Good Spice, Bad Writing: For Whom the Belle Tolls

Reading Room Radio hosts the team of Good Spice, Bad Writing starting this mini series.

Title: For Whom the Belle Tolls

Author: Jaysea Lynn

Reviewed by: Percy, Daisy, Aris  

Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.
www.hcpl.net

Podcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Alinda Mac, John Schaffer, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Harris County Public Library's Reading Room Radio, where your to be red pile gets a little more exciting one micro podcast at a time.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Did you ever wonder how your love life will look like after you die? Hi, this is Reading Room Radio. And today we are introducing our new group, Good Spice, Bad Writing, which includes me, Percy, Daisy, and Aris. Discussing adult sci-fi, Whom the Bell Toes by JC Lynn Part 1. Let's get into it. But first, everyone, grab your drinks. Okay, okay. Alrighty. So before we begin, I think it's good that we kind of introduce how we rated our books. We're gonna rate our books. So we kind of discuss our spice levels from one to five. So if you want to start off, okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

So one is there's no kiss throughout the whole book, it's just a lot of tension.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Think arcade dramas?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, very k dramas. Honestly, Chinese dramas.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Oh yeah, dramas. Then two will be tension with a little bit of a kiss. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Three, it leads to one spicy scene. You know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

And then four will be worldly realistic. So something we can imagine in our human brains at least three or more times. So think 50 shades of gray. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Then five will be otherworldly three times or more spicy scenes. So yeah, like I wasn't changing.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Aliens, monsters, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

We can imagine it if your brain is doing some stuff, some little superpower here and there. Yeah. That's level five. So we're discussing today, we're gonna split up this book into three-part series. So this one, part one, is just chapters one to 21. So, of course, if you guys want to read along with us, our next part podcast, we're gonna we're going to cover 22 to 43. But we have some questions.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

And I would say so far, we're at level one for sure. Oh of the book, which is kind of surprising for a like a romanticy. It's taking a while to get there. And I usually feel like it's it's first chapter.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

I would agree with you. It is level one in actions. I think it's level two in their brain. So like they're yeah, they're they're imagining something.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yeah, but I think it's it's very surprising the way the book is turning for me. It's it's not like what I expected at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, me either. And I feel like it started to have more depth closer to the end of like what we were reading, like chapter 19. I was like, oh, wait, this is definitely not what I expected.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

This is not fluffy. We're so used to so much fluffy books, which you know what? Sometimes you want that.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yes, it goes by, but um, it makes your day better, okay? Okay, yeah, it's kind of funny because it feels like the first one we're starting with is actually pretty good writing so far. Shout out to the author, okay. So I feel like one of them, we understand that she has passed away. That's not a spoiler, it starts the book off that way. Yes, but she goes into a paradise and she describes her paradise as like a hobbit house um with that a circled door, and she has an infinite library and she's cozy with her pet cat. But what would you choose if you had a paradise? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

You go first. I think that the to me the most important part of a paradise will be peace. I think about how to it will be to reach Samsara in that moment where it's um when you get rid of all desire, and that moment in which you are um there will be no suffering, and which I and that I disagree completely with the book. I feel like uh all the conflicts that she's having, all this confusion that she's and the and the book that she that she refers to, she's struggling too much with her feelings. She is facing all these situations in the book, is bringing uh it's because of the suffering. And so when I think about paradise, I definitely feel that it will be that moment where you're reading yourself of all this suffering, all these desires. So it's absolutely the complete opposite of what she's facing at some moment. So you don't seem at peace at all.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

No, I literally I wanted to clutch my books because she was literally was like, she's like, I thought that in my paradise I shouldn't be suffering. But I was a little she's bored a little bit. And she's bored. She's that's why she went to work, like she has a job. She has a job, like it's just I know. I but I mean I felt like paradise for everybody's different. Maybe she needs that normality, like she needs to feel like I my tip my life was taken away too soon, and I wanted to continue normal. I think that's what they were saying later on, but I want to get into that later to answer this quick question for paradise. I mean, in a real life sense, I mean, I my my idea of paradise is different from this world, but in this world, in this book world, you know what? Her paradise sounds good, other than the working, I would not be working. I love working at the library.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Great job, but after I've already passed away, nothing. Please I don't need the money. Like, what's the point?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

