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Bookcon Spotlight
Horror stories & cozy lit come from the same place, according to Better in Black author Cassandra Clare
Author Cassandra Clare, who has created her own dark fantasies in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, believes that there's a need we have as modern readers, and that both horror and cozy fiction fill it in different ways
Grant DeArmitt
These fantasy tropes need to die, according to fantasy authors Cassandra Clare, Sarah Mughal Rana, & Chelsea Abdullah
There were plenty of discussions at BookCon 2026 about the worst fantasy tropes, but none of them probably held the weight of the one between authors Clare (Shadowhunters), Rana (Dawn of the Firebird), & Abdullah (Sandsea)
Grant DeArmitt
Watch The Language of Love with Jasmine Guillory, Casey McQuiston, & Tia Williams from BookCon 2026!
Authors Guillory (The Wedding Date), McQuiston (Red, White, and Royal Blue), and Williams (A Love Song for Ricki Wilde) dissected what makes the romance genre work at BookCon '26, and Popverse was there to learn (and film)
Grant DeArmitt
Watch The Importance and Impact of Dystopian and Fantasy Fiction with Tahereh Mafi and Chloe Gong from BookCon 2026!
Mafi, author of the Shatter Me series, and Gong, author of the StrangeLoom series, shared their experience with the reigning champion of YA subgenres, and Popverse was filming their panel
Grant DeArmitt
Bookcon Feed
Horror stories & cozy lit come from the same place, according to Better in Black author Cassandra Clare
Author Cassandra Clare, who has created her own dark fantasies in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, believes that there's a need we have as modern readers, and that both horror and cozy fiction fill it in different ways
Grant DeArmitt
These fantasy tropes need to die, according to fantasy authors Cassandra Clare, Sarah Mughal Rana, & Chelsea Abdullah
There were plenty of discussions at BookCon 2026 about the worst fantasy tropes, but none of them probably held the weight of the one between authors Clare (Shadowhunters), Rana (Dawn of the Firebird), & Abdullah (Sandsea)
Grant DeArmitt
Watch The Language of Love with Jasmine Guillory, Casey McQuiston, & Tia Williams from BookCon 2026!
Authors Guillory (The Wedding Date), McQuiston (Red, White, and Royal Blue), and Williams (A Love Song for Ricki Wilde) dissected what makes the romance genre work at BookCon '26, and Popverse was there to learn (and film)
Grant DeArmitt
Watch The Importance and Impact of Dystopian and Fantasy Fiction with Tahereh Mafi and Chloe Gong from BookCon 2026!
Mafi, author of the Shatter Me series, and Gong, author of the StrangeLoom series, shared their experience with the reigning champion of YA subgenres, and Popverse was filming their panel
Grant DeArmitt
Watch Into the World of Romantasy with Adalyn Grace, Stacia Stark, & Elise Kova from BookCon 2026!
You've read All the Stars and Teeth, We Who Will Die, & A Deal with the Elf King. Now hear what their authors - Grace, Stark, & Kova, respectively - had to say at BookCon '26, where Popverse was filming their panel
Grant DeArmitt
Watch The Alchemy of YA and New Adult Fantasy with Amélie Wen Zhao, Analeigh Sbrana, Jordan Ifueko, Tracy Deonn, & Claribel A. Ortega from BookCon 2026!
Popverse was there to record series authors Zhao (Blood Heir), Sbrana (Lore of the Wilds), Ifueko (Raybearer), Deonn (Legendborn), and Ortega (Witchlings) as they spoke about their history with and the future of YA Lit
Grant DeArmitt
Watch the Penning the Perfect Atmosphere panel with Alexis Henderson, Alix E. Harrow, & Olivie Blake from Bookcon 2026!
