Since Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights film came out back in February, I’ve been asked at pretty much every author event, book club, etc. what I thought of it. Well, I finally watched it, so this time I had a real, informed answer! And now as promised, I have an even longer, more informed rant for you, my beloved Substack readers.

It should surprise no one that I hated it. It did surprise me, however, that I hated it far more than I thought I would (and I thought I would hate it a lot). It was the most infuriating Wuthering Heights adaptation I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen nearly all of them.

Let’s start, though, with a few things I liked (spoilers ahead, obviously):

• The soundtrack full of Charli xcx bangers

• The bonkers production design, especially the bedroom decorated to look like Cathy’s skin

• The weird sapphic obsession vibes between Isabella and Cathy (now that is an adaptation of Wuthering Heights I’d love to see!), even though I’m not 100% sure they were intentional

• The sex scene where Heathcliff is describing to Cathy exactly how he’ll kill Edgar, which even though it’s not from the novel felt more like Wuthering Heights to me than anything else on screen

And… that’s all. I hated everything else. So let’s get into it.

There’s Jacob Elordi as White Heathcliff of course, which I’ve already ranted about on many occasions — although now that I’ve seen the movie, I’m almost relieved Fennell didn’t cast an actor of color as Heathcliff, cause she does not seem capable of handling the nuance of his canonical identity.

Shazad Latif’s Edgar Linton being of South Asian descent and Hong Chau’s Nelly Dean being the bastard daughter of a lord could have been interesting, but the script didn’t explore it beyond a throwaway line from Mr. Earnshaw about how he’s willing to “overlook” Edgar and Nelly’s racial differences. And don’t even get me started on how this adaptation villainizes Nelly, putting the blame on her for all sorts of things that are not her doing in the novel (including Cathy’s death!).

My favorite aspect of Wuthering Heights is the complex power dynamics between the characters, and Fennell’s script flattens all of them into something either far less interesting or outright offensive. For example, she cuts Cathy’s abusive brother Hindley, giving his worst qualities to her father Mr. Earnshaw instead.

Hindley is a fascinating, complex antagonist because he’s traumatized too, deeply hurt by his father’s clear preference for Heathcliff. Fennell’s drunken, cruel Mr. Earnshaw, on the other hand, is nothing but a cartoon villain. And combining those characters means that, rather than going from relative equality while her father is alive to insurmountable class difference once Hindley takes over the estate, Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship is a cliché rich girl + stable boy trope from the start.

Then of course there’s Heathcliff and Isabella. Reading the novel, you’re forced to grapple with the fact that this man who claims to love Cathy with all his tortured soul is also an absolute psychopathic monster to his wife. Fennell tries to elide all that by making Isabella a willing participant in their dynamic, even while portraying her as so childish and naive, you have to question whether she’s capable of giving meaningful consent. It’s not a bold, edgy choice, it’s gross and reductive.

Before watching Wuthering Heights, I often said I wished Emerald Fennell had made an original Gothic romance with the same cast instead of this so-called adaptation. Let Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi be horny for each other on the moors, just leave Emily Brontë out of it! But now I have to eat those words, because y’all: this movie was profoundly, shockingly unsexy.

For all the humping and heavy breathing, there was zero heat. All the scenes that were meant to be titillating felt eyerollingly cringe — or worse, completely boring, which is something Wuthering Heights should never be. Despite the full monster drag, Jacob Elordi had way more chemistry with Mia Goth in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein than he did with anyone at any point in this movie.

Anyway, thank you to Emerald Fennell for releasing this film during the 2026 Winter Olympics and giving me one of my best sales weeks for The Favorites yet! Looking forward to never watching this piece of trash again in my life ✌️ (though I’m sure I’ll still be asked about it at many future Favorites events…)

Next week: a recap of my experience at Stars on Ice! (Unless I pass away from gay panic upon encountering Amber Glenn at the post-show meet and greet, that is.)

First: The Favorites is the latest pick for Block Club Chicago’s book club, and next Monday May 4th I’ll be in conversation with Block Club’s Gwen Ihnat at Jarvis Square Tavern, which is in my beloved neighborhood of Rogers Park. Tickets are available here ($10 for entry + your first drink, or $25 if you want a paperback copy too).

Second: I’m road-tripping to Indiana this July to help Ashley Winstead (one of my favorite authors and human beings 🖤) launch her latest thriller, the impeccably titled Hot Girl Murder Club. Catch us on Monday July 13th at The Historic Artcraft Theatre in Franklin, Indiana, talking about hot girl shit like murder, revenge, and probably that busted-ass man cheating on actual goddess Megan Thee Stallion cause I am certain I will still be raging about that in July!!

Tickets are $34 and include a copy of Ashley’s book from Wild Geese Bookshop. They’ll have copies of my books on hand too, and Ashley and I will both be signing.

Hope to see you in the real world! Until then, it’s back into the writing cave for me.

Sorry, babes: the only key I’ve got unlocks nothing but a sprawling graveyard of dearly departed book ideas. Some of them died of natural causes. Others I murdered in cold blood. Occasionally I dig up one and resurrect it or at least reanimate a twitching limb or two. Sometimes that works out, other times I end up whacking the poor idea in the skull and bury it all over again.

