In 2021 I achieved the nigh-impossible Millennial milestone of purchasing a house. Like, a HOUSE house. This was made possible by kind, generous people helping me out every step of the way and by the great local organization NeighborWorks which provides financial assistance and home rehab for first-time homebuyers. So with that all going on plus the general awfulness that is a second pandemic year and the dismal social/political landscape at the moment, a large portion of my free time in 2021 was spent zoning out watching YouTube instead of creating or consuming new things. I even had to bump my reading goal down and just barely made it by binging graphic novels the last two days of the year. I do still have favorite things to share though, just not quite as many as last year.
MOVIES
With covid precautions making my trips to the theater pretty rare and a general inability to focus on movies when at home, I didn’t watch much in 2021. This is doubly disappointing since I literally work at a movie theater.
The Green Knight
David Lowery’s surreal, dream-like interpretation of the Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, chronicles a grand mythological quest for honor, through incredible imagery, visceral sound design, moody lighting, and a strong lead performance from Dev Patel. There is some frustrating bi-erasure from the original story, but overall, I love how The Green Knight distills and elaborates on the myth.
Dune
A big sci-fi space adventure with beautiful people and places, space magic, sand worms, and galactic politics. One of the few 2021 movies I watched twice.
The French Dispatch
If someone told you to envision the most “Wes Anderson” movie you can think of, you’d probably end up with The French Dispatch, an anthology film that tells three small stories under the umbrella of a group of reporters putting together the final issue of a fictional news magazine.
Minari
Inspired by Director Lee Isaac Chung’s childhood, Minari follows a Korean-American family trying to start a farm in rural Arkansas. All of the elements of the film - acting, cinematography, script, direction - are great.
TV
Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso is probably the show I got most into this year, sometimes watching it in the morning before work because I couldn’t wait until I got home. It has wonderful characters, a story that balances tropes and unpredictability, and a feeling of optimism even when things are bad. (Apple TV)
Loki
Definitely my favorite of the Disney+ Marvel shows, Loki has great design, a fun cosmic story, and Tom Hiddelston being charismatic as heck. Almost makes you forget all the people Loki murdered in the first Avengers movie. Almost. (Disney+)
UNHhhh
Each episode of UNHhhh has drag queens Trixie Mattel and Katya talking for 10ish minutes about a very random assortment of things tangentially related to a single topic. It is vulgar, R-Rated, and it brings me joy. (YouTube)
Arcane
Yet another show I started watching because artists on twitter were posting cool fan art, Arcane is the gorgeously animated story of a grand city full of sciencey-magic and the dark underground slum that it is built on. It follows lots of different characters and story lines, but the crux of Arcane is about two sisters who end up on rival sides of a growing conflict. This show is based on the League of Legends video game franchise, which I know absolutely nothing about, so there were some story beats (particularly the ending) that felt a little nebulous to me, but probably made a lot more sense for LoL players. I think it’s still really enjoyable even if you don’t know all the lore. Plus seriously, did I mention the animation? I binged the heck out of this one. **Riot Games, the publisher of LoL and a producer on the show, has had some big issues with a toxic work environment and harassment of female employees. While Arcane seems to be a fairly separate entity, and Riot at least appears to be making some improvements, the connection is still something to be aware of and it definitely muddied my enjoyment if the show a little.**
Fun fact: For some reason I convinced myself early-on that the stories set in the city above and the stories set in the city below were happening at different points in time. I was 100% expecting this to be revealed in a big twist at the end. This did not happen.
