We Interrupt This Program
Randee Dawn
Paperback / audiobook
ISBN: 978-1837867752
Solaris Nova, March 2026, 440 pages

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to another book review! This month we’re diving back into a familiar world of wise-cracking fae, reality show hijinks, and more aMusing puns than you can shake a pan of shortbread at—that’s right, it’s We Interrupt This Program by Randee Dawn!

We Interrupt This Program is the second book by Randee Dawn in her Tune-iverse series (I reviewed the first one, Tune In Tomorrow, which you can find here bit.ly/4e8DoIB) and takes us back to the Seelie Court Network (SCN), the fae reality-show network responsible for keeping mythological creatures of all types entertained. The SCN accomplishes this through their established Topographically Restricted Outer Perimeter Environment (TROPE) towns, where normal humans live their lives in a variety of, well, tropes, and what could be more entertaining than watching humans live their (lightly scripted) lives?

Unfortunately, for SCN, someone has to write those scripts, and in this case, it’s the Muses, who have decided to go on vacation. Missing the spark of inspiration, SCN’s shows are starting to get stale, and during the investigation, an Unseelie fae intern named Finch sees this as his opportunity to cause some real havoc. Finch wants to prove his bad-boy bona fides by tearing down a show and thinks the sleepy mystery town of Seaview Haven (which is totally not an Agatha Christie send-up) is where he’ll get his chance. SCN reluctantly agrees to send him there, along with a Brownie named Malvous V. Hill (who just wants to hold hands with his other Bro) for oversight, but unfortunately for Finch, the residents of Seaview Haven don’t want their lives upended. Also, Finch is really bad at his job.

Hijinks ensue!

As was the case with her first book, Tune In Tomorrow, in We Interrupt This Program, Randee Dawn does a fantastic job of utilizing the theme of reality TV as a jumping-off point to examine larger concepts (and no, you don’t need to read Tune In Tomorrow to understand this one). Dawn explores the act of creation and storytelling itself in a metatextual commentary that runs through the entire book, and I really enjoyed the interweaving of the Muses as both antagonists as well as inspiration. In addition, the book has a lot to say on family and inclusion, and how the stories we tell ourselves aren’t always the stories that are true.

The other thing We Interrupt This Program has is a massive sense of heart. Dawn has sooooo many puns and literary/cultural references sprinkled throughout the pages, and I found myself smiling pretty much every chapter, which helped balance out the weightier topics in the book. Character development is also a delight, and whether it was the two bumbling Unseelie destructors named Laurel and Hardy, Finch and Malvous’s dysfunctional relationship, or the “sciencing” of Siggy, a teenager trying to figure out why her world is breaking, the world of We Interrupt This Program is filled with laughter and joy, even as everything falls apart (and what it means to try and build something new).

Overall, much like the fae she writes about, Randee Dawn has crafted another story that appears to be one thing on its surface but is so much deeper once you actually take a closer look. We Interrupt This Program is filled with magic, mystery, and most of all, a deep and abiding appreciation of what it means to create something for others. I highly recommend this one and can’t wait to see what the next Tune-iverse offering has in store.