We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson

I went in expecting a darker story. Merricat had this almost satirical tone to her that didn't expand to the rest of the family - once I realized they weren't mocking their stories, but rather trying very hard to make some sense of it, the tone of the book shifted in my mind.

It has a lot of things I liked. Merricat weirdness, the uncle's humorous scenes, the discovery of what happened to their family. But it hit me that it wasn't a scary story, or a ghost story.

Actually, it very much was a ghost story! But not the way I thought of it initially. I felt a bit disappointed and intrigued by this idea. I gave it a three because of my uncertainty about it.

Date read: 2026-01-15

Internet Extinction, by Geert Lovink

I read this while on the plane when I went to visit Belo Horizonte (I read the BR Portuguese version from Funilaria Editora).

It's very short and discusses how the internet became the weird thing that it is today, with a lot of the whimsy lost and replaced by corporation dream state.

How this new state bleeds through our screens and take pieces of our mind and body with it - Lovink mentions how a Zoom call can make us incredibly tired. I feel like a day of work with "tons to do" is fairly easier than a whole day in calls. Makes me wanna die.

A very good book from a very european point of view about something I always hate to think about.

Date read: 2026-03-02

The Substance (2024)

I'm only sharing this so I can trash-talk this movie. I only watched it recently with my husband and I am in awe of how much I hated it.

And while searching the internet, it seemed like I was the one of the few who did. Most people's reaction to someone not liking it was, in their words, "you just don't like body horror" or "you think everything needs to be explained". While I think the movie tried to hang itself by the tiniest thread of plot, I don't think this was why I hated it.

First of all, I like horror and somewhat enjoy body horror - while still being squeamish -, and I think this aspect of the movie is the one thing I can praise it loudly. The effects were amazing and they managed to make me feel so uncomfortable I keep having flashes of some scenes.

But the movie doesn't work as the critic it tries to be. If I stop seeing it as a commentary of how women are expected to be in a society (and forget how hiper-sexual the fucking movie was, Margaret Qualley's character doesn't exist as a person in it) and think of a commentary of youth vs aging and how we should think of our decisions towards our future and body, it works much better.

I watched the movie as an Oscar-nominated movie and it felt insane how people could have like it. But watching it as a trash horror movie, it works. Except the last twenty minutes, that was pure absolute shit. I googled the director so I could avoid all her next movies.

Anyways, I think it's insane how a 3h movie barely managed to do something that Death Becomes Her did so well in half the time.

Hacks (2021-2026)

Before this is a review, this is a recommendation for Hacks. This TV series is so good at taking characterization over plot and giving us the best interactions between their characters they actually feel like people. Generally with series I have to keep going until the third episode to decide if I wanna continue or not but I realized I loved Deborah and Ava from their first interaction.

The show is funny, fast-paced and completely ridiculous. It follows Deborah Vance, a comedian who wants desperately to feel like she's made it - whatever that will mean for her at the moment - and Ava, her assigned writer. Not gonna lie, I root for Deborah for absolutely anything she wants to do, even if it's awful. Love that old lady.

Ava is more difficult to me in the sense where I feel like she's more complicated and harder to like. Maybe because I have a emotional thing for old ladies, I sympathize more with her, but when they are both together, maybe I can forget the current state of the world. It's very short so go watch it!

The Wandering Inn, by pirateaba

This is a web series with isekai tones (as in, someone from our world is transported into a new fantasy world), where the Innverse has levels, skills and functions somewhat like a fantasy world or rpg game. Normally I hate those types of stories because they tend to be about becoming overpowered or about just accumulating skills or anything like that.

The Wandering Inn (at the moment) has not become this. It is both an epic spanning different characters, continents and different races of people, and a slice-of-life series. I enjoy a lot the slice-of-life elements of it, the way the world reacts to the characters and the characters react to the world is something I never seen before.

The fact that it has a cast bigger than A Song of Ice and Fire and I still remember them - while the author does not use tags for their characters! (tags being the "- Person 1 said") - it's honestly amazing.

The series is looong long. It currently has more than 10 million words, 9 volumes (divided currently into 18 books). This makes it very hard to recommend, especially because the beginning is rough, even with the rewrite. But is worth it if you enjoy immersive world-building and character-driven stories.

Date read: 2025-11-19 (Book 6: The General of Izril)