Plot vs. Vibes: A Review of 'The Secret World of Maggie Gray' - #Booktok Made Us Read It | Book Chat - Shelf Addiction Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, booklovers, Welcome back to shelf Addiction, the podcast where
we dive deep into the pages of thriller and fantasy reads.
I'm your host, Tamara, and today we're diving into a
fun HBCU urban fantasy. This book has been making the
rounds on Black book Talk, and after seeing some really
excitable reviews, we had to see what the hype was
all about. But first, quick heads up. If you crave

(00:24):
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Want even more bookish banter, join our community over on

(00:45):
the book Clubs app. Don't forget to subscribe and leave
us a review wherever you're listening. And speaking of community,
I'm thrilled to welcome back my fantasy and romance writer
died co host Casey from Heart full of Ink. Welcome back, Casey.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Hello, Hello, I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yay, I think this would be a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
This will be a good one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
So you guys, you can find us both online and
all the usual spots. The links for everything on the
show notes, click around, do all the things. We appreciate
you for doing that. But before we begin, we just
want to remind you that we talk full spoilers with
book chats, so spoiler alert you've been warned. Today we
are discussing The Secret World of Maggie Gray, the first

(01:25):
book in the Drew Collins series, written by Granger. The
audiobook is narrated by Trey Taylor and Avery Waddle, published
on August fourth, twenty twenty four by the author and
later an audiobook with Podium audio. The paperback is four
hundred and fifty pages. The unabridged audio is thirteen hours
and twenty one minutes. Casey, would you kindly share the synapsis.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
A vampire, a witch, and a siren get accepted into
a magical HBCU. The rest I'm not allowed to say,
but just know that there is a talking cat named Kwan,
a few murders that went cold in a world that
just in a world that is just below our feet.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
That's it. That does not tell you anything.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
So that is the most ambiguous ever for a book
that's four hundred and fifty pages long. But sure, whatever, okay,
high level, what did you think?

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I enjoyed it. I do have critiques. I have some
issues with it, but overall, I've read quite over the years,
I've read quite a few books with like magical schools,
you know, and I think this one is one of
the better ones that I've read. So just high key,

(02:54):
high level. I'm very happy with a lot of this.
But there are going to be critiques throughout this conversation.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, indeed, So okay, I thought it was vibes. It
was a good time, fully vibe worthy. It was a
vibei ish read. Yes, I would not say it's the
most complicated story at all.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
I was waiting for it to pick up and it did.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
But you know, if you ever feel like, you know,
what's it like to have fun and party every weekend and.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
They've only been in school one week?

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Right, Like, yeah, they're partying out the gate. It's a
good time. Like I said, it's vibes. Right. If you're
familiar with any college experience, really you could kind of
get this, especially when you're new to someplace and you
don't know people and you just want to have fun.
So that was the primary vibes. And I personally love

(03:54):
the HBCU environment. I thought that was really cool.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
So there were a lot of.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Things I liked, but some things. It was not a
perfect read. So we're just going to get to it.
Where should we begin?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Do you have any I want you to start? I'm
letting you so.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Look, I'm just gonna say this and take it how
you will. You know, I don't mean anything mean, but
if you've a lot of people that listen to this
podcast are rainbow of colors, and if you don't have
any black friends, don't read this book thinking you're going
to understand black people because this ain't it. It's very stereotyped,

(04:42):
extreme versions. And I can tell you this was not
the norm in college. I don't like you went to
a party school, maybe, but that was not my college experience.
So don't think, you know, reading this book, oh my god,
all black people do is party, drink and smoke weed

(05:03):
and they're you know, oh no they're not. So yes,
this is fiction, but it's very stereotyped in a way
that could be dangerous depending on who's reading it and
what they're getting from it.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yes, yeah, so let me just say that that is
a good caveat because I have lots of black friends.
I know how about that sounds, but I guess I
have lots of black friends and none of them act
like this. Yeah so yeah, No, this was very very stereotyped,

(05:38):
very I don't want to say one dimensional, because the
characters did have depth to them, but it was one dimensional.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
It was surface level depth like differences, but they were
all basically the same, Like all the men were trash
to me, All the men were trash.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Especially Jeane or Jean yeah pronounces name.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
All the women kind of had this self hatred toward
each other about each other. I think Clementine was the
only character that kind of stood out to me, and
it was like this typical sorority girl, sorority. You think
you're better than everyone, personality, everyone else, Like, everyone doesn't
speak like that all the time you're in university. You're

