Wordsmithonia

Two Week Hiatus

2026-04-05T14:19:52.824-05:00

I’ve been dealing with eye strain and general tiredness for a few months now, which is part of the reason my posting has slowed down a bit lately.

So I’m taking a two-week break from screens. Unfortunately, I can’t avoid them at work, but outside of that I’m putting the tablet down completely. No social media, no games, no email, nothing that tempts me to pick it up.

Because of that, I won’t be doing any blogging during those two weeks.

I’ll see y’all in a couple of weeks.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Philippa Georgiou

2026-04-01T20:36:00.003-05:00

Since I’m almost finished with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, tonight felt like the perfect time to post about my favorite character from the show that came before it, Star Trek: Discovery.

I knew exactly who I wanted to feature. I even started typing her name in the title — then I changed my mind. Not because I didn’t want to write about her. I did. Promise. But someone else kept whispering that she should be the one instead. Smarter. Stronger. More interesting than anyone else on the show. She also insisted on being given the deference and respect her status as a former Emperor of the Terran Empire allows.

Honestly, it’s probably for the best. Even though Discovery isn’t my favorite — that honor still belongs to Star Trek: Enterprise — it has a lot of characters I really enjoyed. Given that, I think April might be the month I focus entirely on my favorite members of the Discovery crew.

So, before she decides to take me out, may I present Philippa Georgiou: Starfleet captain, Terran Emperor, Section 31 agent, time traveler, and one of the most complicated characters I’ve come across in science fiction — or any genre, for that matter.

When viewers first meet her, she’s the wise, compassionate captain of the USS Shenzhou. We don’t get nearly enough time with her before she’s killed by the Klingons.

The second meeting doesn’t go as well.

This time, she’s the despotic Emperor of the Terran Empire in a mirror universe defined by cruelty and violence — a world where a daughter might kill her mother for not being bloodthirsty enough. When she’s pulled into our reality, that’s when things really get interesting.

She is not a nice person. She’s arrogant, vain, selfish, and lethal, with the empathy of the devil himself. She’s probably responsible for more deaths than any other main character in Star Trek. And yet, I can’t help but love her.

As the series progresses, those edges soften — just slightly. She begins to experience doubt and uncertainty, maybe for the first time in her life. There are flashes of regret. Moments — brief, almost imperceptible — where something like compassion slips through. And if anyone notices, the sharp tongue comes right back out to put them in their place.

Philippa is all of those things. But she’s also someone capable of loving one person so fiercely that she allows herself to change just enough not to lose them. It may be selfish, but it’s also nuanced — and, in its own way, self-sacrificing.

And the fact that Michelle Yeoh was never nominated for an Emmy for this role is a travesty.

What I'm Currently Reading

2026-03-30T21:14:00.003-05:00

A Plague on Both Your Houses by Susanna Gregory is a historical mystery set in 1348 Cambridge, at the start of the Black Death. I’ve been trying to remember what put this book on my radar, as it’s not something I would normally pick up, but I am enjoying it so far.

Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono is a collection of short stories she wrote between 1961 and 1971. I picked this up because a character in another book I was reading was reading it. Don’t ask me which book, because I truly don’t remember. I’m enjoying it, but I do feel like I’m missing something by not being able to read it in the original Japanese.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is one I’m still reading, as I’m deliberately taking my time with it because I want to relish every moment.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is the other one I’m taking my time with — mostly because every time I pick it up, I read a page or two, lose interest, and put it right back down. Maybe I’ll finish it by December.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

2026-03-28T23:35:00.005-05:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who's left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she's not alone. For more than a decade she's been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapists in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynette's worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

The very first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Dawn of the Dead. My mom loved it, so when it was rereleased years later, she took me along. I saw Creepshow at the drive-in, but had to turn around and watch The Sword in the Stone on another screen during one particular scene that will remain unspoken.

I grew up on horror: Children of the Corn, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween. These weren’t just movies, they were lessons in survival, in what it means to be the one who makes it out. One of the first movies I saw on my own was Bad Dreams, and that giant fan scene has lived rent-free in my brain ever since, a moment I still haven’t quite shaken.

I’m laying all of this out so you understand exactly where I’m coming from. I loved The Final Girl Support Group.

This book reads like the twisted sequel to every slasher I’ve ever seen — not the movies themselves, but what happens after the credits roll. The five women at its center survived everything the genre throws at you: summer camp massacres, sorority house bloodbaths, a home invasion that wiped out an entire family, miles of road turned into a moving nightmare. And then there’s Lynette — the book’s version of Laurie Strode — a woman shaped by a killer who tore through her town and left her to live in the aftermath. If you’ve seen the recent Halloween trilogy, you already understand what that kind of survival does to a person.

In the wrong hands, this could have been a straightforward slasher novel, something predictable, something easy to put down. In the hands of Grady Hendrix, it becomes something sharper and more deliberate. He shifts the focus from the violence itself to what lingers after it, memory, damage, and the way the past refuses to stay buried.

Because if horror teaches you anything, it’s that the past is never really dead.

Challenges: Cloak and Dagger

Favorite Fictional Character --- Lexington

2026-03-25T20:42:00.011-05:00

It may be telling that so many of the fictional characters I've been featuring over the last several months come from cartoons. After books, cartoons were where I could get lost in storytelling, forgetting everything else going on in my life — think safety blanket, or blankie for short. As I got older, that dependency shifted into something else. Cartoons became a source of enjoyment first, escapism second. So yeah, I was still watching cartoons in high school.

