Cracked Spines

This week we're discussing books 6-10 of  Animorphs . This includes The Capture which is a great piece of sci-fi horror that hit Cyrus' preteen brain like a comet. It also includes the first Megamorphs, which isn't a masterfully crafted work of delicious psychological torture but does contain some absolutely perfect set pieces of animal vs knife hurricane chaos so I think they'...

Gender, self-determination, and law drama collide in Ann Leckie's Translation State!  Your hosts rank their favorite characters; unsurprisingly, Cyrus was head over heels for pro-vivisection Qven, whereas Sarah was charmed by Enae's swagless detective whimsy. Also, this book about terrifying unknowable aliens and sci-fi political drama is a regency romance, actually. Occasionally we devo...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, guys. It's time for us to discuss the best of what we read, our disappointments, and what we're planning on next year. Cyrus discovers they're making good progress on their reading list for next year, but only because they forgot that they've already read one of the books. Sarah tries very hard to connect two works together for reasons beyond...

Thanks to our generous benefactors on Patreon , we're embarking on our journey to read and discuss the entire 54-book Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, plus at least a few of the extras! And listen, I know we already had an episode titled "Warcrimes 4 Kids"  but these books make Avatar: The Last Airbender look like a splash fight in an inflatable pool. We talk about the psychologi...

This week Sarah and Katie (wait whomst? guest host filling in as Cyrus is sequestered in Spain!) discuss two books that are basically the same idea, prepared two different ways:  Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente and  The Echo Wife  by Sarah Gailey. We talk about the horror of marriage, the horror of cyclical violence, the horror of being treated like a thing, and the Westmoonster Do...

First things first, this is Sarah and I say an incorrect fact at the end of the episode, the Catholic Church actually updated their guidelines for exorcisms in 1999. Second off, hello, hi, this week, we're discussing  My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix,  a book I put off reading for so long that it became a running joke in our household. Turns out? It's good. Also, I talk a...

Whoops! Your hosts are still totally under the sway of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This episode, we recap the series as a whole from our favorite characters to which of the cast would bomb the worst at improv comedy. We probably spend a bit too long on that last part. Also featuring Cyrus's undying love for Jiang Cheng, Sarah's touchingly high-brow fanfiction...

Sarah got Covid! She's fine now. But if you're looking for the stuffiest, most pathetic audio experience you'll ever have in your life, we recorded this episode just for you.  We're taking a hiatus from our intended topic because Sarah's brain isn't working. Instead, we're talking about our experience at Wasteland Weekend: a spectacular all-themed post-apocalypti...

Y'all, y'all, we're real excited for this one. It's a sloppy lil episode where we discuss the first two books of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation  by Mo Dao Zu Shi. The first book took us months to read. The second? A couple days. Shit picks up and gets pretty evil. Delicious. Sarah talks about the walking source of embarrassment that is Wei Wuxian. Cyrus loses their mind ove...

No spaceships, no magic systems this week, it's time for some straight up Literature. This week, we're reading  Less  and  Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. The first book is one of our favorites from 2020; the second is a sequel that dared us to ask the question, "wait what the hell could the sequel possibly be about?" We talk about the inherent romance of loving someone&apos...

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an elfin asshole with a knife! It's Peter Pan! Or specifically, in this case, Peter Darling by Austin Chant, a delightful romance novel where Peter leaves his identity as Wendy Darling behind to go to Neverland and have a rivalmance with Captain Hook. Exquisite. We discuss the difficulty in adapting challenging (read: rancid) source material, how...

This week, we're talking about the first two books of the Aubrey–Maturin series, Master and Commander  and  Post Captain, but really more specifically we're talking about:  1) how much boat talk is too much boat talk; 2)  is Jack a himbo or THE himbo; and 3) do we want to read 18 more of these. We're both pretty positive about the books while affirming that no, we're not gonna...

This week we read uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well it depends on who you ask. One of us read Delivered from Distraction . One of us read Driven to Distraction . This was. Not on purpose. See how long it takes us to realize. Other talking points include: why case studies are the best form of literature, the brand new eating disorder Sarah's been reading about, and Cyrus' inability to remain within t...

