In August I only finished one TV show and one movie so I decided to combine the August and September Wrap Ups. In September I read five books, watched two movies, and played the demo for a new video game.

Books:

The Unwanted Guest by Tamsyn Muir is a short story in the Locked Tomb series. Palamades Sextus and Ianthe Tridentarius match wits on a dreamlike battlefield. Mostly a discussion between these two characters which I don’t feel like I understood but I liked it. Honestly, most Locked Tomb things leave me confused.

The Cautious Traveler’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks is a historical fantasy where the Trans-Siberian Express train travels the wastelands to connect Russia and China. We follow different passengers on the train and learn how the wastelands are changing and how that impacts the passengers.

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright is a dark fantasy set in a world where society is divided by between those who are blood workers and those who are not. Blood workers use blood to do different magic and is vampiric in nature. We follow Shan who is trying to protect her brother and Samuel who has a terrible gift as they have been tasked to find out who has been committing murders in the city. I liked the story overall and was not expecting how it ended. I look forward to continuing this series.

Manga Classics: Dracula is a manga retelling of Dracula by Bram Stoker and I have a full review posted. While it is a retelling based on changing the medium the story is told in it is using the original text of the novel and is fairly accurate to the novel. I enjoyed this take on Dracula and would recommend this as a way to get in to the story if you didn’t enjoy the reading experience of the original novel.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass is the first book in this romantasy series inspired by Beauty and the Beast. We follow Feyre who kills a wolf in the woods to use the pelt for money to feed her family. However, it turns out that the wolf was a fae and now Feyre must go to the fae realm and live there for the rest of her days. This is a reread for me as I intend to continue on with the series but I didn’t remember much from the first time I read it. While I understand that not everyone will like Mass’s world and stories I enjoyed it and would recommend it as an intro to romantasy.

TV:

The only TV show I finished was season one of The Terror. The Terror is a drama/supernatural anthology series where each season is a contained and unconnected story, the first season is based on a book by the same name. Season one follows the events of the Franklin expedition to find the North West Passage through the Arctic Ocean and was supposed to be a sea lane connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The expedition gets stuck in the ice and after an encounter with some of the natives a something starts terrorizing them. This is an interesting take on a historical event and while I enjoyed it, it’s a very slow start. I do intend to watch the next season which is set during World War II at a Japanese internment camp.

Movies:

The first movie I watched was A Quite Place Day One. Which heads up the cat survives because I did look that up before watching. This is the third A Quite Place movie but is a prequel to the other two as it follows the events of what happened when everything fell apart and the aliens appear. We are in New York City following Sam, a hospice patient, and Eric, a law student, who end up helping each other.

Next I watched Annabelle Creation which is the second Annabell movie and part of the Conjuring Universe. I’m slowly making my way through the Conjuring movies and trying to watch them in release order. Annabelle Creation focuses on how the Annabelle doll became possessed and what happened before the Warrens obtain it. While I’ve enjoyed all of the Conjuring movies so far I didn’t like this one as much and didn’t really care about most of the characters.

Last I watched The Nun. This is the first Nun movie in the Conjuring Universe and tells us some of the story about the Nun demon Valak before the Warrens become involved. We follow Sister Victoria and Father Burke as they investigate the suicide of a Nun at a remote monastery in Romania. I enjoyed this Conjuring Universe movie and expect that some of the characters will return from how the movie ends.

Game:

The only game I played was the demo for Draculesti which is a romantic horror visual novel where you play a Tans Renfield who is working for Dracula and might find romance along the way. Currently a Demo on Steam and has had a successful Kickstarter to finish the game. I enjoyed the demo and can’t wait to play the full game when it’s released. While not accurate to the original Dracula story I would recommend it to fans of vampires and visual novels.