Page Chewing

Something is very wrong with Church. In Chapters 21–25 of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, the mystery surrounding the burial ground deepens as Church returns from the dead—but something about him has changed. This time, I'm discussing Jud's increasingly suspicious behavior, the strange atmosphere surrounding the burial ground, and the consequences of disrupting the natural cycle of life and death. I'...

What happens when a simple fantasy story written for your children grows into an interconnected multiverse spanning thousands of years? In this episode of Beyond the Page , Steve welcomes author and retired Air Force veteran Terrence Rotering to discuss his ambitious Chronicle Series , an expanding collection of books blending epic fantasy, science fiction, military action, and Christian-inspired...

This week on Panel Chewing #151 , Steve and Jarrod kick things off with a conversation about the rising value of Green Lantern #87 , the Lanterns television series, and the difficult balancing act of adapting beloved comic book characters for new audiences. Then it's time to dig into this week's comics! Steve returns to Absolute Superman #23 , a series he desperately wants to love but can't seem t...

In Chapters 21–25 of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, the mystery surrounding the burial ground deepens as Church returns from the dead, but something about him has changed. This time, I'm discussing Jud's increasingly suspicious behavior, the strange atmosphere surrounding the burial ground, and the consequences of disrupting the natural cycle of life and death. I'm also beginning to question whether...

What happens when a simple fantasy story written for your children grows into an interconnected multiverse spanning thousands of years? In this episode of Beyond the Page , Steve welcomes author and retired Air Force veteran Terrence Rotering to discuss his ambitious Chronicle Series , an expanding collection of books blending epic fantasy, science fiction, military action, and Christian-inspired...

The Pet Sematary read-along continues with Chapters 16–20, and things are becoming increasingly unsettling. Victor Pascow returns with a terrifying warning for Louis Creed, raising even more questions about what's happening in Ludlow and the mysterious Pet Sematary. Was Louis really dreaming? What does Pascow know? And what lies beyond the cemetery? We also discuss Norma's health scare, Louis sett...

It's another weekly update from Page Chewing! This week I'm checking in on my progress through The Bonehunters , discussing the challenges of reading Malazan, and sharing why Tender Is the Flesh has become one of the most genuinely unsettling books I've encountered. I'm also continuing my reread of R. Scott Bakker's The Second Apocalypse , exploring Stephen King's Pet Sematary , and enjoying the u...

After months of reading, Page Burners dives into Chapter 22 and an explosive finale that brings storylines stretching across the Malazan series crashing together in Malaz City. Erikson has spent an entire book moving pieces across the board. Now they've arrived in Malaz City. Join us for our full-spoiler discussion of Chapter 22 and the finale of The Bonehunters as we try to make sense of what jus...

The Pet Sematary read-along continues with Chapters 11–15, and it feels like we've reached the moment when Stephen King's nightmare truly begins. This is a relatively short section, but a major event involving Victor Pascow dramatically increases the creepiness and raises some big questions. Why does Victor know Louis's name? What exactly is wrong with the Pet Sematary? What does Jud know? And how...

This week on the Friday Conversation, I'm joined by Jose from Fantasy Talks Live and author Alex French for an open discussion about genre burnout and whether fantasy is particularly susceptible to it. We talk about massive series, thousand page books, taking breaks from our favorite genres, and why we inevitably seem to come back to fantasy anyway. Along the way, the conversation expands into sta...

In this episode of Beyond the Page , Steve sits down with poet and author Andrea W. LeDew to discuss Polemics , a collection that grew from years of blogging, poetry, essays, and reflections on contemporary American life. Andrea talks about her path from studying English and practicing law to homeschooling, blogging, and eventually publishing her work. We explore writing as a way of processing dif...

The Pet Sematary read-along continues with Chapters 6–10, and Stephen King is already turning our attention toward one unavoidable subject: death. This time I'm looking at the developing friendship between Louis and Jud, the Creed family dynamic, Rachel's discomfort with death, our first trip to the Pet Sematary, and the increasingly eerie feeling surrounding Ludlow and the woods. I'm also adding...

Panel Chewing has officially reached 150 episodes! We kick off this milestone episode with a question for comic collectors and readers: does the physical format of a comic matter? From standard issues and oversized magazine format books to tiny Lone Wolf and Cub editions, we talk about size, paper quality, price, collecting headaches and whether publishers like DSTLRY are using larger formats as a...

