The Readirect Podcast
Shifting the conversation back to books. Hosted by Abigail Freshley and Emily Rojas.
The Readirect Podcast
Book Talk: Silver Elite, Problematic Summer Romance, and Publishing Dramione Fan Fiction (+ More!)
It's time for another jam-packed Book Talk episode!
We catch up on our recent reads, from Abigail's recent Emily Henry reread journey to five-star favorites and recent DNFs, plus discuss the controversial marketing of fanfiction in traditional publishing.
Abigail's complete (revised) Emily Henry reread rankings:
Plus, we're covering:
- Recent DNFs including First Time Caller by BK Morrison and Silver Elite (please bully me, Emily, if you think I should give these a second chance)
- Five-star reads worth your time: East of Eden by John Steinbeck and Memorial by Bryan Washington
- Abigail's recents: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams and How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
- Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood review & lengthy discussion
- Discussion of the ethics of marketing fanfiction-inspired books using original IP (we're PASSIONATE)
- Upcoming anticipated releases
Plus, share our podcast on your Instagram story or tag us on Bluesky for a chance to win a $50 Thriftbooks gift card! Be sure to follow and tag us @readirectpodcast for a chance to win!
Welcome to the Redirect Podcast. My name is Abigail Freshley and I'm Emily Rojas. The Redirect Podcast is the show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes connect to our real lived experiences. On today's episode, we are doing a much needed catch-up. We're book talking where we book talk about books the best. I love these episodes. Uh, before we get to that, though, hey, if you love these episodes as much as we do, you go give us a five-star review right now, or else on apple podcast or spotify, and just let us know that you love the show. And if you really, really love the show, you can share our show with a friend.
Speaker 1:Sharing our show with a friend is by far, the best way to grow our community of book loving nerds, and I'm just going to say this right now. We've been planning this for a while. We're actually going to do it on this episode. If you share our podcast to your Instagram story or tag us on blue sky, those are pretty much the two options. Yeah, you will enter to win a thrift books gift card of an not yet to be determined amount, but it will be enough. It will be worth 50 bucks. Sure, yeah, you will enter to win a 50 thrift books gift card. Um, but you have to be public, yeah, and you do have to. Well, I mean, or just tag us, just do the best, just tag us, tag us, follow. You have to follow us and you have to tag us and we'll give away a gift card. We will be raffling off gift card. You have like a couple weeks to do it. Yeah, you know, take your time. But, yeah, share our show with a friend, share this episode, share your favorite episode, share one of our posts. You know anything, we love it. Tag us, share us on your story or on blue sky and, um, you could win a $50 thrift books gift card. Do you know how much stuff you can get on thrift books for $50? I recently had a $50 thrift books gift card and that is part of why I'm in my predicament of having so many books to read on my physical tbr. I think I got nine, uh, with $50. That's a lot. So, in a pretty good condition, good condition, yeah, great condition, so, yeah, so Do it.
Speaker 1:All right, we have so much to talk about. And it's actually kind of remarkable that we have so much to talk about because we were in the same household for like a few days, like a week ago, I know, or so I blocked that out already. I don't know how we still have so much to talk about. Well, I do try to avoid talking to you about book related stuff. In real life, unfortunately, sometimes it bleeds. But, yeah, we try to save the content for the. We actually just sit in silence when we're together. We don't say a word. We're just there existing, watching secret life of mormon wives. So that's what you guys get. We just say all the stuff that emily normally bleeps out, that I. So that's what you guys get. We just say all the stuff that Emily normally bleeps out, that I say that's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:Anyways, do you want to start with books we've read recently? I feel like that's you know solid place to start. Sure, okay, well, should I include the Emily Henry reread in this or save that as another bullet point? Let's start with that. You recently reread Emily Henry, all of her books. Yes, so after our Great, big, beautiful Life episode, I was like you know what? I don't think that I've read enough. I haven't read the rest of the catalog recently enough to be able to rank this. I was in a bit of a reading slump. I was like I know what will get me out. I'll read Emily Henry'll have a catalog. Yeah, and what I anticipated was not what I got.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, what did you think going into it? Yeah, I actually remember book lovers being like as maybe my top book, um, very high on the list. Also, I don't know if I don't, if I didn't remember happy place fondly or if just enough of my friends hate it. Yeah, I got like influenced to thinking that it was worse. So real, because I do remember my first pass through spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, being annoyed that she just quits being a doctor. Yeah, yeah, I do think you liked it, though, because I remember we both really liked it when we talked about it. We should go listen to that episode again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our initial takes. So I think, like revisionist history, yeah, fake news On that. And then it was so long ago that I read People we Mean on Vacation, oh yeah, but that's another one of those that most Emily Henry fans rank really low. So I just kind of again like man, maybe is this a proper, is this a proper use of Mandela effect? No, not really. No, I think revisionist history was better. Yeah, revisionist history Like this is revisionist history. I think it's bad, okay. So here's how I I shook out. Okay, I did think the funny story was going to get the top and I was right. Yeah, so funny story is my number one.
Speaker 1:Happy place shot to number two, which is crazy. But on the reread I was just like it. Just it compelled me. It is, it did compel me and it was like the last one that I read. So I was actually reading it after all of the other books. So it was like very fresh and it just got me. It really drew me in. It hurt, yeah, it's stung, it hurts, it hurts. You know what that book is like when you are a kid and you scrape your knee and you go inside and your mom pours, or dad or parent pours, hydrogen peroxide. Yeah, this book feels like hydrogen peroxide getting poured on your wound. Yeah, where it's like you know it's doing something good. Yeah, because it burns so bad it's cleaning you, but it burns. That's how I felt about Happy Place. That's so real, okay, bringing it in at number three.