(06:23):
not talking like that every day.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
You just not.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
I have I'm done. I don't know, I'm done with
that conversation because I'm gonna be sounded mean and I
don't want to sound mean, but you get what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yes, yes, that's why I say he was a graduate student.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah, she's twenty six years old, which okay, I had
a hard time. So I think one of them said
they were twenty.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I think was it was it ll not know the
girl who lost her virginity and then yeah murdered.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yops oops, whoever she was, she was only twenty. Maggie
was twenty six, and I guess the rest of them
are some kind of variation of in between. The men
might be a little bit older.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
A little I think coaches in his mid thirties or
at least thirty.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, I know they kept saying we're about the same
age to each other, so he's probably closer to thirty.
But the professor professor, he might yeah, because he said
he was about to turn forty.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
In his birthday. They had birthday sex after he turned forty.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
And I wish I knew how old Susie was, but
I'm gonna say somewhere between twenty one and twenty six, yeah,
somewhere and there. I think it was unique and fun
to put full on adults in this situation, but I
don't know. They kind of didn't act very adult at times.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, that was my one of my biggest pet peeves.
I was so excited. I was like, thank goodness, we
have characters who are mid twenties thirties, like they're grown,
but none of them acted like adults. They were all
just party girls or let me complain about this, let

(08:13):
me be whiny about that. I was like, you're acting
like you're nineteen. Yes, they're are doing so many why books,
and I don't want to read that when you're telling
me they're older.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I thought there was a lot of opportunity to get
really into the weeds of you know, Maggie's history here,
even some of the other girls, you know, like Asha,
we had some opportunities to get deep and you have
some real like adult conversations and Russell you know, revelations
and things like that. But we didn't get any of that.

(08:46):
It just stayed very surface, to the point where I
was like, I really stopped and said, wait, what is
the plot?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
What is happening? I kept waiting for That was my
other biggest critique was like she just focused on I
guess world building and introducing characters and setting up for
future books, but there's really no plot to book one.
There's no resolution to book one. There's no, like everybody

(09:17):
had sex and was happy. But they've only known each
other a week.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
So.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
It's not like, hey, we are in an established relationship,
we've worked through our issues. No, it's just we've were
just here and we're happy, and I guess they're having
not happy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
I was like, what is the point? So that's exactly
the catchphrase for this review, es no point. God, it
was like a reality TV show. That's what it felt like.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, oh yeah, no, it absolutely was, especially because it
changed points of view and two seconds we got literally
everybody's points of view.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, which was too many, I think, which is kind
of like my issue with this title, the titling of
the book. I thought we were supposed to be focused
on Maggie Gray. I thought she was supposed to be
the center point of this book, but she felt secondary
to me. I think Asha's had a bigger part than
Maggie did.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Absolutely, Maggie was very important at the beginning, and then
everybody else kind of took over and she got cautions. Yeah,
she did, even especially at the end after she twisted
her ankle. So during the whole party, they're like, yeah,
she's just up in her room, she's in bed up
in her room. Nobody knows, nobody cares. We're gonna deal

(10:47):
with all of our stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
So this okay, speaking of her and this party and
twisting her ankle and being in this room. So the
coach comes there. M h. That was horrific to me.
That whole was horrific. I'm like, Okay, we went from
y'all like basically cussing each other out on a regular
basis and to now you guys are like, he's like

(11:09):
smelling everything, and I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
That scene was so disturbing a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
It was just because his sister lied to both of them.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, he was like a trap.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, it was a parent trap and they fell for it,
hook line and sinker.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
She really likes you, I'm telling you, I would not
lie to you. Oh he really likes you. He was
talking about you and everything. They're like, what we should
fall into bed and you could just sniff all the
body parts. But you know, right, that was we should
say that. You know, coach namir right, mirror, he is

(11:51):
aware wolf. So you know they keep talking about how
he's kind of a dog, which yes.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
But also how our sense memories because that did not
make sense to me. No, I don't, because he was like,
I can smell her memory of sitting in her kitchen
with her mom and her grandma. And I was like,
how the hell do you smell that? No, Like, if
I have frow cookies, I can think of it, but
I'm not sniffing my wrist and thinking of my mom

(12:19):
and grandma.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Like, so can you sniff every person she's ever been with?
Then you smell that and visualize that. That's uncomfortable very much.
So I don't know, it is weird. I'm like, explain
that a little more like that would be nice, if
you know, if she's gonna do that, kind of explain
how that's even possible, how that power works. We don't

(12:41):
really know.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
We don't know much of anything about the were wolves. Yeah,
for as much time as we spend in his head,
we know next to nothing about were wolves.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah, we know nothing. I do know that he's an asshole.
I know that, that's truly like from the beginning. So
they got off on the wrong foot immediately and it
never course corrected ever. And that's why I seem so
odd that suddenly they just be together after being tricked
by his sister. That just doesn't make sense to me.

