Throwback Paperback was gifted complimentary copies of this book by the publishing house, but received no other compensation in exchange for us reading this book. This week we have a special episode covering the debut novel of Jade Shyback. She takes a new spin on dystopian literature as human society has collapsed under the burden of climate change. Society has moved under water, and now Marisol Blaise has to come to terms with growing up as the adoptive daughter of the admiral of Aqueous...

TW: This episode includes topics of death, violence, and self harm. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion.  Throwback Paperback was gifted complimentary copies of this book by the publishing house, but received no other compensation in exchange...

TW: This episode includes topics of death, violence, and self harm. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion.  Throwback Paperback was gifted complimentary copies of this book by the publishing house, but received no other compensation in exchange...

TW: This episode includes topics of mental abuse, death, violence, kidnapping, gun violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, and PTSD. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion.  Throwback Paperback was gifted complimentary copies of this book by the...

TW: This episode includes topics of mental abuse, death, violence, kidnapping, gun violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, and PTSD. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion.  Throwback Paperback was gifted complimentary copies of this book by the...

TW: This episode includes topics of physical and mental abuse, death, violence, kidnapping, gun violence, alcohol abuse, references to suicide, sexual abuse, and bullying. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion.  Throwback Paperback was gifted...

TW: This episode includes topics of physical and mental abuse, death, violence, kidnapping, alcohol abuse, references to suicide, implied sexual abuse, and bullying. Please take care of yourself and only listen if these are safe topics for you. If you need to talk to someone or need further resources, you can visit the resources page for National Coalition Against Domestic Violence here: ​​https://ncadv.org/RESOURCES. Please listen at your discretion. Throwback Paperback was gifted...

TIme to finish another series on Throwback Paperback, as we finish Extras, and thereby Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series. In this book we get the conclusion of Aya’s quest to be popular and discover the hidden goals of the aliens. Tally comes back with strong main character energy, and Shay comes back as the classic worst. Aya reveals that this whole series is bigger than we ever thought, and we thoroughly enjoy the reading. You can’t miss this episode as we finish the whole series. Next week...

Thank you Scott Westerfeld for writing another book because we are incredibly excited and happy to stay in the Uglies world with the follow-up fourth book, Extras. We’ve switched to a new protagonist, whom we enjoy, and we love the haunting and scary social media aspect of this book. Is it maybe a little too close to home? Possibly, but we really get into it. We follow Aya Fuse on her meteoric rise from complete nobody as an Extra to one of the most popular people in the city and Tally...

We finish the original Tally Youngblood arc this week as we finish off Specials. All hell breaks loose with Tally’s city attacking the newfound city of Diego. Tally and Shay make plans to prevent a full war, but those plans are obviously derailed, so it, as always, falls to Tally to save the day. Will she? The most main-character energy person we’ve ever read about? Will she win it all? Do all the boys still flock to her? On a more serious note, both hosts have truly enjoyed reading the...

Specials hits the ground with quite a bang as Tally has been made into the thing she always swore she wouldn't become. Working for Shay, Tally is a powerful operative of the city, but that facade starts to crack as she sees her one true love Zane again. Once again they depart the city, and once again Shay and Tally fight. We have a lot to say about that, let me tell you. Twilight vampires are fully back this week, so just brace yourself for that. Next week we will be reading chapters 26-50...

Tally is off on another adventure as we finish out Pretties. After Peris disappoints us once again, Tally makes her escape from the city only to discover the reach of the city’s influence. It turns out that the city keeps active experiments of pre civilization savages for academic study in nearby reservations. She then makes her way to the new smoke successfully only to have a bunch of plot twists unleashed on her (and us the reader). Join us as we get the answers about the cure and all of...

Forging right ahead, this week we cover the first half of Pretties in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series. Things have changed because Tally has been made a Pretty, and she has a new best friend and love interest in Zane. They start a journey of rediscovery as they start to question the Pretty system. They develop a strategy to resist Pretty-brain, and try to inspire their friends to follow. It’s a great reading, and we’re definitely still enjoying the series. We’re both holding out hope that...

It’s the second week of Uglies, and this book has really turned around for us. Can it be? Are we both in complete agreement to enjoy this series? This episode introduces romance for Asia and really great plot-twist/worldbuilding for Charles, so it really has everything. Tally truly commits to the Smoke, only to have everything burned to the ground. She and David have to mount a dramatic rescue, so there’s action as well. We also compare this series so far to other dystopian series...