And while I’m not going through a ton right now, there are a lot of changes at work, and I’m having to challenge myself and what I want moving forward, which is causing a little more stress than usual. That’s probably what’s led me back to revisiting the cartoons from my youth.

Today’s character is from a cartoon that debuted in 1994, the same year I graduated from high school, and I adored him from the beginning. For those of you unfamiliar with Gargoyles, the show follows a Scottish clan of gargoyles who find themselves magically transported from the tenth century to modern-day New York, or at least what was modern day three decades ago. They’re charged with protecting the city from threats, both old and new.

Lexington, the tiny green one, grabbed onto this new opportunity with gusto. He was fascinated by modern technology and dove into it headfirst. He taught himself so well he became a hacker extraordinaire, able to break into almost any security system. He also enjoys the fun side of tech, especially video games. If you need a new motorcycle, he can build one for you — just don’t let him test drive it.

Of all the clan, Lexington adapted to his new reality the quickest, and I think I loved him so much because I hoped some of his openness to new environments would rub off on me, especially as I was preparing to move out of state for college. I’m not sure it did, but I appreciated the inspiration all the same.

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

2026-03-22T22:04:00.000-05:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

After the terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themselves heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell something is not quite right in their home...or in their dreams.

Let me tell you a story, and if it gets too long, you can skip it. Promise. One of the few places my mom stopped long enough, as we moved more times than I can count — pre-carnival years — was Salem, OR. We lived there for at least a full year before moving further north, but that’s not the story. The house we lived in is.

It was a yellowish beige house on the corner of State St. and some random street I don’t remember the name of. It dead-ended at a railroad track, if that helps anyone place it. Salem wasn’t the safest area to live in the mid-1980s, and our neighborhood was pretty rough… but that’s not really the point.

This little, unassuming house was odd from the start. I had never sleepwalked before, but I started within the first week of living there. The attic opened into the garage, and if you threw a rock up there, it came back down a few minutes later. My mom kept our dog in the garage — not the attic — and it would go absolutely insane, barking up at the attic like its soul was in jeopardy.

One night, some kids from the neighborhood were spending the night, camped out in the living room, when we all heard what sounded like a power saw starting up in the attic. There wasn’t a kid there who didn’t bolt for home. Then there’s the time I watched a crutch travel across a wall in my mom’s bedroom. That one stuck with me.

Needless to say, my mom did a little digging, and while I won’t go into the details, that house had every right to be haunted.

I’m not here to convince you that ghosts are real or that haunted houses exist. I’m just telling you all of that so you understand why I love haunted house stories as much as I do. You’d think an experience like that would’ve sent me running in the opposite direction, but it did the exact opposite. I can’t get enough of them — especially when they lean more Gothic, like What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher.

When I realized the sequel to What Moves the Dead was set in a haunted hunting lodge, I was basically screaming in delight like a six-year-old at a My Little Pony birthday party.

I loved What Moves the Dead so much that, despite all that excitement, I was a little hesitant going into this one. I was worried a second outing with Alex — which still somehow doesn’t involve us sitting down for tea — wouldn’t live up to my probably overinflated expectations.

Thankfully, Kingfisher didn’t let me down. I enjoyed the hell out of this.

I tore through this in one sitting, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get under my skin a little. There’s a slow, suffocating dread here that just keeps building until you realize you’ve been holding your breath right along with Alex. That dread comes through most in how the haunting itself plays out.

The way she crafts this haunting genuinely got under my skin. Alex is attacked by a vengeful spirit that literally steals their breath as they sleep, slowly wearing down their already fever-racked body. And as if that isn’t bad enough, they’re trapped in a nightmarish dreamscape that forces them to relive the worst atrocities they experienced during the war — along with all the guilt and regret that comes with it. To fight back, Alex has to work through those memories head-on instead of avoiding them, which makes this feel more personal.

Maybe that’s why this worked so well for me. That house in Salem never really left me — that feeling that something is there, just out of sight, but very real. This book taps into that same kind of quiet, creeping dread.

Some haunted houses try to scare you.

This one feels a little too much like home.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Captain Caveman

2026-03-18T20:26:00.003-05:00

"Caaaptain Caaaavemaaaan!"

I was that kid who would plop himself down on his grandparents’ living room floor — even when they had brand new white carpet — turn on the USA Network, and get lost in USA Cartoon Express for an hour or two, depending on the day. The vast majority of the cartoons came out in the 1970s, but that never mattered to me. I could watch Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Herculoids, Thundarr the Barbarian, Space Ghost, Jabberjaw, and the rest of the gang just as easily as I watched newer shows like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Shirt Tales, Kissyfur, and The Wuzzles. If it was a cartoon, I was all in. It didn’t matter how old it was or when it originally aired — if it was animated, it had my full attention.

One of the shows I loved most was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. If you’ve never seen it, think a mix of Scooby-Doo and Charlie’s Angels, with the addition of a caveman accidentally thawed from a block of ice by three teen girls. Cavey quickly joins them, and before long, he’s right there alongside Dee Dee, Brenda, and Taffy as they travel around solving mysteries and catching the bad guys.

