Book #154 of 2024: The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Welcome to Night Vale #3) This is not a very Night Vale-centric novel. I mean that both in the literal sense — it’s an origin story for the titular character, most of which isn’t even …
Author Archives: Joe Kessler
Book Review: Doctor Who: 73 Yards by Scott Handcock
Book #153 of 2024: Doctor Who: 73 Yards by Scott Handcock One of the better episodes from the latest season of Doctor Who unsurprisingly produces an excellent novelization in the hands of author Scott Handcock, who also serves as script editor for the TV series. This book channels the unsettling folk horror of the original …
Continue reading “Book Review: Doctor Who: 73 Yards by Scott Handcock”
Book Review: The Waiting by Michael Connelly
Book #152 of 2024: The Waiting by Michael Connelly (Ballard and Bosch #5) As usual for author Michael Connelly’s stories about now-retired LAPD cop Harry Bosch and his extended network of supporting characters, this latest title juggles several subplots, mostly in the form of active police investigations. Since the protagonist here is Renée Ballard, that …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Waiting by Michael Connelly”
Book Review: Stories to Keep You Alive Despite Vampires by Ben Acker
Book #151 of 2024: Stories to Keep You Alive Despite Vampires by Ben Acker I picked up this short story collection on the strength of author Ben Acker’s writing for the Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast / stage show series, and I can confirm there’s a similar cleverness propelling many of its loosely interconnected entries and …
Continue reading “Book Review: Stories to Keep You Alive Despite Vampires by Ben Acker”
Book Review: Face the Fear by Chris Archer
Book #150 of 2024: Face the Fear by Chris Archer (Mindwarp #8) This installment of the 90s middle-grade Mindwarp series moves the larger story forward, but as the second volume in a row to take place entirely in the dystopian future, it doesn’t feel especially distinctive. There’s less worldbuilding on display too, with the majority …
Continue reading “Book Review: Face the Fear by Chris Archer”
Book Review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
Book #149 of 2024: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig This is a novel that starts off on the wrong foot, bites off way more than it can chew, and ultimately fails to develop any of its ideas into anything distinctive for the genre. It’s by far the worst of the five titles I’ve now …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig”
Book Review: Orca by Steven Brust
Book #148 of 2024: Orca by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #7) This 1996 fantasy novel finds its reformed antihero still in fugitive drifter mode, on the run from his former employers rather than working for them as an assassin-for-hire and district crime boss. It’s about a year after the events of book #6 Athyra, and …
Book Review: The Pairing by by Casey McQuiston
Book #147 of 2024: The Pairing by by Casey McQuiston Four years ago, childhood-best-friends-turned-adult-sweethearts Kit (he/him) and Theo (they/she, as we eventually learn) broke up on the eve of a three-week romantic food and wine tour across Europe. With the voucher about to expire, Theo decides to finally go on the vacation solo, only to …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Pairing by by Casey McQuiston”
TV Review: Archer’s Goon, season 1
TV #42 of 2024: Archer’s Goon, season 1 I won’t lie and say that it’s great television, but for anyone who loves the 1984 Diana Wynne Jones children’s fantasy novel, this six-part 1992 adaptation is a neat way to revisit the story. If anything, it’s faithful to a fault: hardly adding any new material to …
Book Review: Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard
Book #146 of 2024: Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard (Greenwing & Dart #5) After several false starts, I’m delighted to report that this series has finally reached the level I had expected from the other titles in author Victoria Goddard’s wider Nine Worlds saga. Every previous Greenwing & Dart installment carried clear potential and a share …
Continue reading “Book Review: Love-in-a-Mist by Victoria Goddard”
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 