Cracked Spines

I mean, look at the title. What do you want us to say. This is not a traditional episode so much as it is a 50 minute apology-brag about the most exciting thing in our lives right now. We bought a house, and Cyrus is single-handedly tearing it apart, and they are so so happy. I'm happy too, but doing less property damage in general. 

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This week on Cracked Spines, we discuss SO MANY BOOKS by British children's fantasy writer Frances Hardinge. Sarah gushes over the strange little girls and bizarre worlds of the books. Cyrus finds a character who is Tobias from Animorphs but somehow sadder and latches onto her instantly. We talk about what defines writing for children and come up with no real answers, but we do get relentlessly bullied by our cats this episode so our lack of conclusion is probably their fault. 

Books mentioned (all, obviously, by Frances Hardinge):
The Lie Tree
Unraveller 
Deeplight
Cuckoo Song
A Skinful of Shadows
A Face Like Glass 

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This week we're discussing books 6-10 of Animorphs. This includes The Capture which is a great piece of sci-fi horror that hit Cyrus' preteen brain like a comet. It also includes the first Megamorphs, which isn't a masterfully crafted work of delicious psychological torture but does contain some absolutely perfect set pieces of animal vs knife hurricane chaos so I think they're about equal. We talk about how so many of our predictions for the books came true so quickly and try to what the hell is going to happen next. Sarah gets weird about brain slugs. Cyrus gets weird about Ax eating trash. We are an Animorphs household now. 

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Gender, self-determination, and law drama collide in Ann Leckie's Translation State!  Your hosts rank their favorite characters; unsurprisingly, Cyrus was head over heels for pro-vivisection Qven, whereas Sarah was charmed by Enae's swagless detective whimsy. Also, this book about terrifying unknowable aliens and sci-fi political drama is a regency romance, actually. Occasionally we devolve into wailing about how we miss the protagonist of the Imperial Radch trilogy, Breq. Bear with us. 

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, guys. It's time for us to discuss the best of what we read, our disappointments, and what we're planning on next year. Cyrus discovers they're making good progress on their reading list for next year, but only because they forgot that they've already read one of the books. Sarah tries very hard to connect two works together for reasons beyond "...China," with frankly dubious success. The first ten minutes is actually an intervention about cookie making, and it doesn't work even a little. Goodbye, 2023. You treated us alright, but we're ready for the next one.

Media Discussed:
She Who Became the Sun and He Who Devoured the World by Shelley Parker-Chan
The works of Francis Hardinge
The Hand of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun by Wafaa Bilal and Kari Lydersen
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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Thanks to our generous benefactors on Patreon, we're embarking on our journey to read and discuss the entire 54-book Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, plus at least a few of the extras! And listen, I know we already had an episode titled "Warcrimes 4 Kids"  but these books make Avatar: The Last Airbender look like a splash fight in an inflatable pool. We talk about the psychological horror elements, the body horror elements, the pervasive sense of tragedy, and the fact that it probably shaped Cyrus as a human being after they got obsessed with the series as a kid. Like, really, they almost named themselves after an Animorphs character. 

This is our first episode, discussing the set-up for the series and our predictions for what's to come. We'll be spreading out our future episodes over the next few months, so keep an eye on our feed for the next part of the series!

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This week Sarah and Katie (wait whomst? guest host filling in as Cyrus is sequestered in Spain!) discuss two books that are basically the same idea, prepared two different ways: Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente and The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. We talk about the horror of marriage, the horror of cyclical violence, the horror of being treated like a thing, and the Westmoonster Dog Show, which is the setting of a movie we're pitching about the class system and also a werewolf who competes in dog shows. Thanks again to Katie for filling in! 

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First things first, this is Sarah and I say an incorrect fact at the end of the episode, the Catholic Church actually updated their guidelines for exorcisms in 1999. Second off, hello, hi, this week, we're discussing My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix,  a book I put off reading for so long that it became a running joke in our household. Turns out? It's good. Also, I talk a lot about exorcisms. Like. A lot. Cyrus this episode is doing the equivalent of meditating underneath a waterfall (the waterfall is made of facts about exorcisms). Other discussion points include: girl best friends, the inherent horror of no one believing you, and how goddamn hard it is to read a book at the hospital. 

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Whoops! Your hosts are still totally under the sway of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This episode, we recap the series as a whole from our favorite characters to which of the cast would bomb the worst at improv comedy. We probably spend a bit too long on that last part.

Also featuring Cyrus's undying love for Jiang Cheng, Sarah's touchingly high-brow fanfiction ambitions, and a love letter to alternating timelines.

Media Mentions:

• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
• Hamlet by Shakespeare

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Sarah got Covid! She's fine now. But if you're looking for the stuffiest, most pathetic audio experience you'll ever have in your life, we recorded this episode just for you.  We're taking a hiatus from our intended topic because Sarah's brain isn't working. Instead, we're talking about our experience at Wasteland Weekend: a spectacular all-themed post-apocalyptic extravaganza with amazing people that we spent a good amount of time ignoring to try and read more. Sarah discusses the books on Chinese history and myth she read; Cyrus discusses their acquisition of 100 scalpel blades.

Our next episode concluding the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation series will go up one week from now to make up for lost time, and our episode on My Best Friend's Exorcism (that's right folks, Sarah is finally reading it) will go up on October 30th. Thanks for bearing with us through our agonies.

Content notes: We briefly touch on abortion rights in the context of feminism as a whole.

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