Starting off the chapter with Louise defending her family in her head because she’s bothered about her cousin’s remarks at the end of the last chapter that her family is weird is the most anxiety spiral core relatable energy so far. I’m loving the way anxiety and anxious thoughts and catastrophizing and the anxiety tornado is being portrayed in this book. It feels accurate. As someone who has similar thoughts and processes, I almost feel called out but not quite.
Also, I’m anticipating Hendrix proving to us, as the reader, that Louise’s family is, in fact, not normal.
This little section does several things:
Her mom has a need to be in the spotlight, but that was just how she grew up. And she has another side, too. Louise remembered a ride home from the airport one year, windshield wipers going, Dad driving when he’d said:
“You may notice your Mom’s a little down when you see her. She’ll be all right by tomorrow.”
“What did Mark do?” Louise asked.
“It’s nothing to do with your brother,” her dad said, hands at ten and two on the wheel, looking straight ahead. “Your mother just has some dark days every now and again. You never knew your grandparents. They may have died young, but they cast a long shadow. Sometimes it gets the better of her.”
My thoughts here are that Mark caused a lot of stress to his parents. Which is obvious so far in the story. Also, Louise’s mom probably suffered from depression. There may have been some trauma done to her by her parents when she grew up.
As Louise is driving, she’s avoiding the intersection where her parents died. Taking another route means nostalgic scenery that she remembers and how much it changed. This echoes what’s going on in her life. All things are the same but changing and different. She’s going to drive by the house, and I anticipate something creepy or suspicious may catch her eye.
This is juicy. Louise made her dad sit down a write his will around 70 (don’t remember how old he was when he died). She convinced him to leave everything to her so that she could sell the house and put Mark’s half in a trust so he couldn’t blow all that money (apparently a lot) on some useless venture. There’s gotta be anxiety linked there of sneaking around Mark’s back. Good intentions aside, the knowledge that she gets everything and essentially coerced her dad into doing so doesn’t bode well for her. If the house is haunted or even sentient from her guilt, we’ll likely see this flare up badly in her face.
Like on cue, upon arriving at her parents’, she can tell the tv is on again. She thinks someone is inside. Let’s see the book prove her right in the most wrong way possible.
We’re introduced to Louise’s mom’s favorite puppet of all-time, a red body suit covered puppet named, Pupkin. The one that Louise hates. The one that’s been with her mom since her mom was 7. That she is specific. I even went back a few pages to confirm. This is the doll that’s been with her mom since her brother, Freddie, died and knowing she’d taken this puppet everywhere with her, most likely, especially, when she was sent off to live with other relatives most of her childhood, this puppet has seen all of Louise’s mom’s traumas. Maybe he even absorbed some of that darkness. Maybe he’s the sentient haunted part of the house.
Of course, Louise thinks Mark set this up to freak her out.
That was heavy. Louise face-timed her daughter when she arrived at the hotel after checking for monsters under her bed and in her closet (not using that exact wording, but that was the vibe I was getting). Poppy was quiet. She didn’t want to talk at first. This is where my mom heart totally broke. Poppy doesn’t want to have a birthday party because that means she’s getting older, which means Mommy and Daddy are getting older, which means they’ll die. Oh my friggin’ heart! Louise’s mom guilt returns hard.
Ending with spiralling thoughts of the upcoming funeral, Louise lands on how much Pupkin hated her especially, and that she’d throw him away immediately, and that he’d hate her more, but hold on, puppets don’t feel, so she shrugs off the thought. Also worth noting, Mark liked Pupkin throughout his life until BU (I don’t remember, but I assumed it was him dropping out of college), so something caused Mark to disappoint their mom, which then “made Pupkin” be disappointed in him too, changing that he didn’t like Pupkin anymore.
Let’s see Pupkin prove her wrong, or right?
Let’s get to the ratings for this chapter:
•Rum
•Air
•Check the Locks
•I Put Down My Edamame For This
•Nose Exhale – more for the relatability (should I make that into a scale?) than humor. The idea of it’s funny because it’s relatable deal-io
•Author is a Menace
•Le Homemade Gourmet French Fries Pinky Up Eating with Aioli Fancy
•Muenster Cheese
•Healthy
•Pecan Pie
•85% Dark Chocolate and getting darker
SnS 🌹💀📜🥤
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