There was something about Cavey — ridiculous as he was — that stuck with me. Between his Cousin Itt-like appearance, his “Me Tarzan, you Jane” way of speaking, and powers that never quite worked the way they were supposed to, he shouldn’t have worked as well as he did. And yet he did. He never gave up. No matter how often things went wrong, he would shake it off and keep going, completely content with the life he had found with the Teen Angels.

They only solved mysteries for 40 episodes, but those adventures have stuck with me far longer than that. It’s still one of those shows I find myself going back to every now and then — not just for the nostalgia, but for the simple joy it always managed to bring with it.

Trust: America's Best Chance by Pete Buttigieg

2026-03-15T14:24:00.002-05:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Trust is essential to the foundation of America’s democracy, asserts Pete Buttigieg, the former presidential candidate and South Bend mayor. Yet, in a century warped by terrorism, financial collapse, Trumpist populism, systemic racism, and now a global pandemic, trust has been squandered, sacrificed, abused, stolen, or never properly built in the first place. And now, more so than ever before, Americans must work side by side to reckon with the monumental challenges posed by our present moment.

Interweaving history, political philosophy, and affecting passages of memoir, Buttigieg explores the strong relationship between measures of prosperity and levels of social trust. He provides an impassioned account of a threefold crisis of trust: in our institutions, in each other, and in the American project itself. Today, these perilous patterns of distrust have wreaked havoc on nearly every sector of society, as Americans increasingly resent the very government that needs to be part of the solution. With the internet and partisan television networks acting as accelerants, Americans jettison any sense of shared reality, lose confidence in experts and scientists, and cope with the grim national tragedy of a pandemic that has only further exemplified the lethality of distrust.

Buttigieg contends that our success, or failure, at confronting the greatest challenges of the decade―racial and economic justice, pandemic resilience, and climate action―will rest on whether we can effectively cultivate, deepen, and, where necessary, repair the networks of trust that are now endangered, or for so many, have never even existed.

I’ve admired Pete Buttigieg for quite a while now, and reading Trust only deepened that admiration. During his presidential campaign, he and his husband Chasten carried themselves with a level of dignity and respect that often feels rare in modern politics. Even in a very intense national spotlight, they remained gracious, grounded, and consistently decent. As a gay man, that meant a lot to me then, and it still does now.

What stands out most in Trust is how clearly Buttigieg explains the growing crisis of mistrust in our institutions — and how complicated the reasons for that mistrust actually are. He writes about the erosion of confidence in government, the news media, and other institutions that shape our public life, and he does so thoughtfully rather than defensively. If I’m being honest, it’s one of the most balanced discussions of the issue I’ve read, and that approach really resonated with me.

He is also careful to acknowledge that mistrust didn’t simply appear out of nowhere. In many cases it was earned — particularly among marginalized communities that have historically been excluded, ignored, or even harmed by the very institutions now asking for their trust. At the same time, he addresses the rise of purposeful misinformation and how it has deepened existing fractures. In many ways, that deliberate misinformation feels like pouring gasoline on a fire that was already burning.

When I finished Trust, I felt that the problem he describes is serious but not hopeless. Buttigieg clearly believes our democratic institutions are worth repairing, and I appreciated his willingness to engage the issue directly. The country could use more leaders willing to do that — and honestly, I’m begging him to run for president again someday.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Charles "Trip" Tucker III

2026-03-11T22:10:00.003-05:00

I’m going to apologize in advance if this ends up being a little rambling as I’m currently dealing with a medication change from gabapentin to Lyrica. The brain fog is real and I'm ridiculously tired — all I want to do is lie down and watch TV until I fall asleep.

Lately I've been binging Star Trek shows, which is not a series I've ever been all that interested in. I kept reading a certain segment of the fandom is melting down because of Starfleet Academy, so I gave the first two episodes a try, and I'm now hooked. I loved it so much that I decided to watch all of the shows in chronological order. I started with Star Trek: Enterprise, and now I’m finishing up Star Trek: Discovery.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I've never been an actual fan of the Star Trek universe. I was a sporadic viewer of The Next Generation and Voyager, and I would watch the original series with my mom as a kid, if I couldn't get out of it. I think I watched more episodes of The Animated Series than I did the live-action version.

I absolutely loved Enterprise, and one day I'll do a binge review, and a huge reason I enjoyed it as much as I did was because of today's FFC subject, Charles "Trip" Tucker III, the chief engineer of Enterprise (NX-01).

I don't often describe someone as magnetic, but I can't think of a more fitting descriptor when it comes to Trip. He has a large personality and has more self confidence stored in his blue eyes than I have ever possessed. When he walks into a room, it's impossible not to notice him. He's loyal, yet can be quick to anger and hold a grudge like no other. And yeah, I'm rambling a bit but I really do like this guy.

When he fell in love and eventually had his heart broken, he showed a level of emotional maturity that had me thinking he needs to jump off the screen and start teaching people, and I mean men, how to handle heartache in a way that can't be described as toxic.

He's a complex guy with a strong sense of duty, and he is one of those guys I would have had a hero-worship crush on when I was younger. Now that I'm only a few months shy of fifty, he's the kind of guy I would respect the hell out of — and gravitate toward as someone who would make a great friend.

