can fix the paint later so it doesn't actually matter.
I know.

(44:59):
See I don't like that.
Like we get the, oh I didn't want you to remember the trauma but I also don't buy that because
why can't she just be in her cell?
Yeah.
Like is he the one bringing her to these parties and getting her drunk or was that on Amaranth's
orders?
Because it can't be right?
So he would have been told that.
So she, him getting her drunk so she doesn't remember the trauma, you could have just left

(45:24):
her alone and she wouldn't have left her alone.
You wouldn't have left her alone.
Traumatized.
Yeah.
So that's, I'm suspicious.
I'm suspicious.
That dog don't hunt.
No, a dog don't hunt with me.
Anyway.
So they go into the throne room where a party is being held and it's at this moment that

(45:46):
Rizan chooses to reveal to everyone Farah and his bargain.
Farah can tell that Tamlan isn't so happy because of the white knuckled grip he has
on his chair but he shows no other outward signs of affectation.
Okay.
Rizan then takes her to a secluded table, makes her drink wine, which causes her to black
out immediately.

(46:06):
When she wakes up she's violently hungover and Lucian comes to see her.
Where are her guards?
Okay.
Those guards are shit man.
And why was she even allowed to be taken to a party?
I would just.
That's a great question.
I wish I knew the answer.
It doesn't make, it doesn't make sense, Katie.
Is she guarded or is she not?

(46:27):
I don't understand.
Do they not guard her because the door is locked and so they're like, how is she going
to get out?
Well, people can just come in.
A door is locked from the inside.
The call is coming from inside the house.
Right.
Visiting hours.
Anyway, Lucian tells her that she was dancing all night and it wasn't the like prim and

(46:48):
proper kind of dancing.
It was like hoe dancing.
Not a hoe down to be clear.
And when she, not to, not a hoe down.
No.
When she wasn't dancing, she was sitting on Rizan's lap.
The only paint smudged is at her waist and Lucian says it was from Rizan trying to get
a rise out of Tamlan, which he also says didn't work.
He goes on to tell her that she was foolish for making a deal with Rizan, but she tells

(47:10):
him she didn't have a choice.
He tells her he would have come sooner, but he wasn't able to move because of the lashings
and amaranth and removing magic to allow it to heal.
So this is another thing where like amaranth is very like selectively able to move magic
around and I just don't understand how that works.
Me either.
Also, let me get this straight.
You took me out of my prison cell, panted me blue, put me in a slutty dress, got me black

(47:31):
out drunk, returned me to my cell and didn't even remove the paint from my body.
Has she just blew for the next two months?
Or give me like heavier clothes because she's the things that she's in are basically like
sheer panels.
Yeah.
So like nothing.
Why?
Why?
Yeah.
I don't understand the motive to do this.

(47:53):
It would have been.
It would have made this whole thing more interesting if he had bathed her, put her in fresh, warm
clothes because her cell is described as being frigid.
Yes.
And not made her violently hung over the next day.
No, but he leaves her violently hung over colder than she probably was before and blue.

(48:14):
Yes.
Awesome.
And I'm sorry.
Again, you're trying to protect her from the trauma, but if I wake up every day for
a month with no memory of the night before, I'm not going to feel protected.
No, I'm not going to feel particularly good about that.
Also, you're giving her no time for critical thinking because she's hung over every day.

(48:35):
Nor are you giving her a chance to rest.
I mean, she does say that she's sleeping during the day and then like partying during the
night, I guess, and the don't do any more chores thing worked, but like that's not
healthy.
Like you're not setting her off for success in her next trial.
No.
Also, like, is she eating?
Is she drinking water?
I just, I don't understand the motives behind any of this.
And I know it's such like a pivotal point in this book and kind of in their romance and

(48:58):
it just doesn't make any sense to me.
I will say the one thing that he does do is he has two hot, not moldy meals sent to her.
I forgot about that.
She is giving real food now.
She has given real food.
So like, I don't know, it's such a gray line.
But why can you do that?

(49:19):
That's what I don't understand.
And that's the thing of like, as soon as Amaranth saw him, I can't, I don't understand why
she wasn't pissed.
Because he's supposed to be her whore, right, and like, if I'm Amaranth and I'm, and me
and Rizan be fucking, like I would be pretty pissed that he's messing around with this

(49:39):
human.
Not only this human, but this human that I'm trying to destroy, but now like my whore brought
their own pet whore to my party.
I'm the only one that had, that has whores.
My whores can't have whores.
Exactly.
Because also like, what are you supposed to do with me if you got this girl in your
lap all night?
Exactly.
So night after night, it's the same, but the wine makes Favre not remember any of it,

(50:02):
and each night she only gets a glimpse of Tamlin.
She's never violated, as far as we know, more than the humiliation of dancing, and every
day she sleeps off the hangover.
I don't believe that either.
I don't believe it either.
I don't believe that no one else is fucking with her.
Especially not Rizan, like, yeah.

