Favorite Things from 2023: Two Pirate Crews, a monk, a Robot, a Giant Lizard, and a Little Boat

January 22, 2024 Meghan Stratman

2023 was a rough year. Major burnout from my day-job cuddled up with what turned out to be ADHD and it was a struggle to accomplish anything most of the time, especially anything creative. There were good things too, but the ennui was persistent and draining. On a positive note, some things have changed that I hope will help me exit burnoutville, so I’m starting 2024 cautiously optimistic. Hey, I wrote a “Favorite Things” blog, albeit a late one, which I haven’t been able to do since April so fingers crossed.

MOVIES

Godzilla Minus One
This was my most surprising 2023 favorite. Yes, it’s a giant monster movie with all the inherent silliness that comes with the genre, but the story takes place in Tokyo immediately after the end of WWII and devotes a huge amount of it’s run time to the story of a Kamikaze pilot’s survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and attempts to rebuild his life. I was so invested in the characters I kept forgetting about Godzilla.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
While this Spider-Verse installment didn’t grip me quite as strongly as the first one, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The animation is gorgeous and pushed even further this time around. It’s a bummer that the animators were apparently crunched and overworked in the process.

Teenage Mutant Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
A fun Turtle adventure with a super charming voice cast and excellent animation.

Orlando, My Political Biography
A documentary about trans and non-binary identity, a personal essay, and a loose interpretation of Virginia Woolf’s book Orlando, a Biography, filled with joy, intelligence, and humor.

RRR
A gloriously over-the-top Indian action epic about two fictionalized freedom fighters teaming up against colonialist British forces. Good to view with a critical eye since there are elements of propaganda and other political nuances that I’m not well versed in, but on face value as a cinematic spectacle, RRR was so much fun to see in a theater.

Stop Making Sense
Weirdly, one of the films that stuck with me the most this year was the 40th-anniversary re-release of the renowned Talking Heads concert film. I’ve generally always liked Talking Heads, but the energy and creativity in Stop Making Sense is extraordinary and it made me appreciate their work a lot more.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Suzume
Barbie
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

TV SHOWS

Our Flag Means Death
OFMD Season 2 took everything that was good about the first season, doubled down on it, and made it even better (and gayer). There were great character arcs, especially for Izzy, and the finale was super satisfying. I’m sad that HBO cancelled the show, but at least we got the wonderful seasons that we did. [Max]

One Piece
I randomly binged the entire first season the live-action One Piece over a weekend and liked it way more than expected. The show definitely has the “everything feels like a soundstage” vibe that you get with some Netflix originals, but it’s delightfully stupid and cartoony, everyone in the cast is gorgeous and charming, and the story of pirate adventure is fun. [Netflix]

Dimension 20
If you haven’t heard of Dimension 20, it’s one of those “funny people play D&D together” shows, and it’s probably what I watched the most of in 2023. In particular The Sleeping City series, set in a modern-fantasy New York, with a charming cast and some great characters (Stephen Sondheim and Santa show up to save the day more than once). Most of the show is only available if you subscribe to Dropout, but the first season of Sleeping City is on youtube and a podcast. [Dropout.tv]

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Loki Season 2 [most of the season didn’t click with me but I loved the finale]
What We Do In The Shadows [still very funny, but I had less patience for a show about assholes this year]

BOOKS

FICTION

Psalm for the Wild-Built & A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers
This beautiful duology about a traveling monk and a curious robot finding their place in a utopic society is one of those series that I immediately went out and bought physical copies of just so I could share them with other people. Highly recommend. [Sci-Fi/Fantasy]

Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell
A collection of charming, mostly romance-themed short stories. One story in particular took place in the dorm that was down the street from my actual college dorm and the nostalgia that it stirred up was intense. [Contemporary]

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
An orcish warrior retires from adventuring to start her own coffee shop. A warm, cozy fantasy about found family and baked goods. [Fantasy]

Paladin’s Faith by T. Kingfisher
[You are now entering the obligatory T. Kingfisher section] A new installment in probably my favorite current book series about a bunch of paladins having adventures (and falling in love) after their god mysteriously dies. This time around our stoic paladin is escorting a spy-master on a mission that goes awry. [Romantic Fantasy]

Thornhedge by T Kingfisher
A reimagining of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of Toadling, the fairy who is responsible for maintaining the sleeping curse. [Fantasy Novella]

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
A woman returns to her childhood home and find things are very wrong - there are vultures gathering on the roof, a jar of teeth is buried in the backyard, and something is strangely off about her mother. [Gothic Horror]

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
A beautifully illustrated, deeply personal, and occasionally harrowing graphic memoir chronicling the author’s time working in the Canadian oil sands. [Autobiography]

Shuna’s Journey by Hayao Miyazaki
This beautiful early work by Hayao Miyazaki follows a prince in search of a magical grain and is filled with so many of the great images and themes that show up in his later animation work. [Fantasy]

Heartstopper Vol 5 by Alice Oseman
Volume 5 of Oseman’s YA romance series introduces sex and hormones into the equation as teens Nick and Charlie try to maintain their relationship amid college searches and looming future decisions. [YA Contemporary]

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
A young boy (afraid of coming out to his family) and his Vietnamese mom (missing the family she was separated from), find connection through their shared love of fairy tales. [YA Contemporary/Fantasy]

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll
The thoroughly creepy, gorgeously illustrated story of a young woman who marries an older widower and is haunted by the specter of his former wife. I can’t say I exactly understood it all, particularly the end, but the vibes and atmosphere are so strong that it didn’t really matter. [Horror]

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Three seemingly separate stories - a young boy dealing with being the only Chinese-American student at his new school, the fable of the Monkey King, and a satirical sitcom starring the personification of every negative Chinese stereotype - are woven together in this very personal story. [YA Contemporary/Fantasy]

