I think the only joke we can make about this book is that its full title is Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution. This book is for people who hate nonfiction but are interested in history and need a narrative structure with fantasy candy coating to make the medicine go down. And boy did it go DOWN. We get into it, y'all.

Another romantasy book that has been popular on booktok, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross is a World War 1-esque, enemies-to-lovers story that isn't quite as ~spicy~ as some of the other books in the genre.

Did we enjoy this tamer entry? Did we buy the enemies-to-lovers arc? Come along with us as we discuss journalism, war propaganda, and writing styles in our newest episode!

SURPRISE! Like TSwift herself, we had so much to say about The Tortured Poets Department album (which was really an Anthology), that we split this episode into a two-parter.

We're millennials so of course we're gonna talk about our lady, Taylor Swift. In this episode we dig into the meaty lyrics and synthy, sorrowful vibes of Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department - THE break up album from the queen of break up albums. Oh boy do we get into it.

Lesbians in spaaaaace! Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is one of Nikkita's favorite books, but what did Kaitlyn think of the gothic vibes? Did Mackenzie appreciate the incredible descriptions of gore? Listen in to hear our thoughts on the incredible triumph that is Muir's debut novel.

We've rebranded! Welcome to The Mary Sue Squad, where we play, read, and watch all sorts of media and chat about it. Come have fun with us!

Fourth Wing, the 2023 Winner for Best Romantasy, Goodreads Choice Award aaaaaand the worst book we read in 2023. Listen, we respect the hustle, but this one wasn't for us. Still we had so many laughs, so laugh with us!

We revisit Suzanne Collins's Panem in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to discover the story of President Snow's descent into tyranny--with mixed results. Did we like being in a dictator's head for an entire book? Listen in to find out.

We did something a little different this episode** and wanted to share our love for Taylor Swift, the modern poet and lyricist herself, by sharing our thoughts about her most recently released *new* album, "Midnights."

Now this episode was recorded in December 2022, before her record-breaking eras tour and before her breakup with longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Our thoughts about her love life and our opinions of her songs have changed somewhat since we recorded, but we will always love our girl Taylor and how she's managed to move us through her music.

We're releasing this episode on the October anniversary of Midnights and as her album 1989 rereleases! If you haven't listened to her music in a while, give it a try! And we hope you enjoy this fun, informal discussion of ours.

**Note our recording setup was different than usual, so the episode will sound more echo-y and loud than we would like. Listeners with headphones, especially watch out for our first three or four draft picks, because we get especially loud then.