(13:14):
They virtually hated each other.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
I think it was supposed to be one of those
things where you hate the person but then you realize, oh,
it was lust all along, but it didn't work.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Mm hmmm. And I mean her okay, so Maggie being like, okay,
So I guess the author tried to get into it
a little bit about the origins of her family and
how the vampires were a result of something that wear
wolves did. Yes, so it's like, well, you have your

(13:49):
people have to take responsibility for this, and it's kind
of like, I think that might have changed his opinion
a little bit after reading that different book that they
couldn't tell who wrote anything, But I don't know, it
still seemed weak at best. That explanation, yes.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
And I hope they go deeper into it because it
was a very vague bedtime story that they were still
trying to disprove.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
And yeah, yeah, I don't know. I just thought, Okay,
so we're And then when they're in the library reading that,
I said, so did no other werewolves ever think to
fucking read the stuff in the library before the first time.
You guys are reading the libraries. You know, documentation is weird.

(14:41):
I know it's locked up and you need a permission
to read it, but obviously you really didn't because that
library and just let you in. So like no one thought,
let's read the history. We're just gonna keep saying me
stories and believing it. Right. That was weird.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
It was very weird.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I don't know, I don't know. He's very ignorant to me.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Answer.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
It seemed ignorant to me.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
But he talked about how his brother, the Afha of
the pack, is like the smartest man he knows and
is really book smart. And I think he said his
brother read all the books, except he didn't read this one.
And then when he did read it, he was like, na,
do you see who the author is? The author writes
bedtime stories. This isn't real. Like it was just very

(15:25):
dismissive and very.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
No.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Somebody who reads a lot of books is going to
want to research and investigate.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, and if those are private papers, right, they're locked away.
There's a reason that's there. You shouldn't just you know,
discredit it exactly like that. That sounds stupid, so exactly,
it doesn't really connect in that way. And I was
a little disappointed with that outcome, but same same that

(15:54):
was Yeah, I mean same with Susie. I was disappointed
with hers as well. So oh, I know, yeah, girl,
I had such high hopes for her. I had such
high hopes for her having Susie. Susie and my friend
group would kiss me the fuck off, Like, I'm not
your fucking bodyguard. I'm not gonna keep these men off you.

(16:16):
You better figure out how to speak up for yourself
or something. Mm hmm, I ain't doing it. I'm not
the one, the one. It's so weird, and it's like
we never unless I missed it, we never did find
out who exactly in her family. She wanted to learn
necromancy four. We haven't learned that yet. No, Like, what happened?

(16:40):
What are you trying to learn? You know?

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (16:44):
The professor tells her what to do. So there's this
point where she sees these ghosts at this tree, and
there's a fourth ghost that's kind of like sad and
separate from the other playing children ghost, and the professor
tells her what to do to or the children specifically.
She's like, fuck what you're talking about? Yes, Oh my god,

(17:09):
this girl stupid I'm like, but why are we doing this?
I don't understand. It's like more like more than that,
things not being explained.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yes, I know she talked about like just wanting to
practice and do it, but also, you've been at the
school for a week. You haven't really done any of
this before. Your professor just told you not to do
this because it's one dangerous, and then two he told
you how to do it so it won't be dangerous.
And you're like, fuck you, I'm gonna do it my
own way anyway because I can, you can learn how

(17:43):
to do it.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, And she's like, I don't care. I'm gonna do
it anyway. But what tell I need to know? What
is so diar, you're willing to get you and your
friends expelled right before you even.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Learn how to do anything properly? Yeah, Because she they
said she'd been applying for the school for years, so
she's been trying to get into this for a long time,
and now that she's here, she's ready to throw it
all away just to try and talk to some girls
by a tree. Like it's not even the one ghost
she really wants to talk to. It's just like a

(18:17):
practice ghost. Yeah, as bad as that sounds.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
It's weird, and they're like, so what you would to
be like? She was, wait, what if the phrase I'm
looking for you want to be like the drum major
for justice. I think I might have messed up that phrase.
But you know, you don't know what I mean for
justice for the ghosts, that's what she wanted to do.

(18:43):
But but also like she.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Doesn't even know what happened to the ghosts. Yeah, she
didn't see the one little girl with her neck ripped out.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
You did, yeah, which is crazy. I'm like, you got me,
you got me trippy, you got me out here? It's
crazy shit. We would not be friends, Susie. No.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
But also her dad is insane, so okay.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
So the dad, her father is gay all the way gay.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
So funny can be.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
It's scene where they're all telling the father what happened,
you know, when Maggie was out in the woods, you know,
And I think it was Acshua that was mouthing, is
your dad gay?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
At your dad?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Guy? So that actually reminded me of this character on
Will Trent. Do you watch Will Trent?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:42):
I don't. So it's an adaptation of the Karen Slaughter
books Okay. So in there he is like Foster Brothers
with this guy who is gay and has a daughter happen,
So it's funny. In this book he says, hey, I
saw hot chick that I want to have a baby

(20:03):
with him. That's what happened. I said, oh damn.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
And he be talking about her too, like he talks
about everybody.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Oh, I would not want to be friends with him.
I would not want him to really want to be
his daughter the way he talked to her. So it's like, okay.
So on one hand, that's that real old school mentality
of parenting, like I'm just gonna be so shitty to you,
so if anyone is shitty to you, you won't be
faced by it because you're used to it. Yeah, which

(20:34):
is crappy. I don't like that at all, but you know,
it's terrible. It's a terrible way to parent. But she like,
well that's he is. How you know who he is.
You know it's fine, and she gonna check anybody who
talk bad about her daddy. I'm like, okay, okay, girl,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
But yeah, because I say, like she at the beginning,
you know, she was very anti this professor. She was
very like, I'm not sleeping with you. You're gonna be
in charge of my whole career. I'm gonna take all
these classes from you. I don't want to blur this line.
And then at the very end she's like, eh, whatever,
this is happening, And I was like, why why I

(21:19):
had such high hopes for you?