Speaker 1:Beach Read I, that's so real, okay, bringing it in at number three, beach read. I have to say it really shot up there. I didn't remember liking it so much, but I feel like it has a lot of yearning. I feel like beach read is kind of similar to happy place in some ways, like, yeah, in some aspects of it, the things that the characters are going through, so that really I like I think funny stories at the top, because I love the setting and I love the main character. Yeah, happy place all around beach read. I thought that the burn between the two main characters was really good.
Speaker 1:Then, actually, number four I had people we meet on vacation, uh-huh, um, I reread it and I liked it. I know some people who dnf this book colleen, who was on our last episode she did not finish people, people when we're On Vacation but I actually liked it. It is frustrating at times, you know, but so is life. Say what you need to say, but I actually liked it. Then Book Lovers was number five. That's crazy to me. I was so surprised.
Speaker 1:I really liked that book when I initially read it, but on the reread I found the characters less compelling and I don't know, I just I would just kind of like get to the point. Yeah, just, it didn't hit the second time around and I think I feel like book lovers to me in my memory is like a little more disjointed, like it doesn't feel as coherent as some of the other stories, where all the plots because, like I remember, book love, yeah, book lovers there's like it makes you think there might be a love triangle for like a second, and then that's fake and like a red herring, and then the sister plot feels kind of separate from the. You know the romance plot. Yeah, that I liked the sister. I wasn't that invested in the sister all that much. Yeah, I love Charlie. Yeah, invested in the sister all that much. Yeah, I love charlie. Yeah, he's great. Yeah, I just like I think so, as I recall colleen, who was on our last episode if you haven't, let's do it, go, let's do it. Um, book lovers is her top and I. That makes sense for her because I think she can relate to the female main character. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So there that.
Speaker 1:And then at the very bottom was Great Big, beautiful Life. Yeah, that seems unsurprising, which I did enjoy. Yeah, but I won't ever reread it. I don't think. No, probably not. Yeah, so it was an enlightening experience. It did get me out of my reading slump, just being able to return to you know a place, that I return home just for a bit, into the warm embrace of Emily Henry. I love that and I'm glad I did it. Now it's done and actually I'll let you talk.
Speaker 1:But she I saw an interview with her and she was recommending several books. Uh, huh, I've begun reading some of those, uh, of those, and I would say hit or miss. Okay, so don't necessarily trust Emily Henry with your book recommendations. We'll get to that. But I'll pause really quick. I'll share that. I'll share about that in a minute, but I'll let you talk about what you've read recently.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, should I start you tell me with the books I've DNF'd lately or the good books I've read recently? I think you should start with dnfs. I dnf'd first of all the griffin sisters greatest hits. I just couldn't get into it. Uh, there's really no good reason. I read like two pages, so forget that. Then I dnf'd a book that a lot of people have recommended that I trust. What is it? It's called First Time Caller by BK Morrison. You DNF'd that. Okay, I have been so skeptical of this book and I think it's because I've seen so many people like it on TikTok specifically. Yes, on TikTok specifically. But I follow several book talkers that I trust that I feel like give good reviews. They don't get into the hype like, are critical of books and a lot of them like this book and I can see, probably why. So this follows.
Speaker 1:Um, god, you guys know I am with names. Okay, aiden is, he is a like. He hosts this is where it starts for me. He hosts a late night love advice radio show. Radio show from like 8 to 2 am or something like late, late night and people call in and he gives them advice. First of all, this is not a thing. Hold on pause. Why would you ask a man anything? Uh, first of all, yes, a man named aiden. Aiden, that is my, that was my first red flag, that's a red flag. His name is aiden valentine. Okay, how old is he? 12, he's like 30s, I don't know, he's older, I guess no, no, but he's like jaded. He doesn't believe in love anymore because he gets all these women about their husbands on his you know show and he's like I don't believe in love.
Speaker 1:Then, uh, I think her name is lucy. Yeah, lucy stone. She is a single mom. Well, she's not really a single. She's divorced and her uh, ex-husband is gay and married to a man and they're raising a daughter together. And, um, her daughter's very precocious, as are all children in books, because people just don't know how to write kids so they just make them sound like little adults. And she calls in to aid and show to ask for advice about her mom.
Speaker 1:Wait, this is like the plot of sleepless in seattle. Okay, it's based on that, inspired by sleepless in seattle. This is my hot take. I don't like sleepless in seattle. It's not a good movie. It's not like romantic to me. I don't like that movie. So it is inspired by sleepless in seattle anyway.
Speaker 1:So she calls in and she's like hey, my mom. She's like lonely, what should I do? Lucy walks in and she takes the phone. She's like why are you, you pedophile? Why are you talking to my daughter? She's like. He's like no, no, she called me phone. She's like why are you, you pedophile? Why are you talking to my daughter? She's like. He's like, no, no, she called me. It's fine like I host this radio show. They start talking about love. They have this long exchange.
Speaker 1:The next day she's on the air on air. He's like don't worry, no one listens to this anyways. We got like 12 listeners, but they've just started clipping the show and turning it into a podcast and so, like you know little sound bites from the show, and so then the next day or like a couple days later, her segment goes viral, so viral that everyone in her life is like, oh, we've heard this, like you're desperate and depressing. And then I think there's like a plot where they're like you guys should actually host a show together. Here's my problem.
Speaker 1:First of all, I don't like kids that are stupid. I don't like Aiden. He is so annoying. Everything bothers him and he's like I kind of hope my radio show gets canceled. Hello, sir, you have agency in your own life. If you don't like your job, go get another job. I don't like Lucy.
Speaker 1:She reminded me of Jennifer Lopez or a character Jennifer Lopez Lopez would play, and she was just really bothering me and I didn't like the plot. And it's stupid to think that a podcast is going to go so viral that, like she's famous in her everyday life that people are like, hey, is this you? That's not a thing that happens. So I DNF'd after like um, I got to that part and also the even more unbelievable part was the conversation they had wasn't even interesting, so I couldn't even figure out. Why would this go viral in the first place? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm DM-fluencing you guys from this book, but maybe, if all that sounds good to you, it literally has an average rating of 4.22 stars. Wow, wow, that's a really high rating. Two, two stars, wow, wow. That's a really high rating, um, but it's also 430 pages, which is just too long for like a romance book. I just think personally, um, that's boring so I don't like it. That was my first dnf. That's a good dnf. Number two was silver elite. I tried so hard for this, okay, so silver elite if you guys don't immediately know that is that is that book that's going around on tiktok a lot.
