We teamed up with Anna and Alene of the Bellwether Friends again! We reconvened the Worst Best Friends to discuss the important topic of Bridgerton. Not the Netflix series, but one of the books that inspired it–The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. Unfortunately, the book is neither as horny nor as diverse as the series, but we persevered. Listen to this episode to drown out the sound of your seven siblings squabbling!

Announcement: Worst Bestsellers is doing a live virtual show hosted by Porter Square Books with special guest Margaret H. Willison! It will be Wednesday, March 31st at 8PM ET. And it’s free! Sign up here.

Content warning: This book contains child abuse and dubious sexual consent.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: “Bridgerton‘s Controversial Sex Scene Needs a Trigger Warning” by McKenzie Jean-Philippe

“Bridgerton Has a Lot to Learn About Consent, and So Does Everyone Else” by Princess Weekes

“Phoebe Dynevor Responded to All the People Talking About Her Neck on Bridgerton” by Elizabeth Logan

“How Bridgerton Officially Became Netflix’s Biggest Hit Ever” by Joanna Robinson

Coming up next: Divine Evil by Nora Roberts.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

Announcement: On Wednesday, March 31st at 8PM Eastern, we’ll be doing a virtual live show presented by Porter Square Books! Our very special guest Margaret H. Willison will join us to discuss Didn’t See That Coming by Rachel Hollis (aka Girl, Wash Your Divorce). The event is free and will be recorded and archived if you can’t make it on the 31st.

Register here!

Remember the Left Behind series? Did you know it also had a middle grade spinoff series about what would happen to the ungodly children who were left behind when their parents were Raptured? Well: it did, and we read book #1, The Vanishings by Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye, along with our sisters in our cult club, Ashley and Grace. Listen now if you want to be saved!

Announcement: Worst Bestsellers is doing a live virtual show hosted by Porter Square Books with special guest Margaret H. Willison! It will be Wednesday, March 31st at 8PM ET. And it’s free! Sign up here.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Parcast Cults podcast

American Hysteria podcast

Oh No Ross and Carrie podcast

“The Trials of the Tribulation” by Michael Joseph Gross

“Let’s Punk the Rapture” by Mat Honan

Coming up next: The Duke & I (Bridgerton) by Julia Quinn.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

You’re not dreaming–we did read a bestseller that’s widely considered to be “good,” The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. We teamed up with Amanda and Geoffrey from the podcast Dirt Cheap to investigate: is it actually a good book? Who is the murderer? Where can a guy find some good pornographic material in this town? Listen to this episode on your next stakeout!

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Dirt Cheap 

Wolverine: The Long Night podcast

Coming up next: The Vanishings (Left Behind: The Kids #1) by Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

We’re back from our hiatus! We spent the off-season training hard so we’d be better at *checks notes* Exy, the cool co-ed sport favored by characters in The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic. We were joined by Rachel and Adrienne of the podcast After Adult to read the first novel by this self-published superstar. Listen to this episode while doing your fake sports warmups. Good hustle!

Content warnings: This book contains child abuse, sexual assault, stigmatization of mental health care, and violence. Our discussion of it touches on these topics though not in graphic detail.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: After Adult: Talking Fanfic with Worst Bestsellers

Fanfiction 101

“Sports-Themed Queer YA Series an Indie Hit” by Jennifer McCartney

Boys In Our Books Q&A With Nora Sakavic

The Foxhole Court on Smashwords

Candy pairing: Adrienne says Japanese rice cracker candy, Kait says Raven’s Revenge, Rachel says candy cigarettes, Renata says a candy prepared by Bitterblue’s Graced chef for her nemesis.

Coming up next: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

In more precedented years, we’ve picked our favorite and least favorite books that we read each year outside of the podcast. But in 2020, we were too busy just trying to get through the year to do much recreational reading. Instead,  Kait and Renata convened to discuss the top ten things that helped each of them make it through this year. Tune in to hear us discuss all of these things, and keep reading to see links and pictures!

Note: after this episode, we’re taking a short hiatus to attempt to recover from 2020. We’ll be back in February 2021!

Why Gay Men Still Love “The Golden Girls”

https://twitter.com/renatasnacks/status/1296581572494336000

The Harley Quinn show reading its target comic book bro fandom for absolute filth. pic.twitter.com/OQrwEyA0T7

— find tyler huckabee on bluesky (@TylerHuckabee) February 22, 2020

PS: my Top Ten Best Books of 2020 are on the blog! And the Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2020, including my picks for MG and YA books, are here!

