Blog

In which I briefly comment on the books I read each month, so a few years from now when I’m trying to remember one of them, I’ll be able to find it here. Since I’m a media omnivore, it also includes games, movies, and any other media of note that I engaged with.

Do we have similar tastes, or will you be questioning how we ever got connected? Let’s find out!

Books

The Rose at War (ebook) by Danie Ware

An entertaining introduction to the Order of the Bloody Rose from Dani Ware, who does a nice job adding layers to my favorite Warhammer 40k faction, the fanatical Adepta Sororitas — aka Battle Sisters, aka Nuns with Guns! — across a series of entertaining connected short stories, while establishing a compelling main character in Sister Superior Augusta Santorus. (This was my first time encountering Orks and my interest in them is growing.) Ware’s entry in the Saints and Martyrs collection was actually my least favorite, but the WH40k Book Club convinced me to give this one a shot before reading The Rose in Darkness and I’m glad I did. Thanks to the limited (and sometimes non-existent) print runs of so many WH40k books, I’m now reluctantly building an ebook library for the first time, but at least I’m able to avoid Amazon while doing it.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

I didn’t even know Chuck (Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt) Tingle was real until the Texas Library Association shit the bed last year and went into this one cold solely based on his response to that situation, the back cover copy, and The Storygraph’s genre challenge to read some Queer Horror. It’s a fast, earnest read that deserves zero spoilers and I absolutely loved it! Rose’s journey is as inspiring as it is terrifying, and I dare you not to love her by the end.

{STAR} Goodnight Punpun, Vol. 3 by Inio Asano

Another volume of Asano’s relentlessly miserable but well executed and beautifully visualized coming of age tale, as Punpun is now in high school and his life isn’t getting any better. I’m really not “enjoying” reading this at all, and there’s clearly no happy endings ahead — for anyone — but I bought the rest of the series during B&N’s recent manga sale and I’m looking forward to finishing it while dreading what other indignities lie ahead for Punpun and his friends and family.

Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, edited by Jordan Peele

A strong mix of short stories that take different approaches to horror, with only one dud among them. Six were particularly good, sticking their respective landings better than the rest, and somewhat surprisingly, none of them were from the authors I’d read before, which might be the highest praise I can give an anthology. My favorites, in order of appearance, were “The Other One” by Violet Allen; “Lasirèn” by Erin E. Adams; “Flicker” by L. D. Lewis; “The Norwood Trouble” by Maurice Broaddus; “A Bird Sings by the Etching Tree” by Nicole D. Sconiers; and “Your Happy Place” by Terence Taylor. Writing good short stories is difficult, and nailing effective horror is even harder, but when the stars align, it can be really powerful.

Something is Killing the Children Book One (Deluxe Edition) by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, Miquel Muerto

It takes a few chapters before Tynion’s story really finds its footing and stops feeling like a Netflix pitch, and Dell’Edera’s impressionistic artwork gets notably stronger towards the end as the last few chapters build towards a satisfying payoff, ultimately justifying the hype. I don’t think I’d have stuck with it if I were reading the original single issues, but this collected edition serves its cinematic pacing much better. I’m not surprised it’s getting the TV/movie treatment, and Blumhouse is probably a better fit than Netflix for a potentially interesting adaptation, but I’ll be surprised if either medium will be an improvement over the original comic.

Games

Grim Dawn (Steam)

I’d heard of Grim Dawn for years, particularly as the hype leading up to Diablo IV‘s initial release a while back, but I don’t think I’d have fully appreciated it without playing a few other ARPGs first. While I enjoyed Diablo III, Path of Exile, and Diablo IV, and Ghostlore was an interesting indie spin on the genre, WH40k: Inquisitor – Martyr became my overall favorite, partly for its mission-based structure that made it easy to jump into for short sessions any time. 50 hours into Grim Dawn, playing a WH40k-inspired Purifier, I officially have a new ARPG co-favorite! The story is classic dark fantasy ARPG — extremely familiar but with its own interesting nuances — but its pacing and mechanics, and an emphasis on rewarding obsessive exploration, lift it above Diablo and PoE for me. The fact that it’s completely offline without any live service nonsense is the icing on the cake.

Word Play (Steam)

“Balatro for word nerds” is a little reductive, but if you enjoyed its roguelike mechanics and ever wondered what Scrabble might be like if those mechanics were applied to it, this is the game for you. I loved Balatro, so much that I refused to buy it on mobile because I’d be playing it all of the time. Word Play is also a perfect game for the Steam Deck, which I finally splurged on this week, so I’m officially in my post-Xbox era now and will have to be intentional about not letting it impact my already limited reading time. (Slay the Spire, an all-time favorite I first discovered via Game Pass and eventually bought outright for the Xbox when I cancelled Game Pass earlier this year, is also really good on the Steam Deck. I know because I just bought it there, too.)

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War (Steam)

Civilization: All War? Hell yeah! I bought this a while back and played the tutorial mission and then forgot about it for a while. I randomly started up a full session with the Adepta Sororitas and had a surprisingly decent run while learning the game’s systems on the fly. The mechanical similarities to Civilization kept things moving along purely on muscle memory, but I made several critical mistakes along the way because the differences are where this game really shines. I was a little too focused on exploration and winning skirmishes (even defeating the Necrons!), forgetting that “in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war” meant the Orks were building up an overwhelming air force that eventually wiped me off the map. Civilization: All War is all about building up your army, and the Orks had built up a 3:1 advantage over mine, with total superiority in the air. I’ll be back for another session soon, though.

Movies & TV

28 Years Later (Streaming)

I recall enjoying the first two movies many years ago, and watched a recap to fill in some blanks, but was happy that this belated sequel pretty much stands on its own two feet. It was so much better than I expected from a third entry in the underrated “fast zombies” series, and the weird trailer set the right tone without giving anything away. Similar to the best Godzilla movies, this isn’t really a zombie movie at all, but more of a post-apocalyptic drama with some unexpected emotional weight to it. It’s what The Last of Us wanted to be, but with the confidence to not spoon-feed or pander to the audience. I loved it — even its tonally bizarre ending/cliffhanger!

Weapons (Streaming)

I like movies that play with genre conventions and attempt to subvert expectations, but the tonal shifts in this one ultimately left me underwhelmed. I enjoyed the narrative trick of repeating scenes from different characters’ perspective to slowly reveal the threadbare plot, but it was mostly entertaining without ever really being scary, especially once the initial reveal happens and the underlying tension completely dissipates. Fun but forgettable, it definitely does NOT need a prequel or sequel but will almost definitely get one or both.

Only Murders in the Building S5 (Hulu)

I really didn’t enjoy this season, but the extended cast has such good chemistry that it carried the increasingly convoluted plot through to its very predictable cliffhanger ending that I was glad they were self-aware enough to make fun of themselves. Renée Zellweger clearly had a lot of fun with her goofy character, and I loved the flashbacks that centered Lester alongside various easter eggs, but the whole was less than the sum of its parts. I really hope they don’t bring it back for one more season, particularly because it will apparently feature my least favorite character.

Your Notes?

If you’ve engaged with any of these, let me know what you thought. And if you have any related recommendations, drop ’em in the comments or on the socials! Some of you prefer email, which is cool, too. You do you!