What are my favorite grimdark and dark fantasy books? This isn't quite the usual list. I'm counting down ten of the books and series that have stuck with me the most—from lesser-known indie fantasy to some familiar names that longtime Page Chewing listeners probably won't be surprised to see near the top. We get into brutal worlds, morally complicated characters, dark humor, grief, violence, philo...

In this episode of Beyond the Page , Steve talks with Eva Levina , author of the two book Death Is No Reason to Stop Living series, about her experience in a 25-year marriage that she describes as involving covert emotional abuse and the difficult journey of rebuilding her life afterward. Eva discusses the subtle warning signs she says she missed, including gaslighting, constant criticism, sleep d...

The Pet Sematary Read-Along begins! For the first episode, I'm discussing Stephen King's introduction and Chapters 1–5 as the Creed family settles into their new home and Louis begins an unexpected friendship with their neighbor, Jud. This is my first time reading Pet Sematary, and I've never seen any of the film adaptations, so I'm going into the story almost completely blind. Using the same evol...

This week on Page Chewing, I’m wrapping up my September Blood Meridian read-along and looking ahead to October’s journey through Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. I talk about how slowing down and reading Blood Meridian one chapter at a time completely changed my experience with the novel, what I’m currently reading—including The Warrior Prophet and Lone Wolf and Cub—and what’s coming up on Page Chewin...

Think comic books are all superheroes, capes, and decades of confusing continuity? There’s a lot more to the medium than that. In this episode, Steve shares 10 comics he’d recommend to someone who says, “I don’t read comics—where do I start?” This isn’t a ranking of the greatest comics ever written. Instead, these are approachable recommendations covering fantasy, crime, science fiction, comedy, s...

After 23 chapters, the Blood Meridian read-along is complete—but the questions certainly aren't. For this special concluding conversation, I'm joined by Steven Frye , author of Understanding Cormac McCarthy , to dig into some of the biggest questions I was left with after finishing Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian . What exactly is Judge Holden? Why is he so interested in the kid? Does the kid act...

We start with Jarrod's thoughts on Supergirl , which leads us into a larger conversation about superhero movies, shorter theatrical windows, interconnected universes, and whether Marvel and DC would be better served by worrying less about the bigger universe and simply making good individual movies. 149 Then it's time for this week's comics, including Lost Fantasy #2, Absolute Cassandra Cain #1, D...

We've reached the end of Blood Meridian . Chapter 23 brings the kid, now the man, face-to-face with Judge Holden one final time, and suddenly so many things we've been tracking throughout this read-along begin connecting. The dancing. The kid's capacity for mercy. The Judge's obsession with war. Predators and prey. Cycles of violence. And the question we've been asking almost from the beginning: W...

For twenty-two chapters, we've been asking the same question. Why is Judge Holden interested in the kid? We've noticed the smiles. The conversations. The Judge's attempts to influence him. The kid's apparent resistance. Holden hunting him through the desert. And throughout all of it, we've wondered whether the Judge sees something in the kid that we don't. Chapter 22 may finally give us the answer...

Chapter 21 is short, but it gives us one of the clearest looks yet at who the kid has become. Wounded and still being hunted by Judge Holden, the kid has multiple opportunities to abandon Tobin and save himself. Tobin even tells him to go. The kid refuses. He also gets an opportunity to fire at the Judge and doesn't take it, raising another question we've been carrying since Chapter 15: is the kid...

In Chapter 20, the remains of the gang are scattered and vulnerable. The kid is wounded, Toadvine and Tobin are trying to survive alongside him, and the hunters we've followed throughout the novel have finally become the hunted. Except for Judge Holden. The Judge emerges from the destruction of the gang seemingly transformed into an even more frightening figure. He stalks the survivors through the...

We've reached the end of The Bonehunters . In this episode of Page Burners , we dive into Chapter 22 , as Steven Erikson brings months of reading and storylines stretching across multiple Malazan novels, crashing together in an explosive finale. After four months with The Bonehunters , it's finally time to say goodbye to Book Six and figure out exactly what this ending means for the Malazan Empire...