I think I'm going to pick one character from each show to do one of these on, as I'm curious to see who will end up being my favorite on each show. I just hope whoever I pick from Star Trek: Discovery isn't treated as badly by the writers as Trip was at the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. That was a damn shame, though you'll have to watch the show to find out what I'm talking about.

Midnight Lace (1960)

2026-03-08T13:38:57.637-05:00

Synopsis From Rotten Tomatoes:

When the American wife of a wealthy London-based financier starts receiving frightening phone calls, she believes her life is in danger, but when she protests to her family following a near-fatal accident, they and the police doubt her claims and even her sanity.

I'm not sure when I first watched Midnight Lace, but the scene with Doris Day in a fog-filled park while an invisible stalker whispers death threats stayed with me for years. It's one of those scenes that sends chills up your spine, and Doris Day absolutely sold me on her fear and panic as her life was being threatened.

As a kid, I grew up on the Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, so I wasn't expecting her performance as a woman whose life is slowly unraveling to be so captivating, as I had prejudged the type of actress she was based on my limited knowledge of her. She was mesmerizing — just staying this side of paranoid madness.

The supporting cast is just as good — but what would you expect from Rex Harrison, an actor who can swing between hero and villain effortlessly? Watching Myrna Loy as Aunt Bea reminds me of just how little the studios made use of her gifts as she aged. She was brilliant in the 1930s, and she was just as good here, albeit in a much smaller role than she deserved. John Gavin, despite his politics, was a talented actor who drew an audience in and never let them go. I'm pretty sure it had just as much to do with his good looks as it did with his talent — he was always easy on the eyes. His performance in Midnight Lace as the man who swoops in and saves the day could give some of our current action heroes a point or two.

If you've had the pleasure of watching Grace Kelly in Dial M for Murder or Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry, Wrong Number — two of my favorite movies — it's not hard to guess who's behind the murderous scheme. But don't let that stop you from watching Midnight Lace — it's a thrilling romp through the streets of London, and Doris Day proves she was more than a brilliant romcom actress. It's just sad that she didn't do more movies like this, because I would have become just as addicted to them as I am to this one.

What I'm Currently Reading

2026-03-01T12:39:00.005-06:00

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore — A friend of mine sent this to me when it was first released, and while I’m just now getting started, I’m enjoying it so far.

Trust: America’s Best Chance by Pete Buttigieg — With the steady rise of misinformation bombarding us from all directions, this felt like the right moment to revisit it.

The Mage and His Brute by Ava Salinger — A gay Regency romance/mystery series with an intricate magic system. I'm turning to this when everything else feels too heavy.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen — This was one of the selections for the “12 Books from 12 Friends” challenge on Facebook. As much as I want to enjoy it, I’m struggling.

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

2026-02-26T18:20:00.004-06:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Colonel and Mrs. Bantry are shocked when they wake up one morning to find the dead body of a young platinum blonde on the floor of their library. Nobody in the village of St. Mary Mead seems to know who she is, but everyone has a theory about the crime. The ensuing investigation follows a twisted trail from the quiet village to an upscale hotel in the nearby town of Danemouth, where the victim worked as a ballroom dancer and bridge hostess. As the local inspectors sift through emerging clues to identify a suspect, Miss Jane Marple, St. Mary Meade's resident sleuth, always seems to be one step ahead of them.

First of all, forgive the slightly askew book cover — I love this edition far too much not to use it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t manage to take a perfectly lined-up photo of it, and eventually I decided close was good enough.

If I’m remembering correctly, I haven’t reread The Body in the Library in ten or twenty years, so it’s been a while since I’ve spent time with this convoluted caper. It had been long enough that I found myself genuinely surprised by the fiendish little scheme Miss Marple exposed. While I remembered the mastermind behind the murder, I had completely forgotten how it was accomplished, so I took great delight in letting Miss Marple fill in the blanks for me all over again.

Agatha Christie had a mind like no other. She gives you every clue you need and then buries them in just enough distraction to make you doubt your own intelligence. Somehow, when the final reveal arrives, you don’t feel tricked — you feel outmatched. That balance is precisely why she has been my favorite author since I was given two of her books for Christmas in the fifth grade.

I do wish Miss Marple were a little more at the forefront in this one. Too much of the story belongs to the professional inspectors and not quite enough to her quiet deductions. But that’s a normal reaction for me — I almost always want more Miss Marple in her books and less Hercule Poirot in his. I suppose I’ve always enjoyed the old lady with a knitting basket more than a man who refers to himself in the third person.

Challenges: Cloak and Dagger, Mount TBR

Favorite Fictional Characters --- Tyler Kennedy "TK" Strand and Carlos Reyes

2026-02-25T20:29:00.003-06:00

When I was growing up in the 1980s and early 1990s, I never dreamed there would be gay characters on scripted primetime TV who didn’t reflect dangerous or homophobic stereotypes. I certainly never imagined we would see characters living their lives like everyone else, without being burdened by shame or self-hatred.

And if you had told me when I was sixteen years old that a show about firefighters, paramedics, and police officers would feature two gay men who meet on the job, start dating, fall in love, and eventually get married, I would have done two things. First, I would have scoffed and called you a fool. Second — though I might not have said it out loud — I would have been praying for that show to exist in my present.

At sixteen, I desperately needed to know that my life wasn’t doomed simply because I was born gay. I needed to see myself reflected in society as someone who was not only accepted, but allowed to thrive. At sixteen, that was not the reality I was being shown.

