Reviews

13 March 2025

Horror story reviews, by someone who doesn’t like horror

I’m not a big fan of horror movies or TV shows, because I’m not a big fan of jump scares. I’m generally way more into fantasy, sci-fi and dystopian fiction than any other genre – except perhaps some of Anne Rice’s works/adaptations. But every once in a while, a horror movie or TV show comes along that I do actually enjoy. Hannibal was such a case. In more recent years, I’ve discovered the works of author/director Mike Flanagan, and after having watched 3 of his shows, I think what he does is absolutely brilliant. His works are not just horror […]

24 February 2025

Seeing the present through the past: The Newsreader

If you’ve followed the news today, you’re probably just as depressed as me by the German election results, with actual fascists having gotten 20% of the votes, and the majority of Germans still having voted for the less fascist yet conservative party CDU. Don’t expect any progress in this country. And that’s just German politics, let’s not even mention the sheer insanity that is going on in other countries. Well, needless to say, I’m not a fan of reading the news anymore. I gave up on that years ago, because it’s just absolutely horrible for my mental health. Attention-grabbing social […]

19 February 2025

Original Sin & New Blood: Dexter revisited

Back when Dexter first released, I was a big fan. I even wrote a review about the first season, which was phenomenal and probably one of the best seasons of television I’ve seen, thanks to its plot twists. That was 18 years ago! I continued to watch new seasons of Dexter as they aired, but as we probably all know, the show sadly experienced a massive decline in quality over the years. For me personally, S1 still remains the best and cannot be topped in the severity of its mind-blowing plot twists. Season 2-3 were also generally good, and while […]

17 February 2025

Romantasy is not for me

I jumped on the Fourth Wing and Romantasy bandwagon in 2023, when I was researching cool books to read. Back then bookstores were plastered with these novels, so I honestly wanted to find out what the hype was about?! Fantasy is one of my most favorite genres and I always enjoy a good fantasy book. Romance? Well, I can’t say I’ve ever read any proper romance novels, aside maybe from some fanfiction 🤔 But why not? Well, my first Romantasy novel was the ubiquitous Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I jumped on the hype train with this book, mainly because […]

16 January 2025

6 Mindbending TV Shows

If you, like me, enjoy watching weird and mind-bending TV shows, often with a bit of a sci-fi twist, I have a few mini-reviews for you of shows that I have watched in the past couple of months or so, and that I greatly enjoyed: Station Eleven This is without a doubt one of the smartest, most brilliant TV shows I have watched in a long, long time. It’s been on my watchlist for probably over a year, and I really don’t know what took me so long. Perhaps the less-than-appealing posters? But trust me, this is 100% worth if […]

7 January 2025

From the Chronicles of Dawnmaster Aeneas, The Morninglord’s Chosen

SPOILER WARNING: This entire post contains heavy spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3, and in particular The Dark Urge origin! Proceed to read at your own peril! Written in the Year of Three Ships Sailing, 1492 DR, the following are extracts from the Chronicles of Dawnmaster Aeneas, a Bhaalspawn who was at the center of the events of the Mindflayer invasion. Together with a group of similarly lost souls, he was instrumental in the defeat of the Elder Brain that threatened to destroy Baldur’s Gate and most of the Sword Coast. Having woken up without recollection of who he was, he […]

12 September 2024

Unwind

The Unwind Dystology was by far one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read. It’s a captivating, easy to read series aimed at young adults, but despite that, it’s nowhere near light reading. In this world, abortion is outlawed, but instead parents can ‘unwind’ their children between the ages of 13-18. This means that they ‘continue living’ in a ‘divided state’, as the euphemisms in this book say, but in reality they become glorified organ donors. It sounds horrible and you wonder how a society could ever have sanctioned this way of life. But the books expertly convince you that […]

30 June 2024

Mistborn

Everybody loves Brandon Sanderson, don’t they? Well, as my enthusiasm for reading had been rejuvenated in the past year, I have been spending a lot of time on literature websites and other channels to find the right books for me to read. After some letdowns of overhyped books, I established a firm list of “must reads” and / or “classics” that I felt would be my thing. Reading what you want is so important, and probably why jumping on the hype train is always a disappointment. Anyway, everybody seems to love Brandon Sanderson, and while Stormlight Archive is praised to […]

3 May 2024

Susanna Clarke: Piranesi and Jonathan Strange

Did you ever finish reading a book and then went straight back to the first page to read it again? This happened to me when I read Piranesi, a rather short novel by Susanna Clarke. Piranesi is a magical, mythical and mind-boggling mystery. Probably one of the most unique books I have ever read. I don’t really know what else to say about this book without spoiling it, except that it’s absolutely worth reading. It’s a short (~250 pages) and very captivating read with very brief chapters. It’s an introvert’s dream place. And will stick with you for a while. […]