Ideas, questions, interests, and passing thoughts — the raw material of the garden.
21 entries
Six books in, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series keeps proving it’s smarter than its absurdist premise suggests, and Gate of the Feral Gods might be the darkest entry yet. Dinniman continues to use the game-show dungeon as a brutally effective metaphor for systems that consume the people trapped inside them, and this installment leans hard […]
Christopher Moore takes a wild premise—Lilith (a.k.a Judith), freshly unfrozen from a block of Arctic ice in 1911 Vienna, crossing paths with a young Carl Jung—and uses it as scaffolding for something more ambitious than his usual comic romp. At its best, the novel is a sharp interrogation of who gets to own a story, […]
There’s a particular kind of vertigo that comes from opening an 800-page anthology set in one of horror fiction’s most beloved universes. The Stand is at turns tragic and funny, romantic and gross, sentimental and nihilistic — a pandemic story, a Christian allegory, and an attempt to craft a distinctly American epic fantasy all at […]
An Arcane Inheritance arrives with considerable pedigree: Kamilah Cole’s debut adult novel after a well-regarded YA duology, set in the rich soil of dark academia, and draped in praise from some of fantasy’s biggest names. It has all the ingredients for something genuinely unsettling and intellectually resonant. Which makes it all the more disappointing that […]
“We Don’t Talk About Carol” by Kristen L. Berry is an engaging and thought-provoking family drama that explores the complexities of sibling relationships and long-buried secrets. Through Sydney’s grueling IVF journey, the book deeply examines the visceral desires, vulnerabilities, and identity crises tied to trying to conceive and build a foundation for the future. The […]
In the third book of Matt Dinniman’s chaotic LitRPG series, Carl and Princess Donut find themselves on the Fourth Floor of the World Dungeon: The Iron Tangle. This floor is a massive, mind-bending network of subway tunnels and shifting train lines that require intense logistical planning to navigate. While dodging the usual array of homicidal […]
Carl’s Doomsday Scenario, the second installment in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series, continues the story of Carl and Princess Donut as they delve deeper into the deadly game that has replaced Earth. After surviving the chaos of the first floor, our unlikely heroes must navigate increasingly complex and dangerous dungeon levels while competing against […]
Sylvain Neuvel’s The Test is a masterwork of concise, powerful storytelling that will leave you breathless. In under 100 pages, Neuvel delivers a gut-wrenching examination of immigration, identity, and the cruel machinery of bureaucracy. The story follows Idir, a young man from an unnamed Middle Eastern country, as he takes the British citizenship test—a seemingly […]
Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl is a wild ride that somehow manages to be both deeply unsettling and darkly hilarious. When Earth is suddenly transformed into a galactic reality show dungeon crawl—with 99.9% of humanity obliterated in the process—ex-bouncer Carl finds himself fighting for survival alongside Princess Donut, his ex-girlfriend’s cat. Together, they must descend […]
Avana Gray’s I, Medusa offers a compelling reimagining of the classic Greek myth, centering Medusa’s perspective in a narrative about transformation, trauma, and reclaiming power. The novel follows Medusa’s journey from a young woman devoted to Athena’s temple to her infamous transformation into the snake-haired Gorgon. Gray explores how Medusa’s monstrous form emerges not from […]