Speaker 1:There's like a lot of advanced reader copies that went out that people are like oh my god, this is like sexy hunger, this is like adult dystopian, whatever, which then people were really skeptical about right, because they're like okay, well, that's not the point of dystopian books, like, if you write a dystopian book, it's usually to like send a message or like a commentary on society and it's not really like a smut book. That's kind of not the point, yeah, or if there is, it should be like telling a story, and maybe this does. I didn't finish it so I can't really comment, but there's also been a lot of speculation that it's a pen name, right? No, it is a pen name and basically verified.
Speaker 1:But there's been a lot of speculation about who it is writing under the pen name. Yes, so the author's name is danny francis and, uh, gender neutral, no pronouns being used, and um, apparently I think this is the part that's in contention it is they. They have said the publisher that it is a pen name for someone. But in some, like early copies, some of the reviewers got there allegedly was like hey, this is a new york times best-selling author who's like either branching into a new genre or like purposely writing under a pen name. But is someone? And that makes sense, because if this is just a pen name for some random person, there's no way they get the level of marketing. I mean. This was in book of the month, like you said. It was sent to every single book influencer out there. Yeah, this is not a debut author, no. So then people were like is it colleen hoover? I could definitely. I could definitely see that. Who, who else? Was there a speculation that it was.
Speaker 1:Some people were speculating that it was stephanie meyer, which I find very interesting, but I actually think stephanie meyer is a better writer, to be honest with you. I mean, if you guys have read the host I'm a fan of the host I think it's a really well-written kind of dystopian sci-fi book. I think this is better written than this. I actually also don't think that Stephanie Meyer has any shame. No, I don't think she does. I don't think she would use a pen name. No, yeah, I don't either. I think she's pretty much okay owning her stuff, yeah, and so anyways, basically, this I can't even this girl. She's like special and she belongs to a special race of people that the evil military is trying to genocide. But it's just like, from the first page, this is my thing.
Speaker 1:As I was reading this, I was like I honestly do think, like you were kind of saying, if this was like a fairy book, I actually might have been like, okay, this is stupid, but I'm having fun. If it was romantasy, but it's dystopian fiction, it is hello. You were counting yourself among octavia, but yes, and among Suzanne Collins, yes, and that guy who wrote the wool books, the what's his face? You can't, you have to have a message. Yes, and it's like from the first scene. It is like so heavily sexualized, like the soldier grabs her and he's like pressing her breast down and she's like grinding against him and like they're fighting, though like he's trying to capture her.
Speaker 1:Um, she also says what the hell, fuck. All the time, no, I'm sorry, all the time. No, that's ai, is that not? That has got to be ai. Like that's insane. I guess they're trying to like make it like. This is how they talk in this imaginary world. Um, no, also, I sent you this screenshot. So basically she's talking. First of all. Also, her guardian's name is uncle jim, which I just thought that's a hilarious name.
Speaker 1:Um, but she's like walking through the black lands or whatever, which is like exile, darkness, and she's like I've been through all this stuff. She's seen all these dead bodies. She said like I wouldn't blink if a predator lunged for me. A bomb could drop on her house. But when you're petrified on a daily basis as a child, there aren't many things left to fear as an adult, except perhaps awkward conversations. Also, she says this I said not like other girls, final boss.
Speaker 1:Uh, I don't want anything serious. I'm only 20, not ready to devote myself to someone else. Other people's relationships seem suffocating, and I've witnessed so many women bending to a man's every whim. I don't bend, okay. Also, there's a character in this who's evil which I did laugh at this whose name is jd valence. Okay, this is jd vance. What the hell anyways. So I gave up. Also, she has like an imaginary friend who's obviously the same guy who's like grabbing her in the beginning, who obviously works for the resistance but is actually the you in the army as well. I don't know. I can't begin to like untangle the web of this world.
Speaker 1:I did not enjoy this. If you did, that's fine. Again, I have read at no less than 15 Kindle Unlimited hockey romances this year alone. I am not one to have a moral high ground on quality books, but this, for me, I had to DNF it. Well, I think the difference, though, between your little KU Kindle books or your little KU hockey books and this, yes, is that your KU hockey books were not marketed and all the money put behind put in book of the month, like, the people need to know the truth, yes, and that that, yeah, they could.
Speaker 1:We don't know, like, I think I don't know, and for me personally, in this day and age, I want to know what author it is I'm supporting. Yes, and so the opacity, yes, behind the pen name. I don't like that. It gives me pause. It gives me pause genuinely. If you're a like ali hazelwood is a pen name, emily henry, that's her real name, but she's incredibly private about her life, as we discussed in person. Um, like, people write under pen names all the time and that's not a problem.
Speaker 1:If this was an actual debut author writing under a pen name, like, that's fine, they're hiding their identity, but this is like, oh, this is someone else and like it could be someone that you don't want to support. It could be someone who has, like, prop, like been canceled for a valid reason. It could be jk rowling, exactly, and it's like you don't want to support. I did get this from the library, didn't, uh, pay for it, and I just think, yeah, like, why would you buy a book that could be by someone you don't want to support and it's not even good and it's, like you said, it's being marketed as like this dystopian, important novel. Yeah, like, again, if this was about fairies, I probably would have eaten it up, respectfully. It's just like you're trying to say something. You're, you have jd vance in here. You're not even gonna like be own who you are and it's also not good, you know. Yeah, grow up, come on. Yeah, so those are my dnfs lately, I feel you. Okay, that's good to know. Thank you, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, should I talk about some books I've read and then you can talk about some books that you liked? Yeah, tell me the books you've liked lately or that you've read. Okay, on the last episode. So, since our last episode, okay, so I read a couple books, and one of them is a book that you also read. So we can get to that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, off of Emily Henry's recommendation, I read two books. One is A Love Song for Ricky Wilde by Tia Williams, and one is how to End a Love Story by Yulin Kwong. Yes, and both were like four Starbucks books. Um, I thought they were okay, I thought they were good, like good, and I would recommend them enough like I wouldn't tell someone not to read it, um, but not like I'm gonna be thinking about this forever, sure, um, but I'm really glad I gave them a shot.