GAMES
Boyfriend Dungeon
Boyfriend Dungeon is a dating sim/dungeon crawler where you date your weapons. And it was unexpectedly one of my favorite games of 2021. You play as a young 20-something with zero dating experience who spends the summer in a small sea-side town populated with attractive and charming people who occasionally shape-shift into weapons. And, it turns out, you are a “wielder”, able to use these weapons (with their consent) to defeat monsters and traverse dungeons that are scattered around town. Over the course of the summer, you can befriend and/or romance a whole bunch of these shape-shifters and they are totally cool if you decide to befriend and/or romance everyone at the same time. Which I did. Content warning: the main storyline of the game involves themes of stalking. I think it’s handled thoughtfully, but it may be triggering for some players. (Nintendo Switch)
Ratchet & Clank
I’m a big fan of the previous Ratchet & Clank games and I had a lot of fun with the new installment Rift Apart, which continues the story of lombax Ratchet (sort of an anthropomorphic fennec fox) and his tiny robot-pal Clank, who go on adventures to save various planets/galaxies/dimensions. (PS5)
Death’s Door
A little like Dark Souls and a little like Legend of Zelda, Death’s Door puts you in the shoes (bird feet) of a crow reaper, sent out into the world to collect souls, unlock a mysterious door, and fight lots of enemies. The gameplay of Death’s Door is super fun and occasionally very challenging (the final boss fight took me two days). The character design is also a highlight, especially the charmingly adorable crows. (Xbox/PC)
Assassins Creed: Valhalla
In AC: Valhalla you play as the viking warrior Eivor, who is helping their clan establish a foothold in medieval England and dealing with the simmering conflict between Assassins and Templars. The gameplay is polished and fun and I spent a lot of time just wandering around the vast game gathering collectibles. (Xbox/PS/PC)
OTHER FAVORITES
Psychonauts 2
Picross S6
Tetris99
Kitty Letter
Concrete Genie
Animal Crossing New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise
A large number of the books I read in 2021 were from my regular pool of favorite authors who I’ve mentioned many times before: TJ Klune, T Kingfisher, Alexis Hall, Allie Therin, Rachel Reid, Roan Parrish, Jordan L Hawk, KJ Charles, and Cat Sebastian. If they write a book in a given year, I will be reading it immediately.
BOOKS - FICTION
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
Wallace, a cold, uncaring lawyer, finds himself stuck at a way-station for troubled ghosts after he suffers a heart attack and dies. The residents of the way-station (which is actually a tea house) include soft-spoken ferryman Hugo, new reaper Mei, and Hugo’s ghostly grandfather and dog. As Wallace learns to accept his death and come to grips with a life poorly lived, he grows and changes in the best ways while bittersweetly falling in love with the still living ferryman. It took me a little while to get into the book but by the end I was a sad-sobbing/happy-sobbing mess. (Fantasy/Fiction)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
This one is hard to sum up; it is stories upon stories, interwoven together in complex, nebulous ways. Starless Sea follows Zachary, a grad student who picks up a strange book in the library and discovers one of the chapters is about his childhood. Interspersed with Starless Sea’s main story are a number of fables, fairy tales, and journal entries that connect in obvious and less-obvious ways. In an attempt to figure out how an old book from the library can specifically describe his own life, Zachary ends up on a strange adventure that takes him to a magical place outside of time where all stories are kept. There he meets a number of people working to protect the stories, and another group trying very hard to destroy it. (Fantasy/Fiction)
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher
14-year-old Mona works in her aunt’s bakery, which is great since she is a wizard whose magic only works on baked goods. Mona is thrust into a dangerous series of events when she finds a dead girl in the bakery and is promptly accused of murder. An assassin is roaming the streets attacking magic people, a looming threat is approaching the city, and Mona and her bread-based-magic might be the only person who can save the day. Just the right combination of darkness, kindness, optimism, and melancholy - I got almost everyone in my family to read it. (Young-Adult-ish Fantasy)
Paladin’s Strength and Paladin’s Hope by T. Kingfisher
You know those books that you are sad to finish because it means you have to stop spending time with a character or setting that you’ve fallen in love with? T. Kingfisher’s Saints of Steel series is like that for me. The books follow a group of paladins whose lives are thrown into upheaval when their deity mysteriously dies. A wonderful blend of fantasy and romance, each book in the series adds to the larger story but is also its own adventure. Paladin’s Strength follows paladin Istvhan, who is working as hired muscle for a convoy traveling through hostile territory. Not long into the journey he crosses paths with Clara, a tall, muscular nun in search of her recently kidnapped sisters. But Clara has a secret and there is more to Istvhan’s story than he’s letting on and then things get complicated.
