One thing a lot of book lovers have in common is the irrepressible urge to share what we’ve been reading, to swap lists with other readers. (It is, of course, one of the driving factors of this regular column!) Looking back at the past year gives us the opportunity to revisit some of those experiences and remind ourselves of the emotions we felt, places we went, thoughts we pondered. So, without further ado, here are some of our favorite reads of 2025!

(Note that not everything here was necessarily published in 2025, it was just something we read during the past calendar year.)

Mariana Ruiz

I wrote a long take in Spanish about Stephen King’s The Long Walk, if you’re curious. Richard Bachman is such an angry part of King, the young, energetic, furious part. Bad things happen to good people, or naïve people with good intentions, in all of Bachman’s books. I would say that is the main difference between the author’s two voices. I love that King still writes. I have a couple of novels left before tackling the short story collections. I am happy to read King religiously. I love the club; whoever reads him has different reasons, but we ultimately regard him as a sure-fire source of entertainment value, which is important in an age of so many stupid distractions. Nothing tops a good book for me.

In French, I came across a translation from the Estonian: The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Estonian author Andrus Kivirähk, first published in 2007. It is set in an imaginary Estonia during the Middle Ages. The novel was awarded the Stalker Award of Estonian science fiction in 2008. I loved deeply and felt that everything could happen, a made-up world where druids, magic, knights, and the absurd come together as an elaborate take on religion and fanaticism. It is as weird and interesting as the original Witcher stories. It also reminded me of another odd book about a made-up world that could have been: The Inheritors by William Golding.

In the Newbery Medals I always strive to pick up, I loved Shiloh. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor won the Newbery Medal in 1991 with this novel about a boy and his dog. 11-year-old boy Marty Preston rescues a beagle who is suffering at the hands of his owner, Judd Travers, and hides him. By doing so, he is lying to his parents and defying an unspoken law: a man can do anything to a dog he has paid for. The bond between this boy and Shiloh is so genuine that it pierces your heart, and how he frees him teaches us a lesson or two about human decency and the value of your word.

In silly children’s books, The Mushroom of Doom, Bob the Vampire Snail, and Pencil and Eraser were the highlights of the year for me. We need humor, silly voices, and absurd situations in our lives; they make reading entertaining!

Jenny Bristol

I read some incredible books this year! I’ve had so many satisfying reads in different genres that it’s hard to pick a short list of favorites. So here is a slightly longer list:

Romance: A couple of standard romcom stand-outs that I read this year include Earls Trip by Jenny Holiday and The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter, the latter of which is probably my favorite stand-alone book from the year, being fun, funny, and well written.

YA/Queer: My favorite discovery of 2024—author Lex Croucher—inspired me to read more of their books in 2025, including two queer YA books, Not for the Faint of Heart and Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. These were wonderful and I highly recommend them. The audiobooks are really well done. Lex has more books coming out this year, including another YA like these, and I look forward to checking them out.

Time Travel: I thoroughly enjoyed the trilogy of books from Kerstin Gier entitled Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, and Emerald Green. I love a good time travel book, not to mention three, and these were fun and compelling, and kept you guessing at a few plot points until near the end.

Other: I’m not sure how to categorize The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods, but it was a lovely and slightly weird book that’s a little romance and a lot mystery, and it rotated among different character perspectives. Listening to it as an audiobook, it was helpful that they had different people voicing the different roles.

Robin Brooks

As I usually do, I’ll split my favourite books of the year into 3 sections: Fiction, children’s, and non-fiction.

Non-Fiction

This one is easy.

By far, my favourite non-fiction book was Exploring the Universe by Isabel Thomas and Sarah Gillingham. The book felt like it had been created with me in mind. A wonderful meld of word and image to create an informative and arresting catalog of the solar system and beyond.

This book was so good, I immediately put Thomas and Gillingham’s previous book, Exploring the Periodic Table, on my Christmas list. I am pleased to confirm that it is every bit as good.

If you have any interest (or have children who have an interest) in space and what it is made of, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book. It’s the best reference book of its type that I have seen in years.

Children’s Books

Some honorable mentions include Katherine Rundell’s second Impossible Creatures novel, The Poisoned King. I enjoyed this one significantly more than book 1. Perhaps my expectations were too high for the very hyped first volume, and damped down for this second instalment, meaning I enjoyed it more. The Poisoned King was a thrilling read, and I’m now fully on board for this series. 

The Disappearance of Imogen Good was extremely close to being my best Children’s book of 2025, beaten only by one of the finest children’s books I’ve ever read. Imogen Good is a children’s noir centered around a creepy fairy tale and an even creepier house and garden. Some enticing and mysterious goings-on, and great character growth and interactions, make this a first-class novel.

Beating Imogen Good into a narrow second place was Under a Fire-Red Sky by Geraldine McCaughrean, a novel set in the Blitz. It has a wonderful cast of characters who, for a variety of reasons, don’t evacuate London when the rest of the children leave. A tale of heroism and lost innocence, this one had me enthralled throughout. It’s hard to predict what will become a classic, but Under a Fire-Red Sky deserves to be read for generations to come.

Best Fiction Books of 2025

Two of my standout reads of the year feature old folklore and the stories upon which Great Britain is built. The Great When by Alan Moore is a superlative journey into London’s legends, taking place just after the Second World War.

I was worried I might become lost in the depth of Moore’s world-building or that perhaps his prose would be too esoteric for my reading tastes. (I had a similar experience with Jacek Dukaj’s Ice, a book I wanted to enjoy but found impenetrable.) I need not have worried. The Great When is weird but wonderful to immerse yourself in. I can’t wait for book 2, I Hear a New World, which is out next year.

The last book I finished in 2025 was probably my favorite read of the entire year.

Perilous Times by Thomas D. Lee brings Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table back to life in a near-future Britain. This novel was published a couple of years ago, but it feels even more relevant now. It’s essentially a story of how the rich manipulate the poor and repeatedly escape the consequences of their actions. Perilous Times is funny, poignant, and bang on the money on just about every page. I loved it.

My final choice is a book that had been languishing on my to-be-read pile for quite some time, Boris Gospidonov’s Time Shelter. It’s a meandering tale that bears repeat reading (though I have yet to do so). I almost certainly missed its subtleties, but this is a book suffused with humor. It is also a warning, a parable about the perils of looking backwards, of believing that the past is brighter than the future. In that it has a lot in common with Perilous Times.

Considering my favorite series at the moment, Justin Lee Anderson’s Eidyn Saga also explores similar themes. Perhaps I want to read books that tell me that things can get better if we start looking forward, if we try to shape our own destiny, without hankering for a time that didn’t exist.

Will James

Despite 2025 being a terrible year on so many fronts, its also the year I read (technically listened) to more books than I’ve ever covered in a single year (not counting comic books).

The biggest reason for that is because my wife convinced me to give Terry Prachett’s Discworld series a try (after a certain ex-favorite author of mine turned out to be a terrible person). She was amazed I’d never read any Pratchett, and she was absolutely right that I would love it. I devoured the entire 49-book Discworld series one after another. I did want to narrow down my favorite part of the series for this write up, though – which was extremely difficult to do!

But at the end of the day (or year as the case may be), while Tiffany Aching, Granny Weatherwax, and the Nac Mac Feegle will always hold a special place in my heart, I have to say that my favorite storyline of all is the City Watch (which is comprised of Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, and Snuff). They are my favorite, especially Commander Vimes, because they detail some of the best and most important character development, and especially growth, that I can remember reading.

The City Watch comprises the most stereotypically bigoted coppers you could ever hope not to read, and yet, despite their flaws and -isms, they manage to become more accepting, inclusive, and decent folks. They truly encapsulate my favorite thing about all of Pratchett’s work, which is that even when everything is terrible, there is hope that even the worst of us or the worst situations, can get and be better. And that’s a hope we can all use nowadays.

Next up on my list is James by Percival Everett. I’ve said this more times than I can count, but I believe Everett is one of the greatest American writers of our time and his awards and prizes seem to indicate I’m not wrong. (Side note, I may be slightly biased because he was one of my college professors MANY years ago). That being said, I read several of his books I’d not yet got to this year, but of them, James was the standout. James is somewhat of a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the slave Jim (James), who is not at all who he was perceived to be in Huckleberry Finn. James is (self-)educated and well read, and the stereotypical slave talk you’d expect is all a facade he and other slaves use around slavers to keep them comfortable. James is a biting yet hilarious critique of slavery and the depiction and perception of Black Americans pre-Civil War that is also just as, if not more, relevant to our current world.

Speaking of series with a lot of books, The Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore has grown to 39 books since the story of Drizz Do’Urden began in 1988. I have read them all as they came out, and this year, the latest book in the continuation of that saga is actually a new beginning: The Finest Edge of Twilight. While Drizzt and his companions do appear in this book, it is the story of Drizzt’s daughter, Breezy, and it quickly became one of my favorites in the 40-book saga! The reason for that is twofold, the first of which requires a bit of personal backstory.

Back in 1993, I joined my first real Dungeons & Dragons group (2nd Edition) and spent hours creating my first character, an elven Bladesinger. Bladesinging had just been introduced as a Fighter/Mage character kit in The Complete Book of Elves, and I fell in love with the concept. Unfortunately, my character died less than an hour into our first game, and I had to create a new character (something I as a DM now would never allow to happen because it SUCKS and ruins the fun for everyone). Then Bladesinging disappeared from D&D post 2nd Edition. Fast forward to two months ago and the release of Heroes of Faerun, a new expansion for D&D 5e which brought back the Bladesinger as a Wizard subclass. Needless to say, my next character is going to be a Bladesinger! A mere few days later, I saw that R.A. Salvatore’s latest book, The Finest Edge of Twilight, was available and began reading it. To my utter amazement and joy, Breezy discovers the ancient practice of Bladesinging and becomes a Bladesinger. I never imagined I’d see a Bladesinger on the page. 

The second reason I love this book is because, like me, Breezy is clearly neurodivergent, clearly having ADHD. Seeing a character literally born of some of my favorite characters I’ve grown up with representing me and my own ADHD while being a Bladesinger was just mind-blowing.

And of course, if you are already an R.A. Salvatore and Drizzt fan, this book has everything you expect – fighting, love, intrigue, magic, monsters, and mayhem – written only the way R.A. Salvatore can.

Lastly, I wanted to mention something completely different – two Regency era romance novels by Madeleine Roux – Much Ado About Margaret and These Violet Delights. I have to admit that I do not have a good frame of reference as I’ve never read any romance novels before this year, but I’m a huge fan of Madeleine Roux’s other work, and my wife and I love watching Bridgerton, so these seemed like a no-brainer to pick up and add to my reading for the year. Both books are great fun and full of characters with agency and growth in a world dead set on dictating and stagnating their lives. The main characters in both books are sisters (Margaret and Violet) and they do make appearances in each other’s books, so I would definitely consider this a mini-series and highly recommend reading them both in order. The intrigue and twists in both books kept me guessing, and I would love to see another book set in Roux’s Regency world.

Jonathan H. Liu

I’ve continued to use Storygraph to track my reading habits (at least the date I finished reading a book and a star rating), so at the end of the year I can look back and see which ones I gave 5 stars, and also think about whether those are still the most memorable titles from the year. As always, I have way too many favorites, but here are some of the highlights.

What these first four titles have in common is that they’re all revisiting familiar territory. Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman is the latest entry in the Seraphina universe, and in fact when I first wrote about it, it was in a stack of other sequels and series. This is a young adult fantasy series that still just sticks with me—I love both the world that Hartman created and the people she has put in it; although the books have dragon and magic, the emotional journeys of the characters have a lot of depth and ring true. The later books branched out and followed other characters, and Among Ghosts introduces us to yet another memorable one.

Also covered in the same column was the conclusion of Phenomena, a comic book trilogy by Brian Michael Bendis and André Lima Araújo. This one is set in a far-future Earth where a weird unexplained phenomenon has changed and mutated both the landscape and the people, leaving behind half-recognizable cityscapes. It’s a little weird, but the payoff in the finale was worth it.

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal is the fourth book in the Lady Astronaut series, this time taking place primarily on Mars. The future of the colony is uncertain, and there’s some history from the first expedition that has been covered up and Elma is trying to get to the bottom of it. I love this series for the way that it explores a lot of issues that we are still wrestling with in the present day, but paints a picture of some people trying to address them decades earlier than we actually have. It’s also just an intriguing “what if” about the possibilities of space exploration that seem harder to reach these days. I wrote about The Martian Contingency back in August along with two other fantastic books of fiction.

My last visit down memory lane was a longer one: I re-read the entire Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke in preparation for the fourth title, Inkworld. I’d read the original trilogy a long time ago with my wife, and we had also read some portions of them to our older kids, but it had been a while and I needed to refresh my memory. I was reminded again of how much I enjoyed this story about books coming to life (and people entering the world of books).

The next grouping is comics. I read a lot of comics every year, so narrowing down to a few favorites is always, hard, but here are three that I’ve found myself telling people about.

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer is about a young woman who becomes possessed by a demon the one time she finally skips mass. Although she doesn’t really hold to her Catholic upbringing, she still attended mass every week because of a feeling that something would go wrong otherwise—and then it does. She wrestles with guilt, trying to figure out how to be a good person, while also trying to figure out how to exorcise the demon that won’t leave her alone—even as she wonders if the demon is even real. More about Saint Catherine (and lots of other monsters and witches) here.

Young Hag and the Witch’s Quest by Isabel Greenberg is a retelling of Arthurian legends, told by a character who goes by Old Crone. She shares her stories with Young Hag, who has started to doubt these tales that she’s grown up hearing. Isabel Greenberg is always a wonder to read, often shining a spotlight on the women who get short shrift in traditional folklore and mythology.

Finally, there’s Drome by Jesse Lonergan, covered in this column about hefty comics. The plot of the book is a sort of origin story: chaos and order, personified as gods, create the world and populate it with creatures and people. There’s a struggle between those who only want to conquer and dominate and those who want to advance knowledge and develop culture. What appealed to me the most about Drome, though, was the way it told the story. The way Lonergan uses the comics medium is innovative: the gutters and negative space between panels become part of the illustration. I just discovered that he’s also illustrated the Miss Truesdale series written by Mike Mignola (the Rise of Man storyline has just started up recently and also includes some more creative uses of the medium), so I’m going to be digging into that soon.

My last grouping is of fiction that I enjoyed, and I had to work hard to pare this part down, because there were so many excellent options. Probably my favorite novel of the year was There Is No Antimemetics Division by QNTM, included in this stack of unsettling fiction. It’s about a secret organization that deals with strange phenomena (if you’re familiar with the SCP Foundation, this fits into that universe), and in particular the division that handles things that resist, destroy, or otherwise mess with memory. How do you research and categorize things that you can’t remember? How do you explore things that your brain avoids thinking about? I found the book utterly fascinating; if only I could wipe my memory of the book so I could start it anew.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow is probably not my usual fare: it’s a fantasy romance novel, and the main reason I gave it a try was because the description mentioned something that sounded like time travel. As it turned out, there’s a sort of time loop involved, but I found myself invested in the characters and the love story, too. The story plays with the idea of myth and legend, and the way that an empire defines itself through the stories that it tells about itself. Here are my thoughts on it.

Okay, one last one: the Semiosis trilogy by Sue Burke. It’s a sci-fi book that spans hundreds of years, and it’s about intelligent plants. A small group of humans, dissatisfied with Earth’s culture, lands on what appears to be an unsettled planet—but it turns out that the plants are the dominant lifeforms, with the ability to think and communicate. The three books are a bit different from each other both in the stories they tell and how they go about it, but I think my favorite was the second book, Interference: a few hundred years after the initial colony, some more humans arrive from Earth to check in, and the plot is about the culture clash between the Earthlings and the Pacifists (as the colonists are known).

