#gritlit

This is unlike anything you’ve ever read on AO3, a choose-your-own-adventure fic with 10 wildly different endings. 

The Warp & Weft’s gritty, techno-apocalyptic setting will settle under your fingernails as you navigate Hermione’s choices in her quest to discover the secrets behind her mysterious dread. 

At each juncture, Dillpicklepanic takes us deeper into a crumbling world of fabricated realities, questioning what—and who—we can trust.

Will your instincts lead Hermione to safety? Choose wisely.

I swear to God The Warp & Weft has me questioning my reality.

It’s episode 216 and time for us to talk about the genre of Rural Noir / Grit Lit! We discuss what counts as “rural,” whether “coastal noir” is a thing, how intense these stories can be, and more! Plus: Should fiction about Gritty (the mascot) be classified as about a "real person"?

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray 🦇 | Jam Edwards

Recommend a genre for us to read in 2026!

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

The White Girl by Tony Birch

Other Media We Mentioned

True Grit by Charles Portis

Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The Dry by Jane Harper

Town Smokes by Pinckney Benedict

Grit Lit: A Rough South Reader

Scalped: The Deluxe Edition, Book One, by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra

Rez Metal (documentary)

Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene by Ashkan Soltani Stone and Natale A Zappia

Revolutions: Welcome to the Martian Revolution

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 049 - Southern Gothic

List of states and territories of the United States by population density

Rhode Island is the 2nd most densely populated state

Episode 057 - Nordic/Scandinavian Noir

Casa Bonita

Gritty (Hockey RPF) on AO3

11 Rural Noir and Grit Lit books by BIPOC Authors:

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

The White Girl by Tony Birch

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Wounded by Percival Everett

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Madukka the River Serpent by Julie Janson

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

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Join us again on Tuesday, August 19th when it’s time for our summer Media update when we’ll talk about books, comics, games, music and more!

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcast chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

The White Girl by Tony Birch

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

Wounded by Percival Everett

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Madukka the River Serpent by Julie Janson

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke

Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Book Review | The Fighter

The Fighter Book Review | 📚📚📚📚📚 5/5 Michael Farris Smith (writer) | Little, Brown and Company

Lost and found. Lost and found. Lost and found. With some moments of being lost and lost and found and found and then lost again, in between. You’ve got this. No, you don’t. Almost there; how’d that go for you? Round one. Round two. Round three. I can’t wait for the movie to come out. Because, I know…

Book Review | Southernmost

Southernmost Book Review | 📚📚📚📚📚 5/5 Silas House (writer) | Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Epiphanies can come in many forms to many people. While they offer enlightenment, they can be at the cost of what is safe, familiar and comfortable. Southernmost is an epiphany.

Why I was interested in this book: Grit lit is one of my favorite literary forms, especially since I live in rural Kentucky…