Irish mythology, morbid information, feet vibrations

Someone defrost Jools Holland, it's that time of year again!

2025 was a healing year. Not much happened on the surface, but I think that was needed. This year, I relied more on my circle of people. I asked for help, and I got it. I'm very fortunate, very loved, and very grateful.

This is sounding a bit like an insufferable Oscar's speech. Let's move on to some cool things I enjoyed in 2025.

Games 🎮

So many good games this year, and so many I didn't get around to playing. Maybe next year I'll get through my backlog? *hollow laughter*

Strange Antiquities is one of the games I was lucky enough to cover for Thinky Games this year. Really can't get enough of this setting: the strange, murky, magical world of Undermere is packed full of secrets. You work in an antique store, and it's your job to provide the right magical items for the right situation. It's got a real Cthulian gloom to it, and the puzzles are excellent.

Stardew Valley provided me with valuable comfort and distraction earlier this year. I became, briefly, absolutely obsessed all over again. Once again, I can't believe how incredible this game is and how it was made by one person (almost entirely, anyway). If you've never read Jason Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, it's worth it just for the chapter on Stardew alone. (And also the rest of it is brilliant)

Killer Frequency has bucketloads of warm '80s nostalgia. You play a disgraced DJ, exiled to host a late-night radio show in a small town. Only there's a killer on the loose, and you have to use the (limited) powers at your disposal to save the day. It has some genuinely creepy moments I wasn't expecting.

Talking about creepy, Resident Evil 2 briefly invaded our lives this year. I've never played it, so we picked up the remake. It was excellent. We also started the remake of Silent Hill 2, which is so well done.

Blue Prince is probably my GOTY if I'm honest with myself (I just dislike ranking things because I overthink it until I give myself heartburn). You can read more about it in a post from earlier this year. Just incredible.

Two Point Museum is an excellent addition to the series. If you enjoyed the other Two Point games, you'll like this. The addictive gameplay loops and silly humour are both present and correct.

If you read my newsletter and watch my videos, you'll know I spent some time playing Titanic: Adventure Out of Time this year. I actually started it for the video and finished playing it with Chris. Wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

Supermarket Simulator invaded my life. Big time. It is my 'play the stress away' game. I've expanded, I've got a bunch of restockers, I'm smashing it. Every time I go into a supermarket IRL, I'm thinking about it. It has ruined me (in a nice way).

The other strong contender for my GOTY is The Seance of Blake Manor. I won't lie to you: it's overwhelming to begin with. It's got a strangely steep learning curve. It feels like a lot. But it so convincingly draws you in; the characters, the history of the manor, it all feels so real. And the Irish mythology is just fascinating. I loved it so much I wrote a piece about it for Thinky Games. And I still might write about it again.

Books 📖

It's been another solid year for reading. This year, I've encountered a couple of books that have actually changed my life in some spiritual/emotional way.

All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell is one of them. Journalist Campbell delves into the jobs that nobody ever talks about: morticians, bereavement midwives, grave diggers, and even crime scene cleaners. It is moving, sensitive, and genuinely fascinating. More about that next week.

I'm currently reading Strange Antics by Clement Knox, a deep dive into the history of seduction. So far, so fascinating, although reading the historical context of female sexuality does make me furious.

Although I have to read it in small bursts, Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés changed my life in a big way earlier this year. I firmly believe in the power of therapy via storytelling, and this helped me to realise a lot of things about myself that I was unable to see properly before.

Flipping subjects a little, Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan is a gorgeous collection of short horror stories. They're Carter-esque tales, based on deeply female fears. And while we're on short stories, Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson is excellent. Shine Pamela! Shine! is my favourite, and it has an ending I never would have predicted. If you like strange and impactful little stories, you should pick it up.

I read a lot of memoirs this year, and Sharie Franke's The House of My Mother is a sobering one. Sharie, the daughter of the now-imprisoned Ruby Franke, reflects on life as a former YouTube child star. It's a shocking one.