Hope you had a rich year of reading in 2025, and that you find some new favorites to read this coming year!

Each year, a few of us here like to make some book-related resolutions: personal goals or hopes for our reading habits for the year. Whether it’s a list of specific books, or a plan to read more of a certain type of book, or even just reducing some piles on the floor, here’s what we’re aspiring to in 2026!

Jenny Bristol

This year, I plan to follow the pattern that I’ve been keeping up with since 2020, to read at least the same number of books as the last two digits of the year. So, since it is 2026, I plan to read at least 26 books this year. I hope to finally finish The Life Impossible by Matt Haig, as well as Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, which is a fascinating-if-dry look at the flow state. I have a couple of Lex Croucher books to still read, and Lex has a couple of new ones coming out this year that I hope will end up on Libby. Maybe I’ll finally re-read Atomic Habits, but we will see where my whims take me.

Mariana Ruiz

I am still chipping away at the entirety of Stephen King; it is a huge task, as the man continues to write, and I am always distracted by other new reads. I am so happy to have him on my TBR list that I don’t mind, though. Someone once said that a huge list of books to read encompasses not only what we want to know, but also means that we plan to live a long, fulfilled life.

World Kid Lit is a fascinating collective of translators of children’s books from different places. They have been one of my sources to learn about new, upcoming titles for a couple of years now. By enhancing diverse voices and books in translation, we open a new window for our understanding of different cultures and different views of life. It’s always a good thing to know more details about the world. By including these voices, I have gained a profound understanding of the world and will continue to advocate for them in the future.

I also hope to keep reading amazing comics and graphic novels, both for children and adults. And I want better, bigger bookshelves, pretty please.

Jonathan H. Liu

Having kept up with my plan to weed at least one (unread) book a week in 2025, I’m planning to keep that up in 2026 with the ultimate long-term goal of clearing the floor space in my office, though at this rate it may take me a decade! Perhaps time to step up the pace, but for now I’ll still say one per week. Maybe this year I’ll keep a list or at least a count of all the books I remove just to have a more accurate count.

My yearly reading challenge goal, which I track through Storygraph, is 150 books in a year. While that number may seem absurdly high, I’ll note that I set a high number because I include graphic novels and middle grade books, which are often shorter, faster reads.

In terms of specific books, I still have this stack of comic book memoirs and biographies that has been accumulating for quite some time, so I’ve finally started to dive into those in the past week. If I can get through all of those in 2026, that’ll be one large box on the floor taken care of!

I also have a stack of AI-themed books (both fiction and non-fiction), continuing the thread from these two columns from 2024 and 2025. I imagine AI will continue to be a prominent topic of discussion in the coming year, so I’m curious to see what sorts of stories are being told about it and how they have changed based on the current status of real-world technologies.

Robin Brooks

My main 2026 resolution is one of mixed emotions. I’m going to be moving away from GeekDad as the main place I review books. After a long time of trying to keep up with books publishers sent me, in the Autumn of last year, I suddenly found reading and reviewing had become a chore. 

Instead, I puttered around in a new space I’ve set up called PotsandPlots for my reading and occasional (very amateur) gardening. I want to use this space to explore why I read what I read, and the links and themes between the books that I choose. I want to dig into the piles of books sitting around the house and clear my backlog without worrying about books I’ve been sent to review. I’ve loved my time writing at GeekDad (and I’m sure I’ll still pop in with reviews from time to time), but because it has so many great contributors talking about all manner of geeky stuff, and my reviews will no longer focus on new releases, I feel chronicling my own rambling reading journey will be best done in a dedicated space. 

Nevertheless, I do still have some reading resolutions.

I want to read Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. In truth, I want to watch One Battle After Another, as it has many good reviews, but I like to read the books that films are based on before watching them, so I need to try Pynchon again. (I read a couple of his books years ago, and have never, until now, been tempted to do so again.)

Lots of people seem to rate The Count of Monte Cristo as one of the best books ever, and one everybody should read. It’s forever coming up on magazine lists, and has been on my wishlist for a while (as well as The Earthsea Quartet). I received a copy for Christmas, so I aim to read it in 2026. This may feed into a wider project—A Year of Reading Massively. I have lots of books that are 600+ pages that sit unread. This is because trying to keep up with reviews didn’t allow the time to read them. I’m hoping taking a step back will give me the freedom to read more behemoths. Samantha Shannon, Eleanor Catton and who knows, maybe Gravity’s Rainbow wait in the wings.

Quite where I shall fit this reading time in, I’m not sure—a perennial problem. As well as the books I already own, I have a virtual list of over 100 books. I tend to be a paperback reader, and arriving in the first few weeks of the year are Death and the Author by Nnedi Okorafor, Pagans by James Allister Henry, and Ray Nayler’s Where The Axe Buried. So many books and so little time! My predicament is perfectly captured (not for the first time) by Tom Gauld in this week’s Guardian Books.

Now that the year has ended, we look back at our reading resolutions for this year and reflect on the past year.

Mariana Ruiz

I moved home to a new state this year and left behind many boxes of books. Despite that, I managed to read and review more than a hundred books, both for this site and in Spanish for different venues. I also continued writing my books as well (I am writing a long essay about human extinction and have read some tremendous books for that one). I call that a win despite missing my full-to-top-capacity shelves.

I have to confess I’ve been cheating on my Stephen King with Lee Child. Call them blockbusters, but those Reacher novels are pure adrenaline. I am on the tenth by order of appearance and have to commend Tripwire, Without Fail, and The Hard Way. Child knows his dialogues, his geography, and some interesting tidbits about the vast machinery that is the US Army.

As for diverse voices, I am resolutely including a wider range of works in translation and diverse authors in our Stack Overflow. I got my wish in 2025 and got to include a review of a Bolivian children’s book in the US market! The best book in translation I reviewed was My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda by Bibi Dumon Tak. Pilgrim Codex was a close second.

Jenny Bristol

I made my 25-book goal!

But I didn’t read any of the books I anticipated reading in 2025. I did start The Life Impossible by Matt Haig, but it didn’t at all grab me like his other books usually do, so I’m still not done with it. I do plan to finish it, but other books have seemed more shiny this year. I still haven’t re-read Atomic Habits, partly because I only just found the box it was packed in since we moved last summer.

Most of the books I’ve read in 2025 have been in audiobook form, as it has been easier to consume books that way when I’m driving or crocheting or folding laundry. Any physical or ebooks take longer for me to read, but I still always seem to end up with at least one of each type of book going at the same time. A couple of them I’ve been working on for a year or longer, so maybe I need to buckle down and finish them.

In 2025, I read a bunch of different genres of books, most of which were quite enjoyable. I mentioned my favorites in our recent Favorite Books of 2025 post, but some others that I enjoyed were the memoirs Say Everything: A Memoir by Ione Skye (I learned a ton about her, wow) and The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (a fascinating look into specific circles during a specific time); a fun time-travel/romance book Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron; leading the “weird” category The You You Are: A Spiritual Biography of You, which is connected to the show Severance and is so strange but very on-brand for its “author”; and the fascinating slice-of-life book Notes from an Island by Tove Jansson, author of the Moomin books and materials. It was a look at a portion of her life, living with her partner on a deserted island for many summers.

Though my year of reading books ended up very different from what I had planned, I do like having intentions and lists about books I want to read, in case I can’t think of anything or need some inspiration. But, since my ultimate goal is just to keep reading, and hit the same number of books as the last two digits of the current year, I don’t beat myself up about taking an unexpected turn and reading other random books, whatever strikes my fancy. I cherish the freedom to just read whatever I want to read! I haven’t been in college for three decades, so I usually just read for pleasure now. And following my curiosity keeps life fresh.

Robin Brooks

My resolutions last year were very arm-wavy. Formed from a nagging sense that I needed to read more. I did try to do that, but going into 2026, I still have the same feeling, so perhaps I didn’t succeed. I have found I need more sleep these days, and this has massively cut into my reading time.

I completely failed to read advance review copies on time. Well, I think I managed it for the first month before breaking down. Reading review copies almost completely derailed my love of books this year. The need to keep up with books I’d been sent made reading suddenly feel like a chore. I have read some great books this year, but as the summer finished, I felt like I was reading out of obligation, when there were other books I’d much rather be jumping into.

In the end, I took a break from reviewing new books and have been rummaging through the big piles of books I have lying around. Some of these did include books I’ve had sitting around for a few years, so I did go some way to fulfilling my pledge to read some of my older, unread titles.

During my reviewing break, I reassessed what I like to read and why I like to review – some of this will lead into my forthcoming 2026 resolutions. One side-effect of this was exploring more general articles and reviews about books, seeking out other creators and reading the books they enjoyed. The upshot of this has led to even more titles being added to my virtual reading list. I now have a digital list of titles that stretches to 100 books. When added to my physical pile of books, it’s clear I have an unsustainable wish-list!

Jonathan H. Liu

The first part of my reading resolutions for 2025 were actually about not reading: in an attempt to reclaim some floor space in my office and make it a place where I’d actually like to sit and read, I resolved to get rid of at least one book each week that I hadn’t read yet. This was pretty tough, but I did manage to keep up with it. I set myself a weekly reminder alarm, and most weeks I managed to choose at least two or three books to weed, so over the course of the year I think I probably removed somewhere close to 200 books. Given that I added about 285 books to my “to read” pile this year (but then did get rid of many of those after finishing them), I think maybe I managed to break even this year in terms of accumulation. Baby steps!

(If you compare the photo at the top of this post with the photo from the beginning of 2024, you can see that there is more floor space now … just not a lot.)

Of the specific books I had listed to read, I did write up the Inkworld series by Cornelia Funke (after re-reading the whole series), and I read City Spies: London Calling by James Ponti in July. As for Against Platforms by Mike Pepi, I gave it a shot but despite the fact that it was a slim book, it was a little too academic for me and I’ll admit my brain just was just not digesting it. I did agree with a lot of the parts I did read, though there were bits here and there that I wasn’t entirely on board with.

I did manage to read four more books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (Books 4, 5, 6, 7) by Matt Dinniman, which continue to get progressively thicker. I’m excited that there will be some tabletop games based on the series coming next year—hopefully I’ll get to try one of those!—and I also backed a crowdfunding campaign for a comic book following one of the side characters so I’m looking forward to that.

I didn’t manage to return to May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans, but I’m hanging onto that one because it still feels quite relevant. (I may need to restart at this point.) And I did finally finish reading The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased that I managed to stick to most of my reading resolutions for the year!

Books! Whether you’ve constantly got a book in progress (or two or three) or you read several books a night to your kids, books have a heavy presence in our lives. We can use them to learn, to imagine, and even to escape, and they always make great gifts. You can gift your favorite books to your loved ones, or perhaps your loved ones have asked for specific books. In any case, there is a book out there for everyone. Here are some of our favorites this year.

Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. This means that the GeekDad/GeekMom contributor may make a small amount of commission if you click through and purchase the item at no extra cost to you. We may have also received the item for review from the manufacturer.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Collector’s Edition, curated by Barbara Heller

Suggested By: Jenny Bristol
Mfg: Chronicle Books
Price: $60
Purchase: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Collector’s Edition
Description: If you, like me, can’t get enough Jane Austen, this newest, fanciest edition of Pride and Prejudice is a great gift idea, for yourself or for your favorite Austen fan. Building on the quality and success of the 2020 version with all of its handwritten letters and bonus material (and check out the Persuasion version from 2022 too), this Collector’s Edition has five additional inclusions and new bonus content, along with higher quality materials, gorgeous endpapers, a more sturdy build, and an included slipcase for the two-volume set. If you want to feel immersed in the Regency era, this is a fun way to do it. Read my full review on GeekMom. JB

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest by Amy S. Kaufman

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Viking Penguin
Price: $18
Purchase: The Traitor of Sherwood Forest
Description: As a fan of alternative reality fiction, I was delighted to come upon this first novel by renowned medievalist Amy S Kaufman, The Traitor of Sherwood Forest is her reworking of the myths of Robin Hood, form the perspective of one of his merry men – or merry girl as it were. The story follows Jane Crow as she works for the Lord of the Greenwood, being drawn further into his world with every work and whisper. She must ultimately carve a path for herself as player or prize. The story feels rich and vibrant like only a medieval scholar could create, but with a passionate tale that keeps pushing you through the story. Great for fans of British mythology. SP

The Binti Trilogy

Suggested By: Mariana Ruiz
Mfg: The Folio Society
Price: $100
Purchase: The Binti Trilogy
Description: Neddi Okorafor is the best science fiction writer alive. She has a powerful voice, a mighty blend of African roots and outer space imagination, and Binti is one of her most respected works. The first novella of the trilogy won her both the Hugo and the Nebula. The Folio Society collects the three novels of this young Himba girl, an expert mathematician, who faces alien creatures that kill her entire crew on her way to Oomza University. Facing the Medusae is the bravest thing she has ever done, and her bond will forever alter the interspecies war between them and the human Khoush race. The luxury set has all-new illustrations by David Palumbo, a box case, and dark blue metallic endpapers. MR

The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene
Price: $20.91
Purchase: The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand
Description: An expansive collection with a little something for everyone, The End of the World As We Know It is a veritable love letter to Stephen King’s The Stand, chock-full of names you’ll recognize. In its weaker moments, contemporary authors try to ape King’s style, from his effortless wit and the turn of a phrase to his penchant for injecting magical realism into even the most mundane prose. At its best, though, it moves the spirit of The Stand through otherwise uncharted waters, taking Captain Trips to Puerto Rico, Pakistan, and even the multiverse of the Dark Tower. —Z.

Levenger Master Class Writing a Novel Circa Workbook

Suggested By: Dakster Sullivan
Mfg: Levenger
Price: $59.50
Purchase: Levenger Master Class Writing a Novel Circa Workbook
Description: Everyone talks about writing a novel, and the Circa workbook is basically the friendly shove that helps you go from talking the talk to walking the walk. The step-by-step exercises make figuring out genre, theme, characters, and plot feel fun instead of intimidating. It reads like having a gentle writing master right at your desk, guiding you from dreaming to accomplishing. DS

Return to Sender by Vera Brosgol

Suggested By: Jonathan H. Liu
Mfg: Roaring Book Press
Price: $18.99
Purchase: Return to Sender
Description: Oliver discovers a weird mail slot inside his new apartment, and is delighted to find that it can grant wishes, usually by way of a Rube Goldberg-like series of events. But if getting what he wants also means that somebody else suffers a little, is it still worth wishing? This is Vera Brosgol’s first middle grade novel (after many graphic novels and picture books), and it is absolutely delightful. JHL

Codex Regenesis

Suggested By: Jenny Bristol
Mfg: Chronicle Books
Price: $40
Purchase: Codex Regenesis
Description: If you like the book-as-puzzle genre with an occult theme, the new book Codex Regenesis will be a fun one this holiday season. Mystery, mystical elements, and story drive the content. This Codex is not just a simple book with pages—it’s a journey, an artifact, with built-in puzzles and devices that you solve and use as you navigate five different tales and solve the mysteries, then use those answers to solve the final mystery. There is a ribbon bookmark to keep your place. A tad on the creepy and gruesome side, the book is filled with carefully crafted art and even a custom typeface. With flaps to lift, letters to read, and clues to uncover, this book will keep you and/or your loved ones engaged for quite a while, and then be something fun to turn back to over time. This is one to savor. JB

The Viscount St. Albans by Natania Barron

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Solaris Nova
Price: $16.99
Purchase: The Viscount St. Albans by Natania Barron
Description: It is a truth universally acknowledged that the imagination of Jane Austen has inspired many a continuance, spin off, and expansion of her universe. Former GeekMom writer Natania Barron has done just this with her Love in Netherford fantasy series, taking beloved settings and themes from Austen’s works and creating a wonderful fantasy adventure with just the right amount of romance, and a perfect amount of supernatural. Book 2, The Viscount St. Albans was released this year, and discovering the world of these gentle witches and regency vampires is a wonderful way to spend the last reading days of 2025. You can see a full review of the first book in the series on GeekMom here. SP

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Stephen Graham Jones
Price: $24.28
Purchase: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Description: When academic Etsy Beaucarne is contacted about the discovery of a journal penned by an unknown great-great-grandfather, she thinks the manuscript might be just the shot in the arm that her flagging career needs. Instead, she uncovers a startling tale packed to the rafters with generational trauma, cold-blooded murder, and hot-blooded vampirism. Vicious and visceral, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is Stephen Graham Jones at his best. With all his influences on display—from slasher cinema to Louis L’Amour’s frontier tales to the Native American Renaissance—Jones winks at more conventional undead narratives (like that other novel about interviewing a bloodsucker) while simultaneously decolonizing vampire lore. —Z. [Review materials provided by Saga Press.] 

