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Good evening from the UK, a prolonged existential scream in the form of a country. I read/watched a lot this month while trying to avoid the week and a bit of compulsory mourning for the queen, and then normal service resumed, and that was worse somehow.
Anyway.
Books
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I remember there being a lot of hype around this novel of the many husbands (and one secret wife) of a golden age movie star, and I'm glad I let the hype die down before I got to it. The writing is solid, and the story is fun, although the "twist" at the end is bullshit, but, like, it's just fine.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister - This was another solid read. The main character witnesses her son stab someone to death and starts travelling backwards in time one day at a time looking for a way to stop it. It was good, but I suspect it might feel more novel if you read mostly crime/thrillers and wen't going ugh, more time travel.
Idol by Louise O'Neill - Now this is a book that's going to stick with me. I remember really enjoying Louise O'Neill's YA books years ago, and this has the same surface gloss that hides a darkness so thick it could choke you. In it a wellness influencer (blech) writes an op-ed about having hooking up with one of her female friends as a teenager, but the friend in question doesn't remember the encounter as being consensual. The whole thing becomes a mediation of lies; the lies we tell to control our image, the lies we tell to protect ourselves, and the lies we tell so often that we don't even realise that they are lies.
Star Trek Picard: Second Self by Una McCormack - I was extremely cool as a young teenager, I know this because every week I used to spend my pocket money on one (1) Star Trek tie in novel. Many of these were Not Good. Not so with this one, it is excellent, not only does it flesh out Raffi's character in a much needed way but it's an excellent Garak story, and I say this as someone who doesn't like Cardassians and is...less invested in Garak that pretty much everyone else.
I don't know what I'll read next, I am oddly tempted by Nona the Ninth even though Harrow the Ninth made me Physically Angry.
Telly
Yellowjackets - I stumbled into a month's free trial of Paramount+, and my first thought (after that it has a terrible interface) is that there is not a month's worth of stuff that I wanted to watch on there, so I just watched Yellowjackets. I hadn't paid any attention when it was first airing because I don't have that channel, so I managed to go in spoiler free, and holy shit it was amazing! It's about a 90s girls soccer team who survive a plane crash in the middle of nowhere and maaaybe become a cult of cannibals (not a spoiler, happens in the first five minutes, omg) While we're waiting with bated breath for S2 what are your theories?
Harley Quinn S3 - Still a good, solid, fun show. I was delighted that they went so hard on Harley/Ivy as they've been Schrodinger's couple in the comics for ages now. I was a little surprised that it got a S4, especially in the middle of WB's smash and grab, but yippee!
Movies
Everything Everywhere All At Once - I really wanted to see this when it came out, but it wasn't showing at any cinema near me at times I could make - bloody shift work - but I finally got to see it on streaming, and although it was probably not as good as it would have been on the big screen, it was still brilliant. And weird. It was so deeply, deeply, delightfully weird. I had no idea. I did get a good laugh out of Evelyn's best possible life in the multiverse just being like...imagine if you were Michelle Yeoh.
New Mutants - I did not...hate watching this, much as I would probably not have hated watching the opening two parter of an indifferent and soon to be cancelled CW show, which is basically what this was, down to the obligatory teenaged lesbians. It would have been interesting to see what this movie was originally meant to be, because I can't imagine that this is what they were going for.
Thor: Love and Thunder - I think I am officially done seeing MCU films at the cinema, they all come to Disney+ so quickly, and they are all basically the same film (in a good way, mostly.) Love and Thunder was cute, The Mighty Thor was the first comic I read so it was cool to see live action Jane!Thor. It wasn't as good as Ragnarok but it wasn't ever going to be because it was never going to take people by surprise in the same way. It did feel a little disjointed, like maybe there had been a different version of it at some point, especially with regards to Val basically disappearing at the two thirds mark, and some stuff could have done with being fleshed out more (everything to do with Jane, basically.) But the thing about the sameyness of the MCU films is that they all meet basic quality standards. I did laugh/cringe at all of those interviews where the people involved were asked if it was queer and just had to vamp for time, saying a lot of words that basically amounted to 'Disney said no.'
