Bad Books for Bad People
87 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 62 ratingsEvery month (or so), Tenebrous Kate and Jack Guignol cover the weirdest, kinkiest, and most outrageous fiction we can unearth. The books discussed range from classics of gothic literature to startling works of new weird, from romantic potboilers to horror epics, from cult favorites to obscure pulp treasures. Join us for a smarter-than-average look at WAY-weirder-than-average books.
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Episodes
Episode 60: Ghost Story - Nothing to Sneeze At
October 29, 2022 20:47 - 1 hour - 42 MBPeter Straub’s 1979 novel Ghost Story is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of American horror writing, boasting Stephen King as one of the book’s biggest fans. Jack and Kate dig into this tale of buried trauma and supernatural menace in a quest to see whether this classic of the genre meets their esoteric aesthetic expectations. Who’s the asshole if your brother decides to marry your witchy ex-girlfriend? Why are women always preventing men from getting really comfy chairs? Is ...
Episode 59: Between Two Fires - Medieval Times Were Bad, Actually
September 28, 2022 22:45 - 1 hour - 40.5 MBIt’s no secret that 14th Century Europe was not a very fun place to be. Christopher Buehlman’s 2012 novel Between Two Fires leans all the way into the hideousness of plague, war, and famine while adding in a heaping helping of medieval horror. Jack and Kate jump into this apocalyptic landscape, which takes them from France to Hell and back again. Does this book reveal the secret origin of the stag party? What even is grimdark? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode ...
Episode 58: Wolfen - Werewolf? They're wolf!
August 17, 2022 00:14 - 1 hour - 44 MBWhitley Strieber may be best known for documenting his harrowing encounters with extraterrestrials, but before Communion, he wrote modern takes on classic monsters. In his debut novel Wolfen, he tells the story of two cops stalked by werewolves amidst the urban decay of 1970s New York City. Jack and Kate take a journey that they hope will give them the lycanthropic flavors that they crave. Just how does a dog trainer acquire an encyclopedic knowledge of animal prints? What is the purpose...
Episode 57: Flash for Freedom! - A lovable rogue?
July 09, 2022 16:54 - 1 hour - 43.9 MBGeorge McDonald Fraser’s long-running Flashman series follows the adventures of Sir Harry Paget Flashman, a self-confessed scoundrel, as he navigates the landscape of the mid-nineteenth century. Jack and Kate jump in at the deep end with Flash for Freedom, the third book in the series that finds Flashman enmeshed in the North American slave trade. Buckle up for a tale that leans all the way into the permissive pulp style of the early 1970s! Is the past really a different country? At what ...
Valley of Plenty 7: The Lady in the Lake
June 14, 2022 00:57 - 54 minutes - 25 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. In this bite-sized episode, Jack explains what he's learned about the world portrayed in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Lady of the Lake, the final novel in the epic saga of Geralt of Rivia and his various adventures and... not-so-adventures. What does a meet-cute look like in...
Episode 56: Manhunt - Having a Ball(s) After the Apocalypse
May 21, 2022 17:04 - 1 hour - 40.9 MBGretchen Felker-Martin’s debut novel Manhunt drops the reader into a post-apocalyptic future where a hideous disease has turned men into cannibal rapists while pitting transwomen against radical feminists. Join Jack and Kate on this splattery suspense journey through the many ways that people are awful to other people. Why are nail guns so viscerally gross? Is heroism conducted under cover of night really heroism at all? Was the real villain “internet culture” all along? All these questi...
Episode 55: The Keep - Creep versus Creeps in WWII
April 13, 2022 20:08 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBF. Paul Wilson’s 1981 novel The Keep has one of the great pulp story setups: Nazis versus vampires … but it turns into something a little different. When Nazis occupy a castle in Romania, they unwittingly unleash an ancient evil and set the stage for an epic confrontation between supernatural powers that have clashed throughout the course of human history. Join Jack and Kate as they venture into this epic battlefield of historical horror! Have you seen the Smith and Jones “Nazi Generals” ...
Episode 54: On Stranger Tides - Let's Get Piratical
February 27, 2022 16:41 - 1 hour - 36.2 MBTim Powers’ 1987 novel On Stranger Tides weaves a swashbuckling adventure combining buccaneers, voodoo, and romance set in the golden age of piracy. But fear not, because reading the words “avast matey” just now in this description is the only piratical talk you’ll encounter. Join Jack and Kate as they hit the high seas and discuss this rip-roaring slice of speculative fiction. Why have your hosts encountered so many puppeteer protagonists? How does this book deftly avoid the pitfalls of ...
