The Shrieking Shack

Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ideal of Being In Love After finishing TIUTFFYE, we dove straight into another extremely long acronym. How does the fic that got publisher attention hold up compared to its descendant? Would you believe... hey not bad! We discuss the differences between fanfiction and fiction, the ways characters are warped by popular perception, and ponder what it is that matters t...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy finale We finished the book! Or rather, the book just sort of finished. We discuss the strange, sudden ending of TIUTFFYE and gather our thoughts on the novel as a whole. Speaking of hole, there's one last explicit scene for the road in these chapters, and it sends us on a quest to understand what "spice levels" are. What makes a book spicy? Who defines...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 16-18 RIP Doctor Who. The Tardis crashed into a space embankment at two trillion miles per hour and he blew up. There's been precious little Potter news lately, so we spend some time chatting about how every major tentpole franchise seems to be falling apart these days and how we hope that it happens to Harry soon. Then we discuss our penultim...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 13-15 Woof. Remember how last week we thought things might be improving? Forget we said any of that. This week we've got some just plain nasty stuff to dig through, but don't worry! We have some fun chatting about Final Fantasy, James Bond, and Dodgers fan Dobby too. Then we get right with the Lord and learn what sort of people are still writi...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 9-12 We begin this episode with an utterly earth-shattering shock! Then we move on to discuss a really gross set of chapters. Only, these might be the best ones so far? Is this book improving, or are we just getting used to it? We chew on that for a while before checking in on another, much more expensive podcast to see what's going on over in...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 7-9 We're a little rambunctious on this one. We love genre crap, but there's something in the air that's making us not click with the current epoch of genre crap. Are we just getting old, or is this stuff actually getting worse? Maybe this book just makes us cranky. Who could blame us when this week's reading includes an oddly offensive "crazy...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 4-6 We're getting nasty with it this week. On this episode we roll up our sleeves and stick our hands into a trio of very sexual but oddly unsexy chapters. There are a lot of penis jokes to discuss, but it's also a surprisingly good springboard to talk about what makes for interesting sexual tension between characters, the effectiveness of rem...

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, chapters 1-3 It's time. We've been incubating the idea for a new angle for the show for a long time now, and doing lots of research about the early days of the Potter fandom. But we've struggled a little, both with time and with the idea of how, exactly, to structure things moving forward. The answer hit us (to borrow the opening line of TIUTFFYE) like...

Mockingjay finale We finally did it! We've finished the original Hunger Games trilogy, and boy do we have a lot to say about how little this series had to say. You would think there would be some big ideas in a story that ends with a horrific false flag atrocity, a member of the core love triangle making cluster munitions, and multiple megalomaniacs being betrayed, but... nope! Mostly it's about h...

Mockingjay Act II It's half sludge, half hunger this week! We check in with The Franchise's upcoming media and merchandising blitz, and then discuss the second act of Mockingjay, which... wow! That's a bit much! There's a lot of heavy stuff in this book that is not presented particularly well or interestingly, so make sure to check the content warnings below. Finally, we return to the world of 201...

Mockingjay Act 1 We're back to it! We discuss act one of Mockingjay, a book that dares to ask: is filming wrestling promos just as bad as running a dystopian fiefdom? The people cry out for a teenage superhero to jump out in front of a smoke machine and say character select screen phrases, and only Katniss can answer the call. We discuss the loaded imagery and its relationship to the more heighten...

The Truce at Bakura, chapters 15-21 We conclude our detour into the Star Wars expanded universe this week! We discuss the finale of Luke's adventures on Bakura, which involve cutting a bunch of dinosaurs' heads off, using his mind to kill a bunch of bugs eating his guts, and a lot of hanging around at an airport bar. We also chat about meeting celebrities, local Harry Potter conventions, and goof...

The Truce at Bakura, chapters 8-14 After a few weeks of unprecedented circumstances, we're back to continue examining The Truce at Bakura. This novel is asking some fascinating questions, like: how did they put bugs in Luke Skywalker? Will Luke Skywalker get some with this Imperial senator? Will the bugs inside of him make that awkward?

