Book #121 of 2025: Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy The premise of a broke ex-con getting hired by an anonymous benefactor to become a hitman has distinct potential, but the story that follows is unfortunately pretty dreadful throughout. Part of the problem is the obnoxious protagonist, who has no clear redeeming features that I can identify. …
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Book Review: The Guest List by Lucy Foley
Book #120 of 2025: The Guest List by Lucy Foley A good plot twist should feel surprising in the moment but almost inevitable in hindsight, and there are several such developments woven throughout this wicked thriller about a disastrous wedding off the coast of Ireland. Other readers have compared this 2020 novel to an Agatha …
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Book Review: Doctor Who: Fear Death by Water by Emily Cook
Book #119 of 2025: Doctor Who: Fear Death by Water by Emily Cook This adventure finds the Fifteenth Doctor traveling by himself, sometime after the events of Joy to the World (and presumably before The Robot Revolution, when Belinda Chandra joins the crew). It’s in that sub-genre of Doctor Who stories where the time-traveller meets …
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Book Review: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
Book #118 of 2025: The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks Big on vibes but short on plot, unfortunately. I was fine with the worldbuilding remaining a bit mysterious early on, but there never really are many concrete details for us to latch onto. Instead we have a generic alternate history of …
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TV Review: Ballard, season 1
TV #39 of 2025: Ballard, season 1 Bosch and Bosch: Legacy have both wrapped up after a combined ten seasons, but the franchise survives in the form of this latest entry, whose protagonist was introduced in the final episode of the latter series. She’s a detective working cold cases for the LAPD, and her new …
TV Review: Derry Girls, season 1
TV #38 of 2025: Derry Girls, season 1 There’s some great specificity to this sitcom about a group of teenagers in Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the 1990s, but six half-hour episodes isn’t quite enough space for the first season to find its footing. I’m also not a huge fan of how all the …
Book Review: The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne
Book #117 of 2025: The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne Author Rickey Fayne’s debut novel is an ambitious and challenging text that unfortunately loses me structurally as it goes along. It’s a multigenerational tale spanning almost two centuries, which is an approach I’ve enjoyed in other works. Here, however, the handoff isn’t a clean …
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Book Review: Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin
Book #116 of 2025: Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin This is a slow-paced and largely plot-free example of slice-of-life storytelling — sort of the literary fiction equivalent of the cozy fantasy genre, I suppose. Usually in tales with this type of premise, where a protagonist returns to their estranged family, I’d expect …
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Book Review: Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander
Book #115 of 2025: Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander Mixed feelings on this one, though I appreciate the #ownvoices Jewish elements. I think a condensed version of the plot could have been effective as a short story, but it’s too thin for a full-fledged novel, with the transition between the protagonist in the past and the …
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Book Review: Hex and the City by Simon R. Green
Book #114 of 2025: Hex and the City by Simon R. Green (Nightside #4) A largely forgettable urban fantasy sequel, featuring a bland supporting cast and case of the week. On the former side, the protagonist has a new roster of temporary sidekicks, none of whom I can recall ever appearing again after this: Madman, …
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