The Crash

Kristy (00:00)
Welcome to Books I Make My Husband Read, a self-described, hilarious, and heartfelt podcast where I, Kristy, the devoted book lover, curate an unexpected reading list for my husband, Jon.

Jon (00:10)
And that's me. Each episode, we'll dive into lively discussions, humorous debates, and surprising insights on the books Kristy just has to make me read.

Kristy (00:18)
We're here to explore everything from timeless classics to quirky hidden gems, challenging our perspectives and inviting you to join in on the fun.

Jon (00:26)
Settle in, grab your favorite beverage, and get ready for another literary adventure.

Kristy (00:46)
Listeners and welcome to season two, episode two of Books That Make My Husband Read. I'm your host Kristy.

Jon (00:51)
And I'm your co-host Jon, the one that Kristy makes read all the books.

Kristy (00:55)
This week we'll be discussing The Crash by thrillmaster, Freida McFadden.

Jon (00:59)
We both have a lot of thoughts on this book, so I'm excited for our little discussion here.

Kristy (01:04)
Yes, I am excited as well. But before we dive in, we wanted to let our listeners know that the next two books in our lineups will be The Women by Kristin Hannah and Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli. Two Kristins? I did not. And now I am wishing I would have done a different order. Thank you for pointing that out and making me conscious of it. But regardless of my little snafu there, remember that you can see our complete lineup of books

Jon (01:18)
Did you plan that?

I'm here to serve.

Kristy (01:34)
by visiting our website, booksimakemyhusbandread.com, or you can follow us on Instagram at booksimakemyhusbandread. And if you are already following us on Instagram, you will know that we recently ran a contest where we offered listeners the opportunity to be the one who decides the book that Jon gets to read. And we narrowed it down to four guests.

And the next couple of weeks, we are going to drop a special episode where those four guests join us and they pitch a book to Jon. That book that Jon will pick from those four will also be part of our season two lineup. So be sure to follow us on Instagram, visit our website if you want to know the complete lineup of books that we have for season two, so you can follow along and get ahead on your reading.

Jon (02:23)
I am excited and nervous about this whole little contest of ours. I don't know how I'm going to pick yet, but you know what? That's half the fun.

Kristy (02:31)
It is easier when someone's just telling you what to read, isn't it now?

You heard it here first.

Jon (02:40)
Yes,

while you're hanging around on Instagram, drop us a comment or send us a DM if you have a question that you'd like us to answer on the show. You can also email us at books. I make my husband read at gmail.com when we will answer a question in an upcoming episode from there as well.

Kristy (02:58)
Yes, we would love to answer your question.

Jon (03:01)
We'd love any questions. Cool. So how about that spoiler free book summary?

Kristy (03:07)
Alright, here we go. The nightmare Tegan is fleeing from pales in comparison to the peril that lies ahead. Eight months pregnant, Tegan sets out alone with plans to seek refuge with her brother until she can figure things out. She embarks on a journey unaware that she's driving straight into the heart of a brutal blizzard.

Jon (03:26)
And Tegan's problems are just beginning. Stranded in remote Maine with a dead car and a broken ankle, thanks to the crash, Tegan begins to question every decision she's ever made. Just when all seems lost, a seemingly miraculous rescue offers her a glimmer of hope. A kind couple invites her to take shelter in their warm, inviting cabin until the storm subsides.

Kristy (03:49)
But as time passes, Tegan discovers that this sanctuary might not be as safe as it appears. The longer she stays, the more she realizes that the danger is closing in, and this unexpected refuge could turn out to be her gravest mistake yet. We're just saying a lot because she makes a bunch of this book.

Jon (04:09)
Indeed, which we'll get to. Now, with her life and the life of her unborn child hanging in the balance, Tegan must summon every ounce of strength to escape the looming threat. Now, that was our spoiler-free summary. Anything beyond this point will contain spoilers. Consider this your final warning.

Kristy (04:35)
you

Okay, so here's where we talk about what we rated slash thoughts on the book. I know you went first last episode, so I was going to go ahead and go first on this episode. I feel really bad saying this, but I've read a lot of Freida books. I think probably a dozen, maybe more, and I'm pretty certain this is my least favorite of those. I know. So if you're new to our podcast, the whole premise started is I

Jon (04:49)
Hit me.

Oof, ouch.

Kristy (05:09)
would make Jon read books. I would read a book and say, my goodness, you have to read this book. But we decided when we wanted to offer the full lineup, a full assortment of books that we would be covering for season two to allow readers to get ahead, we threw some books in there that hadn't released yet. So they'll be releasing as the season goes on, which means that he and I will be reading them at the same time. I don't think that's a bad thing.

but I think that we are opening ourselves up to have books that maybe we're not gonna like or find some fault in as I did this one. So that was just like my thoughts. I was really frustrated with Tegan as a main character. She makes a lot of terrible decisions. She is in a bit of a pickle, but I think that some of the decisions she makes are really, really bad.