(50:23):
Before long though, it's the eve of her second task.
Rizan reminds her of it, and wonders whether she'll beg for a night alone with her beloved,
with Tamlin.
She tells Riz that she'll have plenty of time with Tamlin when she's done with these
tasks.
She asks Rizan what it cost him to have his court fall, and she feels the sadness of Rizan
within herself.
She thinks that this is linked to the tattoo and the bargain, and she pushes him to give

(50:45):
her more information about Amarantha's plans and the threat that she poses, but Rizan shuts
that line of questioning down immediately and they go to the party.
But this time, Amarantha has summoned Rizan for a purpose.
There is a subject of the summer court, found trying to escape, kneeling in the center of
the throne room.
Feyre notices that the High Lord of the summer court is nearby, and he's looking a little

(51:08):
tense.
Rizan is commanded to find out why the Lordling was leaving, and so he goes spelunking in this
dude's mind.
He eventually tells Amarantha that this guy wanted to flee for his own cowardice and nothing
more.
But Feyre wonders based on the modicum of relief that she sees in the High Lord of the
summer court if that was entirely true.
And I can't help but wonder whether she was the only person that could have possibly seen

(51:32):
this.
Yeah, no.
Like, she's reading the room pretty fucking well.
She is.
Which tells me that she's not the only one.
I can't believe she's the only one.
I can't believe she's the only one.
Also she's been partying for a month, like.
Yeah, her critical thinking skills are not on point.

(51:57):
So Rizan has been ordered to shatter the Fey's mind, but instead Rizan kills him just using
his mind powers.
And Amarantha's like wha, and Rizan's like whoops, and so they walk away.
My bad.
They retreat to a corner of the room to resume their nightly routine, and as they do so,
Feyre hears people calling Rizan Amarantha's whore.

(52:19):
But she also hears other people murmur that Rizan was right to kill the traitor.
Because he was saving the traitor, really.
Yes.
Which I also don't understand why more people didn't see that.
That seemed really obvious to me, and instead he's just like oh I'm just so strong.
Sorry Amarantha.
Oops.
My bad.
I don't know how to control my powers that I've had for thousands of years.

(52:41):
And that you took some of them away from me.
Oh wow.
I just don't know my own strength.
Boo.
Jesus.
This is ridiculous.
So gentle reader.
You might have thought that the first task was a little bit metal, and you would be right.
The first task was truly horrendous.

(53:02):
The second task is essentially an SAT math problem that we can't read because Feyre can't
read.
So let me tell you what happens.
We don't know.
The second task arrives, and this time Lucian is a part of it.
So they're in another arena, another sunken floor place, but this time there's like a

(53:22):
giant metal grate in the middle of it, and Lucian's on one side and Feyre's on the other.
Amarantha and Tamlin are on the dais watching, and the rest of the people are kind of around
the sides in the regular stands.
There are two scorching hot grates that are slowly lowered into these two chambers that
Feyre and Lucian are in, and Feyre can stop them by pulling the correct lever.

(53:46):
How does she know what lever to pull?
Well, there's a word problem on the wall in front of her, but she can't read it, so
we don't know what it says.
I imagine it's some kind of math problem, though, because the levers are numbered one,
two, and three.
It's either math problem or it's another kind of riddle, like the poison riddle in Sorcerer's
Stone.
Yeah.

(54:07):
I picture it being this math problem.
She says grasshopper, so I'm going to use grasshoppers.
You have a math problem.
One grasshopper enters a train going east.
Another grasshopper enters a train going west.
They leave 30 minutes apart, and one train is going 20 miles slower than the other one.

(54:30):
What color pants was the first grasshopper wearing?
Oh my God, where did you find that?
That's perfect.
I made it up.
You made it up?
Well, usually I describe math problems as like two trains leave the station 30 minutes
apart, one of them is going 30 miles an hour faster.

(54:50):
What color is the conductor's hat?
Yeah, because that's how they feel.
I like that.
Yeah.
What color?
Grasshopper pants.
So because Pave can't read, she's like taking a long time, and Lucien is begging her to
pick one, and everybody's laughing at her.
So she's like, okay, I'm going to go for lever number two.

(55:11):
She reaches for lever number two, pain lances through her.
So she's like, okay, not lever number two, lever number one, same thing, pain lances
through her.
She's like, okay, not one, not two, what about three?
Nothing happens.
She goes through this process, what feels like forever, and like two, no hurt.
One, no, okay, that hurts too.
Three, nothing, let's try two again.

(55:32):
I know what the fuck, like I know you can't read, but the deductive reasoning skills.
Girl.
Girl, come on.
Pick the one that doesn't hurt.
And even Lucien's just like, pick one.
I would rather die than wait.
So she ends up pulling the third lever, which stops the things, and everybody's kind of

(55:52):
pupset.
Well, I also don't understand like why she has the chance to get it right if her first
choice would have been wrong.
It should be like, you don't get a second chance.
Like if you're wrong, you're wrong.
Yeah.
And that's why like this also feels like a real softball of a challenge, right?
Because like, you're throwing me into a pit that I can't escape with a deadly animal that's

(56:15):
going to kill me.
Yeah.
Like that's one thing.
Putting me in a chamber with a math problem to solve.
And I get infinite tries.
No, okay.
Like I just get process of elimination, like, and you give me warnings that the wrong answers
are wrong.
Well, that was Rizant.

(56:36):
Okay, I forgot that that was Rizant.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Because I was like, what?
Amalanta wasn't up here at all.
You're right.
Okay.
But it reminds me of like Austin Powers slash James Bond.
Like I'm going to put you in this very escapable place.
Please die.
Please die.
I'm going to tell you my entire master plan.