Levenger Master Class Master Your Life Circa Workbook

Suggested By: Dakster Sullivan
Mfg: Levenger
Price: $39.50
Purchase: Levenger Master Class Master Your Life Circa Workbook
Description: This 90-day Circa planner is like giving your brain a roadmap instead of letting it chase every squirrel in its path. Dr. Kristen Race mixes neuroscience-backed goal setting with practical rituals. I really like using her monthly goal planning worksheets, daily pages, and a “Three for Me” self-care check to stay focused without feeling stuck in a routine. I also like that it’s only for 90 days, so I’m not committed to carrying a full year around in my bag. DS

Reissued! The Cave of Time and Other Choose Your Own Adventure Books

Suggested By: Jenny Bristol
Mfg: Choose Your Own Adventure
Price: $8.99
Purchase: The Cave of Time and Other Choose Your Own Adventure Books
Description: Whether you’re a nerd of a certain age, like me, and remember Choose Your Own Adventure books yourself, or a parent of a ‘tween who is looking for some agency in their fiction, it’s a great time to circle back to these choice-based books that many Gen-Xers know and love from our childhood. The Choose Your Own Adventure folks are reissuing The Cave of Time and quite a number of other early titles, and it’s time to revisit them. See how many different stories you can experience! Read my full review of The Cave of Time on GeekMom. JB

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Bramble
Price: $28.99
Purchase: Swordheart
Description: About a paragraph and a half is all it took for me to be fully invested in this story and in our protagonist Halla. Her world is quickly upended when she inherits her Uncle’s fortune and finds herself in a race for her freedom against an unhappy family, that would trap her in an unhappy marriage to control that fortune. She finds herself the wielder of a magical sword that unleashes a full bodied knight from a previous age and the two set of on a journey to claim Halla’s agency in a world that would deny it. Halla’s quest is strange, silly, and fully captivating. Swordheart is the first of a planned trilogy, with the sequel, Daggerbound, projected to be released in August 2026. I for one, cannot wait. SP

Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Edited by Becky Siegel Spratford
Price: $18.00
Purchase: Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature
Description: Why I Love Horror asks the single enduring question posed to all fans of the genre, and the myriad answers provided by a veritable who’s who of contemporary horror visionaries attest to its undeniable importance. Full of familiar names like Tananarive Due (The Reformatory), Josh Mallerman (Bird Box), Hailey Piper (The Worm and His Kings), Grady Hendrix (My Best Friend’s Exorcism), and Stephen Graham Jones (My Heart Is a Chainsaw), Why I Love Horror explores the simple functionality of horror fiction, and it will likely help the gorehound on your holiday gift list better understand their own love affair with the macabre. –Z. [Review materials provided by Saga Press.] 

The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Ace
Price: $29.00
Purchase: The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson
Description: A society in fear of a magic they were once in thrall of. A mysterious commander in charge of his enemy’s armies. A halfling who may hold the key to reconciling, or annihilating, the kingdom she thought she didn’t belong to. In the world of Anwyvn Julie Johnson has created a beautiful and haunting magical realm that is bursting at the seams to become something other than it’s population is trying to make it. The Wind Weaver is the first in a new series of hidden magic and romance, combing familiar elements with broad new storylines that will sweep you up within the first few pages. SP

The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Berkley Publishing Group
Price: $19.00
Purchase: The Geographer’s Map to Romance by India Holton
Description: India Holton lives in New Zealand where she enjoys wandering around forests, and that is abundantly evident in her prose. Julia Quinn describes the book as a cozy romantasy with a “splash of Indiana Jones,” which is a perfect description of how I felt going along on this journey with Professors Elodie and Gabriel Tarrant. This book further fed my addiction to Fae academic stories with a hint of romance. In this tale the pair follows an eruption of magic in a small Welsh village. Just as in The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love, Holton takes pieces of our reality and blends them with magic to create an alternate reality that is just slightly off in another delightful historical parody romcom. SP

Another holiday season means another round of toys that make us smile, laugh, and immediately clear space on our shelves. Our writers pulled together their favorite finds across fandoms, ages, and play styles to help you track down the perfect gifts for the geeks in your life. Here are the toys that stood out this year.

Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. This means that the GeekDad/GeekMom contributor may make a small amount of commission if you click through and purchase the item at no extra cost to you. We may have also received the item for review from the manufacturer.

Robosen Toy Story Mini Robots

Suggested By: Dakster Sullivan
Mfg: Robose
Price: Starting at $109.99
Purchase: Robosen Toy Story Mini Robots
Description: Robosen’s latest mini robot line gives kids the fun of Robosen tech without the price tag. These tiny and adorable robots come with basic programmable actions to add some fun to your kids’ room or your desk. Using the same base, you can interact with any character in the line (currently Toy Story and WALL-E). The fluid motions and authentic voices will have people wondering if you have the real deal. Using the Robosen Studio & Robosen Hub anyone can unlock their creativity by customizing actions and voices, and immerse themselves in a vibrant community of passionate fans sharing their incredible creations from around the world. The Toy Story collection starts at $109.99 and WALL-E. 

Polly Pocket Back to the Future Compact

Suggested By: Jonathan H. Liu
Mfg: Mattel
Price: $33.00
Purchase: Polly Pocket Back to the Future Compact
Description: Here’s a Polly Pocket set that might end up sitting on mom or dad’s desk instead of in the kid’s playroom—it’s Back to the Future! The compact opens up to show the famous clock tower for the lightning bolt scene, or fold down the facade to switch to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance at the high school. The set comes with Doc, Marty, Lorraine, and—of course—the DeLorean time machine! (JHL)

ChompSaw

Suggested By: Jonathan H. Liu
Mfg: Chompshop
Price: $246
Purchase: ChompSaw
Description: This clever gizmo is like a table saw for cardboard—it’s kid-safe and makes it easy to cut out cardboard shapes for all sorts of projects. Chompshop has some digital patterns available, but there are plenty more to be found on Etsy and other sites, and of course, your kids can come up with their own ideas too! Read the full review here. (JL)

Lego Dancing Groot

Suggested By: Rory Bristol
Mfg: LEGO
Price: $35.95
Purchase: Lego Dancing Groot
Description: This buildable dancing Groot is a great gift for kids and adults, as it has an interesting and creative design, and is one of the best mechanical builds for beginners. Groot’s pot has storage for extra bits, along with a crank that makes Groot dance, and he has accessories from some fan-favorite scenes including sunglasses and headphones for his pre-teen phase. And if you’re worried about the film being a bit old (it was released in 2014), remember that movies may age, but dancing Groot is forever.

Nee Doh Sensory Toys

Suggested By: Rory Bristol
Mfg: Schylling
Price: $9.89
Purchase: Nee Doh Sensory Toys
Description: NeeDoh makes a range of sensory toys, most of which are meant to be squished and/or stretched. The Nice Cube is a 2.25″ cube which features a resilient and stretchy shell, but there are many types of sensory toys, including the Fuzz Ball, Mello Mallo, and the Sploot Splat, each of which offers its own style of sensory input. These toys are great for all ages, and the price point means you can get more than one for a larger gift, or just a couple for stocking stuffers. RB.

Kinetic Sand SquishPizza

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Spin Master
Price: $20
Purchase: Kinetic Sand SquishPizza
Description: Kinetic Sand has slowly replaced all kinds of putty and squishy things in our house, as our go to malleable building toy, so we are excited now that they are branching out into tools and implements. Kinetic sand feels like wet sand, it can be squished, stretched, and shaped, but never dries out for endless reuse. The pizza kit is a great starter set including 1 pound of Kinetic Sand in 4 colors, 2 squishers and 3 tools. It comes in a great carry case so will be good for grandparent hopping over the holidays. SP.

Bitzee Jurassic World

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Spin Master
Price: $35
Purchase: Bitzee Jurassic World
Description: Being a fan of my long dead Tamagotchi and the entire Jurassic Park franchise, it is with great misgivings that I turned this toy over to my ten year old instead of hoarding it away myself. This version of the Bitzee digital pet range allows you to pet a Dinosaur, where the dinosaurs respond to touch, tilts and shakes with sounds and reactions instead of eating you! You can raise a baby dinosaur, play games, and for the first time in the Bitzee range you can connect two Bitzees to play against friends or trade dinosaurs. Utterly mesmerizing for kids and adults!

L.O.L. Surprise Powerpuff Girls, Care Bears, and Minions

Suggested By: Will James
Mfg: L.O.L. Surprise
Price: $14.99 to $22.99
Purchase: L.O.L. Surprise Powerpuff Girls, Care Bears, and Minions
Description: L.O.L. Surprise dolls and toys have been a favorite of my daughter’s for years now, and this year L.O.L. has released several licensed team ups that no only my daughter loves, but bring loads of nostalgia for me too! Along with surprise balls for Care Bears, Minions, and Powerpuff Girls, there are also three L.O.L. fashion dolls for the Powerpuff Girls. Fans of L.O.L., surprise toys, or any of these franchises, will not be disappointed!

Funstars Racers

Suggested By: Will James
Mfg: Playmobil
Price: $22.99
Purchase: Funstars Racers
Description: This year, Playmobil released the Funstars racers. These race cars are pullback (and they pack quite a punch) and fully modular so you can customize your car between sets. They are available in four flavors Pizza, Unicorn, Professor, and Wrestler. Check out my full review of Playombil Funstars here!

Switch 2

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Nintendo
Price: $449.00
Purchase: Switch 2
Description: The Nintendo Switch 2 is more than just an iterative upgrade of the previous Nintendo Switch hardware. Its improved graphical capabilities include 4K HDR support and 60 FPS gameplay when docked. Even in handheld mode, the 7.9-inch screen doesn’t miss a beat at 1080p. The Joy-Con 2 controllers magnetically attach and boast additional mouse functionality, and new features like GameChat and GameShare can’t help but make even a solo gamer like me a little bit more social. Additionally, the Switch 2’s robust backward compatibility allows me to revisit my existing Switch game library at any time, often with faster load times and improved visual fidelity. The holidays are the perfect time to pick up this new console, as it’s sure to please the entire family! –Z. [Review materials provided by Nintendo of America]

Game Boy 72046

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: LEGO
Price: $59.97
Purchase: Game Boy 72046
Description: While I’m usually pretty good at ignoring the siren’s call of new LEGO products, I forked over the money for this 1:1 scale Game Boy replica as soon as pre-orders opened up. It beautifully apes the overall look and feel of the original DMG, complete with color-accurate buttons and d-pad. A working slot accepts brick-built Game Paks, and it even includes corresponding lenticular screens! Whether you’re a Nintendo fanboy or an avid LEGO builder, you’ll be bowled over by everything this ingenious 421-piece kit has to offer. –Z.

White Stripes Reaction Figures

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Super 7
Price: $24.60
Purchase: White Stripes Reaction Figures
Description: Over time, I have slowly but surely amassed a veritable Who’s Who of tiny rock and roll royalty thanks to Super 7’s Reaction figure collection. In my den, Papa Emeritus III stands proudly next to Lemmy Kilmister and Wu-Tang’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard, all beneath the sightless eyes of the Slayer Minotaur. To celebrate their recent induction into the Hall of Fame, I just added The White Stripes to my musical rogues’ gallery. While there are a couple of versions—Super 7 has never been afraid to add some variation to the product line—I ended up going with the Get Behind Me Satan 2-pack, commemorating the 2005 album of the same name. Jack and Meg’s era-appropriate wardrobes walk a fine line between country/western and goth, adding just the right amount of je ne sais quoi to my growing figure collection. –Z.

Another year, another game to discover. If you couldn’t make it to Pax Unplugged this weekend, try creating your own event at home with these suggestions from our current favorite games to share with your friends and family this holiday season.

Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links. This means that the GeekDad/GeekMom contributor may make a small amount of commission if you click through and purchase the item at no extra cost to you. We may have also received the item for review from the manufacturer.

Murdle Jigsaw Puzzles

Suggested By: Jenny Bristol
Mfg: Chronicle Books
Price: $19.95
Purchase: Murdle Jigsaw Puzzles
Description: Mixing logic with jigsaw puzzles, these Murdle jigsaws bring a lot of fun to the table. Put together a 500-piece puzzle to solve the murder mystery! But you won’t get much help from the box—there is no full reference image! You’re (mostly) on your own here. Then, once you assemble the puzzle, follow the included clues and study the puzzle image to solve the mystery. Full of cute and funny details, these puzzles are fun to do by yourself, or with a whole group. See who can solve the mystery first! There are two puzzles so far, but I hope they make more. (And be sure to check out the full line of Murdle puzzle books!) Read my full review on GeekMom. JB

Donkey Kong Bananza

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Nintendo
Price: $69.00
Purchase: Donkey Kong Bananza
Description: The first true must-own of the Switch 2 era, Donkey Kong Bananza manages to channel the very best elements of every Donkey Kong title that’s come before into a remarkable adventure that surprises and delights, rewarding innovation and encouraging experimentation while never failing to let fun be its true focus. Bananza sees DK partnered with a sentient rock creature that is quickly revealed to be none other than a younger version of the songstress Pauline. Abducted by VoidCo, a capitalist cabal of sinister simians, for her powerful voice, Pauline joins Donkey Kong as he delves ever deeper into the underground world in an attempt to recover the stolen Banandium Gems and undo VoidCo’s cruel, exploitative plans via deliberate exploration and wanton destruction—two of my very favorite things! –Z. [Review materials provided by Nintendo of America.]

Floats McGoats

Suggested By: Sarah Pinault
Mfg: Hootenanny Games
Price: $24.99
Purchase: Floats McGoats
Description: If you just need to laugh with your family for 45 minutes, and also like targeting siblings in attack strategies, then this is the game for you. We have been playing this since last Christmas and it floats everyone’s boats with the hilarity of floating goats. A ship carrying far too many goats has broken apart and you must each save as many goats as you can by building rafts and saving more goats than the other players. Watch out for sharks! SP

Dungeons & Dragons – Starter Set: Heroes of The Borderlands

Suggested By: Will James
Mfg: Wizards of the Coast
Price: $49
Purchase: Dungeons & Dragons – Starter Set: Heroes of The Borderlands
Description: If you, a friend, or loved one has been interested in getting into Dungeons & Dragons as a player or a Dungeon Master, but has been intimidated by it or just don’t know where to start, then the Dungeons & Dragons – Starter Set: Heroes of The Borderlands is exactly what you need! I recently did a deep dive on just why this is an excellent starting point for all ages and you can read it here. This amazing starter set makes D&D as accessible as most tabletop games. -W.J.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Suggested By: Jenny Bristol
Mfg: Nintendo
Price: $69.99 ($59.88 for Nintendo Switch edition)
Purchase: Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Description: Transporting fans back to Lumiose City, the grand Parisian metropolis of Pokémon X and Y fame, Pokémon Legends: Z-A wonderfully combines the spirit of the core Pokémon franchise with the frenetic combat of the Legends spin-off. The shift to a real-time battle system may feel strange at first, but players will quickly get the hang of this new action-heavy approach to Pokémon warfare. Combine that with a healthy dose of urban exploration, tons of character customization options, and even more Mega Evolutions, and you’ve got an irresistible gameplay experience. Available now on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is sure to find itself atop many a gift list this holiday season. –Z. [Review materials provided by Nintendo of America.]