At BookCon 2026, the creators of The Year of the Witching, Starling House, and The Atlas Six - Henderson, Harrow, and Blake, respectively - presented a masterclass in setting the literary mood. Popverse was there to film it
Grant DeArmitt
Watch You Had Me at Hockey with Rachel Reid, Ngozi Ukazu, Emily Rath, Bal Khabra, Stephanie Archer, & Kate Cochrane from Bookcon 2026!
Ice has never been hotter, as the authors of Heated Rivalry; Check, Please; Pucking Around; Collide; Behind the Net; and Wake Up, Nat and Darcy attested at BookCon, where Popverse was filming their panel
Grant DeArmitt
How Taylor Swift helped convince Veronica Roth to revive the Divergent series after almost a decade
Roth explained that she had a revelation when Swift played her old music at the Eras Tour - and that it led to the process that produced The Sixth Faction, the alt-reality return to Divergent
Grant DeArmitt
Horror is about making the reader uncomfortable, according to Bat Eater writer Kylie Lee Baker
Sure, seeing a dead body is scary, but finding yourself in an uncomfortable, almost alien situation is far worse, explains the Japanese Gothic author.
Trent Cannon
The Heated Rivalry season 2 rumors of a drastically bigger budget are wrong, says showrunner Jacob Tierney
Don't get your hopes up: Heated Rivalry season 2 won't have the budget to take Ilya and Shane to outer space.
Jules Chin Greene
Watch the Beaches, A New Musical - From Page to Stage panel with Iris Rainer Dart and Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso from Bookcon 2026!
Four decades after the novel Beaches hit shelves, author Dart was at BookCon to talk about its Broadway adaptation, alongside producer Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso. The Popverse gang was there too, and we brought our cameras along
Grant DeArmitt
Victoria Aveyard had to ask her parents not to comment on her Goodreads reviews
At BookCon 2026's Romantasy panel, Red Queen author Victoria Aveyard revealed that she lurks on her Goodreads page
Jules Chin Greene
Watch The Depths of Darkness: An Exploration of Dark Fantasy with Holly Black and Marie Lu from Bookcon 2026!
Authors of The Spiderwick Chronicles (Black) and the Legend series (Lu), explored the side of the fantasy left out of most fairy tales - and Popverse was there to film it
Grant DeArmitt
The beauty of horror is in the empathy that it inspires in us, says boundary-pushing author Chuck Tingle
The Bury Your Gays and Camp Damascus author believes that fear is universal, even if what causes fear isn't.
Trent Cannon
Why HBO couldn't do much marketing for Heated Rivalry, according to showrunner Jacob Tierney: "Just be grateful there’s some horny people at HBO.”
Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney explains why HBO didn't do more press for the episodes as they were airing during a BookCon 2026 panel.
Trent Cannon
The hockey crowds in Heated Rivalry are VFX and the raw footage looked like "COVID hockey" because no one was in the stands
Heated Rivalry was sold to HBO before the show's VFX had been finalized.
Jules Chin Greene
The Poppy War and Yellowface author R.F. Kuang writes fiction because it's "cheaper than therapy" and she gets paid for it
Sure, you could pay a therapist to help you process your trauma, or you could write a couple of bestselling novels instead.
Trent Cannon
Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid opens up about how the TV series adaptation news buoyed her Parkinson's diagnosis just 3 or 4 days before
3 or 4 days after Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid was diagnosed with Parkinson's, she got the call to turn it into a TV series from Jacob Tierney
Trent Cannon
Watch the Heroines of Romantasy panel with Victoria Aveyard, Rachel Gillig, Carissa Broadbent, & Scarlett St. Clair from Bookcon 2026!
Aveyard (Red Queen), Gillig (Two Twisted Crowns), Broadbent (Crowns of Nyaxia), and St. Clair (Touch of Darkness) brought their romantasy expertise to NYC, and Popverse was there to record it
Grant DeArmitt
Watch the Page to Screen panel with Andy Weir, Emily St. John Mandel, Robinne Lee, & May Cobb from Bookcon 2026!
