Hi, greetings. Welcome to my home for another week of Wednesday Night Book Club. I'm your
host Andy Rice and this week we're going to discuss the book The Destroyer of Worlds 2023
by Matt Rupp. This is the sequel to a book that I covered a couple weeks ago called Lovecraft
Country. It's actually called The Destroyer of Worlds, A Return to Lovecraft Country.
This is a direct sequel starring the same characters as before. You're following the
Turner family along with the Barry family and the... I don't know if Letitia is part
of the Barry family or if that's just a friend, but you also follow Letitia and Ruby who are
also part of the first book. So this is again sort of an episodic. Each chapter feels like
an episode of a TV show. I think in the first book, I don't know if he intentionally did
it that way. He sort of just did like maybe Twilight Zone, but the chapters did seem to
blend together into a more cohesive story. This one does feel more like you're reading
a TV show, if that makes any sense. It's like it has almost like commercial breaks in it.
Not commercial breaks, but it has like these perfect segues of... Like for instance, when
it opens, you're following Atticus' slave ancestor and you're following his escape along
with another woman, another woman slave that he picks up along the way sort of, and they
escape and you're following... And Atticus is celebrating the centennial of their escape
from slavery. So him and Montrose, his father, Montrose and him, they were on their way to
where they were going to follow the road or sort of the path in which the two slaves left
the plantation and got to safety. But of course, it being the South in the 50s, they are confronted
by racism and because this is a Lovecraft book, they're also confronted by mystical
shit as well. So their journey is not easy. They end up actually following the same road
that the slaves took in a less vacationy sort of celebratory way and more of a just to get
out of the way or just to safely get away from these people trying to kill them. So
they ended up following the path for the same reasons that their ancestors did, which is
kind of cool. I'm not cool like it's happening, but it was like a cool... I like that it sort
of shadowed the other one. You also have George and I'm assuming that if you're listening
to I guess a review or if you came to the book club for Lovecraft Country number two,
then I'm assuming you've read the first one or at least you've seen the TV show. So I
guess if you haven't, the basic of it is that George Berry has a guide called the Safe Negro
Travel Guide, him and his family and along with Atticus and Monkro. They go out and they
scout America finding the safe places for Negroes to travel in that time era. And so
they go on all these like expeditions and one of the expeditions takes... and that was
a lot in the first book. That's how we kind of got around places or why we went places
and like why the characters went places in the first book. And it's sort of the reason
why they go places here. So George finds out that he has cancer and so he makes a deal
with the ghost of the Winthrop House to get that cancer, you know, he makes a deal with
him, bring Winthrop back from the dead and he will cure George's cancer. So George gets
his Mason buddies together, the ones that helped him go into that cool anti-gravity
trap chamber at the museum in the last book. He gets them together again to go get a body
out of a morgue, bring it to, you know, Winthrop's house or wherever and have the... and do the
like the ceremony to bring him back from the dead, which they accomplish, but you know,
that ends up being awful because they bring back Winthrop and Winthrop's a powerful sorcerer.
On the other hand, you have Hippolyta, who is George's wife and she's not telling him
what's going on. He's not telling her what's going on. They do end up getting into an argument
about that later, but it's sort of one of those, hey, you fucked up, I fucked up. So
we can't be really too mad at each other kind of deals. So Hippolyta, working with Winthrop's
ghost herself, she is going on errands for him. She's kind of doing work for him. And
if you remember in the last book, one of my favorite parts is that she discovers a interdimensional
portal, like machine that lets her go to an infinite number of universes. That one was
in an observatory where you could see where you're going before you cross the threshold.
So she types in the prime, like the one that's sort of the Winthrop's planet, I guess. And
she goes there and she meets the maid Winthrop's maid who got punished and sent there. So Hippolyta
was never able to go back to that observatory. But in this book, she finds through Winthrop's
help, she finds a portable portal gun sort of thing like a little machine that like lets
her go to any of the dimensions at will. The problem is that this one doesn't have a little
projector. This one has just a green light and three red lights. And if you get to the
third red light, you're basically going into like the center of a sun, you're not going
to make it a green light means it's safe ish. One red light is, you know, you can look around,
you probably get out without injuring yourself with a machine, but it's it's risky. And number
two would be like, you're going into space. So you could probably survive about 10 seconds
before having to come back, which she does use as a weapon later, which is fucking awesome.