Anyway.
Books
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I remember there being a lot of hype around this novel of the many husbands (and one secret wife) of a golden age movie star, and I'm glad I let the hype die down before I got to it. The writing is solid, and the story is fun, although the "twist" at the end is bullshit, but, like, it's just fine.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister - This was another solid read. The main character witnesses her son stab someone to death and starts travelling backwards in time one day at a time looking for a way to stop it. It was good, but I suspect it might feel more novel if you read mostly crime/thrillers and wen't going ugh, more time travel.
Idol by Louise O'Neill - Now this is a book that's going to stick with me. I remember really enjoying Louise O'Neill's YA books years ago, and this has the same surface gloss that hides a darkness so thick it could choke you. In it a wellness influencer (blech) writes an op-ed about having hooking up with one of her female friends as a teenager, but the friend in question doesn't remember the encounter as being consensual. The whole thing becomes a mediation of lies; the lies we tell to control our image, the lies we tell to protect ourselves, and the lies we tell so often that we don't even realise that they are lies.
Star Trek Picard: Second Self by Una McCormack - I was extremely cool as a young teenager, I know this because every week I used to spend my pocket money on one (1) Star Trek tie in novel. Many of these were Not Good. Not so with this one, it is excellent, not only does it flesh out Raffi's character in a much needed way but it's an excellent Garak story, and I say this as someone who doesn't like Cardassians and is...less invested in Garak that pretty much everyone else.
I don't know what I'll read next, I am oddly tempted by Nona the Ninth even though Harrow the Ninth made me Physically Angry.
Telly
Yellowjackets - I stumbled into a month's free trial of Paramount+, and my first thought (after that it has a terrible interface) is that there is not a month's worth of stuff that I wanted to watch on there, so I just watched Yellowjackets. I hadn't paid any attention when it was first airing because I don't have that channel, so I managed to go in spoiler free, and holy shit it was amazing! It's about a 90s girls soccer team who survive a plane crash in the middle of nowhere and maaaybe become a cult of cannibals (not a spoiler, happens in the first five minutes, omg) While we're waiting with bated breath for S2 what are your theories?
Harley Quinn S3 - Still a good, solid, fun show. I was delighted that they went so hard on Harley/Ivy as they've been Schrodinger's couple in the comics for ages now. I was a little surprised that it got a S4, especially in the middle of WB's smash and grab, but yippee!
Movies
Everything Everywhere All At Once - I really wanted to see this when it came out, but it wasn't showing at any cinema near me at times I could make - bloody shift work - but I finally got to see it on streaming, and although it was probably not as good as it would have been on the big screen, it was still brilliant. And weird. It was so deeply, deeply, delightfully weird. I had no idea. I did get a good laugh out of Evelyn's best possible life in the multiverse just being like...imagine if you were Michelle Yeoh.
New Mutants - I did not...hate watching this, much as I would probably not have hated watching the opening two parter of an indifferent and soon to be cancelled CW show, which is basically what this was, down to the obligatory teenaged lesbians. It would have been interesting to see what this movie was originally meant to be, because I can't imagine that this is what they were going for.
Thor: Love and Thunder - I think I am officially done seeing MCU films at the cinema, they all come to Disney+ so quickly, and they are all basically the same film (in a good way, mostly.) Love and Thunder was cute, The Mighty Thor was the first comic I read so it was cool to see live action Jane!Thor. It wasn't as good as Ragnarok but it wasn't ever going to be because it was never going to take people by surprise in the same way. It did feel a little disjointed, like maybe there had been a different version of it at some point, especially with regards to Val basically disappearing at the two thirds mark, and some stuff could have done with being fleshed out more (everything to do with Jane, basically.) But the thing about the sameyness of the MCU films is that they all meet basic quality standards. I did laugh/cringe at all of those interviews where the people involved were asked if it was queer and just had to vamp for time, saying a lot of words that basically amounted to 'Disney said no.'