Movie #5 of 2022: Encanto (2021) Disney’s 60th animated feature is a real breath of fresh air, breaking from the studio’s usual patterns in a few startlingly welcome ways. The heroine doesn’t just have two living parents: she has a whole household full of siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins too, a rowdy ensemble …
Tag Archives: five stars
TV Review: Station Eleven, season 1
TV #4 of 2022: Station Eleven, season 1 Nearly two years into a real-life pandemic — one which delayed this very production — it’s maybe hard to believe that a tale about that sort of devastation and its aftermath could register as remotely feel-good. And the general premise here, of a roving troupe of Shakespearean …
Movie Review: Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks (2022)
Movie #2 of 2022: Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks (2022) This standalone adventure is Doctor Who at its absolute best. The premise of a steadily-shortening time loop, while not totally original, is still fairly distinctive, and is executed here with great aplomb, alternating humor with tense terror via the ticking clock of the countdown. …
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Book Review: Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott
Book #374 of 2021: Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott This pseudonymous (and therefore non-mystery) Agatha Christie novel from 1944 is my favorite thing I’ve read from her yet, under either byline. It’s a deceptively simple tale on its face: a middle-aged Englishwoman, delayed as the only passenger at a desert waystation whilst returning …
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TV Review: ReBoot, season 3
TV #85 of 2021: ReBoot, season 3 An absolute delight, all the way through to that daft but earned Penzance recap number that closes everything out. This run starts right where the last one left off (although a year and a half had passed for viewers), and it continues the strong streak of serialized plot …
Book Review: People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn
Book #326 of 2021: People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn Although relatively short, this new essay collection by Jewish author Dara Horn literally took my breath away. I gasped, and I sobbed, and I felt incredibly, reassuringly seen. She cuts straight to the heart of life in the modern …
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Book Review: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
Book #322 of 2021: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance #2) An improvement on A Deadly Education, which I already enjoyed quite a lot. This sequel returns us to the Scholomance, that magic boarding school / honeypot in a pocket dimension of Lovecraftian space where the students are prey to all manner of …
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Book Review: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by K. A. Applegate
Book #295 of 2021: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs Chronicles #2) This prequel is the richest and most complex entry in the Animorphs franchise yet, even more so than The Andalite Chronicles, which I believe was the last time in this series reread that I ventured that claim. It’s also the earliest …
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Book Review: The Solution by K. A. Applegate
Book #289 of 2021: The Solution by K. A. Applegate (Animorphs #22) [Note — this review is more spoiler-heavy than usual! It was too hard to discuss this volume without getting into specifics.] A chilling end to the saga of David, the reluctant recruit who has gradually blossomed over the course of this trilogy into …
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Book Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Book #288 of 2021: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1) This #ownvoices sci-fi / fantasy debut is going to appear on many best-of-2021 lists, my own very much included. Loosely based on the only female emperor in Chinese history, it’s the powerfully intimate tale of a girl raised in a society that …
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The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more 