Fake Geek Girls - A Critical Look at Pop Culture

Another WWBUT as Missy has remained extremely busy! We’ve got romance novels. We’ve got The Locked Tomb. We’ve got WorldCon and PAX West. Join us!

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Reading

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Pot Shot by Laura Piper Lee
Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Watching

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Shadow of a Doubt
Dead Like Me

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Reading

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Legacy of Gods series by Rina Kent
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

Watching

I Am Frankhelda
House of Stasi

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The post WWBUT 119 – He Has So Few Redeeming Qualities and I Desire Him Carnally appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

This episode SHOULD have come out two entire weeks ago, but Missy remains the busiest person on earth and… forgot. Sorry. Here’s what we WERE up to, anyway!

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Reading

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Briefly, a Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert

Watching

Doctor Sleep
The Haunting of Hill House
The Invite
The Odyssey
Spider Man: Brand New Day

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Reading

Legacy of Gods by Rina Kent
The Naked Truth by Ana Kirk Shaw
Dom Com by Adriana Anders
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

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The post WWBUT 118 – Aspirational Circus Freaks appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

All of those notes we had about ecofeminism and capitalism came in handy, because it’s time for part two (the last part) of our episodes on the Alien franchise! Join us as we tackle Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, Alien: Romulus, and Alien: New Earth.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

“Alien, The Thing” and the Principles of Terror by Douglas Fowler

Between A Rock And A Hard Place by Vivian Sobchack

“Prometheus” in Excavating the Future: Archaeology and Geopolitics in Contemporary North American Science Fiction Film and Television by Shawn Malley

Fractal Patterns Out of Chaos in Ridley Scott’s Alien, Prometheus, and Covenant by Carrie Lynn Evans

‘We Were So Wrong’: The Perversion of Male Creation. Motherhood, Fatherhood and Birth in Recent Incarnations of the Alien Series by Amanda Digioia

On the ‘Alien: Earth’ Set, Everyone Can See You Sweat by Mike Hale

‘Alien: Earth’ Review: FX’s Sci-Fi Prequel Is an Intriguingly Ambitious, Eventually Thrilling Journey Into the Semi-Known by Angie Han

The uses of immortality: Barbie and popular culture by John Hartley

Speaking the Monster: Ecofeminism in “Alien” and “Aliens” by Eleanor Johnson

Prometheusby Thomas Doherty

“The Future Is Female: Bateson, Benjamin and How Women Learn in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus” by Cynthia Kraman

‘Mothers and Others’ by Ginette Carpenter in Women and the Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion edited by Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik

Reproductive Fear: Ideological Horrors and Final Girls in Alien and Alien: Romulus by Rhiannon Celeste Lewis

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The post Episode 214 – Alien Franchise – Part Two appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

We’re back to tell you what we’ve been up to! And, as is our wont, to have a little rant about something.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
I Saw the TV Glow
Together
Off Campus

Reading

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Copper Script by KJ Charles

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Voicemails to Isabelle
Toy Story 5

Reading

The Emperor and The Finisher by Runyx
The Gargoyle from General Management by Kate Prior

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The post WWBUT 117 – I’ve Been to Notre Dame and the Gargoyles Weren’t That Big appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

If A Wrinkle in Time encouraged us to expand our minds to the size of the universe, A Wind in the Door asks us to make them very, very small… and then expand them just a bit further than we did the first time around. Join us as we discuss identity, growing up, and the ever-important theme of faith (and what faith can mean, beyond the obvious), in the second book of the Time Quartet!

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

Symbiogenesis, Selfhood, and Science Fiction by Laurel Bollinger

Spiritual practices children understand: an analysis of Madeleine L’Engle’s fantasy, A Wind in the Door by Trudelle H. Thomas

Seraphim, Cherubim, and Virtual Unicorns: Order and Being in Madeline L’Engle’s Time Quartet by Wayne G. Hammond

The Time Quartet as Madeleine L’Engle’s Theology by Marek Oziewicz

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The post Episode 213 – A Wind in the Door appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Someday we will catch up to time and not be doing these super-sized WWBUTs, but that day is not today! So: here’s what we’ve been up to.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

Reading

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Reading

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The post WWBUT 116 – Have These People Not Read Animorphs? appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Abjection? The Monstrous-Feminine? Motherhood? What else could we be talking about other than the Alien franchise? Join us as we examine the first four films in the Alien series—Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection—to trace how this franchise has evolved, shifted, and taken on grotesque new forms over time.

Some Sources You Might Find Interesting:

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The post Episode 212 – Alien Franchise – Part One appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

Join us in our belated discussion about this year’s Emerald City Comic Con, including what’s working (artist alley), what isn’t (panels), and what we hope to see in the future (a scrap of curation on the convention’s part).

But even better, we got to chat with Ren Strapp (The Shepherd’s Sword, Amira the Van Life Cunt, How Could You?) and Becca Farrow (First Test, Ladycastle, Seventh Circle)! We’re so grateful to both of them for their time and for entertaining our questions about things like bodies and erotica and adaptation. You’re really, really, going to want to give both of these interviews a listen and check out their work—you won’t be disappointed.

Timestamps: The Ren Strapp interview begins at 39:27 and the interview with Becca Farrow begins at 58:05.

Mistake (?): Missy misremembered where she heard about Webtoon’s presence at ECCC—it was in fact in Ren Strapp’s blog post, not during the interview.

A Link You Might Find Interesting:

ECCC 2026 Recap by Ren Strapp

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The post WWBUT 115 – Emerald City Comic Con + Ren Strapp and Becca Farrow Interviews appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

We’re still going through it, which means we’re releasing another WWBUT! And it’s a doozy, because we saw Wuthering Heights and we have some (unpopular) opinions about it, about the critical response to it, and more.

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

Wuthering Heights
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
Dear David
Marty Supreme
Train Dreams
Frankenstein
The Secret Agent
Project Hail Mary
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

Reading

Babel by R. F. Kuang

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Wuthering Heights
Southern Hospitality
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
Bridgerton

Reading

Caught Up by Navessa Allen
Butcher and Blackbird / Leather and Lark by Brynn Weaver

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The post WWBUT 114 – The Animorphs of Bravo Shows appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.

It’s time for OPINIONS as we get into what we’ve been up to! Missy begins this year’s Oscar journey and Merri has thoughts on reality TV and stalker romance.

Notes: The sound on this one is a little rougher than usual because a piece of our usual recording equipment went out and we weren’t able to monitor the sound the way we normally do. We should have this under control for our next episode!

What Missy’s Been Up To:

Watching

Wake Up, Dead Man
Dust Bunny
Sinners
Bugonia
One Battle After Another
The Moment
Send Help
Dogma
Until Dawn
Heated Rivalry

Reading

Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban

What Merri’s Been Up To:

Watching

Predator: Badlands
Heated Rivalry
The Traitors Season 3
Toy Story 1 – 4
Summer House

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The post WWBUT 113 – Stalker With Manners appeared first on FAKE GEEK GIRLS.