It may be the one thing The SBU English Club categorically is not—writing advice. Top 10 Easy Ways to Plot a Scene! Top 3 Things to NEVER put in Dialogue! As much as we joke, there’s no such thing as writing points. The answer to any writing question is always “it depends”.So when you’re an authortuber, say iWriterly, and you build a brand of laws about writing and a fanbase who knows your maxims by heart, it can be hard to write a book of your own. Sometimes, you break writing rules on purpose, and at other times you do it by accident. The end result is the same.The Cyborg Tinkerer is not a good book, in our opinion. But COULD it have been? Was the outplaced hate for this book the result of a mismatch between Meg LaTorre’s YouTube audience and the kind of people that would like a book of this… caliber???Andrew (he/him) and Jay (they/them) travel to a magical place untouched by booktok, and unravel the steamy steampunk snarky whatever the heck else secrets within!

It's not a secret, and we're not about to be contrarians: reviews for The Age of Scorpius are not very good. There's no question that this is not the ideal version of this story. Only one single question is left: what does Audra Winter do now?She says she's rewriting this book, hiring editors and all kinds of artists to realize the world of Gardian. Which is all well and good, especially if you're hiring human artists. The world is, despite what the LLC might tell you, not very well-developed, the characters are awkward, and the plot seems very convenient and by the numbers. But does any of that matter when your prose is littered with misused words?Here at SBU, we're real life critique partners at a fictional university. Our hosts J (they/them) and Andrew (he/him) focus on elevating panned and/or controversial books by offering actionable advice, and leaving out booktok drama as much as possible. But when your entire existence is predicated on booktok fame, is there any avoiding it? Are unpleasant Internet figures truly our enemy, when so many forces are set against the continued existence of books as we know them? All this and more is... not really answered, but definitely discussed, in another action-packed episode of the SBU English Club Podcast!Music by Benjamin Davis

Long before booktok was an even worse place known as SomethingAwful. A squalid, terrible place, it nonetheless gave birth to many characters that have become Internet darlings--such as Nick "ulillillia" Smith.Ulillillia is one of the coolest people ever; despite a hard childhood of video game-induced phobias, he mastered the art of self-improvement by conceiving of his perceived faults as EXP bars in an RPG. Unfortunately, however, his debut novel The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters is a bit of a mess. Join Andrew and J in another book deep dive and analysis through the sands of time, and see just what the adventures of Knuckles and Speed can offer writers--particularly those interested in LitRPG and adjacent genres.

Team Kitt stays losing.Powerless, Reckless, and Fearless make up a young adult trilogy full of love triangles, enemies to lovers, and absolutely unintelligible plot twists. J and Andrew lose their minds as we try to tackle the last two parts of this trilogy, giving you a deep dive into both books and then an analysis of the books' and the series's strengths and weaknesses, in the hopes of saving aspiring writers with actionable, grounded advice.

Unfortunately, Divergent is good now. There was a time when it was the worst YA dystopia ever, but now all we can do is quietly smile at how silly it was. Well, sorta. In a world untouched by booktok—a world in which you can have two characters get steamy without being worried that Violet Sorrengail will Make the Lightning Happen—darker things than tropelists lurk in the shadows. Veronica Roth’s deepest desires and her weird, weird beliefs take Andrew and J to new literary depths, unpacking centuries-old religious debates and reworking the literary world into which Divergent was born. The days of debating whether you’re Team Oro or Team Grim are long gone. Now, the only question facing the SBU English Club is this: what is the true meaning of fear?Please consider supporting us! Members get early access to our videos, vote on our next podcast episode, and get exclusive content, like Not an Audiobook: A Crown of Starlight Companion Podcast! https://www.youtube.com/@sbu_englishclub/membershipFollow Andrew on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sbu_englishclub/Follow J on Twitter! https://x.com/sbu_englishclub

Love it or hate it, everyone’s talking about Blood of Hercules. Jasmine Mas’s catapulting from shifter romance to new adult romantasy shocked booktok and normal people alike. And intrepid bottom-feeding trend chasers Jay and Andrew are no exception. Having faced books that left more to be desired and others that are ontologically evil, they were ready for anything—anything BUT what was about to be thrown at them. Brooding boys, sassy snakes, enemies to lovers back to enemies, unambiguously unwanted advances, and a really “memorable” protagonist. Step into the SBU club room and join Jay and Andrew in a much-too-long discussion covering everything from trailer park thermodynamics to the use of parentheses in prose to the dynamics of fantasy vs reality to unqualified and over-simplified explorations of feminism to who is and who is not welcome in my shed.Not gonna lie, this one’s a little intense.

Apparently, the people who made the giant replica of Noah’s ark also wrote a pseudo-fantasy trilogy about Noah’s early life. This one has a T-REX GLADIATOR FIGHT ON THE COVER OHH MY GODDDDD! Join us for a really really weird experience as Tim Chaffey and K. Marie Adams return.