Here are just a few of the literary ghosts that haunt The Favorites:

🪦 My original ice dancing book, a thriller / murder mystery with the working title Take It All. Terminated after I finished a full zero draft, but some bangers from its playlist live on in my Spotify soundtracks for The Favorites and The Ice Queens.

🪦 My first stab at a Wuthering Heights adaptation on ice, which included the second generation characters and also gender-swapped Catherine and Heathcliff. Put out of its misery for being way too complicated and trying to salvage elements of Take It All that simply could not be salvaged.

🪦 The dark and twisty literary thriller version of The Favorites, where Heath died and Bella was much, much worse (yes it’s true, haters, she could be worse!!). Time of death approximately 8:30pm Central Time on May 14, 2022, during the Stars on Ice show at the United Center, when the performers’ palpable joy made me realize I didn’t want to write a book with such a bummer ending.

That’s not even counting all the dead subplots and discarded characters, most of which I can’t even remember at this point (though who could forget Heath’s torrid age-gap hate sex affair with Veronika Volkova… tbh I regret cutting that one a little bit).

Every time I start a new book, I hope this project will be the exception. I convince myself I won’t have to try out and discard so many different versions of the story before finding the one that feels right. I’m a professional, full-time author. I’ve learned so much! Surely this time around, I can get it right the first time.

But no matter how fervently I wish (and oh, I do wish!) there were a shortcut I could take to this final resting place, all those dead ends seem to be essential to bringing my work to life. Sometimes, as the metaphorical bodies start to pile up in the corners of my brain, I feel like I’ve really gone psycho this time.

That’s where I’m at with The Ice Queens right now: some ideas crumbling to dust in my hands, others rising from the grave to haunt me again. It’s frustrating, sometimes terrifying, and definitely not an efficient way to write a book on deadline. In the end, though, I know my books are always better for all the books they almost became along the way.

So here’s to slaughtering your darlings, and trusting the process! (Even if you can’t explain the process…)

Historically, I have never done well creating in the midst of chaos, but I am doing my best to get back on track with The Ice Queens this week. Noise cancelling headphones for the win!

Some other random updates since last we met:

If you’re a fellow extremely online bookish person, then you’ve probably seen this post going around, from a Bookstagrammer who recently decided to read with “Biblical conviction.” In case you missed it, here’s her take on The Favorites:

Every person who sent me this post did it not with genuine concern but in the spirit of “lol I know you’ll get a kick out of this bullshit” — and indeed I did! Scandal, gossip, and lots of sinful behavior? Sounds like a rave to me. 😈 Also highly recommend this post my friend (and fellow exvangelical) Kate made in response.

Speaking of religious experiences: I went to see Florence + The Machine last weekend, and it was a truly magical night. Just a pure, joyful celebration of the divine and feral feminine. Also, this adorable fan interaction happened at the show I attended, and it warmed even my cold, child-hating heart:

When the matriarchy rises (🤞 SOON 🤞) let’s declare Florence our Queen and her witch choir the royal court.

Finally: I have a Wikipedia page now I guess?? Serious question: does anyone know how to submit changes? Because it currently says my master’s thesis was on “neo-burlesque and the male gaze” when actually it was about the female gaze (can you imagine me writing an entire thesis on the male gaze? 😝😝😝).

Back next week, when I’ll hopefully have a desk to work at once again! (Also paid subscribers: I know I missed posting something for you on April 13th, but I promise to make it up to you in May. Thank you as always for your support 🫶)

• Bestseller The Favorites Gets Netflix Adaptation (People)

• One of the Best-Selling Books of 2025 is Being Adapted for the Screen (Her.ie)

• The Favorites Skates to Netflix: Everything We Know About Layne Fargo’s Book Adaptation (Swooon)

(Also, shout-out to Avery at Swooon for manifesting Brandon Perea for the role of Heath Rocha just as hard as I am! ❤️)

I’ll keep this short and sweet today, because I am moving next week and have about one billion tasks on my to-do list (including working on The Ice Queens, which at one point I reallllly hoped to be done writing before the move but lol not so much).

No newsletter next Wednesday for the same reason, but here are three of my current obsessions for you to watch / read / enjoy in the meantime:

🍎 Forbidden Fruits

I loved Jennifer’s Body before it was cool, so obviously I was seated for this Diablo Cody-produced campy high femme horror movie starring bicon Lili Reinhart. As my friend and I were leaving the theater, I told her that if I’d seen Forbidden Fruits in my twenties, I would have immediately made it my entire personality — and you know what, even though I’m in my forties, I still might!

🇬🇧 The Diplomat

I am extremely late to the party on this one, but my partner and I just binged all three available seasons over the past few weeks and it was a delight. The perfect balance of soapiness and seriousness, and the relationship between the central couple (Keri Russell & my eternal crush Rufus Sewell) is one of the most complex and fascinating marriages I’ve ever seen in media. If you haven’t watched yet, catch up now before season four drops on Netflix later this year.