Valley of Plenty 6: The Tower of the Swallow
February 11, 2022 22:07 - 50 minutes - 23 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. In this bite-sized episode, Jack explains what he's learned about the world portrayed in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Tower of the Swallow, the fourth novel in the ongoing saga of Geralt of Rivia and his various adventures and... not-so-adventures. Who gets a really trashy t...
Episode 53: The India Fan - Victorian Romance with all the Fixins
January 24, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 41.3 MBJack and Kate venture into the world of romance novels with Victoria Holt's 1988 novel The India Fan. When the daughter of a reverend in the English countryside is drawn under the influence of a wealthy family, she must balance her need for independence with the schemes and desires of the Framling clan. Your hosts will encounter ghost nuns, secret babies, blackmail, Orientalism, and pretty much all the other flavors found in historical romance along the way! How do romance novels actually...
Valley of Plenty 5: The One with Vampires
January 11, 2022 00:06 - 40 minutes - 18.6 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. In this bite-sized episode, Jack explains what he's learned about the world portrayed in Andrzej Sapkowski's Baptism of Fire, the third novel in the ongoing saga of Geralt of Rivia and his various adventures and... not-so-adventures. What will we learn about vampire myt...
Episode 52: Best of 2021
December 24, 2021 00:59 - 1 hour - 30.9 MBJack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the year that was 2021 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, and book that was the best experience of its kind encountered during the first half of the year. Join your hosts for a discussion that ranges from various ways to hunt supernatural creatures to cursed hunks to weird acting choices by 80s pop stars. BBfBP theme s...
Valley of Plenty 4: Legal Advice for Witchers
December 08, 2021 01:06 - 48 minutes - 22.1 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. In this bite-sized episode, Jack explains what he's learned about the world portrayed in Andrzej Sapkowski's Time of Contempt, the second novel in the ongoing saga of Geralt of Rivia and his various adventures and... not-so-adventures. Where do Witchers go for professio...
Episode 51: Requiem Infernal - Weird Fiction, Warhammer 40K Style
November 24, 2021 20:13 - 1 hour - 42 MBJack and Kate venture into the grimdark future of Warhammer 40K with this exploration of Requiem Infernal by author Peter Fehervari. Put aside your preconceptions around Space Marines and Orks and find out what hideous delights await you in the WH40K universe (nuns with guns, folks--it's got nuns with guns). Will our hosts be able to sufficiently summarize WH40K lore in under 15 minutes? Why are Space Marines super-boring? What happens when the reader is made complicit in the untangling o...
Episode 50: The Carpathian Castle - Dracula before Dracula...?
October 26, 2021 23:49 - 1 hour - 30.8 MBJules Verne is best known to American readers as the author of beloved adventure tales like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days. But was one of his wildest acts of science fiction to anticipate Bram Stoker's Dracula by nearly a decade in his novella The Carpathian Castle? Jack and Kate will attempt to address just this question by diving deep into this 1892 story of Mittel European suspense. How does Jules Verne reveal his feelings about rustic people? Why are tel...
Episode 49: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - But Is It Bizarre Enough?
September 30, 2021 23:07 - 1 hour - 37.4 MBJojo's Bizarre Adventure is an epic manga series created by Hirohiko Araki that tracks the outrageously gory punch-em-up saga of the Joestar clan. The first installment of the series, Phantom Blood, takes place in Victorian England and features podcast fave themes of vampirism, so-straight-it's-gay manly action, and culturally insensitive gothic tropes. Join Jack and Kate on their maiden voyage into the Jojo-verse. How could Jack the Ripper possibly be any worse? Are sandwiches the king o...
Episode 48: The Sound of His Horn - What If the Nazis Won WWII?
February 27, 2021 22:47 - 1 hour - 31.7 MBThe Sound of His Horn is a 1952 speculative fantasy novel by Sarban (pen name of English diplomat John William Wall). British POW Alan Querdillon is catapulted through time after attempting to escape from the clutches of the Nazis. He finds himself in a future controlled by fascists, trapped in the holding of the larger-than-life Reichsforester Count von Hackelnberg and subject to unimaginable terrors. Jack and Kate explore this strange and disturbing vision of post-WWII life. What stran...
Episode 47: The Lustful Turk - What Did Victorians Fap To?