(56:57):
Please die.
Please die.
Right.
Yeah, that's true.
I forgot that that was Rizant because I was like, girl, what?
But it does still feel very soft.
Well, and, and again, with Rizant's power and Amalanta's power, why is he allowed to
keep his mind reading ability all the time?
When he's clearly helping her.
Yeah.

(57:18):
It's a great question.
So as Farrah is being brought back to the platform, she has the urge to fall to her knees
and cry.
But again, pain lances through her and eventually she hears Rizant in her head telling her to
not let Amalanta see her break.
He tells her to stand tall, stare Amalanta down and not look at Tamlin.

(57:40):
He then tells her to calmly walk out of the chamber and Farrah does all of this like a
good little girl, but when she's alone in her cell, she cries.
So I didn't really read it this way before.
Like I, I pictured this time her falling her leaves, the pain lances through her is because
she's just in pain.
But is that Rizant's cue of like, don't do what you're doing.
So I'm going to cause pain.
Don't cry.

(58:01):
Yeah.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Isn't that great?
Also, if you could just speak into her head, why not just give her the answer to the riddle?
Well, I think he doesn't want to freak her out because like, that's fair.
That would freak me out too.
But also, why do you think pain would stop her from crying?

(58:23):
I don't know.
I'm going to start crying.
Great question.
Nope.
I'm going to cause so much pain.
Get the fuck up.
Ow.
Yeah.
Uh, anyway.
So Faye was crying and she's mourning everything, but she's especially mourning for the fact
that she should have lost because she can't read and she only won by cheating.

(58:46):
She knows that she'll never beat Amarantha in her game.
But you kind of did though.
Like, I mean, sometimes you got to cheat.
You won.
Sometimes you got to cheat.
You won.
And you saved.
Also, I wasn't going to say this before.
But I'm going to say this because he is the target always.
This will change shortly right here because she doesn't know anyone else.
Like they couldn't bring Allison or like it's just because she's the only one she cares

(59:11):
about.
And you just want to be her friend.
No, it's just like, God damn it, Tamlin.
I don't understand why Lucian is still loyal to Tamlin.
He should.
Tamlin seems like kind of a shit friend.
He's the worst friend.
Like, I just feel so bad that it's just always Lucian.
Like, he got whipped for helping.

(59:32):
He gets to be the dummy in this thing.
Oh my God.
You calling out that he's the one that's used because she's the only one she knows.
I had not thought about that, but you're so right.
It's so sad because they barely have a connection.
Like I think she only lumps him in.
I mean, they sort of have a friendship.
But I do, I truly think, I truly think she only includes him in her list of like people

(59:52):
I care about because he's an extension of Tamlin.
They're not independent friends.
I agree.
Yeah.
I think you're right.
So this poor man.
Lucian's hanging out with his mom?
I don't know.
I guess.
So in the middle of Pharah sobbing with grief, Rizan comes to her and distracts her from

(01:00:13):
her grief.
He ends up licking her tears away off of her face and she's so shocked at how she feels
about it that it snaps her out of her wallowing.
It's not all bad that she feels about it.
Spoilers.
It is not.
I, but I just picture him like a golden retriever licking her face.
Yep.
Yep.

(01:00:33):
It's like whenever my dog gets next to my five month old and just all licks in the face,
that's all he knows of what to do with her right now.
I've seen that happen.
I've seen that happen on camera a couple times and her reaction is priceless.
She's just like, what is this?
She's getting better at it.

(01:00:54):
She knows that Yogi is an independent thing now and is just like wants to interact with
him so badly but doesn't know how.
Oh, and he doesn't know how either.
Yeah.
That's cute.
So Rizan tells Pharah that he's been thinking about how to torment her when she visits him
in the night court and he wonders if teaching her how to read will be as painful as it looked
during the challenge.

(01:01:15):
She curses him as he leaves, but once he's gone, she tells us, quote, whether he knew
or not, Rizan had effectively kept me from shattering completely.
Yeah.
He did know.
Yeah.
He did know.
You definitely knew.
Because he can read your mind.
Also why can he do that?
On top of why he already can do that.

(01:01:37):
So the next several days pass and Pharah gives into the oblivion that fairy wine allows
her.
She realizes, quote, the future I dreamed of was just that, a dream.
I'd grow old and withered while he would remain young for centuries, perhaps millennia.
At best, I'd have decades with him before I died.
Decades.
That's what I was fighting for.

(01:01:57):
A flash in time for them, a drop in the pool of their aeon.
That was so well delivered.
Thank you so much.
I mean, yeah, girl.
I don't know what you thought.
Yeah.
I'm not sure.
She has that thought, but then later spoilers when she's turned into a fairy, she's not

(01:02:23):
super jazzed about that.
I'm like, what?
Pick one.
Impossible to be pleased.
Yeah.
Just cannot be pleased.
She's not super jazzed.
Anyway, well, one night as her shadowy handmaidens take her to be prepared for the evening,
they come upon the ator speaking with some other fairy.

(01:02:43):
The handmaidens hide the three of them as they listen, and the stranger fairy tells the ator
that Highburn is growing impatient and that Amarantha would be a fool to cost him more
time and resources.
Highburn, he reminds the ator, can take Amarantha's power away without spells and potions.
The ator doesn't have a retort to that, and that alone makes Fairy's blood run cold.