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Look, she only liked him because he didn't like her.
Oh that's what they basically said at the point.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
They did say that, But I was hoping she was
better than that.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
No, she very childish. People are very childish, Like you
want the guy that doesn't want you. Everyone else is
falling all over themselves and you don't like any of them.
You can't bother remembering their names. But this hot professor
you want because he's like, little girl, I don't need
to be all those in every area code. I don't

(21:55):
need you. I'm like, Lord, have mercy. These guys are
the worst, Like they're are the worst.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
They are the worst. Oh my god. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's the thing about like these books. You Okay, So
even in the situation where it's like that maybe bully
situation or enemies to lovers, there still has to be
something believable. That makes us as a reader want to
root for them even though they're trash to each other. Yeah,

(22:37):
something has to change in a big way for us
to shift, make that shift from A to Z. Yes,
and that's missing for every single situation here.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yes, yes, period, Yes, I agree, go sign Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
So it's like there are again. Like it's funny, right,
It's fun and funny, and it gives you the shock
value with some of the things the characters are saying
to each other. I'm like, oh my god, but the
conactive tissue is missing. Like there's a lot of detail.
For a book that's so freaking long, it's a lot

(23:19):
of stuff missing.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
It's because she just head hopped and she wanted to
show you what every character was thinking and how they're
interacting with each other, and how Clementine hates everybody so
she's going to destroy everything because she has to be perfect,
and you know this, that and the other. It was
just so mundane. I guess that's the right word.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
I feel like the author speaking of Clementine didn't know
what they wanted to do with her, because you know,
she's very stereotypical. I miss perfect. I'm the president, join
my club. Only the elite get into this group on
the pretty people.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, they're a pretty pretty girl.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah. But then you know she's turning around and she's
bringing food to Asha, and she's like, we're gonna hang out,
you know.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
We're gonna eat lunch together and be friends. Yeah, and
then she turns around and like destroys her party and like.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Hect her her house, Like she hects her house. Yeah,
it's like, wait, so she talked about she'll even come
back with salads another night. You know, she actually trying
to befriend her, and then she just doesn't about face.
And the party isn't even on the same night that
they were hosting their party. So whatever anger she had
was really unfounded. It's not like they were trying to

(24:37):
beat out her sorority house party because it was the
next night.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
She was just mad that, you know, people who weren't
legacies were there, people from outside the school were there.
It was just a loud party and people were ignoring her.
It was weird.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, it was very weird, very immature. This chick doesn't
even have And it was so funny because, you know,
we found out she was twenty three years old because
I think it was Maggie, I think, or maybe it
was I don't know. It's either Ashaw or Maggie. She's
talking to her and she asked her how old she was.
I think it was Maggie when she was being shown around,

(25:16):
I think. And she's like the immature bitch like that.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yes, like dam damn girl, like okay. Even her brother
was calling her out on it. He was like, it's
a party. We's just calmed down. Yeah, She's like, no,
I have to call the cops. I have to be
the biggest bitch.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Like okay, Becky, I mean, I get okay. So it's funny, right,
isn't funny? It's very like dramatic, but it's very young.
It's like they're a bunch of twenty year olds in
college at crazy yes, and it's whatever seriousness we're supposed

(25:59):
to be about the level of shit that's going on
is lost completely.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
They lost all the threads. Like when they were telling
us about the four different schools and here's the different
areas and these people the witches learn over here and
the sirens learn over here, and here's the school of knowledge.
I was like really invested and interested because that's such
a unique setup. You know, typically everybody's just sorted into
one big school. You're just kind of there together. But

(26:28):
I was expecting a lot more depth about this magical
world and about all of the creatures and all of
their struggles and this whole underground world.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah. Same. So it started so strong, right, and I
did thought, wow, this is a really unique idea, like
we have adults, we have magic. It's like, wow, this
is like Hogwarts for adults. Yes, And I thought wow
with a little you know, HBCU flavor. Yeah, okay, So

(27:00):
I thought, okay, this is gonna be fun. But then
as the things as about fifty percent, I started noticing
things like, wait a minute, what are we doing? Where
are we going? Is there a villain? Is there a crime?