YA

Deephaven by Ethan M Aldridge
Young non-binary teen Nev travels to the mysterious boarding school Deephaven Academy to escape their traumatic home-life, and gets pulled into a mystery involving magic, conniving students, and a shadowy creature lurking in the closed off east wing. [Gothic Horror Mystery]

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens
Two sorcerers apprentices - one with a lot of magic and one without any at all - are thrown together when their teachers are imprisoned by the burocratic and untrustworthy Magical Consortium. [Urban Fantasy Romance]

A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife by Kendall Kulper
A paranormal YA adventure set in 30s Hollywood that follows a young starlet (who can speak to ghosts) and a stunt-man (who can’t be injured) who are paired up to sell a fake relationship to the tabloids and end up getting embroiled in a murderous mystery. [Supernatural Mystery Romance]

ROMANCE (tldr, it’s all queer)

A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick
One of those rare times when a “since you bought that, you might like this” impulse purchase ended well. A charismatic newbie potion maker sets up shop across the street from an aloof established pro; professional rivalry becomes an angry feud becomes an unexpected romance as the two learn from each other and fall in love. [Fantasy / Not Spicy]

Diamond Ring by K.D. Casey
A second-chance romance about two baseball players who fell in love as rookies, broke apart after a dramatic World Series loss, and find their way back to each other years later. Lots of drama and pining, with characters that I enjoyed spending time with. Not sure why I started with the third book in the series, but it stood alone just fine. [Contemporary Sports / Pretty Spicy]

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
A scrappy reporter and the son of a newspaper-tycoon form an unlikely friendship (and eventual romance) when they start working in the same 1950s NYC newsroom. While it’s still a “happy-ending romance” that is more about vibes than conflict, the book adresses the homophobia and danger of the time more than most. [Period Romance / Medium Spice]

A Novel Arrangement and A Thief and a Gentleman by Arden Powell
The fifth and sixth books in Powell’s 1920s-with-a-bit-of-magic series Flos Magicae. ANA focuses on a charming love-triangle between a dressmaker (and secret romance novelist), her war-veteran fiancé, and her fiancé’s prickly best friend, a notorious artist known for shocking polite society. ATAAG follows a jaded jewel thief who is dared to seduce a cold, rules-following gentleman (that was secretly his childhood friend). [Fantasy / Medium Spice]

Rattling Bone by Jordan L. Hawk
YouTube ghost hunter and actual spirit medium Oscar and his nerdy parapsychologist boyfriend Nigel return to Oscar’s home town and find themselves investigating a ghostly family mystery at an abandoned distillery. Hawk writes the most bingeable stories and I can’t wait for the next one. [Horror Paranormal with Trans MC / Mild Spice]

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles
Another charming period romance from KJ Charles about a misguided gentry orphan falling in love with a handsome rakish criminal. Charles excels with this type of pairing and I devour every new book she writes. [Period Romance / Fairly Spicy]

Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
An exorcist goes to a haunted house to help the owner clear out a frankly alarming number of spirits. Not a ton of time for character development, but super spooky atmosphere and good non-binary leads. It’s hard to describe exactly, but Moon’s writing style is different than a lot of other books I read in this genre, which was exciting to discover. [Contemporary Horror Paranormal Novella with Trans/NB MCs / Some Spice]

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Liar City by Allie Therin [Urban Fantasy with a whiff of romance]
A Thief in the Night by KJ Charles [Historical Romance novella with a dash of highway robbery]
The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy [YA kids-on-bikes-in-the-80s horror adventure - loved the vibe, didn’t love the ending]
Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee [Contemporary YA Romance with cooking and meddling families]
Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian [50s Cozy Historical baseball romance novella with a snow storm and pining]
The Last Sun by KD Edwards [Queer Urban Fantasy with found family and social politics - a little dense for me but cool worldbuilding]
Freaking Romance Volume One by Snailords [Romance manga/graphic novel with a sad KPop boy and a chaotic cat girl]

GAMES

Dredge
Part fishing game, part adventure story, and part Eldritch horror, where you guide a small boat across the vast open ocean, catching increasingly strange fish and running errands for various unsettling townspeople.

Spider-Man 2
Charming characters, super fun gameplay and traversal, and a well-written story that made me cry. One of those games that you can’t put down.

Unpacking
A small indie game where you literally just unpack moving boxes and put things away that somehow made me extremely emotional by the end.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Final Fantasy 16 [a lot of fun but the ending didn’t gel with me]
Lies of P [also fun, but I hit a difficulty spike 2/3 of the way through that I could not overcome]

ART

Wish I could have made more and not in love with all of it, but that’s what you get with burnout. Still really happy with the Moira piece. :)

Thanks for reading! ❤️

Favorite Things January/February/March: Orcish Baristas, Action Epics, and Creatures of the Deep

April 20, 2023 Meghan Stratman

2023 has really gotten away from me. Somehow we’re in mid-April? Here are some things I’ve enjoyed so far this year.

MOVIES

RRR
RRR is an over-the-top action epic that takes real-life figures from India’s fight for independence from the British and turns them into mythological heroes. Watching this movie feels like hearing a heavily embellished story second-hand from someone prone to exaggeration; there is no interest in realism, period-specific costumes, or the law of gravity. Instead you get huge dance numbers, absolutely bananas action scenes that revel in ridiculousness, comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and one of the handsomest men I have ever seen. I really enjoyed going into this one without knowing what to expect (there are some good twists) so I’ll leave it at that. RRR is 3 hours long and I’ve heard the version on Netflix is a less-than-stellar English dub, but if you have a chance to see this one, especially in a theater, I highly recommend it.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is exactly what it needs to be: silly, comfortingly predictable, and full of beautiful, charismatic people going on a quest. Sometimes that’s all you want. There are plenty of D&D in-jokes (having characters fail their actions was a particular highlight) but the story of a group of thieves working together to do a heist/save a daughter is broad enough that I think you can enjoy it without being a nerd. But speaking of nerds, one of the main characters looked exactly like the ranger I played in a long-running D&D campaign and this brought me much joy.

