november

December 01, 2025

Things I enjoyed in the month of November:

Various authors, In these Hallowed Halls:

Kelly Andrew's, The Hare and the Hound
 ★★★

A devils' pact.
A witch's promise.
He'd see it undone. 


Revenge, they always say, is best served frigid, but in the case of Kelly Andrew's creaking tale of cursed collegiate boys haunted and hunted by colourless, heterochromatic girls, it's ideally lapped at cold, bloody, and with the smack of innocence.
Told in teasing snatches in the tone of frantic despair, The Hare and the Hound beckons you away from the safety of campus, down damp, diffused streets, and into the woods where the worst of it won't happen. Where blood will be shed and pledges brokered, but the final knell of the story will have to wait for the first center back onto tarmac, for the first face to see the bloodied result of a long awaited retribution, and for the edges of a colourless girl's smile to turn upwards in pleased satisfaction.
Tumblr: Image
 

Layne Fargo's, The Ravages
★★

"I hope the ravages of your betrayal torment your withered soul."


This is a lesson to all that you cannot simply plonk your spurned lover revenge plot into an academic setting and call it Dark Academia. There must be vibes, and the suggestion, if not the actuality, of the occult, and the scent of well aged vellichor in the air. 
Hurt feelings and a flair for the dramatic simply does not a stygian institution make.


Kate Weinberg, 1000 Ships
★★★½

Her eyes dropped to his left hand resting on his knee. The splayed strong fingers, the thin gold wedding band. Then looked back up at him directly.
"Who says there's anything wrong with cheating?"


Isn't this just a tale as old as time: the charming professor and the doe-eyed ingenue, the shiny new toy for a man of "superior" intellect to impart his wisdom to, to fuck and use and discard, to never see his downfall coming at the hands of those sun-limned fingertips.
A tale as old as time, for sure, but one that never runs dries, the ink always ready for the preyed upon to enact their revenge upon the page. One exacting, punctuated, serifed word at a time.
I'd like to know more of this Lorna Clay, scholar of misrule.
This may contain: a woman sitting on a couch holding a laptop computer and looking at the papers she has placed in front of her
 

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Carmen Veltman's lil' shroom guy:

Look. At. His. Little. LEGS.
This may contain: a drawing of a mushroom with white dots on it's head and arms, in front of a pink background
Happy Frog Prince GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

I am not a wind chime kind of goblin, but I would make an exception for him.

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Superman:

Behold! A superhero movie - specifically a Superman movie - that I genuinely kinda loved? And held my full attention where no acts of double screening were committed other than to use the IMDB? And wasn't an origin story? And all the actors fit their characters perfectly? And it wasn't bombarded with explosions to fill the narrative void because there was no narrative void, because this was just really fucking good?!
...

Uh, excuse me, Hollywood, but when did you get your shit together and decide to do this? Because I would've liked to have been at that meeting so I could've performed my best corporate cheerleader impression because THIS IS WHAT WE WANT. THIS IS WHAT WE'VE WANTED FOR YEARS!
And it was kind of perfect? Not a perfect movie, but a perfect feeling.
Everyone knows the Superman story, it's practically ingrained in our collective psyches, like The Beatles and Friends, rooted firmly in our DNA whether we like it or not. Superman is ubiquitous and beloved, and nearly impossible to translate to screen with really only one exception: Christopher Reeve, the OG cape wearer who inarguably defined the role.
Henry Cavill looked right but couldn't cut it. Tom Welling was hampered by bad scripting. We don't talk about a certain ICE member because fuck that guy. Tyler Hoechlin's pretty but his show was the definition of meh. Babygirl Brandon Routh gave it his best shot but the movie sucked.
The closest we've come was, surprisingly, Channing Tatum in The Lego Movie.
Until now, that is, because David Corenswet might be the contendiest contender Reeve's has ever had, and with a banger of a movie to go with.