💙 Into the Blue by Emma Brodie

This novel comes out next week, but if you’ve been to any of my events over the past six months you’ve probably heard me yap about it. The genre of The Favorites is still up for debate, but whatever genre it is, Into the Blue is too. There’s even a spicy scene Emma refers to as the “Heathcliffian death fuck” (you’ll know it when you read it). My official blurb:

“This book was like nothing I’ve ever read before: both Gothic and geeky, hilarious and heart-wrenching, a masterclass in scorching sexual tension and a poignant meditation on the true meaning of intimacy. Into the Blue is my new obsession, and it will be yours too.”

See you in two weeks, when I’ll be coming at you live from my brand new home office overlooking my favorite cemetery!

I’m thrilled to announce that The Favorites has been optioned by Welle Entertainment and Netflix for development as a feature, and they’ve hired an absolutely stellar screenwriter: Kate Gersten, who also wrote The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson. She’s going to bring the perfect mix of glam and grit to the adaptation, and I can’t wait to see how she translates my hot mess ice dancers to the screen.

This is not the first time my work has been optioned: those of you who’ve been around awhile may recall that The Favorites was once in development as a television series rather than a movie, and They Never Learn was also optioned for TV at one point. It is, however, the first time the project has gotten far enough along to merit an official Deadline announcement — a major item checked off the Author Bucket List for me!

My philosophy about Hollywood projects, and really being a published author in general is: don’t get too attached to any particular outcome, just enjoy the hell out of the process and celebrate every win along the way. So while I hope The Favorites is destined for Netflix stardom, whatever happens, I’m going to relish the experience — and of course, keep all of you posted along the way ❤️

Before I go, a couple other quick news hits from the past week or so:

• I recorded an interview with Tali & Lauren of The Prose Pros podcast, in which we discussed my fanfic writing past, how a “business crush” led me to my dream agent, being unapologetically yourself, and much more.

The Prose Pros

Writing a Marketable Premise with Layne Fargo

Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living…

Listen now

2 months ago · Tali Shammas

• I also contributed some Favorites sales data to an informative and infuriating post on Andrea Bartz’s Get It Write Substack about bestseller lists (spoiler alert: they are not lists of the best sellers).

Andrea Bartz: Get It Write

Absolutely everything I know about bestseller lists

Ugh, bestseller lists. Who understands ‘em?! They’re shrouded in mystery and lend a book bragging rights but sometimes seem to have little relationship with actual book sales…slash, reality. We should probably all worry about them less. But…

Read more

2 months ago · 24 likes · 16 comments · Andrea Bartz

• Sexy Ice Sports Winter continues, and so does my Heated Rivalry-related sales bump! Good Housekeeping UK included The Favourites in their round-up of “8 Steamy Romances to Read if You Loved Heated Rivalry.” I appreciate the shout-out even though my book is a) not a romance and b) not particularly steamy, unless you’re turned on my emotional turmoil (hey, no judgment).

• Speaking of emotional turmoil: the World Figure Skating Championships are this week in Prague, and Canadian ice dance team Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier just announced that they’re bringing back one of my favorite programs of all time, their Wuthering Heights free dance. When they premiered this back in the 2023-2024 season, I had finished writing The Favorites but was still wondering who would want to read a Wuthering Heights x ice dance mashup, like do those things even go together?? And then Piper & Paul proved that hell yes they do 🖤

As always, I recommend following The Nice Capades for all your skating competition coverage needs, but I’ll probably share some of my thoughts on the Worlds results in next week’s post, as well as my experience seeing the Ice Dance International tour when it came through the Chicago area recently. (There was a sapphic pas de trois, and I still have not recovered.)

So here I am in your inbox now with far LESS exciting news: there is a scammer who has been impersonating me via email. I made a post about this on my Instagram earlier this month, but as the scammy messages seem to be ramping up, I wanted to provide a more thorough (and easily Google-able) warning here.

I’ve heard from multiple people in the past 24 hours alone saying they got similar emails from the account info.authorlaynefargo@gmail.com. One person even had a whole conversation with this fake me, which is disturbing to say the least!

These emails seem to be targeting other authors, complimenting their work in (I assume) an attempt to sell them publishing consultations or other fraudulent services. They’re pretty convincing, including a signature with my official headshot, the titles of my books, and a link to my official website:

So just to be clear:

• That is not my email address.

• I don’t have a fancy email signature like that (and if I did, it wouldn’t include that random / after the URL, cause it makes my eye twitch)

• The only online accounts I currently use are this Substack and my Instagram.

• I do not offer services like consultation or editing or mentoring or whatever the fuck these scammers are pretending to sell.

• I am not in the habit of cold-emailing people I’ve never met to compliment their work — and certainly not random men, like are you kidding?? The very last way I would ever choose to spend my time.

Anyway if you get one of these messages, please report it as spam and block the address. And be vigilant in general, cause these AI scams have been everywhere lately, in the publishing world especially. I know of several other authors who’ve been impersonated this way, and I myself get fake emails each and every week offering me book club placements or television interviews or other “opportunities” for just a small administrative fee or whatever the latest scammer bullshit is.

Now back to writing The Ice Queens word by painstaking word because I am a creative human being not a loser hiding behind a bot ✌️ Hope to slide back into your inbox very soon with glad tidings instead of annoying shit like this!

