Listen to us babble our way through our very first memoir - Fred: An Unbecoming Woman by Annie Krabbenschmidt!

Out today, June 3rd! Go get yourself a copy!

This debut book is half essay, half memoir, and wholey authentic. Annie Krabbenschmidt explores compulsory heterosexuality, womanhood, and perfection with astonishing wit and insight. Fred discusses coming of age in a time where Marriage Equality seemed like a distant fantasy, casual homophobia was extremely casual, and Twilight had everyone convinced stalking was the height of romance.

Spoiler: It kinda sucked, but we got through it.

Sweetness:Bittersweet
Citrus: Lime (but very academic)
Gore: A Bone Gets Broken

Trigger Warning for… homophobia, sexism, capitalism, transphobia, self harm, eating disorder, diet culture, unhealthy relationship dynamics, poor sexual education, dieting, eating disorder, thigh gap, pandemic, covid-19, extreme loneliness, and sports injury

Mentions of… food, alcohol, drugs, rivers, drowning, memoir-typical second-hand embarrassment, Twilight, unsanitary bodily functions, stalking, drugging, eye virginity, 101 Dalmatians, skinning, Jim Jones, cults, kink, bdsm, vibrators, and sex

Hold onto your butts - we're going to Dick Fight Island by Reibun Ike!

Eight warriors gather every four years to decide who will lead their people! None of them are wearing pants, and all of them are ready to fight to the climax. But one of the warriors, Hart, has a secret technique and a secret boyfriend not-boyfriend that could turn this competition on its head. Ahem.

Also known as the one where your hosts say the word dick about a million times.

(Also if you know us IRL, no you don't.)

Sweetness: Piña colada (and not getting caught in the rain)
Citrus: Grapefruit, see TW
Gore: Tiny bit of blood, for ritual purposes

Trigger Warning for... significantly more profanity than usual, sex-based combat, butts, dicks, taints, balls, consensual dub con, drugs, knife play, sharp things near sensitive areas, foot fetish, culturally appropriate public nudity, discussion of age of consent, and barely any female characters in sight

Mention of... food, alcohol, drugs, gun, time travel incest, thotty colonel sanders, put an eye out jokes, unsuitable fanfic lube jokes, penis bee sting jokes, crossdressing, school girl uniform, blood, and funerals

It's the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine!

And that's because we're going on an apocalypse road trip with our advance copy of Keely Shinners' How to Build a Home at the End of the World.

(And all our favorite listeners, of course. Pass the AUX.)

Finding her home of Fox Lake has run dry, Mary-Beth Sorensen sets out on a road trip from Chicago to LA to save the girl she loves. Accompanied by her father, Donny, she struggles to find her place in a world that is always, and has always been, ending.

How does one build a home at the end of the world?

Sweetness: Water (sweet when you need it to be)
Citrus: Lemon, but barely
Gore: Profound, check TW pls

Trigger Warning: dystopia typical awfulness, violence, abuse, anarchy, attempted suicide, suicide by doctor, forced medical procedures, body horror, death, death of parent, death of grandparent, corpse, funeral, burial, chronic illness, forced work camp, slavery, whipping, US politics, guns, robbery, armed robbery, hallucinations, infection, amateur amputation, mental decline of a parent, severe mental illness, severe physical illness, lack of medical care, advanced liver disease, parental separation, cults, politics, and lack of sanitation

Mentions of food, alcohol, drugs, vomit, cancer, eating unpleasant things, Jonestown, mouth horror, missing tooth, eye horror, a living morgue, and uncertainty

Guess who's back!

We're back! Yay!

We realized that manga counts as a novel, and we crammed two of them into this episode to make up for the long absence.

Please also look forward to our next episode coming soon based on an advance copy of Keely Shinners' How to Build a Home at the End of the World. Which is amazing and we hope you'll buy up every copy of it.

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko

Morimoto Machi wants her parents to stop trying to marry her off to eligible bachelors, her best friend, Hana, has a plan that involves a domestic partnership and the culmination of years of longing.

Sweetness: Mochi, lightly sweet and quite a bit to chew on
Citrus: Lime
Gore: None

TW: alcohol, food, homophobia, parental estrangement, sexism, Japanese specific sexism, almost but not quite predatory lesbian trope, fake marriage, shoujo manga typical confusion and argument, and brief suspicion of infidelity

Our Dining Table by Mita Ori

Yutaka finds it difficult to eat around people until he meets brothers Minoru and Tane, who is four. They grow into a family as Yutaka teaches Minoru to cook, and Minoru teaches Yutaka how to eat again.