Paladin’s Hope moves on to paladin Galen, a wonderfully dashing red-head who showed up frequently in the earlier stories. When dead bodies with baffling wounds start showing up on the banks of the river, the city watch is happy to brush them off as unfortunate accidents. But Galen and Earstripe, the only gnole (aka anthropromorphic badger) member of the city watch, are unconvinced and seek the help of Piper, a lich-doctor (aka fantasy coroner). While searching for answers, the trio ends up trapped in an elaborate death maze, each room more dangerous and deadly than the last. A death maze isn’t the most romantic of locations, but Galen and Piper find themselves falling in love while trying to survive peril and cope with traumatic emotional pasts.
If you are interested in these books I’d definitely recommend starting with Paladin’s Grace and it probably wouldn’t hurt to also read the stand-alone Swordheart (featuring some characters that pop up later in Saints of Steel). Maybe just read everything T. Kingfisher has written just to be safe. (Fantasy Adventure/Romance)
BOOKS - ROMANCE
Seducing the Sorcerer by Lee Welch
Fenn Todd is a homeless drifter, barely surviving by taking whatever work he can find. After doing some backbreaking daily labor at a strange farm, Fenn is cheated into accepting payment not in money or food, but in the form of some sackcloth shaped sort of like a horse. But after walking away with this pile of rags, the rags start behaving very much like a living horse. A living horse that can also fly. So this magical sackcloth horse leads Fenn to the fabled black tower of Morgrim, the kingdom’s terrifying sorcerer who is dealing with some big problems of his own. Seducing the Sorcerer, as you can probably guess from the title, is a romance as much as it is a fantasy story, and Fenn falls hard for the prickly magician. This book instantly drew me in and I loved the strange, rich world of magical flying horses and ensorcelled towers covered in unending rain. (Fantasy Romance)
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
Single mother Rosaline is having trouble making ends meet and decides to enter a reality TV baking competition (a la Great British Bake Off) in hopes of winning the cash prize. On her way to the show, Rosaline has a meet-cute with Alain, a fellow contestant who seems to be everything she’s looking for in a romantic partner. As the competition (and their relationship) progresses, Rosaline builds friendships with the other bakers, including shy, blue-collar Harry, and begins to question the things she always thought she was supposed to want. Alexis Hall is such a good writer, and no matter if you are reading one if his spicy romances or his more “general audiences” books like Rosaline Palmer or Boyfriend Material, you are sure to get a story with a charming narrative voice, great humor, and characters to root for. (Contemporary Romance/Fiction)
Wonderstruck and Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin
Book three in Allie Therin’s wonderful Magic in Manhattan paranormal romance series, Wonderstruck completes the story of Arthur, the wealthy son of a political family who has devoted his life to helping rid the world of dangerous supernatural relics, and Rory, a powerful psychic trying to control his currently uncontrollable magic. Lots of storylines from the previous books come together and we finally meet the villain who has been pulling all the strings. A really fun series.
A Magic in Manhattan spin-off, Proper Scoundrels follows two side characters from the previous books, pairing snooty, hard-to-love aristocrat Lord Fine with, as Therin excellently puts it, “dangerous marshmallow” Sebastian, who is dealing with lots of guilt over his actions from earlier in the series. When Lord Fine gets embroiled in some magical goings-on, the two have to go into hiding at an empty country estate. Oh no! I sure hope they don’t accidentally fall in love. (Paranormal 1920s Romance)
OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - CONTEMPORARY
Role Model by Rachel Reid
The Lights on Knockbridge Lane by Roan Parrish
Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert
OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - PARANORMAL
The Quiet House by Lily Morton
Unseen by Jordan L Hawk
Blind Tiger by Jordan L Hawk
OTHER ROMANCE FAVORITES - HISTORICAL
Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat Sebastian
The Queer Principals of Kitt Webb by Cat Sebastian
Subtle Blood by KJ Charles
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles
BOOKS - YA
In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens
17-year-old Prince Tal sets sail for the coming-of-age tour of his family’s kingdom, but almost immediately encounters a complication when his crew finds a sinking ship, a chest full of treasure, and a mysterious prisoner named Athlen. The two end up on a big adventure involving mermaids, secret magic, kidnapping, pirates, political machinations, a sea witch, and some smooching. I loved this book. (YA Fantasy Adventure/Romance)
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
A “grim dystopia” sort of YA book, Iron Widow is set in a patriarchal kingdom constantly under attack from strange metallic beasts. The kingdom fights these enemies with giant robots called Chrysalises, piloted by young men and powered by the mental energy of concubines, young women who usually don’t survive the process. In an attempt to avenge the death of her sister, 18-year-old Zeitan volunteers as a concubine so she can assassinate to the pilot responsible for her death. But when Zeitan uses the pilot-concubine mental link to kill the pilot and then unexpectedly survives, she becomes a liability for the kingdom. Too precious a resource to kill but too dangerous to the patriarchy to be allowed to live, she is paired with Li Shimin, the kingdom’s most feared and powerful pilot, who will surely overpower Zeitan when they connect, right?