John Wick 4
This one’s a bit hit and miss for me but still worth recommending. Like the previous three Wick outings, John Wick 4 is an ultra violent gun-fu spectacle mixing gorgeously filmed action set pieces and cinematography with a surreal, ever-expanding criminal underworld mythology. At this point in story, Mr. Wick is hiding from the heaps of enemies he made in the previous three films and has to shoot his way across multiple countries and through the streets of Paris to get to a church for a big duel. This set-up leads to all sorts of bananas action scenes (and The Warriors references), with fights in the middle of moving traffic, glass-filled display rooms, and up a comically endless flight of stairs. The choreography and kinetic action in these parts is where the movie shines. The problem was, for me anyway, that my suspension of disbelief was stretched extremely thin by the end; John survives falling off of so many balconies and getting hit by so many cars and many of these big action scenes take place in bustling public places where no one seems to notice. Since it’s all played very seriously, I had a harder time buying into the absurdity. Plus there’s an irritating “guy in a fat suit for comedy” bit. But if you’re not bothered by those sorts of issues or at least able to overlook them for the overall spectacle of John Wick 4, I think there is plenty to like.

Honorable Mention: Renfield
Renfield is a fun but not super memorable horror comedy about Dracula’s beleaguered servant, but it’s absolutely worth watching for Nick Cage eating allllll of the scenery as the campy Count.

BOOKS

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
A beautifully illustrated, deeply personal graphic memoir, Ducks chronicles Kate Beaton’s time working in the Canadian oil sands. It reads like a diary, mixing day-to-day observations of how things work in a remote oil refinery, illustrations of the joys and traumas Beaton experienced there, and a bigger-picture examination of an industry that is so dangerous and problematic and also the only job available to a lot of people.

Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
One of two spooky ghosty books I read recently, Heart, Haunt, Havoc follows an exorcist who goes to a haunted house to help the owner clear out a frankly alarming number of spirits. It’s a quick read so not a ton of time for deep character development, but I quite liked the protagonists-with-dark-pasts (who are trans and non-binary), the atmosphere, and the different take on magic and ghosts.

Liar City by Allie Therin
I love Allie Therin’s 1920s Magic in Manhattan books and was very excited to see her venture into a more modern setting with Liar City. The story takes place in an alternate Seattle where there is a sharp divide between the general public and a very small minority of empaths, people who can sense emotions through touch. The government has already imposed a large number of restrictions on empath’s lives and right when a new bill further stripping their rights is on the table, the senator spearheading the effort is murdered. Empath Reece gets a strange call that brings him to the crime scene and soon learns that a shadowy government agent called The Dead Man is also on the case. Everyone’s motives and allegiances are murky, so when The Dead Man requests that Reece come with him to help investigate the murder, it’s hard to tell if the empath is a partner or a suspect. A friendship/romance does eventually begin to develop between the two, but Liar City is the first installment in a slow burn multi-book series, so I imagine that’s going to be simmering and unrequited for a while longer. I struggled a bit staying invested in the story early on due to some pacing issues and it was kind of hard to get a read on the main characters, especially since The Dead Man’s whole deal is an extreme lack of emotion, but overall I liked Liar City and am excited for more of the story.

Rattling Bone by Jordan L Hawk
When Jordan Hawk released The Forgotten Dead, the first book in this series, I was not at all ready for how dang spooky it would be. Luckily I was more prepared for Rattling Bone, which follows YouTube ghost hunter and actual spirit medium Oscar and his boyfriend Nigel, the nerdy parapsychologist, as they return to Oscar’s home town and find themselves investigating a ghostly family mystery at an abandoned distillery. Hawk writes the most bingeable, instantly gripping stories and I can’t wait for Oscar and Nigel’s next ghost adventure.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
I think the best way to describe Legends & Lattes would be “cozy fantasy”. I’ve read a few cozy mysteries, but this story of an orcish warrior retiring from adventuring to start her own coffee shop was different from my usual book choices. The conflicts are minor and most of the story is just friendly vibes, comforting camaraderie, and a sweet romance. It was really nice. Plus, having a bunch of fantasy characters working together to brew lattes and bake cinnamon rolls reminded me fondly of playing D&D with my friends.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
Another great period romance from KJ Charles about misguided gentry orphans falling in love with rakish handsome criminals. Charles has cornered this brand and I devour every new book she writes. This time around the orphan is Gareth, who has inherited a title and a manor house from the father who abandoned him as a child, and the rakish criminal is Joss Doomsday, the head of a notorious and successful family of smugglers. Lovers to enemies to friends to lovers ensues.

GAMES

Dredge
Dredge is part fishing game, part adventure story, part Eldritch horror, and all these parts work really well together. I loved this game. The dread of “dark creatures of the deep” works so well in a game where you have to guide a small boat across the vast open ocean, catching increasingly strange fish and running errands for various unsettling townspeople.

ART

As usual, I spent the first few months of the year in a seasonal slump not accomplishing much. But, looking back I actually made more art than I remembered.

“The Creature” (Creature from the Black Lagoon)

Favorite Things From 2022: The Lands Between, Sinister Skies, Disney Discussions, and Orville Peck

January 17, 2023 Meghan Stratman

I had planned to post my “2022 Favorites” blog much closer to the actual end of the year, but then had two consecutive sad pet things happen that put this on the back burner. First my pup was ill (thankfully he’s feeling better now - probably ate something bad) and then last week my little hedgehog Barnaby got sick and passed away. He was an elderly hog (4.5 years at least, which is good for a hedgehog) and was held and loved right to the end, but it’s still very fresh and I’ll be sad for a while. 2023 isn’t starting great.