January 18, 2021 21:05 - 1 hour - 31.1 MBThe Lustful Turk is an 1828 pornographic adventure that presents readers with a cornucopia of semi-consensual sexual scenarios, fully intended to be read in a one-handed manner. Written by an anonymous writer at a time when publishing and selling pornography came with the risk of stiff legal penalties, this bodice-ripper tracks the turgid horizontal career of Ali, the Dey of Algiers, who ravishes his way through a veritable EU of virginal concubines. Jack and Kate explore a world of highly...
Episode 46: Best of the First Half of 2020
August 22, 2020 20:32 - 1 hour - 38.5 MBJack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the first half of 2020 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, book and "wild card" from any category that was the best experience of its kind encountered during the first half of the year. Ranging from hideous cinematic abjection to music for The Toughest Of The Goth Kids to various ghosts that may or may not require busting, ...
Episode 45: Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Sword, Sorcery, and Surprising Poignancy
July 19, 2020 21:03 - 1 hour - 30.7 MBKai Ashante Wilson's 2015 novel The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps establishes a new and vibrant fantasy world that draws inspiration from African culture. This sword and sorcery tale depicts the journey of Demane, a gifted healer and fighter who hides numerous secrets, as he helps guard a caravan against enemies of the mortal and supernatural varieties. What are the similarities and differences to traditional fantasy tropes found in this book? How is language and dialog deployed to depict its ...
Valley of Plenty 3: Land of Horny Magic
June 19, 2020 21:34 - 31 minutes - 14.5 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. In this bite-sized episode, Jack explains what he's learned about the world portrayed in Andrzej Sapkowski's short story collection The Sword of Destiny. Does Geralt of Rivia become an interesting character? How horny are sorcerers? Is destiny the boss of Geralt after all...
Episode 44: Powers of Darkness - Icelandic Dracula Is Different Dracula
May 23, 2020 16:05 - 1 hour - 31.1 MBBram Stoker's iconic creation Dracula has been translated into numerous languages, but as it turns out, some of these translations are more like adaptations. One such adaptation is Iceland's Powers of Darkness (Makt Myrkranna) by Valdimar Ásmundsson, originally published in serialized format in 1900 - 1901 in an Icelandic newspaper. The story introduces new characters, shifts the emphasis of the plot, and focuses on a satanic Euro-conspiracy plot. How much of Powers of Darkness incorporat...
Episode 43: Dead Until Dark - True (Horny) Blood
April 26, 2020 18:09 - 1 hour - 47.7 MBCharlaine Harris begins her blockbuster Southern Vampire Mysteries series with Dead Until Dark, a psychic girl meets undead boy romance set against the backdrop of serial sex murders. Weird tonal shifts and wacky plot twists abound, but how will Jack and Kate fare in this urban crowd-pleasing fantasy climate? Does everyone love Sookie because of her telepathy, or because of her spectacular rack? How does one dress when attending a vampire nightclub? How late is too late to drop a Funny Un...
Valley of Plenty 2: The Bounds of Reason
April 15, 2020 01:14 - 31 minutes - 14.2 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. This bite-sized episode covers "The Bounds of Reason" from Andrzej Sapkowski's short story collection The Sword of Destiny. This story was adapted as part of Netflix's Witcher TV show as "Rare Species," probably the most underwhelming tale of the lot. Will this story del...
Mini Episode 19: Lammas Night - WWII Witchcraft
April 06, 2020 13:17 - 28 minutes - 13 MBIn this mini-episode, Kate occult-splains the 1983 novel Lammas Night by Katherine Kurtz to Jack. The book promises the tale of a coven of British witches that is all that stands between the UK and devastation at the hands of Hitler's black magicians. What it delivers is plentiful inter-coven politicking, intricate descriptions of British military dress, and in-depth descriptions of other people's tarot card readings. Will there be enough grotty Nazi occult action to hold Kate's interest...
Episode 42: Mephistophela - Lesbianism Was the Real Gateway to Hell All Along
March 22, 2020 19:00 - 1 hour - 53.5 MBMephistophela by Catulle Mendès (1889) is one of the key works of decadent literature, describing the various paving stones on one woman's descent into an erotic hellscape. Translated into English for the first time by Brian Stableford, the book's lush horrors are now accessible to a new audience. Jack and Kate tackle the lurid and tragic story of Baronne Sophor d’Hermelinge, lesbian seducer and damned woman. Was the fin de siecle really as prudish as some folks seem to think it was? When...
Valley of Plenty 1: A Grain of Truth
February 27, 2020 00:23 - 22 minutes - 10.2 MBWelcome to the Valley of Plenty! In these green and gentle pastures, Jack explains the plots of stories from the Witcher series to Kate, who feels like she already completed her tour of duty in this particular fantasyland. This bite-sized episode covers "A Grain of Truth" from Andrzej Sapkowski's short story collection The Last Wish. Will this tale have the fairy tale flavors that your hosts are looking for? Listen and find out! BBfBP theme song by True Creature Find us at BadBooksBad...
Epsiode 41: The Witcher - Blood of Elves
February 11, 2020 11:53 - 1 hour - 43.7 MBBefore it was a hit video game series, The Witcher was a series of novels by Andrej Sapkowski, the "Polish Tolkien." Geralt of Rivia is fast becoming one of the most recognizable modern fantasy heroes, a stoic combo of monster-puncher and irresistible ladies' man who travels the strife-torn landscape in search of dark creatures to battle. Join Jack and Kate as they explore the first full-length novel in the Witcher series, The Blood of Elves. What unexpected parallels to noir fiction will ...
Episode 40: Blood Standard - Pulp Action Trope Turducken
January 24, 2020 01:21 - 1 hour - 37.3 MBWeird fiction luminary Laird Barron ventures into red-blooded, two-fisted territory in his 2018 novel Blood Standard. The book follows wise-cracking mafia enforcer Isaiah Coleridge as he navigates Upstate New York's organized crime world in search of a missing teen. Themed gangs, knuckle-busting dust-ups, and unexpected romance are just part of what he encounters in his unlikely hero's journey. Kate and Jack discuss the book, its relationship to classic hard-boiled fiction, and whether or n...
Mini Episode 18: Best of the Rest of 2019
January 10, 2020 01:05 - 50 minutes - 23.1 MBJack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the second half of 2019 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, book and "wild card" from any category that was the best experience of its kind encountered during the last half of the year that was. Ranging from comfort food comedy to critically acclaimed foreign films to avant garde metal and right back around again, your host...
Episode 39: I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins
December 19, 2019 19:52 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBIn the 2019 biography I Put a Spell on You: The Bizarre Life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, journalist Steve Bergsman tracks the life of the noted shock rocker including his rise-and-fall-and-rise to fame, run-ins with the law, and rocky romantic life. Kate and Jack discuss the book as it relates to the biography as a literary form, the perils of the Big Rock Bio, and the challenges and responsibilities of research. Does Jay's penchant for lying and self-aggrandizement make him an impossible s...
Episode 38: Raiders of Gor - Home Stone is where the heart is
November 24, 2019 20:48 - 1 hour - 44.3 MBJohn Norman's long-running Gor series has a reputation that precedes it. Set on a brutal counter-Earth where beautiful women long to be enslaved by the strong men who maintain nature's moral balance, it would seem that the books have all the trappings of spicy, guilty pleasure reading. Jack and Kate dive into the sixth title, Raiders of Gor, alleged to be the last "good" entry in the thirty-five book series. Listen along as your hosts encounter sexual slavery, drunk crying, and enough tedio...
Episode 37: Conjure Wife - Magical Warfare for the Modern Wife
October 17, 2019 00:01 - 1 hour - 44.3 MBFritz Leiber is probably best known to fantasy fans as the creator of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but he was also an accomplished author across a myriad of pulp formats. In his 1943 novel Conjure Wife, he creates a world that is only modern on its surface, where behind every great academic is an equally great witch. When sociologist Norman Saylor discovers his wife's occult activities, he convinces her to stop her conjuration. Shortly thereafter, a series of terrible coincidences--or is it ...
Mini Episode 17: Vampire Hunter D - Light Novel, Heavy Weirdness
October 02, 2019 01:01 - 1 hour - 32.1 MBBefore the anime, before the manga, there was the Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D light novel series. Don't be fooled by that nomenclature, though: these books are chock full of wackiness. Part sci-fi, part weird western, part dark fantasy, and part teen romance, the Vampire Hunter D books take a kitchen sink approach to their stories. Buckle in for a thrill-a-minute adventure set in the post-apocalyptic wastelands. Just how romantically irresistible is our titular protagonist? Is the...
