Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr

Brenna and Joe have patched up their differences and just in time, because they find themselves locked up with the Gladers, a bunch of annoying, mediocre (mostly) white boys from James Dashner's 2009 dystopian YA, The Maze Runner and Wes Ball's 2014 film adaptation, starring Teen Wolf break-out Dylan O'Brien.

Brenna is firmly displaced with both texts unwillingness to explain the need for an all-male society and for their poorly reductive use of women. Joe is more willing to embrace the action sequences of the film, but finds the endless unanswered questions of the book and its abrupt cliffhanger a lazy attempt to goose sales.

Plus: both are angered at the crappy allusions to both Lord of the Flies and, more significantly, Watership Down which is one of Brenna and Joe's favourite YA texts and not one to be messed around with.

In Homework: Brenna eulogizes the end of The Amazing Squirrel-Girl comic, but offers hope for a new writer of Ms Marvel (prompting a general discussion of Disney & corporate conglomeracy). Joe, meanwhile, gushes about Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir and catches up on reader mail, one of which prompts an apology and calls for education.

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us something longer at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and guest star Hannah McGregor arrive at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but Joe is nowhere to be found! The result is more drama than a Gryffindor v Slytherin Quidditch match as Brenna has to duck out early, meaning Hannah is less guest, and more like the glue holding this episode together.

When Joe finally joins (presumably after his Remembrall turned red), the trio discuss the reasons why Harry Potter has become such a phenomenon, why the series has lent itself to so much fan fiction and the troubling class and race issues that Rowling historically reproduces. Plus: Brenna admits a startling preference for an unusual character, Joe reveals a feud with his husband with regard to House sorting and Hannah explains the rules for real life Quidditch (despite claiming to hate the sport!).

If you want to find out which House you would be sorted into, complete the quiz Hannah mentions via Tumblr Sorting Hat Chats.

In Homework: Joe is absent and Brenna is exhausted, so Hannah explains the queer attraction to Stardew Valley.

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote
• Hannah: @hkpmcgregor (Pods: @ohwitchplease / #SecretFeministAgenda)

Or shoot us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part of HKHSPod's mandate is to highlight the work of Canadian YA Lit writers. In this exclusive interview, Brenna and Joe are joined by Governor General award-winning novelist Tim Wynne-Jones to discuss his new adventure novel, The Starlight Claim, his unusual connection to Rafi and JK Rowling, and why it is important that his characters are never black or white.

Find out more about Tim's work on his website or on Facebook.

Connect with the show on Twitter using #HKHSPod:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe head off to College for a sexy educa-

Nope! Can't do it! There are no jokes to be had regarding the painfully unsexy and potentially damaging "erotic" coming of age book by Wattpad "author" Anna Todd.

On the other side of the gulf is director Jenny Gage's bland-as-white-toast film adaptation starring human block of wood Josephine Langford and horribly miscast (and inconsistently British) Hero Fiennes Tiffin.

• Looking for better erotica? Check out Smart Bitches, Trashy Books instead!

Topics for discussion include the sad reality of why this book didn't employ an editor, the preoccupation with "technical virginity" and why foreign movie audiences are to blame for a potential sequel. Also: Brenna makes a startling discovery at the 1 hour mark that will have a ripple effect on YA Bingo for the rest of Book Two and leaves Joe scrambling to explain himself!

In Homework: For back to school, Brenna praises Spider-Man: Far From Home and recommends Debbie Reese's Twitter thread on Child's Garden of Verse while Joe gushes over Meredith Russo's trans fairytale If I Were Your Girl (prompting Brenna to recommend Gwen Benaway and Love Lives Here by Amanda Jette Knox)

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us something longer at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe aren't feeling quite themselves - in fact they may be experiencing an out of body event as a result of reading David Levithan's 2012 book Every Day and screening Michael Sucsy's 2018 film adaptation.

Or perhaps it is simply that they are struggling with pronouns and personhood as a result of A's constantly changing bodies.

