Booksmart

This is not a drill. Gus Everett has been found (DEAD). Sunny and Allie have convened interstate for an emergency Booksmart recording in response to the news that Patrick Schwarzenegger will be the leading man in 20th Century Studios’ adaptation of Beach Read by beloved author Emily Henry. Spoiler: like the rest of the internet, they’re not happy. Listen to find out why. 

In their third book club episode, Sunny and Allie review ‘If I Ruled the World’ by Amy DuBois Barnett. The book, which has been compared to ‘Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Empire’, takes readers on a wild and immersive journey through cut-throat NYC in the late 90s based on DuBois Barnett’s real-life experiences working as a Black editor at major American magazines.

It’s a messy, honest love letter to the trailblazing Black women and men who shaped the pop culture, fashion, and hip-hop landscape we know and love today. Sunny and Allie talk representation, the politics of power, and get excited for the book’s upcoming Hulu adaptation.

What happens when a devoted reader and book content creator gets a book deal? Hosts Sunny Adcock and Allie Daisy King explore this and more with their first guest, new author Lily Crozier, who released her gothic Beauty & The Beast retelling 'Vow of Eternal Night' earlier this month. Join them as they discuss working in publishing, writing redeemable yet convincing villains, and debate who is pop culture's hottest vampire.

Get a copy of your own here; https://www.qbd.com.au/vow-of-eternal-night/lily-crozier/9781761354571/?utm_source=Booksmartpod&utm_medium=MissingPerspectives&utm_campaign=BSMPLilyCrozier&utm_id=BookSmartLilyCrozier

What makes a good romance novel? What turns it from a read that that simply fills your time, into something occupying your mind, day and night, eliciting giggling and the kicking of one's feet?

THAT is the question that Booksmart sets out to answer in today's episode, using B.K. Borison's And Now, Back to You as a case study.

This episode is brought to you by QBD Books, bringing books to readers for 150 years.

Buy a copy of the book here ⁠⁠https://www.qbd.com.au/and-now-back-to-you/bk-borison/9781035073917/?utm_source=Booksmartpod&utm_medium=MPPodcast&utm_campaign=BSMPBKBorison&utm_id=BookSmartBKBorisonAndNowBackToYou⁠

Does depicting taboo relationships automatically mean endorsing them? Does having an interesting personal story automatically make you a good storyteller? And further, how does an author follow up a seminal debut? These are the central questions that Sunny Adcock and Allie Daisy King set out to answer in today's episode of Booksmart, using writer and former child actor Jennette McCurdy's fiction debut, 'Half His Age', and her best-selling memoir, 'I'm Glad My Mom Died', as their case studies.

You can buy 'Half His Age' at the following link: https://bit.ly/4u5sL0v

Welcome to our first book club episode, where we delve into the wonderful and traumatic world of Yulin Kuang and How to End a Love Story. Kuang is an author, director, and screenwriter, known for the adaptation of People We Meet on Vacation. Today’s episode sees hosts Sunny Adcock and Allie Daisy King discuss all things trauma bonds, pretty privilege, and if this book is actually a love story.

What do book-to-screen adaptations owe their readers? And further, what makes a good adaptation? Should the goal of any adaptation be to appease existing fandoms or attract new ones? These are the central questions that Sunny Adcock and Allie Daisy King set out to answer in today’s episode of Booksmart, using Emily Henry’s 'People We Meet on Vacation', recently released on Netflix, as their case study.

In the final episode of Booksmart for the year, Soaliha Iqbal sits down with acclaimed writer Zeynab Gamieldien to unpack her powerful new novel, Learned Behaviours. 

A gripping literary mystery set between western Sydney and the sharply stratified world of the legal profession, the novel follows Zaid Saban: a young man on the cusp of becoming a barrister, whose carefully curated life is disrupted when the past resurfaces in the form of his former best friend’s diary.

As Zaid and Amira, the sister of his childhood friend Hass, attempt to unravel what really happened the year Hass was arrested for murder, Learned Behaviours becomes a deeply moving exploration of guilt, innocence, privilege, belonging and the quiet violences we carry long after we’ve left home.

In this chat, Soaliha and Zeynab dive into the novel’s big questions: What does it mean to grow up between worlds? How does class shape the stories we tell about ourselves? And how can crime fiction be a tool for exposing injustice rather than reinforcing stereotypes? They discuss Zeynab’s process for writing place with nuance, the emotional weight of returning to western Sydney on the page, and why this story resonates so profoundly with readers who have walked similar paths.

With praise from critics calling the novel “a warm-hearted analysis of human nature,” “compelling and pacy,” and “a clear-eyed exploration of injustice and belonging,” this is a conversation that goes beyond the page: into craft, community, and the inherited narratives that shape who we become. We say this about every ep...but it's one not to be missed!!

In this week’s episode of Booksmart, host Soaliha Iqbal sits down with award-winning author, artist, and screenwriter Dylin Hardcastle - the creative force behind Below Deck, Breathing Underwater, Running Like China, and the critically acclaimed A Language of Limbs, winner of the 2023 Kathleen Mitchell Award and longlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize (casually). 

Together, they dive deep into the making of A Language of Limbs - a sweeping, dual-perspective novel set across three decades, following two unnamed protagonists whose lives almost touch, collide, and diverge. Dylin shares how the novel’s distinctive structure emerged, why they played with form (from fragmented vignettes to poetic passages and the absence of quotation marks), and the ways their own queer and trans embodiment shaped the book’s language, texture, and emotional core.

Soaliha and Dylin also unpack the novel’s central focus: chosen family; the intimacy of sex as character development; the dance between pleasure and pain; and the intergenerational grief, rage, resilience, and joy of queer communities from the 1970s through the AIDS crisis to now. Dylin reflects on the responsibility of writing towards history with tenderness and accuracy, the surprising generational differences in how readers respond to depictions of violence and trauma, and why joy had to sit alongside devastation.

They also explore the fascinating evolution of the book’s cover (including the story behind the now-iconic photograph), how A Language of Limbs was optioned for television before publication (!!!), and how the adaptation expands the book's universe. 

ALSO - be sure to listen to the whole ep as Dylin offers an early glimpse into their next novel! 

In this episode of Booksmart, Soaliha sits down with internationally acclaimed author Mona Awad to dive into the world of her cult classic Bunny and its highly anticipated sequel, We Love You, Bunny, that has just been released (get your copy STAT!)

ICYMI: first published in 2019, Bunny became an instant literary sensation -named a Best Book of the Year by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library - and was hailed by the one-and-only Margaret Atwood as “very funny, kind of horrifying and quite far outside the lines.” A darkly satirical blend of gothic fairy tale, campus horror, and metafiction, the novel follows Samantha Mackey, a scholarship student at a prestigious New England MFA program who falls under the thrall of a hyperfeminine clique known as “the Bunnies.” Behind their pastel sweetness lies a nightmarish secret: occult “drafting parties” that blur the lines between art, desire, and monstrosity.

Now, six years later, Awad has returned with We Love You, Bunny: a book that is both sequel and prequel, expanding the Bunnyverse to reveal the origin story of the Bunnies and their terrifying creature, Aerius, while following Samantha in the aftermath of her initiation. Longlisted for the Giller Prize and already optioned for screen adaptation (can't wait for the movie!), the novel doubles down on the surreal, self-referential humour and horror that made the OG Bunny novel a phenomenon.

This episode is a must-listen - let us know what you think!