The Casualty Tour

In my research on various figure skating tours past and present, I found this Washington Post article on the 1987 Tour of Olympic & World Figure Skating Champions, which mentions that so many bizarre, random injuries befell the cast both on and off the ice, they started referring it as “the casualty tour.”

Now you know that had me rubbing my sadistic writerly hands together with glee! Injuries included:

Read more

A lot of y’all still seem convinced that Heath and Bella are toxic trash humans whilst Kat is a good person, and I’m here to tell you: no she isn’t, they’re all terrible and so am I, hope that helps ✌️ If you want to read about nice ladies making morally unimpeachable choices, my books are not for you (and never will be, just wait til you see what these bitches in The Ice Queens are up to).

Speaking of The Ice Queens, my next paid post is coming up this Friday, and it will be a sneak peek at some of the real-life skating lore that is making its way into the manuscript. If you want it in your inbox, you know what to do:

Subscribe now

Hard to believe it’s already been this long, but six years ago tomorrow, I gave notice at my corporate day job. I’d planned my exit well in advance, including all the projects I would tackle once I was finally a full-time writer.

But you know what they say about best-laid plans.

The very day after I submitted my resignation, the first pandemic lockdown started, and I found myself unable to write at all. My brain was good for nothing but binging Riverdale, doomscrolling the latest infection stats, and trying not to snap at my partner for breathing too loud.

It was a rough time. We’re all still traumatized by it in ways large and small that we haven’t even begun to process. In a lot of ways, though, shit feels even worse now.

I am sick over the straight-up war crimes United States is perpetrating in Iran, just as I’ve been sick over Israel’s unspeakably cruel decimation of Palestine. I don’t usually talk much about this stuff on my social media or other public author platforms, not because I don’t feel strongly, but because I am far from an expert. No one’s coming to me for hot takes on geopolitical affairs, nor should they.

But if you’re feeling hopeless and overwhelmed and fucking furious, just know I’m right there with you. It’s insane that we’re all answering emails while the world literally burns, and even more insane that the vast majority of these atrocities are entirely the fault of a small group of pathetic old men who think domination and destruction makes them strong. I want to believe we’re seeing the death throes of the system that props up men like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, and the rest, but I fear whatever happens, it’s going to get much worse before it gets better.

During the pandemic, my partner and I cracked lots of jokes about seeking out “shreds of joy,” a la the below 2021 New Yorker cartoon by Suerynn Lee. So I thought I’d share a few shreds of joy that have been helping me keep my screams (mostly) inside this week, in case one of them might help you get through the day too…

1. Imagining a better future by reading about matriarchy! I especially loved this piece by Gabrielle Blair arguing that patriarchy is unnatural (my cishet male partner also loved it and has been delighting in calling out any “drone behavior” he witnesses, we shall let him live when the matriarchy rises).

2. More ice dancing novels! Specifically the just-announced Kiss and Cry by Melanie Sweeney. I’m always thrilled to see new sexy skating books in the world, but this one is extra special to me because a) Melanie is a friend and really knows her shit when it comes to ice dance (follow her on Instagram for her iconic ice dance costume + romance book cover pairings!), and b) it was acquired by my former editor, the one who turned down my original ice dance book pitch, so this feels like a delightful full circle moment. (Love you Kate, glad you’ve seen the light 😉)

3. Fidget toys! Especially ones that hurt juuuuust right. I don’t know the exact flavor of neurodivergence I have (and I’m not inclined to pursue formal diagnosis in the current political climate), but I have been using these acupressure rings while working and the sensation definitely helps me focus. I’m guessing plenty of other neurodivergent and/or mentally ill baddies read this, so if you’ve got other fidget recs, I’d love to hear them.

4. Every ballet and opera company in the world dunking on Little Timmy Chalamet! This is my favorite celebrity scandal in quite some time. Obviously I enjoy watching smug, pretentious rat boys like Timothée suffer, but I’ve also been loving all the dance videos people have been sharing in rebuttal and the way the Oscar race seems to have swung even harder towards the rightful winner, Michael B. Jordan (seriously, if anyone besides MBJ wins Best Actor, we riot — and I’d love to see Hollywood’s hottest couple Ryan & Zinzi Coogler up there giving me a bisexual crisis while accepting the Best Picture statue for Sinners too).

5. My dog’s stupid pouty face! Seymour doesn’t know anything about war crimes or nukes or the Epstein files, and I’m honestly so jealous of him.

Please feel free to share your own shreds of joy, Oscar predictions, and/or good dog pics in the comments.

And if you’re struggling to work or even function right now, be kind to yourself ❤️Capitalism is a scam, and it won’t save us. Only community (and matriarchy!!) will,

Yes, I’m getting a little spicy in today’s post. But first, a few links for you:

• If you enjoyed the Olympic preview podcast episode I recorded with Sara Hildreth and Denne Michele Norris, you’ll be delighted to learn that we met up again after the Games for a full debrief (and to talk more shit about Guillaume Cizeron, of course). We might have to break out the podcast mics again for Worlds in a few weeks too, stay tuned.

