Offbeat YA: Offbeat Offline: October 2025

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 lot of same-old and a blogoversary (that, as usual, I forgot to celebrate 😂). My life is still a mess and I can't seem to be able to take the reins. I'm overwhelmed by the ginormous amount of tasks-in-waiting that have gotten so out of hand I don't even know where to start anymore. But I don't want to talk about sad and depressing things - not today at least. Let's see which books I got/read/reviewed instead, and what unremarkable shenanigans I was up to in October...

📚 MONTH OF MINIS. For one reason or the other, I only wrote mini reviews this month. Some of my reads were novellas or anthologies, some didn't reach 4 stars, so - as per a rule I established a while ago - I didn't write long review for those. I managed to read less than I would have liked (again, where did the month go?), but at least my commenting game was stronger than usual.

Approvals (2):

The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva (Adult, fantasy)

The residents of a village outside Moscow wake up to discover that the road out to the motorway has disappeared without a trace and the usual paths into the woods somehow lead back into the village. And the woods? Overnight their weedy and rubbish-strewn copse has become a dark and overgrown forest inhabited by something mysterious and unfriendly. Anyone who makes it into the trees either vanishes into thin air or returns, not quite themselves… And, of course, the Internet, radio and TV have stopped working and the weather never changes. And time seems to loop seamlessly from one crop of apples and cabbages into the next.

There are strange noises, and strange visitations. The villagers are plagued by odd thoughts and desires, and quiet but pervasive voices call from the river. Objects mutate; phones and radios emit strange mutterings; people disappear. What begins as a one-sided manifestation of the weird, becomes weirder still as the villagers split into factions and odd alliances with the new “neighbours” are formed. Meanwhile the forest looms closer every day.

Is Katya, a solitary young woman, the only one beginning to glimpse what is going on?

The Soul Box by Max Edwards (Adult, sci-fi - anthology)

Abby Sewell is a brilliant inventor with the world at her fingertips. When her dad passes away, she wants nothing more than to speak with him again. She finds a way to cheat death... but death always cheats those who don't play by the rules.
Marshall de Vorr, historian extraordinaire, uses ground-breaking technology to unlock the secrets of his ancestor. Sometimes the past is best left in the dust.
Alan Dewkes-Hall has become disenchanted with life and just wants the tedium to pass him by. He finds a watch that has the power to do exactly that... but play with time and pay the price.
Ed Miller walks on eggshells every day of his life. He wants to know the dangers of his future, and a new discovery in his house helps with the tough decisions of what has, could and will happen.
A loyal company man wants his free virtual vacation to last forever. The system gives him everything he needs for the holiday of a lifetime, so why should it end?
In a world of emergent technologies be careful what you wish for. These five Sci-Fi short stories explore human desire, hope, revenge and weakness and ask how the simplest, often innocent intentions can spiral into life changing consequences.

Reads (6):

That the Dead May Rest by Karen A. Wyle (Adult, afterlife/urban fantasy)

A peculiar mix of afterlife, found family and zombie apocalypse, peppered with interesting ideas, but a little lacking on the emotional side, if with one notable exception (see below). I skim-read parts of it because I was a tad bored, but I appreciated how different it was, and the zombies moved me, go figure.

The Soul Box by Max Edwards (see above)

An intriguing debut anthology for a young writer who can only grow from here. These stories speculate on the future of technology, VR and AI while eliciting a reflection on grief, time, and the meaningfulness of our existence, though with an undercurrent of humour and levity.

The Legend Liminal by Ren Hutchins (Adult, magical realism - novella)

OK, maybe "magical realism" isn't the right label, but I honestly don't now what to call this one. Goodreads says "sci-fi", but that's not what it is either (speculative fiction, maybe). A time-bending, eerie, fascinating little story with a strong Twilight-Zone vibe, doubling as a meditation on grief and being stuck in life, and packed with messy family (and friend) dynamics. I only wish it had been longer.

The Lancer (Harris & Vega #1) by B.C. Johnson (YA, mystery - short story) and

The Locker Door (Harris & Vega #2) by B.C. Johnson (YA, mystery - short story)

A couple of early stories from the author of my beloved Deadgirl series that I finally got around to reading. Johnson mixes hardboiled thriller and teen fiction peppering them with sometimes over-the-top banter, and if the style and dialogue are somehow reminiscent of the above-mentioned series, the whole thing sounds like he's trying a bit too hard (plus I found the genre blend to be too ambitious). The two mysteries are fun though.

The Never-Ending End of the World by Ann Christie (Adult. sci-fi – reread [pub. 2023])

This one has become my favourite sci-fi novel ever. A post-apocalyptic story unlike any other, where most of the world's populace is stuck in loops that can only be broken at a steep price, and a band of ragtag heroes is trying to fix the world...which will likely come at a price too - and an even steeper one at that. Read it if you like found family, adventures, hard choices/moral dilemmas, and of course mind-blowing loop shenanigans. Here's my old ARC review.