#cracked spines

[andhumanslovedstories]

everyone's always like "oh Animorphs are so dark, Animorphs are so fucked up," and I was kinda like "okay yeah sure" because people will say anything that they encountered in their childhood was actually fucked up. People have a very specific view of childhood media where it is all basically Dora the Explorer, and therefore any level of threat or nuance gets this hyperbolic reaction.

so I'm reading Animorphs for the first time, and you know what? fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine fine FINE ANIMORPHS ACTUALLY IS THAT FUCKED UP. YOU GUYS WIN THIS ONE.

anyway we did a podcast about it.

Animorphs Part 1: Baby's First Existential Dread

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(cyrus btw has already read animorphs, it was at a formatively young age, and don't even worry, the books made them So Weird.)

[crackedspinespodcast]

Cyrus and Sarah are back at it again in the Animorphs mines, this time covering books thirty-four through thirty-seven, and things are getting….well, kind of mid, to be honest. Except for the torture. The torture is great. Dive in to hear our intrepid readers arguing about the Goo Goo Dolls for what seems like forever, a whole lot of talk about the SAW franchise, and, unfortunately, a load-bearing bit about Scurvy the cat's nether regions. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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[hubristicfool]

So @andhumanslovedstories and I are going to try this exciting new podcast technique called “actually announcing and sticking to the books/topics we do in advance lol” 

To that end, here’s our upcoming schedule! 

May 15: Female dirtbags in the work of Grady Hendrix (we’re reading How to Sell a Haunted House specifically, but we’ll no doubt talk about the broad strokes of Hendrix’s novels because we’ve read most of them)

May 29: ~Fungal Horror~ (featuring Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, plus any other creepy fungus-y books we can get our grubby little hands on)

June 5: The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard (presumably we’ll come up with a more general topic for this one which will allow us to rope in some other media but I (Cyrus) haven’t finished this 740 page epic yet and thus the exact topic remains officially Undecided) 

[crackedspinespodcast]

Did you know it's really hard to write jokes about books with central themes of racism? Cyrus and Sarah find this out while covering Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic historical fiction novel about the the 20th century Korean experience of Japan. Our intrepid readers, who were sooo sleepy this week, cover personal experiences with identity, the Korean horror movie Exhuma (which totally whips), dead relatives, and the mythologizing of the family narrative. Did I mention they're sooo sleepy?

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[andhumanslovedstories]

we have a couple reviews on our podcast that are like, "awwww I miss Amelia :( shame there's a new cohost" and I'm tempted make our podcast logo white text on a black background that just says "THEY AREN'T GONE, THEY'RE JUST TRANS"

[andhumanslovedstories]

I’m editing our animorphs episode on the David books and I’m gushing so profusely about Rachel’s book that I’m almost embarrassed listening to back to it. Like girl, play it a little cool. You’re gonna look stupid in front of the fictional thirteen year old.

[crackedspinespodcast]

Say "I do" to checking out this weeks episode on Marriage, A History by Stephanie Coontz! See, I did a wedding pun, this description writing stuff is easy. Cyrus and Sarah tackle nonfiction this episode, and have a rollicking discussion about marriage as a centrally organizing pillar of society, women's work, relationships as a capitalist construct, and the equitable division of labor in a platonic lifemate situation. Also how hot they are in Cyrus' bedroom, and how cute Scurvy's little snores are.

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[crackedspinespodcast]

RESULTS ARE IN, FOLKS. In the past month, Sarah and Cyrus made a bet to see who could read the most books out of their combined TBR piles. Sarah is a super fast reader with one day a week to functionally dedicate to churning through books; Cyrus is an absolute competitive maniac who would rather destroy their body and mind rather than lose. The stakes: either financial ruin for Cyrus, or automotive ruin for Sarah. Two men enter; one man leaves (with their dignity, at least).

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