What Lives in the Lacuna

SPOILER WARNING: This episode contains major spoilers for Yesteryear , including its central reveal and ending. Welcome to the first unofficial meeting of the Lacuna Book Club. This episode we dive into Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, a beautifully written, compulsively readable novel that left us with one very important problem: we could not stop talking about it. We unpack Natalie Heller-Mills...

What makes a fictional love interest a red flag or a green flag, and why are readers drawn to both? In this episode of What Lives in the Lacuna , we take opposite sides of the red flag/green flag debate. E. Donohue makes the case for Team Green Flag, exploring characters who respect autonomy, communicate honestly, understand their own emotions, and treat the people around them as equals. From cont...

In this Lacuna Tangent, Remy Renard and E. Donohue explore Obsession (2026), a psychological horror film that asks a simple question: who is the real monster? Using the film as a jumping-off point, we explore how horror can challenge our assumptions about violence, control, and the "nice guy" archetype. We unpack the symbolism behind the film's protagonist, Bear, discuss obsession disguised as lov...

What does it really mean to be morally gray? In this episode of What Lives in the Lacuna , Remy Renard and E. Donohue explore one of fiction's most enduring character archetypes: the morally gray character. Beginning with trickster figures from folklore, including Coyote, Loki, and the Sídhe, we examine how stories across cultures have used morally complex characters to navigate survival, change,...

In this Lacuna Tangent, Remy Renard and E. Donohue use The Atlantic article The End of Reading Is Here by Rose Horowitch (July 8, 2026) as a jumping-off point to ask a different question entirely: if we truly care about the future of reading, are we focusing on the right problem? Rather than blaming readers, we explore the pressures that make reading harder in modern life, from economic realities...

In this episode, we explore the multifaceted concept of monstrosity in folklore, literature, and pop culture, focusing on Irish mythology and modern interpretations in romance and fantasy genres. We discuss how cultural context shapes our understanding of monsters and the importance of acceptance and empathy. Resources What Manner of Man Is This Hound by Finn Longman Ciarán Carson,  The Táin , Pen...

Welcome to What Lives in the Lacuna. We're Remy Renard, author of Lupines Bloom Where Blood Falls, and E. Donohue, author of The Raun Cycle. In this introductory episode, we discuss the books that shaped us, our different reading and writing backgrounds, and why we wanted to create a space for thoughtful, curious conversations about storytelling and the indie book community. Whether we're talking...