The Truce at Bakura chapters 1-7 We're back! Work has been kicking both of our asses lately, but we've finally convened to discuss the first third of the fascinating Star Wars Legends novel 'The Truth at Bakura'--as a little break between Hunger Games novels. Have you ever wondered what happened after Return of the Jedi? Like, maybe fifteen minutes after the movie ends? Well, it turns out some din...

This week we convene to enjoy a big, warm bowl of classic Shriekcast third segment style content as we check in with Quora questions about Catching Fire! Epic length essays about whether or not an INTJ could win a Hunger Game, extremely dodgy political opinions, and excellence in the field of run-on-sentence construction abound. And that's not all; we've also got exciting strings updates, opinions...

Catching Fire chapters 24-27 It's been a busy couple of weeks for both of us (working; moving) but that didn't stop us from finishing the last four chapters of Catching Fire! And boy, if we thought we were in a rush, nothing compares to this book's bizarre finale. People often offer the criticism that certain stories "just stop," but the last few moments of this novel are on their own level. We di...

Catching Fire chapters 22 & 23 TWO giant reveals that we avoided having spoiled! Can you believe it!? This one is particularly funny, given our hobby trajectories of late. This awesome new arena mechanic is revealed alongside an exciting action sequence, some ridiculous (complimentary) side characters joining Katniss's party, some ridiculous (derogatory) Peeta moments, and some small worldbuilding...

Catching Fire chapters 20-21 Remember how we had somehow remained completely unaware of the werewolves in the first Hunger Games book? Somehow, by some beautiful miracle, we remained equally, blissfully unaware of another animal threat in this series. Not much happens in these action-packed chapters outside, but boy does a lot happen. There are chapters that feel like novels, as they say... Anyway...

Catching Fire chapters 18-19 We are so back! We kick off 2024 with a rowdy return to podcasting about work sucking, holidays sucking, and Peeta sucking. We have some exciting news on that front this week however, although neither of us is convinced it really happened. Still, even if things are feeling a bit predictable, we certainly can't accuse these chapters of being boring! Waterworld antics, b...

Catching Fire chapters 16-17 We're still not at the Hunger Game. It sure seems like we're running out of book, but instead of duking it out in the arena our heroes are still meeting their foes and/or potential allies. Are Katniss and Peeta building a heist team, or are they just going to fight all these guys? We've got lots to discuss about this and more, but first we also have some Neopets update...

Catching Fire chapters 14-15 Life threw Liz some work-related lemons this past week, but we're here and discussing how best to turn them into bonus lemonade! We chat about future plans for discussing future plans, give an update on what's going on in strings world, and get attacked by Earl--and that's all before we get into our crazy chapters! We learn all about sugar, Hunger Games hacks, and Dr....

Catching Fire chapters 12 & 13 We have a lot to catch up on this week! Neopets news, string performances, (not so) scary films... plus, we've got a pair of chapters that propel Catching Fire forward into exciting territory. Hopefully? There's going to be another Hunger Game in these books, it turns out. We speculate on how exactly that might shake out, what would make it more interesting than the...

Catching Fire chapters 10-11 We're back! Load roadworks couldn't keep us away from talking about these chapters, that feature some absolutely massive twists--political and technical. Did you know that there are solar-powered perpetual energy generating guns in Panem? Neither did we! We discuss those strange new worldbuilding additions, and attempt to sus out this book's relationship is to America'...

Catching Fire chapters 7-9 We start this week with another music game, with another unexpected twist! Plus, an update on all things strings and Neopets. Then we've got three exciting chapters to cover as the rebellion in District 12 starts heating up--or maybe doesn't, depending on who last spoke to Katniss. We chat about some of the great character development, the slightly silly worldbuilding, a...

Catching Fire chapters 5-6 This week we're back on our string section stuff. We play a rousing game of Classical or From Something? (it'll make sense) that spins out in some unexpected directions before getting to work on this episode's pair of chapters, which are... fine? Good, even? But one thing's for sure: the road trip movie dream is dead, and we can't help but feel a little bummed about it....