I don't want to give everything away right now. But she was so frustrating. I couldn't handle her. I couldn't handle Polly, who's the other main character. Overall, I was screaming at them as I was reading it, literally. You probably heard me.

Jon (06:26)
I sure did.

Kristy (06:29)
That's it for now, you can go ahead.

Jon (06:30)
okay. All right, cool. I wasn't sure what that pause was. I had high hopes for this one, actually. This is only my second Freida book, so I don't have the vast knowledge of Freida-isms and plot twist fun that comes with her books. And when I started it, like the opening line or scene of the book was actually pretty compelling. You have someone who is seemingly strangling someone else and...

Kristy (06:33)
dramatic effect.

Jon (06:56)
flailing and they're talking about like they're in their head about the experience of it or whatever it is and I'm like, okay, I'm ready for this. But it didn't take long for those hopes to just start deflating like a Tegan strikes me is just another dim lit female character, which is just unfortunate. So in the opening, well, I guess this isn't really the opening anymore. But it's like after she has a realization of what happened to her, and then she doesn't take the money, which I'll know we'll get to and we'll talk about but I'm just like,

Kristy (07:07)
I know.

I feel like you're getting ahead of yourself.

Jon (07:26)
I know a little bit, but these are just like the moments that struck me. was just like, why I decided to rate this one as low as I did. Anyway, so like the moment when she decided not to take the money and then the choice of just like she's eight months pregnant and she drives into a storm that's coming in to hit the area. And then she veers off the main highway and I was like, this is just awful. The snap judgments she makes along the way just.

Kristy (07:48)
I know.

Jon (07:55)
And then the ending. my God, I hated it so much. I hated the ending so much. Just the outrageous decision to not tell anyone what happened, including the police. I can't. I just can't. I'm like I'm getting my my blood pressure is going up just.

Kristy (08:10)
You're like not even making any sense. You sound so frustrated.

Jon (08:14)
Because I am, because the whole thing didn't make any sense.

Kristy (08:17)
So I don't I don't agree with that statement. I think that I don't like the decisions that Tegan made or Polly made for that matter. But I know you're more like honed in on Tegan's part in it.

Jon (08:31)
Yeah, but I mean, Polly too. And again, we'll get to it. It's like the ending when she like, how does she get the happy ending? That just, I think I finally understand what like hate reading means. I think if this book wasn't on our list for the podcast, I don't know if I would have finished it.

Kristy (08:49)
wow, and you still gave it a three?

Jon (08:52)
Yeah, what else would I have given it?

Kristy (08:54)
lower than three. There's two numbers below three. So I don't. OK, look, not every book is for every person. And I'm sure there's plenty of people who really enjoyed this book and the suspense and didn't find the fault that necessarily we found in Teagan's character. I am a strong, confident woman. I am a strong, confident woman. And reading a

Jon (08:58)
I suppose there is.

Kristy (09:21)
female character who constantly second guesses herself and does things that don't align with how I would do things is frustrating for me. So that is like a personal thing I have to navigate. Now there may be other women reading out there that aren't reading it through that same lens. So I totally understand that they might not find as much fault in Tegan's character. That's a personal thing for me. I don't think the writing's bad. I think it is suspenseful. Like I kept reading. I kept wanting to know.

What was gonna happen, as frustrated as I was with these characters, I wanted to know what their fates were going to be. I did not think it would turn out how it did. Freida has said that she's a big Stephen King fan and this book is like an homage to misery. So if you've read Misery, this is, it has a similar storyline and setting. But let's dive into some of these questions. So before we just like spend the next 40 minutes just rambling.

Jon (10:19)
Sure, okay.

Kristy (10:21)
So in the beginning of the book, see Tegan choose her morals over money. And if you haven't read the book, just real quick, she is pregnant. She has one night stand. She's going to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get this huge settlement of money that she can't tell anyone who the father of the baby is because the father of the baby is super rich and also is married and has family of his own. And she realizes she has like flashback.

flashbacks and she actually realized that she was assaulted. So she decides to not sign the NDA and not get this huge settlement of money. So do you think she made the right decision by choosing her morals? And is there an amount of money that could make you turn against your own morals?

Jon (11:06)
I feel like I'm going to get scolded by Olivia Benson for my answer in this question. I'm going to acknowledge it. I'm a privileged white dude. So I know that I don't think I could ever truly see through the lens of what Tegan has gone through as much as I try to empathize. With that said, I think she made a terrible fucking decision.