Speaker 2 (27:12):
There are a mystery?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
What is happening? And it was just a lot of nothing.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Well, they did have the issue where they decided to
go back to the real world to buy alcohol and
clothes and then could not get their way back home.
And we spent fifty fucking pages doing random stuff. It
was It wasn't fifty but so it just felt like.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
It felt like it. So let's talk about that. But first,
let's take a break and then we'll come back and
talk about that little excursion to the real world. Oh
my god, what I fiasco. Anyway, you got to check
off these commercials by listening to those who are supporting
the podcast. And actually the book review Journal is available
right now, still available on Amazon, So going ahead click
the little link and check it out right now. And

(27:56):
when we return, we'll finish this conversation, we'll rate it
and yeah, I think that's it. We wrap it up
at the end, so we'll be right back. Okay, welcome back. Yay, yay, Okay,
you mentioned their outing.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Okay, so the girls are throwing this party because apparently
the party is the plot and they need alcohol. But
they can't just let somebody go buy alcohol for them.
They all have to go back up into the real
normal world. I'm sorry, world, I don't.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Know above ground.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
I guess above ground world. Atlanta and the it was
a really interesting concept of having doors and walking between
doors and knowing like, okay, here's a door, I'm going
to think about where I want to go, and I'm
going to go here and then you know, be wherever

(28:54):
I need to be. It was interesting. The concept was interesting,
I will say that, and then the girls got dumb
and they're like, Okay, he's gonna open the door again
in two hours, and we either have to like come
back through his door in two hours or find somebody

(29:15):
else up here to get us through a door. And
they just decided to find somebody else.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
Use using an app, an app. Yeah, it's like find
someone who could guide you through an app and it doesn't. Yeah,
the phone's not working and she's not working.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
So the waffle House, of all places places.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Waffle House, they they're trying to eat their food, they
get interrupted, you know, people looking at them and pour
you know, Ice is looking a little strange, you know,
because she's a siren, but she's like an offshoot of
a lower class of them. Yes, right, so she looks
a little more sea. Then you know, she's got the

(30:02):
pointy ear, she got some teeth showing, you know, sizors.
I don't know, but you know, people looking at them.
And you know, some lady comes in stawn she's like,
we're school, y'all fround. Basically, you know she knows because
she's from that community. Her partner comes in, he acting
hood to eating her food and basically said, y'all go
to that exceptional school and they don't even teach you

(30:25):
how to get through the doors. What kind of whack
ass school you go to? Essentially, And so they tell them,
they explain how to get back. They're like, okay, great,
let's do it. And it was.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Like, just focus where you want to go. Just focus? Yeah,
and they're like, but what if we don't focus, and
it's like, oh, well, you'll just end up in a
time loop. It's fine, it's whatever, just focus.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
That whole scene was just so long.

Speaker 1 (30:55):
Yeah, So he told them what to do. They had
to focus on the doors, you said, mm hmm. And
so they go to an attempt to do it, and
they fail. They fail several times over. Yes, and again
it brings me back to these are adults, not children.
Mm hm. You open, you knock on a door, you

(31:16):
open the door, you think of where you want to go,
then you step through it. Yes, these dumbites cannot figure
out how to focus. And I'm like, why are we
doing this? Why can't anybody focus? What is happening?

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Seriously? Why can't anybody focus? They're running and crying and
stressed out. Yeah, they just cannot focus. No, So at
the end of the book. You have the last page
this like end of book one, thank you, and then
the author says, I'll be putting my thoughts in the

(31:53):
next few pages. So the next page right after that
is called explain the Doors, and the author starts by saying,
I'm usually so against going backwards, but since I'm moving
on to using my last name as my pen name,
I thought it would be a dope way to stay

(32:13):
out with the old and with the new, and then
basically explains each door. The first door is a scene
out of a book called Hoodwinked. The second door is
a beloved saint and the Queen probably I guess the
different series. The third one is the Brotherhood series and

(32:33):
Perfect Sisters, fourth is Carter Boys, the fifth was The
Perfect Sisters, the sixth was Sky's Sisters in Skyfall. Yeah. No,
she just put these characters into every other book series
she's ever written.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Okay, so the Easter eggs are fun for the fans
of this author, but as someone who is new to
this author, yeah, I didn't care about it. I was
more frustrated by it than ooh, and I over the cameos.

Speaker 2 (33:10):
Same. It was very, very long, and like this was Essentially.
One of the worst things that happened in this book,
and that's not a good Dark Knight plot point, is
that we're stuck in these different worlds, seeing characters some

(33:30):
different books.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Now and Okay, so I know, you know people do
Easter eggs all the time, like you know, Siera j
Mass does it right? Everyone, Sometimes it works and sometimes
it doesn't. Yeah, he can't do it all the time.
But you know, will I read those other books to

(33:52):
find out who those people are? No? I will not. No.
So I don't know if that was supposed to entice
us or again if that's just for the fans that
read everything both, but yeah, it didn't really work. I
was so frustrated with them. I'm like the whole time,
I'm like, focus, what's wrong with you people?

