Odd Blood

Daniella and Evelyne discuss Cozy Horror as an emerging genre and the general delight that was this book. Oh, and they are complete pop culture nerds in this one.

Transcript

Speaker 1:

This is Intoxicated Literature.

Daniella Drake:

Hello. Welcome to Intoxicated Literature. I am Daniella Drake.

Evelyne Crowe:

And I'm Evelyne Crowe.

Daniella Drake:

And tonight we're going to be talking about Odd Blood by Azalea Crowley, and it's going to be great.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's gonna to be great. It's one of my favorite books. I'm sorry. We are intoxicated and hence the laughter. It's a really good book, actually, it's one of my favorites. Sorry, I have the giggles.

Daniella Drake:

Sometimes we have technology fails because we are trying to operate things when we are not at our best.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's working and that's all that matters.

Daniella Drake:

That's right.

Evelyne Crowe:

It does not matter how we got here.

Daniella Drake:

That's right. We're here now. Okay. Before we get into it, spoilers ahead. We will ruin the entire book and maybe subsequent books. Sometimes we forget what's in what book.

Evelyne Crowe:

I have read all of them and I am notorious for forgetting what is in what book. It just all blends together for me, especially once I've had a drink, so yes.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, I'll try to keep you on the path, but I sometimes also get confused, so just be aware.

Evelyne Crowe:

Complete and utter spoiler warning.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. We also swear like sailors, so if you don't like profanity, probably shouldn't listen to us in general. And this isn't really a spicy book, but we might talk about a couple things.

Evelyne Crowe:

We might talk things, but yeah, there's no adult content in this. But we might refer to body parts or other subsequent things just in general.

Daniella Drake:

Just be aware.

Evelyne Crowe:

Be aware. It's an adult environment.

Daniella Drake:

That's right. And what are we drinking tonight?

Evelyne Crowe:

We are drinking a very cool cocktail.

Daniella Drake:

A Vampire's Kiss.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes. It's very cool.

Daniella Drake:

Which is scrumptious.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah, I'd say.

Daniella Drake:

It's basically a fancy vodka cran. But I love a vodka cran.

Evelyne Crowe:

Who doesn't love vodka cran?

Daniella Drake:

Exactly.

Evelyne Crowe:

And it looks really cool in the glass.

Daniella Drake:

It looks so cool in the glass. So here we are. Yeah, let's get into it.

Evelyne Crowe:

I love this series and I tell everyone I know about this series at every conceivable opportunity and I'm sure they're very sick of me telling them to read Odd Blood. I tell them all the time. Daniella can agree.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. I was very confused when you first brought this series to my attention because you said it was a cozy horror.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

And I was like, I don't know how those two work together.

Evelyne Crowe:

My favorite was when it was Christmas and I gave the books. I gave my sister, a different sister, a signed set of the Odd Blood series. And Danielle's boyfriend went, "Cozy horror?"

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. He was very confused.

Evelyne Crowe:

And I went, I didn't even explain. I just looked at him and went, "It's a real thing. Deal."

Daniella Drake:

That is true. I mean, I feel like we both kind of did that.

Evelyne Crowe:

I just said he'd have to deal with it.

Daniella Drake:

Because we had both read it at that time, so yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

I just expected him to accept the fact that it was a real genre and that was it.

Daniella Drake:

I mean, to be fair, I think that cozy horror is the only horror I can read.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh, for sure. I cannot read horror. I would be up all night.

Daniella Drake:

I am a baby.

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely.

Daniella Drake:

I'm easily terrified.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes, 100%.

Daniella Drake:

And I wake up at 3:00 AM in morning every morning. So I wake up and think about all the scary things that I read.

Evelyne Crowe:

And obviously the monster's under my bed ready to get me. It's there.

Daniella Drake:

Or in the closet just ready to pounce, like obviously.

Evelyne Crowe:

No horror for me.

Daniella Drake:

Not a horror person, but loved this book.

Evelyne Crowe:

This was so good.