Kristy (11:28)
so you can be bought. That's what you're saying, line.

Jon (11:29)
Yeah.

Like

she gets up this look, the thing happened. It sucks. It's unfortunate. It's unfair.

Kristy (11:38)
It's not just unfair, it's criminal to be clear.

Jon (11:41)
Yes, right. Again, different person. She's been clamoring for this money. Maybe that's not the right word, but like the whole- She's super poor. She's very poor. every moment in the first part of the book, she's like, I can't wait for this money. can't wait for this money. My life is going to change.

Kristy (11:57)
You afford private school, never have to worry about money again.

Jon (12:01)
All this stuff like all this stuff for her kid, which she calls tuna, which is just a whole other thing that I

Kristy (12:06)
I felt her calling it little tuna was actually cute. She calls the baby little tuna. That was a little weird, whatever. I I feel like I make up conversations with our dogs, so I didn't totally judge her for that.

Jon (12:12)
Yeah, and the baby speaks to her in the womb.

Anyway, so getting back to it, it's like she has a motivation to close the deal, get this money and move on with her life and set her and her unborn baby up for the rest of her life. And then in this moment where she gets this flashback, remembers that she's probably drunk, but she's not really sure in there, anything like that. And then she gets angry and then Simon gets angry and then Jackson, who is the other character in this book who seemingly likes her, but you're not sure, but she kind of likes him, but we're not really sure. Anyway.

Kristy (12:51)
He's the attorney of the.

Jon (12:53)
of the rich dude. He's not her attorney. like Tegan, But I just, I can't wrap my head around how you've led over the past eight months or whatever it's been where she made, like she has this realization she's going to have this life changing moment. And then within that split second, she just like throws it all away. It just felt really uncharacteristic for the little bit of character that we knew of her up to that point. That's my exhausted answer to that question.

You may now interject.

Kristy (13:24)
Okay, first of all, another problem I have with the story in general is Jackson is Simon, the rich dude's attorney. And I'm sorry, it is kind of implied that this has happened before with Simon. And anyone who is the attorney of someone who's covering up assaults or whatever sexual encounters, like...

You have probably a lower moral bar than the average Joe. You are not going to be looking out for the best interests of this chick, Tegan, which he is. I was so bothered by that that this person would be super cold hearted, I think. But anyway, what bothers me about Tegan's decision is, look, I'm not saying I have a number, but 100 percent there is a amount of money that I would definitely abandon my morals for.

I think that we probably all have a number. It's just a matter of how big it is for some of us. That said, what really bothered me about this is Teagan walks away from what is seemingly millions and millions of dollars. And she says that I can't do this. I'm going to go to the police so that Simon doesn't do this to anybody else. Fine. Very high moral bar, obviously higher than mine.

Jon (14:43)
in.

Kristy (14:43)
But

she doesn't go to the police. Nope. She instead goes to her job as a last minute shift before she goes to visit her brother for a few weeks before the baby comes. So when is she going to go to the police? The answer is probably never. So what pisses me off about this is like, we live in a world where women are not believed for sexual assault. It's not fair. It's not right. But because of that, you have to do everything you can as a woman.

to try to be believable, to make your story, I don't even say seem believable because everyone should believe you, but unfortunately that is what has to happen. So instead, already eight months has passed since she had the sexual assault, but instead of as soon as she realizing it, immediately going to the police, she goes and does other things. She leaves the...

Jon (15:38)
That's not going to bode well for her Kate.

Kristy (15:39)
No,

it's not going to vote real for a It's not fair. It's not fair. It totally sucks. But if you're going to not go to the police, like take the money and run, sister. I'm sorry. I feel like the Internet is going to come after me for this, but that's just how I feel.

Jon (15:42)
Which sucks, which is-

And that just got the book started.

Kristy (15:57)
Yes,

that's in the first 50 pages this happened.

Jon (16:01)
Yeah. yeah, that was exhausting.

Kristy (16:06)
As I've already mentioned, I personally thought that Tegan was a very unlikeable main character. She makes a lot of assumptions about Polly and her husband. So Polly and Hank are the people, me back up. Tegan, she is going to visit her brother for three weeks in upstate Maine. She gets in the car in a snowstorm and has a crash. And Hank saves her. He brings her to his house. He's married to Polly. So despite,

Tegan's instincts telling her that something was wrong, like did you have any more thoughts that you haven't already shared about how much you dislike Tegan?

Jon (16:45)
I think you pretty much just shared all of them. was a really hard character to root for, to get behind. just, I never felt scared for her. A lot of her story just felt repetitive and kind of boring. And again, why was she talking to the unborn baby? I just felt like that was random and had real, no impact to the rest of the story, though it kept coming up. Like there was going to be some premise.

