at the start of every bookclub we go around and all talk about what piece of media we "had strong feelings about" since our last meeting. this means they can be either positive or negative, but for the purposes of this post, i'm sticking to my (mostly) favorites of 2025, 12 books or shows or movies or music that I first encountered this year. one for each month, and in alphabetical order. let's go!
1. andor (season 2)
you wanna talk about violence against immigrants? you wanna talk about state-sponsored genocide? you wanna talk about the slow creeping tendrils of fascism? you wanna talk about resistance and hope and fighting until you’ve nothing left to give? sacrificing yourself to the cause? this season was by no means perfect, it didn’t quite stick the landing, but god what an incredibly prescient show. i don't understand how this got past the suits but i'm so glad it did. not just the best star wars show, but one of the best tv shows period.
2. black sails
my girlfriend is an evangelist for this show and this year, we watched it together. everyone says this is one of the best written pieces of media in the last 20 years and you go in thinking, ‘I mean I’m sure it’s good but they must be exaggerating’ and then, no. it really is the show of all time. I don’t have to tell any of you this. this show is so incredibly queer not just in a ‘the blorbos are kissing’ way but in a ‘queer as a political identity’ way. white cishetmono culture is trying to grind you down and fit you into its civilized box, tell you its safer in there, but you must not let it. lines from this show have fundamentally altered my brain, my very way of thinking. I will never be the same.
3. brooklyn (2015 film / novel by colm tóibín)
this year my husband and I decided to watch as many Irish films as we can, and grade them on a scale of how depressing they are. it’s been a fun project, and has led me to see lots of films I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. brooklyn is on the lower end of the scale, 2/10, but i still found it beautifully poignant and heartachingly told. I read the book this year as well, while on a visit home to my family, and for those few days eilis and I were the same. you can never go back.
4. fields of mistria
I got a steamdeck this year and one of my instant purchases was fields of mistria. it’s a lovely farm sim that, despite being in early access, has outpaced any other game of this type for me. The writing has so many unique interactions, and the townsfolk are fleshed out so well, with their own lives and stories and relationships unrelated to you (I love the middle-aged throuple). the art, which, as a long-time fan of yuko ota’s, was primarily why I bought it, is delightful. I can’t wait to see where it goes as it continues to be developed!
5. 'free' by florence + the machine
this was without a doubt my number one song of the year. there was a period where this was the first thing I played every single time I got into my car. the absolute catharsis I felt, over and over, by shrieking “to exist in the face of suffering and death and somehow still keep singing” at the top of my lungs. getting into communal singing, purely for the joy of it, was something I started to do this year, and it’s been keeping me together. also in general this year I finally got properly into F+TM, an artist who I would enjoy when her work came my way, but never made an effort to seek out. now I’ve had everybody scream on loop for the past month.
6. a ghost in the throat by doireann ní ghríofa
this book is definitely not for everyone. half of it is the author's musings about pregnancy, lactation, motherhood. and yet, despite those all being things that usually scare me off, I was really taken by this. it's an interesting meditation on poetry, on history, on connection. what gets passed on, in our genes or our stories, and what is lost? i highlighted huge passages, resonating with so much about bodies and memories and creation. it's remained at the back of my brain since i read it.
7. godkiller by hannah kaner
one of my favorite books of the year. it had everything eleven-year-old me and thirties-me loves. I kept telling people this was like a tamora pierce novel, with your redheaded surly female mercenary, your precocious tween who has a strange animal companion and even stranger magic, a sad knight-turned-baker who is so consumed with right and wrong. add in a lot of ideas about gods and the nature of belief and identity and I was hooked. the rest of the series unfortunately, to me, had middling returns and suffered from (imo) the author probably tailoring things in later books to address reader criticism, despite that going against all the great characters and the dynamics that were set up here. I still think it was a very fun read, though.
8. hades 2
this game certainly gave me strong feelings, and mooooost of them were positive. i was really on the fence about putting it on here, because the highs were so high but the lows were so bafflingly low. this game has so much going for it. incredible art, exciting new game design, really building on so much that was great about hades and taking it to the next level. the music is once again nothing but bangers (we are fans of 'moonlight guide us' in this polycule). but the True Ending really killed all the goodwill and excitement I had. I know they've released the patch now, but I don't have it in me to go back yet. which is a shame, because I love mel! I love hecate!!! there is some stuff in the epilogue that is great! there is so much in this game that is great - but the things that aren't great are ruinous.
9. life of pi stage play
we did not get a ton of good touring shows in my area this year, but the one that i liked the most was life of pi. i was very attached to this book in high school - my favorite english teacher, who passed away right before graduation, was the one who suggested i read it, and to this day i still have her copy with all her notes in the margins. i did not think i would ever like an adaptation of a book that carries so much weight for me, but this play was gorgeous. there were moments i truly forgot the tiger wasn't real, the design and choreography and puppeteering made it come alive. i also happened to see a show where a female understudy was playing pi, and the whole character was genderswapped, which honestly hit me very hard. to see a character i've loved, in a story i've loved, be a little bit more like myself this time, was really meaningful to me.
10. the no-girlfriend rule by christen randall
per my storygraph review: "I don’t know how to rate this book because the events of this book happened to me in real life. The starting D&D, the queer awakening, the shipping your characters with a fellow PC, the intense late night discord messages, the deep anxiety and guilt and shame, the changing into a more authentic person but feeling like it’s a betrayal because no one else wants you to change, finding yourself and finding your people, the character playlists. It feels like the author cracked open my journals and told them back to me. I feel deeply seen and deeply embarrassed...I think it does an excellent job capturing the absolute life-changing magic a good D&D group can have, where you feel safe, heard, secure, and accepted.“
11. 'pale, pale moon' from sinners
I know, I know, ‘I lied to you’ is electric. it’s the standout number from this movie, the crux of the entire plot, expertly shot and choreographed, and if it doesn’t win an oscar I will be mad. but for me? my favorite song in the film is ‘pale, pale moon’. I’m an absolute sucker for a stomping rhythm, and jayme lawson’s vocals are incredible. I remember sitting in the theatre and thinking, ‘oh shit I can't wait to hear that again’. and then I played it on repeat in the car for the rest of the year.
12. pentiment
not a day goes by that I do not think of this game. andreas maler and the village of tassing are so real to me. a gorgeously researched and written game, rich and dense and lovingly illustrated. earlier I praised mistria for its writing and relationships - pentiment is doing all that, on a completely different level. hundreds of thousands of words comprising intricate dialogue trees, choices with long lasting consequences, characters that are complex and relatable, and on top of that it’s a mystery!! a tale of art and history and gender and religion and humanity and community that could not be told in any other format than a game. this is what they mean when they talk about video games being works of art.
honorable mentions: adolescence, 'cowboy blues' by kesha, stephen sondheim's old friends, stone butch blues by leslie feinberg (which regrettably I still have not finished), wolfwalkers