Speaker 2 (34:13):
I know. I was like, every time you're knocking on
the door, just think about your home.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, And I was like, well, does some of this crossover?
Because she kept talking about seeing the moon and I
was like, well, something gonna result from that, is something
gonna come up?

Speaker 2 (34:26):
It can I give?

Speaker 1 (34:28):
But it was not really.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
It was her finally realizing like, oh, I look at
the moon and I see the moon everywhere. But I
was like, you could have done that in so many
different ways. Yeah, you didn't not have to do it here?

Speaker 1 (34:43):
No whatever. I didn't love it. It was like it did
feel very long. In that part of it felt really long.
And guess what the cat Kwan said, Fuck you guys,
I'm going home. You guys will play these games. I'm
out of here. Make it back. And the Cat's like, yeah,

(35:04):
I went through a fed door. Took you guys long enough,
y'all looking around out there. I just came back.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
He was funny. Yeah, he was funny.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
This guy. I was hoping he would turn into a
man in this book, but he was not yet.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
I think he will eventually, and then I'm curious to
see which one of them hookes up with him.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
But well, he likes Isis. He was very jealous of
her hooking up in the backyard.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
That is true, but I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
He is like the most attitude. It is funny because
he is just like these other dudes.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
He talks shitty to.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
People and then he's like, I don't know, and then
they just keep like antagonizing him by calling him like, oh,
it's such a cute kiddy the antagonized the hell out
of them. He like, fuck you guys, see.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
About Like he had the most reason to be that
big of an asshole. Yeah, because his dad's girlfriend turned
him into a cat. Yeah, and then made his dad
forget about him, So nobody really remembers he exists. He
can't talk to everybody, just certain people can understand him.
So like, yeah, I would have a really shitty attitude too. Well.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
He said that the lady made his dad that he
ran off with some woman. Oh yeah, and he like
keep trying to tell the dad that he's there, but
he can't. Only certain people can hear him. Everyone else
just hears me owing like a cat. So the father
never figured out that his son was a cat a cat.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
So yeah, I know, like out of all the men,
he's the one who like can have that attitude. Yeah,
or like I understand that attitude everybody else I'm like, why, Yeah,
you're just a dick like Solomon. Oh, he's such a
fucking dick.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Yeah, he's not good. He is like what did they
call him? He's like the trident try try yeah something.
So he's basically the best of the best of the
male sirens. Yeah, and he supposedly is supposed to hook
up and it's faded mates, I guess almost for these

(37:24):
two supposedly right because like he's her say faded.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
But like forced mates because the school wants them to
mate and have kids.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
He kept saying. Though at the end he was like,
you're for me, or you're my equal, you're my something Okay,
he said, even if we don't hook up, even if
we don't, you're still my equal. Like they are meant
like she's a different kind of siren, like lost, and
she's supposedly like queen type, right. They kept they mentioned that,

(37:56):
and he's the top of his food chain, so they're
supposed to be together, even though she's like nah, and
he's like, I don't like you either. I like you anyway,
and he keeps trying to convince her, Hey, you should
come hang out with us and see and she's like, oh,
y'all put had a message board about me.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah. No, they were very awful to her.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah, I would not mess with no guy who had
a message board. And the way they were talking about
her was awful. Well, she's supposed to say I'm over it, okay,
I'll be friend you guys, I'll be your friend. No,
fuck that, that's dreadful. Yes, And honestly, that guy was
so gross because he just like has this I guess

(38:42):
supposedly the sirens are just all of that in a
bag of chips, and everyone wants to sleep with the sirens.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Everyone.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
The women are lining up to sleep with this guy,
literally lining up to sleep with this guy, and like.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Three women in the room waiting in line.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
It was disgusting. She was gross.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
So she comes in there and this guy is like
doing a woman and they're all standing there like like
it's just normal to just wait in line for this guy.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
I'm like, no, he's not cute, he's not nothing about
him said he was very suave or had anything. He
was just abrasive and gross. Yes, So I don't quite
get it.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
It was the siren charm. It was just the pheromones
in the air, I guess, I guess.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
But apparently she wasn't about them. She was like, eh,
good for her, yeah, and he's like, I don't like
you neither. It's just because he was mad, like she
didn't want to mess with him, and he was mad
about it, so he wanted to act all stupid. But
then he apologizes and brings her weed and food so

(39:54):
they can just sit there and talk their stuff out
over some weed.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, I'm glad they talked like adults. But also no,
like you don't get to just be a dick and
awful and then say, hey, smoke this joint with me.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Now we're all good.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Let's be friends. Yeah, Like that's not how life works.
That's not how any of this works.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
No, I mean, and some of the stuff he was
saying was really dreadful, like on the message boards. Oh yeah,
like that is sickening level, Like I would never speak
to that guy. I wouldn't even let him. I don't
care if he came over trying to apologize to me.
He was stayed outside.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
Absolutely. Yeah. No, he was saying stuff like I'll sleep
with her first, I'll let you guys watch, I'll pass
her around if she wants it, or like I don't
care after we do it. The first time, it was
very one degrading and two just fucking shitty.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, and then so how she how does she choose
to respond? Was also very outspe confused by that yeah response,
like she decided to like strip down butt naked and
go over there and like make this scene that was like,
oh my god, oh my god, I did stay out loud.
I coup like, doesn't see how is she doing ew

(41:17):
ew right?

