TOP 19 OF 2023

 Another year is done, and that means it's time for my TOP 19 of 2023. This is, top ten books, top seven movies, top artist a la Spotify, and top game that I finished. No re-reads allowed, and also no re-watches, and I haven't played enough games for that to be an issue. 

So, first up, easiest thing out of the way: according to Spotify, what was my top artist? 

It was Marianas Trench. I listened to Ever After and Fix Me a whole lot this year. Over and over and over again. It has Aughts Boys reasons, I guess. 

Top game? I actually finished four games this year. My favorite was definitely Pesterquest, mostly because when I got to the Dirk one at the end Unite: Synchronization started playing and I started crying, like, a little, and also I didn't let myself look up how to get good ends for any of them except for Dirk, because sue me, I'm a Dirk girl, and I just thought, you know, to myself, as it goes, like, WWDSD? And the answer was definitely look up how to win at that social interaction. 

Now it gets fun. Top 7 movies/TV shows. 

7. Shadow and Bone: Season 2 (2023)

I did watch both seasons of this show this year. Season 2 was miles better that season 1, mostly because "Wylan", but I did enjoy both of them, especially for a series that I had... uh, barely finished, and to be honest, had not finished by the time that I watched these. When I watched the show, I had read the first two books of the original Grisha trilogy and nothing of anything else. By now I've finished the Grisha trilogy and read the first Six of Crows book, but...

6. The Lost (2006)

Based on the Jack Ketchum novel of the same name. So so so much fun. This was wild. It always blows my mind that Jack Ketchum got so many movies of his books. Truly the king of late 20th century splatterpunk, right here. 

5. Unhuman (2022)

I realize that this movie had a lot of problems, but I really had a lot of fun with it. I also really liked the set design, and I liked the end! I liked it! So fun! Fun "zombie" movie!

4. Fanfic (2023)

Chalk this up to another one that I like, I understand the problems with it but also like, a lot of it was deeply relatable in a lot of ways that I don't want to think about. Also I wish that the books it was based on was available in English. That'd be great. 

3. Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008)

This movie literally has it all. Bill Moseley. Singing. Blood and guts. A story that doesn't make a whole lot of sense but that really doesn't matter all that much. Bill Moseley. 

2. The Last House on the Left (1972)

This movie. I was not expecting it to be near as good as it was. But it was. That good. I'd watched the remake which was like, OK, but typical horror movie fare for the time it was released. But this was... I mean, the acting was incredible, the juxtaposition between the horrors and those stupid cops... good. So good. So so good. Difficult to watch, but good. 

1. Nope (2022)

I'm late to the party. This was my first Jordan Peele movie. God it was fucking good. 

And top ten books! Again, re-reads do not count for this one. If they did this would be a whole lot of re-reads and Lord of the flies would be my top book of the year, because Lord of the Flies is my favorite book. 

10. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Hot damn, was not actually expecting this one to make the cut. I'm not really a huge fantasy person, not really, but this book was really damn good. The characters! I feel like I don't really need to say it but--the characters!

9. Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

I don't think any of us were expecting Mr. Tingle to come out with a truly awesome horror novel, but he sure did. It is worth mentioning that I did read a few of his erotica short stories as well this year and my main reaction to them was "these are way too well written for what they are", so I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that this was... so goddam good. 

8. The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Also not a sci-fi person, but I guess if you add enough horror elements to any genre I'll like it. This was claustrophobic and fun and I did really enjoy the main character. 

7. Book of the Dead by John Skipp (editor)

 This is a short story collection from the 80s with some of the most fucked up and wild zombie stories you have ever read in your entire life. Standouts: Laymon's was, of course, all kinds of gnarly, "Less than Zombie" just because I wasn't expecting a Bret Easton Ellis parody, what the fuck. 

6. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

So different from The Secret History. So good, though. Was a little confusing in the way that I did read Harriet the Spy while reading this and honestly, you could have exchanged Harriets and both stories would have been the same.  

5. The Ladies' Paradise by Emile Zola

I decided against counting Germinal as a new read because, technically, I have read it before, just in French, but that doesn't mean we don't have some Zola on here, because I did read three books by the man and he is consistently beautiful.You do not expect a book about a shopping center to be this damn engaging, but you would be wrong.

4. Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

This book had it all. Gore. Weirdness. Romance. Two thumbs up. 

And the top three of the year...

3. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite

This book ruined me. By that, I mean that now every time I pick up a book that has anything similar to this one, I just wish I was reading this book again and it ruins it for me. This book was so good. Beautifully written. So gross. I just wanted to yell, "no, no, no, don't eat meat out of this guy's freezer!" 

2. Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

I am. So excited for book three. Both books in this series have been favorites. Both times they make me cry in like, one page because motherhood, I guess??? This was so good. So good!

1. The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

Ellis takes the crown AGAIN. My guy, you gotta stop being so good. The Shards was beautiful and tragic and gross and mostly made me desperately sad. It's a fictionalized and amped up autobiography and it just. Ellis always has at least one part in his books, based on the three that I've read, that just breaks my heart. This book had about. Twelve of those parts. 

So there it is. Leaned real hard into horror this year, but I feel like that's always the case. On to next year!