It’s why characters like TK and Carlos matter so much. Our youth, and plenty of adults, need to see themselves reflected in media. They need to know there is hope, that their lives matter, and that they can become something more despite whatever bullying or abuse they may be facing now. Identity matters. Positive representation matters. TK and Carlos are perfect examples of what good representation looks like.

For those who have never seen 9-1-1: Lone Star, the show takes place in Austin, Texas. It follows the lives of firefighters and paramedics working out of Firehouse 126 after a devastating accident leaves only one firefighter alive.

TK Strand is the son of the new captain. Both of them move from Manhattan to Austin to help rebuild the 126 after the tragedy. He’s a little cocky, a little insecure — an odd combination, but one that somehow works — and he was probably my favorite character on the show. He has his demons, including a past addiction to drugs, but he loves fiercely and is deeply protective of his friends and family. I truly believe he met his soulmate in Carlos Reyes.

Carlos is a police officer and the son of a Texas Ranger. He has a strong sense of justice and one of the truest moral centers I’ve ever seen portrayed on TV. Like TK, he values family deeply and often puts the needs of his loved ones above his own. He also happens to have the patience of a saint — something I’ll likely never possess, no matter how hard I try.

Together, they are an unstoppable pair. They bring out each other’s strengths and compensate for each other’s weaknesses. Their relationship isn’t always smooth, but they work through their problems together and consistently emerge stronger and more unified than before. They have the kind of love that feels enduring — the kind you imagine lasting 161 years, like Lily and Herman Munster’s.

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

2026-02-20T22:10:00.000-06:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Living in two worlds is exhausting, and no one knows this better than sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston. His working-class, diverse neighborhood is a far cry from the world of St. Clair Prep where he is one of the only Black students, constantly at the mercy of racist teachers and peers who don't understand him. But when his neighbor—a survivor of a grisly school shooting—is murdered and the bloody initials of the now-dead shooter, Sawyer Doom, are left on the entryway wall of Jake's home. Jake is forced to confront another world he wishes he could escape—the world of the dead.

As a medium, Jake sees ghosts around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they rarely interact with people. And while for most of his life Jake has avoided them, this time there is no running away. Sawyer was a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school before taking his own life. Now he's a powerful, vengeful ghost, and he has plans for his afterlife—plans thay include Jake. When Sawyer begins stalking him, high school becomes a different kind of survival game—one Jake is not sure he can win.

I’ve hemmed and hawed for far longer than I should have — I’m talking months — over how I wanted to start this review. Even now, as I’m typing, I feel like someone flipping through every streaming app they own, unable to settle on something to watch. I guess I’m just going to start typing and see what comes out. If I need to clean it up later, I will. It’s not like y’all will be able to tell the difference.

I absolutely love this book and think everyone who is even a little into YA should read it — if you’re comfortable with the themes it explores. The Taking of Jake Livingston ventures into very dark territory, and I’m not exaggerating when I say certain aspects of the narrative have stayed with me far longer than usual. That lingering weight is part of the reason I’ve had such a damned hard time writing this review. I think it’s impossible to talk about this book without discussing the gut punch that is Sawyer Doom, so I hope you’ll stick with me.

When I reviewed Come Knocking by Mike Bockoven, I discussed how the author had to strike a balance between showing us why the killer felt justified in doing something so barbaric and horrifying, without actually excusing or agreeing with him. That same balance had to be struck in The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass, and I think he handled it brilliantly — though perhaps with a bit more detail than I was expecting.

Instead of giving us a “manifesto” at the end of the book, Douglass lets us into Sawyer’s head throughout the story, as he relives the relentless abuse and bullying he endured for years. Those sections are not comfortable to read. I felt for this young man — no one should have to live through what he did. I can’t imagine the pain and anger that must have flowed through that boy’s veins. Where Douglass surpasses Bockoven, in my opinion, is that by allowing us into Sawyer’s head — the head of an evil, vengeful ghost — he removes any ambiguity. Whatever sympathy we might begin with hardens into horror and hatred as Sawyer torments Jake. Douglass does not shy away from making him as hate-filled and monstrous as any character I’ve read in a long time. By the end of this book, you will loathe Sawyer as much as you adore Jake.

I dare anyone to read this novel and not take an instant liking to Jake. He faces his own bullying, and while it makes him withdrawn and awkward at times, he never turns that pain outward onto others. He’s too busy trying to survive his day-to-day life. How anyone could cope with that — on top of the ability to see dead people — is beyond me. The inner strength that would require is admirable, and I’m not sure I could handle it half as well as Jake does.

Though he’s forced to confront Sawyer, Jake — with the emotional support of his family and friends, including a possible new boyfriend — faces it head-on. He doesn’t come out unscathed, but he may have just found a new version of himself in the process.

At its heart, this is a story built on contrast — two young men faced with unimaginable pain. Both are bullied. Both are isolated. Both are shaped by cruelty. But only one chooses to rise above it. Only one chooses to protect rather than harm.

And it’s in that contrast that this story has stayed with me, lingering far longer than I ever expected.

