November Happiness
Nov. 25th, 2025 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingHere are a few books + games + zines that made me happy this month:
A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami
While trying to cope with the general state of the world (is this depression?) this month, I did a guilty-pleasure re-read of one of my favorite Murakami novels. Unlike many Murakami stories, the ending of A Wild Sheep Chase actually makes sense, and the protagonist has an actual character arc instead of being a sadsack the whole way through. Also I want to camp out at a farmhouse in rural Hokkaido and read novels and bake bread and talk to ghosts. That sounds lovely.
Nocturnos, by Laura Pérez
Laura Pérez is one of my favorite contemporary illustrators; and, while Nocturnos definitely reads like a graphic novel, it also feels like a series of illustrations on the theme of “night.” It’s literary and a bit surreal, but also gorgeous and emotionally resonant. Very beautiful work.
Alley, by Junji Ito
This is one of the many Junji Ito short story collections to have come out in recent years, but I really like this one. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Junji Ito, but this book in particular is focused on the Japanese version of “suburban gothic,” and more specifically the liminal spaces made possible by zoning regulations that allow for weird gaps in densely populated areas. I especially love the story “Town of No Roads,” which is about a suburban neighborhood that gradually walls itself in and becomes a giant labyrinth.
Horror in Architecture, by Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing
This is an academic book, but the scholarship is kind of all over the place. Instead of making a linear argument, the authors are just musing on various horror tropes and brainstorming how they might apply to architecture. I really like the chapter on ruins (because of course I do), but there’s all sorts of interesting stuff here. The chapters are short, and there are tons of photos.
Dorotea, by Pasquale Pignataro
Dorotea is a ten-minute, free-to-play Game Boy game about museums, archive horror, and monsters, and it’s a lot of fun. I wrote a short review of the game (here) on Dreamwidth, and I also posted the same review (here) on my public-facing blog if you want a version with pictures.
Hunter’s Mark: A Bloodborne Fanzine
This was such an amazing project. Anyone who signed up could participate, but all the art and writing in the zine is extremely impressive. Some of my favorite FromSoft writers contributed, as did a number of my favorite Bloodborne artists. My own story (on AO3 here) about the scholars of Byrgenwerth College is appropriately Lovecraftian, if I do say so myself. The zine is free to download on Itch.io (here) if you’d like to indulge in some gothic horror over the holidays.
Another thing about the zine: the vibes on the Discord server were remarkably mellow and supportive. I'm always impressed by how wholesome and well-adjusted and friendly horror writers are. Cheers to good people writing fucked-up fiction. 🍻
A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami
While trying to cope with the general state of the world (is this depression?) this month, I did a guilty-pleasure re-read of one of my favorite Murakami novels. Unlike many Murakami stories, the ending of A Wild Sheep Chase actually makes sense, and the protagonist has an actual character arc instead of being a sadsack the whole way through. Also I want to camp out at a farmhouse in rural Hokkaido and read novels and bake bread and talk to ghosts. That sounds lovely.
Nocturnos, by Laura Pérez
Laura Pérez is one of my favorite contemporary illustrators; and, while Nocturnos definitely reads like a graphic novel, it also feels like a series of illustrations on the theme of “night.” It’s literary and a bit surreal, but also gorgeous and emotionally resonant. Very beautiful work.
Alley, by Junji Ito
This is one of the many Junji Ito short story collections to have come out in recent years, but I really like this one. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Junji Ito, but this book in particular is focused on the Japanese version of “suburban gothic,” and more specifically the liminal spaces made possible by zoning regulations that allow for weird gaps in densely populated areas. I especially love the story “Town of No Roads,” which is about a suburban neighborhood that gradually walls itself in and becomes a giant labyrinth.
Horror in Architecture, by Joshua Comaroff and Ong Ker-Shing
This is an academic book, but the scholarship is kind of all over the place. Instead of making a linear argument, the authors are just musing on various horror tropes and brainstorming how they might apply to architecture. I really like the chapter on ruins (because of course I do), but there’s all sorts of interesting stuff here. The chapters are short, and there are tons of photos.
Dorotea, by Pasquale Pignataro
Dorotea is a ten-minute, free-to-play Game Boy game about museums, archive horror, and monsters, and it’s a lot of fun. I wrote a short review of the game (here) on Dreamwidth, and I also posted the same review (here) on my public-facing blog if you want a version with pictures.
Hunter’s Mark: A Bloodborne Fanzine
This was such an amazing project. Anyone who signed up could participate, but all the art and writing in the zine is extremely impressive. Some of my favorite FromSoft writers contributed, as did a number of my favorite Bloodborne artists. My own story (on AO3 here) about the scholars of Byrgenwerth College is appropriately Lovecraftian, if I do say so myself. The zine is free to download on Itch.io (here) if you’d like to indulge in some gothic horror over the holidays.
Another thing about the zine: the vibes on the Discord server were remarkably mellow and supportive. I'm always impressed by how wholesome and well-adjusted and friendly horror writers are. Cheers to good people writing fucked-up fiction. 🍻
no subject
Date: 2025-11-26 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-29 02:58 pm (UTC)I was going to post a negative book review on my blog this week, but I stopped halfway through and deleted the document so I wasn't tempted to finish it. It's a truly shit book, but also.
It literally keeps me awake at night to think about how the federal government just gutted public healthcare even as it's in the process of destroying the CDC. They also cancelled the vast majority of funding for NASA, which is going to put an abrupt end to international projects that have been decades in the making.
Nobody needs to read a snarky book review right now, and I certainly don't need to write one. There's a time to be critical of entertainment media, but now is not that time. Joy is so important right now.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-01 11:15 pm (UTC)