Giant Foam Dice Set

Suggested By: Paul Benson
Mfg: KESS
Price: $24.99 – $119.99
Purchase: Giant Foam Dice Sets
Description: If you play tabletop roleplaying games, you probably already own more than one set of dice. But do you have some truly giant dice that you can chuck across the table? This set of seven 5.5″ dice are brightly colored and made of sturdy foam, and will really make a splash at your RPG sessions. And if you don’t want a whole set, they also sell individual 20-sided dice. -PB

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Suggested By: Z.
Mfg: Nintendo
Price: $69.00
Purchase: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
Description: Filling in blanks left from its brief mention in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment tells the story of Princess Zelda’s adventures in Hyrule’s ancient past. Alongside King Rauru, Queen Sonia, and a truly staggering cast of allies, you’ll mow down wave after wave of enemies in an attempt to stave off the Demon King Ganondorf’s looming invasion. Intricate LoZ lore meets fearsome Musou combat in this stand-out Switch 2 exclusive, released just in time for the holidays. –Z. [Review materials provided by Nintendo of America.]

Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons

Suggested By: Paul Benson
Mfg: Ravensburger
Price: $$34.99
Purchase: Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons
Description: The Horrified series of games is immensely popular, with one of them, American Monsters, being a 2021 finalist for GeekDad Game of the Year. With Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons, you’ll face iconic D&D monsters, working together with your fellow adventurers to defeat a Beholder, Displacer Beast, Mimic, and the deadly Red Dragon. Great gameplay, iconic D&D artwork and locations, and wonderful miniatures, all add up to an enjoyable night at the game table for anyone. – PB

Hunt A Killer x Sam and Colby: The Haunting at Wicker Ridge

Suggested By: Paul Benson
Mfg: Hunt A Killer
Price: $29.99
Purchase: Hunt A Killer x Sam and Colby: The Haunting at Wicker Ridge
Description: Are you a fan of mysteries, or of the supernatural? Then this game will provide a perfect night’s entertainment for you and your friends and family. In The Haunting of Wicker Ridge, famed real-life paranormal investigators Sam and Colby have been trying to identify and banish a demon haunting the Wicker Ridge house, but when strange forces drive them out, they turn to you for help. With a low difficulty level, this immersive adventure is also a good introduction to the “mystery in a box”-style game. -PB

Miniature Paints

Suggested By: Will James
Mfg: Bear Cavalry
Price: $5.99 and up
Purchase: Miniature Paints
Description: Bear Cavalry is a relative new comer to the miniature painting arena, but they are making a huge splash! All of their paints are made in the US and are made as sustainably as possible – recyclable bottles, recycled paper and mushroom fiber packaging, and paint that is as non-toxic as possible – their weathering mud even uses coffee grounds and local sand for its texture! And if all of that weren’t enough reason to try them out, their paint is smooth, vibrant, and has great coverage (better than any other mini paints I’ve tried in all my years of mini painting) and comes in about 50 colors along with several colors of weathering mud and several technical paints (varnishes, canola oil based effects, etc). Colors can be purchased one off at $5.99 a bottle or in a variety of sets. Support a small, sustainable business while leveling up your mini painting game with Bear Cavalry paints. And look for a deeper dive review of their paints coming soon! WJ

Magical Athlete

Suggested By: Jonathan H. Liu
Mfg: CMYK Games
Price: $29.99
Purchase: Magical Athlete
Description: This chaotic race game is fun for the whole family! While it uses a simple roll-and-move mechanic, each of the 36 wacky racers has a unique special ability, leading to unpredictable results when they’re combined. Read the full review here. (JHL)

Tamagotchi Collections

Suggested By: Will James
Mfg: KESS
Price: $34.75
Purchase: Tamagotchi Collections
Description: Tamagotchi Collections is a fun new table top game from KESS designed to tug at the nostalgia for those of us who remember standing in line at Toys R Us to get their first Tamagotchi back in the ’90s! It’s a great little game for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up and hits all the notes you’d want from a Tamagotchi game – collecting Tamagotchi, feeding them, playing with them, and, of course, dealing with poop! Look for our full review of the game coming soon! WJ

Micro Macro Kids: Crazy City Park

Suggested By: Jonathan H. Liu
Mfg: Edition Spielwiese/Hachette Boardgames USA
Price: $29.99
Purchase: Micro Macro Kids: Crazy City Park
Description: Find the clues on the poster-sized map to track down lost dogs, stolen jewelry, and more! This entry in the Micro Macro series has more kid-friendly mysteries, but is still quite the challenge! For mystery lovers ages 6 and up. Read the full review here. (JHL)

Halloween falls on a Friday this year: maybe you’re hosting a game night while you wait for trick-or-treaters, or perhaps you can break out a few games after you get back from taking your kids around the neighborhood. Either way, we’re here to help with a list of games to help you add some tricks and treats to your October gaming sessions!

Our suggestions for this year’s list are from Alex Hart, Jonathan Liu, Paul Benson, and Michael Knight.

Werewolf in the Dark

This party game (for 6 to 28 players!) is a mash-up of the classic Werewolf game (werewolves kill a villager in the night; everyone votes on executing a potential werewolf during the day) with hide-and-go-seek, as you literally play in the dark, with players sneaking around, trying to figure out who the werewolves are without getting offed in the process. 28 unique characters add bizarre powers or requirements for players. Dead players become ghosts, wandering around with little candles and doing spooky things. You do need a particular environment that allows for meandering around in the dark, but if you can make it worth, it’s a lot of nail-biting fun. I don’t have a full review of this one yet, but you can read more at the Tuesday Knight Games website. (JL)

Vampire Village

Build a cozy little village to attract villagers … but don’t forget to build up your defenses, because there are witches, werewolves, demons, and vampires roaming the outskirts. This card game plays quickly, just two rounds of building and monster attacks, and you’ll score points for villagers that survive the onslaught, plus any monsters that didn’t manage to get through your defenses. Read the full review here. (JL)

Girls vs Ghouls

This one was included in our list last year when it was still on Kickstarter, but now the game is finished and available for purchase! Girls vs Ghouls pits two teams against each other in a race to control the houses in a cul-de-sac using tricks and treats. The catch? You don’t know who’s on your team until the end of the game! Check out the full review here. (JL)

Don’t Go In There

In Don’t Go In There, you’ll play as neighborhood kids exploring the many rooms in the mysterious haunted house up the street. Each room houses three cursed items and can hold up to three occupants. If you place your meeple further into the room, you’ll get a better pick of the cards, but you’re also more liable to attract ghosts from the glow-in-the-dark dice that are rolled before the room resolves. Collect the right cards and avoid having the most ghosts to leave the house with the least amount of curses and win the game! Don’t Go In There is a great spooky-but-not-scary experience for the whole family, it’s got a ton of fun push-your-luck moments, and it plays in a cool 20-30 minutes – perfect for a pre-Halloween treat! Find a copy on allplay’s website here. (AH)

DroPolter

This tiny box from Oink Games has a bunch of little trinkets: you hold them all in your hand, and then try to drop only the correct ones to satisfy the ghosts. Be the fastest, and you earn a bell … which also goes in your hand, so try not to drop it! A clever dexterity game that’s a real treat. Available in stores or from Oink Games. (JL)

Spooktacular

Halloween night, 1986. Movie monsters find their way off the silver screen and into an old, rundown theater, terrifying the moviegoers! In this family-weight game, you each play as one of 20 different movie monsters, each with their own special abilities, as you compete to scare and eat the most moviegoers. It’s easy to learn and play, and with so many different monsters to play, each game will be different. You can read my review here. (PB)

Dying Message

The bad news: you’ve been bludgeoned and are about to die. The good news: you have a little bit of time to leave a clue behind so the detectives can catch your killer. Use the cards to create your dying message and hope that you’ll be avenged! Read the full review here. (JL)

Moon Colony Bloodbath

Science Fiction is full of rogue robots causing murderous mayhem. Those security robots in Chopping Mall. Hector in Saturn 3. And, of course, The Terminator. You’d think those scientists would have worked on their programming better, but they still produced a bunch of glitchy robots that end up killing a lot of colonists in the tableau-building Moon Colony Bloodbath. Will your lunar colony survive? You can read my review here. (PB)

Deep Regrets

Fishing. It’s normally so relaxing…except when you’re pulling ever more horrifying creatures out of the depths of the ocean! You’ll have to decide whether you want to fight against the insanity creeping in your brain from these unnatural beings, or just go ahead and embrace it. The art is great, and there’s a terrifically dark sense of humor in this Lovecraftian game. You can read my full review here.  (PB)

Disney Villainous: Unstoppable

Disney Villainous and its expansions are some of my favorite games. As a big Disney fan, I enjoyed how each villain has their own realm rich in the story and art of their movie. In addition, each villain had their own objectives, and each time you played as a different villain, you had a unique experience. Disney Villainous: Unstoppable takes the basics of the original game and makes it accessible to younger children with somewhat simplified rules and less reading required. There are four villains to play as: Maleficent, Scar, Ursula, and Hades. You can read my full review here. (MK)

Joe Manganiello’s The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness Quest Pack for HeroQuest

HeroQuest is another family favorite which I have played for over 30 years. Players dive into dungeons and fight all types of monsters while completing quests and searching for treasure. The original game was updated and rereleased a few years ago. Joe Manganiello’s The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness is the latest quest pack and written by the famous actor. This pack takes the heroes through ten more quests and even comes with a large dragon with a metallic finish as well as a great story and some fun, challenging quests. You can read my full review here. (MK)

Betrayal at the Niebolt House: The Evil of Pennywise

This expansion to Betrayal at House on the Hill (3rd edition) takes players back to the Niebolt house in Derry, Maine, to face off against the shapeshifter who likes to take the form of Pennywise the Clown from the movie It. Five new haunts are added to the game along with Pennywise encounter cards and three miniatures of Henry Bowers, Pennywise the Clown, and a Pennywise spider monster. This dark and challenging expansion is currently available from the Hasbro Gaming Store on Amazon. (MK)

Murdle: In the Hedge Maze

Okay, this one isn’t technically a tabletop game, but it’s also more than just a simple jigsaw puzzle. Murdle: In the Hedge Maze is a murder mystery where you can use the included clues and deduction grid to match up each suspect with a weapon and a location, but some of the clues can only be interpreted by assembling parts of the jigsaw puzzle! It is possible to solve the murder before the puzzle is complete, but you can also use the finished image to trace everyone’s paths through the maze to see which suspect entered the hedge maze. You can read more about it (and other murder mysteries!) in my Stack Overflow column. (JL)

Happy Halloween, and happy gaming!

We’re in the depths of spooky season now, so I’ve got one more monster stack for you today! Today’s stack includes a lot of monster books—some friendlier than others—but another big theme that came up as I was going through my stacks was the intersection of religion and other concepts of good and evil. Some of the books in this category are explicitly about religion, and a lot of them are about witches or demons who may not be as wicked as they first appear. I think it says a lot about human nature that, despite what we may have learned from the Salem witch trials and the fact that we often use the term “witch hunt” to mean unwarranted persecution, we are still so susceptible to the mob mentality that accuses one group of people or another of being evil or dangerous or threatening. Here, then, are several stories that make you stop and think about who the real threats are.

More Weight by Ben Wickey

Let’s start with this whopper of a book, an over-500-page, heavily researched graphic novel about the Salem witch trials. The book takes places in three eras: 1692, during the events themselves; in the 1860s, as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow walk through Salem and discuss the events that happened in their past; in the modern day, as Salem is celebrated as “Witch City” and tourists flock to see various sites and the author digs into the aftermath of the trials and what it all means.

When I say the book is heavily researched, I mean that there’s about 55 pages of endnotes in very small print (including quoted excerpts in an even smaller font), and the endnotes have footnotes. Wickey includes a lot of excerpts from both contemporaneous accounts as well as both fiction and nonfiction written in the 300+ years since the events took place. The depictions of farmer Giles Corey and his wife Martha, two figures at the center of the trials, are based on a number of things: historical records from interviews and trials, as well as plays written by Longfellow and other authors based on the events.

Corey is the central figure in Wickey’s retelling, heavily informed by Longfellow’s play, Giles Corey of the Salem Farms: his wife Martha did not take the witchcraft trials seriously at first, but then was herself accused of witchcraft, with some of Giles’ own comments taken out of context and used against her. Later, Giles himself was also accused; when he refused to speak to begin his trial, he was crushed to death in an attempt to get him to speak. The book also includes scenes of other trials and the hangings and shows the impossible position the accused were put in, with no real way to prove their innocence against a system that had already decided on their guilt.

Wickey uses color sparingly: the parts that take place in 1692 are mostly in black and white, with color used to highlight vivid dreams or particular scenes. Hawthorne and Longfellow’s sections—mostly imaginary conversations, though based on actual quotes from both men—have some subdued blues and greens added to the palette. The few modern sections are in full color—though here there is often a whole lot of text overlaid, so that on some pages there’s almost as much space given to text as to illustration. The outro is where Wickey lays out what happened afterward—the shockingly long time it took for the accused to officially cleared, various scholarly work that has been published about the trials, the transformation of Salem into “Witch City,” and the ways that witchcraft is treated today (including the way there are still  literal witch hunts in many countries). He wrestles with the fact that much of the history was buried or forgotten for so long, and even now it is often ignored in favor of commercialized or simply inaccurate accounts.

This is a book that takes a good bit of time to read: I made my way through a page at a time with two bookmarks so that I could flip back and forth between the comic and the endnotes. Most of what I knew about the Salem witch trials was probably a brief overview in history class and from reading The Crucible (in middle school, maybe?), which Wickey explains had a lot of historical inaccuracies. I admit that I hadn’t really thought that deeply about it before, but this book shows the long tendrils of influence that those events still have on us today. It’s a powerful story and one that is worth learning and then remembering.

Rebis: Born and Reborn written by Irene Marchesini, illustrated by Carlotta Dicataldo, translated by Carla Roncalli Di Montorio

Moving into the realm of fiction, here’s another story about witches—at least, that’s what the townsfolk call them. Martino, born on an evening when two women were burned at the stake for witchcraft, is an albino, and is thus feared by the villagers. Bad weather, sick cows, it’s all because Martino is a curse, so his father finally agrees to send him away. But Martino takes refuge in the forest with Viviana, a woman he befriended after fleeing from some bullies. She lives on her own though she has an extended community of other outcast women. After an initial reluctance, she welcomes Martino to stay with her, leading to a rebirth and a discovery of his true self. There is magic here, but the distrust and suspicion of the villagers is largely driven by fear of what they don’t understand. The sisterhood that Viviana has is a beautiful thing, and one that is able to welcome Martino as one of their own. The illustrations in this one are particularly striking, and the story includes both painful tragedy and joyful connection.