Speaker 1:So, two very different books, both romances a love Love Song, for Ricky Wilde is a little bit of like a magical. There's like a little bit of magic in it. It's centered around like two different time periods and people falling in love like across generations, and it's based in Harlem, kind of during like the zoot suit era and then also in modern day and it was really cool. There's like a jazz element, like a history element. Um, I will say like it took me a while to get into it and by the end I was like I don't want to quit this book but like somehow it still ended up being four for me. I think towards the end, like it made it back up Cause I think, oh, I shed a tear. So like the whole time I was reading this book I was like I think this is going to be like a 3.5. I think it's going to be 3.5. But at the end I actually did cry and I was like, okay, you know what, this moved me enough to cry, I'll give it a go. So I liked it and then how to End the Love Story is okay.
Speaker 1:So this is a book that's actually set in LA, like in modern day. Yeah, which almost was like a little off-putting. It's like set in my neighborhood and I was like weird. The subject matter is super complicated, which is why it was like four stars for me. So here's like degree of difficulty yes, our main character, our hero, helen, um, she's in high school, she's kind of a dork. Helen is like kind of a nerd. Grant is like the football player, uh-huh, homecoming king, etc. Sure, and helen's little sister is a couple years younger than her and big trigger warning here, big trigger warning um, she takes her own life by jumping in front of a car and the person whose car she jumps in front of is grants. Obviously this is a very traumatizing event, right for everyone, including grant, who now is the like unintended slaughterer of one of his peers. Yeah and um. So it's really weird and really awkward. Whatever.
Speaker 1:13 years later, helen, helen is an author of a young adult series that's kind of like Gossip Girl, and one of the characters is kind of loosely based around her sister who died in a car accident, and Grant is a TV writer and the showrunner hires Grant to be the head writer of the show and Helen finds out when she shows up to the writing room. Okay, and so obviously a really fractured and broken relationship. It's really weird and uncomfortable, yeah. And then you can kind of see where it goes, like they're kind of navigating this complicated relationship. But through the navigating the complicated relationship and the intimacy that comes with being in a writer's room and like working on bringing her story to life, they fall in love. But they also have to navigate like the dynamic with her parents, who are very closed off and cold, and it kind of explores like the experience of being in a first generation Chinese American family, uh-huh, and like the dynamics with your family and like the way that she's trying to fill the role of both she and her sister in her household. And like his where he's coming from, and like feeling like he peaked in high school and like what is he now. And it's just like this book definitely had room for improvement in the writing at some points and also it got a lot of points for tackling really difficult stuff. Yeah, that's a lot away. Yeah, that's a lot. I felt like it was handled like thoughtfully. Yeah, so I appreciated that and it got ups for that, okay, so I would give it a shot if you are looking to branch out.
Speaker 1:And then the last book I read, which will be kind of a segue to books you've read too, is Problematic Summer Romance by Allie Hazelwood, which we've chatted about. Um, so, problematic summer romance is what it sounds like from the title. Um, it is an age gap love of 15 years, a 23 year old and a 38 year old yeah, and the guy is the older one and he is the brother or he's a friend of um, the main character's brother, yeah, and it all takes place at a wedding in sicily over a week and there's lots of flashbacks and and, honestly, like how brave of her, like she really was, just like. You know what I'm going to write the book I want to write. Well, allie Hazelwood is actively writing ABO. She doesn't care, like she does not care about an age gap. Next thing, you know she's going to have male pregnancy in one of her books and an age gap is nothing. Also, she literally just released a BDSM book. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So this one's actually very tame. It's actually very tame compared to some of her recent books. I feel like that's actually kind of like a niche that she's carving out. It's like I'm going to be the contemporary romance author that really pushes the envelope.
Speaker 1:This one's also a book. Like she did woman in stem she did circle back to the stem piece. Yeah, um, you love this book. I liked it. Yeah, what did you love about it? Okay, I love, I love maya.
Speaker 1:I thought she was a great, uh leading character. If you're going to have a 23-year-old like, she does need to be like smart and like funny. And I liked the like Demonstrating agency. Yeah, yeah. And I like the acknowledgement of like Connor desperately does not want this to be a thing, like he's very self-aware of becoming his father, obviously, who famously infamously dated much younger women. Um, like he's like no, this can't happen. I also love that like a forbidden romance, like just put it into my veins, like one of them being like we can't do this, I will die for that. I like how down bad he was for her and I really like not in love. So I like getting to see uh ruin eli's wedding, because I personally loved that book.