I got things to do. Try me traveling the world infinite library. I was like, my paradise is make a world that looks very similar, pretend I'm in my own maginal world. You won't have to tell me. Just pretend I'm the rich person on the world who has an infinite amount of money and that I can make family, friends. How would I know? How would you?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

I like that about the author, though. She's very daring about the the idea that you can continue certain things. Yeah. And as an author, I think that's that's your your freedom that you can have. It's like how many options, you know. Uh, as a writer, you have so many freedoms, and you can choose where are you taking these characters. Yeah. So, and that's what I like about reading. You know, it takes you to so many different worlds, and you can and you go into depth into so many different ideas.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yeah, definitely this world feels a lot like uh I try to think of it like Greek mythology, sort of like exactly that's what we're talking about. So I kind of just imagine myself put into a Greek mythology, and I have somewhat of a say now. I'm not like a weird like mortal where they're like, oh, mortal is disgusting, but like I actually have mythology is always about that. I'm like, oh my gosh, like why are you bothering me? But this one everybody's chill, they're talking to each other. It's a good world to like discover and be part of and see where it goes. I mean, the the love story is great.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

I love the it's very cute, it's nerdy. It's nerdy.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

But what would be your paradise, Daisy?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Oh, honestly, I wouldn't even be human. I think I would love to live underwater. Oh my jellyfish, like just flowing, at peace, no anxieties, nothing, nothing, no thoughts. I have no brain, maybe like two cells.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

So you'll you're just space floating.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

You say hey, but I would love to be underwater versus space.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

So because they do allow that in this world. They said you yeah, you could choose. Yeah, you could re what is it?

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Well, I don't want to reincarnate. Like, I mean, like in my afterlife. You said I don't want to be possibly eaten by people or other animals.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Oh, yeah, you're right. Okay, okay. That's fair. That's fair. That's smart.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

It's kind of like the void, but not in space. I don't know that I would want to be in space.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Let's move to the next uh to our next question. See what do you think about Lily? What do you think that she chose as her paradise to go to hell? Oh.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I mean, technically she's not in it. I think she's just she finds comfort there. She finds comfort in the people. And I think this is back to this world, right? Like this, the book world. A lot of what she I noticed about her is that she felt like very much like an outcast in her world, right? She felt an outcast, she felt like she wasn't, she didn't belong anywhere. And this quote unquote hell, there's like demons, right? These monsters that everybody hates, but they're just doing their job, right? They're just doing their job. And she's like, I see you as a as a person or quote unquote person. And even they talked to like I think one person from the book was like, they sat down, like, no, I take this compliment. You are amazing because you come in and you're not scared of anybody. You you see people or their souls for who they are. Yeah, they love her.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

And I think that she's just not she's not getting it, like, oh yeah, I'm this, I just like a transformation, it was a thought, a transformation for her.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

I mean, and hill's supposed to be a place of rehabilitation in the book, like it's not supposed to be one and done. Like people have the chance to fix what they did, but in the afterlife, definitely like a justice system, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

But they had I feel like they're not bad to be bad, they're just doing what justice asks of them.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Yeah, they're literally doing their jobs, like dang. Don't we feel that though?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

We're just doing our jobs. Tell me a little bit about Belle. I'm learning about him.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Oh my gosh, wait about Belle. Like, what do I think about him?

SPEAKER_01 9:16

What do you think about him? Oh my god! I don't know. I like that he looks really intimidating in the book because there's images drawn in the cover art of it, but I do like that he's actually seems like so sweet and like a nerd.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

He seems like the complete perfect guy for uh Lily. Completely. They compliment each other. I know that we were you were talking about like why he's gonna let her in. I think she's not letting him in. Like, there's like a thing where she's like she still has this view of herself, like I'm not deserving of love, no, I'm temporary, um, and everything is it's holding her from getting what she actually needs, which is what or wants is without deserves, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah, like she didn't do anything bad in her life either. It's religious trauma, which if you read the book, you'll understand a little more of yeah. She did say that. Yeah, and then feeling temporary because she does die um from cancer, which uh also is the first page of the book. Yeah, not a spoiler, yeah. That definitely so she feels temporary, she has that trauma, so she's scared to let somebody new in. Hope y'all join us for chapters 22 to 43, and we hope something a little spicier happens.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Me too. Come on, they need to like kiss at least both hands. I know for real.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Okay, bye bye. Bye.