But my yearly blog is always something I enjoy putting together, so I wanted to finish it. Plus this year I decided to practice my digital drawing skills by illustrating most of my favorite things AND drawing all 68 books that I read. I somehow spent 42 hours on these drawings and dammit, they are getting POSTED. Other than the sad stuff right at the end, the big national and international BAD THNGS going on, and finally getting Covid in May, the year did have some good bits too: I went on a proper vacation for the first time since 2019, made art that I am proud of, carved a woodblock print that was displayed on buildings around the city, saw Patton Oswalt and Phoebe Bridgers live, won an Award of Excellence at the Lincoln Arts Festival and had some really good holiday art markets, went to baseball games with my dad, played cards with my mom and sister, and Minecrafted with friends. Ups and downs, like most years.

MOVIES

Nope
Jordan Peele’s excellent sci-fi-horror-western follows OJ and Emerald (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer), the children of a famous Hollywood horse wrangling family, who are trying to keep the business afloat after the mysterious death of their father. When strange things start appearing in the sky above their ranch, the siblings set up cameras in hopes of capturing video evidence and then things GO VERY WRONG. Nope is weird, funny, scary, really unsettling, and grandly epic. I love Peele‘s sense of atmosphere and vibe and the way his movies embrace surreal storytelling; not everything is explained, but it all adds to the feel of the film. Definitely the movie that stuck with me the most this year.

Werewolf by Night
I adored this B-Movie throwback set in the Marvel universe, that follows a group of monster hunters who gather to decide who gets possession of a magic medallion. Gael García Bernal is great and charmingly goofy as a mysterious hunter with a secret agenda and I really liked Laura Donnelly as the exiled daughter of the medallion’s previous owner. Plus there is a Very Good monster friend.

Everything Everywhere All At Once
Simultaneously the emotional story of Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a frazzled Chinese American woman learning to value her family and deconstruct generational stigmas while filing her taxes; a dimension-crossing sci-fi adventure involving a cosmic bagel; and a martial arts action epic, Everything Everywhere All at Once is a wild ride. Ke Huy Quan, who plays Evelyn’s optimistic and warm-hearted husband, is particularly wonderful and steals every scene he is in.

The Batman
Batman adaptations that I tend to like best are ones set in a super stylized Gotham and this is definitely the case in The Batman. Instead of grounding the action in reality, The Batman takes place in a surreally-gothic, claustrophobic, rain-soaked noir city, making the outlandish superhero antics work so much better. The movie follows a young, obsessive caped crusader as he tries to solve a mysterious string of murders and learns that “vengeance” is not the best motivation. Robert Pattinson makes an enjoyably melancholy and messed up Batman who has a good character arc, and the supporting cast is great.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Bodies Bodies Bodies
Glass Onion

TV

I apparently just watched gay shows in 2022. And one weird anime.

Our Flag Means Death
Led by Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby playing super fictionalized versions of actual pirates Blackbeard and Steed Bonnet, Our Flag Means Death is a very silly pirate show that is also a surprisingly sweet love story. Steed is a wealthy gentleman and a dandy who is not cut out for pirate life, yet persists at pirating anyway. His comically chaotic crew is equally unprepared for the job. After bumbling their way through a few adventures, Steed draws the eye of the infamous pirate Blackbeard, who intends to kill Steed and take over the ship, but ends up befriending the crew and falling in love. (HBO Max)

Heartstopper
Heartstopper is the story of two boys falling in love in high school: Charlie Spring is out and dealing with depression and bullying; Nick is the king of the rugby team and really confused about his growing crush on his friend. The two leads (Kit Conner and Joe Locke) are wonderful and so are the other young actors who round out their friend group. Heartstopper was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. It makes my heart happy. (Netflix)

Interview with the Vampire
Led by an extremely charismatic and monstrous Lestat (Sam Reid) and a nuanced, complicated Louis (Jacob Anderson), AMC’s Interview with the Vampire builds on the original Anne Rice novel in interesting ways. The episodic format allows more time to explore the toxic, obsessive relationship between these two men, and by casting Black actors to play Louis and Claudia, the show also puts a much stronger focus on racism and how tightly it is tied to the history of New Orleans. Bailey Bass, who plays Claudia, balances the difficult combination of impulsive teenager + violent killer + protective companion really well. I also liked the depiction of the journalist in the framing device as cynical and unimpressed; his constant questioning and deconstruction of what he’s being told by Louis brings in themes of skewed memory and unreliable narrators.

If you are interested in this one, I think it’s important to know going in that this show deals a lot with domestic violence and abuse and is emotionally rough; it isn’t as campy as the 1994 movie. I mean, it’s a melodramatic story about vampires so there’s still some camp. Interview also includes the detestable rape-as-character-development trope that so many shows rely on, and while the encounter is implied and not shown, it’s still very frustrating that this was added to begin with. So Interview with the Vampire is “good with caveats”, which is generally how I recommend shows anyway. (AMC+)

Jujutsu Kaisen
I’m not very good at finishing long shows and am only about halfway through Jujutsu Kaisen, but I wanted to include this one anyway because I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. It’s your standard “high-school-aged protagonist gets magic powers and fights evil” shonen anime set-up, but the evil is really upsetting demons, the magic is sharing a body with a demon king, and the powers are acquired by eating a mummified finger. When hero Yuji gets these powers, he is recruited by a special “curse”-fighting school and given a choice to either eat more mummified fingers and gain more power so they can kill the demon king, or be sentenced to death immediately. He chooses to eat more fingers. This show is wild and constantly swings between cute school antics (one of the other students is literally a panda) and gruesome horror. I need to watch the rest of this one soon. (Crunchyroll / HBO Max)

GAMES

Elden Ring
Hands down my favorite game of 2022. I put about 120 hours into this behemoth and the feeling of beating that final boss was so, so good. I had a ton of fun (and frustration) exploring the seemingly endless locations of the Lands Between. I never expected I would be able to finish one of FromSoft’s notoriously hard games, but I did! I keep finding myself wanting to play it again even though I definitely DO NOT have the time.