(01:03:05):
There's a bigger problem here.
There is a much bigger problem coming to you in Book Two.
As the moment passes, the handmaidens tell Fairy that the other fairy was, quote, treble,
and that Rizan will know of what they overheard soon because he'll read their minds.
Anyway, we have no choice.

(01:03:27):
It's here on some other random evening that Fairy is alone in her cell that we get the
music scene that you may have seen on TikTok.
So this is the music that Fairy hears as she dissociates.
It's a lilting, beautiful melody that she can almost see as it dances across an endless
midnight sky.
She follows the music out into a field, so she's like having a dream vision, escapade.

(01:03:54):
And past this field, she goes up to an alabaster palace in the sky where she instinctively
knows that everything she loves dwells there.
She feels an overwhelming need to be there and weeps.
When the vision fades, she finds that she has the strength to move into the third trial.
We learn later that Rizan sent this thing.
And I get it.

(01:04:14):
I think it's a beautiful moment.
It just felt jarring in the placement.
Yeah, I feel like this should have come far earlier.
Or before the thing in the hallway.
Like the thing in the hallway happened and it interrupted this doom spiral.

(01:04:36):
Yeah, you're right.
And that gave sort of that.
The thing in the hallway did interrupt that and kind of gave us a break from it.
And then we do the whole night time partying montage.
And then now so for this to be the thing that brings her hope just feels very strange.
Yeah.
I feel like there should have been some kind of taunting or something that reminds Farah

(01:04:58):
of how dire her situation is that she would be giving up or maybe we see her asking for
more wine or whatever.
We see in the next scene that she's almost to the point where she's going to ask for
the wine because it's not coming fast enough.
Yeah.
I feel like we should have seen that before we saw that.
That would make more sense.
Get me to a bottom and then have him lift her back up.

(01:05:23):
Because I didn't feel the bottom.
No.
I was just feeling like, OK, I'm going to die.
But I'm going to die eventually.
And then there's this weird hybrid conversation that's so separate from her that doesn't trigger

(01:05:44):
a bottom for me.
So it does feel jarring.
And it is a really beautiful thing.
It just felt so...
I didn't picture it being placed so weirdly.
Yeah.
I didn't either.
And for some reason thought that that happened after the third trial.
Obviously doesn't.
But the placement just didn't quite hit for me.
Yeah.

(01:06:05):
I had a picture of the night before the third trial.
And in my head, I fabricated this scene where she was going to give up, like contemplating
suicide, which I know didn't happen.
But that's where it would make sense for me.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Tell me the things that she's thinking about before she needs this thing.
Yeah.
Anyway.

(01:06:25):
It's the party on the eve of the third trial.
And Pharah is waiting to be summoned by Rizan.
She's dressed and ready and in the thurn room, but he's got some other lady on his lap.
So she's just standing there.
Also, bro, let her sleep the night before the trial.
I'm sorry.
Again.
Rizan might be evil.

(01:06:45):
We don't know.
I'm not convinced.
This is really bringing that theory into some valid light.
Harsh focus.
Yeah.
So as she waits, Pharah is despondent and she muses that it's become difficult to even
look at Tamlan in recent days.
But as she stands there waiting for the night to be over, Tamlan comes to stand beside her.

(01:07:07):
He like, does the finger brush thing and then leaves and indicates that she should follow
him.
And so they both, surreptitiously, go to a secluded door into a dimly lit hallway.
So you can leave.
Why can she leave?
Who has eyes on this prisoner?
Like, no one.
It's fine.
It's fine.
It's fine.

(01:07:28):
There, Tamlan is on her.
He pushes her against the wall and kisses her wildly.
She gives into this knowing that it could be the last time that they're ever together.
She fumbles with his belt and he bites her like he did on Fire Night.
But before they can go any further, Rizan clears his throat.
I hated that.
I hated it.

(01:07:48):
It just felt gross to me.
It felt very peeping Tom.
Yeah.
But even before that, even Tamlan making this move felt gross to me.
You haven't looked at me in two months.
And now suddenly you're free to do.

(01:08:09):
I don't know how fair I was just immediately into this.
I would need a little bit more emotional support.
Yeah, because there's no emotional support.
And then we get there.
I just, it felt very like Pat.
Like Tamlan's like, very gross.
You're going to die.
So I'm going to get my rocks off, but I don't give two shits about you.

(01:08:30):
Yeah.
And then I also feel like this was orchestrated, which I feel like it very much was Rizan,
which is waiting to catch them.
But also why?
Like, why are you being so gross, bro?
Yeah.
The whole thing with this feeling, there is something about this that feels orchestrated,
but I can't put my finger on it.
No, because I don't know why it would have been, but it does feel orchestrated.
Yeah.
Because like, like, like Rizan was leaving Pharah unattended.

(01:08:56):
It's the first time.
It's almost like Tamlan asked him to do that.
Yeah.
And he agreed, but then came to Cockblock.
Yeah.
Anyway, I don't, I don't think we get an answer to that.
I don't think so either, which feels also very disjointed.
Yes.
So Rizan's there and he wonders aloud how Amaranth will react to knowing that Tamlan

(01:09:19):
is fraternizing with the human help as he puts it.
Tamlan removes himself deliberately from Pharah and fixes his clothing.
Rizan vanishes the paint from Tamlan's hands and Tamlan whispers that he loves Pharah before
he leaves the hallway.
Get the fuck out of here, Tamlan.
Get the fuck out of here, man.
There's nothing for you.

