Hi, lovelies. Here’s my month in books, movies, television, and games.
Books
When I purchased Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes, the cashier paused to tell me, “This one’s messed up.” Having now read the three stories in this horror collection, I can heartedly agree with the cashier’s sentiments.
In the titular novella, two women meet online and begin a deeply intimate relationship that unveils their darkest desires. Written through emails and chat transcripts, the story shows just how far we are willing to go to obtain the love of others. It’s a captivating and disturbing exploration of human desire.
The following two stories further explore the depths people are willing to go to achieve approval and acceptance from the people around them. “The Enchantment” is the story of a couple who agree to be caretakers on a remote island, until a stranger suddenly appears by boat, shattering their solitude. In “You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over,” a man attempts to return a lost item to a neighbor only to find himself caught in an increasingly harrowing series of wagers.
This is a powerful and unsettling collection of stories — and I loved it. I’m looking forward to seeing more work from LaRocca.
In The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia provides a retelling of the classic H.G. Wells tale, The Island of Doctor Moreau, bringing the story to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico. Dr. Moreau and his daughter, Carlota, live in an isolated and remote estate, where the doctor performs experiments to blend human and animal into intelligent hybrid creations. Other than the hybrids, the only other companion that Carlota has known is the alcoholic overseer, Montgomery Laughton, who is escaping the ghosts of his past by finding sanctuary at the estate.
Carlota loves her sheltered existence on the estate, which from her perspective is perfect in every way. However, her world is jolted when the handsome son of her father’s patron comes to stay for a visit and begins making overtures of love.
This is another phenomenal novel from Moreno-Garcia. I love her choice to tell the story from both Carlota and Montgomery’s points of view and how she builds the relationships between them and the strange family housed on the estate. It’s also a gorgeously wrought world, weaving elements of Mexican culture and history into the tale. I love it.
Andrea Gibson’s Lord of the Butterflies is a gorgeous collection of poetry that explores gender, mental health, American culture, love, and relationships with wisdom and compassion. Her work is lyrical and moving, and this will likely be a collection that I’ll return to again and again when I need something uplifting.
“The heartbeat is actually the sound made
by the heart valves closing.
If you, my love, ever hold a stethoscope to my chest,
I will tell you to listen for the silence in between.
What is and what will always be yours
is the sound of my heart
finally opening.”
Writing for Games: Theory & Practice by Hannah Nicklin is a fantastic book for anyone interested in delving into writing stories and developing narratives for games. She provides a solid theory for storytelling and story structures and how these basic elements fit into the development of games. I love that Nicklin also thinks about the various ways in which people learn by including case studies, and a practical workbook with exercises designed to allow the reader to apply the knowledge they gleaned.
Brom’s Slewfoot is from the start just a pretty book to look at — the cover and illustrations within (all done by Brom) being gorgeous images of the fantastical. The story itself is also richly told. Abitha is a spirited young Englishwoman balking against the constraints of the Puritan society, where she is expected to be a demure wife and do as she is told. When her husband suddenly dies under uncanny circumstances, she is left alone and without his protection. However, something else lurks in the woods, something dangerous and unsettling and beautiful — and it may be the key to either her freedom or her damnation.
15 Ways to Stay Alive by Daphne Gottlieb uses a mixture of found and original poetry to explore “broken hearts, scattered dreams, postpunk politics.” With gritty and vivid imagery, these poems explore survival and healing on both a personal and communal level.
The opening of Kealan Patrick Burke’s Sour Candy happened in a supermarket. Our main character, Phil Pendleton, goes to the supermarket and witnesses a bizarre and unsettling event involving a women and her child — one of the most uncomfortable scenes that I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. When he leaves this moment behind, Phil finds his entire world has shifted sideways, reality rewritten. The horror that follows grows increasingly terrible in the best of ways. As a novella, this is a short, quick read, but it’s one that leaves a satisfying punch. 
Trail of Lightning is a fantastic urban fantasy novel by Rebecca Roanhorse. Set after flooding and natural disasters caused by climate change, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) is surrounded by a massive wall that protects it from the outside world. However, the survivors face not only the aftereffects of natural disaster, but also the reawakening of witches, monsters, and old gods. Fighting these monsters is Maggie Hoskie, a supernaturally gifted monster hunter and killer, who must face her past in order to defeat them. This is a powerfully fun read, one that has me excited to explore more of this world.
Secret Passages by Axelle Lenoir is a fictional memoir about growing up in a small town. The story imagines the author as a young girl being raise by parents who may or may not be aliens and whose brother’s imaginary friend may be a blood-thirsty demon. As a girl, she has a hard time relating to school, which seems like a strange place to her, and so she communes with the forest for comfort. It’s a delightfully weird book, and I hope the author continues the tale.
As a fan of corvids, I was drawn to Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig based on the title alone. But the story about a woman who receives visions about the time and means of people’s deaths drew me in as a well. Having witnessed thousands of deaths, Miriam Black is bitingly grim humored, avoiding getting too close to other human beings — considering she can’t seem to change the fate of anyone she meets. But when she hitches a ride with Louis, a good-natured truck driver, she shakes his hand and sees his terrifying death, one for which she is destined to be present — and she realizes that she will have to fight to save his life in order to save her own. Blackbirds is a darkly grim character study, which manages to find the sliver of hope in the face of inevitable death.