Speaker 1:Um, no, it's not everybody's favorite and uh, what else? I just liked it. Yeah, I like the flashbacks. I love a flashback, uh, and with a lot of yearning and angst and um, them like calling each other all the time but never seeing each other in person. That was really important to me. So those are the things I loved about it. Nice, yeah, I liked it too. Um, I, I liked the way that she navigated the age gap relationship and like how intent connor was at trying to mitigate the power, the potential power dynamic. Yeah, um, I think.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, though, my issue was with maya, where I was just like I think that ali hazelwood actually did write her like a 23 year old, yeah, young woman, like I think she fully did embody a 23 year old young woman, and that was the sticking part for me. I was just, like that's fair, kind of annoying. Like I think the feeling I got from her was like I know everything. Yeah, I'm 23, yeah, you know, and that was like, yes, like she probably grew up faster than a lot of other of her peers, like, sure, due to the character's backstory and, yeah, her life experiences. But ultimately, I'm like, yeah, you're 23 and he's 38, like, yeah, brain isn't cooked, you have not lived any life. Yeah, like you're kind of annoying, but like go off, like I don't feel like she was in a predatory situation. No, I do feel like he, like she was very much in control of everything and like you know the community that she has built around her like when you know spoiler alert, they get together in the end. But like, yeah, the community that they have built around them, including her brother and other close trusted friends, makes this like a safe arrangement that, yeah, like there's lots of protections and guardrails in place for maya to not be taken advantage of. Yeah, and yet I was like, oh, my god, you're so annoying. And then like the fact that he was like down bad for her since she was 20. Yeah, I'm hold on. Yeah, no, I, as a former 20 year old woman, yeah, I was so okay being really just transparent here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, as you know, I was in an unrequited love situation for from ages like 19 to 22. Yeah, 23, 19 to 23. Okay, I lived this. Okay, okay, I lived this, except my love was not requited. Yeah, and honestly, and I and it, okay, it wasn't with, it wasn't with a 15 year age gap, it was a five year age gap, right, right, where the person I was in love with was five years older than me. Honestly, I get it, I get why he did like. Now, on the look back, I'm like no, yeah, yeah, right, I was a child. I was so immature and annoying and like he never said those things. But whenever I finally confessed my feelings to him, he was like, like he never said those things. But whenever I finally confessed my feelings to him, he was like I've always seen you like a sister and you're like ow, but also, yeah, I did act like a little sister. I was stupid, yeah, I was really dumb. And that's how I feel about Maya.
Speaker 1:I feel like if I could pretend she was 28. Yeah, I think it's a little bit too much of an age gap. A little bit too much of an age gap, a little bit too far, but I still loved it. I'm not going to lie, but it has to be that big to be problematic. Yeah, it has to be, because if it's just like 10 years, even if he's 33, that feels a little better. It's not even the ages, it's not even like the amount of years, it's the ages that they are. Yes, yes, her being 23. If she was aged up a little more, like you said, even if he was still, it was still 15 years, it wouldn't feel as weird.
Speaker 1:She's smooth. Allie Hazelwood smoothed it over, for sure, by adding in like their relationship with the brother and like the other trusted friends and like all of the guardrails that were there to make it okay. Yeah, ish, yeah, yeah, ish, yeah, but I, I think, just believability for me. Yeah, how was he in love with a 20 year old? Yeah, that's on him, this one, like she's probably wearing like chipped black nail polish. You know like, you know what I mean, yeah, but I did love it. Also, you know what I love, and ali hazelwood does this and I love it every time. Um, she doesn't always do this, but when she calls him and she's like my the flashbacks, and she's like my. You know, my boyfriend broke up with me from my roommate and I have no friends and they're in my apartment right now, and then she goes back to her apartment the next day and he's just there Like, yeah, I love that, I'm sorry. So I love that, I'm sorry. So I still love him. I will defend these two problematic people. Also, connor, I mean she also points to Allie Hazelwood for taking on such a challenge of writing this book. Connor is Irish, which adds to his desirability. It does, unfortunately. Yes, as we learned, you look really well, you look really well. Anyways, you to me, because we both read that book.
Speaker 1:What else have you read recently that you liked? This is the reason I've been dnfing so much, because I am on a five star, I mean streak right now. I read happy place, I reread happy place and that's a five star. Obviously, love happy place. Um, problematic summer romance. That was five stars to me. Then two more serious books, um, so number one I read east of eden by john steinbeck. This is like as part of your summer reading, yes, read your physical tbr challenge, right? Yes, and um, well, this is even more embarrassing. I didn't even have this on my TBR. I bought this with the Thrift Books gift card, so then it recently got added to my physical TBR, but it is.
Speaker 1:I don't even know how to describe it. This is literally like it's so boring because everyone already knows that this is a great classic book. But it follows two families across kind of three generations, and so it starts with, like you know, grandfathers, fathers and sons basically, and shows the two different families how their lives interconnect over the years and diverge. Um, and it's. It's a retelling of cain and abel, but that is like actually a sliver. It's like if you learned about Cain and Abel but you also got three generations before, and there's like a mountain of context given to this one moment, which culminates at the very end with I mean, if you know the Bible, I mean it says it on the cover or like the you know the description, you know what happens One brother dies, one brother lives. But there's just like an eternal. There's 600 pages of context before you get to that point. So I don't even know how to describe it because there's so many things that happen, but it's so good and it's so like accessible, which sometimes, like I always tell the story of me trying to read Moby Dick when I was in fifth grade Like some classic books are not fun or easy or enjoyable to read, but this was very like within 20 pages I didn't want to put it down.
Speaker 1:There's so many different story arcs that some are like you know, minor, that you know peak and fall throughout the book, and then there's some overarching ones, but they're all super gripping and I find that like I don't like books with a lot of characters because I get lost, but this was like fully engaged, remembered every character. So yeah, and it's it's for how well written it is. It's also like very simple and easy, I think, to follow. I think this is, like I said, accessible. I think anyone could pick this up and read it, even though it is. It's also like very simple and easy, I think, to follow.
Speaker 1:I think this is, like I said, accessible. I think anyone could pick this up and read it, even though it is pretty long, um, and find something that will like stick with them about reading it, and I really liked it. I was like fully in it till the last page, and then I'm like, oh my god, what just happened? You know? So really, yeah, which is really saying something, since you know what's going to happen the whole time. Yeah, because you know it's Cain and Abel and even the there's actually two sets of brothers that have the same initials a C brother and an A brother and how, like, the effects of one brother relationship, you know, affects the next generation, um, so I think if you're interested in stuff like that like how something that happens to your grandfather can impact your father and then can impact your life, um, and the like twists that everyone's life takes and how they all kind of connect is, you would like this. So, yeah, I feel like yeah, so you were telling me a little bit about that when we were in person and I think it would be a great book to read.
