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Sometime in the first year of my review blog, I developed a checklist which I use when reviewing sequels. It helps me qualitatively describe how they are composed, and how they interact with the surrounding books in their respective series. More recently, I added a much shorter checklist for describing the first book in a series.
Full Episode Text on Reviews That Burn
Works Cited
Ancrum, K. The Weight of the Stars. Imprint, 2019.
---. The Wicker King. Imprint, 2017.
Black, Holly. Ironside: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.
---. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.
---. Valiant: A Modern Faerie Tale. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020.
Brown, Roseanne A. A Psalm of Storms and Silence. HarperCollins, 2021.
---. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin. HarperCollins, 2020.
Callender, Kacen. King of the Rising. Hachette UK, 2020.
---. Queen of the Conquered. Hachette UK, 2019.
Cipri, Nino. Defekt. Tordotcom, 2021.
---. Finna. Tordotcom, 2020.
Grant, Mira. Blackout. Orbit, 2012.
---. Deadline. Orbit, 2011.
---. Feed. Orbit, 2010.
---. Feedback. Orbit, 2016.
Khaw, Cassandra. A Song for Quiet. Tor.com, 2017.
---. Hammers on Bone. Tor.com, 2016.
Maxwell, Everina. Ocean’s Echo. Hachette UK, 2022.
---. Winter’s Orbit. Tor Books, 2021.
McGuire, Seanan. Be the Serpent. Astra Publishing House, 2022.
---. Sleep No More. Astra Publishing House, 2023.
---. The Innocent Sleep. Astra Publishing House, 2023.
Reid, Ava. Juniper and Thorn. Random House, 2022.
---. The Wolf and the Woodsman: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2021.
Weir, Andy. Artemis: A Novel. Ballantine Books, 2017.
---. The Martian: A Novel. Ballantine Books, 2014.
Westerfeld, Scott. Extras. Simon and Schuster, 2007.
---. Pretties. Simon and Schuster, 2008.
---. Specials. Simon and Schuster, 2011.
---. Uglies. Simon and Schuster, 2011.

Greetings! Welcome to Books That Burn. I'm Robin, welcome to another book essay about something that was too big of a thought to fit into a normal review, specifically: Why Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong is not like The Hunger Games. Please feel free to send us suggestions for future essays. Before I get started, I'd like to thank our Patron who gets a monthly shoutout, Case Aiken. The support of our Patrons makes this podcast (and blog) possible, and we're grateful to all of you.
When perusing other reviews of Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, I've seen many comparisons to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This comparison is both slightly true and mostly unhelpful as a generalization, as what they have in common are either superficial genre features or not unique to The Hunger Games. I understand why the comparison occurs to people so I'd like to take it seriously. Nicole and I have covered The Hunger Games on our podcast, and I recently reviewed Immortal Longings.  I'll also make some reference to an earlier book with many of the same elements as later appeared in The Hunger Games: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. You can find both parts of our podcast discussion on that book here (Part 1, Part 2), as well as my written review of Battle Royale. While I think it does make sense to compare and contrast them, these books are not interchangeable. 
Please refer to the link for the full essay.

Greetings! Welcome to Books That Burn. I'm Robin, and this is the first essay I've specifically written for the podcast, to be made available first to Patrons, then to the main feed and on Reviews That Burn. Please feel free to send us suggestions for future essays. Before I get started, I'd like to thank our Patron who gets a monthly shoutout, Case Aiken. The support of our Patrons makes this podcast (and blog) possible, and we're grateful to all of you.
*This essay spoils major elements of NIGHT SHINE and MOON DARK SMILE by Tessa Gratton.
The written version of this essay can be found at the link.

*This essay contains moderate spoilers for the first sixteen October Daye books, major spoilers for SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP, and minor spoilers for Babylon 5 (S3 E4 "Passing Through Gethsemane").
Link to the original essay.
INTRO (00:36)
When reading SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP by Seanan McGuire (the newest October Daye books), I was struck by similarities in the ethical framework of these two books and certain aspects of the 1990's sci-fi show Babylon 5, particularly the way that changes in personality or memories are treated with relation to assumptions of personhood. I am certain that Seanan McGuire is also very familiar with Babylon 5 because one of her telepathic characters in the Incryptid series uses specific aspects of Babylon 5 as a framework for ethical telepathy.
THE DEATH OF PERSONALITY IN BABYLON 5 (01:12)
UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS (04:46)
MAJOR CHARACTERS (06:45)

Toby - Nickname for Sir October Daye, titular character of the series, changeling (fae mother, human father)


October - Toby’s current personality in SLEEP NO MORE and THE INNOCENT SLEEP, remembers a different history from Toby of the first sixteen books


Tybalt - Cait Sidhe (cat fae), Toby’s husband (October doesn’t remember him)


Amandine - October’s mother


Simon Torquill - Daoine Sidhe, Amandine’s husband, October’s father (not by blood)


Titania - One of the queens of Faerie, cast the illusion which created October from Toby and distorted many people’s memories


Quentin - Daoine Sidhe, Toby’s squire in the previous books, currently squire to someone else


August - October’s sister, daughter of Amandine and Simon


Stacy - Toby’s friend from childhood, recently removed by Titania

PLOT HIGHLIGHTS (07:47)
TOBY VS. OCTOBER (09:57)
WHY TITANIA DOESN'T THINK THIS IS HARM (11:17)
WHY OCTOBER WANTS TO REMAIN (13:06)
THE RIDE AND TITANIA’S ALTERATIONS (14:04)
TITANIA'S TRAP ON THE RIDE (16:19)
ETHICAL PARADOXES - PERHAPS UNSOLVABLE (17:42)
THE RESOLUTION (22:00)
A MASSACRE OF MINDS (25:00)

To tide you over between regular episodes, Robin reads their blog post from April 2023.
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This is a follow-up to my review of "Feed Them Silence" by Lee Mandelo, involving some thoughts that are too personal to make sense in the review as they swiftly veer away from the text specifically and instead into a broader meta-conversation of books like this which I have read previously, assumed correlations between emotional complexity and humanity, and how processing these thoughts has prompted me to make a change in my own life.
CW for discussion of ableism, dehumanization, animal cruelty/death, body-horror-adjacent concepts, and brief mentions of racism and genocide
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Wikipedia - Alexithymia
Wikipedia - Philosophical Zombie
Wikipedia - Masking
In Defence of De-persons by Johanna Hedva
The Ten Stages of Genocide

To tide you over between regular episodes, Robin reads their blog post from July 2022 with thoughts on the book "Singularity". You can find the original post here. The spoiler-free book review is here.