Episode 47 - Growing Around: Party Panic by John 'Enter' Rozanski

Explicit content warning

12/25/18 • 80 min

1 Listener

A guy who reviews cartoons and is really invested in creating a cartoon series himself wrote a children's chapter book in the universe that he's been creating for a few years. There's nothing wrong with this concept on the surface.

Peer deeper into the chocolate puddle, though, and you'll find a horrifying interpretation of reality where children run the entire world and the unintended consequences of this arrangement smother any potential this thing might have had.

Imagine Hellraiser, but instead of Pinhead offering you the heights of pain/pleasure, it's a cute child luring you into her world of candy, ponies, and endless playtime. Rather than being flayed alive, dismembered, or otherwise horribly tortured in a physical sense, you're instead damned to be your child's canvas for humiliation. Enslaved by your child masters, you are crippled by the fear of displeasing them.

Thanks to our listener Letty for recommending we read Growing Around: Party Panic! by John 'Enter' Rozanski.

Content warnings: Discussion of cartoon violence; Toxic familial relationships; pedophilia (brief mention)

Thanks to our listener Letty for recommending we read Growing Around: Party Panic! by John 'Enter' Rozanski.

Content warnings: Discussion of cartoon violence; Toxic familial relationships; pedophilia (brief mention)

Previous Episode

Episode 46 - Zarsthor's Bane by Andre Norton

No real content warnings this week except for one off-hand misogynistic statement by a single character! There IS a weird scene that could be interpreted as being uh...dendrophilic, but unless you're really freaked out by a little tree kissing there's nothing too off-putting in this episode.

We partake in some mystical bright bud and wander into the trippy wastelands with Brixia and Uta, the adventuring companions at the center of this fantasy novel plucked from a random cart of old sci fi/fantasy books for $1.00 at Amoeba Records. Can wrongly interpreted illustrations, sudden slut shaming, and hand-wavey plot points mar our journey with Brixia?

...

Not really! It was good! This book wasn't terrible! We want to read the other books in this series now. Thanks, Andre Norton.

While we were quite relieved to read something for the show that we both really enjoyed, listeners may not find this episode as entertaining as a result. We had very little criticism for this story, and we even enjoyed most of the art, though we do talk a bit about how the art was sort of inconsistent. Make sure to check our Instagram for some of the images from the book.

If you're into cat sidekicks and fantasy ladies who aren't just talking bikinis, check out this book!

Next Episode

Episode 48 - Into the Wild (Warriors #1/Warrior Cats #1) by Erin Hunter

Ah, cats - who doesn't love a good cat video or cat meme? The world is full of cat-themed things, so it's only natural that a cat fantasy series would eventually appear.

If you really love cats, the collective corporate consciousness that is Erin Hunter has got you covered! The Warriors series (more commonly known as the Warrior Cats series) has cat nurses, leaders, queens, fights, and enough compound cat names and cat vocabulary words to make you question your sanity within minutes of starting the first book!

Sure, this series is for kids/tweens, but when things like Redwall, Mousegard - or, hell, even Animorphs - already exist, there's just no room for a cheap, fantasy-by-committee series of 81 god damned books about how glorious cats could be if they found religion through ghosts.

P.S. Check out the Helpless Romantics podcast if you want to mix it up with reviews of a terrible TV show instead of a terrible book!