Daniella Drake:

It was so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

I love it so much. I love it. It's like it's a compilation of the things they do in The Shadows and Golden Girls.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

If you take those-

Daniella Drake:

If what we do in The Shadows was a rom-com, it would be this.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

It's so true.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's perfect.

Daniella Drake:

And I love what we do in The Shadows. It's one of my favorite shows. Yes, love it.

Evelyne Crowe:

There are times where someone will say something and I will literally just burst out laughing because it's so funny.

Daniella Drake:

Absolutely agree. The relationship between Eadwulf and Misha and Norma is adorable.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

It really does give found family feelings. It feels like a family interaction. They're squabbling with each other. They're needling each other. Their banter is so funny. I just love everything about their interactions.

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely. For sure.

Daniella Drake:

So cute.

Evelyne Crowe:

Although I do love every time Eadwulf was like, "Are you sure you're not in People?" [inaudible 00:05:22] like, "I'm not in People!"

Daniella Drake:

"Stop it." Oh, it's so cute. But every time he calls her Baby Bad, it's so sweet.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh, my God. That little pet name.

Daniella Drake:

I love it.

Evelyne Crowe:

So cute.

Daniella Drake:

It's so cute.

Evelyne Crowe:

Adorable.

Daniella Drake:

I know. So cute. But I love Josephine.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

She is adorkable.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes, absolutely.

Daniella Drake:

Which I identify with 100%.

Evelyne Crowe:

100%.

Daniella Drake:

She's slightly awkward. She's Ace. She is kind of stuck. She's in her thirties, but I feel like everyone else around her is kind of growing up and moving to the next phase and she's not. She's just kind of stuck. And I feel like that's a little bit relatable too. There's this idea that you're going to have it all figured out by the time you're in your thirties, and that is not always the case.

Evelyne Crowe:

Right. Yeah. She's like working in this cake shop decorating cakes, and she's like, "This is it. This is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life."

Daniella Drake:

The rest of my life. Exactly. And she doesn't love it. That's not what she really. She doesn't really feel like she fits anywhere. And then she meets Eadwulf who's drugged, and immediately let's slip that he's a vampire but she doesn't believe him because it's Halloween.

Evelyne Crowe:

She's like, "Well, it's Halloween. I'll just go with this. Sure."

Daniella Drake:

And it's Seattle. So she's like, "Ah, whatever. Sure. Whatever."

Evelyne Crowe:

So she takes this guy back to his house, which is in the middle of fucking nowhere.

Daniella Drake:

It's the middle of a park and it's this giant castle.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah.

Daniella Drake:

So funny.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's hilarious. She's like-

Daniella Drake:

So funny.

Evelyne Crowe:

"Where are we?"

Daniella Drake:

And then she gets to meet Anna, who I love. She's snarky and just irreverent and perfect. I just love her so, so much.

Evelyne Crowe:

The way she talks to her brother. Every time, every time-

Daniella Drake:

Every time.

Evelyne Crowe:

"Get out of here. What are you doing in here?"

Daniella Drake:

I know. She's so funny.

Evelyne Crowe:

I love her so much. Oh my God.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Okay. There's this one moment though. Right after she meets Eadwulf and she goes home after she's hired as his thrall. And she's trying to process everything. She's in her room and she's like, "Why do I feel like, is there something outside my window?" So she opens the blinds and Eadwulf is outside her window floating there and scares the fuck out of her.

Daniella Drake:

Can we talk about the fact that when I read this, my first thought-

Evelyne Crowe:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Daniella Drake:

The movie.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes, 100%. Because that's what I thought at the heck. Exactly what I thought. I only watched that movie a hundred billion times.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. "Benny, why are you floating?"

Evelyne Crowe:

"Why are you floating, Benny?"

Daniella Drake:

"I don't think I should let you in." That's all that was going through my head.

Evelyne Crowe:

Mine too. Oh my God, we're such nerds. Oh my, God.