Sweetness: Candy, almost too sweet
Citrus: Orange
Gore: None

TW: food, alcohol, death parents and grandparents, past childhood sibling abuse, familial estrangement, eating disorder, unsanitary food, minor illness, fear of death, and coping with bereavement

M: food, alcohol, poop, hypothetical questions about eating poop, bombs, and old gay movies from blockbuster about people dying in shootouts

Enjoy part two of our coverage of  Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas before you turn back into a pumpkin at midnight!

Yadriel, Maritza, and Julian are no closer to figuring out this murder mystery plot than when they started, but Día de Muertos is fast approaching. Between school, sorting out feelings, and copious amounts of family drama - will they ever manage to solve this murder?

They have to... right?

Citrus: Orange
Sweetness: Bittersweet
Gore: Injury, Blood, Burns, Death

Trigger: blood, injury, murder, ritual murder, stabbing, getting jumped, major character deaths, explorations of death, ghosts, homeless teens, misgendering, dead naming, complicated familial interactions relating to trans teen, betrayal, getting kicked out due to trans status, gang violence, burns, burning off tattoos, lack of health insurance leading to infection, cults, deportation, and police

Mentions of food, alcohol, animal blood, butchers, veganism, hospitalization, and inappropriate removal of an IV needle

The episode everyone's been waiting (and waiting) for...

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas!!!

Yadriel is a trans boy determined to prove himself as a brujo to his traditional Latinx family by summoning a ghost. Julian is that ghost, and he isn't about to let himself be un-summoned anytime soon. Maritza, Yadriel's best friend, is here to watch chaos ensue.

Then, there's a murder!

Citrus: Citrus
Sweetness: Bittersweet
Gore: Injury, Blood, Burns, Death

Trigger: blood, injury, murder, getting jumped, major character deaths, explorations of death, ghosts, homeless teens, misgendering, dead naming, complicated familial interactions relating to trans teen, getting kicked out due to trans status, gang violence, burns, burning off tattoos, lack of health insurance leading to infection, deportation, and police

Mentions of food, alcohol, animal blood, butchers, veganism, and undiagnosed adhd

Hey y'all!

We've got a few important announcements for you!

The Good: We are DONE moving cross country. That means we can get back to producing this podcast soon.

The Bad: We are completely and utterly exhausted!

Since we can't bring our A game, we're postponing Cemetery Boys and making Sugar Summer a later bonus episode. We plan to get the next episode out sometime before Halloween. We're sorry to keep pushing back the hiatus, but we also want to come back with a bang and give y'all the best content that we can!

Which brings me to...

The Other: We are changing formats! Again.

Again?

Again.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result - and we're still holding out hope for our sanity - so changes it is.

The new format will be as follows: One of us reads the book. The other doesn't. The one who read the book describes the book with the sort of manic glee that only comes from telling someone uninitiated about a favorite book. We will also be capping coverage at two episodes max per book.

Why though? It's more fun, it's more podcasty, and we over-estimated our ability to do tons homework as adults with other responsibilities. We want to read more books, tell you about more books, and make y'all feel like a good friend is telling you about a book they read. We want to stray way further away from summaries and way closer to reviews. We also want to bring you books that only one of us can stand to read and offer way more variety, consistency, and enjoyment.

TL;DR? Cemetery Boys will come out before Halloween. It will be in the new format too - Bruce will read it and I, Renee, will be going in sight unseen!

Thanks for sticking with us through everything and we'll see y'all before the clock strikes midnight on Spooky Season!

Duck!!

Ha! Gotcha again!

We're continuing to cover Kim Dare's avian shifter series Duck! this episode!

Ori's shift... didn't go as planned and now Reynard has fled under the foolish impression that he's doing what's best for them both. Ori does his best to convince Reynard to take him back while the hawk wallows in self pity.

Can Reynard extract his head from his cloaca before it's too late?

Citrus: Lemon
Sweetness: Pepper Jelly (spicy sweet)
Gore: Minor Injury with Blood

Trigger: blood, injury, hand injury, kink/bdsm, semi-detailed sex, eating semen, edging, punishment for accidental injury, writing lines, unsanitary, past physical abuse disguised as BDSM, consensual and enjoyable whipping, separation, begging, and tattooing

Mentions of food, alcohol, denial of food as punishment, fear of death of loved one, significant self worth issues, being sent to your room, birds eating bugs, discussion of lube, and cloaca