(01:09:40):
Rizan then cages Pharah against the wall saying that she's lucky that he was the only one
watching and not Lucian's brothers, for instance.
She spits back, why does even matter?
Why does Rizan even care?
But before he can answer, he hears someone coming so he kisses her.
Amarantha appears shortly afterwards with Tamlan and she laughs at Pharah's supposed

(01:10:01):
inconsistent fickle heart.
Pharah is crushed but tells herself that Tamlan must understand what happened and the fact
that she's even thinking that he might misunderstand, girl, that's a red flag.
That's a red flag.
Yeah.
And this also felt orchestrated.
Tamlan frolics away and then Amarth says, where'd you come from?
Let's go find out.

(01:10:22):
It just feels, this whole thing felt so weirdly staged.
Yeah, exactly.
It almost felt staged by, now that I'm thinking about it, it almost is staged by Amarantha
and Rizan.
But then I also don't know why Amarantha didn't have more rage here.
Like, who she's been painted to be is I would, again, you're like, my whore is now fucking

(01:10:47):
with you.
I'm gonna beat the shit out of you again.
Right.
That's just so weird.
It's so weird.
Yeah, it's- I just didn't like it.
I just hated this.
I hated this whole montage.
Yeah, very weird.
And I remember first reading this like, oh my god, I know I'm like-

(01:11:09):
Intrigued scandal.
I'm still a little bit like that, but like, the motivations of the people in this just
don't quite make sense.
No, and because it's not explained, it just rubs me the wrong way.
Yeah, I'm also really interested to see like, because we're gonna read book two as closely

(01:11:30):
as we've been reading book one.
And like, I'm sorry that I have not read the first couple of times that I went through
this series as closely because I really genuinely don't understand like, whether we get answers
to this kind of thing.
But like, the thing that's going through my head right now is, Rizand in the scene is
asked, why do you care?
And he's like mad that she like doesn't get it, right?

(01:11:51):
And he's like, why would I care?
It's like the whole, you know, who hurt you thing, but it's the why would I care?
Yeah.
Because he loves her, right?
And she's his mate.
Spoilers, but then I think we learned that he was only sure that she was his mate at
the very last scene in this book.
Yeah.

(01:12:11):
So then everything before that is a little confusing because then why does he care at
all?
Yeah.
And then how does he say that thing?
Like I've been looking for you like, you had, he had to have known like the whole time.
And I have this like vague recollection of like maybe the third book of him saying like,

(01:12:32):
I always had a pull to you and that's why I went to fire night or something.
But then you're right at the end of this book is when it's like, oh no, this is what I
knew.
So what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Well, we won't get there in this book.
So I'm sorry.
We're talking about like things.
Talking on the outside.
Yeah.
Anyway, hopefully you're all here for this ride and have the same questions.

(01:12:54):
Obviously this isn't like a massive load of spoilers, but at this point, if you don't
know, then like, I don't know what side of the internet you're on.
Right.
I'll put a big old tag in the major spoilers for whole series in the notes.
Yes.
Love that.
So anyway, in the light of the throne room, favorite can see that the paint that she's
wearing is now smudged all over.

(01:13:15):
But the blue that was on Tamlin's hands is now somehow on Rizan's hands.
Rizan immediately dismisses her, but Tamlin doesn't even spare her a look as Farah leaves.
Back in her cell hours later, Rizan comes to visit again.
Get out of here.
Okay.

(01:13:36):
Get the fuck, like why are you here?
Get the fuck away from me.
Yeah.
But he tells her that he just wants a moment of peace and he's very open about how wrong
everything could go for them and how much he hopes that it doesn't and how Farah is
the only person that he can talk to about this that's not going to fuck him.
I don't know how he figures that, but okay.
She's probably going to die tomorrow.

(01:13:57):
I don't know.
Farah wonders internally whether he's ever this open with anybody else.
Spoilers he's not.
Also, he just said he wasn't.
Okay.
Right.
And as he leaves, favorite tells him that he could have asked for all of her days instead
of bargaining with her like for just two or 10 days when he healed her and he tells
her he knows.

(01:14:17):
But he wants her to choose him.
That would be obligated to be with him except for those 10 days.
Yeah, exactly.
Except for those 10 days.
Don't worry about it.
You got to get to know me.
Okay.
Then you can choose me.
Wine and dine me.
Anyway, so the third trial is here guys.

(01:14:38):
Finally.
And the final challenge is to kill three Fae.
So these guys are led in with hoods on and Farah must drive an ash dagger into every single
one of their hearts.
So the first one is a young man who pleads for his life.
So as she goes to like kill them, their hoods are taken off obviously.
So she kills the first one.
The second Fae is a woman who only says a prayer and seems to accept her fate and absolve

(01:15:02):
Farah of any blame, at least in this woman's eyes.
So she kills her.
And then the third person is Talon.
Whoops.
Um, Farah reels having already sold her soul to kill the first two Fae and now she's like,
Uh, what?
Right.
Like I can't win.
I can't win if he's dead.

(01:15:23):
I wanted to do this so I can spend time with him, but if I kill him, then he's gonna be
dead and if I don't kill him, then I lose.
I feel like there's no way to win.
No, there's not.
But then she remembers what Alice told her and all the things she overheard, right?
Listen to the things that you were hearing.
And she is fairly certain that even if she stabbed Tamlin in the heart, he wouldn't die
because his heart is made of stone.

