hello audience that i haven’t written to since may 2023. no, this is not a professional update (though i’m long overdue one, and i promise in the new year you will get tons of fun new stuff about the book that’s coming out next year, and stuff that happened this year—like i went to yallfest and on a whole UK tour and i wrote nothing about it…but i will).
now onto my fave things this year!
📚a year in reading
i didn’t read nearly as many books this year. i only read 25 and like 8 of them were manga but that’s okay! manga is still reading! and also it was my debut year, and so i was very busy. i’m setting a lofty goal of 40 books next year and i’ll be starting literally day 1 with a study in drowning by ava reid. anyway onto the books i did read. i enjoyed most of them but i definitely had a few standouts.
the first standout being: all systems red by martha wells. i love, love murderbot! what a fascinating series. murderbot is both so dire and so funny and its disdain for humanity is only eclipsed by the way humanity is like a dumb baby that it must guide and take care of because of mission parameters but also because it just wants to live on its own and do its own thing. i’m really excited for the murderbot adaptation on apple tv. i have faith in apple tv—their sci-fi programming is really good.
Y/N by esther yi is about a young woman who finds herself obsessed with a k-pop star, so obsessed she ends up writing fanfiction about said k-pop star, before attempting to go and find him and meet him. it’s a book that i’m not sure how i feel about. all i know is that it left a lasting impression on me. a master class in craft, i really really looked forward to what esther yi has in store for us next.
it had been a while since i read a thriller, so i had to go back to my roots and wow, i am so glad i did. murder in the family by cara hunter is an interestingly formatted book, told through evidence documents and scripts of a true crime docudrama as a team of experts try to solve the murder of the director of said docudrama’s stepfather. it is fascinating and fun and while i did guess the killer pretty early on (lowkey part of my job to know the signs), i still was pleasantly surprised by the ending!
masters of death by olivie blake was the last book i read this year and what a way to end it! my first olivie blake book was so fun! there were a lot of characters in it, but it really felt like it was bursting with life and lore. i was also really pleasantly surprised by how it deviated from what i expected. there was queerness! i always love being surprised by a queer couple in a book. it was also one of the few fantasy novels i read this year which i really really wanna correct that in the new year.
some other standouts of the year: where sleeping girls lie by faridah àbíké-íyímídé, glossy by marisa meltzer, and my dark vanessa by kate elizabeth russell.
looking forward to more reading in the new year!
🎵 a year in music
i have never been a casual fan of arctic monkeys. like i’m not just an AM listener (nothing wrong with being just an AM listener). anyway after AM, arctic monkeys released tranquility base hotel + casino, which made a lot of fans mad. their signature rock and roll sound had heavily shifted to strings, synths, and storytelling, with more abstract lyricism. the car is this new sound further developed, and wow, do i love it. the car actually came out last year, but i went to see arctic monkeys in concert this year and so it made a resurgence in my most listened-to albums. i collect vinyl and this record was spinning constantly. there is a romance to this album that lives rent-free in my head, and i hope you give it a chance!
i am a huge paramore fan. i was more excited than anyone for this is why to come out. it is also such a different sound for paramore, but i love, love when my favorite bands evolve (see: arctic monkeyss’ the car). you first became the anthem of Adina Walker, the MC of my book, their vicious games. “turns out i’m livin’ in a horror film / where i’m both the killer and the final girl”, indeed. also i finally saw paramore in concert (i went to a lot of concerts this year) and they were even more incredible than i could have ever imagined.
i have always been a casual fan of raye. but when her live album, my 21st century symphony, came out, i was quickly transformed. from the overture into oscar-winning tears all the way to the eight minute version of escapism, i was overwhelmed by the storytelling happening through this album. raye’s style of music feels oddly reminiscent of my childhood, a mix of neo-soul, gospel influences, house music, dancehall. it is a culmination of a life of experiences that feel mirrored to my own and so it has really had a hold on me in the past few months.
dance fever came out in 2022 but with the release of mermaids, i was sucked back into the baroque pop sounds of florence + the machine. i would also be remiss if i didn’t mention the composer of succession, nicholas britell who was unsurprisingly the top artist in my spotify unwrapped for the year.
📺 a year in tv
succession. ah succession. what is there to say about one of the greatest television shows to ever be created. what an incredible final season one that never relented and never pulled punches. did i like who won the empire at the end? no. did it absolutely make narrative sense and was the ending satisfying? hell yes. (also kieran culkin 🔛🔝)
the fall of the house of usher is another flanagan banger and is probably top three for me, from his netflix canon. while i think it was a slow start, the build up is so worth it. it feels very reminiscent of succession, but in a lot of ways branches out on its own, doing a very interesting take on a sackler-esque family and punishing them for the misdeeds. what a really good time! also i actually jumped a few times which is very surprising. i don’t scare particularly easy!
i tried to watch the great when it first came out and it was…fine for me. i don’t know. but i started rewatching literally last month and it was MORE THAN fine. it was HITTING. it is so funny and irreverent and it’s so reminiscent of a fave movie of mine, the favourite, dir. yorgos lanthimos. and then i did more research and the great was actually developed and created by one of the screenwriters of the favourite, which explains why it was hitting so much for me. here’s to more from tony mcnamara. (also hulu, i’m under your bed, i’m in your walls, i hate you for canceling this brilliant show)
i also rewatched nana this year on the recommendation of a friend. i watched nana for the first time in 2012 when i couldn’t fathom having a life like the two titular nanas. now rewatching it after the death of a major artistic inspiration of the series (see: vivienne westwood), i have a new eye for both the conflict and art that nana encompasses. i really love that anime and manga, and i do feel like it’ll be something i reread/rewatch frequently. manifesting the manga coming off hiatus for real.
another standout of the year: the bear. my favorite episodes were forks and seven fishes, and i cannot lie, i do not care for that claire girl.