• I did a fun interview on the Chapter Break Substack, and you can read it here:

Chapter Break

The setback that turned this author into a bestseller ⭐️

Once you get published, it’s not all rainbows and roses…

Read more

2 months ago · 44 likes · 5 comments · Alyssa Matesic

• I still have not seen the Wuthering Heights movie, but I loved this video of Irish actor Daryl McCormack talking about the character of Heathcliff (he’s the voice of Heathcliff in a new Audible Original short by Gracie Oddie-James, but after this I’m adding him to my mental list of elite on-screen Heathcliff possibilities alongside Dev Patel). He hits on a lot of the aspects of the character I tried to incorporate into Heath in The Favorites, particularly the intensity of his attachment to Cathy / Katarina coming from not being just a marginalized person but someone who doesn’t know his origins and thus has no sense of identity at all.

Okay, now for the spicy part! (Spoilers ahead for both The Favorites and the “Dear Katarina” Heath POV bonus story, consider yourself warned)

Since The Favorites came out, by far the number one topic I’ve gotten messages from readers about is the relationship between Heath and Bella in general, and Heath’s infidelity in particular. While I always support rage toward men, some of y’all are so mad I feel like I need to remind you that Heath Rocha is a) not real, b) not your boyfriend, and c) could’ve behaved way worse (Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff is a rapist and a domestic abuser and a puppy strangler, folks!).

At first, I responded to every message with what I hoped was a thoughtful explanation, but this usually resulted in the person writing back with even more questions. I simply did not have the capacity to keep replying to every individual email and DM, so when it came time to create bonus content for the paperback release, I decided to write the “Dear Katarina” bonus story, which shows Heath’s relationship with Bella post-Vancouver Olympics from his POV.

I know not everyone has read this or has access to it (it’s in the U.S. paperback, eBook, and audiobook FYI), so to summarize: he is attracted to Bella and genuinely cares about her, but it’s not the same passionate love he feels for Kat — and that’s a major driver of his personal growth during the time he and Kat spend apart! He realizes that, while he loves Kat and always will, he doesn’t have to enmesh himself body and soul to have a connection with someone.

Also Bella Lin is simply not a long-term relationship girlie, and even if she were, she’d pick a guy much less emotionally needy than Heath. This is probably my favorite part of “Dear Katarina,” when Heath gets all in his feelings after he and Bella hook up, and she teaches him about the revolutionary concept of casual sex:

Anyway, I hoped the bonus story would stem the tide of the questions, but they keep on rolling in, so I decided to write this post with all my definitive answers re: Heath & Bella for the future reference of all crashing-out readers. Here goes:

• The first time Heath and Bella hook up, in the Vancouver Olympic Village, it is 100% revenge, both of them trying to hurt Kat the best way they know how. Later, they are friends with benefits, not in love (but they do love each other as friends, and of course they find each other attractive — hello, they are both super hot!).

• While Heath, Bella, and Kat are all living together in the lead-up to Sochi, Heath and Bella are not constantly banging behind Kat’s back. Kat makes it very clear to Heath that she is not interested in rekindling their relationship at that point, so he and Bella occasionally (very occasionally! calm down!!) blow off steam together.

• Kat and Heath are not “soulmates,” because soulmates are not real. I know Kat uses this term to refer to them earlier in the book, but she’s speaking as a sixteen year-old girl. Older, wiser Kat knows that there are many different kinds of love, none of which invalidate or diminish the others. This quote from the book sums up my feelings on the subject:

• After Kat and Heath get back together in the wake of Sochi and Mei is born, there is no further sexual relationship between Heath and Bella. They are friends, colleagues, and co-parents, that’s it. When Kat and Heath are “off again” in their tempestuous relationship, he is not running straight into Bella’s arms (and if he ever tried, she’d tell him to stop being a dumbass and go talk things out with Kat).

• Kat is legitimately very happy at the end of the book, with her “strange little family” of Heath, Bella, and Mei. As a queer person, the found family themes in this book are so important to me, and it honestly pisses me off when readers imply I wrote this ending to be shocking or contrary or to “punish” Kat by not giving her everything she wants in life. None of the characters get exactly what they want, but they end up finding what they need, and that to me is a much happier conclusion than some bullshit heteronormative Hollywood ending. (Also, if you think the ending is tragic because Kat doesn’t get her Olympic gold medal, congratulations, you missed the entire point of the book ✌️)

Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves in the comments — but if you still have more questions about Heath and Bella after reading this, then I invite you to make up whatever headcanon makes you happy, because I shall not be answering!

I was so excited when my publisher told me about this, because I love FairyLoot’s fancy-pants special editions and thought I’d never get one since I don’t write fantasy.

You can find all the details about this version, including when it’ll be available to order, here. A few answers to questions you may have:

• While I am not yet allowed to show you the glorious endpapers created by artist Gianny Filizzola, I can tell you that they depict my toxic babies Kat & Heath skating together in various aesthetically-pleasing settings, and that I gasped when I saw them.

• Every copy of the FairyLoot edition will have a title page signed by yours truly, and in fact I signed most of them while watching the Winter Olympics!

• I too have no idea why there are swans on the sprayed edges, but they are very pretty (and I love their cunty little crowns 😂)

I’m going to keep it short and sweet today because my deadline for The Ice Queens is in less than a month, so it’s time to get back to my new toxic babies Madison & Harper ❤️ I can’t wait for you to meet them!