(01:15:45):
So she stabs him and he doesn't die because his heart is made of stone.
Here's the thing.
Why is his heart made of stone?
Do we get an answer to that?
I don't know if it's a part of the curse or not.
Why would it only be his heart?
Everyone else has hearts.
Those other two fucking died.

(01:16:07):
Well, it's gotta be a part of the curse.
It has to be.
But then, like you said earlier, can he feel any feelings at all?
Because the whole breaking the curse was like falling in love with a human or falling in
love with an enemy, whatever, and they'll fall in love with you.
But he never could have broken that curse because he can't feel any feelings.

(01:16:29):
But he says that he loves her, sure.
But can he?
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
There's a lot about the curse that I don't know.
We don't get answers to that, at least in this book.
Unfortunately.

(01:16:50):
No.
So, she does this, he doesn't die, blah blah, but the masks of the spring cord in the audience
don't immediately come off.
Amarantha goes on to boast that she didn't agree to when to set them free.
Oh, plot twist.
The timeline matters.
Yeah, that thing that Faber worried about what happened has come true.

(01:17:10):
But people in the audience start to shout that that's unfair.
But Amarantha doesn't pay them any mind.
She just starts wailing on Pharah, like beating the shit out of her with her magic power.
She's not punching and kicking, she's just using her magic to break bones and stuff.
It's horrifying.
Yeah, it's really bad.
And as she's doing this, she's demanding that Pharah admit that she doesn't actually

(01:17:33):
love Tamlan and that it was all a lie.
She wants Pharah to admit that she's not good enough for him, for a high lord, for Tamlan.
As her bones are broken, Pharah hears Rizan cry out her name in agony.
She dissociates and realizes in that moment that the answer to the riddle is love.
And as she says that, there is a palpable release of magic.

(01:17:56):
And Tamlan immediately realizes that he is set free of Amarantha's clutches and eviscerates
her against the wall.
She pins her head to the wall with a sword and rips her throat out.
Which is great.
Amazing.
Great.
Great.
Unfortunately, Pharah dies.
I remember reading this book and I think I texted you in des and I was like, the main

(01:18:23):
character doesn't die?
What do you mean she dies?
And we were like, keep reading.
I was like, this is a series and you're going to tell me she's dead?
What?
She died.
She died.
She died.
So she does die, but she sees what happens next through the eyes of Rizan, with whom she

(01:18:49):
has some kind of connection ostensibly because of the bargain that they made.
And so her consciousness is still tethered to this world.
Fine.
And then we see it through Rizan's eyes, right?
Right.
So we see the next series of events through his eyes.
So what Rizan slash Pharah see is Tamlin cradling Pharah's body and then one by one the High
Lord's approach her and gift a seed of light to her lifeless form.

(01:19:14):
We learn that they are gifting a part of their magic to bring her back to life in repayment
for her freeing them all.
As Rizan does the same, she hears him say, quote, for what she gave will bestow what
our predecessors have granted to few before.
This makes us even.
Oh, gives me chills.
I know, right?

(01:19:34):
As Tamlin gives his own little kernel of light, he whispers to Pharah, I love you.
Oh, how sweet.
How disgusting.
When Pharah wakes up, she immediately realizes that she's been changed into a high fay.
An immortal.
Wow.
Wow.
When she finally turns to Tamlin, she's first up, okay, this was weird.

(01:19:57):
She wakes up, she was in Tamlin's arms.
She's not in Tamlin's arms when she wakes up.
I guess he's just like standing back here somewhere, just like, hey girl, whenever you're
ready.
Did she just like mighty morphine power ranger like away?
I guess.
Because she like, huh, and she like sees Amarantha and then she like feels Tamlin behind her
and she's like, I don't want to look.
I don't want to look.

(01:20:18):
I don't want to look.
And then she looks and I'm like, okay, girl.
Yeah, what?
I'm like, a little squirrely there.
It's a little, it's a little weird.
I mean, she did just die.
So I guess that would be a bit jarring.
Yeah, she's been through a lot.
Anyway, when she finally does turn to see Tamlin, she sees him for the first time without
his mask on.
And he was hideous.
No, she's just what she thought he would look like.

(01:20:40):
I know.
I'm just thinking of you.
A beige crayon.
He's a beige crayon.
He's a little golden boy.
A little golden twat.
Anyway.
Twat.
Well, Pharah is elated, but she can't help but think about how she'd gotten there.
She says, quote, what I had done to get to this moment, to be standing here, I shoved
against the thought again in a minute, in an hour, in a day.

(01:21:03):
I would think about that, force myself to face it.
But she doesn't that day.
Drama.
Sometime later, Tamlin heals what little remains of Pharah's injuries.
And they're alone in some bedroom, away from the press of activity in the wake of Amaranth's
death.
Pharah is spiraling, slowly losing herself to the guilt and the horror of what just happened,

(01:21:26):
of what she did.
But Tamlin doesn't push her when she says that they'll talk about it later.
Sure, Jan.
He then traces the tattoo on her left arm and promises that they'll find a way out of
this bargain.
Then they have sex.
And again, it's very vibes only.
Pharah is very clearly using this as a coping mechanism.
She tells us, quote, a kiss for each day we'd spent apart, a kiss for every wound in terror,

(01:21:51):
a kiss for the ink etched into my flesh, and for all the days we would be together after
this.
Days, perhaps, that I no longer deserved, but I gave myself against that fire, threw
myself into it, into him, and let myself burn.
End quote.
Healthy coping.
Yeah.
It is dark in here.

