The Shrieking Shack

Deathly Hallows chapter 19. We chat about JKR's t-shirt and the dogshit TERF-etsy she is boosting, contemplate the impending (perhaps already complete?) merger between radfems and the far right, and wonder if WB will ever actually do anything (they won't, but it's fun to think about). Then we go long on a chapter that feels like a story reaching its climax, but with all of the buildup completely missing--with multiple sexy holograms and a reveal of the Deluminator's function so baffling we once again have to extend our sympathies to the people who thought this book was fake when it leaked once upon a time. Finally, we try to roast a Harry Potter website "for serious readers" but ended up crashing it, so we check in with the Hogwarts Legacy subreddit instead to see how well they're managing their expectations for a licensed video game.

content warning: lots of unpleasantness discussing JKR's shirt and the heinous TERF store she is promoting--to skip straight to the book stuff, head to 50:45.

Deathly Hallows chapter 18. We discuss *inhales* the Vancouver billboard funded by hateful people riding a hateful billionaire's coattails, the initial Troubled Blood review that got things kicking off this week, the continued Troubled Blood reviews from The Guardian that revealed how it's actually WORSE than the initial review made it sound, the pile of pre-existing Known Stuff about the Strike series, the misogyny and transmisogyny common in crime fiction generally, the Fantastic Beasts filming news, and... the announcement of Harry Potter Skyrim. On top of all that, we have a completely out of pocket chapter that pushes the already-strained boundaries of our previously well-defined cast of characters to ludicrous levels in an attempt to tell a very (even for this book) ham-handed story about Harry's crisis of faith. Crisis of 'Braith, get it? Never mind.

It goes without saying but just in case: content warning for All Of JK Rowling's Business, as well as the related shit of classic fiction like Psycho and Silence of the Lambs and so on. If you want to skip the news segment, the chapter stuff starts at 1:14:15!

Surprise! Here's our mega-length news segment for this week, hot and fresh. Didn't seem fair to make people pay up to hear it early. We discuss *inhales* the Vancouver billboard, the initial Troubled Blood review that got things kicking off this week, the continued Troubled Blood reviews from The Guardian (very helpful, thanks!), the apparent pile of pre-existing Known Stuff about the Strike series, the misogyny and transmisogyny common in crime fiction generally, the Fantastic Beasts filming news, and... the announcement of Harry Potter Skyrim (which is actually continued in our third segment this week, so if you want to hear us talk more about it or think we missed an important topic, hold tight--it's probably in the full episode to be released later)

It goes without saying but just in case: content warning for All Of JK Rowling's Business, as well as the related shit of classic fiction like Psycho and Silence of the Lambs and so on.

Deathly Hallows chapter 17. Oh my god, an actually good chapter? It sounds too good to be true, but we had a blast reading this oddly self-contained story that starts as a spooky horror movie and ends with an outrageous and strangely endearing Voldemort sequence. We also learn all about The Butterbeer Bosses, engage with a listicle trying its best to navigate Harry Potter clickbait in a post-mask-off-JKR world, and more! Finally, we visit the Slytherin common room, which proves to be far more blessed than we could have imagined.

(mild content warning for the first segment: if a listicle bumbling through elements of the series' transphobia/racism/etc doesn't sound fun to you right now, start at 14:00!)

Deathly Hallows chapter 16. We have a heaping helping of news to catch up on, including some Fantastic Beasts production news that sends us down a rabbit hole of cursed movie plot and casting speculation. Our chapter this week is strange, combining some irritating worldbuilding and plot problems with a surprisingly affecting personal drama that ends up making for an overall better experience than the last few chapters--but nonetheless there's tons to discuss including nonsense plotting, overlapping religious allegories, hilarious statues, and more! Finally, we submit jacksloper's application to the Slytherin common room, and weigh our options between being sincere angels or little demons on the subreddit.

Deathly Hallows chapter 15. On this powerful mega-episode, we immerse ourselves in an Audio Experience, watch the Snyder Cut trailer, check in on JK Rowling's favorite new Epic Win Gentleman twitter guys--and that's all before we get to the chapter! This week's camping adventure sees Ron going Boromir Mode, so naturally we talk about Lord of the Rings for a while as well as more Wizarding religion talk, the logistics of acquiring food in the British wilderness, and the nature of the immortal soul (again). Finally, we put our heads down and complete a homework assignment as intrepid redditor Jack Sloper!

Some notes: At 22:45 or so, we chat about JK's twitter business--if you'd rather not hear us discussing transphobic tweets, skip to 28 minutes. Likewise, if you're not particularly interested in hearing the specifics of this chapter's frankly unbelievable antisemitism, skip from 2:05:00 to 2:24:50

Deathly Hallows chapter 14. It's the beginning of the god damn camping sequence, but that's okay: we've got a rowdy news segment and a pepe-silvia conspiracy to weave about the original chapter order of this book to spice things up! Plus, our continued adventures on Reddit as we shore up our karma stocks as we prepare to select a House to apply to.

UPDATE! Thank you to listener Brynn who sent in a correction for the Moody eye situation. Harry explicitly grabs the eye out of the door and leaves a hole behind *before* entering the office, not after. We were going nuts trying to find any reference to it as he left the room!

P.S i still think the book was meant to be read out of order hee hee

Deathly Hallows chapter 13. We're back from our week off, which was in no way timed to coincide with a certain author's superyacht cruise! We discuss Jo's pilgrimage to the infinite money trousers (maskless, natch) and a few bits and pieces we missed last week before completing the Ministry Heist we left off in the middle of last episode. Hermione performs the Oblivion item duping glitch, Harry smokes A Long, and Ron manages to get through half of Who's On First with his fake wife in the middle of a daring action movie escape. Finally, we continue Jack Sloper's reddit adventures, and earn some nice karma to boot.

Episode 124: KD/A With a break in the news cycle, we take a look at Funko pops and imagine a world where GRRM and JKR swapped places. Then we examine 'Magic is Might', a chapter that turns book 7 into a heist movie all of a sudden, simultaneously becoming the most entertaining and most baffling chapter so far. We even have a conspiracy theory to share about its origins... finally, we don our own heist disguises and begin casing the joint (reddit) in our quest to get into one of the house subreddits!

Deathly Hallows chapter 11. We discuss expensive Zoom calls and the mysteries of faith, and then pick apart our relatively complex feelings on a chapter that has some of the best moments of the book so far, but also some of the worst. Finally, we explore some more old pre-book 7 ending predictions, and discover one so powerful it derails the entire segment.

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