Favorite Fictional Characters --- Lee Stetson and Amanda King

2026-02-18T19:14:00.004-06:00

It’s probably fair to say I was more than a little nerdy as a kid. I was that kid who wanted to read through my great-grandma’s set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, then quiz the adults around me on what I had just read. I could get lost in a book or TV show to the point the rest of the world ceased to exist. Some of that was due to the dysfunctional way I was raised by my mom — a childhood that forced me to learn how to entertain myself. But I think I still would have been a Brainy Smurf–level nerd even if I had had a “normal” childhood.

I truly believe I was born gay — and a nerd. Even as an adult, I read anywhere between 350 to 500 books a year, and my Funko Pop! collection is just a little excessive. Even my taste in TV would have been a dead giveaway. Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote were must-watch television, and so was Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Anchored by the crush-worthy Bruce Boxleitner as suave secret agent Lee Stetson and Kate Jackson as divorced housewife Amanda King, Scarecrow and Mrs. King was the kind of show I wanted to be in when I grew up. Like a lot of us, I was fascinated by the idea of being a spy, and I devoured every episode I could. Yes, the missions they went on were a lot of fun to watch — but it was Lee and Amanda who truly captured my attention as a kid, a fondness that has carried over into my adulthood.

They aren’t the kind of couple who fall instantly in love. In fact, I’m pretty sure annoyance and exasperated amusement were the predominant emotions they initially felt for each other. But even then, the chemistry between them lit up the screen. There was something about their partnership that grabbed your attention as a viewer, even at my tender, impressionable age. The annoyance eventually turns into respect and admiration, but it’s when they both realize there’s a spark between them that they truly become a couple worthy of a happy ending.

For a kid who found comfort in books and television, Lee and Amanda weren’t just characters — they were proof that even unlikely partnerships can grow into something lasting. Maybe that’s why they still matter to me. Their slow-burn story taught a lonely, nerdy kid that love doesn’t always arrive in a flash; sometimes it builds quietly and steadily, until you realize it’s exactly what you’ve been waiting for.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

2026-02-15T08:52:00.003-06:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best, including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, and Ira Levin’s Death Trap.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.

Malcolm is another of those characters I relish spending time with. This was my third visit to the Old Devils Bookstore, and like the first two times, I found myself wanting to settle into a comfortable chair with one of my favorite mysteries, the shop cat Nero purring away in my lap, and spend the day visiting with Mal as he works between customers. He has an aura about him that I find oddly comforting, and I can easily imagine us becoming fast friends. The fact that he’s about as unreliable as any narrator can be just makes me love him more.

I’m a sucker for unreliable narrators, and Mal does not disappoint. Spending extended time with him lets you know the man has secrets. You may not know what those secrets are — or just how painful they might be — but it’s clear that everything is not right in his world.

I’m not sure how much of my love for this book comes from my genuine fondness for Mal or from the way Peter Swanson weaves a deep love and respect for the Golden Age of classic mysteries into a tale of faulty memories, buried secrets, and a few “perfect” murders thrown in for good measure. Either way, it’s a story anchored by a character I thoroughly enjoy — one I’m sure I’ll be visiting again and again in the years to come.

Challenges: Calendar of Crime, Cloak and Dagger

Happy Valentine's Day!

2026-02-14T12:33:00.001-06:00

To everyone celebrating Valentine's Day today, I wish you a heart filled with joy and love.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Herman and Lily Munster

2026-02-11T19:51:00.005-06:00

There is something rather wholesome—and timely—about a family who looks and acts differently than anyone else around them, yet still considers themselves the perfect American family. The notion that a family doesn’t need to look like yours in order to have value should be the norm, and for the couple who head the Munster family, it absolutely is.

Sadly, for their neighbors, those differences stand out—something that feels all too familiar given the state of things right now. But that’s another post. This one is about celebrating Herman and Lily Munster in all their romantic perfection.

First of all, I have to congratulate Herman and Lily Munster for being married for 161 years. That level of commitment is something I can only dream of. I admire and respect a couple who willingly put in the work to make such a long-term relationship not only function, but truly thrive. It’s impossible to be around them and not see the utter joy and comfort they find in one another.

Herman, who happens to work at a funeral home of all places, lives for his family, and it shows—not only in every look and touch, but in the way he strives to give them the best possible life. Lily is the heart and soul of their family. She runs the home—and her husband, to a degree. Together, they are everything any of us could imagine a true partnership being.

I wish them another 161 happy years together.

Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly

2026-02-09T21:25:00.002-06:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

For the lucky among us, life is what you make of it, but for Dixie Wheeler, the theme music for her story was chosen by another long ago, on the day her father butchered her mother and brothers and then slashed a knife across his own throat. Only one-year-old Dixie was left alive, infamously known as Baby Blue for the song left playing in the aftermath of the slaughter.

Twenty-five years later, Dixie is still desperate for a connection to the family she can’t remember, so when her childhood home goes up for sale, Dixie sets aside all reason and moves in. But as the ghosts of her family seemingly begin to take up residence in the home that was once theirs, Dixie starts to question her own sanity and wonders if the evil force menacing her is that of her father, or a demon of her own making.

In order to make sense of her present, Dixie becomes determined to unravel the truth of her past and seeks out the detective who originally investigated the murders. But the more she learns, the more she opens up the uncomfortable possibility that the sins of her father may belong to another. As bodies begin to pile up around her, Dixie must find a way to expose the lunacy behind her family’s massacre in order to save her few loved ones who are still alive—and whatever scrap of sanity she has left.

