{"id":13836,"date":"2024-09-30T01:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/?p=13836"},"modified":"2024-10-01T18:54:17","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T22:54:17","slug":"monthly-blog-review-september-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/monthly-blog-review-september-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Blog Review: September 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog Updates<\/h2>\n

New Layout<\/strong>
\nFirst big blog update, I changed the layout! I finally found a template that I’m really happy with, and have been tinkering with the colors to ensure that they work in both light and dark mode. It has suited my needs well and I’m happy with this look for a while.<\/p>\n

New Regular Features<\/strong>
\nSecond update, I’m finally posting some things this month that aren’t reviews. I am mega shy when it comes to talking about myself, but I’ve had a goal in the background to put the blogger back into the blog. I also want to get over my self-doubt about writing blog articles, things like book recommendation lists. I have written a few in the past on my old blog before I restarted it, and I had fun. I get ideas for fun lists, but then have a bad habit of endlessly planning and thinking “I need to read\/watch\/play more things to make a list” which keeps me trapped in a loop of planning.<\/p>\n

The two things I am going to start trying to do each month is a blog review and list of upcoming horror books at the end of each month. I spend a lot of time watching\/listening to BookTube and browsing several horror book Facebook groups and like to keep up to date on new releases, and I figured, why not share with everyone else? I’m a big supporter of the indie horror scene and I’d love to create a space to promote those books in addition to traditionally published books.<\/p>\n

I did a lot of review writing for books I had read over the summer, including a few ARCs for indie authors who were so kind to give me copies of their books. I also dug up more of the archives from my old blog and Goodreads for reviews I had written in the past and took the time to edit them for posting. I realize now that I tended to be extremely wordy in old reviews, before grad school taught me the value of concision. It’s been fun to look back on books I loved (and hated) and I’m excited to spotlight those reviews again on this blog.<\/p>\n

Monetization!?<\/strong>
\nThis month I also decided to (lightly) monetize my blog again and signed up for an Amazon Associate account. I did it once before, like, 10 years ago, when I did everything manually on the blog. I’m older and wiser now, use more blog tools, and have more of a network, so I figured I’d give it another shot, though I don’t expect much to come from it. It occurred to me that a lot of folks have moved off of Goodreads, and I figure, so my “add to Goodreads” button on reviews is useless for some. So I figure it’d be more helpful to instead link retailers to make it easier for readers to find the books I blab about and to potentially help an author get a sale I can be satisfied with that. I started adding retailer links (even for ones I don’t have a partnership with) to book reviews, about the author blocks, and to the monthly new releases. I hope that this feature is helpful for readers (and authors)!<\/p>\n

\n

Posts<\/h2>\n

\"\"Book Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 A Woman Like Jo: & Other Dark Pieces<\/a> by Kenzie Jennings (3\u2605)
\n\u2665 Blockade Billy<\/a> by Stephen King (3\u2605)
\n\u2665 Finger Bang Fang Fuck<\/a> by Seamus Belial (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 Goth Parenting<\/a> by Casey Gilly & Robin Robinson (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 In The Tall Trees<\/a> by Angel Van Atta (4.5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Our Greatest Enemy: Five Horror Stories on Fatherhood<\/a> by Jordan Thiery (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 Something Akin to Revulsion<\/a> by Judith Sonnet (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 The Bloodletter\u2019s Daughter<\/a> by Linda Lafferty (1.5\u2605)
\n\u2665 This Is Where We Talk Things Out<\/a> by Caitlin Marceau (5\u2605)<\/p>\n

Graphic Novel Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Red Rising: Sons of Ares Vol. 1<\/a> by Eli Powell, Pierce Brown, & Rik Hoskin (3\u2605)<\/p>\n

Manga Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Pupposites Attract Vol. 1<\/a> by Hono Natsuna (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

Other Posts<\/strong>
\n\u2665 October 2024 New Release Horror Books<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Books Read<\/h2>\n

\"\"It has been a SLOW reading month for me this month. I picked up and put down A LOT of books, and I definitely hit a reading slump at the start of the month. Things have picked up a little bit in the second half of the month and I managed to knock out a few books, so I can pat myself on the back for that.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\n\u2665 A Dark and Rising Tide by Debra Castaneda (3\u2605)
\n\u2665 My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Something Akin to Revulsion by Judith Sonnet (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

\n

Games Played<\/h2>\n

\"\"Gaming has been pretty light for me this year though I did have some short periods where I binged a few games. One major game that I dug back into is The House in Fata Morgana<\/strong>, a visual novel that I fell head over heels in love with last year during my husband’s deployment. I was losing sleep over this game, the story is so good and one of the best gothic horror stories I’ve ever read\/played.<\/p>\n

I left off more than half way through the game and put a pause on the game so that my husband and I could play it together when he got home from deployment. This month he has gotten almost caught up to where I left off, and it’s been fun picking his brain for his opinions on the story and characters, his theories on the various mysteries presented throughout, and just seeing his reaction to major events. It is an emotionally heavy game, so we play it in small bursts.<\/p>\n

Besides that, I also played a little Honkai Star Rail<\/strong> to catch the Feixiao banner, but I haven’t played much more than that. The March 7th Hunt event burned me out! Though the story from that patch was pretty decent, and I’m intrigued to continue this Fall.<\/p>\n