Somna: A Bedtime Story by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay

Roland is a witch hunter, working to rid his village of evil. His wife, Ingrid, has been having vivid dreams of a dark figure, tempting her to give in to her desires. And what could it hurt: they’re only dreams, right? But in a world where accusations of witchcraft are taken seriously, Ingrid must be careful, even as her dreams start to intrude in her waking hours. She gets tangled up with her friend Maja’s secret affair and her attempts to help only bring accusations her way.

This graphic novel is a blend of horror and erotic fantasy; Roland’s single-minded pursuit of evil makes him blind to Ingrid’s situation and drives her even more into her dreamworld. The illustration style switches between realism for Ingrid’s dreams and a more comic-book style for the real world, as if asking the question: what is real and what is the dream? The book is a large-format hardcover that really highlights the artwork, and is definitely intended for adult readers.

Blasfamous by Mirka Andolfo

Here’s another large-format comic for adults, and though you might not expect it from the cover, it also involves witch hunts, though that’s a bit more buried as part of the origin story. In the current world, saints are now pop stars, and Clelia is the queen. Her sold-out concerts aren’t just a chance to hear her music, but if you’re lucky you might also get a chance at being healed. But all is not well: Clelia has been having some strange visions lately, vivid memories of a burning woman she doesn’t recognize. As it turns out, actually Clelia is over 600 years old, kept alive by her agent Father Lev—who is actually a demon. The adoration and worship of her fans feeds the demons, and the saints system they’ve cooked up keeps the supply coming, and Lev needs Clelia to keep playing the part and forget the past that made her who she is.

Meanwhile, a newcomer arrives on the scene, with divine music and amazing miracles of her own, challenging Clelia’s popularity. Who is she? Where did she come from? There are plots and machinations going on behind the scenes, and the demon’s organization is scrambling to keep their show from falling apart.

It’s funny—it’s almost an inversion of K-Pop Demon Hunters, because it’s about the emotional power drawn from the fans, but in this case it’s the demons who have been on top for centuries, and their dominance is threatened by an angel, beating them at their own game. But then this book goes in some bizarre directions; when you think you know where the story is going next, it throws you for a loop. A wild, subversive book about an epic showdown between not-so-good and not-so-evil.

Saint Catherine by Anna Meyer

Catherine was raised Catholic, but now she’s in her twenties and the church isn’t really a big part of her life … except that she has still never missed mass. When she sneaks out to attend mass on Sundays, she tells her boyfriend she’s going out for a run, and she has an uneasy feeling that something bad could happen if she doesn’t go.

When she finally skips mass for the first time, she quickly regrets it: a strange, blob-shaped demon appears, telling her that he has possessed her. Her attempts to be good in an attempt to drive out the demon take her to extremes, even while she tries to figure out what is real. Nobody else seems to see or hear the demon, yet it still seems to have some real effects on Catherine.

I really enjoyed this one, because of the way it really captured Catherine’s dilemma as well as the way that the people in her life responded when she tried to talk to them about it. Meyer also keeps you guessing about what’s going on and where the story is going. It reminded me a little of this true story I’d heard on the radio, “A Short Stay in Hell,” in which a Steven Peck is convinced that he has become part of the Great Satan Walmart Organization, and his family struggles to convince him that he’s hallucinating; he talks a bit about what it felt like in the moment to know certain things were true, and how that affected the way he thought about faith and belief afterward.

The Confessional by Paige Hender

Here’s another graphic novel that brings together religion and the wicked—this time, in the form of vampires. And not just any vampires, but vampires running a brothel and a speakeasy during Prohibition. Sometimes the vampires feed on their clients, but Cora has never been able to kill on her own. What’s more, she is in love with Father Orville, the priest at the local church, faithfully attending service and confession even though her cross necklace burns her skin.

When Father Orville discovers her secret, he proposes a solution: she can help him deal with the men who have confessed to horrible deeds, and get a meal in the process. But while Cora is grateful that Orville is giving her a path to absolution, he can easily convince her to do his dirty work. It’s another story that asks the question: who is the real monster here? There’s some mature content in this one so I’d recommend it for adult readers.

Work-Life Balance by Benjamin Chee and Wayne Rée

This book has an odd format to it—it alternates between prose and comics, and the two tell sort of the same story, but not exactly in the same way. Rée explains in the introduction that this collaboration isn’t a comic book adaptation of a story, but that both the prose and the illustrations were a “conversation with each other.”

The story itself involves various monsters from Asian folklore, many of them some form of vengeful spirit that attacks lecherous men or overly greedy victims. Zee’s father was a monster hunter, and Zee was raised into the business, learning how to lure a pontianak out of hiding by pretending to be drunk. But when Zee looked into the monster’s eyes, they saw something else there, and they weren’t so sure that their dad’s clients didn’t deserve to face these monsters after all. Eventually, Zee went into a different sort of business, building a sanctuary for the various monsters and hiring them out to defend the most vulnerable. In some ways it mirrors what happens in The Confessional, above, but in this case the monsters have more agency and their goals are actually aligned with Zee.

But that’s only the beginning of the story. Zee’s freelance business attracts the attention of the demons, who run things like a multinational corporation. They want to buy out Zee’s business, and the monsters who stay end up in corporate desk jobs, wishing for their old lives back. It’s a clever mash-up of the old and the new, monsters and day jobs. Oh, and there’s even a text-based game you can play online.

Visitations by Corey Egbert

This one’s a graphic memoir, and although it’s based on a true story, it has some elements that make it fit the theme—including a ghost! Corey’s parents divorced when he was young—his mother accused his father of abusing Corey’s little sister Sarah, and even though the court found him not guilty, the mother was convinced. During their court-appointed visitations, Corey and Sarah didn’t interact with the father, refusing to say a word at their mother’s behest. Corey’s family were devout Mormons, and he believed his mom when she told him that she was listening to God.

So when God told her to take the kids and flee, that the dad was going to try some sneaky tactics to win them over, Corey went along with it. They ended up on the run for a month, driving around in the desert while avoiding police that are trying to track them down, as well as contact with any friends or relatives who try to reach out to them. It’s during this time that Corey begins to have doubts about his mom’s claims, which also makes him wonder what else may not be true. He also encounters a ghost—or a vision—who helps him think through some tough issues, including the parts of himself that he works so hard to hide.

Corey faces some really tough decisions: if you’ve trusted your mom to point you in the right direction your entire life, how do you even disagree with her? How do you start to build a relationship with your dad after years of shutting him out—especially if you’ve been told that he’s a threat? Where is the dividing line between trusting in God’s plan and taking dangerous risks?

Dying Inside written by Pete Wentz and Hannah Klein, illustrated by Lisa Sterle

Ash is ready to die. She has the perfect outfit, the perfect soundtrack (Elliott Smith, her idol), and a very cool knife that she got from Etsy (well, “Getsy,” but you know what it really is). There’s just one problem: the knife has a protection spell on it, and now she’s apparently invincible—the opposite of the intended effect. So she still has to put up with her depressing life and her mom’s annoying boyfriend who seems way too eager to recommend this new drug Somnia to everyone.

So Ash tracks down the knife seller to complain, and meets Liv, a teenage witch. Well, a beginner witch, which explains why her good luck charm from Reddit had some unintended consequences. Thus begins their journey to undo the spell so Ash can get on with her death, though everything ends up being a lot more complicated than they anticipated.

The book’s plot is centered on suicide and Ash serves as both the main character and the narrator (often breaking the fourth wall to address the reader), but ultimately the story is about hope and optimism and choosing to live, perhaps a bit begrudgingly on Ash’s part. The twists and turns of the story are entertaining, though, as are the various witches that Liv recruits for help with Ash’s predicament.

Maelstrom: A Prince of Evil by Lorian Merriman

Maelstrom’s father is a demon and his mother is a necromancer who killed the fabled Hero of Virtue, so there’s nothing to stop his evil reign once he comes into his full powers. But then a warrior named Twigs arrives at the castle, wielding the legendary sword—could she be the Hero of Virtue after all? She’s quickly captured and imprisoned, but it turns out Maelstrom is just really bored and would love an excuse for more of a challenge. Then a mysterious stranger sets her free and leads her (and, inadvertently, Maelstrom) to a secret underground resistance who have plans to overthrow Lady Renova.

Oddly enough, Maelstrom decides to join the resistance (though it takes some convincing), in part because he feels his mom will never really let him rule anyway and in part because he’s immature and has nothing better to do. He travels with Twigs and we get to see what life is like outside of the castle, learn more about Twigs and how the sword came into her possession, and eventually reach a showdown with Lady Renova. But Maelstrom has more tricks up his sleeve, and he loves a dramatic double-cross.

I’ve got several books in this stack that are about lovable bad guys. Of course, this isn’t a new trend: Wicked is a good example of a story that flips the script and tells things from the antagonist’s point of view and the original book has been around for 30 years now! Seeing things from the other perspective doesn’t always absolve the “bad guy” in the story but it often explains how they became who they are, and in some cases shows the ways that they’ve been misjudged or portrayed unfairly. In this book, Maelstrom comes off largely as a sheltered kid, albeit one with shape-shifting and necromancy powers, and up until his experiences with Twig he’s been shaped by his mother as the only person who’s been around to influence him. And even in this story, where Renova is the primary antagonist, the bad guy to Maelstrom’s not-so-bad guy, we do get glimpses into her past as well, learning what made her into the power-hungry necromancer.

Evil-ish by Kennedy Tarrell

Hawthorne Vandercast is a non-binary teenager who hates being a potion barista at their mom’s shop. They simply can’t wait to join the Brigade of Shade and get their evil on—they’ve got a spectacular outfit for the audition and they know all about the Brigade’s evil deeds … but apparently passion alone isn’t enough to impress them. On the other hand, Maple, the cheerful, giggly customer who can never leave Hawthorne alone, wows the Brigade with her plant magic—and then hatches a plan to get Hawthorne into the Brigade.

The plan goes even better than expected, and Hawthorne somehow ends up in charge of the Brigade—and realizes that it’s been some time since they really put any effort into being bad. Hawthorne and Maple whip the Brigade into shape and they really start terrorizing the town again… until Hawthorne realizes that what they really wanted was the fun part of being bad, not the evil parts like actually hurting people. Unfortunately, by then Maple’s powerful magic seems unstoppable.

Evil-ish is another story that plays around with the tropes of good and evil, and shows that sometimes things are more complicated than that. It’s also a story about figuring out who you are and what you really want, and realizing that some things—like growing up in a boring village with a mom and brother who adore you—aren’t as unbearable as they seem when you’re an angsty teen.

Meesh the Bad Demon by Michelle Lam

Meesh is supposed to be a demon, but she’s terrible at breathing fire and spitting acid. She’d rather talk to flowers and watch her favorite show, about fairy Princess Nouna. When a strange lava starts turning everyone into stone, Meesh decides to travel to Plumeria City and ask Princess Nouna to help heal everything with her magical ruby. What she doesn’t expect is that fairies hate demons, and a stray magical portal teleports Meesh and Nouna off into an unknown part of the world. Even worse, it turns out that not everything about the TV show is true—Nouna can’t even fly on her own, and her magical ruby is missing. Though Meesh isn’t great at being a demon, she finds that when she leans into her own strengths, she’s able to rally others to her side, and they work together to save Mount Magma. The first book does end with a sneaky cliffhanger, though: after what seems like a happy ending, a mysterious figure (seen on the cover of Book 2: The Secret of the Fang) shows up with a sinister threat.

The second book digs a little deeper: the strange lava that affected Mount Magma was only a piece of the plot, and the person behind it is gearing up for round two. Meesh started learning to master some new abilities in the first book thanks to a magical fang necklace, and in the second book we learn a bit about the fang’s origins, as well as the division between fairies and demons. Although it’s a cartoony, fantastical story, the problems with this magical society also have their roots in what amounts to racism, unfairly blaming one group for unexplained ills. While there’s no explicit connection, it was easy for me to see some reflections of the Salem witch trials even in this kid’s book. Now one of the survivors is after revenge, and Mika must meet it not with her demon powers but with her compassion and her ability to change hearts and minds. It’s a pretty powerful message about dealing with injustice, disguised as a cute comic book for kids.

Summer Vamp by Violet Chan Karim

I know, summer is already over, but that’s okay—this book is still a fun read for October! Maya just finished seventh grade and isn’t really looking forward to a lonely summer at home—but then her dad’s girlfriend Charlotte surprises her with a trip to a culinary camp! But when she arrives, she notices something odd about the campers, who don’t seem to know anything about cooking… because it’s actually a vampire camp. Is Charlotte trying to get rid of Maya or was there some sort of mix-up? Unfortunately, she can’t call her dad to get things straightened out because there’s a strict “no phones” rule at Camp Dracula.

Maya does her best to hide the fact that she’s a regular human so she doesn’t end up as the main course. As she gets to know her cabinmates she actually starts to enjoy herself a little, even while scheming ways to get a message to her dad. This comic has it all: the angsty and the too-cheerful camp counselors, sneaking out of bunks at night, the joys and misunderstandings involved in new friendships, and all the usual summer camp activities, but with a vampire twist.

Monster Crush by Erin Ellie Franey

Ruby’s not having a great time in high school, but things start looking up when the Mooney family moves to town. Ella brings a bit of color into Ruby’s life (literally—the first time Ruby sees her, the mostly black and white comic gets a splash of full color). As they start to hang out, though, Ruby realizes that Ella is a bit unusual: she’s never had ice cream or been on a Ferris wheel. But that’s because she’s actually a monster—when she gets angry, she turns into something like a werewolf, with fangs and fur and a tail. It turns out the Mooneys took on human form and moved to town to hide from some scientists who were intent on capturing them for study. Of course, the problem is that the scientists are still on their trail and closing in fast.

The story has a lot of action and excitement, mixed in with high school drama like school bullies and gym class, but there are multiple threads about what it means to be yourself. Early in the story it’s revealed that Ruby’s parents divorced after her mom realizes she’s gay, but the two parents still care about each other and do their best to take care of Ruby. Ella’s sister Marla is figuring out her own path as well: she’s not happy about living in the human world, but there’s something more to her dissatisfaction as well. And even in the evil scientist’s lab, there are some family dynamics to work on—but I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. The story is a little goofy and the monsters and their abilities can feel a bit random, but ultimately it’s sort of a rom-com graphic novel.

Cereal by Mark Russell, illustrated by Peter Snejbjerg

Ok, hear me out: how about a horror story featuring … cereal mascots? You know, like Count Chocula and Franken Berry and Toucan Sam. In this story, the Marquis de Cocoa has been turned into a vampire, but to keep up appearances he must endure the morning sun and continue hosting the elaborate breakfast parties he’s known for so the aristocracy will not suspect his secret. The Leprechaun King (with his crown of many-colored gems) seeks revenge for his kingdom, slaughtered by General Mills and his lackey, Captain Crackle. The General has been striking out from Fortress Honeycomb, killing some and capturing others to subject them to bizarre experiments—like poor Franken Cherrie, who has been turned into an undead monstrosity, or the lesser known Fruit Brute. The Count eventually realizes he must take action, that he cannot hide away in his castle forever and joins the leprechaun in a desperate attempt to storm Fortress Honeycomb. Backstabbing, betrayal, and blood-sucking—it’s all part of this balanced breakfast tale.

I was impressed by all the cereal references Russell managed to squeeze into this story, sometimes just in passing. The Dig’Em Frog from Honey Smacks shows up as a background character. Duke Antonio (the tiger) appears at one of the Count’s breakfasts. Toucan Sam is a grotesque parody of his cartoon self, speaking only in rhymes. Even the Quaker from Quaker Oats makes an appearance (in a scene that echoes the witch hunts). But even with all these winks and nods, there’s a tightly woven story about impossible choices and terrible sacrifices, and Snejbjerg’s illustrations really bring the characters to life. As the leprechaun says, it’s magically delicious.