Per the request of our wonderful Patreon patrons, our editor Becca joined us to discuss the anti-drug cautionary tale Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (aka Beatrice Sparks). Reading it in 2020, we’re not sure what’s harder to believe: that this ever deterred anyone from using drugs, or that anyone ever believed it was actually the diary of a human teenager. We’re grateful to our patrons for supporting us, and just as grateful that we’ve never been invited to any parties where someone slipped LSD into our soda.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Paul F. Tompkins – “Go Ask Alice”

“Lines From Go Ask Alice That, In Hindsight, Should Have Tipped Me Off That This Was Not A True Story” by Daniel Lavery

“The Book That Defined My Teen Anxiety Turned Out to Be a Lie” by Sloane Tanen

“A Queer Reading of Go Ask Alice” by Frankie Thomas

Amazon review of Go Ask Alice by the author of Drugs Make You Un-Smarter

Candy pairing: Becca says any candy that isn’t secretly acid, Kait says pot gummies, Renata says orange yeast rolls.

Coming up next: Bests of 2020.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

Like a newborn vampire, we’re always thirsty for more supernatural teen drama around here. We turned to a finely-aged vintage, The Awakening (Vampire Diaries #1) by L. J. Smith, and we were thrilled to be joined by Lily Sparks (@lilyroro), author of non-vampire, but still high stakes, YA novel Teen Killers Club. Join us as we extoll all the ways L. J. Smith’s teen vampires are cooler than Stephenie Meyer’s teen vampires, including the best take on a love triangle we’ve ever seen in our storied history.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Carmilla (YouTube series)

“Italy’s annual calcio storico tournament — part football, part MMA — is a brutal sight to behold” by Paolo Bandini

Candy pairing: Kait says Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses, Lily says a vanished spicy-sour candy of her youth, Renata says mini Milky Way Midnights.

Coming up next: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

We read a semi-fictional, semi-self-published, completely bonkers book about the inner workings of the reality show Model Muse which is, of course, legally distinct from the long-running reality show America’s Next Top Model. Bestselling author and ANTM superfan Mackenzi Lee joined us to discuss The Wig, The Bitch, And The Meltdown by Jay Manuel.

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Episode 161.5 – Extra Video Footage of Kait, Renata, and Mackenzi discussing The Wig, The Bitch, And The Meltdown

“The real reason Jay Manuel from ‘ANTM’ made his debut novel fiction, not a memoir” by KC Ifeanyi

“Jay Manuel’s Truth is Out There” by Rich Juzwiak

“Jay Manuel’s satirical ‘America’s Next Top Model’ novel angers Tyra Banks’ by Carlos Greer

“Tyra Banks Was ‘Hurt’ After Hearing About Jay Manuel’s Novel Inspired by ‘America’s Next Top Model’” by Meredith Nardino

“The 15 Craziest Tyra Banks Moments on America’s Next Top Model” by Kelsea Stahler

“The real reason why Jay Manuel left America’s Next Top Model” by Brent Furdyk

‘Tyra Banks Wouldn’t Have Made It If Her Mom Didn’t Support Her Booty in ‘Any Shape or Form'” by Stephanie Eckardt

Pod Ledom Podcast

Coming up next: The Awakening (Vampire Diaries #1) by L.J. Smith.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)

Audio Player

It’s spooky season, so we revisited a classic of our childhoods: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. It was a nice change of pace to read a competently-written book, so we had to spend most of our time raging against the poor parenting on display in this book. Our guest Rebecca Mahoney (@cafecliche)’s debut novel, The Valley and the Flood, comes out in February 2021, so listen to this episode while pre-ordering your copy! PS: Sorry for some extra sound issues on this episode. It was a ghost probably?

Readers advisory: Here.

Footnotes: Wait Till Helen Comes movie trailer

Candy Pairing:  Kait says a candy apple, Rebecca says Tootsie Roll pops, Renata says sour apple Jolly Ranchers.

Coming up next: The Wig, The Bitch, and The Meltdown by Jay Manuel.

* Worst Bestsellers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

(But no pressure, we’re also happy if you get these items from your local library or independent bookstore.)