\n

Life and Other Things<\/h2>\n

\"\"Some big news for me, I got glasses this month! I had noticed my vision start to get worse over the last few years, namely that my lazy eye, which I was born with, has started to really show. I have always known I had a lazy eye, and I did a lot of patching as a kid, and I wore glasses that were completely useless to me, my left eye was just that blind. As a kid though, I remember some optometrists getting mad and insisting that one of the lenses should be better, so I’d pick one and they’d sell my parents expensive glasses. It makes me feel awful in retrospect, my parents were trying to do the best for me. I stopped wearing glasses in my teens after seeing an honest optometrist who had told us yeah, there’s no helping that. My right eye always did all the heavy lifting, and I had no problems functioning in terms of school or later driving. Most folks didn’t even know I had a vision problem and the eye “drift” was never noticeable.<\/p>\n

Now that I’ve gotten older though, and I sit in front of a computer all day (granted, I’ve always been a computer goblin) I had been finding that my ability to see things at a distance started to decline, and things like driving actually did start to become difficult (curse the droopy eye!). So I went and got an updated prescription and I couldn’t be happier. It’s funny, as a kid I’d have a heavy left lens for my lazy eye, and a standard clear lens for my right, and now it’s the opposite! I got a nice frame from Zinff with blue light protection and better frames for distance. A mistake to put both on perhaps, as these glasses are only really helpful for driving\/distance viewing, and not so much for up-close vision for reading or working on a computer. I may get a second pair eventually without the distance vision add-on, maybe some fun cat-eye glasses or ones with thick black frames.<\/p>\n

If you’re curious about the frames, they are the Daria Geometric glasses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Books Hauled<\/h2>\n

\"\"I was a pea brain and didn’t think to start writing a post like this until literally the end of the month, so there may be some books that I completely forgot about.<\/p>\n

eARCs (Author\/Publisher)<\/strong>
\n\u2665 I Found the Boogeyman Beneath My Brother’s Crib by Ben Farthing
\n\u2665 Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales by Mercedes M. Yardley
\n\u2665 My Life in a Haunted House by Norman Prentiss<\/p>\n

eARCs (NetGalley)<\/strong>
\n\u2665 All the Hearts You Eat by Hailey Piper
\n\u2665 Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
\n\u2665 The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
\n\u2665 Their Monstrous Hearts by Yi\u011fit Turhan
\n\u2665 Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh<\/p>\n

Giveaway\/Preorder Bonus<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Becoming the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar (Hardcover, Signed)
\n\u2665 This Cursed House by Del Sandeen (ARC)<\/p>\n

Book Boxes<\/strong>
\n\u2665 The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim (Twisted Retreat)
\n\u2665 The Girl in the Corn Duology by Jason Offutt (Twisted Retreat)<\/p>\n

Do I already have a copy of The Eyes Are the Best Part from Evernight’s August box? Yes. Do I care? No. I’m a fiend. I also got my preorder of the reprint for The Girl in the Corn from Twisted Retreat, I kicked myself missing it last June after seeing the dazzling shiny gold foil ferris wheel. I hate to say but this was my first disappointment from Twisted Retreat, as the gold foil was replaced by a flat yellow matte foil. The orange and red foil on the hardcover remained the same, so the yellow especially stands out. This was not noted at all on their shop listing, so it was a huge bummer. I’m still happy to have a copy of the duology and will read it, but it definitely bummed me out.
\n\"\"
\nEbook Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Gaping Wound by Iona Penn
\n\u2665 I AM AI by Ai Jiang
\n\u2665 Impulse by Megan Stockton
\n\u2665 Morsel by Audrey Rush
\n\u2665 The Gulp by Alan Baxter<\/p>\n

Physical Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Ai Jiang’s Smol Tales From Between Worlds
\n\u2665 Cannibals by Shin’ya Tanaka
\n\u2665 Elin Olausson’s Shadow Paths
\n\u2665 I’m Your Papa by Judith Sonnet
\n\u2665 Ivy Grimes Grime Time
\n\u2665 Psych Ward Blues by Judith Sonnet
\n\u2665 Something Akin to Revulsion by Judith Sonnet
\n\u2665 Tapewyrmin’ by Judith Sonnet
\n\u2665 The Dark Embrace by Kristopher Triana & Mona Kabbani
\n\u2665 The Obituaries: The Collection Vol. 1 by Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, & Kristopher Triana
\n\u2665 The Obituaries Issue #4 Summer of Blood by Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, Kristopher Triana, & Edward Lee
\n\u2665 The Obituaries Issue #5 Destinations of Death by Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, Kristopher Triana, & Bryan Smith
\n\u2665 The Obituaries Issue #6 Red Romance by Aron Beauregard, Daniel J. Volpe, Kristopher Triana, & C.V. Hunt
\n\u2665 Toxic by Judith Sonnet<\/p>\n

I’d already read Tapewyrmin’ in the past on Kindle Unlimited, but bought a physical copy to keep on my shelves!<\/p>\n

Amazon First<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron
\n\u2665 When We Were Friends by Jane Green<\/p>\n

I don’t know when or if I’ll get to my Amazon First books, but it comes with Prime and I’m going to maximize my benefit dammit!<\/p>\n

\n

Next Month<\/h2>\n

Blog<\/strong>
\nNext month I will be continuing updating to add retailer links where appropriate.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\nI have Kindle Unlimited for another two weeks into October, so I’m going to try and take advantage of that to knock out some indie horror while I can. Otherwise I also have a serious backlog of ARCs to get to. At the top of my list of books I hope to get to is Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales<\/strong> by Mercedes M. Yardley and American Rapture<\/strong> by C.J. Leede.<\/p>\n

Gaming<\/strong>
\nNext month I’ve like to dig into some of the games I purchased during the Steam summer sale. It was mostly visual novels, no surprise there. I may hop back onto Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya<\/strong>, a little cooking game that consumed my life in the month of August (57 hours!). I technically beat the main story, but held off on the final concert until I could finish maxing out more character relationships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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