spring catch-up!

some book news and a succession in memoriam

hello from phoenix fan fusion! i am here at the hotel bar on day 2 of the con getting some work done before i brave the show floor, where i will be on a few panels and signing some books! it’s been a while since i was at one of these like big classic comic con huge expo center things and i forgot how absolutely overwhelming they are (in the best way)

so far my goals have been 1) don’t have a panic attack in the little nook between giant replica R2D2s and 2) sneak a picture if i see that giant guy who was most recently in FAST X

some brief housekeeping before we continue—don’t forget that the IN A GARDEN BURNING GOLD read-along is all complete and live! you can check out the first post below!

whether you’re looking to refresh your memory on what happened in book 1 before diving into the sequel OR you’re looking for an explainer to check with as you read book 1 OR something else idk ur life, these posts are for you!

OTHERWISE! keep reading for

• book news!

• i was gonna include something else besides my quarterly tv selections and opinions but then my succession eulogy got too long

book news

IN AN ORCHARD GROWN FROM ASH has been out for a month! thank you so much to porter square books for hosting my launch event in early may and to everybody who has since read it and/or posted about it and/or walked past it in a bookstore (i have low standards what can i say)

this release has been such a strange one for me because on the one hand i am so excited that the wind up garden duology is out there in its completed form! this is my first sequel (somewhere a dozen "where is the wilder girls sequel bitch” dms were just drafted i am so sorry) and my first series and it is such a cool feeling seeing the books next to each other.

on the OTHER hand! i am so deeply In It with my work right now that it’s hard for me to remember that i have books that exist and can be read when all my attention is so focused on what i’m working on right now (books that do not exist and cannot be read. yet.)

to me this is a really exciting headspace to be in, as discombobulating as it can be. i love loving my work; i love being so laser focused on the current task. it really helps with all that weird Publishing Anxiety about numbers and readership and the market and blah blah blah bc who cares!!! none of that changes what my job is today which is get more of those goddamn words on the fuckin page.

but that doesn’t mean i am not deeply proud of what i’ve put out there. it doesn’t diminish how much i love ORCHARD and the series it belongs to. go read it! go request it at your library! go walk past it in a bookstore! i promise it looks really nice on the shelf

as to what’s next…… hang tight. i think it’ll be worth the wait.

spring tv selects

• RIP SUCCESSION 2018-2023!!!! GONE TOO SOON BUT ALSO KIND OF AT THE RIGHT TIME LIKE I THINK THEY COULD’VE DONE SEASON 5 BUT IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN AS UNIFORMLY GOOD AS IT WAS WITH THEM ENDING IT HERE (that is what its official tombstone says in the hbo cemetery)

  • i mean!!!! what is there to say!!! except for all the things i’m about to say!

  • SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!! BIG GIANT SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • okay let’s go

      • FIRST of all. anybody out there saying “tom won! tom won!” is delusional like i’m sorry what the fuck. the idea that anybody won in this show…. the idea that this show was ever TRULY about winning…. AS IF!!!!! it is a LOSING game! e!!!ven caroline has to deal with her fucking sales pitch husband!!! you cannot win! that is, dare i say, the POINT of the goddamn show!!!

      • SECOND of all. kendall girlies i think we should just be happy he didn’t drown. like maybe he does drown 45 seconds after the last shot goes black but we did not have to watch it. i know i just said nobody can win but we did win in this regard and in the regard that we got to watch a fucking all time great character arc over the course of four seasons. ending with kendall telling shiv and rome that the kid never drowned/he never killed anyone….. the ONE moment of honesty and bravery that ken ever had in confessing that to them in s3 and then ending his arc with him walking that back….. genius. i audibly gasped when he said that but of course he did. of fucking course he did.

      • THIRD of all. any journalist asking jeremy strong what he thinks about the kendall roy fandom (i.e. babygirl kendall) needs to take a walk like you have that man in front of you for an interview and you ask him THAT?

