The Dunwich Hoarder

I like video games, and I love to abuse the screencap function. Nintendo Switch Friend Code: 0166-2539-1316. New Horizons Dream Address: 1708-2087-4131.

[dunwichhoarder]

Light Reading

I’ve had the Xteink x4 a little over a week. I love having a tiny reader that fits in my breast pocket and can go everywhere with me. It’s easy enough to drag epub files over to the memory card. The lack of a front light means you won’t be reading this one in the dark, but I’m okay with that.

I think its role in my reading life is going to be focused on short stories and novellas. I want to read more of those, and this seems like the perfect way to slot them into my day and let it coexist with my Kobo

Not a bad little device. I hope they improve on it while keeping it tiny.

[dunwichhoarder]

Review: The Council

Matthew Betley's THE COUNCIL was the type of thriller I needed, about an assassin who realizes the shadowy cabal employing him may not be full of nice people. Lots of badasses doing badass things. After I finished it, I checked the library for more of his work. Good stuff.

Sometimes I don't want deeper inner meanings in my reading material. Sometimes I just want to be entertained. He provided.

[dunwichhoarder]

Pokémon Quest Builders

A generous friend gifted me a download code for Pokemon Pokopia and I am loving it so far. I’m still in the first area, but there is so much to do there that I’m in no big hurry to move on. I can tell this game is going to soak up hundreds of hours of my free time.

Coupled with the port of Pokemon LeafGreen, my gaming is sewn up for months. And then I’ll buy FireRed because I can’t play these GBA games and not get a Living Pokedex.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Better the Devil

Erik J. Brown offers up a YA novel full of murder and deceit.

A gay teen from West Virginia runs away from home when his religious parents try to force him into a conversion camp. He spends eight months wandering and homeless before being arrested for shoplifting a can of Chef Boyardee.

To avoid being identified and returned to his parents, he claims to be a missing boy named Nate — a boy he superficially resembles—whose picture he sees on a flyer.

It soon turns out faking amnesia about your missing years as an abductee is harder than it looks, especially when you’re lying to people who’ve been consumed with grief for years … and may be the prime suspects in their child’s disappearance. His only ally is the cute boy next door, a childhood friend of the real Nate, who now has a true crime podcast and wants to learn the truth about Nate’s abduction.

As “Nate” does his best to investigate while finding a way to fit in with his new parents and older brother, it becomes clear someone else knows his secret and is toying with him. Each incident adds a new layer of tension until the explosive finale.

You can feel the research throughout the book. You get the sense Brown asked multiple people about how the system would handle a minor in this situation so he could develop story workarounds to explain why that didn’t happen. Liberties were no doubt taken, but it gives it just enough plausibility to suspend disbelief.

The finale is where readers may roll their eyes and question some of the over-the-top choices, but it works.

Brown’s previous novels leaned more into the YA romance category, but here he shows he can stretch his talent into different genres. The novel tackles themes of guilt and redemption, found family and forgiveness, even as the bodies pile up.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: "My Name Isn't Paul"

Sometimes you need some Lovecraftian "What the hell did I just read?" storytelling, and "My Name Isn't Paul" certainly qualifies.

Paul is a traveling salesman. Paul is also a wasp-like creature from another dimension who perfectly mimics a human that nobody knows is dead. He and the rest of his "Mirror People" are just trying to fit in, but Paul struggles with self-loathing. He insists he's human and not a bug named Uxon. It's when his true nature takes over and the need to breed comes on him that the horror and death begins.

Paul feels like a walking metaphor for "down low" men who perfectly maintain that facade of being a happy family man, but inside he's struggling with his sexual identity. He behaves in self-destructive ways that could be avoided if he'd learn to accept himself and let that stinger go where it wants to go. I don't know if that subtext was intentional, but it feels right to me.,

I liked this one a lot. It's clever and disturbing, like if Chuck Palahniuk got high while reading H.P. Lovecraft. It also earns a few bonus points for being partially set in my home state of West Virginia.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Everything About you

"Everything About You" pulls off some neat tricks in its 384 pages. It's a sweet and charming summer romance focusing on Milo, a young man driven by his ambition to succeed in an apprenticeship at a fashion house in Paris. He's so eager that he almost manages to be unlikable at times even as you're cheering for him, but I was glad to see a romantic character with real human flaws. He makes mistakes, but it's how he deals with them that makes this book memorable.

It's the kind of story where you think "If he doesn't get together with Rhodes, maybe it's not the end of the world." I appreciate that kind of perspective.

The book even managed to make me interested in the fashion industry. I didn't think that was possible, and yet here we are.