Weir, Mandel, Lee, & Cobb - the minds behind Project Hail Mary, Exit Party, The Idea of You, & the Hunting Wives, respectively - talked having their prose adapted to screen with BookCon '26, and Popverse was filming
Grant DeArmitt
Watch Shadow and Bone / Ninth House author Leigh Bardugo from Bookcon 2026!
Grishaverse creator and Six of Crows author Leigh Bardugo made BookCon '26 a must-quest for fantasy fans... and Popverse caught her panel on tape
Grant DeArmitt
R.F. Kuang wrote the first draft of Yellowface in a month because as a digital native, she didn't have to do any research into how mean people could be on Twitter
For Yellowface, R.F. Kuang already knew the plot and the characters, plus she had already seen how nasty people could be on Twitter so she didn't have to do much research.
Trent Cannon
From book to screen fast: Heated Rivalry’s unusually quick path to TV success
It was only three years ago that Heated Rivalry writer/director/producer Jacob Tierney contacted Game Changers writer Rachel Reid about adapting her books to the screen
Jules Chin Greene
Veronica Roth has already finished the sequel to dystopian romance Seek the Traitor's Son
Roth's dystopian romance series, The Burning Empire, is not only getting a second entry after Seek the Traitor's Son, but at BookCon 2026, the author confirmed it was complete
Grant DeArmitt
Watch the Horror as a Mirror, Horror as Escape panel with Chuck Tingle, Tananarive Due, Kylie Lee Baker, & Bethany C. Morrow from Bookcon 2026!
Fright fans at BookCon came out in droves for Horror as a Mirror, Horror as Escape: How Lived Experiences Shape Fictional Fears - featuring Tingle (Lucky Day), Due (The Reformatory), Baker (Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng), and Morrow (The Body) - and Popverse filmed it
Grant DeArmitt
Watch Then/Now: The Evolution of Your Career Since That 1st Book with Melissa de la Cruz, Meg Cabot, Ann M. Martin, Libba Bray, & Kami Garcia from Bookcon 2026!
Cruz, Cabot, Martin, Bray, and Garcia (authors of the Blue Bloods, Princess Diaries, Baby-Sitters Club, Gemma Doyle, and Beautiful Creatures series, respectively) looked back on their decades=spanning careers at NYC's BookCon
Grant DeArmitt
Watch the Spotlight on R.F. Kuang from Bookcon 2026!
Ground-breaking author of Babel and Katabasis R.F. Kuang came to NYC for this year's BookCon, and Popverse was there to film her panel
Grant DeArmitt
Jodi Picoult confirms Netflix's The Book of Two Ways TV adaption with Outlander's Matthew B. Roberts: "It'll have two really hot men: there's no downside to this story"
Netflix to adapt Jodi Picoult’s The Book of Two Ways with Outlander showrunner attached.
Ashley V. Robinson
Watch Game Changing TV: Celebrating Heated Rivalry with Rachel Reid & Jacob Tierney from BookCon 2026!
Game Changers author Rachel Reid and Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney brought steam to melt a whole city full of hockey rinks, and Popverse was there to catch their BookCon spotlight
Grant DeArmitt
Veronica Roth's Divergent series is back with the first new novel in 8 years, The Sixth Faction
The Sixth Faction will be the sixth entry into Roth's Divergent novel series, but will take place in an alternate timeline than her previous works.
Grant DeArmitt
BookCon 2026 panels are coming to Popverse — here’s how to watch them all
Missed BookCon? Popverse is bringing the biggest panels online for free.
Chris Arrant
BookCon 2026 just started, but we have the BookCon 2027 dates & location (and who is getting first dibs on tickets)
BookCon 2027 dates and location revealed ahead of 2026 event kickoff.
Chris Arrant
Popverse convention panel archive: Watch panels from NYCC, MCM, C2E2, ECCC, and more on-demand!
Be there from anywhere and watch full panels form New York Comic Con, MCM Comic Con, Emerald City Comic Con, and more!
Chris Arrant
