{"id":32673,"date":"2026-08-29T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/?p=32673"},"modified":"2026-08-25T01:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:55:26","slug":"monthly-blog-review-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/monthly-blog-review-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Blog Review: August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posts<\/h2>\n

\"\"Book Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Dead Husband Energy<\/a> by Stacie Herrington (3\u2605)
\n\u2665 Girl, Interrupted<\/a> by Susanna Kaysen (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 Meatship<\/a> by Sam Rebelein (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 My Year of Rest and Relaxation<\/a> by Ottessa Moshfegh (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Rabbit Blind<\/a> by Desiree Horton (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Roll for Initiative<\/a> by Lesley A. Camphouse (2\u2605)
\n\u2665 The Taste of Blood: ReVAMPed Edition<\/a> by Jon Athan (3.5\u2605)
\n\u2665 To Be a Ghost<\/a> by Chad Lutzke (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

Film Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 The Princess Bride<\/a> (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 The Windshield Wiper<\/a> (4.5\u2605)<\/p>\n

Manga Reviews<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Daydream Darling Vol. 1<\/a> by Io Sakisaka (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 TITLE<\/a> by AUTHOR (3\u2605)<\/p>\n

Other Posts<\/strong>
\n\u2665 September 2026 New Release Horror Books<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Books Read<\/h2>\n

\"\"I’ve finally broken my reading slump!<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Dead Husband Energy by Stacie Herrington (3\u2605)
\n\u2665 Rabbit Blind by Desiree Horton (5\u2605)
\n\u2665 Roll for Initiative by Lesley A. Camphouse (2\u2605)
\n\u2665 To Be a Ghost by Chad Lutzke (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

Manga<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Daydream Darling Vol. 1 by Io Sakisaka (4\u2605)
\n\u2665 Shiver by Junji Ito (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

\n

Films Watched<\/h2>\n

\u2665 The Craft (4\u2605)<\/p>\n

\n

Life and Other Things<\/h2>\n

I think this is the first month where I am truly feeling “okay.” I am up and walking, and am able, with a lot of rail support, to walk up and down stairs and stand in the shower FINALLY. I’ve also broken the slump that I’ve been in and have finally been able to read books and even a movie again which has been nice. Best of all, the writer’s block that I’ve been feeling for the better part of the year seems to have gotten better and I’ve been writing a lot! It’s been really nice catching up on reviews and other blog posts that I’ve been wanting to write for a while now.<\/p>\n

\n

Books Hauled<\/h2>\n

A lighter haul this month! I really want to catch up on ARCs and books I have already acquired, but picked up a few things on sale and some manga I was really interested in!<\/p>\n

eARCs (Author\/Publisher)<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Rabbit Blind by Desiree Horton
\n\u2665 Bizarre Splatter Patterns: Slasher by Jim Groves<\/p>\n

Gifts<\/strong>
\n\u2665 My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones\"\"
\n\u2665 Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
\n\u2665 The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones<\/p>\n

Book Boxes<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Molka by Monika Kim (Twisted Retreat)<\/p>\n

Ebook Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Her Wicked Roots by Tanya Pell
\n\u2665 Malas by Marcela Fuentes
\n\u2665 Moods and Megrims Volume 2: More Hysterical Women edited by Desiree Horton
\n\u2665 The Curse of Marystown by Desiree Horton
\n\u2665 The Drowned One by Desiree Horton<\/p>\n

Physical Purchases<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Blood on the Tracks Vols. 2-5 by Shuzo Oshimi
\n\u2665 Daydream Darling Vol. 1 by Io Sakisaka
\n\u2665 Stitches by Hirokatsu Kihara & Junji Ito<\/p>\n

Amazon First<\/strong>
\n\u2665 Dreams of Earth and Sky by Shirley Perez West
\n\u2665 The Spider Silk Scarf by Ana Reyes<\/p>\n

\n

Next Month<\/h2>\n

I’m optimistic that I can catch up and maybe even get a little ahead in writing. I’m out of the massive reading slump that I had been in for the last three months and am ready to blast through my TBR as we head into the cozier months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posts Book Reviews \u2665 Dead Husband Energy by Stacie Herrington (3\u2605) \u2665 Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (4\u2605) \u2665 Meatship by Sam Rebelein (5\u2605) \u2665 My Year of Rest and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3217],"tags":[],"book-author":[],"book-illustrator":[],"book-series":[],"book-publisher":[],"book-genre":[],"book-source":[],"book-format":[],"class_list":["post-32673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-blog-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/blogreview_aug2026-header.png?fit=1080%2C540&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32673"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33053,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32673\/revisions\/33053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-author?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-illustrator?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-series?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-publisher?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-genre?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-source?post=32673"},{"taxonomy":"book-format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastelgoth.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book-format?post=32673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}