(01:22:13):
So dark.
It is very.
It is very.
Vibes.
Yeah.
What do you think of the vibes?
The vibes are fine.
I think because if this were a graphic scene like we typically like, I think I would have
felt a little gross about that because I think the point is that she is fighting with all
this trauma.
So like, I can't have a sexy, sexy scene while she's spiraling out of control.

(01:22:37):
Yeah.
Because it's it's very clear, like in the moment, she's like, I don't want to think about the
horror.
Kiss me.
Yeah.
I think this being vibes only was fine.
Yeah.
Anything else would have been weird.
Yeah.
Like, can you imagine like, and then he puts his cock in me, the horror.

(01:22:58):
The squish felt the same as the blood that I felt as I plunged the dagger into her heart.
Okay.
Holy shit.
That's dark.
Oh boy.
I would have nuked right out of that book.
Yeah.
Very vibes only.
So, then we move on, they fall asleep, but later, Pharah is pulled awake by what she
describes as a tugging at her middle, a thread deep inside.

(01:23:22):
She follows the feeling to a balcony that opens up to the side of the mountain.
And as her eyes adjust to the light, she finds Rizan waiting for her and his wings are out,
girl.
Bad boys.
Bad boys all the way.
He tells her that he wanted to say goodbye.
She glibly reminds him that, well, it's not forever.
Then she remarks that he didn't realize that he liked the wings or flying.

(01:23:45):
And he tells her that he rarely opens up about the things that he loves because they're
so often taken from him.
She then asks him why he did what he did, and he tells her, quote, because when the
legends get written, I don't want to be remembered for standing on the sidelines.
I want my future offspring to know that I was there and that I fought against her at
the end, even if I couldn't do anything useful.

(01:24:06):
Because I didn't want you to fight alone or die alone.
End quote.
Oh.
Oh.
Yeah.
You might remember that this is something that Pharah said to Tamlan about the dude with
his wings ripped off, didn't want him to die alone.
Yeah.
Nice full circle moment there.
So he then asks Pharah how it feels to be Faye, and she tells him, quote, it would have

(01:24:29):
been easier to live with what I did if my heart had changed too.
Saying if she had changed her human heart for a Faye heart.
She goes on to say, maybe I wouldn't care so much.
Maybe I could convince myself that their doubts weren't in vain.
Maybe immortality will take that away.
I can't tell whether I want it to.

(01:24:49):
Yeah.
Because their deaths were totally in vain.
Not totally, but like.
That's not what freed them.
It's not what freed them.
And who knows when they actually would have been freed?
Yeah.
When she could have solved the riddle all along.
Like, that's some heavy guilt to live with for eternity.

(01:25:11):
Yeah.
No kidding.
Rizan tells her something along the lines of, don't ever be ashamed or begrudge your
human heart, something to that effect.
And then he goes to leave, but something happens to make him go rigid with shock, and then he
just evaporates into thin air.
And Faye repays this, no mind.

(01:25:32):
She's just like, well, that was weird.
This stopped me because I was like, what?
What just happened?
What just happened?
Yeah.
Gentle reader, he will get an answer in book two.
And it took me a hot minute to remember the answer because I was just like, what a weird

(01:25:53):
fucking thing, bro.
Yeah, right?
Are you okay?
Yeah.
No, he's not.
So before Tamlin and Pharah leave, they and a few other High Lords destroy and seal Amarantha's
court under the mountain.
Can we just put a pin in that?
Because I'm confused.
I've got questions for book two.

(01:26:13):
Big ones.
No one lives there anymore.
It's been destroyed and sealed.
Correct.
Just not a court.
No.
We learned that Amarantha's body was taken away to be burned and that the relics of Jorian
are somehow missing.
What?
Because they were on her body.
That feels bad.
Gross.
So Tamlin and Pharah take the magic tunnel back to the spring toilet, the spring court.

(01:26:36):
And as they crest the hill and behold the manor, Pharah lets herself feel happiness,
especially when she sees Alice chasing after her two boys in the distance.
And I picture her chasing after them with a rolling pin for some reason.
That's my picture.
Not like Frawlicking.
No.
It's not a happy chase.
Get back here.
Get the fuck back here.
Yeah.

(01:26:56):
You damn dirty child.
Pharah remarks internally, quote, tomorrow there would be tomorrow in an eternity to
face what I had done, to face what I shredded to pieces inside myself while under the mountain,
end quote.
And that is where the book ends.
Wolf.
Wolf.
Yeah.

(01:27:16):
So, uh, yeah, we did it.
That's Akatar, man.
Let's get into some ratings.
I'll talk us through Spice Level because we both rated it a one.
And I think it should be fairly obvious why.
Both of the scenes in this book were vibes only.
There's some good sexual tension like between Tamlin and Pharah.

(01:27:39):
I remember what it felt like reading it the first time.
Like it gives you the stomach butterflies, you know, the third time around, maybe not
so much.
But I would not classify this as like a smutty book.
No.
By any means or a stretch of the imagination.
And that will be a good thing getting into the next couple of books.
So no harm, no foul there.