Daniella Drake:

Oh, man.

Evelyne Crowe:

God rest, Luke Perry. Oh, that was such a bad movie it was so good.

Daniella Drake:

It's so good. Oh my God. Yeah. That was such a good scene. It was so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

And she like freaks out. And of course-

Daniella Drake:

Which is fair.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah, because she lives on the fourth floor. He's outside her window. And of course he's like, "Won't you let me in?" In this like-

Daniella Drake:

So formal, polite.

Evelyne Crowe:

And she's like, "I guess I'll let you in."

And then he's awkwardly in the most awkwardly way possible, clambers in to her house and falls onto her bed and then says, "Parkour."

Daniella Drake:

I love Eadwulf so much. He's always referencing shows and movies from the '80s. He's so frozen in time and he's kind of awkward too. So their interactions with each other are so awkward.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God, it was funny. And it-

Daniella Drake:

But I love it.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh God. He has the audacity to be like, "Why are you like this?"

And she's like, "You scared me to death just now."

Daniella Drake:

This is not how normal people act.

Evelyne Crowe:

And he's like, "Are you sure you're not in People?"

Daniella Drake:

"Stop saying that!"

Evelyne Crowe:

"I'm not in People!" Oh my God.

Daniella Drake:

Oh man.

Evelyne Crowe:

That whole thing was hilarious.

Daniella Drake:

Oh, so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God. I'm crying.

Daniella Drake:

I love it too.

Evelyne Crowe:

I'm crying I'm laughing so hard.

Daniella Drake:

The scene too, where she invites him to dinner with her and her best friend.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God.

Daniella Drake:

And he eats the food and then just like silently vomits it up. He's just like, "I just need to get home. I just need to get home." And then he doesn't make it.

And she goes, "Why didn't you just throw up at my place?"

And he's like, "You want to explain this to your roommate? Like what?"

And she's going, "Okay. That's a fair point." There were so many scenes in this book that literally made me laugh out loud. I would just like start laughing.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God, I haven't laughed out loud so much at a book like this one forever. Ever.

Daniella Drake:

I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

This book was hilarious.

Daniella Drake:

It was so funny. Oh my gosh. So good.

Evelyne Crowe:

But at the same time, Azalea built this world of mythology and vampires that is incredibly real.

Daniella Drake:

Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

Real feeling like this could actually exist alongside ours.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. Absolutely.

Evelyne Crowe:

She put so much thought into what would a mythological world look like in our world-

Daniella Drake:

Modern times.

Evelyne Crowe:

... right now?

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

And I'm like, oh my God, this is what it would look like.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, absolutely.

Evelyne Crowe:

They have a Facebook app to keep track of everybody because of course they would.

Daniella Drake:

And they have their little meetups.

Evelyne Crowe:

They do.

Daniella Drake:

It's like, yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

They do. All the thralls get together. They talk about being a thrall.

Daniella Drake:

The little support group. Yeah, exactly.

Evelyne Crowe:

They talk about their vampires.

Daniella Drake:

And that's kind of where she learns about the different levels. Because Eadwulf is great, but he doesn't really communicate very well, so he doesn't explain a lot of this stuff to her.

Evelyne Crowe:

He just kind of assumes that everyone knows it already.

Daniella Drake:

Knows it. Yeah. He's forgotten that not everybody knows.

Evelyne Crowe:

Exactly.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. So she goes to her first meeting and she's got a vial of his blood, which makes her this really high rank of consort, which she's not really.

Evelyne Crowe:

He broke so many rules. Everyone's like, "Why do you have that?"

Daniella Drake:

I know. She's like, "I don't know. What do you mean? He gave it to me."

Evelyne Crowe:

"What?"

Daniella Drake:

"What does it mean?"

Evelyne Crowe:

So it was like a whole thing.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, exactly.

Evelyne Crowe:

She spent so much time just trying to figure everything out. But yes, the world building was great.

Daniella Drake:

So good.

