The Dust Jacket

Alice Hoffman is one of Dacey's favorite authors, and this book, her latest, starts off with a great voice and an interesting premise. Unfortunately, alongside its good moments come a host of not-quite-good moments, and some downright bad moments. When we started talking about all the ins and outs, we just couldn't stop. 
So we decided to split this episode into two parts. Here's part one, part two will be out next Friday, and we'll do one more Spooktober read after that. Sorry.
Spoilers from 37 mins
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To kick off Spooktober 2026, we're talking about My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite. Okay, we cheated a bit, this book is more thriller than horror; in fact, the reason we picked it is because the NYT just placed it at #6 on their list of the best thrillers of the 21st century. Listen in to see if we agree...
Spoilers from 29 mins
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We're kicking off Spooktober with a classic! This week we're talking about one of the most famous horror novels of all time.... or at least the novel that became one of the most famous horror movies of all time. With its iconic shower stabbing scene, and possibly the most famous twist ever. 
There are spoilers from the jump, but you probably already know the twist, right? 
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We have fantasy fan Sam back to talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl, the breakout hit LitRPG. If you've never heard of the LitRPG genre, it's what would happen if the fantasy genre had a baby with the Dungeons & Dragons rulebook, and their kid was extremely numbers-focused but struggled with interpersonal communication. 
No spoiler warning in this episode. We do talk about things that happen late in the book (for example, the ending), but not in a way that will spoil it if you understand that this is the first book of a quite long series. 
One other note: we say that the thing with the shamankas only happens in the graphic novel, but it also happens in the book. You'll know the thing with the shamankas when you get there. 
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The marketing copy alternately calls Fruit Fly a satirical thriller and a domestic thriller. Unfortunately for us, trying to do both of those things at once led to a muddled novel that can't quite get out of its own way. 
Spoilers from 30 mins
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Hudson, New York is "full of drunks and sluts," according to this week's book, Big Swiss, by Jen Beagin. So we went there to record this episode. Luckily, our guest, Jules, lives in Hudson and tells us all about both the sluts and the drunks. 
Big Swiss is a weird, wild ride full of bees, ants, dogs, cheating, betrayal, and truly bizarre characters. 
Spoilers from 45 mins
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This week we're talking about "American Fantasy" a cozy book about a Gen X woman going on a cruise with a band from her youth ("Boy Talk" in the book, inspired clearly by New Kids on the Block). 
This premise, the 11th novel by a popular author, should be at least a base hit, if not a home run. But it's one of the worst-rated books we've ever read for the podcast. 
We dig into why people might have hated it and what we (at least, what Dacey) loved about it. 
Spoilers from 32 mins
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This week, we're talking about The Guncle, by Steven Rowley, the rare "heartwarming comedic novel" that is actually heartwarming and funny! We talk about how hard it is to write a novel about grief, the Guncle sequel and why it didn't live up to the original, and much more! 
Spoilers from 26 mins
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This week we have another double guest episode! Regan and Martin join us to talk about Blob, a weird (but not weird enough) novel about a woman who finds a blob and shapes it into a man. 
We all agreed that this book wasn't amazing, but we all rated it higher than its Goodreads rating. Find out why....
Spoilers from 19 mins

Dacey has laryngitis this week, so we cracked open our vault of previously recorded episodes. This book is about the most prolific art thief you've never heard of... but the book itself might be a crime as well. 
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