This week, we're digging into the graphic memoir Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe! We're talking gender, fandom, identity, pronouns, sexuality, and our own experiences with all of the above.  Based on our mutual experiences, gender is stored in the gruff old nautical man. Also featuring discussions of all five members of One Direction: Zayne, Harry, James, Brandon, and Ricki-tiki-tavi. Not in...

This week we're talking enemy time-spies, bee sting letters, and of course, the all-powerful influence of Trigun twitter. That's right, it's  This is How You Lose the Time War  by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. We discuss the age-old label battle of speculative fiction vs literary fiction, Cyrus pitches a tragically unironic World of Warcraft AU, and Sarah stoically endures the c...

This week, we're talking about  The Hands of the Emperor  by Victoria Goddard. Sarah is wildly enthusiastic about the prospect of exploring the complex functioning of a massive government for 900 pages. Cyrus was super busy this week but is extremely game to talk about intimate friendships. Like, weirdly intimate friendships. Like let's get to the central question of this text: should th...

This week on Cracked Spines, it's time to dig into Cyrus' special interests: Ted Lasso and fungus. Mostly fungus. I'd say 90 percent fungus. Cyrus explains their fascination with the organisms that are like if plants had meat and their major gripe with the current state of fungal works out there. Sarah does not wish to join the fungal hivemind but did like some of the books this wee...

MIME STOPS FOR NO MAN. In this episode we primarily discuss Grady Hendrix's newest horror novel, "How to Sell a Haunted House." Of course, we quickly devolve into discussing the entire Hendrixverse and its delicious all you can eat buffet of sloppy nightmare women. Why is Grady Hendrix so good at writing female characters? And most importantly, why must the puppets always be creepy?...

Hey guys, we got a crazy one. Bad sex, problematic dynamics, and weird, epic love(?): that's right, we're reading The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu! Sorry for all the cross talk in this one, we're just really excited about this absolutely bonkers book. Sarah physically cannot articulate the act of reading this book. Cyrus practiced Chinese name pronunci...

This week, Sarah and Cyrus tackle a subject that is a particular passion of one of them: the character type of Brave Little Girls. Sarah posits a working definition of what this phrase might mean, and gushes over fictions weird little girls who are asked to do too much and who rise to the occasion. Cyrus wonders if anyone had a normal childhood or what a thing might mean. We also talk about Misha...

This week on Cracked Spines, we're talking about one of Cyrus' top books of last year,  Piranesi  by Susanna Clarke, a story about one of our favorite things--a real weird location that does weird things to your brain. Neat! Sarah likes the book but isn't really sure it's about a haunted house. Cyrus likes the book and maintains that of course, of course it is. One of us is rig...

Did you know that Pixar's Cars is actually an installment of the Cosmere? The pieces are all right there. This episode, your hosts talk about epic fantasy to the tune of Brandon Sanderson, from the Stormlight Archives to Mistborn (Sarah's read that, right?) Let's dig into what makes Sanderson's work so hugely popular, and why it doesn't always hit the same buttons for your...

This week on Cracked Spines, it's Sarah's turn to take the wheel with an episode about the television show Avatar: The Last Airbender, which calls its seasons "books" so it counts for this podcast. Cyrus shares their teenage Zuko tribute experience. Sarah shares her adult Zuko tribute experience. We also talk about people who aren't Zuko. Discussion points include the bene...

This week, we're talking gender! Culture! More gender! There's a whole lotta gender in this one, lads! It's She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan, much beloved by both hosts, who do their best to have an intelligent discussion about an intelligent book with varying degrees of success.  Support the show

F. Murray Abraham? Don't mind if we do! This week, we're talking body horror, we're talking cosmic horror, and we're talking sad old men — which is to say we're discussing The Autopsy, a short story by Michael Shea and an episode of the Netflix show Cabinet of Curiosities. As with all things involving body horror, Cyrus is a depraved little pervert and Sarah rises to the c...