Read Receipts

Authors Chloe Gong (The StrangeLoom Trilogy), Ava Reid (Winterveil, Fable at the End of the World), and J. Elle (The Heart Trials) discuss the influence of the 2000s Golden Age of YA dystopia, social media’s impact on literature, and writing for teen readers.

• Being on Tumblr during the mid-2000s YA boom fucking ruled (Ava and Chloe might have been oomfs)
• Dystopia is a recession indicator, publishing trends, and the genre as an outlet for hard times
• Nostalgia, writing for teens, and how today’s dystopias pull less punches
• The elephant in the room is social media
• Dystopian themes, censorship, accessibility, and coming-of-age
• Winterveil and how impossible it is to parody certain real life figures, and writing closer to real life
• The influence of the Cold War on American political ideology
• Factions, leadership, and the divisions of morality in dystopian fiction
• Complicity, child soldiers, and fighting the system from inside it
• Belief, thinking critically, and the power of choice
• Propaganda and national folklore
• The manosphere, incels, and escaping the algorithm
• Hope, the awareness of internal biases, and survival vs rebellion
• Romance, queerness, community, and the power of emotional connection
• Everybody is reading The Sixth Faction but me (Christina)

View full show notes and transcript on Reactormag.com

Summary: The Reactor Team (Christina Orlando, Leah Schnelbach, Emmet Asher-Perrin, Bailey Simer) discuss the best things they’ve watched or read this month.

Things we talk about:

• Lanterns and shows that stick the landing
• Superheroes and military propaganda, and ACAB includes Lanterns
• Friday Night Lights rewatch when!
• Hal Jordan is a notorious bum and a middle-aged slutty mess
• Primetime, Robert Pattinson’s weird career choices, and on-screen genitalia as jump scares
• You Can See Everything
• Media monsters & films about tech
• Major writer/filmmakers asking if they’re part of the problem
• Christopher Nolan & Elliot Page
• The legacy of Oscar Wilde & Alfred Lord Duglas
• Records of reading, Booktok, and how reading defines a life
• C-Dramas, Pursuit of Jade, and The Untamed
• Hurt/comfort and a male character as damsel in distress
• Black Sails is the most perfect show of all time, fight me about it.
• How we react when “everyone” is watching a thing
• Fifty Shades of Grey is the Young Sheldon of erotica
• Christina’s feelings about dark academia and shitty rich kids (it’s not trauma, it’s praxis)
• The seasons of dark academia books, The Secret History
• Richard Papen, unlikeable main characters, and the purpose of discomfort in fiction
• Piranesi, Black Star, and media vibe curation

View full show notes and transcript on Reactormag.com

V

Alix E. Harrow (The Everlasting), C.L. Clark (The Magic of the Lost Series, Fate’s Bane), Tasha Suri (Isle in the Silver Sea) discuss lady knights, sword lesbians, and gender in medieval-inspired fantasy.

Things we talk about here include:

• Influential childhood favorites and stuff that made us...ya know.
• Tragedy as kink, swords as straps, and being horny as writing craft
• C.L. Clark actually trains with swords cuz she's a badass
• Lady Knights as an answer to the trad wife and tech bro
• Crossdressing, butch lesbians, the military, and boob armor
• Heroism's relationship with empire and nationalism
• Revolution through love, connection, and community building
• The power of stories and propaganda
• America's obsession with British medievalism and Arthuriana
• Horny ambitions, power, and f***ing the empire
• "What if the patriarchy really really liked me, specifically?"