(01:28:00):
This is like a stepping stone into the rest of the series.
So, uh, Liz, do you want to talk us through writing style?
Yes.
We both gave the writing style a four.
There are some really beautiful quotes.
Um, Sarah J. Mass is a really lovely writer.
She does create really stunning imagery and her characters have good depth.
Um, I don't feel evangelical about it, which I didn't the first time either.

(01:28:26):
Like I did more about the plot than the writing style, but there's not a lot of like grimmat
grammatical errors typos.
The formatting is perfect both in paper and on Kindle.
Um, yeah, I just don't know.
It's only not a five because it's not, it's not that name of the book that I can't remember
now.
Yes.

(01:28:47):
T. King Fisher.
Thank you.
I think it was thrown and glass, which isn't even right.
So I'm going to take that a little bit from the top.
The only reason it's not a five is because it's not the same writing style as T. King
Fisher, not a limpone, but I have no complaints.
I have no problems, which is a great author.
Agreed.
Um, so then moving into quality of storytelling, we rated that a three.

(01:29:08):
Um, and there's like, there's good and bad for this, right?
Like I, one of the things that I want to talk about is like, there's a lot that happens
in this book.
There's a set up that happens in this book and the fact that she packed it into 420 ish
pages is like really impressive.
Yeah.
Um, but I will say that there are ways that she could have done that that I think would

(01:29:30):
have been better.
So we've talked about a couple of them, but like it just feels like you're reading three
separate books almost because especially the last third like kind of comes out of nowhere,
with that whole plot situation.
And I just, I think that there could have been a little bit more weaving of some of
the characters and some of the, the storylines into the first two thirds of the book that

(01:29:52):
would have made it a lot more cohesive.
So for example, Amarita popping out of fucking nowhere, Juryan coming out of nowhere, like
all of these legends that we learn about, or I guess it's not legends, but history we
learned about the world could have been presented as legends earlier in the book and like contributed
to some of the trepidation and fear that Pharah had toward Pharah.

(01:30:15):
As it happens, you know, Amarita is not a nice person, but she's not like, she doesn't
even instill that much fear in me like that dude did in the second High Mountain Court
book.
Oh yeah.
The one that we wanted them to fuck.
Yes.
I don't remember his name, but he was so scary.
And we never saw him.

(01:30:36):
Right.
He was effectively scary offscreen and that was because people talked about him the whole
book about being scary.
So by the time you met him, you knew so much about him and you're just like, this dude
fucks, right?
Yeah.
We're like here, we get a lot of she and her and I think Sergio Mass was trying to play
on the mystery of that to build the suspense, but it didn't.
I think it would have been better if I had like a concrete character causing these problems.

(01:31:01):
Right.
Or give me something that she could plausibly be.
So yeah, a lot of setup, a lot of things that could have been a little bit more well executed.
Another one of those things is the whole Nesta thing.
It's like Nesta is such a piece of shit.
And then like she does one halfway decent thing and Farrah is like, everything is forgiven

(01:31:23):
and she will definitely harbor a fey in her two kids.
That's just not how people are.
And then also Nesta goes on to be a terrible person for like four fucking books.
So yeah, she could do and then she's terrible for most of her own book for being honest.
Yeah.
And then the third and final thing is that this book commits the Cardinal sin of like
Farrah not having any friends.

(01:31:43):
It's such a Cardinal sin and that does change, but only a little bit because she just gets
friends of her spouse.
Right.
That's not the same thing as having your own independent friends.
I'm going to make this argument when we get there, but I'll keep it now.
I would argue that the cereal is her only friend.
I think the cereal is her only friend and I'm super stoked to keep talking about the

(01:32:06):
cereal because I love the cereal.
I love me the cereal.
The cereal is my fave character.
So with that, Liz, do we recommend this book?
Yes, we do.
And we're so excited to talk about the second one because like spoilers, we've already said
spoilers, but I have course questions.
I got questions.
I got questions.
Girl, I need answers to my questions.

(01:32:26):
I got questions.
I want to almost like write down all of my questions or at least I'm going to go back
and like listen to these episodes before we go into the book too because I want to remember
like how I want to remember the details, you know, because I think we should, I definitely
think we should because some of these things I wonder they could be plot holes or miswriting

(01:32:47):
and I'm not sure if they are or not.
And I need to know.
Right.
I need to know if they're inconsistencies or not.
That's the word.
Thank you.
Anyway, we did it.
Those are our thoughts on a court of thorns and roses by Sarah J. Mass, our queen.
Thank you as always for joining us on this journey and thanks for waiting for us for
so long to do this book.
We wanted to do it right and I hope that we did and that you agree with it.

(01:33:10):
But let us know what you think.
You can find us on the socials, on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Goodreads at Spice Triggers
Pod.
We're also now on YouTube.
Hey, that's right.
You can now stream our podcast on YouTube.
Hell yeah.
So, find us on there.
If you like our podcast and you want more and if you want to hear our coverage of book
two, girl, you're going to have to become a patron.

(01:33:34):
But you can become a patron for as little as $3 a month.
It really helps us out, helps us do this podcast.
So if you want more, consider becoming a patron.
And if you really, really like us, drop us a review wherever you listen.
But until next time, we'll see ya.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.

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