Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast

Our 2025 reading wrap-up is here! We’re talking fantasy burnout, new mom thriller binges, ARCs we loved, and a late-year return to horror, cozy fantasy, and darkly funny mysteries. If you’re hunting for fantasy, thriller, and horror book recommendations—plus real talk about reading through seasonal slumps and motherhood—this episode is for you. Subscribe on your favorite platform! Spotify Apple Po...

Why do some fantasy series absolutely explode while others quietly disappear from your TBR? In this episode of Fully-Booked, Megan and Shirin unpack the rise of romantasy, dark romance, and spicy dragon epics to figure out what really makes a fantasy series go viral. Is there a magic formula behind today’s breakout fantasy hits? The hosts talk worldbuilding vs romance, character-driven sagas, the...

Welcome back to Fully-Booked, and happy Wicked Week! In this spoiler-packed episode, Meghan and Shereen sit down the day after seeing Wicked: Part Two to ask a big question: was this sequel actually good, or just really, really pretty? Drawing on Meaghan’s experience with Gregory Maguire’s novel and the Broadway musical, and Shirin's fresh movie-focused perspective, they unpack how the film handle...

Hey there, fictional friends! On this episode of Fully Booked , Meghan and Shirin take a break from “serious” adaptations and dive into a mixed bag of comfort reads, ranging from horror to romance. 💘 Main Chat: Forever My Girl – Book vs Movie We unpack the Heidi McLaughlin novel and its 2018 film adaptation: runaway groom country-music star, furious florist ex, secret kid, small-town Louisiana vi...

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is finally on Netflix—here’s why this Creature-first, practical-effects gothic works (and where it stumbles). We break down Oscar Isaac’s Victor, Jacob Elordi’s heartbreaking Creature, Mia Goth’s dual role, and the film’s lush, tactile world. We caught an early festival screening and a limited theatrical run before release, so this episode digs into the performanc...

On Halloween Day, Meaghan and Shirin celebrate the end of October with a love letter to the Universal Monsters—and the filmmaking moves that made them immortal. We trace the real beginnings of Universal horror (hint: Jekyll & Hyde was on screen long before Bela Lugosi’s Dracula ), peek at the bootleg chaos of Nosferatu , and geek out over Lon Chaney’s groundbreaking makeup that hard-coded the “loo...

If you’ve ever wondered why It (2017/2019) still crawls under our skin, this episode is your sewer-level deep dive. We revisit Chapters 1 & 2 and talk about how Stephen King’s coming-of-age terror works on two timelines—childhood and adulthood—to explore memory, guilt, friendship, and the way a town learns to look away. We break down: Pennywise as a mirror for human cruelty—and why Bill Skarsgård’...

What makes folk horror so unsettling? This episode maps the weird woods: isolated settings, old customs that refuse to die, and the outsider who realizes too late they can’t leave. Shereen arrives a skeptic; Meaghan leads the tour—through forests, farmlands, and edge-of-the-map towns where tradition presses against modern life. We unpack how setting becomes a character, why slow dread beats jump s...

YA horror isn’t just training-wheels terror — it’s where coming-of-age meets fear, identity, and community. In this episode, Megan and Shirin dig into why teen horror stays perpetually popular: it’s plot-forward, nostalgia-charged, and perfectly tuned to the search for self. We trace subgenres (slashers, hauntings, dark academia), talk inclusive casts and queer themes that live on the page without...

Horror fans, assemble. In this episode, we dive into the last decade’s most effective page-to-screen chills and why adaptations are thriving right now. We talk TV’s “Flanaverse” and how The Haunting of Hill House set a new bar for character-first terror; the surprising heart (and heartbreak) in Doctor Sleep as King’s universe expands; how AMC’s Interview with the Vampire modernizes Rice without lo...

We’re three weeks into Dark Academia month and pivoting from the lack of new adaptations to the ones we want. From Ninth House and The Atlas Six to The Maidens, Bunny (plus its sequel), These Violent Delights, and The Honeys, we map the smartest book-to-screen plays—plus some spicy reader confessions (DNFs, trophy shelves, and the dusty corner). We dig into: Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern/Ninth House...

Dark academia reads gorgeously on the page—but stumbles on screen. In this episode, we unpack the big reasons: the aesthetic-over-story trap, elite settings that limit relatability and diversity, and the reality that streamers cancel fast and world-build slow. We use “Wednesday,” “The Order,” and our beloved Poe-soaked, gothic campus imagery to ask: is the genre “unfilmable”… or just misunderstood...

