Kat's Got Your Culture

I've been really diving into Sherlock Holmes lately (same kind of relaxation as Agatha Christie). Compared to Dame Agatha, some of his mysteries have little to no opportunity for you to guess the solution yourself, which can feel like Sir ACD was cheating. The novels especially have huge stretches of backstory you couldn't know about, and the murderer is someone you've never heard of. That being said, there's something charming and cozy about most of them. I particularly enjoy the shorter stories that are more in the style of Poe's "Murder in the Rue Morgue," where you start out with a seemingly inexplicable situation and then gradually arrive at the solution. We'll see whether I'm tired of Sherlock by the end of Volume 1 or want to continue.

Who knew a trip to the underworld could be so much fun? Not for the characters, but for me reading this. I enjoyed Katabasis so much. I don't read much fantasy so I only bought this because Yellowface is so fantastic I wanted to read something else by R. F. Kuang. The worldbuilding in this alternative history where magick is an academic discipline like other sciences and Dante, Orpheus, etc. provide actual literal reports about journeys to hell is great in this it just works seamlessly in the background so you focus on the complex characters and their struggles (mentally, magically, with each other and trying to survive hell). The metaphysics of hell are surprising and make this feel more like a thrilling adventure narrative than you might think when you first hear "book about burned-out grad student going to hell." Have to read more of her books! Oh and because I keep mentioning this lately, I think the word count is like 160k, and I wouldn't want it any shorter.

I don't usually watch much body horror, but the premise of this one looked clever and original. The setup is good with realistic insecurities within the relationship and partners growing apart. The acting is very good, and the body horror aspects work well because they focus more on the situational horror of it rather than grossout gore. The horror backstory could've been a little more developed, but overall this was fresh and entertaining. Not as good as Obsession, but solid relationship horror in its own right.

Reading this after seeing the 90s movie is kind of like reading Go Set a Watchman after reading To Kill a Mockingbird. You thought the musketeers were doing heroic deeds all the time? Actually, they're constantly drinking and getting into pointless fatal streetfighting over extremely minor perceived slights, and trying to seduce married women to get them to pay their gambling debts. I was also surprised that the cardinal isn't even the main villain. But anyway it's a fun adventure/coming-of-age story that's playful and silly most of the way and then gets surprisingly dark. Because I think it's a shame the industry is so discouraging to longer novels atm, I also want to point out that this one is over 160k words and it needs that space. Interested to read more Dumas now.