Speaking of Mark Russell, he’s got another comic coming out this week that would have fit in last week’s stack. Thanksgiving is a standalone single issue story about a family getting together for Thanksgiving dinner, where they get an unexpectedly visit by the Turkeyneck Killer.

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

I mentioned in my reading resolutions at the beginning of the year that I planned to read The Spiderwick Chronicles this year, so this week while I was sequestered in the basement with COVID, I sat down and read the rest. It’s a series that I’d just never gotten around to (as mentioned last year around this time) but as a big fan of Tony DiTerlizzi’s work it was a big gap that I needed to address. I hadn’t realized until I started reading that the books are pretty short, closer to chapter books than a lot of the middle grade novels I was expecting. (I think I’d pictured them more along the lines of A Series of Unfortunate Events.) These are snappy and dive right into the story, and then wrap things up, with a little poem at the end that hints at things to come.

Chances are pretty good that you or your kids may have read these already, so I won’t dwell on the finer plot details too much: the three  Grace siblings (not their real name) discover their great-uncle Arthur’s field guide to faeries and soon find that the magical world is both real and dangerous, and they get caught up in all sorts of misadventures, largely centered around the book itself, as many of the magical folk want to get their hands on it for their own purposes. The whole thing is framed as a true story: the kids reached out to DiTerlizzi and Black because they had read their books and figured they believed in faeries and had contacts in the publishing world to get this story out.

One thing I didn’t know was that the original series concludes with Book 5—the Graces have their big final showdown and a happy ending, and the poem at the back seems more or less like it’s wrapping things up. Books 6 through 8 were originally published as Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, and they pick up the story with a different set of characters, mostly focusing on Nick and his new stepsister Laurie (along with Nick’s older brother Jules). Laurie is obsessed with faeries and magic, and has a copy of Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide—which, thanks to DiTerlizzi and Black, has now been reprinted (but sold as “fiction” so they don’t get in trouble, of course). Pretty soon, though, Nick and Laurie are tangled up in a mess involving nixies, fire-breathing giants, and more. These final three books are a little bit longer than the earlier ones, but they’re still pretty quick reads. One of the things I liked about these is that the kids do have to work around their parents, who are not entirely absent or too busy to know their kids are traipsing about on their own. There’s also a fun moment in Book 6, “Chapter Seven: In Which We Nearly Break the Fourth Wall,” when DiTerlizzi and Black show up in the story themselves, attending a book signing. They’re not particularly helpful to Nick and Laurie, unfortunately.

Anyway, if you or your kids like faeries and magical creatures—particularly the tricksy, not-always-friendly types, The Spiderwick Chronicles is a fun journey into that world, and it’s easy to see why it’s such a big hit.

Disclosure: I received review copies or digital access to the comics included in this column. Affiliate links to Bookshop.org help support my writing and independent booksellers!

Here’s a synopsis of The Jester 2:

On Halloween night, teen magician Max finds herself locked in a brutal showdown with the Jester, a nightmarish and supernatural trickster with real dark magic and a killer act. As illusions turn lethal and every escape is a trap, Max must pull off the ultimate trick: staying alive. On this deadly night, the only escape… is to beat the devil at its own game.

One lucky reader can win two versions of The Jester 2 poster, signed by director Colin Krawchuk, and a digital code for the film. All you need to do is fill out the form below. Sorry, U.S. residents only.

This form is currently closed for submissions.

Good luck to everyone, and have a Happy Halloween! The Jester 2 is available on VOD 10/17 from @dreadpresents.

Congratulations to our winner David Kilmer!

When you think Star Wars, you might not immediately think about the holidays. But for those of us that were kids when the original Star Wars hit theaters, you may recall a little something that George Lucas would rather forget: the Star Wars Holiday Special. In it, we’re introduced to a Wookie holiday tradition, “Life Day.” It’s not quite time for Life Day yet, but that doesn’t mean that it’s too early to get ready!

For the last couple of years, Home Depot has been introducing official Star Wars animatronics for the holidays. Last year saw the introduction of Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper, both equipped with Halloween and Christmas accessories. This year they’re adding Chewbacca and R2-D2 to the line. Home Depot recently sent me Chewbacca to check out.

What Is the Star Wars 7.5 ft. Animated Chewbacca?

The 7.5 ft. Animated Chewbacca is a lifesize animatronic. It has the following features:

• Indoor Use Only
• Chewbacca measures 8.2 ft. (98 in.) tall when wearing his festive Santa hat, and 7.7 ft. (92.4 in.) without it
• Motion sensor activated
• Servo motors in his head for lifelike movement
• 3 movements: head, mouth and arm with candy cane
• 5 classic Chewbacca sounds
• Comes with Christmas accessories: Santa hat and candy cane
• 1-person assembly in 30 minutes
• Plug-in power adapter included
• Timer: 6 Hours ON / 18 Hours OFF
• Licensed Disney item
• Pairs great with the 7 ft. Animated LED Darth Vader, the 6 ft. Animated Stormtrooper and the 3.5 ft. Animated LED R2-D2

The 7.5 ft. Animated Chewbacca retails for $349, and is currently available through Home Depot for shipping to your local store or directly to your home, and on shelves at most Home Depot stores.

Assembling the Star Wars 7.5 ft. Animated Chewbacca

As with the Home Depot Bride of Frankenstein that I reviewed recently, the assembly instructions are conveniently printed right onto the interior box flaps. In addition. a paper set of instructions can be found inside. The parts are carefully packed inside the box with almost no wasted space, so I definitely recommend taking photos as you unpack if you intend on returning your animatronic back to its box after the holidays.

Click to view slideshow.

Some of the parts are also found packed inside of the plastic chest piece. You will want to take especial care re-packing the chest, as there are mechanisms and electronics inside.

Unsurprisingly, you’ll start with adding the feet to the base. The build itself is pretty conventional if you’ve assembled Home Depot animatronics before. Chewbacca’s fur is basically a furry onesie that you dress the animatronic’s frame with.

Click to view slideshow.

Chewbacca’s head will go on next. Because of Chewie’s height, you’re instructed to lay Chewie down across his box for the next few steps.

After attaching the head, you’ll put Chewbacca’s bandolier on him. This piece also contains the motion control sensor, so you’ll need to locate the gap in the fur on Chewie’s chest, where there’s a piece of Velcro and a hole to run the sensor cord through into the body.

Once all the pieces are attached to the body, you can stand him back up. Even though Chewbacca is almost 8 feet tall, this is easy enough to do with just one person. Finally, you’ll connect the cords from the head and motion sensor to the control box, run out the power cord, and seal up the back of the fur suit. Instead of using Velcro, the fur suit snaps up in the back, likely to avoid fur getting caught in the eye and hook of the Velcro strips.

While the instructions suggest that you attach the Santa hat and candy cane to Chewbacca while he’s laying down, they’re easy enough to add if you use a step stool. I left them off initially to see how Chewie would look without them.

If you’re getting Chewie ready for the holidays, the Santa hat secures to his head via a Velcro strip that is otherwise hidden by his hair.

Even easier, the candy cane slides into Chewbacca’s left hand. There is an adjustable rubber ring on the candy cane which prevents it from sliding too far into Chewie’s hand.

Here’s Chewbacca dressed up for the holidays:

Chewbacca comes with 5 different sounds and animations. I did film a few of them so you could see him in action:

Star Wars 7.5 ft. Animated Chewbacca – Final Thoughts

Wow, you really don’t realize how tall Chewbacca is until you build a lifesize replica of him in your living room! But despite the looming height, as a Star Wars fan he’s a delight to have in your home. Much as with Home Depot’s Bride of Frankenstein animatronic that I reviewed last month, the resemblance to the actual Chewbacca is uncanny, especially once he moves around and “speaks.” 

Some of you have probably noticed that Chewie has a bit of a case of “bed head,” thanks to his fur suit and head having been packed away in plastic for shipment. If you’re looking for an easy way to get a more screen-accurate appearance, then you can simply use a detangling brush to gently groom his fur. I would suggest doing this before assembly however, so as to not risk damaging any of the gears. You can see how to brush him out, as well as some modifications that you can make to the animatronic to make him look even more as he does on the screen, in this Youtube video from M.M’s Prop Shop:

Chewbacca is another animated decoration that uses servo motors in the head to give more natural movement, and it really pays off. While there is only motion in his head and one arm, it’s more than enough to convey emotion, particularly when Chewie laughs.

The animated Chewbacca brings a lot of festive cheer with his Santa hat and candy cane. And for most homes, he’ll probably stand taller than your Xmas tree! The Stormtrooper and Darth Vader animatronics from Home Depot come with both Halloween and Christmas accessories, and I was somewhat disappointed that Chewbacca only has props for Christmas. However, it would not be difficult to place a Halloween candy bucket in his hand in lieu of the candy cane.

If you’ve been building a Star Wars holiday animatronic collection, or are just getting started with one, then Chewbacca is a fantastic piece to have in your home. Friends and family will be impressed with his imposing presence, and delighted once he comes to life before them. He’s sure to look amazing next to this year’s other Star Wars holiday release, R2-D2, which I’ll hopefully get a chance to take a look at sometime soon. And meanwhile, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for a Mandolorian with Grogu animatronic for 2026!

Home Depot provided a Chewbacca animated prop for evaluation, but had no input into this review.

Happy October, everyone!

Usually when October rolls around, I realize that I should have been prepping a list of spooky books ahead of time, instead of starting to read them in October (especially because October is also the month when I do my drawing-a-day project, so I’ve already got more than usual on my mind). Well, this year I got a head start on reading, and in the past two weeks or so I’ve read dozens of comics that I thought might fit: ghost stories, monsters, witches, and more. Of course, now I find myself in the position of having too many books and not enough time to write them all up.

But let’s dig in and see how far we get. Let’s start with some ghost stories!

Ghost Town by Eric Colossal

Lily Cole just finished elementary school, but she’s not too excited about middle school—she’s been accepted to a prestigious science academy, but that means her family will have to move away from Crater, the little seaside town where she grew up. Sure, everything seems to be falling apart in Crater, but it’s familiar and it’s where all her friends are.

But then the kids follow a foul ball into a weird abandoned mansion, and they discover a ghost! Not only that, but they find tools to hunt and trap ghosts, and that becomes their summer project. One of the ghosts seems to be giving them guidance and help—what is it trying to accomplish?

This book is for middle-grade readers—not too scary and often silly: the kids figure out that the way they can see a ghost’s past is by “drinking” the ghosts from the bottles they use to trap them. The overarching mystery will keep you guessing, and of course Lily ultimately does learn some important lessons about trying new things and the dangers of holding on too tightly to the familiar.

Archives of the Unexplained: Unwanted Guests written by Steve Foxe, illustrated by Naomi Franquiz

Archives of the Unexplained is a comic book series based on real-life mysteries, but with a fictional framing story. This one includes two tales of haunted houses.

The framing story features two kids, Minnie and Jackson, who have just moved into a new house. Minnie, the little sister, is a bit of a goblin and loves to spook her older brother Jackson. When they go to the local playground, they run into Theo, who tells them two stories: the Guyra ghost house in Australia, and the Atlanta blood house. The Guyra house involved loud thumps and various rocks being thrown at it from unseen sources, and attracted various mediums and ghost hunters during its day. The house in Atlanta had an incident where the entire interior was splattered with human blood, but nobody could figure out the source.

Theo tells both stories with relish, enjoying the way the kids squirm, while also telling them some stories about their new home. It’s the sort of spooky story you’d tell around a campfire—not too long but with just enough details that you can freak yourself out if you’re inclined. There’s a bibliography at the back providing a few links about each of the real-life cases.

Small Town Spirits written by Zack Keller, illustrated by Gabriele Bagnoli

This small, unnamed town celebrates Halloween in a traditional way, with a week-long festival honoring the spirits of Ireland’s heroes (and, inexplicably, a cow). Each year, they throw a big party on the first night to kick off the week, and the spirits are welcomed through an enchanted portal. In the morning, they return to their own dimension, and the villagers participate in feats of strength and skill and arts.

Inevitably, the big trophy goes to the O’Dells: the father is the mayor of the town, and the two kids are talented and brilliant. The “second-fiddle Flanagans,” on the other hand, are a bunch of misfits: the dad is a wimp, the mom has the worst luck in the world, the sister is a klutz, and Padraig—well, he’s a bit of a trouble-maker, and also the narrator of the story. He’s tired of being the butt of all the jokes, of getting picked on by Junior O’Dell, so this year he decides to take matters into his own hands. He steals the stone knot that opens the portal, trapping the spirits in the mortal realm, unable to give their blessings to the village on their way out.

While the village is trying to find the missing knot, Pad recruits (through the use of some trickery) the spirit of King Lugh to help train his family. King Lugh puts the family through a rigorous exercise regimen and even shows them how to turn their weaknesses to their advantage. Everything is going according to plan … until the monsters show up. Then the villagers must learn to work together—even the Flanagans and the O’Dells—to save their town, and eventually the two families learn that there are more important things than winning contests.

This one was a lot of fun—there’s a fish-out-of-water aspect when all the spirits find themselves stuck in the modern world beyond just the one-night party, and the illustrations are vibrant and lively. True, the “we all learned a valuable lesson” ending isn’t entirely unexpected, but it’s still well-told.

Call Me Iggy written by Jorge Aguirre, illustrated by Rafael Rosado

Ignacio Garcia is a high schooler in Columbus, Ohio, and despite being Colombian he doesn’t really speak Spanish and he doesn’t have much of a connection to Colombia, either. His dad never went back after leaving for the US for school. But now he has a reason to learn Spanish—to impress his classmate Kristi Crawford.

And this is where the ghost comes into the story: while digging around in the basement, Iggy accidentally knocks over his grandfather’s urn, and suddenly his ghost appears! Iggy seems to be the only one who can see or hear his abuelito, who starts to give him advice in both Spanish and in love … except he’s awful at it. Instead, Iggy ends up getting tutored by another classmate, Marisol, in exchange for helping with her family’s janitorial jobs.

The book has a lot of humor in it, and Iggy does get a chance to know his abuelito better, since his dad never really talked about his experiences in Colombia. But there are also some serious themes woven throughout the book, too: the story takes place in the fall of 2016 around the time of the election, and Iggy’s family is divided about Trump and his campaign promises. Iggy’s popular big brother is all in for MAGA and his dad just thinks Trump is more interesting; Iggy and his mom are a bit more skeptical. When Trump is elected, though, Iggy also sees the way that it affects Marisol’s family, who are undocumented.

Ultimately it’s a touching story about connecting with your roots and figuring out who you are, with an amusing dead grandfather along for the ride. Fun fact: Aguirre and Rosado are also the team behind the Chronicles of Claudette series—I reviewed the first book, Giants Beware!, over a decade ago. That series was for all ages and a bit more cartoony, while Call Me Iggy is more for high school age kids, and (other than the ghost) is a bit more grounded in reality.

Talking to My Father’s Ghost by Alex Krokus

Alex Krokus makes comics about his life, depicting himself and his friends and family as various animals or blobby humanoids. (He and his mom are raccoons but his dad is an owl and his brother is a … bear?) His book Loud & Smart & in Color is a collection of four-panel strips, some that seem autobiographical and some that are more commentary on the absurdities of the world.

Talking to My Father’s Ghost is still made up of strips—usually in a 6-panel format, though occasionally a strip will span several pages instead of just one—but the big difference is that all of these center around his deceased father, who appears as a ghost. (Picture an owl wearing a polo shirt, with the little ghostly tail trailing from the bottom.) The strips are little vignettes: the family in the hospital as his dad is dying, the funeral (when the ghost appears to Alex), and then just life as it goes on and how you deal with it. But throughout it all, Alex’s dad is often hovering nearby, giving commentary that nobody else can hear.

