Good Spice, Bad Writing: For Whom the Belle Tolls pt 3

The verdict is in!  Check out if this was good spice or bad writing.  Both?  Neither? 

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_02 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_00 0:10

Hi, this is Reading Room Radio, and we are back with Good Spice Bad Writing. And this is the end of our book that we are reading, which is Whom the Bell Tolls by JC Lynn. This is our last discussion and our final review.

unknown 0:27

Finally.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

My goodness. So before we even get into it, let's talk about our spice levels again. Um, if you want to talk about our levels, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

So level one, of course, it's no kiss, just tension. Level two is tension with a kiss. Three, it leads to one spicy scene. Four, it's worldly realistic, three times or more spicy scenes, and five, otherworldly three times or more spicy. I guess I would be considered five, because they're demons, and he was doing stuff that only a demon would be able to do with his tail.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Uh that was true because it's it's it's we we mentioned in the beginning on our first review, like if they do something and you can't imagine it like me, I this is not a picture book, so I maybe for the for the best. So there's I was kind of confused for some of the scenes, but you know what?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

It happened, so yes, yeah, because I think the tail and then his wings, like yeah, I was learning stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

I was like, I oh, okay. So these are scenes, but yeah, it did hit um, I think it hit five.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

But it took a while to get there though.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

It took a while. I was losing hope in the in the middle. I said I I was not gonna finish this book, I didn't think it was gonna I was gonna be able to finish it, but I finished it. It was good. I mean, I at least the uh I like the build-up. I wish it was a little bit earlier, but um we have some questions, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:52

We did, we have some.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I would like to go back. I know we asked questions when we first when we were we were in a little innocence of like getting into the book. Like, I think this is what our ideal paradise paradise is, and and we're talking about the ideal paradise inside of JC Lynn's uh book, right? This is the paradise that she has uh made, which is you can have you could reincarnate and go back and have another chance in life, or you could apparently become a deity and live forever, and with that also untells you can never go back to the human world, but that also gives you a chance to have like kids and stuff with demon kids. That's what it is. I think that's the other option, the void, the void, yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah, the void stories, yeah. So now it's the idea of like, has your paradise changed now that we've read the book? Yeah, has it changed at all?

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Well, for me personally, no, but I think for the character, her idea does change when she is in her paradise. As uh she had chosen something and she has an idea that she of what she wants to do. I think at some point she is considering uh reincarnation at some point, and then at the end of the book she has made up her mind she she finds true love. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that does always influence uh in afterlife idea too well, and the part that I do like in this book is when she becomes a goddess. I think uh if we wanted to discuss that because that's a surprise for her, too, in her character. It's like a character transformation, and when she makes her decision to stay, that comes as a bonus, I suppose. It's something that she wasn't expecting.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

She was already choosing and then they told her, Well, you know, you there was this other option, I did think you're eligible for it. And she's like, wait, why didn't you start with that? But I think that was everything that she wanted in the real quote unquote real, like we're alive life, she got it in her afterlife. I think that was a loophole in the sense of how to get her to get what she wanted in this in her paradise. Um, but there's did yours change at all?

SPEAKER_01 4:10

No, I still would be a jellyfish.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

But I would like for me personally, I will still continue with my same idea of paradise.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Maybe I would want my person though there also as a jellyfish with me. But I don't want them to die just for the sake of dying. I'll wait there. I'll wait, and then you say you better be a jellyfish. Yeah, yeah, you better turn into a jellyfish too. I'm so serious.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

What about you? I I mean, I I get it why they're having trouble. Like at the end of the book, you're like, we're having trouble getting people to work for us. I say, Yeah, because nobody wants to work.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

I'm sad.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

I'm so sorry. I was like, I don't want to work anything.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Nobody wants to work anymore. I don't want to in the afterlife. Why would I? I know why would I?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Why are you making me work? Let me live my happy.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Stuff for everybody there.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

But it is an interesting take though, on paradise for this because when we were starting off, even on our second, like first part review or our second part review, we were talking about like if you know this quote, we're like, This is the bad place because there is so much going on, and then you I think you you mentioned it. You always said, I don't I forgot that she's in her ideal paradise.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I forgot again. I forget I forget that she's in like still still in her transformation.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

There is so much going on because she is accepting, like she's making this choice. I'm gonna stay with the man I love, I'm going to stay here for my family that I have created, and then she becomes a goddess, which actually, like I said, it's a lot. I'm gonna need it. It's the only thing that I like in the whole book.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

