Revisit the making of The West Wing in Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack’s What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service. Featuring a host of newly-conducted interviews and archival anecdotes, What’s Next offers readers a glimpse behind the scenes of this beloved show. And, as you might expect, it’s a bit of a tome. Exhaustive, some might say. That thoroughness is both the book’s greatest strength and biggest weakness.
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In Horror Movie, Paul Tremblay writes both a love letter to and a condemnation of the art of low-budget, gritty horror filmmaking. Narrated by the lone survivor of the original film, Horror Movie recounts the tragic making of a low-budget horror film, alongside the filming of its Hollywood remake some thirty years later. Jumping back and forth in time between the two productions while also reproducing the original film’s script, Horror Movie paints a picture of a ragtag group of dedicated young filmmakers committed to making their movie a reality no matter the cost. All at once horrific, heartbreaking, and even a bit damning, Horror Movie is a read unlike many others.
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Cat Sebastian returns to the world of We Could Be So Good with You Should Be So Lucky. If that first book was basically Newsies but gay, then this one is Sebastian’s take on sports romances. Journey back to the late 1950s, where grumpy reporter, Mark Bailey, is assigned an ongoing column about Eddie O’Leary, the newest member of a local Major League Baseball team and current sufferer of one of the worst slumps in baseball history. Mark’s not a sports writer by any stretch of the imagination, so he’s unsure what to expect from his interactions with Eddie. But what he definitely doesn’t expect, however, is to fall in love with the city’s most talked about baseball player. It’s a love story for the ages – if they can just navigate their way through it.
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What if random objects all around the world started sprouting human bones? What if, in their investigation, officials learn that the afterlife has an overpopulation problem? These are the questions at the center of Daniel Kraus and Maan House’s The Cemetarians. It’s a very X-Files sort of premise – two people of opposing beliefs team up to solve a supernatural mystery. Unfortunately, The Cemetarians lacks any of the character development or narrative intrigue of its chief inspiration.
To be fair, it’s not entirely Kraus and House’s fault that The Cemetarians feels a bit lacking. The graphic novel’s biggest problem is that it feels way too short for the story it’s trying to tell. A mere four issues, 120-ish pages in total. That’s nowhere near enough time to explore a story as earth-shattering as this one nor is it enough time to give its chief characters enough characterization for their respective arcs to have any weight to them. Instead, The Cemetarians is a case of one thing happening after another constantly, leaving no room for any pauses, breaks, or character exploration.
That’s not to say it’s a bad read or anything; it’s not. For what it is, it’s fun enough. It’s quick-paced and Kraus throws enough ideas at the wall that there’s never a dull moment. Plus, House’s artwork is deliciously atmospheric, dripping with gothic body horror and really leaning into the sheer unholiness of the book’s premise. It’s just one of those books that’s all skin and bones; a story that works sheerly due to its premise’s audacity rather than its execution.
3 out of 5 wands.
The Cemetarians is available now from Vault Comics.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own.
A field guide exploring the history of Bigfoot – both his reported sightings and how his legend has spread – sounds like the perfect read for cryptozoologists, old and new alike, right? And it would be – if that’s the kind of book John O’Connor’s The Secret History of Bigfoot is. But, despite suggestions to the contrary, The Secret History of Bigfoot isn’t really an exploration of the history of the Bigfoot legend. Nor is it really an examination of the ways myths take root in our culture. Instead, it’s mainly a book about the time O’Connor spent with Bigfoot hunters. His traipses through the woods, his observations, the way he connects with these people he feels othered from.
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I wouldn’t go so far as to say Nikita Gill’s Doctor Who: The Angel of Redemption is an “epic poem” about the history of the Weeping Angels the way its synopsis suggests. Not really. But what it is is a genuinely moving, surprisingly personal tale of one Weeping Angel’s journey of redemption – and how that journey leads them across the Doctor’s path. Gill’s verse is simple, yet endlessly emotional. The Angel of Redemption is a poem about loneliness; about one being’s search for love in a universe that’s only ever shown them cruelty. A poem about how even the most wicked of monsters can find goodness and hope and light in the darkest of shadows.
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Unfortunately, Max Brooks’ latest foray into the world of Minecraft, The Village, is his least successful so far. While the first book, The Island, offered a delightful, inventive take on the Minecraft mythology, the subsequent two books – The Mountain and The Village – are perfect examples of diminishing returns. The Village, in particular, just feels like it’s treading water. All of the novelty of that original premise has long since worn off, and Brooks keeps dragging his feet when it comes to providing any answers to the series’ ongoing questions.
Instead, Guy and Summer spend a few months around a Minecraft village, living off the land and finding various ways to trade with the villagers. For hardcore Minecraft fans, there are certainly a lot of delightful easter eggs to find here. And it’s worth pointing out that Brooks continues to breathe a lot of life into the Minecraft world, really luxuriating in some of the game’s more absurd elements.
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A Stroke of the Pen is a lovely collection of previously undiscovered Terry Pratchett short stories. Originally published in the 1970s and 80s under a handful of pseudonyms, these stories show off some of Pratchett’s earliest fiction writing. And you can immediately see some of the hallmarks of his later writing. His humor, his gift for worldbuilding, and even some of his political commentary. None of these stories are Discworld-adjacent, necessarily. But a lot of them lay the groundwork for much of Pratchett’s later work.
Even if you’re not super familiar with his later work, though, this is a delightful collection of short stories in its own right. The tales are quick, breezy, fun reads. Full of magic and aliens and general weirdness. It’s the literary equivalent of wrapping up in a warm blanket with a cup of soup. Some personal highlights are “The Fossil Beach”, “How Scrooge Saw the Spectral Light”, “The New Father Christmas”, “The Haunted Steamroller”, “The Blackburry Thing”, and “The Quest for the Keys”
Overall, A Stroke of the Pen is a delightful read from start to finish, perfect for longtime fans of Pratchett’s work and those wholly new to his writing.
4.5 out of 5 wands.
Disclaimer: a review copy was provided by the publisher and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own.
If you’re looking for a book that’s basically The Office meets Discworld, then Tom Holt’s The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse might just be the book for you. It’s a funny, thrilling ride through the interoffice politics of a commercial sorcery firm. Absurd to the nth degree and filled with a cast of irreverent, often completely incompetent characters, it’s a joyous read from start to finish. But if it’s the title that hooked you, and the premise of a story involving Santa Claus going up against Tiamat the Destroyer, it might be worth adjusting those expectations some.
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For what it is, Alastair Heim and Aristides Ruiz’s “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Lost Christmas!” is a fun read. It pales in comparison to Dr. Seuss’ seminal classic, but as its own little Christmas read, it’s cute enough.
A year after “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, the Grinch enters Whoville’s annual Christmas Tree contest to prove how much he loves Christmas – and the Whos in Whoville. But on Christmas Day, when the winners are crowned, the Grinch learns a lesson all of us must one day learn. A lesson that may very well change how he feels about Christmas all over again.
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Thoroughly Modern Reviewer 