Speaker 2 (41:21):
And then okay, see that whole scene was just I
don't even have words for that.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I just it was jarring. I'm like, what is she doing?

Speaker 2 (41:31):
But after that, like, okay, mic drop moment, if you
want that to be your mic drop moment, Yeah you
do you Yeah, Like, not even an hour later, she's like,
my party's boring, my friends aren't talking to me. I
guess I'm just gonna go over there and have sex
with him. Yeah, and literally walks over there, goes to
his room and says let's have sex, and he's like, well,

(41:53):
get naked. She's like, well, you're mean, and then leave
And I was like, what the fuck was this? You
had your fuck you moment? Yeah, and then you put
yourself right back in the situation.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Did she think he would act differently? I mean, he's
you had some women coming and just taking their clothes
off and getting in line. So yes, when he acts
like that to you, you're the hurt because that's how
he's acting. He's acting like the person he is, and
you're surprised by that, and.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
That wasn't even the worst thing he has said to
her or about her.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
So like, yeah, this.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Is where you draw the line. Yeah, honestly, honey, like
you need some better friends, like you need some girlfriends
to sit you down and be.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Like no, she calls him some kind of fish boy
or something, and then he was pissed off.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Which isn't even that big of an insult.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Oh my god, I cannot honestly, so the siren okay,
So isis was messing with the siren as well? Right,
that's the guy who really liked her, I think in
the coort Siren okay, because she was talking about his
lips and stuff. Remember that that did not sound right.
So if Solomon has the same thing going on because

(43:10):
he's a siren, I'm like ew growls, no, no, no, no,
and them having their own liquid situation. Oh no, oh
so bad. I'm so bad. Like, oh I was critchy.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
I say, oh no, thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
The author was like trying to really ratchet up the
rawnchiness and she did that. Yes, it's very raunchy, not sexy.
Mm hmm. I was like gross, I don't want him either,
I know.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
I was like no, thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
No, yeah, that's not sexy.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Honestly, pass on every single manties. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah, geez, they're all like I said, they're all trash,
all of them. Yes. Oh that's why I say. It
was like I was watching a reality show, like you
know how everyone wants the drama part right, Yeah, people
are throwing plates, tossing tables and cussing each other out.
Everyone wants that. That's what we got in this yes,

(44:24):
instead of like the deep thinking and self discovery and
all these other things we could have gotten, we just
got a high level of drama. Yes, But.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
So are you interested enough to see who murdered Hillary?

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Okay? So on one hand, I am curious because I'm like, well,
the author did all this work, laying the groundwork, right,
Maybe that means we'll have something different from the second book. Maybe,
or it'll be more of the same. And the second
book is longer, it's five hundred and seventeen pages. Oh damn,

(45:10):
it has another really really short synopsis. And the ratings,
the amount of reviews has fallen off completely, but they're
still coming in pretty good. People who are loving it.
They're loving it, right, Okay, So it's like I see
a couple of people who did not love the second book,
and I'm not really reading it. Yeah, so I don't

(45:32):
want to be spoiled. But some people really hate it,
and like the majority seem to love it, So I
feel torn. I'm like, I feel like I kind of
want to to see if anything changes, but then I
kind of don't if it's going to be more of
exactly the same stuff. I don't want another book.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
I have a feeling it's going to be more of
the same. Yeah, I think there might be a little
more plot to it now that like the murder has
happened and we're going to have a murder mystery. But
you don't write a whole four hundred plus page book
and have the murder at the end and then book
two solve it. Like, that's not a murder mystery. That

(46:18):
is a book with a cliffhanger ending, which honestly makes
me feel like the author.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Probably didn't know what kind of book they were writing
when they started this. They kind of just said, I
like these high level ideas, let's see where it goes,
And it seemed like that murder at the end was
kind of thrown.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
In, yeah, to really change it.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Up because yeah, So I don't know it will changing
gears to a mystery murder mystery change much or are
we still going to Well, obviously these women have now
hooked up with these dudes, So either we're gonna have
more of that same bullshit where they can't figure out
if they really like each other or not, or we're
going to move past it and continue. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
I feel like we're gonna have a lot more drama
because one, you know, Susie, she was with a professor
and she's like, I don't need no fucking date. You
can go off and do whatever you want to do.
And Maggie's like, I'm kind of into this coach guy.
But also we're mortal enemies. Yeah no, I feel like

(47:25):
it's going to be another book of drama.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
Yeah, I think so. And of course they have to
get back at Clementine for her evil deeds revenge as well.
So yeah, I don't know. It was a fun time,
but I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
I don't know what about I don't think. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
It's not something I want to jump on right away,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah, absolutely not. I feel like I don't know. I'm curious,
but I also don't have high hopes for it.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
M hm. So it's kind of like, like I said,
so if you know what kind of drama it is, right,
if you know, to me, it's like this, I'm gonna
explain it with Rial's TV. Okay, So if you are
lik in Real Housewives in New Jersey, you know they're
on there tossing tables and screaming at each other. This
is gonna be like Season two, Who's when someone's tossing

(48:29):
shit at someone else. So it's gonna be more I
think you're right, it's gonna be more of that alongside
probably a half baked mystery. It's probably not gonna be
very fleshed out. Probably maybe some more self discovery, maybe
not a lot of head hopping again probably.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
So if I do read it again, I think it
might be a fun book to get you out of
a reading slump because it's just for the sheer drama
and like I said, it's all vibes. It's like all
vibes and drama. So if you need something to kind
of like shake up, like if you've been reading a

(49:09):
lot of sad books or something, huh, and you need
to that might be a time where I would read
this if I wanted something like that. But same, Yeah, yes,
I'm kind of disappointed. I really had high hopes for it,
but it didn't really hit in the way I wanted
it to, not fully so I had.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
High hopes and the beginning, the beginning of the story
met those high hopes. It really did. It was I
guess about the halfway point when I was like, Okay,
you fulfilled this beginning promise, but now we're not fulfilling
the rest of the story.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Like it was such a good start the author forgot
what the promise was. Yes, it turned into a bunch
of drama without any point. So again, all vibes, no point.
I stand by that. It's just vibes, you know. So, yeah,
I think we should rate it. What do you think? Okay,
I'm ready, Okay, do you want to go first?

Speaker 2 (50:07):
I can go first. I'm I'm right there with you.
It's all vibes, no point, So I'm gonna give it
a very vibe happy three stars.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Okay, I agree. When I was coming into this conversation,
I wasn't really sure if I wanted to give it
a four or three because it was a good time.
You know here on shelf addiction of three is not
a bad rating, it's a lot. I liked it just fine.
It was fine, and especially when you have to talk

(50:36):
about it right, you start realizing. And actually during the
reading process I was realizing, I'm like, what the heck,
what is the point? What are we doing?

Speaker 2 (50:45):
What are we doing? What's the point?

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Why? So I mean, if you could just if you're
not in the headspace and you don't care about any
of those things, you just want a good time, Hey,
read it, check it out. It's definitely entertaining of nothing else. Yes,
but if you're looking for some kind of deep, you know,
revelation to learn something new about I don't know, vampires
and wear wolves, maybe not this.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah. I was hoping that we would get like really
interesting new mythology with all of these creatures, something totally different.
And again, like the beginning fulfilled that promise. It was great.
It just there was no follow through.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Even the witchy part fell flat, Like you know how
they kept talking about we have our three, but we
need you know, the fourth. Who's the fourth? And then
when they found the fourth, I'm like, oh, was this
all just for an old girl? To do her little
talk to the ghosts in the woods. That's it. We
just gonna drop it, like what happened?

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Like apparently, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
That's so stupid, Like I it just there was so
many things, so many opportunities like that were there, and
the author just dropped the ball. We got there and
just let it go. Heard back about it again. So yeah,
that's that love, Yeah exactly. So that was a good

(52:10):
fun time. But time to move on to the next thing. Yes, okay,
I think that's all we got.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
What do you I think?

Speaker 1 (52:18):
So? Okay, Well, if you guys have read The Secret
World of Maggie Gray and you have differing opinions than us,
or if you agree, let us know, leave us a
comment or hit us up on you know, one of
the social media links below, Join us over on the
book clubs app and you know shoot me a message.
Join us on Patreon and need comments under this video,

(52:40):
feel free to do that. I'd love to hear how
you guys are feeling about this, and you know, if
we're way off face tell us why. I challenge you
to do so. Okay, So we appreciate you for listening
to the entire episode. That means a lot and we'll
catch you in the next one. Take care of yourself.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Bye guys, Bye everybody.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, please head over
to Apple podcast or Spotify and leave a positive, five
star review. It's a simple action that makes a big difference.
You can also like this episode on your favorite podcast
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(53:27):
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(53:48):
under the handle shelf Addiction. Join our book club of
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Plot vs. Vibes: A Review of 'The Secret World of Maggie Gray' - #Booktok Made Us Read It | Book Chat

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Plot vs. Vibes: A Review of 'The Secret World of Maggie Gray' - #Booktok Made Us Read It | Book Chat