Evelyne Crowe:

They have this whole hierarchy of different ranks up. So they have the thrall, which is the lowest one. And all that's required is a bite.

Daniella Drake:

Wait, is the thrall the lowest or familiar?

Evelyne Crowe:

Familiar. Familiar.

Daniella Drake:

Familiar's the lowest and then thrall.

Evelyne Crowe:

And then thrall. And then drone.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

And then consort.

Daniella Drake:

Do you know what I have in my notes?

Evelyne Crowe:

No.

Daniella Drake:

It says, "Familiar, thrall, drole with an L." Because they have to be funny as well.

Evelyne Crowe:

They have an official name.

Daniella Drake:

Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

They have a whole association. It's incredibly organized.

Daniella Drake:

It's super organized.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's really cool, actually.

Daniella Drake:

Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

So it's the FTDCA: The Familiar, Thrall, Drone, Consort Association,

Daniella Drake:

But they're so welcoming and supportive of each other.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

It really is a community.

Evelyne Crowe:

It is. It really is.

Daniella Drake:

Which I thought was really sweet.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely. The characters were so great. I love that there were vampires. And I love that there's an elderly vampire who has kind of the vampire equivalent of dementia.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. Norma.

Evelyne Crowe:

Norma's amazing.

Daniella Drake:

She's amazing. I love her.

Evelyne Crowe:

Because it's not quite dementia.

Daniella Drake:

I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

But she's kind of, they call it brain haze.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. Yeah. She's not really following along necessarily to the conversation happening in front of her.

Evelyne Crowe:

But then all of a sudden she'll be lucid and just be like, "Well, no, this is not okay." And then she'll just handle whatever is in front of her.

Daniella Drake:

Yes. I mean, she saves the day.

Evelyne Crowe:

She is fucking amazing.

Daniella Drake:

Out of nowhere, right? So cool.

Evelyne Crowe:

Everyone was literally, at the end, everyone was like, "What is happening right now?"

Daniella Drake:

Happening. I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

And then Norma's like, "Well, no, this can't happen." And then just saves everyone.

Daniella Drake:

I know. Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Like the badass she is.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

She's so cool.

Daniella Drake:

So cool. Love it.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh, it's amazing. I love Norma so much. I would die for her. I would die her on that.

Daniella Drake:

I know. She was so good. I have to say too, that as a bad guy, Angelo, pretty good villain.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah.

Daniella Drake:

He's a little bit gross.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah.

Daniella Drake:

He preys on young women.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah. We don't like that.

Daniella Drake:

Which is, yeah, not a fan.

Evelyne Crowe:

No.

Daniella Drake:

So when he dies, you're kind of like, good riddance.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yep.

Daniella Drake:

I'm like, don't. And you don't even see it. The best part about that is that you don't even see him die.

Evelyne Crowe:

No, you don't.

Daniella Drake:

It's like off-screen and it's just like, oh yeah, he's already taken care of in the kitchen with a spoon, which made me think of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God. There's so many little different references in this book. And you're like, "Oh."

Daniella Drake:

So good.

Evelyne Crowe:

No, the real baddie in this book, we have Angelo, but he's kind of like a baddie who's like an incompetent baddie.

Daniella Drake:

Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

Who thinks he's the baddie but he's not.

Daniella Drake:

But he's not. Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

But the real baddie...

Daniella Drake:

Is Bertie.

Evelyne Crowe:

Bertie.

Daniella Drake:

Or Jennifer, whatever.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

We hates it.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. We do hates it.

Evelyne Crowe:

We hates it.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Because she's a hunter.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. Vampire Hunter and she's infiltrated the support system.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah. She was in it.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

And we hates it because she was in it and she was offering sympathy and being kind and supportive. And all the while is actually evil.

Daniella Drake:

Killing people. And not just vampires.

Evelyne Crowe:

Not just vampires.

Daniella Drake:

That's-

Evelyne Crowe:

That's messed up.

