Bad On Paper26 Apr 2023

Before We Were Innocent Book Club

We're so excited to discuss Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman, a 2 time BOP book club author! This book fits right in the venn diagram of Becca and Olivia's differing book tastes. We discuss how we felt about the friendship between the characters in the past vs present timeline (and between teenage girls in general), if we saw the twists coming, the Amanda Knox parallels, thoughts on the ending, and ask ourselves the question 'who would you go to if you were suspected of murder?'

If you like this book, listen to the The Shit No One Tells You About Writing interview with Ella Berman, and for more books similar to Before We Were Innocent, check out The Comeback by Ella Berman, The The Villa by Rachel Hawkins, and I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai.

Obsessions

Becca: Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

Olivia: Memes about Drew Barrymore's interview style

What we read this week!

Olivia: Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

Becca: Yellowface by RF Kuang (out May 16)

May's Book Club Pick - Coming soon!

Episoder(447)

PREVIEW: Listen To The First Chapter of Becca's New Book

Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from BACK WHERE WE STARTED by Becca Freeman, read by Brittany Pressley. © 2026 Becca Freeman, ℗ 2026 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserv...

13 Okt 24min

Early 2010s Pop Culture Nostalgia

Becca's upcoming book Back Where We Started, which is set partially on the set of a 2010's teen soap, got us feeling nostalgic and inspired to talk about the early 2010s! We chat about what our lives...

7 Okt 1h 17min

Main Characters Book Club

We can't wait to talk about our September Book Club Pick, Main Characters by Bobby Palmer! Keep listening to hear about our thoughts on the novel's 80+ point of view format, how it tackled the interp...

30 Sep 1h 18min

Would You Rather: Book Edition

This week, we're debating some bookish "would you rather" scenarios: open= or closed-door sex scene? Prologue or get right into it? US or UK cover? Get ready to take a stance on tenses, endings, POV, ...

23 Sep 1h 7min

The Parisian Heist Bonus Book Club

Time for our final Summer of Sol Bonus Book Club, The Parisian Heist by Jo Piazza! We loved chatting about the dual timeline narrative, art crime, and the real-life history that inspired the book. We ...

17 Sep 40min

Fall 2026 Catch Up

This week we're doing a fall catch up! We're getting into what's been going on in our lives that don't make our weekly highs and lows, from writing stuff, home projects, personal updates, and more! ...

16 Sep 1h 20min

September 2026 Three Things

New month, new Things! This week, we cover big milestones, geographic anomalies, buzzy TV, travel, reading strategies, and more! Our Things: Becca turning 40 A mysterious disappearing island The...

9 Sep 1h 11min

Our 2026 Reading Stats (So Far)

This week we're reviewing our reading stats from this year! We walk through how we track, our reading habits this year, and discuss everything from ARCs to backlist books, re-reads and more! Septem...

2 Sep 1h 7min