His dad had some land out in Arizona out in the desert that he’d inherited, so Alex and his brother decide to take a trip out to see it before their mom sells it off. The trip is riddled with difficulties, but the two (three?) of them still have a good time with it.

The subtitle of the book is “an almost true story.” I think probably a lot of the things that happen in the story actually happened; whether Alex actually saw his dad’s ghost or if he used these strips as a way of processing his dad’s death is probably not so important, but I really loved the way that he portrayed his dad. It feels like he knew his dad well enough to give him words to say, and he’s mostly just a regular guy who loved his family and had his share of faults. Instead of being morbid, it just felt really natural for Alex to be talking to his dad, and I really enjoyed the book.

The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue by Jerzy Drozd

Dr. Baer (who is, in fact, a bear wearing a suit and tie) is a collector of cursed objects. While he doesn’t go on adventures himself—or even leave his house—he takes in magical items from adventurers, where he is able to release the spirits inside them and give them sanctuary in his manor. But Gallus Lugubrious, a sorcerer chicken, has always been after a powerful artifact in Dr. Baer’s collection, and when he manages to break in, the spirits are all set loose into the world. Dr. Baer finally sets out to retrieve the artifact, with the help of inexperienced adventurers Pickles the pig and Taft the tortoise, as well as a group of four magical wisps that were freed from the statue when it was stolen.

As this small group travels across strange lands, tracking down the pieces of the statue, they encounter various objects and the spirits that haunt them. Dr. Baer thought he knew all their stories from his research, but he soon discovers that his book learning may not have been accurate. Learning the true stories of the spirits is crucial to reclaiming the statue and defeating Lugubrious.

This graphic novel is a big one: it’s a large format book, and over 230 pages long. The illustrations are fantastic and colorful. Dr. Baer looks like a teddy bear—he has no fingers or toes that you can see, and his facial expression never seems to change. Pickles, on the other hand, is extremely expressive and very enthusiastic. It’s a really charming book, recommended for middle grade readers and up. There’s a new story, The Case of the Mummy Express, currently being posted on Drozd’s website, so I hope that eventually gets a full book treatment in the future!

As I write this, it’s the first day of Autumn, which of course means Halloween is right around the corner. And while most people like their scares during spooky season, a lot of us enjoy laughs mixed with our screams. While not a horror comedy per se, Ghostbusters remains one of the best supernatural comedies to date, spawning multiple sequels and merchandise.

Last year, I reviewed the terrific 5-Foot Animated Ghostbusters Slimer from HalloweenCostumes.com. Well, that company isn’t resting on their laurels, because they’ve debuted several new Ghostbusters items, including an electronic proton pack, props of the Scoleri Brothers from Ghostbusters 2, and best of all…an animatronic Terror Dog. As you may recall from the original Ghostbusters, Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett and Rick Moranis’ Louis Tulley first become possessed by, respectively, Zuul and Vinz Clortho, which are in the form of the Terror Dogs. HalloweenCostumes.com sent me a Terror Dog decoration to try out, and see how it compares to last year’s Slimer.

What Is the 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration?

The 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration weighs approximately 31 lbs. It has the following features:

• Molded plastic Ghostbusters Terror Dog
• 2 sets of interchangeable horns, eyes light up, head turns side to side, makes growling noises
• Volume control, off/try me ( can be activated by step pad or try me button, sold separately)
• Can be used indoors or in a covered outdoor location (shouldn’t be allowed to get wet)
• If used outdoors, must be plugged into a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlet
• Measures 59″ nose to tail, 33″ tall
• Officially licensed
• Exclusive
• NOTE: The plug on this item may require an adapter (not included) for use outside the United States

The 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration retails for $399.99, and is available exclusively from HalloweenCostumes.com.

Shop the biggest and best selection of costumes, accessories, and decor at HalloweenCostumes.com

Assembling the 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration

The Terror Dog is a freestanding animatronic that is mostly very easy to assemble. The legs are clearly labeled, and they plug into the joints in the body and then you twist them to lock into place. 

As you can see from the above picture, the control box is embedded in the chest of the Terror Dog. You can also see the two different sets of horns.

Like the legs, the tail attaches with a simple insert and twist motion. The head connects a little differently, as it is the one part of the animatronic that will have motion. It pairs with another metal pole inside of the body, in a fashion familiar to anyone that’s assembled Halloween animatronics before.

I was very surprised at first to find that the head of the Terror Dog is covered with what seems to be latex, as opposed to the solid plastic of the rest of the decoration. While I found this choice odd at first, the paint job matches perfectly so you can’t even tell unless you look closely. Additionally, the latex of the neck extends over the joint, so that it actually gives the animatronic a much more natural appearance when in motion.

Here’s a look at the Terror Dog, with all the limbs assembled:

The next step is to connect the sensor on the chest piece to the control box, as well as the cord from the head. These plug in quite easily at the cavity in the chest.

Once the electronics are connected, you fit the chest panel into place and secure it with the attached screw. This is the one part of the assembly that I didn’t care for. There is not a pre-drilled hole in the chest for the screw, so you have to work at getting it into the thick plastic on the chest. I found that the chest panel also didn’t align quite as well with the body as I would have liked, producing small gaps. However, thanks to the design of the Terror Dog, you won’t see much of the chest. This is also a much superior design choice than the panel that covered up access to the electronics with the Slimer animatronic, as it doesn’t interfere with breaking down the prop for storage.

The final step of assembly is to insert a pair of horns. To accurately represent both of the two Terror Dogs in Ghostbusters, there are two sets of horns included. The horns, like the limbs, get inserted, then twisted to lock into place. Here are the horns attached to recreate Zuul:

And here is the Terror Dog set up as Vinz Clortho:

Here’s a look at the fully assembled Terror Dog:

Of course, the real magic happens once you plug the Terror Dog in and run him (or her). The eyes light up, the head turns, and the Terror Dog growls, as you can see from this video:

The 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration – Final Thoughts

If you read my review of Slimer from last year, you know that I had a few issues with that decoration’s design. And judging from the improved quality of the Terror Dog, the prop designers at HalloweenCostumes.com were paying attention. Gaps are much less noticeable, in part due to the latex neck piece on the Terror Dog’s head. The plastic where the single screw secures the chest piece to the body is nice and thick, so that it should allow for screwing and unscrewing the panel without losing the integrity of the plastic.

I don’t love how the chest panel fits, but as previously mentioned, this is something that won’t be readily visible thanks to the positioning of the chest itself. So really, that’s a pretty minor quibble.

And the good news is, much like with Slimer, the 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration is life-sized and looks dead-on like its counterpart in the film. I appreciate that the two sets of horns are included, so that you can choose which version of the Terror Dog you wish to display. And of course, if you’re planning a Ghostbusters display for Halloween, ideally you’ll have two of the Terror Dogs, so that you can have both a Zuul and a Vince Clortho flanking Gozer. I’ll have just the one, but he’ll look great alongside Slimer.

The 2.75FT Ghostbusters Animatronic Terror Dog Decoration is another great-looking licensed animatronic from HalloweenCostumes.com, and any Ghostbusters fan will be happy to have it as part of their Halloween display, or guarding their front door in their home. Just be warned: your dog may be a little unsure as to the new addition to your household!

For more information or to make a purchase, head over to HalloweenCostumes.com!

Shop the biggest and best selection of costumes, accessories, and decor at HalloweenCostumes.com

HalloweenCostumes.com sent a Terror Dog for evaluation, but had no input into this review. As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission on qualified purchases.

She’s Alive. Alive!

– Dr. Frankenstein, “The Bride of Frankenstein”, 1935.

Home Depot, one of the premiere stores for Halloween decor, debuted their Universal Monsters line last year with the 7 ft. Animated LED Frankenstein’s Monster. This animatronic was a big hit, and this year the Frankenstein’s Monster is joined, appropriately enough, by his Bride. Last week, Home Depot sent me the Bride of Frankenstein to check out for myself.

What Is the Universal 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein?

The 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein is an officially licensed animatronic replica of the character Elsa Lanchester immortalized in the 1935 Universal Pictures classic, The Bride of Frankenstein. The prop retails for $279, and is available exclusively at Home Depot, either online or in stores.

Here are the features of the Bride of Frankenstein:

• Package Dimensions 26.57″D x 20.28″W x 17.13″H
• Indoor Use Only
• Motion sensor activated
• 6 movements: Head, eyes, mouth, waist and arms
• Servo head and eye movements
• Includes 4 classic Bride of Frankenstein sounds
• Light up LED eyes
• 1-person assembly in 30 minutes
• Plug-in power adapter included
• Licensed NBCUniversal item
• Pairs great with the 7 ft. Animated LED Frankenstein’s Monster

Assembling the Universal 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein

You can read the instructions on assembling the Bride of Frankenstein here. 

As my Bride of Frankenstein was shipped to me, it came in a shipping box. Popping open that box revealed a set of assembly instructions right on the inside flap. These are in addition to the foldout set of instructions I would later find inside the actual product box.

Here’s a look at the attractive product box, which shows off the Bride in all of her glory:

Everything is neatly packaged inside the box. On the top layer is the main support rod (with cardboard protecting the ends for shipping) and the instruction leaflet:

Underneath a single piece of cardboard, you’ll find the rest of the parts.

As with most animatronics, you start by positioning the base properly, and then build up the prop from there. The overall assembly of The Bride is quite easy. Here are the first several steps:

Click to view slideshow.

The arms connect to the shoulders via locking snaps in the metal framework. Interestingly, the way that the arms are designed, you can only attach the right arm to the right shoulder, and the left to the left. Probably an unnecessary design choice, but perhaps Universal Pictures wanted to make sure that no one was making a wonky Bride of Frankenstein with backwards arms.

Attaching the head to the frame is perhaps the one slightly challenging part of the assembly. Using a Phillips head screwdriver, you will remove a screw from the neck frame, lower the neck rod into place into the body frame, and then reattach and tighten the screw. However, to do that final step, you must access the frame through a small hole in the back of the latex neck of the Bride’s head. Thankfully I had a screwdriver with a magnetic head, but nevertheless I ended up dropping the screw a couple of times and had to dig through the Bride’s gown to find it again. If you get a Bride of Frankenstein for yourself, I recommend unscrewing that neck screw just enough to insert the head, and then you only have to worry about tightening the screw again.

The final steps are to connect the power adapter, infrared sensor cable, and head cable to the control box in The Bride’s back, and then close up the Velcro flap in the back of the gown.

Operating the Universal 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein

The control box for the Bride of Frankenstein allows for 3 different modes: a “lights only” mode where the prop’s eyes light up but there is no motion or sound, a motion-sensor mode where the prop will trigger when there is motion detected in front of the IR sensor sewn into the front of The Bride’s gown, and a footpad mode. In the footpad mode, the prop will remain turned off unless someone steps on a footpad plugged into the control box. I know that Home Depot has previously sold footpads for their animatronics in their stores during spooky season, but do not currently offer any on their website.

Here’s a look at The Bride of Frankenstein in motion, using the IR sensor to trigger the animatronic:

The Bride comes with 4 distinct sound clips from The Bride of Frankenstein, each with its own associated movement. Here’s one of the other sounds:

The Universal 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein – Final Thoughts

Let’s start off by stating something that should be patently obvious just from reading this review: The 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein is a gorgeous looking animatronic! There is a wonderful attention to detail in the head, from the silver streaks in the hair to the molded line of stitches running along her jawline. The latex of her “flesh” even captures the feel of a freshly animated corpse. I also appreciate that the eyelashes are physical pieces, and not painted onto the face.

The sculpting and paintwork on the plastic arms are just as good, and match the head perfectly.

The gown is made of a surprisingly heavy fabric, which drapes well for display. The weight of the fabric is a boon should you choose to display it outdoors, as the gown shouldn’t move too much in the wind. It should be noted that this prop is designed for indoor use only, so if you decide to bring her outdoors for Halloween, you’ll want to be sure to take her in at the end of the night. And much like in Gremlins, don’t get her wet! 

The Bride of Frankenstein not only looks great as a static prop, but truly comes alive (pun intended) when powered on. Her head, eyes, mouth, waist, and arms all move, and you get a lot of realistic motion in the head thanks to the servo motors used in the design. The eyes look around and blink, the mouth moves, and the head tilts in a realistic fashion. 

Unlike last year’s Frankenstein’s Monster, the Bride of Frankenstein’s eyes light up. While some people find this off-putting in an otherwise “realistic” prop, I like the effect, as it helps bring out her eyes. And of course, it makes an eerie effect when it’s dark!

Home Depot has really knocked it out of the park with the Universal 6 ft. Animated LED Bride of Frankenstein. The resemblance to Elsa Lanchester’s portrayal from the film of the same name is striking, and the servo motor animatronic motion, in conjunction with the use of sound directly from the film, makes for a stunningly faithful recreation of The Bride. If you’re at all a fan of the Universal Monsters, then this is a must-have from Home Depot’s 2025 lineup. The Bride of Frankenstein is sure to wow visitors to your home on Halloween, and will look even better paired with The Frankenstein Monster. I can’t wait to see which Universal Monster gets released next year…my money’s on Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, but I sure would love to see The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

For more information or to make a purchase, head to the Home Depot website.

Home Depot provided a Bride of Frankenstein for evaluation, but had no input into this review.

As a brand, Haunted Hill Farm has been around since 2019, providing affordable animatronics, props, and inflatables to Halloween enthusiasts. Some of their higher-end props come from well-known manufacturer Tekky, and the I Scream Clown is one of those, new to market for 2025 and just in time for Summerween. It’s also the first Haunted Hill Farm prop that I’ve reviewed. Will this clown bring a smile to your face, or a frown?

What Is the I Scream Clown Halloween Animatronic Prop?

The I Scream Clown Halloween animatronic prop is a 6.9 ft. indoor/covered outdoor prop manufactured by Tekky and distributed under the Haunted Hill Farm brand. It retails for $329.99 and is available through Amazon and other stores where you can find Halloween decor. 

Here’s are the highlights of the prop:

• Premium life-size animatronic: frighten guests and trick-or-treaters with this premium quality spine-chilling Halloween decoration.
• Includes volume control: featuring spooky sounds that will surely frighten anyone who crosses its path.
• Eye-catching lights and sounds: a combination of chilling sound and lightning effects creates a dramatic atmosphere.
• Sound and motion-sensor activated: this animatronic activates with sound or motion, ensuring it surprises everyone who gets too close.
• Battery-powered: outlet not required; simply add four AA batteries to power up this terrifying decoration for long-lasting Halloween fun.
• Animated motion: the animatronic features a moving jaw, rotating eyeball ice cream cone, and several chilling phrases to frighten your guests.
• Human sensor (PIR): detects body heat (infrared), similar to motion-activated lights or security sensors, it has a lens cap (usually white or black, but customizable) and is more advanced than the older.

Assembling the I Scream Clown Halloween Animatronic Prop

As with most animatronic props, you start with the base and build up. The I Scream Clown is no exception, with the lower legs clipping into the base, and the oversized plastic clown shoes fitting over.

Every part is clearly labeled, and the instructions are very clear. Unfortunately, adding the upper legs led to the first and only snag in the entire build. That step has you attach the two upper legs to the two lower one, matching “B” to “B” on both. However, as I soon discovered, the upper leg parts are not identical. And as luck would have it, I originally put them together wrong. This led to the legs bending outwards, which I didn’t notice at first.

When I later attempted to connect the hips, I immediately realized my mistake and simply swapped the upper leg pieces. However, that additional step wouldn’t have been necessary had Tekky simply used additional letters for the leg pieces to indicate which piece attaches on the left, and which on the right. 