Stray
Stray is a short, wonderful little game about a cat trying to escape from a strange underground city filled with robots and dangerous monsters. I had to obtain assurances before starting the game that the cat didn’t die at the end, so I will pass those assurances on to you; it hurts it’s leg briefly but is otherwise unharmed canonically (you can still fail some escapey/stealthy bits and “die” but in the story the cat is fine). I had so much fun leaping around rooftops, exploring, and getting into cat mischief. Be prepared though, even though the cat is fine, the ending made me cry extremely hard for story reasons.

Vampire Survivors
The retro rogue-like + bullet-hell combo Vampire Survivors was an unexpected highlight this year (those are real gaming terms I swear). The goal of the game is to try and survive as long as possible while your little 16-bit character wanders around the map being swarmed by monsters. It’s the perfect brain-off entertainment for when you just want to play something fun for 30 minutes and it hits all the joy centers of “just one more game” and “oooo loot”.

Return of the Obra Dinn
When the missing ship Obra Dinn reappears in 1807, an insurance investigator is sent to the vessel to figure out what happened to the missing crew. You slowly piece together this mystery with the help of a magic watch that lets you see the final moments of the people on board. These scenes offer clues to what happened and you use the power of deduction and investigation to account for everyone. The way the story unfolds is really amazing and I was constantly surprised by the turn of events.

Deathloop
Deathloop is a super stylized, 60s/mod-themed, time-loop shooter from one of my favorite game developers so of course I loved it. You play as Colt, who wakes up on a beach with no memory of how he got there and quickly learns that he is stuck in a repeating day. The only way to escape the loop is to use an arsenal of arcane powers and weird guns to take out eight “visionaries” in a single day. The gameplay is excellent, the environments are so much fun to explore, and I really loved the voice acting.

BOOKS

Look at all those books! In 2022 I pretty much stuck to my go-to reading genres: graphic novels, dark fantasy and paranormal fiction, lots of romance (particularly queer indie romances by LGBTQIA+ and non-binary authors), and yet more T. Kingfisher. I also read a number of spooky books, which is rare for me since I am very easily spooked.

Paranormal/Fantasy Fiction

Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper
A Jazz Age supernatural mystery/love story about a mind-reading society girl who spends her evenings poisoning bad men and a shape-shifting morgue janitor with a mind for forensics who discovers her lethal hobby. A sinister gangster and a mortuary meet-cute bring the two together and they end up working to dismantle a network of organized crime and government corruption. I enjoyed this book and particularly liked the weird way the shape-shifting manifested. (young adult-ish paranormal)

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens
So This Is Ever After follows a group of D&D-style adventurers who set out to fulfill a prophecy and defeat the evil ruler of their kingdom, with the story starting immediately after they do the defeating. In need of a temporary ruler until the rightful princess can be rescued, group leader Arek briefly puts on a magical crown and accidentally becomes the new king. With this inescapable royalty comes a caveat: the king must choose a partner by his 18th birthday (which for Arek is just a few months away) or he will literally fade out of existence. This mandate is extra complicated because Arek is hopelessly in love with his best friend Matt, but they’re both teenagers who are awful about expressing their feelings. So the two end up ignoring what is right in front of them and instead work together to set up meet-cutes with their other friends so Arek can fall in love with someone. Of course, things don’t go as planned and each meet-cute just keeps putting Arek and Matt in closer proximity. F.T. Lukens lovingly plays with and subverts romance genre tropes throughout the story in ways that constantly made me giggle and smile. (fantasy / adventure / romance)

Obsidian Island by Arden Powell
A surreal blend of Master and Commander and Annihilation, Obsidian Island follows naturalist Emery and ship captain James, best friends who find themselves shipwrecked on a strange volcanic island. As the two men try to survive lethally dangerous flora and fauna, a sinister force begins pulling them towards a colossal red tree in the center of the island. Obsidian Island is a non-stop barrage of things getting progressively worse for these characters, so while I was engrossed in the story, I definitely had to be in the right mood to read more of James and Emery’s Very Traumatic Island Adventure. (horror fantasy / adventure / romance)

The Faerie Hounds of York by Arden Powell
Faerie Hounds takes place across the desolate moors of 1800s England, where magic is both real and dangerous. William wakes up in the middle of a faerie ring, with no memory of how he got there. Luckily, he soon crosses paths with John, a mysterious traveller who knows all about faeries and magic and is able to help him escape. But the faerie ring is only the beginning; it turns out William has been cursed and the two men have to figure out how to dispel the magic before it kills him. (dark fantasy / romance)

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
When her older sister is married to the prince of a neighboring kingdom, princess Marra is sent to a convent to keep her from having children that could inherit power. But after the birth of her niece, Marra discovers that the prince is an abusive tyrant and no one is willing to help save her sister from violence because of the tenuous political situation between the kingdoms. So Marra seeks the help of a gravewitch, who sets her on a quest to complete three impossible tasks in order to gain the power to kill the prince. Marra is joined on this quest by a number of great characters, including a possessed chicken, a disgraced noble knight, a dog made from bones, and a flighty fairy godmother. A great combination of dark drama and light humor that I loved reading. (dark fantasy)

