"Is romance fiction anti-intellectual?" · Beach Reads by Emily Henry · Episode 1, Season 1 Somewhere along the way someone decided that a story about love was less serious than a story about war. Someone decided that joy was cheap and suffering was literary. Someone decided, and we all just kind of agreed. Well, I don't and I bet you don't either... ⋆.˚ ☾ .⭒˚ Join the Margins community on Instagram @eighthhousebooks! Drop your answer to this week's reflection prompt and let's think together.This episode we are diving into Beach Read by Emily Henry. We will cover: The literary hierarchy: why romance gets dismissed and who benefits from that dismissalGrief, betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive the people who disappoint usWhy optimism is harder and braver than cynicism, and why the literary world has it backwardsHow the dismissal of romance fiction connects to a much larger pattern of devaluing what women enjoy at scale This Episode's Critical Thinking Skill Identifying inherited assumptions An inherited assumption is a belief you hold not because you examined it but because the culture handed it to you. This week we learn to spot the difference between a conclusion you reached and one that was handed to you, and why that distinction matters everywhere, not just in how we talk about books. Reflective Prompt Pick one opinion you hold about books, art, music, or culture. Ask yourself: did I arrive at this through my own experience, or did someone hand it to me? Drop your answer on Instagram. I want to hear it. The Book Beach Read by Emily Henry Available wherever books are sold your local bookstore, library, or audiobook app. Find Margins ☾ Follow on Instagram @eighthhousebooks ⭒ If Margins made you think harder today, leave a review please? It helps more readers find the show. 🎙️ New episodes every Thursday! Episode Transcript This is Margins, where we read deeper, think harder, and question who gets to decide what's worth reading. I'm Tori, and you're exactly where you're supposed to be. Let's dive in. Somewhere along the way, someone decided that a story about war was serious and a story about love was not. Someone decided that suffering was literary and joy was cheap. Someone decided, and we all just kind of agreed. But I don't agree, actually, they were wrong, and today we're gonna dive into a book called Beach Read, a romance novel about two writers stuck next door to each other for a summer, proved it. I'm Tori. This is Margins, where we read deeper, think harder, and we're gonna dive in. Before we do dive in though, since this is the first episode, thanks for being here. I just want to briefly share real quick what you can expect from each episode. Each episode, we're going to be talking about one book, mostly about the themes and critical thinking areas that we can talk about. I don't want to necessarily talk about spoilers. I can't guarantee that that will never happen, just because I have not recorded every episode I will ever do or picked every book I'm gonna read. But, my goal is that you don't have to have read the book to listen to the episodes, but it would be really cool if you did read the book, or if you read after and then come back and listen, or, you know, you listen to this, maybe it entices you to, maybe I can convince you to read the book, maybe that's how we think of it. But, I really want this to be a collaborative experience as much as possible. I know that you are listening to this after I've already, you know, recorded it in real time, but, I hope as the, the podcast and the season progresses, you're able to just show up more. I will also say that although I have tried my best to keep these in an outline format and have time limits, and I'm not just babbling endlessly. These are also very real. I'm, I'm a very busy mom of two. I homeschool, I work, I do all sorts of things. So if these are not the most polished episodes that you've ever listened to, I deeply apologize, but also not sorry because that is better than perfect. And so you get real me, real talk, quite literally, and yeah, so anyway, we're gonna dive in real fast here. So, just briefly overview, you know, book and author context. We're reading Beach Read by Emily Henry, and this was her breakout book. It was, it was not her first book, but it was just kind of like, you know, the first big one. It was published in 2020, and it became a real talked about romance at the time, and I think, well, I mean, today is 2026 and we're still talking about it, so good for her she is one of the clearest thinkers writing in romance right now. And I say that having now read several of her books, I think that she does such a great job of presenting. These real topics and real lived experiences in her fictional works that I don't know, it just. I just think it's really great that she is consistently using her genres conventions to really examine something real about how people work, live, love, you know, all