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
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. 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. A few plot elements didn’t quite work for me and I wish the setting had been fleshed out a bit more, but I still liked this one . (paranormal 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.
