October was my first month without my main WIP. Because I’ve been in such an intense state of revision, I took October off to tap into things I’ve wanted to watch and read for a while, and honestly, it’s been quite restorative. 10/10 highly recommend. I might have a new project in the works, but it’s all joy and no stress. Book-shaped, but without all the other intensity.
Which, speaking of, it’s November. Am I doing NaNoWriMo? Who knows.
October’s blog interviews were:
- Neil Cochrane released a queer fairy tale, The Story of the Hundred Promises
- Carlie St. George graced us with a collection of horror shorts, You Fed Us To the Roses
- Bendi Barrett debuted a fucky goth magic novella, Empire of the Feast, with Neon Hemlock
ARCs
- Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett (adult, space opera)
- A novella featuring a reincarnated emperor and an orgy keeping an eldritch horror at bay
- Efficiently packs several tropes and subversions in a such a short space
- Author interview went up on 10/27/2022
- The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayer (adult, science fiction)
- Bioethics meets a near future where octopi are being studied to understand nonhuman communication to nefarious ends
- I could not get passed the one they/them character being an android, sorry!
- The pacing also wasn’t even
- The Scratch Daughters (Scapegracers #2) by H.A. Clarke (YA, contemporary fantasy)
- The lesbian witches who are gay are back and more magical than ever, with a demon in tow
- Full of compassion, authentic friendship strife, and more spells
- You Fed Us to the Roses by Carlie St. George (adult, horror)
- A rad collection of tricks and treats for horror fans by someone with a genuine love for the genre
- Some stories play it straight, others subvert tropes
- Author interview went up on 10/18/2022
Audiobooks
- Empty Smiles (Small Spaces #4) by Katherine Arden (MG, horror, 2022)
- A collection of short stories that overall were rather hit or miss for me
- The titular story and a handful of others, however, slap
- Never Coming Home by Kate Williams (YA, thriller, 2022)
- And Then There Were None retelling with influencers
- Missed opportunity as far as the order in which the kills went plus the justification didn’t really work for me
- The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean (adult, non-fiction, 2010)
- If this is how the periodic table had been taught, maybe I’d remember more nuclear chemistry
- Engaging and thoughtfully arranged
- Lanny by Max Porter (adult, folk horror, 2021)
- Definitely a horror because a child goes missing and also there’s fae nonsense involved
- Incredible depiction of a small town and the mistrust of newcomers
Physical Copies
- Titus Groan (Gormenghast #1) by Mervyn Peake (adult, fantasy, 1946)
- A classic I am reading as part of my quest to write a horny goth novel
- Dense descriptions, unhinged characters, I get why this has stuck around all this time
- Warriors of God (The Hussite Trilogy #2) by Andrzej Sapkowski (adult, historical fantasy, 2022)
- Sapkowski continues to hate Reynevan in ways I have not experienced in fiction yet
- Epic scale battles with a laser focus on keeping the massive cast discrete despite multiply repeated names
Light Novels
- Boogiepop returns VS Imaginator Parts 1 & 2 by Kouhei Kadono & Kouji Ogata (horror, seinen, 2006)
- A prequel harkening back to Boogiepop’s first battles against other urban legends
- Seamlessly navigates multiple perspectives and masterfully comes together in the end
Manga
- Cat Massage Therapy Vol. 2-3 by Haru Hisakawa (slice-of-life comedy josei, 2022)
- The fluffy cuteness of cats running a massage parlor continues
- Excellent full-color art and some tension, but really, turn your brain off and relax with kitties (and puppies!)
- Dick Fight Island Vol 1 by Reibun Ike (fantasy, josei, 2021)
- A political system where the king is decided by duels where the first one who comes, loses
- Great dicks, great fights, 100% mindless, 10/10 no notes
- Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1-7 by Sui Ishida (horror, seinen, 2015-2016)
- All my brain zaps reactivated because this series pushes so many of my favorite buttons: horror, cannibalism, gray lines between morality
- Kaneki Ken did nothing wrong, I’m so excited to see what strange choices he makes in the rest of it
Jo Writes Fantasy 