From Paradise Lost to The Powerpuff Girls to The Binding of Isaac to Cuphead, the devil has always been one of the most interesting characters in media. Every grad student has a lightbulb moment when they realize Satan is the best part of Milton, and from there on, he just keeps popping up to make stories more interesting. And if Lucifer is so interesting, what’s the rest of Hell like?
Read moreOthersode #89: Is She Getting Hotter? / Mean Girls: The Musical
Othersode #89: Is She Getting Hotter? / Mean Girls: The Musical
Get in, losers; we’re listening to a podcast the whole way there! Join the Book Squad, aka the Army of Skanks, to discuss the new Mean Girls movie, which IS in fact a musical. We talk about our individual histories with Mean Girls, the music and singing, the performances, and changes that worked and didn’t from the original. Next we catch up with what’s on the blog and Kelli shames listeners (Send feedback! Leave a rating! Write a review! Become a patron!). Read along for our next Bookpisode on Rouge by Mona Awad, featuring special guest Mary Kay McBrayer on 2/20. Then brace yourself for whatever This Is Me…Now is because we’re discussing it on our next Othersode on 3/5.
Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!
Read moreThe Bachelor S28E2: This Isn't Red Velvet
Kelli: Hello everyone, and welcome to our first official week of competition: it’s Team Daisy is My Yoshi vs. Team Throw it in the Fire! I’m just going to go ahead and spoil it for you now: things do not go well for me this week.
Emily: Well, as they say on Love Island, it’s still early days.
Read moreThe Bachelor S28E1: A Little Smoochie Poo
Well, Bachelor Nation, Book Squad Goals is finally recapping a season of The Bachelor again, after taking a hiatus at the end of Matt James’ season. And this time, Emily has convinced Kelli to come along on this ride with her. Will Kelli and Emily regret this by the end of everything? Probably. But will we have fun along the way? Maybe.
But you’d better believe we’re not here to make friends. This is a competition for the ladies, but it’s also a competition for Kelli and Emily. Following this first episode, Kelli and Emily will draft their Bachelor teams and as the recaps continue throughout the season, they’ll continue to get points. The prize for winning? Bragging rights. And the journey we had along the way.
Come along with us as we draft or teams and reflect on episode 1 of Joey’s season.
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 12: Silent Night
Folks, Christmas was exactly one month ago, so what a perfect time to wrap up our 12 Days of Christmas movies series! For our final Christmas movie of the season, we’re talking about Silent Night. This is an action movie directed by John Woo and starring Joel Kinnaman as Brian Godlock. One Christmas, Brian is playing with his son in his front yard when a couple of speeding cars drive by and his son gets caught in the crossfire and is shot and killed. Now, one Christmas later, Brian is out for revenge.
This movie marks John Woo’s return to American film for the first time since 2003’s Paycheck, but to me, the director really peaked with the 1997 classic film Face/Off. There’s also a 2021 Christmas film called Silent Night that I really enjoyed. So how will Silent Night live up to these other movies? Well…
Read moreReceipts, Proof, and Timelines that RHOSLC is More Complex Than You Think
I’m a huge fan of trashy reality TV. Whether it’s The Bachelor or 90 Day Fiance, I just love seeing people portray what they claim to be their normal lives. Can anyone captured on film 24/7 be completely authentic? Reality television has storylines. It has characters – a villain, a hero, a goofball – and it’s naive to think that producers and editors don’t put a lot of time into determining who will play what role each season. That said, some shows pique my interest more than others.
Read moreBSG #89: Is J.Lo X? / Biography of X / Interview with Emily Austin
BSG #89: Is J.Lo X? / Biography of X / Interview with Emily Austin
Biography, but make it fiction. Join the Book Squad for a discussion of Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. We talk about the novel’s alternative-America backdrop, the depiction of the South, X’s “art, and what is up with the narrator. After that, Kelli interviews author Emily Austin (Interesting Facts About Space, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead) about her latest novel, her writing process, the importance of queer stories, and of course, space! Plus, Emily asks Kelli some questions about designing her beautiful book covers! Then we get into some listener feedback for Looking Glass Sound and catch up with what’s on the blog. Go see the new Mean Girls movie and join us for our next Othersode on 2/6 to hear us talk about it. Then special guest Mary Kay McBrayer will join us for our next Bookpisode on Rouge by Mona Awad on 2/20! Please leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and consider becoming a patron for just $3 a month!
Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 11: The Holdovers
Christmas may be in our rearview mirror, but we’ve still got Christmas movies to talk about, friends. And I don’t think we can reflect on the 2023 Christmas season without discussing The Holdovers, one of the bigger Christmas movies to come out this winter. And it’s also getting a lot of awards season buzz. But is it so good that it deserves to become a part of the Christmas canon? Let’s run it through the patented Christmas Movie Scale to find out!
Read moreIs Caroline Calloway a Scammer?
In 2020, I preordered Caroline Calloway’s debut book, Scammer.
For anyone familiar with Calloway’s tendency to shirk responsibility for her blunders (in a cute, whimsical way, of course), the fact that I actually received Scammer in 2023 after months of messaging the author online should come as no surprise.
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 10: Looking for Her
We’re almost halfway through January, but there are still more Christmas movies to watch! Lesbian Christmas movies, at that. And no, not that lesbian Christmas movie. There are other ones, you know. Ones that aren’t mean to Kristen Stewart. For instance, Looking for Her.
Taylor (Olivia Buckle) hasn’t been home for Christmas in years. Not since she came out to her parents and they didn’t take it very well. But now her parents want to make amends, and they invite her home for the holidays. And just to show how much they want to welcome Taylor back into their lives, they invite her to bring her girlfriend as well. There’s only one problem. Taylor and her girlfriend aren’t together anymore. Rather than admit it didn’t work out, Taylor finds the perfect solution: she puts out an ad for an actor to play her girlfriend over the holidays. Turns out this is the perfect gig for struggling actor Olive (Alexandra Swarens). But what happens when fake dating turns into… not so fake dating?
Let’s put this one through the Christmas movie rating scale and see how it does.
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