You said you should have started off with that.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

She should have gone with that. I would love it if she's like about you know, Lily the goddess.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

I did like that the idea of paradise of I first I was like, I'm not getting it, I'm not getting how this is a paradise. But then when she talked about how she had Sharky and how she was able to come and go at her job without work, I said, Okay, because when she got Sharky, I was like, Okay, single mom, she's deling. Single mom, like she's deling with single mom, and she works too hard.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Okay, no, but she literally loves her kids and never thought she's literally like she don't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

She said Sharky goes to school, so Lily still has a life, like Lily still has a life to yeah, that's true, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

She definitely wanted to continue life, she never got to for a long time, so she always died pretty young.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But I'm saying Lily had an actual life in that sense. That I was like, that's kind of paradise too. I'm sending my kids to school, I'm not worried about them. I she's had she got to work whatever hours, she didn't have to worry about, like, oh, you know what, I gotta pick up tracking from school. Because in her paradise, it was so easy, right? It's not very much so. In my sense, I was like, I kind of see where you're getting at. Oh, this is the paradise. It does have this cons like the war and death and very extremes, the struggles, the extremes of like this is the world, but I'm saying I did kind of understand her point of view of what the ideal of her ideal paradise. And for me, I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. I get it. I don't know if I would change of going back to work, but I I get it. But there was a lot of things going on in this book, and I think that's where I wanted to ask. What do you think was the plot in this book? What was your idea? Like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Um, it's definitely found family, but I think it could have been done and not 700 pages. I agree with you. Like, there was a lot of unnecessary filler, a lot of scenes where I feel like the writing just like went everywhere. Like her train of thought would not stay in one area, and it kind of drove me crazy. But the plot is definitely found family, La familia. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

I have I have things to say about that, but if you want to go on that definitely she goes full circle at the beginning, she is um, you know, she talks about her family, how it's important to her, and how uh at some point she really wanted to have children and she couldn't. Then she finds Sharky on Bell, and they and at some point in the book, Sharky start calling them mom and dad.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

At that point three, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yes, and then you know, when she makes her choice to stay, then she finds that she can have children, and that is just like a bonus, besides being a goddess or a deity or a semi-god or whatever she calls her in the book, then that she can have children, and that's just another reason for her to stay.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So definitely family. I I think the plot, because at first I was kind of confused because I I'm gonna agree with both of you guys, there was a lot of episodes in this TV series that no, seriously, it really I cannot, I don't think it was necessary. Like I have random facts in my head that doesn't make like it doesn't go with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

They don't add to anything like at all. Or just like I also the writing, some of it, I'm so sorry, but some of the writing, so the basis of this is the spicy scenes. Like I have to elaborate, like on the spicy scenes, I cannot take them seriously. It's just so cringe worthy. It's they're not sexy or anything, they're just like it is very much nerdy. Not even it's not nerdy, it feels like it doesn't feel nerdy, it feels like just writing and like I'm sorry. There's there's parts where he's like talking about himself and he says he thinks it's playtime, referring to himself, and absolutely not. As soon as I heard that part, I literally, when I was listening to the audiobook, I was like, yuck, in my car. I was like, I need a moment. I did not like that. I'm in agreement, though. You're right. Their quote unquote dirty talk, I was like, we I can't do this, I cannot.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

I give it that. I think they were a great fit for each other because they seem to like each other.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

They're both corny.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

They're both corny, they seem to like all others, and then that's part of the I think the plot though, because I think the plot was for Lily to love herself. I think it was more or less about family in my head. It was more about like in the beginning, she died, she was sad, and she was depressed, and she said, I don't know what life is, I don't know really what love is. And I think this whole book was about her life and her view of like what living in this afterlife, finding uh to love herself, to find true love, to find her fulfillment. But these are her things that she didn't realize that she deserves and what. And you're right, it it could have been in a much more condensed and the scenes could have been a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

And so, okay, wait, I'll be with one more thing. I'm so sorry. Well, actually, two more things. One, I don't like that Sharky says swaggedy. Who says that? What are we saying? No, what are we doing? What is this like as millennials? I feel like I can call this out, but what is this millennial like humor? They say canoodling, they say there's a fussitude.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