        • of the s4 coverage i’ve read i have, as expected, found my man matt zoller seitz’s questions to be most in line with what i want to know from the people involved with the production. these days he writes mostly for vulture when covering a tv show

      • FOURTH of all. in my opinion (my opinion being the correct one) the shoulder hug was ken to start and roman to finish. ken knowing his brother needs an out, ken expressing love the way their father taught them to (i.e. VIA ABUSE)—and there’s roman leaning into it, relieved to once again be in the role he knows best

      • miscellany i loved from the finale and am still thinking about: meal fit for a king (obviously), shiv’s laugh after “i’m the eldest boy,” the kids watching the video of logan at dinner (there’s the logan they always wanted, he’s there, he’s real, except it’s only bc they’re not there), shiv and rome’s conversation on the beach about whether they should kill kendall, stewy just in general (team ken baby), the look on roman’s face when he sees gerri, all of nicholas britell’s scoring work

      • IN GENERAL: absolutely crushing. just a worst case scenario ending across the board—it was perfect. holy shit it was Perfect. time to start s1 again.

• moving on! barry also died¹ and we’re sad but we’re… less sad. i liked barry a LOT and i cannot wait to see what bill hader does next. the long shot of noho hank firing at the house and then driving away! the “creepy guy follows sally around their house without her noticing” sequence! bill hader and son watch little league freak accidents! but all in all s4 was not my favorite like it wasn’t BAD it was really good it was just kind of missing some connection or something for me?

  • idk it’s very possible that’s entirely due to it airing immediately after succession every week like maybe that’s on me barry i apologize.

    • but like okay i love that they keep referencing sally’s Thing with that Guy (you know????? the one where she [redacted] a dude) but i also needed them to be a little clearer about it for us dummies who didn’t remember the details of it from s3 bc it’s been a year like if a guy in a scene goes “you bitch why’d you stick that in my eye” ideally my immediate response would be “omg that’s what that OTHER guy said when sally [redacted] him” not “wait what. she didn’t put anything in his eye though.” but again. very possibly on me and not barry.

• as part of one of my excursions into the depths of apple tv or apple+ or apple tv+ or whatever the fuck it is i finally watched bad sisters (it came highly recommended by my mom) and it was delightful! funny and moving and it made me want to go swimming in the sea like the sisters all do and also SO many of my favorite actresses popped up here and there including the one who played cassie in the starz tana french adaptation AND the one who plays aisling in can’t cope won’t cope (which is great and you all should watch it)

• the cw’s nancy drew is one of their like “here is a Classic IP now we’re going to make it moody and spooky” moves and to my great surprise i actually found it really enjoyable not in the least bc 1) the cast is usually pretty solid 2) when they’re not solid it’s bc the show has chosen to make one of them do a really goofy french accent like 40% of the time

  • huge show for u if you like “this rich asshole dude guy kind of sucked but now he’s in B stories with the other dad character and they’re like buddy cop dads with one teaching the other how to live on his own via a chore wheel” vibes

  • explain to me why i sobbed—SOBBED—my way through the s3 finale (the answer is that i am a big ol softie)

• it’s only got like 4 episodes out at the moment but i’ve been catching class of 09 when i remember it exists and listen is it a bit silly? is it a bit like “oh wow no way who could’ve foreseen that the AI surveillance program would get out of control and be misused by the police”? of course it is. but i like when kate mara is in things and i like when shows try ambitious structural things (in this case, three timelines). good cast good uneasy vibe i’m down

• i’m highlighting staged s3 exclusively bc there’s this one joke where they’re performing “a christmas carol” via livestream over zoom but none of them remember the script so the ghost that’s in all the chains is like “oooooh i’m in chains” and they ask him what he’s in chains for and he can’t remember so he says “crimes” and when they press him on what kind of crimes he says “aggravated assault” in this very like confused resigned tone and it BROKE me

1. BARRY THE SHOW I MEAN BARRY THE SHOW BARRY IS THE NAME OF THE CHARACTER YES BUT IT IS ALSO THE NAME OF THE SHOW!!!!! I BOLD THE SHOW TITLES FOR THEIR FIRST INSTANCE AS I HAVE DONE HERE! YE WHO CRY SPOILERS LOOK UPON MY CONSISTENT FORMATTING CHOICES AND ALSO THE SUCCESSION IS DEAD LINE AT THE TOP OF THE TV SECTION AND DESPAIR!!