In addition to callbacks to the repetitive cycles of Before I Fall and Everything, Everything, Brenna and Joe discuss how the book, like Adam Silvera's writing, fails to understand its own appeal. Thankfully the film adaptation makes a strong narrative choice that helps to strengthen its storytelling ability.

Also on the table: Brenna's disdain for the book's horrifically awful use of a fat body as a plot device, and the pair's mixed feelings about the film's diversity (yay) of almost uniformly rich, model beautiful characters (boo).

In homework: Brenna catches up on Gossip Girl and Joe checks out Amy Rose Capetta's queer-and-body positive The Lost Coast.

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us something longer at [email protected]. See you on the page and the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe join the uniformly black and white life of the 'Sameness' as they dig into Lois Lowry's 1993 Newberry medal winner dystopian text, The Giver. Unfortunately because this is still a YA adaptation podcast, they're also forced to check out Philip Noyce's 2014 film adaptation, which Joe politely describes as a "run of the mill dystopian garbage fest with hot people".

In this episode Brenna provides an overview of Lowry's quartet of novels, the pair discuss why the book's focus on empathy, feelings and ambuigty is so powerful, and why The Giver may actually be inappropriate for middle school kids. Oh - and we bash the film A LOT.

In Homework: Brenna petitions Joe to read Jeff Zentner's great Rain and Delilah’s Midnight Matinee while Joe reaches all the way back to the Jan 2019 Forecast for an update on Jennifer Dugan's summer love story Hot Dog Girl.

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe return from their long recording sabbatical with bright eyes and cat ears. For the start of Book 2 (aka our second season) we wanted something fun and frothy, so what better to kick things off with than the tale of friendship, success and capitalism that is Josie And The Pussycats?!

For the first time Joe & Brenna are covering two texts that don't speak to each other, as the 2001 film by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan was produced well before the Marguerite Bennett and Cameron Deordio scripted / Audrey Mok inked comic revival in 2016.

We discuss why the metatextual humour is more successful in the film, how Josie (and by extension the entire Archie universe) is being sold as a mix of nostalgia and contemporary sensibilities and how the film bombed because it was too smart for adults (who claimed it was too dumb for teens).

Wanna connect with the show? Tweet us using #HKHSPod:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gentle listeners, some big news! HKHS won't return with new episodes until Tues, Aug 6, but if you need your fill of Joe and Brenna, check out Horror Queers on July 31 for a special crossover episode on ParaNorman, a delightful family horror film that even scaredy-cat Brenna can watch.

Click here to check it out

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Book One comes to a close as Brenna and Joe delve into the dark and horrifying world of Scott Heim's 1995 novel Mysterious Skin and Gregg Araki's 2004 adaptation, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this week.

Take the trigger warning to heart as both texts deal with very mature themes. Brenna and Joe, while appreciative of the craftmanship of both texts, frequently resort to the word "horrifying" to describe their experiences. Rest assured that there is lightness to be found, though, including Joe's embarrassing mix-up over Heim's last name, the struggle to reconcile Brian as a "boring" character and questions about the tastiness of peanut butter peach pie.

In the last homework report: Brenna works through her relationship with The CW's Riverdale while Joe catches up with listener emails from Leo and Andrew.

If you want to connect with the show, use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's graduation night and Brenna and Joe should be enjoying a wild night of debauchery and wacky hijinks, but instead they're angry (like REAL ANGRY) about Larry Doyle's 2007 book, I Love You, Beth Cooper and Chris Columbus' 2009 adaptation.

Listeners who enjoy the episodes where the pair get a little frustrated with one or both texts (think The Kissing Booth) are sure to delight in just how much Brenna and Joe HATE this pairing. The structure is repetitive, the characters are stock, the content is frequently offensive and the jokes simply aren't funny. Strap in and expect plenty of swearing and sighs!

In Homework News: Brenna cleanses her palate with Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir, Shout, while Joe thanks the listeners who responded to the call (in the YA Forecast episode) for forthcoming books to keep an eye out for.

If you want to connect with the show, use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.