I've not read Robby Weber's other novels featuring boys from the fictional town of Citrus Harbor, but I plan to track them down.

[dunwichhoarder]

Fantasy Life: Scratching the Itch

I’m on vacation this week, so I was able to clear the main storyline of Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time. It has a good story and a satisfying ending. Now it’s time for endgame shenanigans.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available. I did a little terraforming to raise the ground for my home, adding some waterfalls and stairs. It’s scratching that Animal Crossing itch just fine. I don’t have a lot of furniture recipes unlocked, so I mostly decorated with the tropical set. I’m sure I’ll keep changing things as my options expand.

I also bought the Wolf Ears recipe and made a set because the furry vibes are strong.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Wolf Blood

Matthew Gregory's "Wolf Blood" is sort of like "Sharknado" in that it's not great, but bless his heart because he seems to be having fun.. It opens with a banger of a prologue set in Scotland in 1450 that gave me real hope.

Fast forward to the present day. The main characters are Violet (human), Darius (her werewolf boyfriend), and Agent Kendra (government spook. A werewolf uprising is in the works. Can they stop it in time?

The book is a modest 165 pages, and I like werewolf stories enough to keep going. There's a lot of potential, but some of the writing choices drag it down. For example, the first few chapters are alternating first-person POVs from Violet and Darius until Agent Kendra arrives and it shifts to third person for the rest of the book. Character motivations turn on a dime, and sometimes they make intuitive leaps that seem guided by what has to happen for the plot instead of feeling organic. I'm also pretty sure Agent Kendra should be arrested for half the stunts she pulls.

There's also a lot of telling when there should be showing. What should've been a big climax of an action scene with lots of werewolf mayhem is instead narrated from the sidelines by one of the characters like an old radio show. It's a missed opportunity.

This wolf lacks bite. If the listing price for this was $10, I'd say pass on it. Since it's $3, it might be worth your time. Just don't expect a lot of polish.

(Review ARC provided by NetGalley)

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Flirty Dancing

When the title of a book and its Catskills resort camp setting are clearly meant to evoke nostalgia for “Dirty Dancing,” the first question you might ask is “Is there going to be a Baby put in the corner?” I will save you time and say there isn’t, but there are a few other little references that made me smile.

After the last two romances I read, “Flirty Dancing” felt almost cozy and low-stakes in comparison. That’s not a complaint. The main character, Archer Read, is 27 and about to give up his pursuit of a dance career when he lands a job with his celebrity dance crush, Mateo Dixon. They’ll be part of a dance company putting on two shows a night at an LGBTQ resort called Shady Queens.

It’s a sweet story with a decent cast of characters. The dancers are all young and horny, partying and pairing up and having relationship drama that constantly threatens the show. Archer and Mateo are generally the mature ones holding things together. They clearly have chemistry, so it’s just a question of when they’ll realize it against that backdrop.

I enjoyed it. It’s low in the spice scale, but there’s plenty of yearning and longing and “Oh my god, just kiss him!” moments that will keep you going.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Pansies

You know the Hallmark movies where the protagonist goes back to their small town and falls in love with the person who never left? This is like that but with waaaaaaaay more sex.

In this case, Alfie leaves London to attend the wedding of an old friend and accidentally comes out as gay while he's there. It's the sort of thing he'd kept carefully compartmentalized. That's followed by a hookup where he soon finds out this man Fen is someone he used to bully in school.

Alfie and Fen are each total messes in their own ways, but I was cheering for them to be happy. Alfie still carries a lot of toxic ideas about manhood that make him struggle to find his way in the gay world, at least until he finds his impossible flower shop boy.

Does it feel too heteronormative for comfort? Sometimes, but that’s Alfie’s struggle and I can relate and celebrate his progress.

I love Alexis Hall's writing in this, too. It’s sensual and lovely and, stick with me because this may sound like a stretch, reminds me of Clive Barker when he’s making magic out of the mundane.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Don't Let Me Go

Romantic? Yes. Swoon-worthy? Also yes. Heartbreaking and hopeful? Yes and yes.

The premise is solid. Riley and Jackson are teenage boys living in Florida who meet and find they have a connection that transcends time. In fact, they may be reincarnated soulmates who keep finding each other throughout the centuries.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this story, but it delivered. It had funny dialogue, awesome friends, and hormonal teens in love and who can barely keep their hands off of each other. It also had its share of harrowing, frightening moments.

This was the first book I've read from Kevin Christopher Snipes, and I doubt it will be my last. this kind of tightrope act will feel familiar to fans of Adam Silvera.

The highest compliment I can pay a book like this is I wish I’d had it when I was a closeted gay teen.