This man, I swear. I've only seen him in a couple of things before (Hollywood, The Greatest Hits, Twisters), and he honestly passed me by. He's so corn-fed, homegrown, all American hot guy next door that he sort of made no impact? Which is, funnily enough, exactly what you want for the role of Superman/Clark Kent. He has to be able to spin a double life of bumbling, nerdy reporter and good to his core hero, whilst simultaneously making you believe everyone else can't see it's the same fucking guy, one just has glasses and the other a curlicue. And that's not easy, almost impossible, in fact, which is what I love so much about Corenswet's take on the role's duality, because he kinda... doesn't bother? His Clark and Kal-El are almost entirely the same person - lame jokes, infuriating at times naivety, guts and gumption for days, unwavering respect for life in all its forms, and the biggest heart on his/their sleeve. Corenswet made me root for both.
a man in a white shirt is smiling and looking at the camera

Normally, I'm a Clark girl, through and through, he's just he more interesting character and I'd rather watch him muddle his way through day to day life than witness Superman commit yet another act of heroism. But not Corenswet's Superman, in his silly little outfit with his wide-eyed optimism; I'd watch this man save a squirrel and mourn a beloved robot any day, all day. And it was truly refreshing to watch, and I want more of it. I want him being grumpy when Lois won't let him have his way (Rachel Brosnahan was is a fantastic LL, fyi), I want him making decisions that are neither entirely right or wrong, I want him making flimsy excuses to rush off and everyone accepting it as class Clark behaviour. I just want him as a normal guy who happens to be able to fly and is really strong but is at his core, inherently human. And Corenswet delivered.
image

Everyone did, to be honest (Nicholas Hoult, probably most of all; his truly unhinged Lex was a thing of maniacal toddler-esque beauty and these two really should just kiss and give The Daily Planet something juicy to write about), and I would watch this again in a heartbeat, for the time it takes Superman to circle the Earth, for Clark to perfectly tousle his curlicue before stepping into his hero pants.
It's that good. I haven't been this amped for a superhero movie in years, especially not a Superman movie, but bring it the hell on, I say. Especially if there's more air time for the cosmic puppy.
Krypto, you adorable chaos baby; you're not even real and you stole the goddamn show:
r/SuperCorp - Supercorp with krypto


Fanart:
Gabriel Soares

January ☀️

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Catana Comics:

Mmhmm
Mmhmm
Mmhmm
Yup
Yup
Yup
I am the Gandalf of memories. Short term, long term, right fucking now term.
#lotredit from Move, Ball

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Nobody Wants This season two:

The problems persists that I simply do not give a fuck.
a woman in a black jacket is standing in a living room with a netflix logo in the background

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ShouXin手訫's feline fine lines:

The assurity of line is crazyyyyy.
...
Also, this doesn't convince me any less that cats are eldritch horrors trapped on earth as punishment for wantonly tipping important knickknacks off Lucifer's desk.


Bonus:
ミチル

This might be the greatest thing I've ever seen.

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Movie Watching:
The Starling Girl
★★★★

Whenever I watch anything centred around religion, it reconfirms how happy I am to have been raised without it.
I've watched this twice in the space of a week and it's honestly one of the best movies I've seen in a while. So quietly done in the unrelenting heat of a Kentuckian summer, it tells the story of seventeen year old Jem and the illicit relationship she starts with twenty-eight year old, Owen, a newly returned youth pastor. Comfortable in its discomfort it unhurriedly takes you from first glance, to first touch, to everything after and in-between. Tale as old as morally suspect time, but it's more than its taste-of-the-forbidden outsides, it's about what it means to be raised in a non-secular community, to abide by a strict dogma that demands your every action be only for god and not yourself. If you dance you can't take enjoyment from it, sex out of wedlock is forbidden and pleasure from it a sin, women are to be courted by chosen suitors and marriage inevitable and necessary, desire and lust are the devil's work and to indulge is to be cast out. The Starling Girl posits what happens when what you've been raised to believe starts to not align with how you feel. What happens when you come across someone who's struggling in the same way, the fallout of that verboten communion, and how to move forward when even that connection doesn't sate your needs, doesn't rearrange your relationship with your god.
The ending of this movie is entirely ambiguous and that might read as cowardly to some, but I saw it more as Jem's final act of rebellion against everything she's ever been told to be unwaveringly true. She doesn't need to know anything, she doesn't need to know where she's going or how to be, she doesn't have to "sin" and flagellate herself afterwards to stay devout.
She doesn't have to follow anyone else's scripture but her own.
It's not a forsaking, it's a new covenant in the making.
image

(This Guardian article does a much better job at articulating how I feel about this film.)