Kristy (17:05)
No,

I totally actually disagree with that. The narrative from Polly's chapters is that Polly thinks that Tegan is an unwed young girl who doesn't want this baby, who quote, made a mistake like this baby's ruining her life. Like that's what Polly thinks. And I feel like the baby saying stuff to Tegan.

It showed the connection she really has, actually shows that Tegan is trying to do what is best for the baby, despite her not doing it every time. But I feel like that was a little bit like, no, Tegan actually does care about this child.

Jon (17:45)
I really did try to be empathetic to her in situation. I just, I couldn't. And it wasn't just her decisions, right? It was how she rationalized them, her refusal to like even remove the boot after she unquote trusting Polly. Right. Who's also a nurse. And if saving your own born child is so important and saving your own life and you took this moment, it's like,

Kristy (18:02)
Holly's a nurse by the

Jon (18:12)
that getting infected or that becoming anything worse than what it already probably is, it goes against any of those things as well as...

Kristy (18:19)
I know her not taking the boot off when she goes. This is when I yelled I was like, cause you have gangrene. Like that's why you can't feel your foot.

Jon (18:28)
Yeah. And like you mentioned, all the snap judgements that she makes, right? The bruise that she sees on Polly's wrist immediately snaps to think that her husband's abusing her and that leads to a whole thing and the heavy footsteps and yelling and then, Oh, must be Hank abusing her, blah, blah, blah. Like not really stopping to listen or think about any of the things that led her to that point. Like he saved her from dying in the car wreck. He went back.

to the car to get her purse and get her belongings and get her.

Kristy (18:58)
Go get someone's luggage if you're going to kill them. Right.

Jon (19:02)
And like, just, yeah, anyway, so that's what I think about tea and I just, bleh.

Kristy (19:07)
So we see Tegan making a lot of assumptions about Polly, but what about the assumptions that Polly makes about Tegan and her situation? What do think of Polly's character?

Jon (19:19)
Polly was just as obnoxious. She's really not even villainous. She's just judgy and delusional and manipulative. like, again, I tried to muster up a...

Kristy (19:30)
I think she has

mental health problems also. I don't want to say she's like, she's not a villain. I don't even think she is judgy. think she's just delusional. She has a warp sense of the world and what's fair because she feels slighted because she has been able to have a child.

Jon (19:49)
I just couldn't, I really tried to muster up empathy for her. I even dipped into the well of reflecting on our own challenges with infertility and I still couldn't with her.

Kristy (19:59)
I

had empathy for Polly right up until the fact that she's holding someone hostage in her basement against their will. Like, I had empathy for her for the things that her and Hank went through, you know, going through infertility, it not working, having a failed adoption. You know, I think, I don't remember if they say it was through adoption or through the foster care system. Like you said, we've through that. So I had empathy through all those things, but it doesn't excuse...

what she did to Tegan and what she was thinking about doing to Tegan.

Jon (20:32)
think for me it was just there were such wild character swings for both her and Tegan that just made it really hard to build any kind of sustainable empathy for the two over the place that they were in. And then also like, how does she get the happy ending? How the fuck does that happen? How does she get the child at the end? Because she wasn't as bad as the neighbor. So that makes it, I just, I hated the ending so much.

Kristy (20:59)
So let's move away from that for a second. Let's talk about Teagan survival skills. Or lack thereof. Did you admire her dedication or resolve to save herself and her unborn baby? Or do you think that there was more she could have done? Sure.

Jon (21:10)
That's a joke, right?

Let's drive eight months pregnant in an old front wheel drive car on a rural road in the dark and a blizzard because the GPS said to go off the main highway. And then let's refuse the removal of the boot for her ankle, which probably should have been priority number one because that shit gets infected. It's going to get real, real fast after that. And then she has the courage to stab like, okay, then she stabs Polly with a fork, then only drops it. And then

doesn't really get anything out of it. And then she finds a syringe and then fails to use that in a sort of meaningful way. now I'm the one that sounds judgy actually. I just don't understand how Freida can write such a weak protagonist of a woman in this story. I'm sorry. just, maybe I am going to rate it lower.

Kristy (22:00)
You were totally judging.

My favorite part was she's in a basement where Polly's mother was staying when Polly's mother was ill. They created this little medical room for her in the basement and she had a wheelchair. so Tegan's in the wheelchair and she's like wheeling, she's by herself and she's like wheeling around saying she needs to find a weapon. And she's like, even a paperclip, I can't even say it with a straight face, even a paperclip can be used as a weapon.

