Offbeat Offline: December 2024

Welcome to Offbeat Offline, where I bring you up-to-date with what went on in my life during the month just gone, give you a sneak peek of my next shenanigans, and share my favourite posts of late!

What happened last month to yours truly? A whole lot of nothing LOL. It was a totally uneventful month, which, when you live the life I'm living, you learn to be thankful for. My reading and reviewing improved (thanks to mini reviews 😁). That's pretty much it...

📚 BACKLIST LOVE. I only read 1 new book this month (ARC), and then I finally tackled a series I had been wanting to read for a long time: Newsflesh by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire). I also decided to write mini (or, well...midi, as they turned out to be 😅) reviews for it, since it's a finished series that's been out for years now, and I need to ease my review burden a bit (also, surprisingly, after Book 1 I started to have ISSUES with it, and you all know I've taken to write mini reviews for the books I don't like, or at least don't love...I'm so bummed this was the case). Here's the rundown of my bookish month...

Approvals (0):

I looked...the last time I had ZERO approvals was in March. Anyhow, I still have 5 ARCs to read, so maybe it's for the best LOL.

Reads (6):

• The Accidental Time Travelers Collective Volume 3 by Joshua David Bellin et al. (Adult, sci-fi/fantasy)

Thirteen authors celebrate time travel or use it to spin cautionary tales, explore the possible ramifications of a single altered detail or the ethics of exploiting the past, tackle predestination paradox and interactions of multiple selves, and much more, in this collection of sometimes humorous, sometimes emotional, often sharp stories.

• Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley (YA, supernatural)

An all-female survival narrative (in more than one sense) with themes of found family, queer love, overcoming trauma and having each other's back.

• Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant (Adult, sci-fi/thriller)

In a future where the combination of an anticancer test virus with a cure for the common cold ended up creating a zombie plague, bloggers and adoptive siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason follow a Republican senator's presidential campaign and uncover a deadly conspiracy. Good, if with some caveats...until a later discovery ruined it for me (see Deadline below).

• Fed (Newsflesh #1.5) by Mira Grant (Adult, sci-fi/thriller)

Picking up with the events of Ch.25, Fed proposes an alternate, even more heartbreaking scenario to the ending of Feed...if it had been a standalone. I didn't like it...

• Deadline (Newsflesh #2) by Mira Grant (Adult, sci-fi/thriller)

Adopted siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason had their lives upended by what seemed to be your average political conspiracy - except its purpose and ramifications go above and beyond their wildest nightmares, and their small army of bloggers has a much deadlier threat than zombies to worry about...until it hasn't. Good grief, this one let the cat out of the bag about the adopted sibling (who had been, in fact, lovers all along 🤢...I mean, they had different biological parents, but they GREW UP TOGETHER, for f**k's sake), plus introduced a crazy cop-out in the end...Never in my whole life I've been let down so hard by a favourite author.

• Blackout (Newsflesh #3) by Mira Grant (Adult, sci-fi/thriller)

What started as your average political conspiracy (only, in a world where a zombie-making virus run rampant) turned out to be deadlier and more outrageous than anyone could imagine, and now the bloggers at After the End Times are knee-deep in it and fighting tooth and claw for their lives and the truth - with the added complication that it's insanely hard to tell your friends from your foes, and the added thrill of cloning technology...Yep, I'm a completionist, so I'm finishing the series. This one could have been good, if not for the incest premise (thank goodness Grant didn't went as far as to writing sex scenes between the two! only a kiss one)...then again, it requires a hell of a lot of suspension of disbelief.

Reviews (6):

• The Accidental Time Travelers Collective Volume 3 by Joshua David Bellin et al. (see above)

You might remember I already posted my review last month.

• Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley (see above)

On the blog this month.

• Feed (Newsflesh #1) by Mira Grant (see above)

Mini (ahem, midi 😅) review on GR for now.

• Fed (Newsflesh #1.5) by Mira Grant (see above)

Mini review on GR for now.

• Deadline (Newsflesh #2) by Mira Grant (see above)

Mini (ahem, midi 😅) review on GR for now.

• Blackout (Newsflesh #3) by Mira Grant (see above)

Mini (ahem, midi 😅) review on GR for now.

Here are my scheduled reviews for this month:

• Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson (on Tue 7th);
• The Way Up Is Death by Dan Hanks (on Tue. 14th);
• Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley (on Tue. 21st).

Reviews aside, I have a Tell Me Something Tuesday round-up scheduled for Tue. 28th, in which I answer all the January questions. In the meantime, here's the TMST prompt list for the month of January, in case you want to join in:

• January 7th: What are your blogging/reading goals for the new year?
• January 14th: What book have you most recently re-read? Did your opinion of the book change?
• January 21st: Which book/TV/movie character would you like to be friends with?
• January 28th: What is your favorite thing about winter?

😑 GREY AREA. As I said above, December was the most uneventful month ever. I had a super lazy birthday (the best kind of celebration I could afford, given my home situation), bought a winter jacket and a sweater...what else? Only a bunch of mundane things. I ordered a few books though - my usual birthday-Christmas treat (I remember when, with a little more than 100 euros - shipping included - I could buy up to ten books...now I only managed to order four 😲...I mean, I splurged on two hardbacks because the covers were way better than the paperback ones, and the Wayward Children novellas always come in hardback form, which makes 3 of those, but still!).

PUBLISHING NEWS/TIPS

None this month.

THINK-PIECES, DISCUSSIONS, ORIGINAL FICTION

• Sam lists bookish things that make her go "hmmmm".
• Krysta asks if you're an author completionist.
• Book Riot wonders if BookTok is past its peak.
• The Orangutan Librarian reflects on blogging in 2024 and beyond. 
• Cee Arr shares her short story Unwitnessed.
• Lissa trades her usual humor for a melancholic, yet sweet story called New York Moon.

REVIEWS/RECOMMENDATIONS

• Reactor Magazine links to seven SFF stories with surprising endings.
• Jen Ryland highlights the best mysteries and thrillers of 2024.

Also, I'm linking to the latest installments in the B.C. Johnson's Author Chat series, where he interviews a number of fellow indie writers. I suppose these can double as recommendations...

• Meet cyberpunk author Alexander Mharcei (A Queen's Silence).
• Meet short-fiction author Chris W. McGuinness (A New Eden).

OTHER

• Authors Against Book Bans demand publishers prepare for 2025.
• New Jersey becomes latest state to prohibit bans on books in school and public libraries.

That's it for now. My next post will be up on January 7th, and it will be the review for Voice Like a Hyacinth I mentioned above.

So, what were your highs/lows in the past month?