Papercuts Podcast Episode 6 - The Host (now with 100% more website)

When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie will risk everything to protect the people she cares most about, proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.

Robin, Ollie, Kayla, and I are back again to…get what we can out of the fatally boring adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s bodysnatcher novel. Who has the best Melanie/Wanderer impression? You decide!

You can listen to the new episode at the brand-new...

PapercutsPodcast.com

Yeahhhh, we have a site now, and it's all official-like! If you're so inclined, you can follow us there, and y'know, if you like, post a comment or two, let us know what you think and how we're doing, and if there are any features you'd like to see us add to the site, since it's pretty bare-bones at the moment.
Alternately, you can just tell us what YOU thought of the Host, if you managed to see it before it got swept out of theaters.

078 - The Undead Space Initiative by Casey Wyatt

Cherry Cordial, vampire stripper extraordinaire, spectacularly messes up her life with a single act of kindness. How could she have known when she rescued gorgeous rogue Ian McDevitt that she would be implicated in the vampire queen’s murder? Soon, she faces the wrath of the entire vampire community. To escape retribution, she joins a settlement program to colonize Mars. Her choices are grim: hurtle through space to the red planet to face the unknown and possible death, or stay on Earth and face certain annihilation. To make things even more complicated, a certain gorgeous rogue seems to be shadowing her every move...

So, backstory time: I requested this book from LibraryThing back in December, because I mean come on. Vampire stripper? Colonizing Mars? Cherry frickin' Cordial? it sounded like the most excellent, campy shit this side of the Beautiful Creatures movie. I gleefully told my friend Shiori about it, because she digs the camp and sci-fi romance is her genre, and we kicked back, eagerly awaiting vampire strippers IN SPACE.

Cut to four months later, and still no word from LibraryThing. I'd won a copy, but none had turned up, so Shiori, goddamn her, bless her heart, bit the bullet and bought a copy. Our precious Cherry Cordial was finally in our grasp!

And then we read it.

The basic idea is that this stripper vampire, Cherry, and a sexy stranger she's met once, Ian, are framed for the death of the Vampire Queen, and to avoid the wrath of the Queen's daughter (who is most likely the true culprit), Cherry's sire drags her and her entire vampire family into the "Undead Space Initiative", some random space exploration program that just happens to be going on at the same time, and seek undead volunteers - with no specialized training or experience necessary - to colonize Mars. Which they do. With a sentient space ship. And a crew of "revenants" and zombies. And then it turns out that all three races are secretly ancient aliens. I am not making this up.

Sounds fucking AMAZING, right? LOL NOT SO MUCH. The dream of campy stripper Cherries in space was crushed by a book that played itself waaaaaaaaaay too straight for a premise that bizarre, and a plot whose events seemed determined by dartboard. The thing is, when you take away the bizarre premise, what remains is pretty much your standard paranormal romance novel, with pretty much your standard Paranormal Romance Issues (with worse editing). And I mean, you've heard me complain about that before, surely? MISOGYNY, RAPEYNESS, BITCHES, MAN. Been there, done that.

So in the interest of keeping this short, but mostly because there's no way I could review this book without Shiori's input, You're Killing Me presents:

The Undead Space Initiative: a review in Tweets

*some tweets are repeated to keep the conversation understandable. IT HAD MANY THREADS.

Updates, Excuses, and Some Exciting News

Hey guys. So I know it's been a little slow lately and for that I sincerely apologize. Between extra work responsibilities, an actual social life, and cramming terrible and ridiculously loooooooooong books for (and editing) our Papercuts Podcast, the time for reading and reviewing has gotten cut back some. But not for long! We're far from dead here, I promise!

Life and conflicting schedules have kept us from recording the Host podcast yet, but we've got firm plans for this weekend and we'll do our best not to break them, so you guys should be getting the finished version of the 'cast not long after that. We're also working on a couple of other projects for the 'cast in May, so stay tuned!

Finally, Staffer's Book Review's Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary was released today, and included among the reviews, essays, and commentaries was my own rambling, angry Stormadancer tirade. It's both super-exciting and a huge honor to be included in a book with some really amazing bloggers and authors, among such thoughtful essays.



Kinda like that.

You can purchase the book at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. All proceeds go to Room to Read.

Papercuts Podcast Episode 5 - Love Triangles

We're back, and we come bearing a new segment: At the End of Our Trope, where we discuss topes and cliches that make us want to punch kittens. This wee we're complaining about discussing the bane of YA's existence, the dreaded ~love triangle~. We try to keep the talk triangle-centered, but as usual, we do end up touching on a few other subjects, like stalker boyfriends, white-washing, LGBT erasure, mean girls, and angel stank.

Personally, I'm hoping our next episode can be about that last part.



Also, we apologize for the echo in the first third of the podcast, IT DOES GET BETTER LATER ON, WE PROMISE.

Posts we reference in the cast: Young Adult Storylines - The Requisite Love Triangle, Love Triangles in YA Fiction - Yes or No?, Dear YA Authors: I'm Getting Sick and Tired of Love Triangles, and On YA Books that Make Abusive Stalkerish Horrible Relationships Seem Like They're Okay - HERE ME ROAR.

As usual, you can find Robin here, Ollie here.

And we should be back in the next couple of weeks with a Host review. JOY.

Papercuts Podcast Episode 4 - Beautiful Creatures (movie review)

Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

Sorry about the delay on this one! We actually recorded it several weeks ago, but thanks to life business, it took until this week to get around to editing it...just in time for the movie to be in exactly zero theaters anymore. BUT it should be coming out on video soon, so maybe it's still relevant. Ish.

As usual, it's Robin, Ollie, and I, plus Kayla again! Hurrah! Listen as we piss and moan and overuse the word "literally", and please ignore just about everything I say about the end of the Beautiful Creatures book, because none of it is true. I was very confused. Also, as a note, Emmy Rossum is 29 ;D.

Enjoy! And please, keep up with the comments/suggestions. What did you guys think of the movie?

Also, Cyna's three-part review of the book.

077 - Promises to Keep by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Jay Marinitch, witch and vampire hunter, shouldn't be among the glittering array of predators at the vampire empress Kendra's fabled Heathen Holiday bash. So...why is he there? Of the many lures that have pulled him into the territory of his natural prey, perhaps the strongest one is this: Jay Marinitch just doesn't DO sensible.

Jay has always hurtled through life without a plan, often finding himself in dangerous situations - like Kendra's party. During the course of the evening, Jay meets a beautiful, totally psychotic vampire and finds a shapeshifter lying on the forest floor, her hair streaked with moonlight.

A hunter is supposed to kill, and a witch...a witch can make any number of choices. Against his better judgement, Jay comes to the aid of both the unstable vampire and the mysterious shapeshifter. Could a more thoughtful, sensible being foresee and avert the chaos that will be unleashed? Perhaps...

Complex magic must be channeled, dangerous alliances must be forged, competing desires must be overcome. Will it all be enough? And if it isn't - what then?

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes has created a mesmerizing world filled with fascinating creatures sure to thrill both new and longtime fans.

I'm not sure what to make of that summary. It almost reads like a defense - OKAY SO MAYBE THE CHOICES JAY IS GOING TO MAKE IN THIS BOOK ARE UTTERLY RIDICULOUS, BUT THAT'S HIS THING, OK? In my experience, it's never a good sign when a book comes prefaced with a defense.

In a way, though, I think that summary is probably the best possible representation that the book could have. It tells you absolutely nothing about the story, which works, because to try and summarize the plot would be impossible to do without spoilers, and would render the book pretty much pointless. The tone is accurately melodramatic, bordering on cheese - if "hair streaked with moonlight" and "Heathen Holiday" turn you off, you should probably turn back now, because that's par for the course. It even tells you about Jay's TSTL! You cannot say you weren't warned.

I will have to disagree on one count though - this isn't one for newbies. This is the culmination of a series that has built upon its world mythology book-by-book for more than a dozen novels now, and I really couldn't tell you how much you'd get out of it without being a fan of, or having read, the rest. I mean, I've been/done both, myself, and I'm not even sure how much I got out of it.