Self Reliance
★★

Not entirely sure how you take a "be hunted, don't get murdered, and receive millions of dollars" game concept with Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick at the helm, and it be this underwhelming.
It almost needs a round of applause it flopped so hard. Not even a flop, more like a pleh. Y'know, like when your cat brings you a present and unceremoniously plehs it out of their mouth at your feet.
This movie kinda feels like that...
a drawing of a cat holding a rat with the words for you written below it


CDN media
Scream 1-3
★★★★★
★★★★
★★

The defining horror trilogy of the nineties, and it still holds up.
Except the third movie (sorry, Dex!), it's a total trash-fest!
My crush on Billy Loomis stands strong to this day, though.
a close up of a man with blood on his face and neck holding a knife .
a man in a bloody shirt is smiling and looking at the camera

He's so slutty and I love it.


Alice, Darling
★★★★

There are lot of directors out there who would've made this story of coercive control into a BIG movie, something with HIGH octane thrills and GRATUITOUS violence. Something very Hollywood, but Mary Nighy chose the less "exciting" direction of uncomfortable realism. Every moment of Alice, Darling is fraught with its own built in nervous system; every scene a choice between fight, flight, freeze, or fawn; Anna Kendrick's facial expressions and skittering body language a reflection of the true assault of body and mind someone under non-consented control by another human being can go through. It's disquieting, violent, and nauseatingly familiar.
This shouldn't be a loud movie, abuse like this is quiet as mouse and far more terrifying.

This is what I mean when I say Kendrick can act.

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Sue Kim:

...
a man holding a cell phone with the words oh pretty below him

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November Nocturnes:

All the Monthlies playlists can now be found in the menu bar under the "Monthlies" tab. ... Obviously.
monthlies playlists

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Lara Klein and The Cruel Prince:

It's becoming a running theme that I'd rather buy the special edition mockups illustrators are creating than the actual special editions - looking at you, Maas.
a woman wearing a red headband and an orange sweater is making a face .

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Rewatching:
Boys on the Side
★★★★

Ooft, this actually quite a problematic rewatch, what with the casual homophobia, racism, and indelicate dealing of a main character with AIDS - it's really not great. But I've always loved this movie, and it came out in 1995, so I kind of take it as a comparative, historical snapshot of how far we've come in our  understanding of chronic illnesses, Black representation, and maintaining a no tolerance standard for queerphobic "humour" in our media.
I can love this movie whilst acknowledging its failings.
But I can't change it, there's no way to go back and rewrite its wrongs, but I can appreciate it as a contrast to how much we've improved in the last thirty years, which is, frankly, a hell of a lot.
Shame about the current bigots in power trying to take us back to the vitriolic dark ages.
Fuckers.
This may contain: a woman standing in front of a wall with clocks on it


Love Life
★★★★

I maintain that season one is better than season two.
It's the Kendrick effect: she's a comedic gremlin with emotional super chops.
image

And William Jackson Harper might possibly only possess the former.
He's the love of my anxious nerd life (see: Chidi Anagonye), but I'm just not sure he and Jessica Williams, the love of my tall and hot snicker-making life (see: Gaby Evans), carried off romantic leads.
a man wearing glasses and a striped shirt has the hashtag #thegoodplace at the bottom

Still bummed they didn't make more of this, though, I liked it a hell of a lot.


Arcane
★★★★★
(+ ★★★★★)

I've watched a metric fuck ton of tv, movies, animation, and I can say, without question, that this show blows a vast amount of them out of the water. They can't even see h20 anymore they've been yeeted so far back onto mediocre land. The ocean of isn't even a dot to them, not a speck, a particle, and it wrinkles my brain how something entirely mustered from the hands and minds of artists could hold so much more emotional, narrative, performative weight than 90% of what the industry is putting out into the world right now with real live actors.
I watched Fantastic Four: First Steps this month and felt nothing, less than nothing, I felt minus.
Other than Interview with the Vampire, I can't think of another show right now that's putting me through the emotional ringer and taking over my entire personality.
Nothing is bold enough to stand out, to take wild chances with their storytelling, it's just the same old slop and I'm tired of it.
Give me Arcane, a show that's not only beautiful but complex and gut wrenching, and in no way afraid to make a mess of its viewers with its narrative choices. Give me amoral characters who don't need to be redeemed, and give me heroes who fuck up beyond forgiveness. I want chaos and I want heart, and I want it done honestly. No clichéd manipulation, no well-trodden plot tropes, no stereotypical character types.
Just balls to the wall storytelling.
(And more from the Arcane universe, please. There are so many dangling plot lines that I need followed!)
...
Maybe it's time animation took over for a while, because the animators are making me feel infinitely more than the actors are right now.

