Culture Consumption: June 2024

Books

Thornhedge might be one of my favorite Kingfisher books — and that's saying a lot, because I've read so many of her books.

The novella reimagines "Sleeping Beauty" from the point of view of Toadling, a little fairy that can turn herself into a toad. Ages and ages ago she cast a spell to put a princess to sleep and, as the centuries pass by, stands guard to make sure no one wakes her — an event that would have terrible consequences. After ages of waiting, she meets a young and kind knight on a quest to solve the mistery of the thorn hedge, which forces Toadling to confront the past.

Thornhedge is an incredibly sweet story at heart, one of compassion and duty, and I loved every second of it.

Stitches is a collection of short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara and illustrations by Junji Ito. These folk tales relate the stories of people who have had strange and unsettling encounters with the spirits, portals, and other creatures from Japanese lore. While uncanny and frightening experiences, they are momentary glimpses into a world of hauntings and strange phenomena that the characters nevertheless walk away from to continue living their lives, so not every tale is necessarily frightening. Kigara us known for collecting ghost stories, and I love a good folk tale. The tales combined with Ito’s illustrations, which their own layer of disturbing beauty, makes this a great horror read.

Books Finished This Month:

1. Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

2. The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, and Tom Waltz

3. Stitches, short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara and illustrations by Junji Ito

4. My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Total Books for the Year: 22

Still in Progress at the End of the Month:

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier, Even Greater Mistakes: Stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Procedural Storytelling in Game Design edited by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams, The Source of Self Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches and Meditations by Toni Morrison, Wandering Games by Melissa Kagen Fullerton, and The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel.

Short Stories & Poetry

A selection of works I recently read in journals and online publications, with a few lines from the text shared here.

Horror Story: “The Body Remembers” by P.A. Cornell (PseudoPod):

Poem: “How to Look at Mexican Highways” by Mónica De La Torre (Poetry Foundation):

Flash Fiction: “To Kiss the Chrysanthemum Moon” by Wen Wen Yang (Interstellar Flight Magazine):

Poem: “Memory” by Peggy Landsman (The Ekphrastic Review):

Poem: “The Ever-Drowning” by Ren Powell:

Movies

Run Lola Run (aka Lola rennt), released in 1998, is a movie that I’ve seen many times before, but never saw on the big screen until this last month as part of the film’s 25th anniversary. The movie, which stars Franke Potente as the titular Lola, follows a simple premise: Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend, who lost the 100,000 marks owed to the local baddie. She has to run across town and attempt to get him the money in time to prevent something terrible happening. But as simple as that premise is, the execution is phenomenally innovative, using a variety of filmmaking styles — 35 mm film, video, and animation — along with frenetic editing and thrumming techno music to evoke the intensity of Lola’s race against time.

A quarter of a century later, and this film still blows my mind. Check out my full thoughts on Run Lola Run, published last month in The Ugly Monster.

New-to-Me Movies Watched Last Month:

1. Mirrors (2008)

Television

Adapted from a play written by Richard Gadd based on his actual life experiences, Baby Reindeer is the story of Donny Dunn, a man who feels caught in the web of his life. Aside from working at a local pub, he is also struggling to make a career as a comedian. In the midst of being mentally low and trying to figure out who he is, Donny is suddenly confronted with Martha Scott, a woman he shows kindness to out of pity — and that kindness leads her to showing up at his work on a daily basis. While at first, the attention feels somewhat affirming, the situation grows increasingly disturbing as Donny begins to realize that Martha is a known stalker who has turned his attentions on him.

What makes this show fantastic is how it presents the situation. Both Donny and Martha are struggling with emotional and/or mental struggles, and neither has much (if any) solid support system to help them through their troubles. So, although it’s painful to watch things play out the way they do, I find myself feeling incredibly sad for everyone involved, because their mistakes are so human. Baby Reindeer is a phenomenal show, and it’s one that I can only watch an episode at a time, because it makes me so tense every time I turn it on.

On a much lighter now, I watched Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which expands on the lives and youths of the older generation in the show — Queen Charlotte, Lady Agatha Danbury, and Lady Violet Bridgerton. In the present timeline, Queen Charlotte is confronted with the loss of her only grandchild, which means that her family has no royal heir to carry on the line. As a result, she goes on a rampage with her 15 children, demanding that they hurry up and produce an heir.

In the past — and arguably the heart of the series — we see Queen Charlotte and King George meet, marry, and fall in love with each other, while figuring out how to manage George’s mental health struggles. The show shows the layers of frustration and compassion and great love that they have with each other, along with their willingness to fight for their small fragments of happiness in whatever way they can.

I also really loved seeing Agatha and Violet connect with each other as adult women, as well as learning more about Agatha’s past and how much she hated her marriage. Agatha Danbury is a fierce woman, who fights for her place in the world and for those around her, both when young and when older. And this is why she is one of my all-time favorite characters.

I also finished the last few episodes of Bridgerton, season three. The series end was find — and I appreciated how they handled the reveal of Lady Whistledown — but it didn’t quite have the same romantic passion that I’d come to expect from previous seasons.

Games

Slay the Princess (Black Tabby Games) is a visual novel about a hero that needs to slay the princess locked in a basement in order to prevent the world from ending. The dark fantasy/horror visual novel features a branching narrative with phenomenal voice acting from Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight. As you play, there are options to slay the princess, attempt to save her, and occasionally to leave.

The way this story branches out, twists back in on itself, and expands into a stunning cosmic horror story is absolutely fantastic. There are so many surprising and interesting places this story goes. I’ve done a single play through so far, and I’m fully planning to play it through again to see more of the pathways. Apparently, an update is coming called the “Pristine Cut,” a free director’s cut with additional pathways and options, so I might wait for that.

My progress towards finishing The Outer Worlds (Obsidian Entertainment) has slowed significantly since I started taking a game writing class several weeks ago. I meant to be done with the game by now, but here we are.

I did, however, complete the Murder on Eridanos DLC, in which the player is invited to the Eridanos resort to look into the murder of a famous film star. While investigating, the player discovers a greater mystery involving people seeming to be possessed by strange worms, which either make them uncomfortably happy or turns them frenzied.

The DLC is fun with a solid amount of area to explore and plenty of side quests. It was definitely worth playing.

That's it for me! What are you reading? Watching? Loving right now?