I'm like one girl, you are not MacGyver, but also you were telling me that you are smart enough to use a paperclip as a weapon, but you do not have the strength to drag your ass up the stairs after being held against your will for days. No. As someone who has broken four bones in their back, I felt I can totally relate to the amount of pain she was in. No, I was not eight months pregnant when this happened.

Jon (23:02)
No.

Kristy (23:13)
We're talking about four bones in my back versus an ankle. Okay? Yes, it hurts. I'm not discounting that, but you can sit your ass on the bottom stair and use your good ankle to just push yourself up with your arms one step at a time. Come on.

Jon (23:29)
At least you got to try, like at least try, even if you fail, like just.

Kristy (23:34)
She

just is like, this is my situation. I have asked them to let me go. That really bothered me.

Jon (23:41)
Yeah. Definition of insanity is keep asking the same question and hoping for a different outcome. So, survival skills, none.

Kristy (23:50)
Life will be hard. you think Polly handled Sadie's situation in the correct way? Sadie is the next door neighbor's daughter and the next door neighbor is a single father. He's a drunk and Polly is like giving her lunch sometimes because she's not eating or her father is abusing her. So do you feel like Polly handled that situation the correct way? And do you think that actually put Sadie in possible more danger?

Jon (24:19)
So out of the whole book, this little subplot, it might've been the only storyline in the book that I didn't find obnoxious and I could actually empathize with a little bit. Now, what Polly should have probably done was call CPS out of the gate and...

Kristy (24:32)
She did. She did and CPS did nothing. Which

is why she's,

Jon (24:40)
taking food to the child and having the child come to your house, I think was risky, I think. And that's actually how Polly got the bruise on her wrist was from Mitch because he came over to yell at Sadie, I'm sorry, to yell at Polly to be like, this is not your kid. So it was risky, but it was admirable. I think her decision to then leave food on their front porch and just kind of let it be and let it be there and let her know that she's helping in the way that she felt she could without.

Kristy (24:55)
Stay away from my kid.

Jon (25:08)
getting her possibly into more trouble or anything. I did, I thought she handled that part actually quite well and admirably. What did you think?

Kristy (25:18)
do think that she could have possibly been putting Sadie in more danger though. I think she probably should have had a conversation with Sadie that like, if your dad's not home and you're hungry, you can come knock and like, I'll put food outside. But like, she probably shouldn't have invited her into the home. Out of an abundance of caution for Sadie's sake. Like not her own sake, cause she's an adult. But first, you don't know when that child goes back home, like what...

abuse that child is going to suffer at the hands of, you know, her father who obviously has already been abusing her. But I appreciated Polly for, you know, trying to do to help her. But I did fear that she was putting Sadie in a little bit more danger. But mean, at least she was trying to, you know, do the right thing. So Hank, Polly's husband takes her side throughout most of the novel, despite his misgivings.

and not agreeing with her on how she was specifically handling both Sadie and what becomes Tegan and that problem. So did you agree with his decision to stand by his woman?

Jon (26:26)
Hank was honestly the only character I really kind of felt for.

Kristy (26:31)
I liked him.

Jon (26:33)
I liked him a lot too. You could really feel the angst and sort of that inner conflict that he was struggling with through the whole story. He knew it was wrong, but love can make you do some crazy ass shit. And especially with someone that he loves and he watched who Polly was as the good person, as the good nurse that she was and watched her decline to where she is today. I can totally, and stood by her through all of that, right?

Yeah. Made all the sacrifices. And so this was actually a genuine scenario I could empathize and be like, I can see why he would choose to go along with this despite every fiber in his body saying this is wrong, this wrong, this wrong. Yeah. It actually became pretty clear to me that Hank was going to be the one to eventually take her to the hospital. I thought that was pretty obvious all the way through the story. Sure. I wish he would have done it sooner. Like maybe after she stabbed his wife, you know, with the fork, like that have been a sign.

The next morning would be like, this is not okay. Like she, you were physically harmed by this person who clearly doesn't want to be here.

Kristy (27:39)
No, not even after that. Like the next day after they got up, it's daylight. You knew she had a broken ankle.

Jon (27:47)
Yep. I don't want to jump too far ahead here, but I also thought it was pretty going to be pretty obvious that he was going to be the one to kill Mitch. Otherwise, like, I don't really know what purpose Mitch and Sadie had in this story. Yeah. That wasn't really like a twist. Right. Totally. Exactly. Yeah. Hank overall, I think he was my favorite character through everything. What did you think of Hank?

Kristy (28:08)
I think, I liked Hank also. I felt he was like the saving grace in this story. I think he made some bad decisions too, but again, he really loves Polly and he's trying to acquiesce to some of what she has going on because I think he feels tremendous guilt for what she has gone through. I think that part of my problem with the story now, like talking through it is the, just the plot seems thin.