Spooky/Horror Fiction

The Forgotten Dead by Jordan L Hawk
While there is a little bit of a romance in this one, The Forgotten Dead is mostly a solid and entertaining ghost story that successfully creeped me the heck out. Parapsychologist Nigel is desperately trying to get grant money so he can continue his research at a prestigious university, but when he finally finds a donor, the funds come with a catch: he has to investigate a haunted house with a ghost hunting group from the internet. Complications arise (of course) because Nigel has a personal connection to the house and Oscar, the host of Outfoxing the Paranormal, can actually see ghosts. (paranormal)

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
When her cruel, vindictive grandmother dies, it falls upon Mouse to clear out her house in rural North Carolina. But when she and her loveably stupid bloodhound Bongo arrive, Mouse quickly realizes that her grandma was a hoarder and there is something unsettling about the woods that surround the property. In one strangely uncluttered room Mouse finds the diary of her long dead step-grandfather, who keeps describing strange twisted beings in the trees. But surely that was just just his imagination, right? I was fully absorbed in this spooky story of constructed creatures, impossible locations, and creeping dread. (horror fiction)

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
A re-imagining of Poe’s The Fall of The House of Usher, What Moves the Dead follows a retired soldier who is summoned to the crumbling house of a dying childhood friend. What they discover when they arrive are possessed rabbits, a glowing lake, an abundance of strange mushrooms, and a mysterious illnesses effecting everyone in the house. I loved Kingfisher’s mushroomy take on the classic story and would definitely recommend it. (horror fiction)

OTHER FICTION FAVORITES (a.k.a. the other T. Kingfisher books I read this year)
Illuminations by T. Kingfisher
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Romance

Strange Love by Ann Aguirre
When I picked up Strange Love, I assumed it was going to be an entertaining but forgettable alien romance (yes that’s a thing). But I ended up loving it. The main characters are Beryl, a wayward human with a disappointing life, and Zylar, an awkward alien who accidentally abducts Beryl (and her dog), thinking he is rescuing the prospective bride he met on the internet. Unable to return Beryl to Earth due to a computer malfunction, the two decide to make the best out of a bad situation and travel to Zylar’s home planet to take part in a gladiatorial marriage competition. Like you do. I was constantly charmed by the characters (especially Beryl’s dog who gains the ability to speak) and the rational way Beryl and Zylar dealt with problems. (sci-fi romance)

A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske
When Robin, a very minor baronet, is moved to a new office in his civil service job, he doesn’t realize there was a mix-up. Instead of being just another bureaucratic assignment, he has accidentally been set up as the liaison between the government and a secret society of magic. His counterpart in the magical world, Edwin, is anxious to get the problem fixed and have Robin replaced with someone who actually knows what he’s doing. But before that can happen Robin is struck by a dangerous curse and the two set out on a journey to Edwin’s family estate to find out what happened to the previous liaison. A Marvelous Light is both a magical adventure story and a romance and has a neat take on magic. It was one of those books I was literally reading in every moment of free time I could find. (paranormal romance)

OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - CONTEMPORARY
Fatal Fidelity series by Rien Gray
All The Feels by Olivia Dade *
(All the Feels is published by Avon Books, which is part of Harper Collins. The Harper Collins union is currently on strike which you can find out more about here.)

OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - PARANORMAL
The Sceptic by Lily Morton
That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming
Flos Magicae series by Arden Powell
Imperfect Illusions by Vanora Lawless
A Garter as a Lesser Gift by Aster Glenn Gray

OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - HISTORICAL
Sword Dance / Saffron Alley / Strong Wine by A.J. Demas
Missing Page by Cat Sebastian
Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian

Graphic Novels

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and colorist Phoebe Kobabe
A graphic novel memoir examining author Maia Kobabe’s childhood and young adulthood trying to figure out eir non-binary gender identity. It’s an incredibly personal story and the whole time reading it I kept thinking about a young person reading this and feeling less alone in the world. It’s really depressing that this book has become a lightning rod for people banning books at schools, because knowing other people have gone through something you are struggling with can genuinely save lives. (memoir)

Hollow by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White, Berenice Nelle (Illustrator), Kaitlyn Musto (Colorist)
This charming modern take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows teenager Isabel “Izzy” Crane, who moves to Sleepy Hollow with her parents and quickly learns that the town is obsessed with Washington Irving’s famous story. Everything is Headless Horseman related and the Van Tassel family is still around, with classmate Vicky Van Tassel being high school royalty. As the town prepares for the annual Halloween festivities, Izzy, Vicky, and fellow classmate and prankster Croc encounter the famous ghost for real, leading to an “it’s up to the kids to solve this mystery'“ style adventure. There is a sweet romance between Izzy and Vicky and Croc’s cinnamon roll energy is adorable. Berenice Nelle’s art and Kaitlyn Misto’s colors are particularly great. (young adult paranormal adventure)

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Through the Woods is a collection of 5 illustrated stories in the vein of Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark or Tales from the Crypt; that something-scary-happens-and-it-ends-on-a-dark-cliffhanger vibe. Emily Carroll’s illustrations are excellent and add so much extra creepiness. I immediately wanted to go make art after reading this book. (horror)

Real Hero Shit by Kendra Wells
A fun D&D-esque adventure story, Real Hero Shit follows a ridiculously pampered prince who decides on a whim to join an adventuring party and go on a quest. Said adventuring party isn’t thrilled to add the loud, constantly upbeat prince to their group, but he’s their only option. This is a short comic which focuses more on the characters than the quest itself, but that works since I liked all the characters so much and Kendra Wells’ art is wonderful and expressive. I really hope we get to join these characters on further adventures. (fantasy adventure/graphic novel)

Heartstopper Vol 4 by Alice Oseman
It’s always a joy when a new volume of Heartstopper comes out. This graphic novel series follows teenagers Charlie and Nick as they navigate school, friendship, families, and young love. Volume 4 focuses on Charlie’s challenges with an eating disorder and depression and Nick’s journey learning how to love Charlie without enabling unhealthy behavior. It’s a heavy point in the boys’ story and Heartstopper doesn’t rush things or introduce easy solutions for difficult problems: dealing with mental health issues is hard and Oseman (a young person herself) illustrates this beautifully from a teen perspective.

