Favourite Quotes
“You are easily convinced you are just your bodies and there is no such thing as the soul, or if you do believe that the soul exists then you often do so blindly, according to religious dogmas rather than personal inquiry.” - p. 258
Summary
- follows a girl named Ria living thousands of years ago. She is human but in her time Neanderthals, or “uglies” live too
- follows a girl named Leoni, a troubled teen adopted by a rich couple. The dad sexually abused her growing up and she knows it, but he denies it saying it was her own imagination
- they have to work together to fight a negative entity, known as Sulpa or Jack
Ria Storyline
- she is part of a human group referred to as “the clan”
- she saves an ugly named Brindle from a group of clan hunters, and they take her in as their own
- she does magic mushrooms (called “little teachers” by uglies) with them. At first she hesitates because in the clan they are taught that if you consume “devil’s penis” (they name for it) you’ll turn into a devil
- she faces a new threat, a new human group called the “illimani”. She tries to warn her clan people about them and only some believe her.
- The illimani massacres her people. She along with a few uglies and few fellow clans people run away. They are being pursued by Sulpa and his illimani men
- the Blue Angel gives Ria the ability to speak in any language
Leoni Storyline
- she overdoses on her mom’s medication. Her parents commit her to a mental institution where she is trapped
- she gets free and joins a scientific study on near-death experiences and psychedelics
- with this group, she travels to South America to do Ayahuasca
- she communicates with an entity called Blue Angel. She also finds out about Sulpa and Jack (they are the same). Jack was the one making her dad abuse her as a child
Converged Storylines
- technically the first link between Ria and Leoni was when Leoni very briefly saw Ria in her psychedelic trip vision
- the first ‘major’ convergence happens on page 273. Leoni is with Blue Angel and she looks at a point in history, Ria’s point, where Ria, the uglies, and clans people are fighting the illimani in the water
- The Blue Angel links Ria and Leoni together, they are like ‘soul-sisters’ now
- Ria unites a bunch of various tribes together to fight against the Illimani. Ria is hailed as a prophet by the Merell
- there is a 500 strong army of Illimani killing innocents. Ria, with Leoni’s help, attacks the Illimani with her army of Merell, Naveen, and Clan
- Ria is successful! They defeat the Illimani army and head towards the ‘secret place’ where the innocents can be kept safe
- Leoni, while assisting Ria in her astral form, is ‘killed’ by Sulpa’s little monsters. She is now in the underworld.
- Brindle, the ugly Ria saved at the beginning, is leader at the secret place. He is building a structure with huge stones, something the Blue Angel instructed him to build
- this structure is a portal to visit the Blue Angel. Ria goes in and agrees to the Blue Angel’s new mission for her: save Leoni from the underworld
- STORY FINISHED
Analysis
Notes and Quotes
- problem of evil discussion on p. 252
- “You are easily convinced you are just your bodies and there is no such thing as the soul, or if you do believe that the soul exists then you often do so blindly, according to religious dogmas rather than personal inquiry.” - p. 258
- the Blue Angel says this to Leoni.
- “I already explained that no being exists across the whole of reality who is all-powerful and all-good like the god of the Christians” - p. 265
- the Blue Angel says that the whole universe is made up of entities like herself, intelligent, non-physical energy entities. None are considered “all-powerful”. They also do not know with absolute certainty how or why they exist. The Blue Angel mentions that sometimes they are objects of worship.
- The uglies and Cro-Magnon (modern human)
- Blue Angel says that the uglies were not technologically savvy, but they were spiritually advanced - p. 267
- Sulpa’s “why”:
- “the more pure the innocence he destroys, the more horror and pain he can inflict in the process, the more his own power grows” - p. 274
- Sulpa’s goal is to get so powerful so that he can manifest in a true physical form in the 21st century. In order to get this powerful, he needs to destroy as much innocence as he can. This is why he’s hunting the Neanderthals, they are more pure and innocent than any other people
Main Idea of the Book
I wouldn’t say there’s a central theme, message, or teaching
Reflections
The story itself was not bad. It was nothing breathtaking or innovative.
It was never explained why Sulpa needs to defeat innocence in Ria’s time in order to materialize in Leoni’s time, and the whole story revolved around this point so you’d think it be explained.
The issue is that the story never technically finished. The whole book it was said Sulpa/Jack is the ‘big bad man’ that needs to be defeated, but they never did. It’s almost as if this book was supposed to be a trilogy (book 2 would’ve been Ria saving Leoni from underworld, book 3 would’ve been the final showdown against Sulpa)
It was very gruesome; it described scenes of people being killed by being impaled by large spears up their ass, women being raped then cut into many pieces
The more innocence Sulpa destroys, the more powerful he becomes. In some parts of the book it is shown/explained that the Illimani kill innocent people in gruesome ways, as gruesome as they possibly could. If the person could be in a state of fear when they die, it’s even better. This is done to kids too.. reminds me of adrenochrome.