The skating events have been so freaking stressful. First the infuriating results of the ice dance final (Chock & Bates were robbed, and so were Gilles & Poirier; the French rape apologists deserved bronze at best IMHO), then Ilia Malinin’s crashout in the men’s free, and now my beloved Amber Glenn doubling a triple jump in the women’s short and ending up in 13th place. I can only hope that The Nice Capades’ Taylor Swift curse theory applies in the reverse to Amber, and going into the free in 13th will somehow turn out to be lucky for her 🙏

We talk all the time about fear of failure, but fear of success is a real thing, too. Winning or even leveling up = big change and being perceived on a broader scale, which our nervous systems often interpret as a threat. When Ilia popped his famous quad axel and Amber doubled that jump after landing a flawless triple moments earlier, I saw it as their bodies betraying them because their subconscious minds were trying to protect against the “danger” of ending up on that Olympic podium.

It’s primal, evolutionary: self-sabotage as a misguided means of self-preservation. And while I’ll never know what it’s like to experience Olympic-gold-medal-favorite-level pressure and worldwide media scrutiny, my own therapy sessions over the past year or so have largely been dedicated to this issue.

I am ambitious as hell, I want the big advance checks and bestseller status and movie deals and the whole damn thing. But when The Favorites broke out last year, I felt paralyzing terror alongside my happiness. I still do. With every new milestone, my nervous system rings the alarm bells louder, and I have to work hard to calm it down, to keep from giving in to that little voice in my head that tells me to burn it all to the ground and stay small cause I’ll be safer that way.

Whether you’re an athlete or an artist or have some totally different ambition in life, I think we can all relate (well, maybe not Alysa Liu… I am once again asking someone to study that unbothered queen’s nervous system in a lab). For me, there’s been a lot of shame around these fears, because it can feel like I’m complaining about / ungrateful for all the amazing things that have happened in my career and life recently, which is not at all the case… but I’m hoping sharing about this more openly takes the teeth out of it somewhat, for myself and for others!

A few happier Olympic thoughts to end on:

• Speaking of unbothered queens, 17 year-old Japanese skater Ami Nakai was an absolute delight yesterday. If you’re in need of serotonin, I highly recommend watching the program that put her in the lead after the short. (Still rooting for Queen Kaori to take the gold in the final on Thursday though 🙏)

• I could not be more obsessed with freestyle skier Eileen Gu laughing in the face of a (male, of course) reporter who asked her an insulting question at a post-event press conference. An inspiration to us all!

• Also absolutely living for all the athletes posting day-in-the-life content from the Olympic Village, in particular American ice dancer Emilea Zingas (who will definitely be in the acknowledgments for The Ice Queens cause she saved me so much research time with her detailed dorm room tour, thanks girl!)

📣 Upcoming Events & Other News

If you’re in the Chicago area, I’m doing a free event at Secret World Books in Highland Park this Sunday afternoon at 2pm. It should be a chill, intimate gathering with plenty of time for discussion and questions, and I’d love to see you there!

And if you’re in Los Angeles and looking for something to do on Friday night, check out this staged reading of the queer ice dance TV pilot Iceburn by Taylor Brogan.

Taylor DMed me after The Ice Queens was announced to give me a heads up about her project, which also focuses on a sapphic rivals-to-lovers female/female ice dance team, and I was so delighted! I honestly love it when these spooky great-minds-think-alike artistic moments happen. Maybe 2027 can be The Year of Sapphic Ice Dance like 2025 was The Year of the Lady Knight Novel?

In other news, The Favorites has been popping up on all sorts of fun lists related to both the Olympic ice dance competition / subsequent scoring controversy and the new Wuthering Heights movie (which I still haven’t seen… I think I may need to wait until I can watch it at home, to allow for screaming breaks). Truly, what a time to be the author of a Wuthering Heights x ice dance novel!

A few favorites (pun 100% intended):

• 7 Best Wuthering Heights Book Adaptations (People)

• All of the Best Winter Olympic Books to Read While You Watch Team USA (Good Housekeeping)

• Tales of Obsession and Fractured Intimacy: 11 Intense Romance Novels for Fans of Wuthering Heights (Tatler Asia)

• 9 Best Winter Sports Romances to Read During the 2026 Olympics (Swooon)

📚 Winter Sports Reading Recs

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’ve already read The Favorites — so here are a few other winter sports-related book recommendations for all your Olympics commercial break reading needs.

📘 Blade by Wendy Walker

(Not to be confused with the Wesley Snipes movie of the same name lol)

I had the pleasure of blurbing this one, and of doing an event with Wendy for the Chicago Literary Salon a few weeks ago. Wendy is a former competitive skater, and she brings all her expertise and authenticity to this nail-biter of a thriller about a young figure skater accused of murder and the former skater-turned-lawyer determined to help clear her name.

📘 Finding Her Edge by Jennifer Iacopelli

This YA ice dance novel is also a retelling of a classic (Jane Austen’s Persuasion in this case), and it’s also got a fun Netflix adaptation that was recently renewed for a second season! The skating content in the book is way more accurate than in the show, but I enjoyed the hell out of both (though, as I told Jennifer after I finished the season one finale, I know I’m old now cause instead of shipping the teen protagonists, I’m all about their hot parents 😆).

