YA Book Club: The Getaway by Lamar Giles

November 11, 2022 Mary & Emily

Emily: Welcome back to YA book club! We’re here to chat about The Getaway, the latest novel from Lamar Giles. We read Lamar Giles’ Not So Pure and Simple for YA book club back in February 2020 (simpler times), and we LOVED it. So we were super excited to pick this one up.

The Getaway is the story of Jay, who’s living his best life at Karloff Country, one of the world’s most famous resorts. We get serious Disney World vibes from this place. It is Disney World, basically. Anyway, Jay’s got good friends, a great family, and a job he loves, working after school at the property’s main theme park. Outside, the world might be falling apart, but inside the resort, people can escape from their problems. But behind this perfect community are dark secrets. When the richest and most powerful families arrive and don’t leave, employees discover that the resort has been selling shares in an end-of-the-world oasis. The world may be ending, but the most powerful people will remain safe. Now Jay and the rest of the resort’s employees will be the ones to care for them, whether they like it or not.

Spoilers to follow obviously.

Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser (2022)

October 28, 2022 Mary and Kyle

Kyle: A question: is it too much flesh or not enough flesh?

Mary: Wow, this is a big thing to start off with, isn’t it? For me, this Hellraiser has too much flesh, because I personally prefer the latex and leather of the original. That said, I think the way the flesh was stripped off of some of the cenobites was honestly very creative. I’d never have thought to use skin as a stylish hood.

But maybe we should back up before diving into such a question.

As you might have guessed, friend of the pod Kyle is joining me to talk about Hellraiser (2022), the latest installment of the Hellraiser franchise. It’s been years since we’ve gotten a Hellraiser movie, and even longer since we’ve gotten a good one. I know that we’ve both been eagerly anticipating this release, so I’m pumped to finally get to discuss it with you. Or, well, discuss it more. We did talk about it when we watched it! What stood out to you most about this film? What were you most excited to see?

(Some spoilers for the Hellraiser series to follow)

Queer Girl Book Club: The Verifiers

October 11, 2022 Kelli & Emily

Emily: Queer Girl Book Club is back in action, and this time we’re talking about the mystery novel The Verifiers by Jane Pek. The Verifiers is Jane Pek’s debut novel, introducing amateur sleuth Claudia Lin. Claudia is a mystery novel-loving twenty-something who's just been recruited by Veracity, a referral-only online dating detective agency. But when one of the agency’s clients goes missing, Claudia finds herself breaking the rules to dive deep into the secret world of people’s online lives and corporate deceit.

Some spoilers to follow.

We're Glad This Book is Called I'm Glad My Mom Died

September 28, 2022 Kelli & Emily

Emily: This blog post has been a long time coming, but we’ve finally gathered here to discuss Jennette McCurdy’s bestselling memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died. Thanks so much to Jayce, former guest and friend of the pod, for joining us for this chat!

McCurdy is a former child actor and star of the Nickelodeon TV series iCarly. In this book, she explores her difficult relationship with her mother, how her mom manipulated her, forced her into acting, encouraged her to develop an eating disorder, and more.

The book covers very difficult material, but nevertheless the book is reaching a very wide audience. I was interested in reading the book because I have been a huge fan of iCarly (and specifically McCurdy) for years. But a lot of people picking up the book are people who have no previous knowledge of McCurdy and her career. I think that’s so cool because I don’t think that’s something we see often with celebrity memoirs. So I thought I’d start by asking you guys: What made you pick up this book? And why do you think so many people are reading it?

Todd's Fantasy Series Corner Part 4

September 20, 2022 Todd Osborne

Welcome back to my blog series where I ramble about the fantasy and sci-fi books I have read recently! It has been a while since my last blog, and I am happy to report that I have many series to speak on! First, I have a little update on a couple of series I have mentioned before, and then I will jump into some new series I have been reading recently.

The Whale, Critical Conversation, and the Shame of Being Fat

September 14, 2022 Mary

“It just feels really isolating to feel like people don’t see me as human,” I told my husband, Todd, after a long day of anxiety stemming from Darren Aronofsky’s new film The Whale. Blinking away tears as I drove to pick up a grocery order of food I didn’t want to cook anymore, I felt like I was out of control in my own body, trapped in a too-big vessel that kept most people from seeing me for what I am: a person.

It probably sounds like an exaggeration for me to be upset about a movie that hasn’t released yet, a movie I couldn’t even have seen. Unfortunately, the media discourse surrounding The Whale has reemphasized that many people—especially those in the business of Hollywood—don’t see nonnormative bodies as human.

Some spoilers for The Whale to follow. CW: Disordered eating.

YA Book Club: This is Not the Real World

July 26, 2022 Mary & Emily

Emily: It’s time for another installment of YA book club, and this month, we’re talking about This is Not the Real World, Anna Carey’s sequel to This is Not the Jess Show, a book we covered for a previous YA Book Club blog post. And we both really liked that one a lot, so we’re back here for round 2.

Queer Girl Book Club: The Memory Librarian

July 9, 2022 Kelli & Emily

Kelli: Hello and welcome to an extremely belated edition of Queer Girl Book Club! This month (or last month? Or maybe the month before that, who is to say?) we read The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae. The collection is an expansion of the Afrofuturistic universe Monae initially explored in their 2018 studio album, Dirty Computer, and features five stories written alongside five different collaborators: Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Eve L. Ewing, Yohanca Delgado, and Sheree Renée Thomas.

So, the obvious place to start is with Janelle Monae, right? How familiar are you with their work, and were you a fan of Dirty Computer? Bonus Q: have you watched any of the “emotion picture” released alongside the album?

(Note: Janelle Monae uses they/them and she/her pronouns. For the purposes of this article, we’ll be using they/them)

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