And I say that as Tegan not being able to make it up the stairs. I don't buy it. I don't buy that Hank would acquiesce to everything his wife wants because they lied on their taxes. Like that was one of big things. Who's not trying to lie on their taxes and get the most amount of money? Right, I know. So anyway, I just felt like for me, maybe that was where I found fault.

Jon (28:52)
That's what he held over his head or whatever.

money

Kristy (29:04)
and the storyline is just like the thinness of some of these reasons of why characters are doing things. And I felt that with Hank. Like, are you serious, Hank? Because you're afraid because of a taxing? Like, come on.

Jon (29:18)
Yeah, I agree with the thinness of the plotline and the stories and going to prison seemed to be a big motivator for him. Like, I guess he had been there and he like he was going to do everything to not go back there. again, like

Kristy (29:30)
did

six months because he assaulted someone on, they were defending Polly.

Jon (29:34)
yeah, he was defending poly.

But I'm like, even that is sure. I've never been to prison. I don't know what it's like. I probably wouldn't want to go back either, but I don't think I would kidnap.

Kristy (29:44)
I

was probably also jail too, not prison. I'm not, again, I'm not.

Jon (29:47)
Anyway, yeah

points. Yes, your point is valid. Yeah, poor Hank

Kristy (29:54)
I know, I did feel bad for Hank.

Jon (29:56)
I did too. And then when he actually did drop Teagan off and he's like begging her not to get Holly in trouble, like my heart broke for him a little bit.

Kristy (30:06)
So with that, do you think that Hank and Polly are ultimately good people? And do you think they're going to make good parents for Sadie given what we've learned in the book about them?

Jon (30:16)
This was a hard one. yes. I'm going to go. I'm going to say yes. Now let me. You can say yes. know. Well, on everything I said up to this point, it would be safe to assume that I would say no to this answer. But I think in general, they were good people. I think we find it hard. I think you and I personally, and you can tell me if I'm wrong on this. I think we both kind of find it hard when people identify only as someone who will raise a child or is like, that's their sole identity or something to that effect. Right. And I know this was.

This was clearly Polly. Polly's sole identity and state of being was to be a mom. And that's just something that is difficult for us to relate to. And I know that there's plenty out there and there's nothing wrong. I want to make sure like there's nothing wrong with that at all. And that's the thing that just hasn't been the path for you and I. So like when she was a nurse, she was seemingly a good nurse. And I just think the unfortunate circumstances and the mental health downturn that happened to Polly due to all these issues and how much...

Hank loved her and kind of declined with her in certain ways. Well, yeah, to some degree, because he's going along with this plot. So I mean, there's some sense of decline in his judgment because of the journey that he along with her, right? So yes, I think in a full picture, they're probably good people that had really unfortunate things happen to them and the circumstances surrounding them. To your second question.

Kristy (31:15)
You felt he declined with her?

I see.

Jon (31:40)
Would they make good parents? This depends on your definition of good. Would they be better than Mitch? Yes, absolutely. Would they shower her with love and adoration? I 100 % agree they would. But I also think they'd be wildly overprotective, which can have its own consequences and all these things. just, she'll have food, she'll have shelter, she'll have love. And I think

Kristy (32:08)
in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, she's at least on the bottom. The bare minimum is required.

Jon (32:14)
the bare requirements

Yeah,

yeah. see, this was a hard question. Like I'm sounding so judgy, but that's-

Kristy (32:24)
don't think you're sounding judgy at all. mean, but that's someone who's judgy as fuck. mean, I guess.

Jon (32:30)
I'm usually not the judge. You definitely carry that torch for the both of us most of the time. But I would love your answer to this question in both parts. Are they good people and do you think they'd be good parents?

Kristy (32:43)
Do I think at their core they're good people? Yes. I think that even though Polly makes some terrible decisions, Terrible decisions. And honestly, she deserved to answer for some of the decisions that she made, which...

She's not going to, but she really did. OK, however, and this is not to excuse any of the bad things she did because she did some really fucked up things. But when it came to the really bad things that she was thinking about doing, she didn't do any of them. She literally goes down to the basement to break Teagan's knee. So she doesn't go up the stairs and she decides what the like, what the hell am I doing? She goes to the hospital.