Some guys attacking her. So she holds she hugs him, lets out her breath. So it doesn't
expand, you know, doesn't like killer when she goes into space, and then takes this dude
out and outer space. Let's go of him. He takes in a deep breath, which I guess is the worst
thing you're supposed to do when you're dropped into, you know, in the zero gravity space
or whatever. So don't do that if you're ever launched out of a ship, I guess. But yeah,
he tries to grab her at the last minute, she kicks off of them, comes back super cool.
What it like she's one of the dopest characters for being like a woman in her 40s. Not typically
your standard, like quick thinking action hero in a book or a movie. And I love it.
I love that she's so like, smart and she like knows what she's doing. Like she's, she's
cool. She's probably my favorite character in the book. So she's doing that. Ruby, which
is a Letitia sister and like Letitia is with Hippolyta and so is Horace, her son, and they're
off you know, doing that. Ruby, on the other hand, who if you remember from the last one
got a potion that gave her the ability to turn into a white woman who she named Hillary
Hyde. She is now down to her last hundred hundred and fifty doses. And it's getting
bad on top of that. Her boss decided to hit on her, which is another woman and Ruby, who
the timing of it wasn't even that like, I don't even think she had the opportunity to
really think is this something I, you know, I'm into because it was one of those Cinderella
situations where her outfit was tearing apart, which by the way, in Cinderella, let's just
be real for a moment. You have Prince Charming, whoever I think that's his name, Prince Charming.
He sees this beautiful woman in this great gown, glass slippers and all that. They have
a wonderful time together. They're dancing. Are you to tell me that like if some hot chick
in a fancy outfit were to then, I don't know, turn into like a poor chick in a not so elegant
outfit that that somehow changes her body and face and personality to the point where
you're like disgusted with her? No. And I understand that that's like Cinderella and
she was sort of gaslit by the godmother. Like the godmother should have been like, hey,
yeah, my magic only lasts till midnight. So make a good impression, you know, and maybe
get that dress off before midnight. And that way, if you turn into like, you know what
I mean? Like if she hooked up with the prince, then he would have eventually gotten her out
of that dress at some point. And so he would have seen her just as so it just doesn't make
any sense. Plus, what a cool flex to be like, yeah, you see my pumpkin carriage over there
when I don't need it anymore. Watch this, it's going to turn into a couple of rats.
And then it just boom. And it's walks around with that, like puts the mice in her pocket
and leaves would be awesome. I'd be like really cool. The prince would probably be totally
into it anyway. So Ruby gets kissed right as her body is breaking out of its white shell
from the from the the potion. By the way, in the show, Ruby is played by the same actress
who is in Loki as the the guard from Loki, the one that is well, I guess in the first
season, I haven't started the second season yet. But in the first season, she's sort of
like a antagonist to Loki. But that doesn't necessarily make her a bad person. I think
most people who are antagonists to antagonistic to Loki are good guys. So but she's also a
TVA agent. So she's sort of gaslit and brainwashed into doing a job that maybe she wouldn't do
on her own. So I don't know. But she's amazing. And she's amazing as Ruby. And so I it's one
of the few times that when I'm reading a book that has a video adaptation component to it,
that I picture that character instead of the one that I created in my own head, like Harry
Potter is pretty much ruined. I don't think I could read the Harry Potter books again
and not picture Daniel Radcliffe or Emma Watson or Rupert Grint. But I think with this one,
my Atticus was a little bit different. Like I don't remember what George looked like from
the show. So my George was different and Montrose was different. And Horace was different. I
think Atticus I thought of Jonathan Majors. But but for Ruby, man, I could not ever get
that chick out of my head when it comes she did such a good job. And she does such a good
job and Loki. So anyway, she's running out of serum, she gets tricked by her brother
who shows up. And she realizes that her like, as she's it's so she comes home and her brothers
out on her doorstep. He's like, Hey, sis, I need your help. Things have been falling
on hard times. I need your help. She's like, Yeah, great. I got this house. You can absolutely
stay here. So he does. And then one day and I like the way that Matt Ruff, the author
describes like the epiphany moment that she has when she's walking. And it hits her like
a ton of bricks where she's just like, Wait a minute. How the hell did my brother know
where I lived? I've never given him this address. Like I haven't given most people this address
