Missing Pages

Literary critic Bethanne Patrick has spent decades inside the book business, and she uses Missing Pages to pull back the curtain on how it actually works now that social media, activist readers, and celebrity authors have rewritten most of the old rules. Each season tackles a specific controversy in long, reported episodes built from interviews with editors, agents, ghostwriters, librarians, lawyers, and the writers themselves. Season one dug into a string of publishing scandals, from fabricated memoirs to the quiet mechanics of sensitivity readers and book bans in American schools. Season two turns toward the rise of Colleen Hoover, the legal tangle around fanfiction, and the infamous Bad Art Friend essay that set Twitter on fire for weeks. Patrick is a warm narrator with a reporter nose for follow-up questions, and she clearly knows where the bodies are buried. She also knows when to step aside and let sources speak at length. The show is produced by The Podglomerate, and the craft is obvious, with tight editing, clean sound, and no wasted minutes. Readers who love inside-baseball stories about how a book gets made, marketed, banned, or canceled will find plenty to chew on. It is also a useful listen for anyone trying to understand why certain authors become brands while other, better books vanish without a trace within months of publication day.