It’s possible this is more of a four-star book, but I have to give full respect for the surprising love shown for Olivia Newton-John and the glorious mess that is “Xanadu.”

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Storm and Sea

Did you watch “Luca” and think “This would be so much better if the boys were slightly older and could make out?” I think the author did.

I had a rough time suspending my disbelief at first because why are merfolk wearing clothes and doing TV sitcom family stuff in their homes? Then I realized I was trying too hard to be realistic in my visualization. I started picturing everything in the big colorful animation style of “Luca” and that made all the difference.

The setting is a small Italian fishing village near a colony of merfolk. Atreus has been living among humans most of his life, hiding his nature. Nyel, a mer runaway, stumbles into his life and suddenly everything is complicated.

I enjoyed this story and the budding romance between Nyel and Atreus. I’m not sure where the story goes from here, but I look forward to finding out.

My only real gripe with the book is how Atreus has negative intrusive thoughts that are displayed in a cursive script that seems out of place and it’s distracting. Maybe that’s the point.

I also thought the subplot with Leofel felt too dark at times for the overall story being told. It’s not a deal-breaker, though.

Overall, I liked it. This is what “Luca” could’ve been if the filmmakers had a little more guts.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Extraction

This is in my top ten favorite books for 2024. It's funny as hell but has depth, like if John Scalzi and Terry Pratchett collaborated on an Ocean's Eleven reboot in a fantasy setting that included the angriest donkey in the world named Stuart.

I've been following Dietrich Stogner on TikTok for quite awhile. He described his novel Extraction as a heist novel where the target is bull semen. I was intrigued. How could I not?

I had signed up for an ARC and managed to not finish reading it before the publication date this week. By then I was already halfway through it and bought it for my Kindle to finish it.

At first I was just relieved to find out the man could actually write -- not guaranteed when someone says "Read my novel!" -- and then I was invested in the story.

If you've liked Kings of the Wyld or 16 Ways to Defend a Walled City and enjoyed that blend of fantasy and smartass comedy, you may want to check it out.

[dunwichhoarder]

Stardew Valley: SquidFest

It was almost a repeat of the trout derby, not being able to hook many squid on the first day of SquidFest. The three I caught went straight into the Bait Maker. For the second day, the bait made it easy to hook ten squid in a row and win the squid hat.

[dunwichhoarder]

Stardew Valley: Marriage Progress

Mid-summer of Year 2 in Stardew Valley, and I’ve married Sebastian. He’s my favorite of the Stardew bachelors, but the others have their charms.

The update seems to have tweaked the marriage dialogue to make it sound less novel that it’s two guys. Before, Mayor Lewis said “I now pronounce you husband and… well, husband!”

I appreciate that change.

[dunwichhoarder]

Stardew Valley: Back on the Farm

The 1.6.9 update for Stardew Valley landed on the Nintendo Switch at the perfect moment. The election results put me in a serious funk and I needed some time to decompress. Stardew Valley is a comfort food kind of game, and I was eager to explore the new content.

I sank into it pretty hard. If I was awake and not at work, I was likely playing the game. I blazed through that first year and had the greenhouse unlocked by mid-fall. The new Meadowlands farm is fun, although I’m tempted to scrap that file and start a new Four Corners map because I prefer that layout.

My friend Sam joined me for a few hours on Saturday, helping me with chores.

I had missed the Trout Derby in the first year. Now that I’m in the second year, I got to experience it. The first day was a bit of a drag because I caught lots of fish that weren’t rainbow trout. I used them to craft Rainbow Trout Bait and that really streamlined the second day. I earned enough tags to unlock all of the prizes and got two Mounted Trout.

[dunwichhoarder]

Book Review: Look Up, Handsome

Look Up, Handsome is a cozy Christmas romcom that would be right at home on Hallmark if they had more gay people on staff. Even the drag queens are fun and nonthreatening. It's all very sweet and my mother would love it.

That may sound like I'm mocking the book, but I'm not. I've watched a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies with my mother and this just has the vibe down perfectly. We have our main character, Quinn, running a gay bookshop in an idyllic small town. We have the handsome Noah, who escaped to London as soon as he could but is returning for a visit.

I roll my eyes at the country-vs-city clash in those movies because they ignore the queer experience of wanting more acceptance and a bigger dating pool than rural areas can provide, but it works here. Quinn's bookshop serves as an oasis for the queer community, and I was invested in his struggle to keep the shop open despite multiple threats of eviction. Quinn is a sloppy wreck, but I was cheering for him.

It's a cute book with a fun cast of supporting characters. If Jack Strange has another book in him, I'll read it as well.