Daniella Drake:

It's so messed up. What are you doing? And even Josephine is like, you've lost the thread. You've made yourself believe that it's okay to kill people. That's not okay.

Evelyne Crowe:

And Norma agreed. Norma was like, "Yeah, no, this is not okay."

Daniella Drake:

Norma, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Can we talk about the werewolf cat too?

Evelyne Crowe:

When this book came out, there were so many of us who were all up in Azalea's TikTok feed. And we're like, "That cat is not a cat. What is that cat?"

Daniella Drake:

What is up with that cat? That cat has an agenda.

Evelyne Crowe:

There's something going on with that cat. And she was just like, "I don't know."

Daniella Drake:

"I don't know," yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

We're like, no, you know. What is going on with that cat? And she's just like, "I don't know."

I know what's up with that cat now and I'm vindicated.

Daniella Drake:

I don't know, so don't tell me because I do want to read the other books.

Evelyne Crowe:

You haven't read them yet?

Daniella Drake:

I haven't read them yet. I know it's because I have them on hold at the library.

Evelyne Crowe:

Daniella.

Daniella Drake:

It takes a while. And I have to go through what books are available.

Evelyne Crowe:

They're really good.

Daniella Drake:

I know. I'm excited.

Evelyne Crowe:

I know up with the werewolf cat. (singing)

Daniella Drake:

I want to know what's up with the werewolf cat. I'm excited to find out.

Evelyne Crowe:

(singing).

Daniella Drake:

But yeah, I love the werewolf cat.

Evelyne Crowe:

That is the best cat. And the thing about the werewolf cat is the vampire's reaction to the werewolf cat.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

The cat itself is fabulous, don't get me wrong. But every vampire's reaction to the cat, even better.

Daniella Drake:

Yes, absolutely.

Evelyne Crowe:

I always say Anna.

Daniella Drake:

Oh, I say Anna, but I'm sure it's-

Evelyne Crowe:

But I don't know. But she's just like, "What is that creature?"

Daniella Drake:

I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

"And why is it in our house?"

Daniella Drake:

Eadwulf is like, "Here kitty, kitty."

Evelyne Crowe:

Eadwulf's like a big child, I swear. But like for power. It's so funny.

Daniella Drake:

It's so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

He's so cute.

Daniella Drake:

Yes, absolutely. Love it.

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God. Yeah. Anna would kill that cat.

Daniella Drake:

Yes.

Evelyne Crowe:

In a heartbeat.

Daniella Drake:

For sure.

Evelyne Crowe:

She'd just be like, "That cat is no more."

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. For sure.

Evelyne Crowe:

"You cease to be."

Daniella Drake:

Absolutely.

Evelyne Crowe:

But she's like, at the same time, she's like, "All right, familiar likes the cat."

Daniella Drake:

I guess the cat can stay for now.

Evelyne Crowe:

"Whatever." But she's just so gruff on the outside, but has this underlying, "I will be kind."

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Kind.

Daniella Drake:

I love her. I love her so much. That when she comes down at the end and she says, "Yes, my vagina!"

And everyone's like, "What?"

Evelyne Crowe:

"What?"

Daniella Drake:

"What are we talking about?"

Evelyne Crowe:

Oh my God, I love her so much.

Daniella Drake:

It was her embroidery. I was laughing so hard. Such a good scene.

Evelyne Crowe:

I mean, there's just so many random moments. They drink something and then all of a sudden there's blood splattered all over everything. And Josephine's just like, "I have to clean this."

Daniella Drake:

I know. "What are you doing?"

Evelyne Crowe:

"What you did you do?"

Daniella Drake:

I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

"Why? Why?"

Daniella Drake:

"But why would you do that?"

Evelyne Crowe:

And the vampires are literally just like, "What are you talking about?"

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

"Is there a problem?"

Daniella Drake:

"Do you like my hat?"

Evelyne Crowe:

I know.

Daniella Drake:

What?

Evelyne Crowe:

It's just like, "Sure, your hat's great."