Fanart:
oindingus

January

rouchi

lusslussart

wereville

Xiao Tong

(You will notice that 99% of my collected fanart is made up of JayVik. For reasons. The reasons being insanity)


The Witcher
★★★

Watching this actually makes me really sad.
The first season was just so everything I want from a fantasy show: melds levity with narrative impact, embraced non-linear storytelling, nailed the casting and the actors' performances exceeded expectation (minus Ciri), looks great, sounds great.
And then Netflix tanked it.
And not a light tanking, they tanked the shit out of it with mediocre plot, slashing the budget so the aesthetic bombed (Yennefer's wigs are a particular affront), Barbie-fying Ciri so she's even more insufferable, neutering my beloved witch-bitch Yennefer, skimping on the scenery, and we lost Henry Cavill. The man I didn't know was born to play Geralt of Rivia - especially after that test shot, something I still shudder thinking of - but absolutely was.

And I can't even blame him for leaving because he actually gave a shit about the source material and couldn't bear what Netflix were doing to it.
Actual integrity in the industry, wonders will never cease.
...
Thus, sadness.
We could have had it all, y'know? But it's becoming clear that the people making tv don't give a shit about Fantasy. They know it's popular, they see it's in high demand, but they give zero fucks about making something of quality, and The Witcher is a prime example and victim of that.
What really sucks is we all know Netflix is capable of making a long running, high quality, SFF (see: Stranger Things; zionists ruined it, though), they're more than capable but they won't grow a collective spine and devote the time and money these shows deserve.
Instead, we get yet another season of double-screening, brain-destroying, narrative gloop.
...

Sigh.
At least this'll make me finally finish reading the books once the show gets cancelled.

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October to November Fav Romances:

💘 Kate Canterbary, In a Jam


small town romance

childhood besties

marriage of convenience

insecure sweater boy & chaotic sunshine brat

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Sierra Simone, Salt Kiss


mmf

dirty dealings

capital kink / machiavellian courtship

daddy / bride / bodyguard

single POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Sierra Simone, Honey Cut


fmm

arranged marriage

throuple trouble

knife wife v kink daddy

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½


💘 Sierra Simone, Bitter Burn


mfm

heavy is the head

quatro optio

unholy trinity triumphs

multiple POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Ali Hazelwood, Hot for Slayer


forced proximity

nemeses roommates

immortal enemies to lovers

he falls first

only no bed?

⭐️⭐️⭐️½


💘 Ruby Dixon, Space Vampire


zero gravity sucks?

human x alien romance

poodle & garlic monster

forced proximity

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️½


💘 Christina Lauren, Falling


human x succubus romance

pheromone flirting

black cat x feisty lamb

halloween horny

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Tessa Bailey, Unfortunately Yours


black cat & surly bear

enemies to lovers

marriage of convenience

bickering little shits

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Kate Golden, If Not for My Baby


rockstar romance

rpf

tour bus wooing

lyrical flirting

single POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Olivia Dade, ZomRomCom


plus size heroine

black cat vamp x sunshine human 

zombie apocalypse romance

he falls first

fanged fornication 

⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Eve Dangerfield, So Steady


uptight princess x dark horse grump

workplace / road trip

trauma flirting

kink therapy

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Rachel Lynn Solomon, The Ex Talk


rivals to lovers

workplace romance

fake ex-ing?

interracial couple

you bug me, you love me

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Ali Hazelwood, Love, Theoretically


STEM romance

chronic illness / chronic fawn response

demisexual

rivals to lovers

black cat nightmares

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 B.K. Borison, Business Casual


grumpy black cat x sunshine golden retriever

small town romance

hookup to lovers

opposites attract

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Tessa Bailey, Dream Girl Drama


step siblings romance

sunshine barbie x protector brawny

forbidden attraction

soulmate vibes

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘 Kati Wilde, All He Wants for Christmas


christmas romance

independent princess x brunch daddy cop

parental trauma bonding

very filthy xmas

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


💘Kati Wilde, Secret Santa


beast library wooing

hurt/comfort

he falls first 

santa’s coming?

dual POV

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


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Rob Anderson speaking truths about how genuinely fucked up the 1993 The Secret Garden movie is:

"Mary Lennox is a c*nty little diva."

No truer words said.