Autobiographies were big for me this year, too. Love You Byeeee by Adam Buxton is an excellent follow-up to his first book (only Count Buckulese could make me laugh and then cry in the same paragraph). And Away ... by Bob Mortimer is, as you would expect, strange and hilarious. And Quite by Claudia Winkleman made me laugh many times.

In an absurd bargain, I picked up Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl in a charity shop for a ridiculous £1. I keep dipping into them occasionally. As expected, he takes a lot of pleasure in punishing the 'bad guys'. Dark, funny, brilliant.

I re-read Lisey's Story by Stephen King earlier this year. I got a lot from it. One of Stephen King's lesser-loved books (to put it mildly), it's an incredible story of a complicated marriage. You can read more about it here.

Finally, I was given some much-needed perspective from Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It's kind of philosophy and self-help rolled into one. If you pin your self-worth on your output, you should read it asap.

Music 🎵

Phew. Let's get into music. I'm a Hurricane, I'm a Woman in Love by Låpsley is a gorgeous, powerful, feminine album. We were lucky enough to see her live this year. What a force. At one point, I just stood there, feeling the bass vibrate under my feet with my eyes tight shut, listening to her voice and swaying with the crowd. I love her.

My 21st Century Blues by RAYE perked up my dull days this year. Also, it's not from that album, but WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! is sooooo good.

My favourite gig of the year, for so many reasons, was to celebrate the release of Pillars by Jack Garratt. I got to meet him and briefly tell him what his music means to us. Pillars is a stunning album. Uplifting, celebratory, and somehow vulnerable. It's lush.

Of course, Ego Death at a Bachellorette Party by Hayley Williams dropped his year, causing me many hours of lost productivity, because all I wanted to do was lie down in a dark room and listen to it with my eyes closed.

I had a few good writing albums this year, including Light hit my face like a straight right by Mallrat. And, for another year in a row, Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs seems to unlock some kind of deep creativity for me.

Finally! Shout out to Lovergirl by Rachel Bochner, which is romantic and beautiful.

Films/TV 🎥

We bought a projector this year. It's probably one of the best things we've ever done. (Literally watching it right now as I write this). The projector has encouraged us to watch so many movies this year.

Particularly horror! This year, we watched Heretic, The King Tide, The Borderlands, Companion, Late Night With the Devil, Good Boy, and The Taking of Deborah Logan. All very good. I'd like to write about them in more detail next year.

We also watched One Cut of the Dead, which was indescribable really. I think everyone should watch it with no preconceptions whatsoever. Deadstream was excellent. Captured that Evil Dead 2 spirit better than anything I've watched in a long time. Also: Psycho Goreman. Violent and ridiculous.

Predestination is an intriguing sci-fi time travel movie that is brilliantly done and well worth a watch. And we finally got round to watching A Real Pain. It deserves all the praise.

Finally: with the kids we watched Elio (lovely, youngest fell asleep, but in fairness we were watching it in bed), Dogman (brilliant, funny) and A Minecraft Movie (way better than I thought it would be).

This year, I made real progress in getting my love for writing back. I've accepted that I will have to separate my writing from my income. Weirdly, this has made me feel free.

The other main thing blocking me from writing was my hatred of AI. None of my concerns about that have gone away. But my attitude around it is this: screw it! If I'm going down, I'm going down swinging. (By which I mean sitting on my sofa writing on my little laptop under a blanket, probably with a hot water bottle and one or two cats.) All I want is to create a body of creative work that I can look back on and be proud of, regardless of what the world around me is doing. I find value and worth and excitement in my writing, and ultimately, that's what matters. I've got so many ideas. I can't wait to tell you about them.

Thanks so much for being here! Here's to a new year, and see you in 2026. 🥂

The Ghost of Newsletters Past

This Time in 2022: Existential crises, Pokemon guilt, and deadly summer camps: things I loved in 2022

This Time in 2023: Kitchen Clutter and the Best Things of 2023: everything that got me through this year

This Time in 2024: On Being Eleven: and the best things of 2024

More Stuff on Ko-Fi

Not much going on Ko-Fi this week; I'm writing this in advance, but presumably, I'm stuffing my face with cheese and having little naps. Thanks for hanging around with me this year. More to come. <3