Speaker 1:I think that if you like that, then you should read Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. Okay, it's kind of similar where it's like multiple couples, like multiple generations, and like the actions of the older generations impact younger and it's kind of hard to even say what happens in the book. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like nothing. Yeah, except it's not. And also the dutch house by ann patchett, which I know is in your stack. So if you're chasing that same high, um, the dutch house is really similar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, it's just like kind of domestic fiction, is what I think it's called. It's like it's a book about people, and it made me reading this. It made me realize, um, you know, I love my kindle unlimited hockey romances, I love my problematic summer romances, but like there is actually value in reading, like very well-written books, and I think that's what my tbr challenge is actually teaching me. The next book I'll talk about is similar, because I have so many like really good but also really like heavy or dense books in my tbr, because I'm such a mood reader that those are the ones that often end up like shelved when I buy, you know, a bunch of books at once, um, and I'm like, okay, also as someone who would love to like write and be a better writer, it is good to actually read books that are really well written. Um, and so this is like a master class and um, just dynamic writing and like telling stories even when nothing is really happening. So I think that that's also a really good lesson to learn for me.
Speaker 1:Okay, my last book is Memorial by Brian Washington. This is Brian Washington's debut novel, which is disturbing to me. He's also like very young and it's so good. I do not cry at books rarely, if ever. I genuinely was choking back like tears at the end of this book and it's not like, it's not emotionally devastating. Nothing like horrifically sad happens. Okay, let me just tell you what it's about.
Speaker 1:This follows Benson and Mike, and they are a couple. They've been together for four years. They live in Houston, um, in Mike's apartment and um, mike is Japanese American, his mom, you like. The very first scene is Benson and Mike driving to the airport to pick up Mike's mom, who's flying in from Japan, and Mike picks this moment to tell Benson that the next day he's going to get on a plane and he's going to fly to Japan to find his estranged and dying father and he's going to stay with him until he passes away and Benson is going to be left in their one-bedroom apartment with Mike's mom, who he's never met and who has never come to visit them since they've been living together. Oh, wow, yes, and so they're.
Speaker 1:Also, you get the impression very early on that they are not like in a good place in their relationship and maybe are on the verge of breaking up and are kind of like unable to communicate with each other. And so you start. That would be my last straw, that'd be my 13th. I would just be like sorry I'm out, but like benson doesn't have anywhere to go, he is a daycare worker. Like he has some complicated relationship with his family and he does love mike. And come on, you're not being chill, right, and you're presented with this. It starts in benson's point of view, so you're very sympathetic to him from the beginning.
Speaker 1:But you're presented with this situation where the initial problem is benson doesn't ask mike not to go, he doesn't tell him not to go, he doesn't ask to go with him and mike doesn't ask benson to come. He doesn't really say when he's going to come back. He doesn't give any like hints that he doesn't ask Benson to come. He doesn't really say when he's going to come back. He doesn't give any like hints that he doesn't want to go. And so neither of them are like communicating Because both of them like Benson of course doesn't want Mike to's mom for this amount of time while he's off gone. And then you get Mike's perspective of the same time period, what his experience is like finding his father, who he doesn't have a good relationship with, his end of life, and his experience over there. And then the very last part of the book is when mike comes back and how their different experiences have impacted them and changed them.
Speaker 1:Look, this is criminally negatively reviewed on storygraph, in my opinion. Some people are haters. It doesn't use, uh, quotation marks, which is very a lot of normal people I know people don't like that. So that's just a trigger warning. Um, don't go into this and from the first page, see that it doesn't have quotation marks and then give it two stars because it doesn't use quotation marks. That's crazy. You got to know what you're getting into.
Speaker 1:But it was just like it was so good and, like I said at the end I was just like I couldn't stop crying because it was just like, yeah, it's sometimes really hard to be honest about how you're feeling with people that you love the most and like some, but you have to do it and if you don't, you might end up stuck in this. I mean, this is like an overdramatic situation, like extremely high pressure, but you might have in your life a small version of this, where someone's just waiting for you to say like something and you're waiting for them to say something and then you end up in pain because you can't just be honest. Um, and I really liked the mother character in this. I like the father character, their relationship dynamic, like they're not together, um, and um benson's relationship with his family. He, uh, it's just like there's a lot of complicated dynamics in this and I really, really, really liked it. That sounds really good.
Speaker 1:It's also like the magic of books as a medium, especially character driven books, that you're able to communicate a really difficult human experience in a way that's almost impossible to do or really really difficult to do through movies, tv or song or any other expression of art, because this is like really an opportunity in long form to understand a character's point of view and get into their inner world, and multiple characters points of view, into their inner worlds. And that's what the magic of reading is. Yeah, because at the beginning you're so like Benson, I feel so bad for you, like, like, why is Mike leaving you? And then you read Mike's point of view and you're like, oh, I kind of get it. Like, I feel it's, you're not as bad as I thought you were. It's like how to fall out of love badly, yes, you know. And then you then every time you change someone's point of view, you're like, oh, okay, it makes more sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and at the end I felt like it does have an ambiguous ending. So I need to trigger warning that, because I know again, don't go give it a one-star review, because it doesn't have the happily ever after you're looking for. Um. But uh, I felt at the end I'm like I don't even know what I want to happen. Like I don't even I feel so much empathy for these characters. I want them to be happy. I don't know if that means they end up together, I don't know if that means they end up with other people, but like, I am happy to have gone on this journey with them and I wish the best for them and I want them to heal and be whole and like, have good relationships with everyone in their lives. So I really like this, um, and I'm gonna read more by brian washington.
Speaker 1:He has a short story book and also, I think, a couple other uh fiction books now that he's since released. Um, yeah, so 10 out of 10. I loved it. This was a five star for me, okay, wow, okay, yeah, feel good summer. No, um, okay, we've been talking for 48 minutes. Where do you want to go? Do you want to go to new release, like upcoming releases, or, yeah, do you want to hit something else? Before we go there? What do you think? Should we spin a wheel? I feel like we could talk about one of these other topics. Let's talk about germany. Okay, good, that's what I wanted to talk about. Okay, so sorry.