And she ends up saving Tegan from her brother, because her brother ends up being the one who cut her brake line and the reason she gets in the crash to begin with. So we see actually Polly come through in these real key moments where she actually decides to make good decisions like she made with Sadie. So do I think they're good people? Yes, I think that like you're saying, she...

has identified with wanting to be a mom since she and Hank have been married, which has been for a long time, and they have had no success. And as a woman who has gone through that, but has moved past that, I do know in the moment there were some really hard times. And luckily for me, I had other things I cared about and wanted to do and be besides that that got me through it. So I think that Polly...

has unfortunately just been she got dealt a bad hand and she's not playing it very well. Do I think she's going to make a good parent? I think that Sadie will have food, shelter, love. Well, she'll definitely have love. Is it food, shelter? It's food, shelter. And what's the other one? Water? It's not love. Love's like way high up. Anyway, she will have food, shelter and water for sure.

She will be protected. I actually think Hank will make a great dad. Polly, on the other hand, I agree with you with the overprotectiveness. I don't know. I mean, better than Mitch. The bar is low.

Jon (35:00)
Yeah.

I know, right? I think that's the only reason why he was in this was to make Polly look less awful.

Kristy (35:08)
I don't think that's totally true.

Jon (35:13)
Anyway,

Kristy (35:15)
I

Polly would have taken the money and ran.

Jon (35:18)
Yeah, yeah, I think so too.

Kristy (35:20)
I don't

know, it's hard to say because what makes, like you said, what makes a good parent. Yeah. So, Tegan is in a car accident. She gets saved by this stranger. I'm just wondering, how trusting are you of strangers? And how trusting do you think you would be if you were in a compromised state like Tegan was?

Jon (35:24)
Right? What's your definition of good?

You know this, but others may not know this. I grew up in a very small town with very little to fear of the people around me. Practically. I mean, the biggest thing to be afraid of was like the class bully. Basically is what I felt like growing up. but I like again, I came from a stable home. I'm a white dude in a small ass Midwestern town. So like there wasn't a lot for me to like inherently fear.

Kristy (35:51)
All five of them.

Jon (36:09)
And I think because of this, yeah, I think I am at times too trusting of strangers and harking back to some memories and poor decisions that I made when I lived in Florida over one particular New Year's Eve. That probably proves my point of how trusting of strangers I can be.

Kristy (36:29)
that you have a terrible British accent.

Jon (36:32)
And then I have a terrible British accent, yeah. Now, I also would like to think that if I was in a compromising situation, even with that, that I would know how to take certain cues that Tegan either chose to ignore or was simply too young to recognize. Again, like this guy is saving me, yes, he looks scary, but he went back for my things when I asked him to. He was very gentle with me taking me to the house. He asked me if I was okay, and like just a lot of other social cues that were ignored.

I know you grew up in the Detroit area, which was a very different way of growing up in the US, so you have healthy skepticism of strangers, and so I would imagine like your answer would be slightly different than mine.

Kristy (37:14)
I'm also a woman.

So I have to think about things that you don't have to think about. Like when it's dark out, where my car is parked, like who's around me. I don't walk with headphones in when I'm at night by myself. I do have a healthy skepticism of people, but I also feel like I'm not thinking everyone's out to get me. And in this situation, I totally agree with you. Like no one who is there,

and has intent to kill you, is bringing a shovel and helping you out your car door. And then she gets weirded out because he's not talking to her in the car. It's literally a blizzard. It's very much described. Yeah, it's a whiteout. Yeah, it's a whiteout. You can't see. So he's trying to drive. They're on these back roads. Like, yeah, don't talk to me either. I want to live. So while I think that I would be freaked out,

I don't know that Polly immediately had bad intentions right away. I thought that was maybe she was just trying to be, no, like she was just trying to help Tegan. Like you will be more comfortable downstairs. Like I know that it started off with like, I'm gonna steal this person's baby. She, she didn't know that. And.

Jon (38:18)
Opportunistic.

Yeah, that's fair.

Kristy (38:36)
I understand that a lot of times it's the husband. Don't get me wrong. There's a reason that the line is, it's always the husband, okay? Because it is a lot of times. And you can't ignore bruises on women because those can be signs of something super nefarious going on. But even if you thought they were from Hank, she's trying to Polly to open up to her, but she's just lying to her the whole time too. So I'm like, do you not think that she knows you're lying? What was the even question?

Jon (39:04)
know anymore something about stranger danger

Kristy (39:07)
stranger danger. Yeah, I think that I have to worry about things that you don't have to worry about, but I would have been a little bit more trusting in the beginning. All right. So did you see any of the twists coming? And on the flip side, were you expecting more of a twist at the end?

Jon (39:27)
You know, I actually did see the twist coming in this one and I was very proud of myself for it because you've said Freida has this way of writing where like you see a twist and then there's another one and you're just not expecting it and... Wait. I saw a hank killing me. okay. Yeah, that's the second one. But I didn't see her brother. I did not actually pick up that her brother was going to be the main culprit. Yeah. Thinking back, it did register...

