TV #41 of 2024: The Umbrella Academy, season 1 This urban fantasy (I guess?) comic book adaptation has some interesting and/or entertaining characters, but it falters significantly throughout its first year in developing a compelling and coherent plot to actually showcase them for us. The stakes are a big issue here; once one person establishes …
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Book #145 of 2024: Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (Finlay Donovan #2) I’m still not totally hooked on this comedy-thriller series about a Northern Virginia suburban writer who gets mistaken for a hitwoman and caught up in some increasingly-convoluted organized crime, but I think this sequel does a nice job of continuing …
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Book #144 of 2024: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan (The Mirror Realm Cycle #1) A lovely fantasy debut, with major vibes of other tales I’ve adored from that genre like Strange the Dreamer or Spinning Silver. Like the latter, this is an #ownvoices Jewish novel, peppered with mentions of ketubahs and genizahs and more …
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Book #143 of 2024: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White YA horror / thriller author Andrew Joseph White’s third novel is unfortunately the first one that doesn’t wholly work for me, although I appreciate the continued #ownvoices trans and autistic representation. The strongest thing about this story, in fact, is the confidence in its characterization, …
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Book #142 of 2024: Doctor Who: Space Babies by Alison Rumfitt An okay novelization of an okay episode of Doctor Who. Unlike certain previous efforts in the same vein, this book doesn’t really provide many details or character insights beyond what’s already present on the screen, although it does amusingly add back in the early …
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Book #141 of 2024: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman As a genre, Arthuriana tends to be at its finest — with Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King remaining the absolute gold standard for me — when pitched as a tragedy, inviting us to invest in the glimmering dream of Camelot so that its …
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Book #140 of 2024: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Anna #1) I suspect I would have liked this horror tale better when I was younger, like if I had read it when it first came out back in 2011. (To be fair, it is marketed as YA, while I haven’t been a young …
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Book #139 of 2024: Flash Forward by Chris Archer (Mindwarp #7) Another propulsive installment of this 90s middle-grade science-fiction series, finally now firmly past its original formula of kid after kid turning thirteen, unlocking special powers, and facing off against a shapeshifting alien assassin. At this point, the core team of Ethan, Ashley, Jack, and …
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TV #40 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 14 Another strong year in the show’s Tom Baker era, notable for the exit of the Doctor’s companion Sarah Jane Smith (who’d been introduced during his predecessor’s tenure way back in season 11) and the debut of her replacement, the “savage” “primitive” Leela of the Sevateem. The …
Book #138 of 2024: Blitz by Daniel O’Malley (The Checquy Files #3) I have a lingering fondness for the Checquy, author Daniel O’Malley’s fictional and exceedingly dysfunctional British intelligence agency tasked with containing all threats of a magical nature, and I’m glad that this novel stands so apart from its predecessors, as it’s been over …
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