How could anyone read that synopsis and not want to dive right in? Granted, it’s one of those synopses that might be just a tad long, but no matter how many times I read it, I can’t decide which lines I would cut. It’s a synopsis designed to make you want to read the book — and read it I did.

Dixie is one of those characters who, no matter how much she annoyed me at times, I still found myself caring for. I think it’s fair to say she makes horrible decisions. I mean, who moves into the house where their family was slaughtered? Well, Trevor did it in Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite, one of my favorite books of all time — but that’s literally another story, so pretend I didn’t say anything about it. Dixie not only moves into this house, she ends her relationship to do it, and then starts decorating the house to make it look the way it did when her family was butchered. I think sanity is the least of her worries.

Dixie’s descent into an almost fugue-like state of madness is so gorgeously written that at no point was I able to look away or pretend that what I was reading was anything other than the story of a woman slowly coming apart, obsessing over her family’s horrific deaths. She was so lost in the minutiae of what happened that she — like me — didn’t really see the truth before it slammed into her face. I can only hope that now that she’s discovered the truth and faced it head-on, she’ll truly heal and be able to put the past, and her family, behind her.

Favorite Fictional Character --- David Rose & Patrick Brewer

2026-02-05T19:07:00.002-06:00

It’s February, the month of love, so to celebrate Cupid and all of his shenanigans, I’m going to be shining a spotlight on some of my favorite couples.

But first, I’m going to whine for a moment. Loudly. The flu strain going around right now is absolutely nothing to play with. It’s been days since my fever finally broke, and I’m still not feeling like myself, which is why I’ve been mostly MIA online the last few weeks. I am more than ready to feel normal again. I’m also incredibly grateful I got my flu shot in October, because I honestly can’t imagine how miserable I’d be without it.

Okay. Whining over.

Let’s get back to why we’re here: my favorite couples of all time. Last February, the Facebook page ran a tournament dedicated to these special pairings, and David Rose & Patrick Brewer walked away with the title of favorite fictional couple of all time.

And really, how could they not?

David & Patrick are the heart and soul of Schitt’s Creek. From the public, tear-inducing serenades to one of the most adorable hiking proposals ever put on screen, they are pure relationship goals. They support and complement each other perfectly. Where one is weak, the other is strong. Where one is scattered, the other is solid. They are each other’s home—something many of us spend a lifetime searching for.

Watching David and Patrick feels like a reminder that the right person doesn’t fix you—they meet you where you are and walk beside you anyway. That kind of love is rare, and it’s one I’ll happily believe in every time.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

2026-02-02T21:32:00.006-06:00

Synopsis From Dust Jacket:

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.

What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother, Roderick, is consumed by a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

Apparently, despite my intentions to read more of the bazillion unread stories that have been languishing on my shelves, some for years, I’ve been more inclined to pick up old favorites. Visiting old friends, spending time in their company, has a soothing effect, and with all the chaos engulfing us right now, I need the comfort those old friends can provide.

Alex is one of those characters I can see myself being friends with. I can imagine the two of us in a darkened home library, the fireplace roaring as Alex regales me with tales of their past exploits. There would be a table set with tea, and we would talk late into the night. I just wouldn’t want that library to be in the Ushers’ ancestral home.

What Moves the Dead is a story that burrowed under my skin, flooding my system with its miasmatic spores until I felt as if my lungs were filled with a wiggling fungal infection, one that threatened to turn me into that nightmarish hare on the cover. It’s a story so steeped in mycological nightmares that once I walked through those doors, I felt just as doomed as Madeline and Roderick. Kingfisher’s prose is as enthralling as it is horrific. She weaves a tale I never wanted to end—even if I desperately wanted Alex and their friends out of it.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr.

2026-01-29T20:40:00.005-06:00

"Sufferin' succotash!"

When I was a kid, I’d get lost in Saturday morning cartoons. I would park myself on the floor in front of the TV and spend the next few hours watching all the fun and joy my adolescent heart could handle. The Bugs Bunny Show was one of those cartoons, and today’s Favorite Fictional Character was a big part of my enjoyment.

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. is a cat with a voracious appetite—an appetite that makes his pursuit of Tweety, Speedy, and Hippety Hopper a tad frantic at times. What makes it even worse, at least from Sylvester’s point of view, is that it’s an appetite that will never be sated. Because, like Wile E. Coyote, Elmer Fudd, and Ralph Wolf, he’s doomed to fail every single time. This poor guy gets beaten up on the regular, but he has the spirit of a fighter. He never gives up, never gives in, much to the chagrin of his son, Sylvester J. Pussycat, Jr.

As a kid, there was nothing here not to find funny. Sylvester was—and still is—a hoot and a half. Granted, most of that laughter comes at Sylvester’s expense and is due to the bodily harm that befalls him over and over and over again, and that’s okay. There’s something inherently hilarious about his outsized confidence constantly crashing headfirst into reality. What I appreciate more now is just how much personality Sylvester brings to the table. He’s emotional, dramatic, and endlessly persistent. No matter how many times he fails, he always gets back up and tries again, fully convinced that this time will be different—and that belief is what has kept me laughing all these years later.

N or M? by Agatha Christie

2026-01-26T19:30:00.000-06:00

Synopsis From Back Cover:

It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from “the enemy within”—Nazis posing as ordinary citizens.

