Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
Today we have a special treat for you - we got Henry from\xa0FireStarters\xa0\xa0to read\xa0Grace Metalious'\xa0Peyton Place\xa0with us and let me tell you... it's a real Peyton Place in there.
I honestly can't even describe the plot of this book so let me just give you the trigger warnings, I guess?\xa0 So this book is trying really hard to shock you, which shouldn't shock you - the stuff that\xa0isn't\xa0intentional in it, therefore, is... more shocking?\xa0 So on that front look out for rampant 1950's racism that thinks it's progressive including\xa0whoa\xa0n-word count and awful depictions of mental illness, including a character who dies by suicide.\xa0 The stuff you're here for, though - the\xa0Peyton Place\xa0stuff - includes but probably is not limited to because my god: incestuous rape and abuse, secret illegal abortion(s), an industrial carnival accident, a cat strangled in absolutely bizarre circumstances (I mean seriously usually I'm the one freaked out by animal cruelty but the dead cat\xa0barely registers\xa0it's like that), suicide by hanging, a hard ravishing, and oh yeah a murder.
FireStarters is a podcast dedicated to discussing all the cultural references in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", and therefore they\xa0already did an episode on Peyton Place\xa0 - but they only watched the movie!\xa0 Henry had no idea what he was in for.