OTHER GRAPHIC NOVEL FAVORITES
The Heart Hunter by Mickey George and V. Gagnon
Lore Olympus series by Rachel Smythe

PODCASTS

Mom Can’t Cook! A DCOM Podcast
I’ve listened to each episode of Mom Can’t Cook! easily 15 times or more; hosts Luke Westaway and Andy Farrant discussing the very specific topic of Disney Channel Original Movies (“DCOMs”) from the 90s to mid 2000s is incredibly funny and charming. You don’t have to have watched the DCOM’s they dissect to enjoy the show (I haven’t). Mom Can’t Cook is easily one of my favorite pieces of 2022 media. Apple | Spotify | Libsyn

MUSIC

Orville Peck and Phoebe Bridgers
My 2022 soundtrack was basically just Orville Peck’s poppy/folky country and Phoebe Bridgers moody indie folk on endless repeat, separated by episodes of Mom Can’t Cook. I tend to hyper-focus on certain music and that proved true once again this year.

RANDOM OTHER FAVORITE 2022 THINGS

Simone Giertz Everyday Calendar
A wall mounted, light up calendar (in the picture on the left there) that helps you track an activity you want to commit to doing every day. I chose “doing all the dishes before bed” as my daily goal and this calendar genuinely helped me stick to it. I really struggle with motivation for things like this and was amazed how much of a difference it made.

Knitting
I’m still a knitting beginner, but I finished two blankets and some scarves which is pretty good!

Drawfee & Secret Sleepover Society
YouTube/Twitch channels that I watched constantly in 2022.

Pokemon Go & Wordle
Yep, I’m one of those Wordler people. I also got waaaay back into Pokemon Go in 2022 after not playing it for like 2 years.

ART

Still struggling to balance work, free time, and art. I don’t imagine this will change any time soon. I didn’t make as much art in 2022 as I would have liked, but I did make a few pieces that I’m really proud of.

Favorite Things From November: a puppet, A Necromancer, and a pungent garlic man

December 5, 2022 Meghan Stratman

Just a short little November Favorites before the big end-of-the-year blog in *checks calendar* four weeks!?

MOVIES

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is the classic story of Pinocchio mixed with the director’s very particular style, meaning you’ve got a puppet boy going on adventures, but in this case the adventures involve standing up to abusers and fascists, learning the futility of war, living with grief, and accepting the inevitability of death and mortality. Light stuff. This has been a passion project for GDT for many years and I’m happy he was finally able to make this movie. The stop-motion animation and character designs are beautiful and add a lot to the story. I really liked it.

BOOKS

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and colorist Phoebe Kobabe
A graphic novel memoir examining author Maia Kobabe’s childhood and young adulthood trying to figure out and accept eir non-binary gender identity. It’s an incredibly personal story and the whole time reading it I kept thinking about a young person reading this and feeling less alone in the world. It’s really depressing that this book has become a lightning rod for people banning LGBTQA+ books at schools (there are a couple of small scenes involving Maia’s experiences with sex and sexuality), because knowing other people have gone through something you are struggling with can genuinely save kids lives. (MEMOIR / GRAPHIC NOVEL)

The Reanimator's Heart by Kara Jorgensen
A fun take on period paranormal romance, Reanimator’s Heart sets the action of the story after one of the protagonists has already died. Felipe is an investigator for the Paranormal Society (basically the magic police) who has supernatural healing which helps when he’s constantly getting shot and endangered while solving cases. Oliver is the Society’s mortician who is autistic and has the power to raise the dead. When Oliver finally works up the courage to ask Felipe on a date, he finds the man has been murdered and accidentally resurrects his crush. The two then try to solve the mystery of Felipe’s murder before he starts to decompose. Overall I quite liked this book, but I think it does have a couple of too-convenient plot points and lacks some world building that would have been helpful (the book description says it is set in 1890 but I genuinely could not figure out the time period). This is the start of a series though, and also part of a larger universe of Paranormal Society books, so it’s possible I came in late to an already established setting or that it will be fleshed out more in future installments (which I would definitely read). (PARANORMAL ROMANCE)

GAMES

Vampire Survivors
I really didn’t expect to get so engrossed in this retro rogue-like + bullet-hell game. In Vampire Survivors there is only one control: moving your character. You don’t control when you attack, you can’t defend or even interact with things. All you do is gradually improve your skills as you travel around the map using automatic attacks to take out the steadily increasing swarms of enemies. Like, literal swarms. The goal is to survive as long as possible and gain enough coins to go into the next game a bit stronger. My go-to character is an elderly gentleman who has an aura of deadly garlic fumes - which is surprisingly deadly to bats and skeletons. It’s the perfect brain-off entertainment when you just want to play something fun for 30 minutes and hits all the joy centers of “one more game” and “oooo loot”.

ART

Here are a couple new bird friends I finished up in November, plus info about an upcoming Holiday Market where I will be selling my wares.

I will have a booth at the Love, The Locals Holiday Market this weekend at The Bay in Lincoln and will be bringing plenty of prints, cards, stickers, some original collages, and hopefully some little desk calendars that I am trying out this year (if I get them all assembled).

Favorite Things From September and October: a Werewolf, a Cat, and Some Creeping Dread

November 1, 2022 Meghan Stratman

I unintentionally, but very appropriately, consumed a lot of spooky media these past two months.