Speaker 1:The author of draco malfoy and the mortifying ordeal of being in love has a publishing deal and that book is coming out in july. In july, the irresistible urge to fall for your enemy, and we both mutually really enjoyed that was our first foray into harry potter fan fiction. That got eventually quickly derailed, uh, but this was the one I think we both really liked Very good. Yeah, I first read Manicold, yes, and then this was my cleanser Chaser, yeah, yeah. So what news do you bring? Okay, I don't have any context for this. Okay, great, yes, okay, okay. So this author I think her name is Brigitte or Bridget, I don't know. Bridget, I don't know. She's coming out with a traditionally published work, as you said, and the publisher this is not her fault, to be very clear, this is not her fault.
Speaker 1:The publisher put out a fact sheet which I've linked here and I'll put in the show notes. It's really hard to read. I'm clicking on the link. I couldn't find a better image of this, but it basically says says what is germani and um it is selling her book um and it's explaining which this makes sense. Okay, in the context, this is going to bookstores across america and the world. Probably it is explaining that draco and hermione are from harry potter, that people write fan fiction, that it's a very popular ship on TikTok. So it has all the facts.
Speaker 1:Some marketer put this together with probably decent intentions, because people are going to go into bookshops and to libraries and they're going to ask the person working there do you have the new germani book, because that is what people know. This as this came, this particular iteration is allegedly not a rework alchemized, on the other hand, which we'll talk about by sin linyu, is the same. It is um manacled, just slightly rewritten. This is a apparently original work of fiction, but it's being marketed as a germani story. This.
Speaker 1:How are you not going to get sued for this? That is the problem. This is direct suing. Direct, like if I was jk rowling, who I imagine is a pretty horrible person yeah, yes, she is I would sue the crap out of this. Like yes, what do you? Okay, what do you mean? Using my intellectual property? Yes, to market your book, and that's chill. On fanfic, because nobody makes money on archive of her own right, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:This has actually happened again, I think, with the, I believe a julie soto book, who also is like, comes from the fan fiction world. She has a germini which is like this is, this is a thing that happens. Ali hazelwood, she got her start writing raylo fan fiction and then that got adapted into yeah, but the book wasn't marketed. But it wasn't marketed. It's like such a gray area because it's like yeah, the guy on the cover does look like adam driver, but it's also like that's. But you don't like wink, wink, nudge, nudge. You can't say this is raylo. You can't own the attributes of someone's like, of an actor's facial like attributes. You do own the characters. Yeah, putting out a flyer that says Dramini is the pairing of Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. Yes, for those who may not know, draco was one of the antagonists and Hermione was one of the three main characters of the series. And like, like, going like this is why you should read this book. Yes, that's, that's insane.
Speaker 1:Who's the publisher? I have so many feelings about this because I have a fear of fan fiction and it is happening, becoming yet another space where publishers go to find people who have a pre-built audience. And that is a problem because, like, fan fiction and fan works are a place, like you said, where people don't make money. They're doing it because they love it and it's a community. They're doing it for the love of the game, the love of the game, and it's like do I want some of my favorite fanfic authors to be published authors and would I read all their things? Yes, do I want publishers coming to a03 and looking for authors to publish and then hacking into those authors existing fan base to market the book so that they don't have to do the hard work of marketing books to people. No, I don't want that at all. No, because then it's it's just another fucking industrial complex exactly.
Speaker 1:Can we just have? We just have fun, we just have something that is just for the love of the game? Can't we just have like mutual aid, like this is just, it's just fun. It's like we're doing this as a community. We're sharing stories. Yes, like, why does everyone have to make money off of everything? I'm exhausted. Exactly, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1:It's also scary because there are people like this could be a thing that gets fan fiction disallowed, because if people are like publishing it and then promoting it as germani fan fiction, that is illegal. Like you can't do that, and so I just have a lot of issues with it. There's that, and there's also the whole project 2025 angle. Uh, yeah of like, if, like, the plan of one of the plans of project 2025 is to disallow content like what is on archive of our own, yeah, to be on the internet, like, yeah, so just, can we just have something? Can we just have something, could you guys stop? Could you guys don't come here so blatant. Yes, like, guess what? Like people on the internet, organically, like fans, yeah, will promote this for you as germani. Yeah, they will say, hey, this is based on a germani, if you like, and that's fine. That's fine, because, guess what, those people are making money on it. They're not making money on it and they, you could just build a grassroots movement. Yes, fans, to promote your thing, but instead you're being dumb as fuck. Yeah, yeah, I know it's not good, I'm mad, I know it's very upsetting and it may.
Speaker 1:And also I want to say fan culture. It's not doing very good right now. There are people giving tom felton copies of manacled bound copies. There are people selling and binding fan fictions and making money off of them. There's this and like let's all. We need to chill the big one, stop doing that, save fan spaces for fans, don't bring it to the real world, don't make money off of it. Just relax, chill the Chill the big one. And like this is the problem. It's the same thing I feel about TikTok. Tiktok used to be fun and then people realized you could make money off of it. And now everything has to be commodified and it's like hey, let's just like can we just go back to having fun? You know, like, can we just have fun? No, because capitalism is a scourge on our society. Yeah, and we will never be free until we dismantle it. Yes, and just let, let let a03.
Speaker 1:There's an author that I follow on tumblr who said she writes for six hours every day and she's writing a freaking masterpiece. Let me tell you. But, like, she is writing six hours a day for no money, for fun, because she loves the characters and she loves writing and she loves sharing with us. Let's embody that spirit, like put your heart into it because you love it and don't do it because you are trying to make money or because you're trying to be a better writer and you want to eventually shop an original fic, like separately. Yeah, this is why it's chill. Yeah, oh, my, yeah, and it does make me like okay, like I'm excited to read alchemist. Obviously, we really liked manacled. I was excited to read this book, but it does turn me off a little bit of like.
