Othersode #99: Weird Little Guy (Derogatory) / Bride and Prejudice with Tirzah Price

November 14, 2024 The Squad

Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!

What to Read When You Feel Down About Your Body

May 2, 2024 Mary

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast, you know me, but you may or may not know that I have a PhD in English with an emphasis on disability studies and children's literature. That all means that I spent a lot of time thinking about how fat bodies are represented in literature for young people, which led me to so many great resources!

YA Book Club: Burn Down Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

July 13, 2023 Mary & Emily

Mary: Whew, hello. Here we are to talk about Vincent Tirado’s Burn Down, Rise Up. This is their first novel, but they had another one come out in May of this year.

The book follows Raquel, a teen who’s undergoing several crises all at once. Her mother is in the hospital with a deadly, mold-like infection and getting worse every day, and her friend Charlize’s cousin Cisco has gone missing. On top of all that, Raquel has the average teen stuff going on—will her crush like her back?—etc. Soon, the group of friends discovers a dangerous game that might be behind the recent disappearances—as well as Raquel’s mom’s condition. The only way to stop what’s happening is to dive into the game for themselves and face the atrocities of the past.

Spoilers to follow.

YA Book Club: Reggie and Delilah's Year of Falling

April 3, 2023 Todd, Mary, and Emily

Emily: Let’s start this edition of YA Book Club out with a little bit of honesty. After the last book we read, I really needed something light, refreshing, and (most importantly) actually good. Enter Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant. I have been looking forward to this one because of its cute premise. Delilah is a cool girl in a punk rock band. Reggie is a D&D nerd so deeply steeped in the culture that he writes essays about D&D for fun. They’re from different worlds, but they see something in each other that they admire, and yes, they spend a year falling for one another (just as the title suggests). I know a big pull for me was the D&D angle. And I know it was for Mary too. And D&D is such a huge pull that we even got TODD to join us for this month’s YA Book Club.

So hi, Mary and Todd. Thanks for being here. Tell me, was there anything else that had you excited about reading this book? Cause I know we were really looking forward to it.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW!

YA Book Club: Hell Followed With Us

March 5, 2023 Mary & Emily

Mary: It’s time once again for YA Book Club, where we share our love of young adult lit by reading the most interesting picks we can find. Today we’re talking about Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. This apocalyptic tale follows Benji, a 16-year-old transgender boy, as he attempts to escape his claustrophobic religious cult.

BSG #75: Homewritten: The Weight of Blood

December 26, 2022 The Squad

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YA Book Club: Whiteout

December 19, 2022 Mary & Emily

Mary: It is officially the holiday season, and we’re beginning the celebrations with Whiteout, a collaboratively written novel by Nicola Yoon, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Nic Stone – all STARS of the YA genre!

Othersode #73: Some of Those Aspects Are Dead Now / The Midnight Club

November 14, 2022 The Squad

Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!

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.

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