No lies here, I love this movie; always have, always will, it's a sob your face off staple for me and my mum, but Rob Anderson speaks the absolute truth. It's weird as fuck, a percentage shy of incest-y (although, apparently Hallmark totally fulfilled that last percent and I must watch it), but the eponymous  garden's giving real cottage core manifesting, so I can't forgive the fact that Mary's sickly gentleman cousin totally wants to put a ring on it.

Y'know, it's like, would I marry the beast for his library even after he transforms from hot furry to ponytail Ken? The answer is yes. It's always, unwaveringly yes.
...
THERE'S A THE SECRET GARDEN ANIME SERIES?

This is the best day, ever.
Mary Lennox on Tumblr

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Reactor Articles:
Tender Is the Flesh-Eating: The Literary Cannibal as Exploitation and Desire by Wen-yi Lee

Magic Doesn't Have to Make Sense by Molly Templeton

Fantastic Four: First Steps Seems Intent on Proving That You Can't Make a Good Fantastic Four Movie by Emmet Asher-Perrin

We Don't Love Superman Because He'll Save Us by Emmet Asher-Perrin

Spaceballs: In Space, No One Can Hear You Smashing the Fourth Wall by Kali Wallace

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Slow Horses season five:

There's no other way to slice it: this was a filler season, a set-up season, the architecture for the next season season.
And with any other show I'd be blasting it for not anteing up the goods and instead playing it safe, but when it comes to Slow Horses, even a set-up season is goddamn bloody delight.
Y'know, Lamb's doing Lamb things and effortlessly making everyone else look inept, Roddy's maintaining his over-hormoned gremlin existence, Shirley's kicking people in the face in the midst of another breakdown (love her), Catherine's following everyone around with a mop because these littler fuckers are messy, and River?
Well, River.

If you were here when I bombed my way through the first four seasons, then you'll know River's my favourite character, the blorbo of the series, the poor little miaow miaow babygirl of my protagonist dreams.
And also an absolute fucking nightmare human who might be the most petulant character I've ever witnessed in a spook show. And this might be his poutiest season yet as he sighs his way through six episodes, kicking rocks and rolling his eyes, and generally being entirely done with Slough House's shit even as he invariably does his job pretty damn impeccably.
He's the worst, I adore him, and I live in eternal fear that Mick Herron is going to kill him off because the man is ruthless. Do not, and I really mean this, do not watch this show if you are unprepared for main character death. Seriously, it's worse than Game of Thrones, and I care infinitely more for Slow Horses' rabble of disaster monkeys than I ever did for the inhabitants of Westeros.
So, I repeat: gird your emotional loins if you're endeavouring into a relationship with this show because god bloody dammit, it's a cruel mistress with murder and mayhem in mind.
...
I cannot wait for season six.
Bring on the pain!

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阿金's kitty ghoul:

Make this a daguerreotype and I would for real believe these hung on the wall of some Victorian spiritualist's home.
a woman is sitting in a chair holding a crystal ball in her hand .

Especially slides five and seven, for obvious reasons.
Halloween Cats Sticker - Find & Share on GIPHY

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Mixtape:

This is almost, almost, makes me forgive Jim Sturgess for One Day.
...
But not quite because hot damn, that was an unmitigated train wreck of bad accents and bad acting!
Hairstylists, What Ruins Our Hair Without Us Realizing?

This was pretty sweet, though.

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Fox Luu's festooned critters:

And this goober:

Nature already feels like its showing off but this is next level.

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Harbin Hotel season two:

HahahahahahahaowowowohfuckfuckfuckityfuckthisnoiseeeeeouchouchowowpainpainpainpainpainfuckyeahAlistor!AngelbabynoooooooandNifty'sawhatnow?!SIRPENTIOUSSSSSSSSS!

...
That pretty much sums up how this season went for me.
No further comments.
a cartoon character sitting in a chair with a black tape around his waist

If you hear distant sob-singing "Gravity" from an eerie distance, then just ignore it, it'll put itself to emotionally wrung out sleep eventually, aka. until season three.
image

...
HOLY FUCK this was SO good.
a drawing of a cartoon character with the name emily on the bottom

Fanart:
vanypiedoodles

Yanon

pomelosoul


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ANNOUNCEMENT:

Officially going on hiatus... kind of.
Every month there will be a playlist, maybe a book review, possibly something I liked and feel the need to yell about, but other than that? Consider this swearwolf on sabbatical.
See ya at some point next year, gremlins.

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