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, sure. Why not?

Evelyne Crowe:

I will say that if I were in Josephine's situation and we're about to be homeless and someone said, "I'm a vampire and you can live here for $126 a month, take care of my slightly weird older vampire." I would say yes too.

Daniella Drake:

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't hesitate. Yeah. That would be an easy, when do I move in?

Evelyne Crowe:

I'd be like, okay. $126 a month? Sure.

Daniella Drake:

Exactly. Especially in Seattle. Not cheap.

Evelyne Crowe:

Not cheap.

Daniella Drake:

Not cheap. $126 a month. Even she's like, "I'm sorry, how much?"

Evelyne Crowe:

At first he's like, "I have a church you can rent."

She's like, "Oh, bullshit. What is this? I'm working for you and you're charging me rent."

He's like, "I know it's a lot of money. It's a lot of human money, but it's $126."

She's like, "I take it."

Daniella Drake:

That's a lot. But I think I can swing it.

Evelyne Crowe:

I think I can do that.

Daniella Drake:

Oh, so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

But there's a lot of world building, but it's not like info dump-a-y.

Daniella Drake:

Well, I liked it too because I liked the way that Azalea brought in this idea that you're more powerful the closer you are to one of the first vampires. So Eadwulf is more powerful than Anna because he's closer to one of the first vampires because he's a fifth generation and she's an eighth generation.

And his line is, of course, Dracula's line.

Evelyne Crowe:

Dracula's, yeah.

Daniella Drake:

Which he hates and doesn't want to talk about. It's like off limits.

Evelyne Crowe:

He's just like, "Uh."

Daniella Drake:

I know.

Evelyne Crowe:

"I can't stand. Uh, just don't even."

Daniella Drake:

He's also, he's such a himbo.

Evelyne Crowe:

He is the ultimate himbo.

Daniella Drake:

So you think about Dracula and then five generations removed is Eadwulf. And you're just like, okay.

Evelyne Crowe:

I know. It's amazing.

Daniella Drake:

It's so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

And it's driving me crazy because I know things that you don't know.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. Don't say them. We're only talking about this book. This is partly why I only read this book because I know that you go off script because we don't have scripts and we're just talking.

Evelyne Crowe:

I'm like, what script?

Daniella Drake:

That's why we go off the rails so often.

Evelyne Crowe:

I have no script. I only have notes.

Daniella Drake:

I know. I was going to say, I have notes that have wrong words in it.

Evelyne Crowe:

But the way she lays out all of the information in the world building and the mythos and everything, it's layered in through the story so well.

Daniella Drake:

There's no exposition dump. There's no big blocks of information that you have to parse through. It's very seamlessly done.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

And you never feel like you're in a place where you're like, wait, what? It's very easy to follow.

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely.

Daniella Drake:

You understand what's going on. And if there are moments where you're like, wait, what? Josephine's right there with you. She's also going, "Hold on, hold on. Nobody said anything about this."

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely.

Daniella Drake:

"Back up."

Evelyne Crowe:

She absolutely is. It's very cool.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

I love it so much. Absolutely read this book.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, it was really well written.

Evelyne Crowe:

Absolutely.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah. So, so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's so good.

Daniella Drake:

I wish more people knew about it because I feel like it's still kind of flying under the radar and it shouldn't be. It just, it's so good.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's so cool.

Daniella Drake:

It's different. It's unique. Yeah. It's such a sweet book.

Evelyne Crowe:

Well, and I like the idea of a cozy horror because this is also an emerging genre. We have the cozy fantasy and cozy horror is also an emerging genre. And so we should talk a little bit about what makes it a cozy horror.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, that's fair.

Evelyne Crowe:

As opposed to just a regular horror. And I think-

Daniella Drake:

Horror.

Evelyne Crowe:

So a horror, I guess. What are the elements that make a horror?

Daniella Drake:

Well, I don't really read those.