With pressure mounting, the intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colorful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel. But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade—N and M have just murdered Britain’s finest agent and no one can be trusted...

I fell in love with Agatha Christie in the fifth grade. By then, I had torn through every Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and Hardy Boys book I could get my tiny—but growing—hands on. I was firmly hooked on mysteries and constantly on the lookout for something new. That Christmas, I received two of her books, The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side and The A.B.C. Murders, and I devoured them both in short order. She has remained my favorite author ever since, and when I first started this blog, I challenged myself to read all of her books in publishing order. It’s high time I got back to it.

This is going to be a very short review, because I don’t have a lot to say. While I will always choose an Agatha Christie novel over most modern mysteries, they don’t all work equally well for me. I thoroughly enjoy Tommy and Tuppence as characters; I’ve just never been the biggest fan of espionage stories, even when they’re written by Agatha Christie. As always, her plotting is damn near perfect, and no matter how often I read her, I’m still surprised by how she layers details—letting them build on one another and painting a picture that never fails to entertain me. I’m just not as entertained by spies as I am by good old-fashioned murders.

Still, I loved diving back into her work again. Agatha Christie remains one of my literary happy places, and I’m excited to spend the coming year working my way through her books once more. They may not all be favorites, but Christie is still Christie—and that’s more than enough for me.

Challenges: Mount TBR, Cloak and Dagger

Red Rabbit Ghost by Jen Julian

2026-01-25T07:44:00.004-06:00

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Eighteen years ago, an infant Jesse Calloway was found wailing on the bank of a river, his mother dead beside him. The mystery of her death has haunted him all his life, and despite every effort, he has never been able to uncover the truth.

Now someone is promising him answers. An anonymous source claims that they'll tell him everything. But only if he returns to the hometown he swore he'd left in the rearview.

But in Blacknot, North Carolina, nothing is as it seems. It's a town that buries its secrets deep. Jesse's relentless investigation garners attraction from intimidating locals, including his dangerous ex-boyfriend. And he'll soon discover that this backwater town hides a volatile and haunting place on its desolate edge.

I picked this up off a table at our west side Barnes & Noble, and I knew in less than a minute that it was coming home with me. The cover alone is worth the purchase, but then I read the synopsis—and really, who doesn’t love a good queer, haunted-house, Southern Gothic tale? That was all she wrote. I got suckered into buying another book when I already own far too many that are still waiting to be read. Now that I’ve read it, some of that initial luster has faded a bit, but I’m still fricking glad I experienced this one for myself.

I’m going to start off by saying that Jen Julian’s prose is a pleasure to read. It’s lush and evocative, creating characters and landscapes that have been lingering in my mind for days. With her words, she painted Blacknot, NC into vivid life. I experienced the putrid smell of the congested pig farms and felt the spongy give of rotting floorboards as Jesse explored the rooms of the Night House. I felt the desperation and rage Alice experienced as she watched her world crumble around her. The fetid smell and cloying humidity of the swamp clung to my skin and seeped into my lungs. Red Rabbit Ghost is a fever dream that unmercifully assaults the senses, and I was there for every second of it.

And yet, as much as I loved feeling like I was there with Jesse and Alice, that may be part of the reason I didn’t fully connect with the story as a whole. I need to phrase this next part as carefully as I can, so bear with me—I may ramble a bit. The landscape of this nightmarish world, full of ghosts and magic, felt so tangible that I think it may have gotten in the way of making the characters feel just as real. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the time I spent with Jesse, but the frantic pace he kept—trying to find his mom and uncover what happened to her—didn’t allow who he was as a person to come to the forefront. He felt two-dimensional for most of the book, and I hate that for him. He deserved to feel as real as the world he inhabited.

Alice, for the most part, was so full of rage and hurt that, despite the amount of page time she had, she never felt fully real to me at any point in the story. That leaves the side characters—including the ex-boyfriend I wanted dumped in the swamp for the alligators to feed on—who I can only describe as storytelling props. They were there, they did the narrative jobs they were written to do, but they felt more like NPCs in a random, generic video game.

Now, based on the length of that last section, you might think I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did—but you’d be wrong. While Blacknot, NC isn’t a place I’d ever want to experience in the real world, I loved the time I spent with Jesse as he navigated dirt roads, swampy backwoods, and the Night House in search of the truth. It’s just not a story I feel compelled to revisit anytime soon.

Challenges: Mount TBR

Favorite Fictional Character --- Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf

2026-01-21T20:59:00.007-06:00

"Mornin' Sam." "Mornin' Ralph."

If there was ever a perfect metaphor for the drudgery of going to work day after day—repeating the same actions, getting the same results, and never achieving your goal—Sam and Ralph would be the poster children of the dead-end job.

When Sam clocks in, he’s the guardian, parked on a ledge protecting his charges. When Ralph clocks in, he’s a hungry predator, desperate to get his hands on a sheep. Sam spends a lot of his time sleeping. Ralph spends a lot of his time running around like crazy. Sam, as adorable as he is, is a little more violent than expected. Ralph, as dangerous as he looks, just doesn’t seem to have the drive needed to react in kind.

I shouldn’t find it as funny as I do. It’s an unending, 9-to-5 hamster-wheel cycle that’s hilarious as hell. No growth. No victories. No promotions. Just two guys doing exactly what they’re paid to do and getting absolutely nowhere. And somehow, that never gets old.