022: Books and movies
Yesterday I posted my favourite music of the year, today I thought I’d round up a few of my favourite other things because, well, I haven’t written anything in a few weeks and I seemingly have an overwhelming urge to do so.
For the last few years I’ve been going through the process of trying to get an ADHD assessment. Of course, since I live in Tory Britain in 2022, I’m two years in and no closer to getting anywhere, but I have more than a gnawing suspicion that I am one of the increasing numbers of adults who’ve gone through their lives trying to make sense of the world around them with only half the tools of everyone else.
One of the ways this manifests, for me at least, is in finding immense satisfaction in tracking things. I have tracked my music listening with Last.fm since 2010 and spend an unhealthy amount of time playing with the various charts of bands and albums and other things. I track my reading through Goodreads so I can get bummed out every December when I fail to hit my reading target for the year (22/24 this year), and this year I added Letterboxd to the list so I can track what films I watch (and rewatch) each year. And I’ll tell you one thing, all of this makes there end of year posts a damn sight easier.
But, unlike with music, I rarely see movies or read books in the year they’re released, so think about this as more of a ‘shit I enjoyed this year’ post. Let’s start with books.
Top 10 Books of (my) year
Territory, by Dan Howarth. A wonderful novella by a very dear friend. An incredible novella, so rich in its world building, so nuanced in its characterisations. Tender in its humanity, savage at its core. That it achieves so much over so few pages is a testament to Dan’s brilliance. His is surely a name that will be spoken about in the pantheon of horror greats for years to come.
My Dog Shits Cash, by Luke Kondor. A genuinely lovely piece of writing. The back mentions The Mighty Boosh and Adventure Time but I found this reminiscent of Robert Rankin at his best. Luke has a wonderful turn of phrase, and while you might not think a book a dog that shits cash would be capable of moving this reader to tears, you would be very much mistaken. For all that Luke echoes the very best of the bizarro world (with nods to more mainstream authors like Douglas Adams), his is a truly unique voice, full of heart and madness. I adored this, and I reckon you will, too.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix. The first of two books by Hendrix that I read this year, and I adored both (the other being My Best Friend’s Exorcism). The mix of cutting satire and pulpy horror was like reading prime King filtered through a lens of Douglas Coupland.
Bunny, by Mona Awad. Delivered my most ‘what the fuck’ moment in reading this year, this is a proper headfuck of a read, and while it loses its way a little at the end, the journey to get there is worth it alone.
NOS4A2, by Joe Hill. If I were Stephen King’s son, I’m sure I’d be trying to run a mile from him, stylistically, but in this novel at least Joe Hill leans into his literary heritage in a big way, with a world that seems almost to touch the Tower itself. But Hill has a voice all of his own, too, and the end result is something quite special.
Queen of the Cicadas, by V Castro. A sumptuously written folk horror spun out of the Latinx immigrant experience, this feels like a thematic companion to Candyman, but with lashings of sex and violence added. A stunning read.
No One Gets Out Alive, by Adam Nevill. Hands down the nastiest thing I’ve read in quite a few years, it had me flinching at times, but never felt exploitative of its central character. It also went in an utterly unexpected direction.
The Book of Accidents, by Chuck Wendig. As a big fan of Wendig’s writing (Wanderers was my favourite book of 2021) it was nice to see him lean properly into the horror genre in this.
Clown in a Cornfield, by Adam Cesare. Just a bloody good fun ride through small town violence, like a low-budget slasher with an unreasonably good script.
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood. See, I can read proper books, too!
Films of this and other years
I’ve seen a nice round 100 films for the first time this year, and here’s a nice representation of the best of them.
So that’s the end of my year end roundup. I’ll be back tomorrow with some goals and aims for the new year.