I don't know. It was too much. There was a lot of words, and this and I think because we swaggy. Some of us heard it in audiobook, and some of us were reading it. When we read it, our brains were it didn't affect me this way.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

No, I read the swaggy part. I listened to the audiobook for the most part, but the swaggy part, I read it, and I was like, free serious.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

The part that really got me though it wasn't the epilogue. This is a real spoiler though. By the way, if you haven't read the book, do not listen to this part. The epilogue when Lucifer found the megalom. Okay, why?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Well, because Sharky loves sharks at the teenage adult age.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Also, why is she still called Sharky? She's almost an adult now. She didn't think of wanting to change her name. I don't know. I didn't like the name Sharky from the get-go. Well, I get that she chose a I get it, but I don't like it.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I don't see Sharky. Like, I can read Sharky, I hear by Sharky, but Sharky does not sound like a teenager, or she doesn't sound like she's getting older. She still sounds like a young kid. So she's supposed to be growing.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

So I think they like didn't uh write on her character well enough. Like she didn't they didn't give her any development or yeah, besides like the trauma development, which is great, but other than that, she is still using I mean the Sharky thing is trauma response.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

It felt at the end that there's gonna be a second book.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

So I maybe it'll be like her perspective, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Maybe they'll the perspective will change in the characters.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

We do have a as I'm saying the plot was about this. I felt like it's mostly about Lily. Of course, we bring in Belle and you bring in other characters, but on the flip side, okay, because she definitely found her soulmate. Yes, she found her soulmate, and that's where I want to get into that because she didn't find her soulmate when she was alive on earth, she found it after death, and that is kind of the question I want to go by. Do you guys believe in soulmates? Do you believe in multiple soulmates?

SPEAKER_01 12:55

I believe in my one and only soulmate. But yes, I do believe in soulmates.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

You do in just women?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yes, I do believe in soulmates.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Once they are in your life, they're there forever. It's not that they belong to you because uh I don't believe that that you can actually uh possess a person or in that way. I think that people are free and maybe their souls are free. So I don't think that you can possess a person's and choosing to be with one another.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Because well, if you think about it, you did have to make a really big decision at the end in staying with um Belle because she It's not like any of her lives in real life were good.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

No, might as well I think that it is.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

But if you believe in soulmates, if you believe in multiple soulmates, he technically Belle would not be the only soulmate.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

She would but she's already lived four times and she's never found a soulmate before, so maybe he is the only one.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

I mean, I I mean I get me, but I mean But if that was her soulmate though, even if they weren't together, that person would have always been the soulmate. That is the point of a soulmate. So it your soulmate doesn't necessarily have to be together with you because that is what a soulmate is.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

They're connected, it's okay. It's a connection that's and even in death they have souls, right, May Roman.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Point being the reason why she couldn't find anybody is because it was it was meant for her to die all these four times, or at least four times to find her soulmate at the end.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, I don't know. She was not meant to have a good life. I will be so sorry. She deserves a good afterlife. What about you?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Do you believe in soulmates?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

I do not.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Oh, right. Wow. I know lover girls here.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

No, I am a romantic, but I can know that life is so quick, right? So in this book, it's definitely you see it. She died in the first chapter, there's death, even in the war and stuff like that. And then even in this world, right, there's so much stuff. Like you never know what's when your time is up. And so I just feel like, what if you meet someone and you just had the greatest connection and then they're gone? And that I just feel like I would feel so sad if I would be like, That was my soulmate, that's forever. There's no more the other person.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

But then, yeah, yeah. This vast universe, what if I was never know?

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Y'all will find each other in the afterlife if they pass. You just wait for them in the in the eternity. That's true. I I guess my anxiety. Well, on that note, thank you for joining us. Uh we love having you with us. I've never been so excited to finish a book.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Oh my god. And I mean, we can't wait to hear any recommendations.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

One out of five.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Oh, what do we rate it?

SPEAKER_02 15:53

What do we rate?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Two and a half for me. Sorry, I'm a hater. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

I'm gonna agree with you, but I'm gonna give it a two.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

I don't want to tell me.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

No, no, no. I mean, it's it's your own personal view of it. I think anyone shouldn't not read it if they want to read it.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Yeah, I think I think it's an interesting take for that part. I do give it, I do give it a three. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

I am putting my DNF the finished list, even though I did finish it though. But bye everybody, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Join us for the next one. Bye! One of two books.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Bye bye.