those things, and All right, so getting into the premise of the book here, January Andrews is a romance writer with writer's block after her father's death. Augustus Everett is a dark literary fiction author that lives right next door. They do have a slight past, like they're kind of, I don't wanna say competitors, but yeah, she kind of views them as competitors like January does, and this book, excuse me, this book is structurally a debate about what Fiction is for, and it uses romance to win that debate, which I, I think is perfect because it really sets this up. The whole point of margins, real fast, not to talk about the book, but the whole point of the podcast here was to talk about The things that people have kind of decided in the literary world, like what is, what what's worth reading, what's considered good fiction, what's, you know, what's worth your time? What's what actually counts as a book? I've made a post a few weeks ago, and I was kind of teasing the show, and I remember someone said that, a family member of theirs is like, yeah, but that's not a real book, like when what's the last like real book you read? I'm like, I'm sorry. Is it a figment of my imagination? Are we not holding the thing in our hands? Are we not turning the pages or listening to the audio? Like, how is it not real? And it's, I know, this constant anti-intellectualism debate is really what inspired this podcast, and to, of course, read more marginalized authors. I should note that real fast, sidebar. most of our books that we go into are either written by women or authors from marginalized communities, and that is very intentional. There are a few classics, but even then, just, well. Episode 4 is going to be on Frankenstein, which is written by Mary Shelley, and so that that's what I mean by classics, we're not reading like Huckleberry Finn or anything like that, that's never gonna happen here, so why this book? Why now, right? I'm kind of circling back to the book here. Romance is the best selling fiction genre in the world. Its readers are overwhelmingly women. It has been dismissed, mocked, mocked, and excluded from serious literary conversations for decades. That's not a coincidence, and Beach Read knows it, and I think that that is Why this book in particular, just really had to be the one, it was too perfect. It was too perfect. I had to have this be the one that started this whole series, because it frames this debate perfectly, especially because the authors do that. And in the book, that that's kind of the whole premise, right? Is that She's a romance author, he's not, and he's like they basically make a little deal to like swap genres and to see how. Not only hard is it to, or how hard it is to write romance and to write it well and meaningful or to make it still be, you know, meaningful, impactful, and Have it Be something that doesn't have to be serious, that doesn't have to be painful or like you don't have to suffer as a reader for it to be good, and for you to enjoy and love it, and for it to have an impact on you. And I think that was, like I said, it was just, it was too perfect when I read it. I was like, this is the one, this is the one I have to, I have to kick off this or this podcast with. How we're going to dive into a couple of themes. I have 3 laid out here, and if you have other themes or thoughts, I would love it if you would. At some point, comment, message me. You can find me on Instagram at eighth House Books, all spelled out one, you know, word. And yeah, let me, let me know what you think. If I, if I kind of go over any. Obviously, I can't do an exhaustive list, but I would absolutely love to interact with you. If you have other thoughts on, on these themes or anything that I missed, please let me know. OK, so theme one here is kind of the just the hierarchy of genres, and again, it's, it's just, it's set up too perfectly, right? So Gus, in the book, that's Augustus, he goes by Gus, represents the literary establishment. His work is dark, it's difficult, it's critically praised, he, you know, is that tortured soul, so to speak, and writes about it all the time. And January writes books people actually want to read, and then like gets apologetic about it at at at, you know, interactions and the book club and kind of like, oh, well, you know, it's it's not this, it's not this critically acclaimed thing. The book doesn't let Gus be right about this. It systematically, or it's just, excuse me, it systemically dismantles his position while making him fall in love with the person who proves him wrong. And I think that This is very evident in scenes like where January is kind of defending those happy endings to her readers, or excuse me, about her readers like with Gus. It's, it's not about just escapism, even though we love that in, you know, that's that's kind of the ongoing joke, right, when we're reading, especially, I read a lot of fantasy and I follow a lot of fantasy reade