🎥 a year in film
i’m more of a tv girlie than a cinephile but i was in the movie theaters this year!! i really liked a lot of what i saw.
i saw oppenheimer three times in theaters. all three times were in imax 70mm. do you know the kind of money i was spending to see that in an nyc theater? absolutely wild stuff. did i cry in the theater because of how anxious and nauseous the trinity test and the aftermath of the bomb drop made me? yeah i did. was it worth it? yes. nolan is my father. i am his daughter. i will be seated. everything in this film was so endlessly fascinating. the direction, the acting, the writing. i just ate it all up. scrumptious film.
may december is a really really interesting film. its subject matter is extremely dark, but the treatment of using melodrama to add a weird levity works. i enjoy the cheesy score use, the weird zooms in, and i think it makes charles melton’s performance all the more devastating. this was just a really great film!
bottoms is another banger film. first: i’m always, always gonna support the people’s princess, ayo edebiri. second, it was so fun and weird and the exact kind of strange humor that i love. i think it pairs rather well with both my books, their vicious games and the blonde dies first. also i’m like SO close to writing fanfic of josie and isabel, i think they are so so cute, i’m obsessed with them.
spider-man: across the spider-verse. gosh. what an achievement in animation. just a wonderfully told story (some weird shit notwithstanding, i don’t wanna go into it, i recently had a tweet go viral about my single critique on this film). the score was wonderful, the music curation was great. i think often about guillermo del toro’s academy awards speech when he won for pinnochio—animation is cinema. it is a medium.
other films i loved this year: gangubai kathaiwadi, M3GAN, scream vi (which i won’t talk about too much because i stand in solidary with melissa barrera) and theater camp (yes, i’m outing myself a former theater kid).
🛍 a year in consumption
a new category this year! i bought things and i’m here to try to influence you:
i’ve spent over a year trying to find my signature scent. i’ve gone through many—tom ford electric cherry, tom ford bitter peach, 19-69 female christ, most replica scents. BUT i haven’t gotten as many compliments as i have wearing diptyque orphéon. someone on the train even tapped me on the shoulder to ask what i was wearing because she loved the scent. it smells so fresh and sophisticated, and i’m obsessed with it.
this year i’ve finally, FINALLY perfected my hair routine. i have really thick curly hair and i’ve recently discovered melanin haircare and it has been amazing for my hair. my curls are always so hydrated and defined, and i don’t have to do them as often when i use melanin, which if you have thick curly hair, you know that there’s nothing more time-consuming than a hair day.
unfortunately, this specific baggu x sandy liang bag is sold out, but i did get it while it was in stock and i love it. it’s my go-to little bag and truthfully, i’ve fallen in love with baggu in general. it’s just so functional. i have both the large and medium crescent bags. the medium bag is for when i’m just hanging out with friends and it’s large enough to hold a book along with everything else i need, and i use the large crescent bag as my work bag!
outing myself as a fashion girl because i contain multitudes—i bought two pairs of maison margiela tabis this year, one mary jane and one small ballerina pump. some people might find them ugly, and they may be right, but i am obsessed with them. i love to dress fun and there’s nothing more fun than a hoof shoe.
blush—i have become obsessed with the idea of looking like a doll. i don’t believe there’s such thing as too much blush. i have a vast, vast collection of blush. my favorite formulas are liquid or cream and i find myself gravitating towards the rare beauty soft pinch liquid beauty, patrick ta major headlines blush, the rose inc cream blush, and the tried and true and very first blush i ever tried, glossier cloud paint.
i’ve learned that as one grows older, one’s skin changes. crazy concept, i know. now that i’m 26, my extremely oily skin has all dried up and i’m extremely flaky and dry which is a bummer. the best face and hand lotions that have helped hydrate my skin and skin barrier are the dieux instant angel moisturizer and the la roche-posay cicaplast balm. both are so good.
🖋 a year in writing
this year i wrote my sophomore book. everyone told me it would be a struggle. writing your second book, particularly on deadline, comes with a whole new set of expectations, self-imposed and otherwise. i was incredibly stubborn, believing that i wouldn’t hit with the sophomore slump.
i was swiftly humbled.
writing the blonde dies first was probably one of the hardest things i’ve ever done in my life, and i might write about that process, because it really was a doozy. BUT. i’m extremely proud of what i’ve created.
now i work towards new stories and goals with a self-imposed deadline for an adult project on march 1 and another super secret project i hope my publisher buys from me (fingers crossed!) looking forward to all the new adventures writing has in store for me in the new year.
as you can see: i had a big, big year. a year of consumption (which i should probably manage) but also a year of creation—i wrote a whole book and i had a book come out and TWO amazing anthologies. i’m really really proud of all the work i’ve done, but i’m kinda glad to be out of my debut year. the expectations have shifted and so have the goal posts and i look forward to what comes next.
here’s to 2024!
while we wait for the new year, do me a favor: