Ep 772 - Butter, by Asako Yuzuki

Craig Getting (0:00)

This episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. Andrew, I miss summer.

Andrew Cunningham (0:03)

Yeah, you do. It just ended, like just ended.

Craig Getting (0:06)

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Andrew Cunningham (0:32)

I did switch to Mint many years ago. And summer, fall, any season you've got, I think Mint Mobile's service is roughly equivalent in all of them. It is unbounded by time, by linear time, by the calendar. It's just good service whenever you need it.

Craig Getting (0:49)

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Andrew Cunningham (1:34)

This is a HeadGum Podcast.

SPEAKER_3 (1:38)

While Andrew and Craig believe the joy of discovery is crucial to enjoying any well-told tale, they will not shy away from spoiling specific story beats when necessary. Plus, these are books you should have read by now.

Craig Getting (2:12)

Hey everybody, welcome to Overdue. It's a podcast about the books. You've been meaning to read.

My name is Craig.

Andrew Cunningham (2:23)

My name is Andrew, and I'm here with the Batman.

Craig Getting (2:27)

Welcome to our evil library of the damned, where we only read spooky books.

Andrew Cunningham (2:37)

We read spooky books once a year for our book podcast, where every week one of us reads a book that we've never read before and tells the other person about it. We devote an entire month to spookiness. And this week's book...

Craig Getting (2:51)

I'm so scared about fatty additives.

Andrew Cunningham (3:00)

I don't know if that's how I'd describe butter.

Craig Getting (3:02)

No, I don't know.

Craig Getting (3:04)

I'm so scared of it.

Craig Getting (3:06)

I don't know what it is.

Andrew Cunningham (3:07)

What's scary about this book is the kind of spookiness of subverted expectations.

Craig Getting (3:13)

Yeah.

Craig Getting (3:14)

Where...

Craig Getting (3:14)

You...

Andrew Cunningham (3:16)

Listen, listen, listen. I bought this at a bookstore in, like, April because it was called Butter by Asako Yuzuki.

Craig Getting (3:26)

A book of food and murder?

Andrew Cunningham (3:28)

A novel.

Craig Getting (3:29)

A novel, please.

Andrew Cunningham (3:31)

A novel of food and murder, and it has a bloody handprint on the cover.

Craig Getting (3:36)

Okay. That's all the research you did?

Andrew Cunningham (3:39)

Well, no, I read the back of it, and it was like, yeah, this is about a reporter who tries to get close with somebody who was accused of murdering a bunch of people. And I'm like, cool, okay, we're gonna get into some weird, like psychological horror territory. Because it's a novel of food and murder with a bloody handprint on the cover. It was in bet, like it's so...

It had a bloody handprint on the cover.

Craig Getting (4:06)

I know, that was... So you booked it.

Andrew Cunningham (4:10)

It looked, and I read the thing and it seemed like it would be spooky.

And really all the murder has happened, like off screen many years before. And it's about a woman sort of navigating beauty standards.

Craig Getting (4:26)

And... Terrifying!

Andrew Cunningham (4:27)

And misogyny in Japan. Horrifying!

Craig Getting (4:32)

These are the real monsters. These are spooky things.

Andrew Cunningham (4:35)

These are horrifying and spooky things. But it's also about self-actualization and like found family and stuff. So it's like arguably, arguably a cozier book than it is a spooky one.

Craig Getting (4:47)

People, yes.

Craig Getting (4:49)

People in our Discord were wondering if cozy thrillers were out there. And I don't know that this is quite in that mode.