It’s September (aka back-to-school season), so we’re launching a month of dark-academia conversations. In this opener, we map the genre’s core—elite or boarding-school settings, gothic vibes, and a lean toward mystery, fantasy, and even horror—and dig into why secret societies and clandestine clubs keep showing up in these stories. We compare “real” vs. fictional societies, talk initiations and ri...

In this episode of Fully Booked: Literary Podcast , Meaghan and Shirin jump into Season 3 of The Summer I Turned Pretty — both the show and the original book trilogy by Jenny Han. They share brutally honest thoughts about how the story has progressed, especially how much they’ve soured on the central romance between Belly and Jeremiah. The hosts discuss their evolving opinions since Season 1, when...

Here’s what we cover in this episode: Heat complaints, Halloween dreams, and why romance fits the summer mood How a 13-year screenplay turned into a book, then a Netflix adaptation American girl, British professor, tragic twist — and a lot of eye-rolling Good chemistry, bad writing, weird side characters Our 4/10 verdict and why we won’t be rewatching anytime soon If you like romantic adaptations...

Summer may be flying by, but we’re hitting pause to ask a big question: what even is romance anymore? In this episode, Meaghan and Shirin unpack the emotional rollercoaster that is Colleen Hoover’s catalog. From domestic abuse to infidelity and infertility, her books are packed with heavy themes that leave us wondering: are we still reading romance, or just trauma fiction with a love story on the...

In this episode of the Fully-Booked: Literary podcast , Meaghan and Shirin close out July’s theme of book adaptations . They’ve spent the month chatting about what makes a successful adaptation, what flops, and where things fall in between. This episode is a genre-focused deep dive where they talk about how different categories of books fare when turned into TV or film. They kick things off by ack...

This episode of the Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast kicked off, as always, with what’s on our nightstands. Shirin had her hands on Phantasma , a book that had been hyped all over, but halfway through, she was feeling let down. The Southern Gothic mood is solid, but the story lacks that punch. The tasks and trials within it are underwhelming, and she doesn’t really care much about the characters. It...

We’re dropped right into Adaptations Month , and Meaghan and Shirin are fired up about one of the most talked-about YA adaptations in recent memory: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, now an eight-episode Amazon Prime series. Right away, we’re treated to some healthy debate. Shirin adores the book; she champions the writing, the twist, and the mood. Meaghan? Not so much. She found the prose pretentious...

We started off this Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast episode by greeting everyone with excitement for July and reflecting on how summer used to be a time packed with massive blockbuster releases. We remember those days fondly, when movie theaters were our second homes during the hot months, and every Tuesday felt like a holiday because we could catch the latest release with cheap tickets. There was...

We kick off with the hosts’ cheerful greeting and their confession that they recorded the Fully-Booked: Literary Podcast ahead of schedule, joking that it is “the last week of June… but not really.” They remind us that June on Fully-Booked has been all about banned books, and they want to finish with something big. While scanning international censorship lists, Meaghan notices that The Da Vinci Co...

We started the Fully-Booked Podcast episode with some personal updates and our latest reads. Meaghan had just finished The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, a fast-paced thriller that she found both fun and perplexing in terms of what to expect from its sequels. She mentioned how Shirin tends to dive into one author's entire catalogue when she discovers a book she enjoys, and this time it was her turn...

We kicked off this Fully-Booked Podcast episode by sticking with our June theme: banned books . And this time, we focused on one that left us scratching our heads: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. The 2006 novel was recently banned in Utah’s public schools under House Bill 29, which allows parents to challenge books they consider “sensitive material.” If three school districts or charter schools...

We kicked off this Fully-Booked podcast episode like we often do, talking about the weather. June arrived, and with it came all the seasonal chaos we Canadians know too well. One moment we’re soaking in rays, and the next, we’re back to complaining about rain or trying to survive sudden temperature spikes. It’s the kind of weather where someone might wear a parka with flip-flops and somehow not lo...

We started off with a quick update: Meaghan and Arthur are trying out a new recording setup for the Fully-Booked Podcast and, like any of us facing tech upgrades, are crossing their fingers that it behaves itself. From there, they leaned into their end-of-May tradition of a more casual, "free-for-all" episode format. It’s their chance to have fun, try different things, and bring up topics they mig...