Speaker 1:I don't want to really actually start supporting with my money these books and it's not the author's fault in any of these cases but I don't want to support these publishers who are doing this thing. That is like making other fans possibly have a bad time, you know. So, dan, don't do this. Okay, we need to like, do like a post. That's like how to use, how to be a like, responsible user of fan fiction. Yeah, yeah, we do, of course.
Speaker 1:Please see our episode on fan fiction, where I do think we talked a little bit about being a good fan. That was one of our earlier episodes. That was before we were really in the streets, that was before we were in fan fiction, before we were in it. We need to maybe do an updated one, but I do think we talked about it a little bit like etiquette and stuff. So one, but I do think we talked about it a little bit like etiquette and stuff. So, yeah, you can start there for a primer. Uh, yeah, that's why I felt safe enough to read my 13 year old fan fiction on here, because we only had, like, our parents and, uh, yeah, we had two people listening. There's more of you now. Yeah, I'm gonna be kind of scared, like I'm not gonna do that again, okay, um, if you've been here from the beginning real one, you know the share our show with.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, let's, let's wrap this up happy, happy so I can go eat dinner and talk about second half of the year releases. So some things we've got coming up. Um, you mentioned, uh, speaking of fan fiction, yeah, alchemized by senlan you, which is the adaptation of manacle that's coming out in september, just in time for a spooky season. That will almost definitely make our spooky season draft. Oh, yeah, we'll probably do a whole episode on it. Maybe, who knows? Also speaking of spooky season, we're looking forward to the thursday murder club number five in september, which I'm so excited about, and the movie, which is also coming out in September. So it's just going to be the most cozy September reading vibes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once I finish my TBR sec, I'm going to start over and read the first one again, probably Before the movie, hopefully. Yeah, we're going to have to do that. We'll book club it before For sure. We have a few months. Please read it also. Spooky made by how? What made by ali hazelwood? Okay, I think that maybe not on this episode, but another time. We need to do a ranking of all of her books now, because we do.
Speaker 1:She's, how do you write like you're running out of time. She's crazy chill because she started on. She started in the fan fiction streets. That's how she writes like she's running out of time. Honestly, I am so unashamedly here for mates. Uh, yeah, I'm so down.
Speaker 1:This is the sequel to bride, which was the unhinged, um, literally published abo book. Yeah, if you don't know what that is put on safe search and google, we'll cover that in our fan fiction part too. Maybe we'll put that behind a paywall. That's a staple of the fan fiction world. You cannot be on archive of our own for five minutes without seeing, uh, abo. Yeah, so that's crazy. Um, honestly good for you, girl. Yeah, um, so we'll be. We'll be reading that. We will be reading that, because guess what? Bride was really good. Bride was so freaking good and I was. I do not like that, I, but I was down, I was really down. So, yeah, because vampires and werewolves, hello, say less.
Speaker 1:And then we have um brimstone, which is the sequel to Quicksilver by Callie Hart. This is a little romantic-y snack. Yeah, I'm actually really interested to read this because, okay, I liked Quicksilver. Again, this is where I'm a hypocrite for Silver Elite, but again, she was not trying to do anything that she wasn't trying to do. She was upfront about what she was trying to do. But this one is traditionally published and Quicksilver was like a self-published situation. So I'm interested to see if the editing, if there's any changes. So I'm really interested. But you know, I'm going to read it anyways. Yeah, I'll be reading it.
Speaker 1:But speaking of really good fantasy, the Strength of the Few by James Islington is the follow-up to the Will of the Many that's coming out November. I'm going to have to reread the will of the many that's coming out november. I'm gonna have to reread the will of the many to understand what's going on, because I wiped at least the last. I just know that it ended on an insane cliffhanger and I thought the wait for part two would never end. And yeah, this is not romantic, this is straight hard fantasy, um, but it's really good and it kind of has dystopian vibes. It's it's really good and you guys should really read it if you want.
Speaker 1:Like a dark academia, like dusty magic school yeah, magic school. Like chosen elevated hogwarts secret prince yeah, it's just good, it's really good. Good, it's really good. Like for me to like really eating, be eating up a white guy, yeah, yeah, who's, you know? You know it's got to be good. Yeah, um, also totally, totally fine by a list assessment.
Speaker 1:I'm excited about this. I didn't know this was coming out until I was prepping this episode. But it's another celebrity, a normal person. She's going back to her roots. We're thankful for that. I this is my look. Here's how I felt about um. Ali hazelwood.
Speaker 1:First book loved it. The second book didn't like it, so much so. Then the third book I was like love. Theoretically, I was that was her third book, right, I think, yes. Well, theoretically I was like, okay, this is your chance because I need to know, am I going to be right or die for you or am I going to be out on you? That hooked me in. This is alissa susman's third chance with me loved, funny, you should ask. Didn't love once more with feeling this one, I'm giving you a third shot and I have faith in you.
Speaker 1:Going back to your celebrity normal person, this one seems like it deals with like grief and loss and second chances, and so I'm excited to check it out. I'm there. I'm there for that, yeah, so we'll let you know, um, and I think that's all the new releases that we had on our list. Um, just want to preempt. Like I'm, I just started reading the new taylor. Jenkins read atmosphere, um.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to ask you like, is she kind of flopping, because I feel like I have not seen anyone talking about this, or is it just like not, on my algorithm right now it just came out, um, I don't know. I I have not read enough of the book to say I know, yeah, so I'm only come back one or two chapters in. Um, I will come back with a report, thank you, and I'll be honest. Okay, yeah, all right. Okay, you guys remember to share our episode or share something from us on your instagram story. Uh, tag us or tag us on blue Sky and you will enter to win $50. Yeah, and we'll see you next time. We'll see you next time, bye, bye.