New series time, we are starting Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, and we are pleasantly surprised to discover that these books really were at the beginning of the Dystopian revolution. We enter a post-cultural world where everyone becomes surgically beautiful when they reach adulthood, except the rebels who live out of the society in the Smoke. Will our protagonist Tally join them? Will she develop a personality? Will this book continuously and pleasantly surprise us? We shall see! Next week we...

It’s series wrap-up week here at Throwback Paperback. Are the tears flowing? Well we finish the Children of the Lamp with the Grave Robbers of Genghis Khan, and unsurprisingly we have a lot of thoughts. You do not want to miss the spice as we go on another jetsetting adventure: Italy, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Australia, and Mongolia this week. The wrap up of the series just leaves us with lots of feelings that we can’t spoil here in the description. You just have to listen to find out. Next week...

Let’s do the time-warp again! Book 6 of the Children of the Lamp is possibly our most chaotic as the children discover the secrets of the Five Fakirs of Faizabad. The characters spread all across the globe with trips to the UK, Morocco, Yellowstone, Tel Aviv, and finally Tibet. We reconnect with Mr. Rakshashas only to lose him again, and we spend a good deal of time unpacking the very surprising ending. We also get into the tone and vibe of this book. Does it seem different to anyone else as...

It’s time for book 5 of the Children of the Lamp, by P.B. Kerr, the Eye of the Forest. This book takes our main characters plus some new additions off to South America where they have to both save the planet from Djinn related catastrophe and solve climate change. Unlike previous books in this series, it seems our characters are mostly together this week following one direct plotline, so we make up for in action what we miss in complexity. See some returns of known characters as well as some...

If the last book was intricate and complicated, just wait until you read this week’s book, The Day of the Djinn Warriors. Week 4 of the Children of Lamp has many many plot lines starting with the resurrection and subsequent installment of Faustina as the new Blue Djinn, the downfall of Dybbuk as Jonathan Tarot, and the rise of Iblis. We go to China as the Ifrit, or big bad as Asia calls them, try to invert all luck in the entire world in favor of evil. Of course, as always we have a breakneck...

Week 3 of the Children of the Lamp, and this week the adventure is off to Kathmandu in Nepal. Definitely the grossest book in the series, the twins have to save their friend Dybbuk and then save their uncle Nimrod which takes them to a snake cult in Nepal. This is the most intricate and complex of the plots we’ve had in the series and really sets up some important story lines moving forward. Mr. Groanin takes on an even larger role in this book, cementing himself as a main character and...

DISCLAIMER: Charles’ audio is particularly rough this week due to NYC radiators. He apologizes profusely! It’s week two of the Children of the Lamp, we’re reading the second book, The Blue Djinn of Babylon. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this book features another dramatic adventure that we just send a twelve year old on, because apparently that is acceptable. In a wild turn of events Phillippa is kidnapped by the twins’ grandmother, and John has to rescue her via a multinational expedition and...

It’s time for a new series, The Children of the Lamp! It’s week one, so we read the whole first book, The Akhenaten Adventure. We follow our fellow New Yorkers, John and Phillippa Gaunt as they discover that they are djinn or what we would consider genies. They can grant wishes and make all sorts of cool things happen with their subconscious. This week was a lot of exposition and then all of the sudden a bunch of action at the end, so it led to a weird podcast episode. But your hosts have a...

We are going to follow Stargirl on her journey to Pennsylvania. She writes the longest letter of all time to her ex, Leo, for the entirety of this week’s book: Love, Stargirl. We follow her as she goes through immense growth, gradually getting over Leo and finding a way to be accepted and enjoyed by her whole community. It really is a story of growth for our protagonist that makes it quite enjoyable to read. The book reads as an excellent sequel to the original Stargirl novel. Next week we...

It’s new series time for a cute duology, Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl books. Back to quirky school time, and realistic fiction, Stargirl bursts onto the scene in suburban Arizona, and causes mayhem in the school district. Leo and the whole school struggle with their relationship to Stargirl’s antics, and this leads to a quite lively debate between the hosts that you cannot miss. There are arguments on both sides of the debate, so we definitely want to hear from our listeners as to how they feel...