Book #134 of 2022: The Night Shift by Alex Finlay An excellently twisty thriller in the Gillian Flynn fashion that’s kept me guessing throughout, with plenty of plausible culprits and a compelling group of protagonists striving to uncover the truth behind two identically horrific murder scenes, fifteen years apart (although the action mostly takes place …
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Book #133 of 2022: The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters A dark and powerful YA rural fantasy novel, complete with witchcraft, murders, monsters, a sapphic love story across small-town Georgia class divisions, and major southern gothic vibes. Our two teen protagonists are the sister of a wealthy missing girl and the daughter of a …
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TV #42 of 2022: Classic Doctor Who, season 3 Airing from 1965 to 1966, original Doctor William Hartnell’s last full year in the role marks a turbulent time for Doctor Who both off-screen and on-, as is perhaps best exemplified by the sheer volume of companion turnover: starting the season with Vicki and Steven and …
Book #132 of 2022: Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister This time-travel novel honestly struck me as a little gimmicky at first, and I’m not sure we ever do get to know the heroine’s son well enough for his actions in the opening chapter to make complete sense. But I found myself getting more …
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Book #131 of 2022: They Do It with Mirrors by Agatha Christie (Miss Marple #6) In this novel, also published under the title Murder with Mirrors, the elderly Miss Jane Marple goes to visit a childhood friend whose sister reports feeling vaguely worried about her situation, in part because the woman’s latest husband has turned …
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Book #130 of 2022: The Absolute by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #51) Another thrillingly propulsive installment of the ongoing Animorphs endgame. Since the Yeerks gained the alien cube that bestows morphing powers at the end of the previous story, this one immediately feels like no other volume before it in the saga. Though the team’s …
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Book #129 of 2022: Upgrade by Blake Crouch Unfortunately the weakest and least mind-bending of author Blake Crouch’s recent string of sci-fi thrillers. The premise here of gene-editing increasing a person’s intelligence to superhuman levels is too straightforwardly similar to so many other stories, from Flowers for Algernon to the movie Limitless to the Ted …
TV #41 of 2022: Bob’s Burgers, season 7 Here’s my original review of this season from when it aired in 2017: “There are typically few real surprises this late into a show’s run, and although this particular show is still making me laugh, I’d probably be okay if it got canceled. I’ve always loved how …
TV #40 of 2022: What We Do in the Shadows, season 3 Another hilarious and eventful year with the Staten Island vampire crew, this time taking a page from the final season of Angel and placing the heroes in charge of the organization that had previously been opposing them (although the delta of morality between …
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Book #128 of 2022: Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith by Adam Christopher This new Star Wars novel is intended as a bridge into the sequel trilogy of films, which means it’s unfortunately saddled with fleshing out some of the stranger plot decisions introduced by The Rise of Skywalker. So Rey’s parents are — spoiler …
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