Surviving brutal oppression and constant attacks, Zeitan, Shimin, and Zeitan’s childhood friend Yizhi search for a way to escape their situation and hopefully bring down a society built on the subjugation and murder of women. Iron Widow is angry, subversive, and empowering and I enjoyed reading it even though it’s grim from start to finish. It does feature a proper love triangle though, which is a nice bright spot in all the darkness. (Dark YA Fantasy)
BOOKS - GRAPHIC NOVELS
Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe
Lore Olympus is a retelling of the Hades/Persephone myth with excellent artwork and a thoughtful narrative, set in a nebulous sci-fi-ish/ancient Greek-ish Olympus. While Lore Olympus is romantic and mostly lighthearted, it is definitely an adult story and weaves in dark elements of the Greek myths, depicting the selfishness of the gods and the lack of agency afforded to female characters. Content warning: Lore Olympus Volume One contains a depiction of sexual assault and gaslighting which is hard to read. It’s not graphic, but it is very emotionally honest and grounded in reality. (Fantasy/Mythology)
Estranged and The Changeling King by Ethan M Aldridge
Estranged is about two boys, Childe, a human that was kidnapped as a baby and grew up in the land of faeries, and Edmund, the faerie changeling that was left in his place. Neither child feels like they belong, for obvious reasons, and when a Childe’s royal family is turned into rats by a nefarious villain, he seeks out his counterpart in the human world for help. The Changeling King continues the story, with the boys and their allies trying to restore magic to the faerie kingdom when it starts to disappear. Ethan Aldridge’s watercolor illustrations are wonderful and perfectly match the magic and adventure of the story. (YA)
The Witch Boy by Molly Knox Ostertag
In a close knit community where boys shape-shift and girls learn magic, Aster yearns to be a witch even though “boy’s don’t learn magic”. But it is Aster’s magic and his friendship with a non-magical outsider that saves the day when a dangerous spirit starts attacking the other kids. Through this YA story of magic and spirits, Molly Knox Ostertag beautifully illustrates the dangers of toxic masculinity and gender stereotypes. (YA)
OTHER FAVORITES
The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard
Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
Salt Magic by Hope Larson and Rebecca Mock
PODCASTS
Ologies
Each episode of Ologies has host Alie Ward sitting down and charmingly chatting with scientists about their various fields of study, covering topics like turtles, squid, shipwrecks, veterinary medicine, dancing spiders, bad knees, and crow funerals. I love Alie’s sense of humor and constant fascination with the things she’s asking about. So check this one out if you want to laugh and also learn cool facts about gar fish.
MUSIC
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
I’m a big fan of Halsey and I had their super atmospheric and slightly haunting album on repeat for months.
Montero by Lil Naz X
A great mix of genres and styles that go from cheeky rap to super personal ballad to impossibly catchy pop.
Boyfriend Dungeon & Gris Soundtracks
I frequently found myself needing chill background music to listen to while working this year, and the soundtracks for Boyfriend Dungeon and Gris were what I turned on the most. Boyfriend Dungeon is an excellent combination of chill, synthy pop music and sword-based pun lyrics. Gris is fully instrumental, again featuring a synthy sound, combining big orchestral drama and chill emotional vibes.
ART
If I’m doing the math right, I think I made 40 new pieces in 2021. Not too bad.
