Closing out the summer 2026

Now if only the weather would cool down

What I watched

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - I took my nephew to see the newest Spider-man movie (despite him never before watching a Marvel movie) and I think we both enjoyed it. The Spider-man movies have always been high points in the Marvel catalogue for me (I don’t even mind Spider-man 3) and this one was no different. Although, it definitely felt like a cog in a larger Marvel machine, with a lot of pieces feeling like set up for future movies.

Hokum (rewatch) - Watched this one again, this time with my wife because I figured she’d appreciate a slower-burn horror movie with a mostly Irish cast. I think I stand by my initially assessment that this movie was criminally under-appreciated when it came to horror this year. I think this movie knocks Obsession and Backrooms out of the water.

What I read

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buelmann - This gritty urban vampire story takes place in a 1970s New York City and concerns a small community of vampires that gets shook up by the sudden appearance of a pair of vampire children.

I really enjoyed this one and kind of liken it to something like American Psycho in that it really follows the point of view of one character’s day-to-day life living in the underbelly of the city. The characters are all very well established and once the plot gets rolling in the back-half of the novel things move along at a good clip.

All of Your Dreams Will Come True When You’re Dead by John Wayne Comunale - A gunslinger rolls into a town that seems to exist in a place between dimensions looking for his missing gun.

This short “splatter western” novel makes up for what it lacks in writing with pure ambition. The sub-200 page novel paints a sprawling portrait of a land beset with Lovecraftian horrors, magic, and bandits, but kind of blows through things way too quickly to really let me get invested in anything.

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker - After committing a horrible crime, a college student flees to his father’s secluded home in Japan and has a series of run-ins with a ghost from the past.

I think the best way to describe this is that it’s basically a light horror version of the anime Your Name. It flip-flops between two narratives that intersect in ways I never expected. Everything kind of gets wound together in a retelling of a Japanese folk story in a way that makes much more sense in retrospect. This will probably end up being one of my favorite reads of the year.

The Devil By Name by Keith Rosson - Part two of the Fever House duology, this story picks up a few years after the end of the last novel with society trying to rebuild from the end of the world.

The ending of Fever House threw me for a loop when it abruptly shifted from a supernatural crime story straight into a zombie-esque apocalypse. Some of my favorite aspects were sidelined in favor of what I consider a much less interesting story. Ultimately, I still really liked the conclusion to this story, but it felt like a hasty epilogue blown out into its own novel.

The Day That Never Comes by Caimh McDonnell - Book two of “The Dublin Trilogy” follows Paul and Brigit of the previous novel as they try to figure out who is killing off wealthy land developers while trying to locate Bunny, the missing third of their detective agency.

This was another audiobook co-listen with my wife after we enjoyed the last one so much. I think the humor is even better in this one, even if the story is a bit over-complicated and hard to follow at times.

Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay - An ex-professional gamer is tasked with remotely controlling a functionally brain-dead man implanted with an AI augment.

I think there are some clever ideas buried in this one, but in general completely missed the mark for me. The main character is a very annoying gamer gurl who constantly spits out The Big Lebowski quotes, and large swaths of the plot make little to no sense under the slightest scrutiny. I’m starting to think Mr. Tremblay has lost his touch (if he ever had it to begin with).

The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer - A young woman, hard up for cash and raising her younger sister, takes a job house-sitting for a home that requires specific “rites” to be followed.

I think I liked this more than Kliewer’s last novel, We Used to Live Here, but this still proved to be quite a frustrating read for me. While the story is more focused, the rules and rituals established constantly shift and change. It felt less like a thrill ride and more like someone making up a story as they go.

What I played

The Old King’s Crown - This much-buzzed-about game tasks players as slightly asymmetrical factions all vying to succeed the recently fallen king of a fantasy realm. This is an area control war game of sorts where players deploy troops to one of three regions on the board and bid cards from their hands in secret to bolster their forces. The game distinguishes itself from other games of this ilk with the player asymmetry: each deck of cards starts out mostly the same, but as players grow in power they have access to more cards and abilities that nudge their play style in a different direction.

After one play of this, I’m kind of on the fence about how I feel about it. While the art and graphic design of the game is top-notch, I wasn’t too sure about the gameplay. I was very wrapped up in the hype around the game before I played it, but later kind of felt a bit let down by the experience. It didn’t feel like the asymmetrical powers felt all too different from one another, and the whole process of fighting over regions felt a bit cumbersome and fiddly at times. I’m hoping it’s a game that ages well over several plays as players begin to feel comfortable settling in to their faction’s quirks.

Pragmata - I checked this new Capcom third-person adventure shooter out from my library and played it for the Switch 2. The story follows an engineer dispatched to a lunar colony who is soon the sole survivor of his team and discovers that the whole base has been taken over by an A.I. program gone rogue.\

I really enjoyed this one as it reminded me of the kind of single player games we got a dime-a-dozen of back in the early 2000s (complimentary). The unique twist on the gameplay here is that the shooting mechanics are tied directly in with a light puzzle solving “hacking” element that has you navigating a maze of sorts with your face buttons to weaken enemies before you can shoot them. The whole game took me maybe a little over 10 hours to complete but there was a decent amount of collectibles and side missions left that I did not complete.

Mortal Shell 2 - As a bit of an impulse buy, I picked up this game when it released towards the end of the month. I barely dipped my toes into the first game but it seems like this one has improved on it in every single way. I’m not sure what exactly is going on except that I’m collecting some kind of celestial mother’s eggs, but the combat is satisfying and the combination of “tarstone” power-ups you can apply to your character and/or weapon make for some fun experimental play styles. I love the gruesome art direction and the game is difficult without being overly punishing. I think I’ve just entered the last stretch of the game and I’m certain I’ve missed probably half of what there is to see in the game. It’s probably my favorite “souls-like” action RPG game since Lies of P.