Episode 36: Fantômas - France's Emperor of Crime
September 16, 2019 23:06 - 1 hour - 49.1 MBMarcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre composed the 32-novel saga of Fantômas in the three years between 1911 and 1913. Over the course of the series, France's elusive master criminal commits a litany of heinous deeds that unfold at a baffling breakneck pace. The books are early examples of the crime procedural genre, putting significant narrative weight on forensic science, police methodology, and courtroom drama. Far from today's pro-authority narratives, however, the Fantômas novels incorpor...
Episode 35: Coldheart Canyon - Hollywood Beige-balon
August 11, 2019 22:38 - 1 hour - 47.1 MBColdheart Canyon brings together two amazing tastes--horror icon Clive Barker and Hollywood decadence--and the results are... maybe not what one would expect. Set in the 21st Century Hollywood of blockbuster movies, big egos, and bland artifice, the novel tells the tale of fading megastar Todd Pickett who attempts to escape from recent trauma by moving into a mansion formerly owned by a glamorous silent movie star. Things take a turn for the bizarre when it becomes clear she's still living ...
Episode 34: Best of 2019 (So Far)
July 16, 2019 00:04 - 1 hour - 38.1 MBJack and Kate look at what they've been reading and watching so far in 2019 and make some recommendations in the world of books and beyond. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, book and "wild card" from any category that was the best experience of its kind encountered during the first half of 2019. Follow your hosts as they talk about gritty frontier justice, bloodthirsty demons, various forms of heavy music from across the globe, and the jo...
Episode 33: Childgrave - When Weird Dads Make Weird Decisions
May 26, 2019 17:36 - 1 hour - 46.5 MBThe pulp paperback boom of the 70s and 80s delivered an occasional genre gem, and Ken Greenhall's Childgrave is a prime example of a book whose back cover premise actually undersells its uncanny creep factor. Nominally the story of a photographer who is shocked when his camera captures the shapes of his young daughter's invisible friends, leading him to an isolated community in Upstate New York, this book delivers so much more. CAUTION! Spoilers abound in this episode. Childgrave is BBfBP ...
Episode 32: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty - Anne Rice Goes Smutty
April 16, 2019 00:52 - 1 hour - 40 MBJack and Kate make a return trip into the realms of best selling author Anne Rice under the literary guise of A. N. Roquelaure. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is Rice's pseudonymous experiment to create a book that packed so many "hot scenes" into its pages that readers wouldn't need to bookmark the naughty bits. Loosely inspired by the fairy tale, the book finds our heroine swept away by a domineering prince and taken to a kingdom notorious for using elaborate sexual rituals to train nobl...
Episode 31: The Crowfield Curse - Adventures in Historical YA
March 23, 2019 22:16 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBPat Walsh’s The Crowfield Curse and The Crowfield Demon are two novels for young readers that take us back to the Middle Ages for a tale of the mysterious supernatural circumstances surrounding a monk’s abbey, the fey creatures nearby, and a young orphaned boy that the monks have taken on as a servant. Jack and Kate take a journey into a gentler variety of genre this month in an effort to understand what's up with the youth. How is learning to play the flute a lot like growing up? Isn't t...
Mini Episode 16: The Humans - Planet of the Biker Apes
March 02, 2019 00:58 - 53 minutes - 24.4 MBThe Humans, a 2015 comic by Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely, finds a recipe for far-out action by combining grimy vintage biker pulp with Planet of the Apes fantasy. Prepare yourself for drugged-out gladiator fights, raunchy ape sexytimes, and surprisingly deep commentary on PTSD. What is ape-world Vietnam like? How does this comic avoid the pitfalls of nostalgia? Can you name all the squares in biker movie bingo? Find out all this and more in this month's mini episode of Bad Books f...
Episode 30: The Worm Ouroboros - The Brutality of Old Timey Fantasy
February 12, 2019 01:47 - 1 hour - 46.9 MBThe Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison is considered to be a classic of the fantasy genre, rediscovered during the 1960s as the canon of modern fantasy was developed in a post-Tolkien world. Drawing its influences from classic epics of the Nordic, Celtic, and Greek cultures, the novel tracks the culture clash between the noble and straight-dealing denizens of Demonland and their treacherous enemies in Witchland. It also has characters with names like Goldry Bluzsco, La Fireez, Spitfire, and Car...
Episode 29: Black Helicopters - Modern-Day Lovecraftiana, But Good
January 20, 2019 21:06 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBCaitlin R. Kiernan's Black Helicopters is an atmospheric, ultra-dark fantasy novella that manages to do modern-day Lovecraftiana oh-so-right. Creepy twins, cosmic horror, and shadowy conspiracies combine to create a mind-bending reading experience. Is the best Lovecraftiana the stuff that strays furthest from the mythos? Why were conspiracy theories so awesome in the 1990s? How can a book that doesn't focus on plot OR character be so damn satisfying? This episode of Bad Books for Bad Peop...
Mini Episode 15: Best of 2018
January 06, 2019 01:29 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBFor better or for worse, 2018 is one for the history books. Jack and Kate take some time to recommend some of media they enjoyed during the year that hasn't been discussed on the podcast. The rules of engagement are simple: the hosts each choose one movie, album, TV show, book and "wild card" from any category that was the best experience of its kind encountered during 2018. Your hosts go down pop cultural byways that include corpsepaint, 19th Century British crime, highbrow comics, brave...
Episode 28: A Swell-Looking Babe - Hard-Boiled Crime Against Nature
December 15, 2018 20:24 - 1 hour - 37.2 MBDuring his lifetime, Jim Thompson's masterful novels of crime, obsession, and dark Americana were published as pulp novels. Intervening years have seen a reassessment of his work, with Stephen King singing his praises and cultural historian Geoffrey O'Brien dubbing him "The Dimestore Dostoyevsky." A Swell-Looking Babe finds Thompson at his sharpest, weaving a taut tale of a bellboy who finds himself drawn into a seedy series of schemes that might actually be about altogether different--and ...
Mini Episode 14: Suspiria 2018 - Mistakes Were Made
November 17, 2018 22:45 - 1 hour - 34.9 MBJack and Kate go off-mission for this very special episode in which they work through their feelings about the Luca Guadagnino-helmed Suspiria remake. Risk the boop of death and join your hosts on this emotionally-fraught journey. Be warned that SPOILERS ABOUND! Did the world require a nearly-three-hour-long, beige remake of Dario Argento's hyper-saturated psychedelic fairy tale? How many Tildas is too many Tildas? What are the best circumstances under which to engage with an especially...
Episode 27: Crabs: The Human Sacrifice - Crustacean Hatred
November 14, 2018 12:42 - 1 hour - 49 MBJack and Kate dive right into the deep end of the Guy N. Smith Crabsiverse with book six in the cult (?) horror (?) series, Crabs: The Human Sacrifice, a book that combines killer crustaceans, ecoterrorism, and BDSM into a particularly grotesque gumbo. When Charles Manson-esque cult leader Pete Merrick decides to sacrifice people in order to save giant crabs from the cancer that threatens to destroy them, he picks the wrong girl and soon a government-trained killer is hot on his trail. THRI...
Episode 26: R.L. Stine's Fear Street - Light Teen Spiciness
October 21, 2018 20:56 - 1 hour - 37.9 MBJack and Kate celebrate the Halloween season with a visit to R.L. Stine's fictional town of Shadyside, a suburban hamlet with more than its fair share or spooky teen-centric violence. For their first venture onto Fear Street, your hosts read and dissect The Wrong Number and The Halloween Party. Surprisingly, the books contain many of the perennial BBfBP favorite themes along with some insight into the psychology and behavior of 90s teens. Are these books a gateway drug to convert teens in...
Mini Episode 13: My Pretty Vampire - Comics for Today's Sex Kitten
October 07, 2018 14:12 - 50 minutes - 23.3 MBKatie Skelly's graphic novel My Pretty Vampire blends an array of 60s and 70s references to create a brightly-colored, deceptively sweet-looking comic that explores repressed desires, poisonous relationships, and vampiric murder. Jack and Kate take a pop art journey into the dark corners of the human psyche, taking some side trips into horror conventions, vintage TV, and the films of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin along the way. How has the landscape of horror media changed due to the increa...
Episode 25: The Wild Boys - Psychedelic Gay Armageddon
September 24, 2018 11:40 - 1 hour - 39.1 MBWilliam S. Burroughs' The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead is a psychedelic, stylized journey through a near-future world where roving gangs of gay youth are on a mission to destroy Western civilization. The experience of reading the book is something like watching Dr. Strangelove on one screen, Apocalypse Now on a second screen, and having both feeds interrupted by explicit gay erotica. Join Jack and Kate as they discuss this ambitious, outrageous work of speculative fiction. What was the i...