Evelyne Crowe:

This is something that we don't read. So I'd be like, okay, so a horror would have something like ghosts or paranormal, scary tensions, things that go bump in the night kind of thing. There may be gore, there may be blood, there may be things like that.

Daniella Drake:

Darker-

Evelyne Crowe:

Darker themes.

Daniella Drake:

Darker elements, yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

Might be psychological, things like that.

Daniella Drake:

Yep, yep, yep.

Evelyne Crowe:

So what-

Daniella Drake:

And this book does have some violence.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

It does have some gore.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yes.

Daniella Drake:

But not a lot.

Evelyne Crowe:

Not a lot.

Daniella Drake:

And I would say that it's tempered with a lot of character development and I don't know, humor.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's cozy because everyone's going to be okay. And horror, you don't have that-

Daniella Drake:

No, yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

... sense of stability.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, that's fair.

Evelyne Crowe:

And I think that's what makes it cozy.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Evelyne Crowe:

Because that's what makes a cozy fantasy cozy.

Daniella Drake:

Sure.

Evelyne Crowe:

You know everyone is going to be okay.

Daniella Drake:

Everything's going to work out. Everyone's going to be okay.

Evelyne Crowe:

And it's a small scale kind of feeling. When you read a horror, I've read a few. I don't particularly enjoy the genre, but I've read a few. And you feel it feels big, even if it's in a small area.

Daniella Drake:

Right.

Evelyne Crowe:

It feels overwhelming. That's what makes it scary. It feels like something you can't overcome.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

The cozy, it's like, okay, it's going to be fine.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, they're going to figure this out.

Evelyne Crowe:

And it has that found family feeling. It has that we're in it together, we're here kind of thing. Even if it does have a little bit of violence, a little bit of gore, and it has that darker paranormal aspect. The vampires or the werewolves and the ghosts kind of thing.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, that makes sense. I would say too, cozies in general, I would say cozy fantasy and cozy horror kind of share this where characters tend to be kind. The default tends to be kind. Where even if there's a misunderstanding, they work it out. They're not as antagonistic toward each other as you would read in an urban fantasy or something of that nature where people tend to be a little bit more abrasive or whatever. So I think that that's true of this book as well.

I mean, I will say I liked having a character with Ace representation because you don't see that very often. She gets her first kiss in this book and she's in her thirties. I thought that was really refreshing and lovely to see because there are so many people that are just ashamed of the fact that they've never gone on a date or they've never had a kiss or whatever, and they're not in their twenties anymore. And they think that there's something wrong with them, and that's just not the case. So it was lovely to see a character have that representation.

Evelyne Crowe:

And there's a lot of-

Daniella Drake:

Means-

Evelyne Crowe:

... just not understanding what an Ace designation means. I think there's a large part of the population that thinks that Ace just means you never feel a sexual attraction to the opposite person, which may be true.

Daniella Drake:

For sure.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's a huge umbrella. It's huge. It's a huge designation and it can mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people. It's really nice and it is refreshing to see a character that is Ace and is just taking it slow.

Okay. So what are we reading next time? We are reading a book I've seen around, I have not read it yet, so I'm very excited. It's called-

Daniella Drake:

I haven't read it either.

Evelyne Crowe:

Return to HooDoo by Reggi Dupree.

Daniella Drake:

It sounds very intriguing.

Evelyne Crowe:

It is a paranormal thriller it sounds like.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah.

Evelyne Crowe:

So I'm very excited.

Daniella Drake:

Yeah, I think it's going to be fun. I'm excited to see where it goes.

Evelyne Crowe:

Yeah, we haven't read a thriller yet on here.

Daniella Drake:

No, it's going to be be different.

Evelyne Crowe:

It's going to be different.

Daniella Drake:

We're expanding our horizons.

Evelyne Crowe:

We like to look outside the box sometimes.

Daniella Drake:

That's right. Okay, so join us next time. This is Daniella Drake.

Evelyne Crowe:

And I'm Evelyn Crowe.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Intoxicated Literature. Drink well, friends.