or anybody really other than my work. So like, how do you know where I was? And so she was
leaving the grocery store and she has this epiphany like she goes back in the grocery
store and gets one more item and we as the reader don't know what that is. But she gets
home. She has a brother and she's talking to him and she goes, Oh, yeah, hey, by the
way, this peanut butter that I bought is on sale. It's a different brand. And she takes
like a lick of it. She goes, I think it's a little sweeter than normal. What do you
think? And he grabs the peanut butter, puts his finger in, you know, takes a dollop. He
goes, Yeah, it's a little bit sweet. And then he starts to have an anaphylactic shock because
he the brother the physical body of the brother is allergic to peanut butter, which is something
that you would not forget if you were allergic to peanut butter, you wouldn't be in the same
room as an open can of peanut butter. So he starts to die. And then to save himself, Kayla
Braithwaite, the main villain from the first book, who was the one that gave Ruby her potions,
the one that gave her that house, the one that caused unending grief for the Turner
family. He ends up breaking out of her out of her brother's skin. And they have a spat,
I guess you could call it like a bit of a fight and Ruby leaves. Which that was one
of the coolest deductions from a character I think I've seen in a book where she like
it was a cool it was a cool twist. I didn't when she pulled out the peanut butter, I started
to think, oh, wait a minute. You know, like this could be like he might be allergic to
peanut butter or whatever, like it was just a good, good setup. I really liked it. So
Montrose and Atticus are being chased by the cop that they ran into on the way to Arkham,
the Caleb Braithwaite's father's manor in the first book in which they burned to the
ground by the end of it. But one of the things that Caleb did was make it so that the cop
that they pissed off on the town right outside of that manor area would forget about them.
But unfortunately, Atticus and Montrose on their way to the to go see the centennial
sort of the route that their ancestors took, they get into a car accident with that cop
right in front of a prison line of black men working, you know, in the like digging hole
digging ditch or whatever, and a highway patrolman guy or a cop guy with a with a shotgun,
they see the crash and the cop immediately gets out the one that gets into the head on
collision with them. He gets out and just once he recognizes Atticus, he starts shooting
the gun and the other cop just seeing a white guy shooting at black people just joins in
and so Atticus and Montrose leave and end up following that path. They end up getting
on a train and escaping but not without the help of the spirit of the woman who helped
Atticus's ancestor Nat Turner get across or get it you know, escape. She died in the swamp,
but you know, she helped Atticus's ancestor escape. Now, I didn't know who Nat Turner
was. I wasn't taught that in school, just another thing that they kind of gloss over
and I realized it was a slave who led a like a four-day rebellion against the owners of
plantation and killed a bunch of people, which is fucking awesome. So Atticus's ancestor
who is escaping, young man, he tells the woman who's with him, he says, he goes, I want to
when she asks, what's your name going to be? He says Nat Turner. She says, well, that's
some big shoes to fill. He's like, why intend to? And so he leaves. He ends up meeting some
people in the swamp. They end up taking care of him and then we get Horace who is dealing
with the death of this girl that he knew who just got shot because some cop was chasing
someone and started firing. Just he didn't mean to kill her, but you know, he ended up
killing her and that's messing with Horace and it's making him angry, especially with
authority. And there's a moment where they get pulled over on the like Hippolyta, Leticia
and Horace get pulled over on their way to the pawn shop in which Hippolyta picks up
her portal gun and they're pulled over by two cops and they have a trailer that they're
carrying like a jet stream kind of trailer and the cop pulls him over and when he all
he wants to do is ask her, ask Hippolyta about the, about the thing, about like what the,
how much the jet stream, you know, how much the trailer costs, what's the, what's it like,
you know, he just was a curious guy, but Horace like mean like mugs him, you know, it gives
him a, like a mean look because he's upset with authority and the cop pulls him out and
because he's rational, he goes, Hey, listen, kid, this isn't the kind of thing you want
to do and it could have been a lot worse for you, but it's fine. You know, I'm not going
to do anything. His partner almost like if it was his partner that pulled them over and
not him, it would have been bad. Like it would have been, you know, a situation where maybe
they got hurt or at the very least arrested, but you know, it could have been a lot worse.