📘 Skate It Till You Make It by Rufaro Faith Mazarura

Next up on my personal TBR! I adored Rufaro’s Summer Olympics-set rom-com Let the Games Begin, and honestly if she wants to keep writing a romance set at every Olympic Games for the foreseeable future, I’m ready to preorder each and every one.

See you next week, when I’ll no doubt be in the throes of both post-Olympics depression and rapidly-approaching-deadline panic, get psyched!!

First things first, though: no, I have not seen the movie yet (and I probably won’t go see it until the Olympics are over). Yes, I am still mad about a white dude playing Heathcliff in the Year of Our Lord 2026. The more I’ve heard about this movie, though, the more incensed I’ve become by not just the casting, but filmmaker Emerald Fennell’s total disregard for the themes of the novel.

I love a transformational retelling as much as the next extremely online English lit girlie — I mean, hello, I wrote one — but you’ve got to respect the source material, and Fennell so clearly does not. Whether the characters are in corset stays or skates and sequins, Wuthering Heights is a twisted Gothic tragedy about obsessive love and generational trauma, not a sweaty, kinky bodice-ripper.

Once I’ve seen the movie, you can bet I’ll be sharing my thoughts here. But now, on to the nerdy Easter eggs! I’ve got a YouTube video where I talk through some of these, but this post will be the only source for the complete list.

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But no, I do not “enjoy” the Winter Olympics. 🥇 I LIVE FOR THE WINTER OLYMPICS 🥇 I have Olympic Fever and the only cure is MORE OLYMPICS.

Next Thursday is my 20th anniversary with my partner, and what will we be doing to celebrate the occasion? You guessed it, we will be watching the Olympics. (We started dating during the Torino Games, so he knew what he was getting into from the start!)

⛸️ If You Root for This Team, I’m Judging You

While I will watch literally any Olympic sport and cheer so loudly from my living room sofa that I scare my dog, I am of course most invested in figure skating. The first ice dance event, the rhythm dance, was on Monday, and the free dance is today.

I am officially rooting for Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, but truly I am rooting for smug French rape apologists Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron to fall on their (upsettingly perfect) asses and lose out on the gold. I would love for them to be knocked off the podium entirely, but alas, though they are terrible people, they are phenomenal ice dancers and have a (very narrow! but still) lead going into the free.

If you’d like more context about why Laurence and Guillaume are très problématique, a few links for you:

• The Nice Capades Substack is my go-to recommendation for The Favorites readers who want to get into skating IRL, and Maryann wrote a great post explaining their villainy a few months back.

• This article posted today has the most up-to-date and comprehensive rundown I’ve seen, including Guillaume’s lawsuit against his former partner Gabriella Papadakis, and the victim-blaming bullshit Laurence continues to spew.

• And of course, you can also listen to the FictionMatters podcast episode I recorded with Sara Hildreth and Denne Michele Norris, where we talk shit about Guillaume and several other problematic guys in the skating world (because no matter how much I love the Olympic Games, that could never override my first love ✨misandry✨)

I also recommend Glitter & Gold, the ice dance docuseries Netflix just released, for a good overview of the behind-the-scenes drama in this year’s ice dance competition (and for my very brief cameo in the crowd at Worlds!), but IMHO they gave Fournier-Beaudry & Cizeron a far better edit than they deserved. Sure, Adam Rippon got to call their partnership “sinister,” but Laurence also got plenty of airtime to cry hot-girl tears about how hard her boyfriend sexually assaulting someone has been for her.

Enough about those assholes, let’s talk about the teams you should be rooting for!

⛸️ Shaw & Rocha-Coded Ice Dance Teams

I’ve seen a lot of people posting videos of Madison Chock and Evan Bates with captions about how much they remind them of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha from The Favorites. And, while I appreciate the Favorites love, I have to laugh because, talented as they are, Chock & Bates are probably the least Shaw & Rocha-esque team in the field.

Madi and Evan are so wholesome and boring, you guys. They are, by all accounts, extremely nice and normal people, happily married with adorable fur babies. During Glitter & Gold filming, they apparently supplied so little drama that the final cut includes a whole scene of Madi talking about her favorite Japanese yogurt brand.

While (thankfully) none of the teams at the Milano-Cortina Olympics seem prone to Favorites-level soap operatics, here are some ice dance couples who’ve got a little more of that Shaw & Rocha vibe:

🇺🇸 Emilea Zingas & Vadym Kolesnik

Young, gorgeous, head-over-heels in love, and scrappy as hell — definite early-years Kat and Heath vibes with these two! Emi and Vadym, aka Zingnik, have only been partnered for 4 years (before that she was a singles skater, believe it or not) and weren’t originally expected to make the 2026 Olympic team, but they skyrocketed this season, all the way to a Grand Prix Final spot and a silver medal at U.S. Nationals. They are fast, athletic, exciting, and one of the few ice dance teams where I find myself watching both partners equally (vs. the She’s Everything, He’s Just Ken energy of Chock & Bates and so many other couples).