Kristy (39:39)
Which one did you see was coming? It's coming. That's the second twist.

Jon (39:53)
as odd that he asked Tigen to bring this random flask. It stuck and it felt random, but it never registered far enough to draw the line to.

Kristy (40:03)
Yeah,

I knew it had to be for a reason because she talks about bringing the flask, spills in her purse. It's just mentioned multiple times that it made me realize that it had to play a part. he cuts her brake lines. That's why her car crashes. He thought that she would like crash and die, I guess, and that she would have this flask on her and she had been drinking. They would think that she was drinking.

Jon (40:29)
I also, even though I knew I'd hate it, I had a suspicion that Polly would somehow wind up caring for Sadie. And that fucking happened anyway. the only one I didn't see was her brother. Which ones did you?

Kristy (40:43)
I totally knew that Hank was gonna kill Mitch. That was so obvious. I knew the flask had to come into play, so I knew that her brother was obviously pretty shady. Him holding this huge grudge over her enough to kill her, think, again, kind of thin for me, but it's your sister.

Jon (41:05)
Great.

So many things.

Kristy (41:08)
So I

know this is your second Freida novel, but how do you feel like it was in comparison to the other one you read?

Jon (41:15)
So I read The Boyfriend, which was the first. I enjoyed The Boyfriend. I don't remember. I think I gave it a four. It definitely kept me more engaged in turning it like, yeah, the main character in that book drove me nuts too, but in a different kind of way than this book. After I finished it, I think I walked into your office. After I knew you had finished it, I walked into your office and I was like, I don't know that I'd want to read another Freida book.

Kristy (41:39)
Which

made me sad.

Jon (41:40)
It is a little sad, but like I love thrillers. Like I love that genre. And I think I know I've only this has only been my second one, but if I'm going to spend time reading a thriller mystery, I want a different, I want somebody different. So I thought it was boring. I thought it was predictable. was lame ass female characters.

Kristy (41:57)
I don't think it was boring. It was infuriating. I don't think it was boring. I didn't care about the characters.

Jon (42:02)
I just wasn't engaged, I guess.

Right, that's my translation. It was boring because I didn't care about the characters.

Kristy (42:12)
I didn't care

about them because I thought they were making stupid decisions. I thought some of the plot lines were a little thin, which we've talked about, but I read it really fast because it so irritated. I'm like, what a stupid thing are they going to do now? So would you recommend this book to our listeners? Just no, no. No, that's pretty harsh.

Jon (42:28)
Peace.

I would recommend Freida. I would be like, you know what, give her a shot. think based on the boyfriend, her arc is kind of fun. Like the double twist thing is fun. The multiple point of views piece is fun. But I don't know, like if you're into mystery and thrillers and stuff, I'd find it different.

Kristy (42:47)
A different author? Book. Okay. I would say, as I have, this is not my favorite Freida book, but not every book is for every person. So I would say if you like Freida and you like Misery by Stephen King, you might really like this story. So I just think it's not every book is for every person. There are people who are going to read this book and love it. It wasn't for me.

Jon (42:49)
I find a different book.

You might.

Be you there.

Kristy (43:16)
Well, all right.

Jon (43:19)
Wrap it up.

Kristy (43:20)
And we want to remind everyone that the next two books in our lineup are The Women by Kristin Hannah and Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli, which is the second book in the Heartless Hunter duology, which was released last year. So if you read Heartless Hunter and you are just maybe diving into Rebel Witch, then you should head over to season one of our podcast, because we did cover Heartless Hunter there as well.

Jon (43:47)
Which I loved. I love that book. I'm really excited for Rebel Witch and The Women. I'm really excited to talk about that one too. Both of them.

Kristy (43:54)
The Women was probably my favorite book of last year. Damn. And I have already read Rebel Witch and I'm excited to talk about it. And don't forget that a free way to support our show is by leaving us a review and rating us on Apple Podcasts. Also, if you don't want to us but you have a question, as Jon mentioned earlier in the show, you can email us at bookstimemakemyhusbandread at gmail.com. We would absolutely love to hear from you. But I guess that is all today.

Jon (44:24)
That is another one in the books and I'm ready to put this one on the shelf.

Kristy (44:28)
Oh, that was good. I got it that time. All right. Well, who knows? Maybe this will be the one your husband reads.

Jon (44:37)
Don't force him though if he doesn't want to. Maybe. There's plenty other good ones out there. Sorry, Freida. Okay then, bye-bye.

Kristy (44:39)
Yeah.

Alright, take care!

Stay away from strangers.

Jon (44:49)
Stranger danger!

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