And so they, so he's going through that, but he does end up learning how to keep that rage
in check and use it, I think a little bit more, just use it more wisely. And basically
they all end up banning together, you know, at the end again to stop Caleb and with the
scopes this time, you find out that George, you find out that Caleb was behind a lot more
of this than you, than we initially thought, including, oh, actually, I don't know if it
was Caleb that made George think his cancer was fake or if it was a Winthrop, but one
of the two lied to George about the cancer to get him to do what he was doing. And Caleb
ends up killing Winthrop. There's a whole, the ending, I think was just a little bit,
a little bit convoluted, a little bit cluttered. I do like the individual story through lines
that they were doing throughout it. I like the lodge members that George was with. They're
kind of like a, they're funny, like they're funny and they're helpful and they're loyal
and they're, you know, they have their objections over things. They, you know, which I like,
I like that they don't just blindly go along with it. It takes a lot to get them to go
along with this insane plan to go steal a body. I like Ruby getting deceived. I like
her, the double life that she leads. I like that it's, it's morally complicated for her,
but it's, but still, you know, she enjoys it. But at the same time, she knows that it's
wrong, I guess, to be someone that you're not. She does end up confiding this finally
to her family as opposed to, in the first book she didn't. So she was just living this
whole time without anyone knowing. I like that Atticus and Montrose, I like their relationship
in this one. Overall, I thought this was a great follow-up to Lovecraft Country. I wanted
more Lovecraft, this delivered on it. I hope we get a third one. I would love to see more
adventures of the Turner family go and do, you know, go and do these like cool horror.
I know it says Lovecraftian a lot, and again, I haven't read any, any Lovecraft. So I will.
I bought the 50 something hour long audio book of the entire HB Lovecraft collection
and I will read that at some point, I will cover it and I will reference these books
and I'll go back and take a better look at these once I'm, once I have to see all the
kind of cool references that they were making to Lovecraft that Matt Ruff was making. By
the way, I don't know if this is relevant or anything, but Matt Ruff is a white guy
and he's writing a very engaging, thought provoking, emotional ride, a book about a
family of black people in the 50s during Jim Crow era laws. And I think it's like, it's
like, I don't know how he empathizes in the way that he does, but it comes out like, you
know, it surprised me when I found out that he was a white author, not, not an African
American author who was writing from, you know, like a place of being someone who would
be an ancestor of something like that, or could be, you know, like I thought maybe that's,
it was like a love project, maybe started off as like a love project to the idea of
making, you know, black people back then instead of victims all the time, make them heroes
in which this definitely does this every, every person in this book, all the main characters
are smart and capable and they, you know, they're bad ass in their own way, which I
love and they're not, they are victims of circumstance and they are victims of racism.
They are victims of, of these, I mean, these horrific old magical things, you know, but
they're confident and they hold their own and they end up getting the better of it often.
So out of five, let's see, we did Cthulhu arms last time. Let's see out of five, oh,
out of five possible dimensions that you could jump into. I give this a solid, I'm going
to say four, maybe three and a half, four. I'm going to go with four because I didn't
want to put it down, you know, like I really was engaged the entire time. There wasn't
a boring part. There wasn't anything that I, that was too slow or, or that didn't need
to be in there. I, for some reason though, it didn't hold the same, it didn't grip me
the same way as the first one did, but that's fine. I'm excited to see if there's a third
one. So thanks for joining us, joining me, Wednesday Night Book Club. Next week we will
be talking about the brand new Stephen King short story collection, You Like It Darker
Stories by Stephen King. I am about halfway through right now. I'm loving it. It's a bunch
of little short stories, so it's going to be interesting to review, talk about. I might
just highlight a few that I liked. There's quite a few in there. So far it's great. Can't
wait to talk about it. And then the week after that, we have a very special book club with
special guests, Austin and Sean. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're all going to read
the same book. We're going to talk about it, which will be great. It doesn't just have
to be me. So thanks so much for joining me, you guys. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
And please go to friedricepodcast.com, go to the bottom, send me a message. Let me know
what book you want me to read next. And I will. All right. Have a good night, guys.
Bye.