MOVIES

Werewolf by Night
I adored this Special-Event-style B-Movie throwback from the MCU, about a group of monster hunters who gather in a mansion to decide who gets possession of a special anti-monster medallion. Gael García Bernal is great and charmingly goofy as the mysterious hunter with a secret agenda and I really liked Laura Donnelly as the exiled daughter of the medallion’s previous owner. Plus there is a Very Good monster friend. I think I’ve watched this like 6 times.

Bodies Bodies Bodies
This movie is definitely not for everyone - it has a loud, hyper style that I can see grating on people and there are a few “everyone shouts at each other” scenes that go on too long - but overall I quite liked it. Set in a garishly large mansion during a hurricane, a group of extremely privileged, vapid young people get together for a storm-themed party involving lots of drugs and alcohol. After a game of Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (a social-stealth-style party game), one of the guests turns up dead and it basically becomes live action Among Us. Who is the murderer? Who is telling the truth? Why do more people keep getting killed? I thought the resolution was satisfying, with just enough clues sprinkled throughout that it all made sense. Plus, Lee Pace is in it.

Honorable Mention

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Not all of this show worked for me, but there is still a lot that I enjoyed. Tatiana Maslany is really good, I loved the episode with Daredevil, and I appreciate that Disney/MCU tried something different.

BOOKS

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
When her cruel, vindictive grandmother dies, it falls upon Mouse to clear out the old house in rural North Carolina. But when she and her loveably stupid bloodhound Bongo arrive, Mouse quickly realizes that her grandma was a hoarder and making matters even worse, there is something unsettling about the woods in the back yard. In one strangely uncluttered room Mouse finds the diary of her long dead step-grandfather, who keeps going on about strange twisted beings in the trees. But surely that was just just his imagination, right?

Other than a slightly clunky narrative device that constantly caused Mouse’s phone not to work, I was fully absorbed in this spooky story of constructed creatures, impossible locations, and creeping dread. Plus, major kudos to T. Kingfisher for including a reassurance that Bongo survives the story unscathed, exactly when I needed to read it. Literally the moment I went “nothing bad better happen to this perfect dog” the narrator, who is writing the story after the fact, mentions the dog is fine and sitting at her feet. *phew* (HORROR FICTION)

The Sceptic by Lily Morton
I am kind of hit-and-miss on Lily Morton books - many of them don’t work for me - but I really like her Black and Blue paranormal romance series. The Sceptic is a spin-off from that series which follows Will, the best friend of the B & B main character, and Jem, a nature photographer who was also introduced in the previous books. Taking a break from filming penguins in the Antarctic, Jem is currently working as the cameraman for a YouTube ghost hunter show and enlists Will’s help in a weekend excursion to a very haunted house. This is a romance so of course the close proximity and the ghostly shenanigans lead to smooching. The supernatural elements are definitely where this book shines and I did sleep with the light on at least once (but bear in mind that I am 100% chicken and particularly susceptible to haunted house stories). The ghost mystery resolution was a little lackluster and the book lost a bit of steam once they were out of the haunted house, but I still enjoyed the book overall. (PARANORMAL ROMANCE)

Hollow by Shannon Watters, Branden Boyer-White, Berenice Nelle (Illustrator), Kaitlyn Musto (Colorist)
This charming modern take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows teenager Isabel “Izzy” Crane, who moves to Sleepy Hollow with her parents and quickly learns that the town is obsessed with Washington Irving’s famous story. Everything is Headless Horseman related and the Van Tassel family is still around, with classmate Vicky Van Tassel being high school royalty. As the town prepares for the annual Halloween festivities, Izzy, Vicky, and fellow classmate and prankster Croc encounter the famous ghost for real, leading to an “it’s up to the kids to solve this mystery'“ style adventure. There is a sweet romance between Izzy and Vicky and Croc’s cinnamon roll energy is adorable. Berenice Nelle’s art and Kaitlyn Misto’s colors add a lot to the story as well. It’s a small thing, but I really love the way Nelle illustrates simplified faces for panels where you’re seeing characters at a distance - there is so much emotion and humor with very few lines. (YOUNG ADULT PARANORMAL ADVENTURE)

Honorable Mention

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I alluded to this book in my most recent blog because I was enjoying it at the time, but it really lost me in the last half. Hence the honorable mention. I think Moreno-Garcia does a great job building the setting and the location of the story, and I liked the protagonist and her misguided “gothic heroine” choices, but an abundance of gaslighting, assault, and inconsistent characters took me out of the story in the end. But as with all my blogs, these are just my own hot takes and what doesn’t work for me might totally be your jam, so I thought I’d mention this one since it has a lot going for it and might appeal more to other people.

GAMES

Elden Ring (updated)
Just a note to say that I finished Elden Ring and it’s probably my GOTY. The final boss took me A WHILE and involved re-doing all my character stats, but I have officially completed a FromSoft game. My elation at finishing the fight made me immediately miss the final thing I had to do to get the ending I wanted, but still.

Stray
As a palate cleanser following Elden Ring, I finally played Stray, a short, wonderful little game where you are a cat trying to escape from a strange underground city populated by robots and dangerous monsters. I had to obtain assurances before starting the game that the cat didn’t die at the end so I will pass those assurances on to you; it hurts it’s leg briefly but is otherwise unharmed canonically. You can get killed by monsters if you mess up one of the chase or stealth sections, but it’s not too brutal and the cat is fine when you retry the section. I only died once and it was OK. Most of the time you’re leaping around rooftops, exploring, and getting into cat mischief. Be prepared though, even though the cat is fine, the ending made me cry extremely hard for story reasons.

ART

In October, I posted spooky art every day on my social media feeds, which included a few new pieces as well as a bunch of old stuff from as far back as 2012. Here they are all together. It was a lot of fun revisit some of these old pieces and made me want to try reimagining some of them now that I have nearly 15 years of paper cutting experience.

Here are bigger versions of the new pieces, so you can see them better: