Episode 10: Strangely Beautiful - A Nice Book for Nice People?
Release Date: 05/22/2017
Episode 75: Live Girls - Vampire Hookers vs. Ping Pong balls
Bad Books for Bad People
Ray Garton’s 1986 horror novel may have the perfect bad book pitch: vampire hookers in seedy vintage Times Square. Jack and Kate travel back to a golden age of sleaze and encounter smokeshow bloodsucking strippers, donut-inspired dirty talk, and dancefloor remixes of “The Old Rugged Cross.” What perverted compulsion makes a vampire turn the worst dudes in the world immortal? Why are nightclubs never, ever as cool as the ones in bad books? What do table tennis and the Anarchist’s Cookbook have in common? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad...
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Episode 74: Nightmare House and Airport 77
Bad Books for Bad People
Once again, Jack and Kate trade reviews of books from their archives. This time around, Jack explores the terrifying mystery and romance of Rae Foley’s Nightmare House (1968) and Kate plunges straight into disaster with Airport 77 (1977). Why is dealing marijuana a worse crime than murder? Does a nightmare dude make a nightmare house into a nightmare home? Whose dick will be compared to a tiny airline bottle of booze? Is Airport 77 the disco era counterpart to Moby Dick? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People. BBfBP theme song by True...
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Episode 73: Best of 2023
Bad Books for Bad People
Jack and Kate look at what they've read and watched in the year that was 2023 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, regardless of when it was actually produced. A little bit new, a little bit old, and a whole lot of weirdness is in store! Join your hosts for a discussion that ranges from a sinister girls’ school to a rogue AI (a court-mandated topic in 2023) to gratuitous comedy penises. BBfBP theme song by True Creature. Find...
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Episode 72: Spawn - Welcome to 90s Hell
Bad Books for Bad People
Todd McFarlane’s is one of the great comics success stories of the 1990s, and yet… our hosts remain in semi-complete ignorance of this undead superhero. Jack and Kate decide to educate themselves by reading the first 18 issues of the series where they encounter a world of bedazzlement, from shape-shifting demons and mafia cyborgs to a controversial Neil Gaiman collab. Other than fighting, killing, and baseball, what exactly is Spawn good at? Can anyone possibly care about the Youngbloods? Could there be a shared Spawn / Jess Franco’s “Erotic Rites of Frankenstein” shared universe?...
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Episode 71: Vampira and Elvira - The Real Women Behind the Halloween Queens
Bad Books for Bad People
In a special, super-extended, spooky season episode, your hosts read a double feature of horror hostess biographies! by Sandra Niemi and by Cassandra Peterson recount the drama-filled careers of two of the most iconic, goth-adjacent TV figures of all time. Jack and Kate take a candid look at the trials and triumphs of two real-life Halloween queens. Does the appeal of late-night metaphysical diner talk span generations? How young is too young to launch your showgirl career? Why do the Red Hot Chili Peppers ruin everything? Is a decades-long goth girl beef even more odious than the Red Hot...
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Episode 70: Priests of the Abomination and Still Dead, Book of the Dead 2
Bad Books for Bad People
In this episode, your hosts dig deep into their collection of vintage paperbacks and share their thoughts on dusty, lurid tales from decades past. Kate reads The Priests of the Abomination, a cult-flavored 1970 crime conspiracy thriller from Ivor Drummond, and Jack selects three gruesome stories from the zombie horror anthology Still Dead: Book of the Dead 2. Do rich people have a secret sixth sense that detects perverts? What is it with British pulp authors and their insistence on stopping the action for relaxing, fish-related interludes? Will Jack share the grossest story we’ve...
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Episode 69: The Dead Run - an Exploitation Movie in Book Form
Bad Books for Bad People
Adam Mansbach brings on the two-fisted action in his 2013 novel , with the results capturing the exhilarating vibe of a vintage exploitation movie. When a series of crimes challenges the police on both sides of the US-Mexican border, the authorities learn that a shocking conspiracy may be afoot. What’s the most outrageous self-defense weapon? How wise is it to attempt the pronunciation of an Aztec deity’s name? Do prairie dogs even have kitchens? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for Bad People! BBfBP theme song by True Creature....
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Episode 68: Edogawa Ranpo - The Grandaddy of Ero Guro
Bad Books for Bad People
Edogawa Ranpo pioneered the Japanese-language mystery story, taking inspiration from his pseudo-namesake Edgar Allan Poe and ultimately developing his own unique–and deeply disturbing–authorial voice. Jack and Kate take a look at three short stories from the collection and encounter a world of erotic, grotesque nonsense. How do Ranpo’s original tales compare to the many film and manga adaptations of his work? Who’s got it worse: a pervert living inside of a chair, or the people who sit in the pervert’s chair? Have our hosts finally gotten to the darkest parts of the Summer of...
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Episode 67: The Open Curtain - Mormonsploitation?
Bad Books for Bad People
Brian Evenson’s 2006 novel tracks the budding relationship between two Mormon teens… through the lens of mental illness, alienation, and ritual murder. Evenson’s novel takes Jack and Kate on a deeply uncomfortable journey into the darkest aspects of religion. Which gym teacher should be on duty when you start a beef with another student? Why should you always display the most off-putting books in your collection? Is Mormonsploitation a thing, and what’s up with the true crime connection? And is the exploitation call coming from inside the house? All these questions and more will...
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Episode 66: Live and Let Die - James Bond Hurts His Pinky
Bad Books for Bad People
Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel places household-name super-spy James Bond on the trail of Harlem kingpin (and likely Soviet spy) Mr. Big. Jack and Kate follow Bond from smoky jazz nightclubs to a Florida retirement community and on to the Caribbean as he relentlessly wanders directly in his enemies’ lines of fire. What is it with British pulp authors and their diligent recording of their characters’ dietary choices? How does an enthusiasm for jazz become a life-saving trait? And what the hell is keelhauling anyway? All these questions and more will be explored in this episode of Bad Books for...
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Author Leanna Renee Hieber has created an alternative Victorian London that merges ghost-hunting, Jack the Ripper, capital-R Romantic love, and a healthy dose of post-Harry-Potter magic in her novel Strangely Beautiful. Originally published as two books in 2009 and 2010, Hieber's story features a beautiful, innocent young woman raised in a convent and dropped into a supernatural battle that will change the course of her life. The author describes this book as "Victorian Ghostbusters" and seeks to create a new brand of Gothic with a modern sensibility within its pages.
How will Jack and Kate react to this fanciful new spin on tried-and-true suspense tropes? Why does Kate loathe the male lead more than any other character from any other book they've read so far? When does a wish-fulfillment fantasy for a teenager become a horror story for a middle aged person? And how do Jesus, Snape, and Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS figure into all of this? Find out all this and more in this month's episode of Bad Books for Bad People.
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