🇱🇹 Allison Reed & Saulius Ambrulevičius

Another team where I have trouble taking my eyes off either one of them. They are not romantically involved, just good pals, but like Kat and Heath they’re both regulation hotties and well aware of it. For their rhythm dance, they skate to “I’m Too Sexy,” and every time I’m like HELL YES YOU ARE. If I could, I would award Allison and Saul a special gold medal in Causing a Bisexual Crisis for Me, Personally 🥇

🇮🇹 Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri

The hometown heroes at the Milan Olympics, these two are a married couple. They had a rough start to the season, and there were rumors of infidelity on her part. Whatever’s going on off the ice, they seem to have gotten it together in time for the Games — and I sincerely hope they work it out longterm, because Charlene always says hi to their pet chinchilla in the kiss and cry, and I don’t want that poor chinchilla to grow up in a broken home!!

🇪🇸 Olivia Smart & Tim Dieck

They are definitely one of the She’s Everything teams, but I have to include them here because Olivia Smart is so freaking fierce. The ultimate ice dance baddie, always serving the maximum amount of face and body possible both on ice and off. I’ve had a massive crush on her since the 2022 Olympic season, when she did a sexy af Mask of Zorro program with her previous partner Adrian Diaz.

Tim is also good, I guess? I have honestly never looked at him for even a second. When they’re on the ice, it’s all about Olivia, as it should be. If I could hand-pick a current ice dancer to play Katarina Shaw in a movie, it would be her, no question.

🇺🇸 Christina Carreira & Anthony Ponomarenko

My personal favorites, coached by Scott Moir (of Virtue & Moir) and Madison Hubbell (of Hubbell & Donohue, my former favorite ice dance team until Zach went Full MAGA post-retirement and gave me the permanent ick). They’re not an off-ice couple either, but their chemistry is 🔥🔥🔥 and they always bring the heat. This bit of choreo from their Carmen free dance last season still lives rent-free in my brain:

Anthony is also ice dance royalty: his parents are 1992 Olympic gold medalists Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko. Marina and Sergei were major inspirations for Veronika Volkova and her partner in The Favorites, and they also did an epic Dracula program (which I actually had not seen when I decided to have Kat and Heath do a vampire-themed free dance in The Favorites, but I have watched it many times since).

I was going to do some winter sports reading recs, but Substack is telling me I’m almost at the post limit, so I’ll save those for next week.

Paid subscribers, I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday the 13th with a special Wuthering Heights-themed treat ❤️‍🔥

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Until then, feel free to talk shit in the comments, and check out my Instagram for more unhinged ice dance fangirling (and probably a total crashout if Madi & Evan don’t manage to triumph in the free, COME ON TEAM USA 🤞🇺🇸🤞🇺🇸🤞).

My beloved dog / longtime writing assistant Finn died in November, and we adopted a new dog a few weeks ago. My partner and I bought a new home, which we’re currently renovating. The Favorites celebrated its one-year release-a-versary and was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award (in the wrong category, but whatever), a Book of the Month Lolly Award, and an Audie Award, among others.

(And of course, I switched over to Substack — welcome, OG subscribers!)

In the midst of all this, though, I’ve been hard at work on my next novel, and now that it’s been officially announced, I can finally talk about it. (Although, if you’ve met me in person any time in the past few months you know this book was the worst-kept secret in publishing… I’m a Gemini and I was born to yap, not keep secrets!)

The Ice Queens follows elite ice dancers Madison and Harper, former BFFs turned bitter rivals who team up to try to become the first female/female ice dance team to compete in the Olympics.

I was inspired to write about a female/female ice dance team after seeing Olympians Gabriella Papadakis and Madison Hubbell’s stunning show program last year. The character of Madison is named for both Madison Hubbell and 2026 Olympic gold medal favorite Madison Chock, though when I originally picked the name, I had no idea she’d one day become the heroine of her own story!

Here’s a bit more about the book:

❄️ Readers of The Favorites may remember Madison from her small role as a teen ice dancer / Katarina Shaw fangirl training at the Lin Ice Academy in 2013. The Ice Queens takes place in the present day, so Madison’s all grown up now.

❄️ While this isn’t a straight-up sequel to The Favorites, the story does take place in the same world, starting shortly after the Favorites epilogue, and you’ll definitely see some familiar faces. I’ve been referring to it as The Favorites’ sapphic little sister.

❄️ So yes, The Ice Queens is indeed sapphic (though still not a traditional romance, honestly I don’t think I’m capable of writing one — I like my fictional relationships dark and toxic and twisty). Madison and Harper are both bisexual, and there are a couple of queer side characters as well.

❄️ The Ice Queens will be out in 2027, though I’m not sure quite when in 2027, in part because I’m still writing the manuscript. Major scenes take place at the 2026 U.S. National Championships (which happened last month) and the 2026 Winter Olympics (which start today!). It’s been a fun challenge to write something based on such extremely recent history, but it also means I have to wait to see what happens in real life before I can decide how I want to fictionalize it. Like this morning I watched the real-life rhythm dance in the figure skating team event, and this afternoon I’ll be working on my fictional version of it.

❄️ I’m keeping my full Ice Queens playlist-in-progress private for now, but here are a few tracks that have been in heavy rotation to give you a sense of the vibe:

Much more to come as I wrap up the writing process and get closer to launch! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the juicy details.

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