Despite that one hiccup, the rest of the assembly went by without a hitch.

Click to view slideshow.

Everything fit together well, and it took me about 15 minutes total before I had the I Scream Clown fully assembled. The last step was to connect the wires from the head, right hand, and sensor to the control panel, and then plug him in and turn him on.

The I Scream Clown’s mouth and eyes light up, and he’s got two different mechanized motions: the  jaw opens and closes along with his dialogue, and the eye on top of the ice cream cone turns back and forth. Here’s a look at the I Scream Clown in action:

I Scream Clown Halloween Animatronic Prop – Final Thoughts

The I Scream Clown is the second animatronic prop from Tekky that I’ve reviewed for GeekDad, following the Haunted Sea Diver that I covered earlier this year. Much like the Sea Diver, the I Scream Clown has a lot of great details that really helps him be a truly terrifying clown. The melting ice cream cone dripping all over his head is a great touch, and of course the missing eye socket and the eyeball having relocated as the “cherry” on top of the ice cream cone really sends this one into body horror territory. And, of course, the fact that the eye moves seemingly of its own volition raises the creepy quotient quite a bit.

The splatters of ice cream on the clown’s shirt, pants, and drips of ice cream on just his right shoe really reinforce the story of the I Scream Clown. I also want to draw attention to the fabric strips used inside of the I Scream Clown’s mouth. Speaking of creepy, they really give the illusion of meaty redness inside of the clown’s mouth, giving it an even more horrifying appearance as it speaks.

While the I Scream Clown is a really fun and well-designed prop, there are a couple of small issues worth pointing out. First, I would have loved to have seen some velcro in the prop for attaching the cuffs of the sleeves to the hands so that they don’t accidentally pull back and expose the arm poles. This, of course, is an easy enough thing to add yourself, but with a $300+ prop, it really feels like an oversight. Hopefully, along with the labeling issue with the upper legs, Tekky will correct this in the future. And second, as you can tell from the video, the motor for the mouth is somewhat louder than I would like. However, it certainly doesn’t prevent you from hearing the dialogue, which is crisp and clear.

There are some technical features of the prop that I quite appreciate. I love that you have a built-in option to power the I Scream Clown either by AC or with batteries. This makes him easy to locate wherever you want, regardless of whether there’s an outlet available. There’s an outlet for an external speaker, though I doubt most will need it as the clown gets plenty loud just from the speaker built into the control box. And, you also have the option of connecting a footpad to the prop, so that he’ll only activate when you want him to.

Standing just shy of 7 feet, the I Scream Clown will loom over visitors to your haunt on Halloween. If you’ve got a creepy carnival or circus theme going on, he’ll fit in just fine, ready to shock and delight. He certainly drew a lot of approval from my neighbors, who delighted at his horrific visage and that moving eyeball. He’s well-constructed, and should hopefully last through several seasons of scaring. The I Scream Clown is a fun and frightening animatronic prop ready to bring the scare factor with his not so sweet treats.

For more information or to make a purchase, head over to Amazon.

Haunted Hill Farm provided a unit for evaluation, but had no input into this review.

Earlier this Spring, HalloweenCostumes.com introduced a small selection of new animatronics, with a promise of two additional waves of reveals to come soon after. Well, the tariff situation seemed to have affected their timing, and no additional animatronics were immediately forthcoming. But this week, HalloweenCostumes.com are back with a vengeance, with the debut of their huge 2025 lineup.

This massive launch brings over 30 brand-new animatronics, with over 15 returning fan favorites, and a giant selection of budget-friendly “Scream Savers.” In total, Halloween fans and haunt owners can look forward to more than 75 new items this season, making it the biggest animatronic launch the industry has ever seen. 

The lineup includes officially licensed props from Ghostbusters, It, Stranger Things, and other fan-favorite franchises, each designed with terrifying motion and sound to bring Halloween displays to the next level.  

Here’s a closer look at a few of my favorites of their exclusives, which I’m very excited to see in person.

Ghostbusters Terror Dog

The Ghostbusters Terror Dog is life-sized, standing at almost 3 feet tall. Its eyes light up, the head turns, and it makes growling noises. A fantastic feature for the animatronic is that it comes with two different sets of horns, to portray either the Keymaster or the Gatekeeper. It’s also a great companion piece to the Slimer animatronic which I reviewed last year.

Available for preorder now and shipping in September, the Ghostbusters Terror Dog costs $399.99 and is available here.

10ft Mothman

10 feet for this beast is just the height from head to toe; once you factor in the wings, it’s a full 11.5 ft tall! The animatronic features for this recreation of the urban legend include: eyes glowing red, head turning side to side, arms moving up and down, wings flapping, moth clicking and other eerie noises.

The 10ft Mothman can be preordered now with a ship date of mid-August, and retails for $499.99. It can be displayed outdoors as long as it’s kept away from rain.

Rudy From Killer Klowns From Outer Space

HalloweenCostumes.com is debuting not one but two different clowns from Killer Klowns From Outer Space this year. There’s the balloon dog-walking Spikey, and my personal favorite, the popcorn gun-toting Rudy. A prop gun actually shooting popcorn is pretty impractical, so instead this one lights up and shoots fog, for an eerie effect. Rudy also laughs, eyes lighting up, and he turns from side to side.

Rudy stands at 5.6ft tall, and is currently available to preorder with a ship date of mid-August. Both he and Spikey are $399.99.

Scream Savers

If you’re working on a tighter decorating budget but still want to have some animatronics to display, HalloweenCostumes.com has you covered this year with their new Scream Saver line. There are over 20 budget-friendly animatronic decorations for Halloween fans who want big scares without the big price tag. The Scream Savers range in price from $30-$125, and feature sound and motion along with engaging designs.

Head over to the Scream Savers section of the HalloweenCostumes.com website to check out all of their animatronics that are scary to trick or treaters, but friendly to your wallet!

And So Much More…

Obviously, with over 75 new animatronics, what I’ve shown here is just a taste. There’s Adam and Barbara from Beetlejuice, Lock, Stock, and Barrel from Nightmare Before Christmas, and both a Roswell alien and a uniformed alien hunter new for 2025. There are returning props, like Michael Myers, and the fantastic 12-ft scarecrow which Lowe’s previously carried, and I reviewed last year.

I’m hoping to get my hands on at least a couple of HalloweenCostumes.com’s 2025 animatronics to review and share with you over the next few months. In the meanwhile, head on over to HalloweenCostumes.com to check out their lineup…there’s something for everyone!

Finally, I’ll just leave you with a look at some of the other creepy characters ready to haunt your lawn and home this October…

Click to view slideshow.

We just passed the “Halfway to Halloween” date, which landed midway between April 30th and May 1st. And so it’s about time to start sharing with our readers some of the great ways you’ll be able to decorate for spooky season!

You may recall that I reviewed a couple of Lowe’s 12-foot animatronics in 2024: the Bone Collector and the Scarecrow. While Lowe’s will be releasing a bunch of all-new animatronics later this year (including a 12-foot vampire!), to mark “Halfway to Halloween,” they re-released a few of their more popular 2024 pieces. One of those is the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver, part of their Haunted Harbor collection.

What Is the Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic?

The Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic is a 72″ indoor/covered outdoor prop manufactured by Tekky and distributed exclusively at Lowe’s. It retails for $349 and is currently only available at Lowe’s website (though it may become available again to purchase at stores this Fall). Here’s the overview from Lowe’s:

• IT came from the bottom of the deep dark sea…to terrify the company! Life-size Animated Haunted Deep Sea Diver includes elaborate steampunk diving suit with harpoon gun and seaweed details, LED lights and cinematic sounds.
• The Haunted Deep Sea Diver makes the scene this Halloween as a premium animatronic, engineered for maximum fun and fright by Lowe’s Haunted Living and Tekky.
• Deep Sea terror comes alive to reveal it’s gruesome, green glowing skeletal face! Realistic side-to-side movement, scary sounds from the sea, and terrifying LED lighted skull face reveal!
• Sound, human, or footpad/button activated (footpad/button sold separately).
• Easy to assemble, battery-operated “fright prop” for convenient display — no wires to trip over (4AA batteries included). Or power your prop with the 6V 2A DC adapter — included — when a standard outlet is available.

Assembling the Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic

Assembling the Haunted Sea Diver was fairly straightforward. Basically, if you’ve ever assembled an animatronic, you should be able to put this one together in just a few minutes. And even if you haven’t, the included instructions are easy to follow.

Several of the components were attached to the cardboard divider with twist ties, so this did slow down the initial assembly. However, the trade off is that the parts were secure during shipping so arrived in perfect shape.

I had a nice surprise while unpacking all the pieces: the base came with an attached sandbag! Many animatronics need to be weighted down to stabilize them, so it made me smile to see a sandbag included in the box.

Here’s a quick look at the assembly:

Click to view slideshow.

The only slight snag I had was with getting the clothing up over the clear shoulder piece. It did take me a few minutes to accomplish that task, partly due to the thickness of the costume. However, that extra padding really helps to sell the diving suit look (though the costume has a very pronounced crease in the right leg that I’ll have to try and iron out).

Once assembled, all you have to do is connect a few wires, and then plug in the control box. The control box seems identical to those used in the other Lowe’s/Tekky animatronics that I’ve reviewed. The Sea Diver can be activated either by the motion sensor on its front, or using a separately available step pad.

Here’s a look at the Haunted Sea Diver, all lit up:

I took him outside in the evening to shoot a quick video, where you can see him perform his two phrases:

Lowe’s Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic – Final Thoughts

I think that the Haunted Sea Diver is one of the best-looking animatronics that Lowe’s has sold in recent years. The thick costume really helps give the illusion of a bulky, old-fashioned diving suit, and the molded plastic gloves and boots look great, both in their sculpt and in the paint work. But the best part of the animatronic has to be that seaweed-covered diving helmet, with the glowing skull inside. That really sells the whole “haunted diver” bit, and creates a wonderfully eerie effect.

This is an animatronic that can certainly be a bit creepy, especially at night. My girlfriend’s teenage daughter got a bit of a jumpscare just from walking in and seeing it standing in the living room. But it’s also pretty family friendly. There’s no gore, and the voice lines are more Pirates of the Caribbean in flavor. And if you’re of a certain age, you’ll definitely be reminded of Captain Cutler from Scooby Doo.

There are a lot of things Lowe’s and Tekky got right with this animatronic. Besides the great overall look, I loved the inclusion of the sandbag and batteries. I would have preferred to have seen a bit more seaweed on the model, but that’s something that can be easily, and inexpensively, added.

If you watched the video I shot, you’re sure to notice something that I discovered right away: the motor is very loud. Granted, I can turn up the voice volume on the animatronic, but that doesn’t change the volume of the mechanism itself. I also wish that there was a bit more complex movement to the animatronic than simply turning side to side. I would have loved to have at least seen the jaw move as he spoke. However, the simple motion is still fairly effective in bringing the Haunted Sea Diver to life (or undeath). As a friend suggested, it would look great posed with some tentacles, as if the Diver was trying to escape the grasp of the giant octopus that had doomed him.

Overall, the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic is a great-looking piece, and will fit into your decorations well if you’re going for a nautical horror theme for Halloween. Lowe’s also has the lighted Kraken lawn decoration and a Steering Captain animatronic from 2024 in their Halfway to Halloween offerings, so you can easily build a horrifying seafaring display that way.

For more information or to purchase the Haunted Living Haunted Sea Diver Animatronic, head over to Lowe’s website.

Lowe’s provided a Haunted Sea Diver for evaluation, but had no input into this review.

Welcome to 2025! The beginning of the year is always a time of reflections and projections, and what more appropriate way to think about turning over a new leaf than by considering the leaves we plan to be turning in our books? Here are some of our aspirations for this year’s reading (and other book-related) habits!

Mariana Ruiz

I am hoping to read everything ever written by Stephen King, from his old novels to his most recent work and all of his short stories, and I am about 90% through, hopefully (perhaps all the short stories are like a whole new chapter in this resolution).  I love that he keeps writing. I loved You Like It Darker as much as all the other classic books, although I still think that he was better before the internet.

Diverse voices in YA and comics, and books in translation, deserve a better corner in the American market, either by different authors from the US or authors abroad. I am glad indie publishing houses are now actively collaborating with GeekDad (Levine Querido, Lantana), and hope to meet many more! I still wish for a translation of a Bolivian children’s book for this year. We haven’t got a translation for the last 21 years and Bolivia is like a secret treasure hidden in plain sight. I am all for representation and cultural understanding: it enriches us in more ways than we can imagine. I am glad to say that a Bolivian author made it to the Time Best Reads of 2024: Liliana Colanzi with You Glow in the Dark, you rock, gal! 

I think I’ve reviewed about 140 books—from board books and comics and novels—in English alone and I am a voracious reader in Spanish too, so I don’t really count the books anymore. I just live for the moment when a book sets fire to my soul and makes me grateful to be alive, something that happily happens a lot still.

Jenny Bristol

Since 2020, I’ve resolved to read at least the same number of books each year as the last two digits of the year. So far, I’ve managed to reach this goal. But 2025 breaks the barrier of the two-books-per-month level. Can I do it? Can I read 25 books this year? We have an extremely busy year ahead of my family with a lot of change happening, but some of that is compatible with audiobooks, so I’m determined to make it.

What books will I be reading? I have a few specific ones planned, including Matt Haig’s The Life Impossible, the books on which A Discovery of Witches was based, and the rest of the books in the series that starts with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. And maybe this will finally be the year that I re-read Atomic Habits. Huzzah!

Robin Brooks

As 2025 begins I find myself at a resolution impasse, with the horrible feeling I’m on the verge of a mid-life crisis. What do I want to get out of 2025? I’m 52 this year and whilst all my children still live at home, they need me far less than in the past. As a stay-at-home dad, this is beginning to feel a little like early retirement. As I mentioned in our resolution reflections last week, my 2024 reading aims mostly remain unresolved, but I don’t find myself wanting to carry them over. I guess, ultimately, it’s reading and reviewing books that bring me joy, so I’ll focus on that.

In 2025, my simple aim is to read as much as possible and write about as many of those books as I can. I have no plan for the types of books I want to read, though I’m always going to be predominantly an SFF reader. As somebody who buys more books than I read each year, I need to dig into the burgeoning piles of books that litter my bedroom floor. I enjoyed pulling a couple of older books off the pile during 2024, so a loose resolution is to try to do that at least once a month.

One other half-resolution pertains to book proofs. I often receive book proofs far ahead of publication but schedule reading time close to the publication date. I then fall behind and find myself reading book proofs AFTER the finished product is available in the shops. This year, I’m going to be more proactive with my proofs and put the “advance” into “Advanced Reader Copies.” I’m going to read them when they arrive, to see if I can be part of the “buzz” around book launches. I’ve no idea if this will make any difference to anybody but it will be fun to try to stay ahead of the curve!

Jonathan H. Liu

As I mentioned in our reflections last week, I’ve failed once again to clear out more of the floor space in my office, but I’d really like to make my office a space where I’d like to sit and read, rather than one that feels mostly like storage with a computer in the corner. It’s going to take a lot to tackle that, but a big part of that is going to be getting rid of books, which is always hard for me to do. I get sent a lot of unsolicited books and even though many of those go straight into the “not interested” pile, everything left on my shelves and in these boxes are ones that I thought sounded interesting, at least when they first arrived, and it’s difficult to get rid of a book that I haven’t read. What if that book I never cracked open could have been one of my favorite reads of the year?

I have a bookcase in my living room where a lot of the non-fiction titles live, and some of these have been sitting there for several years now. Even knowing that I don’t read nearly as much non-fiction, I still have three shelves on that bookcase of non-fiction books that “I’m sure I’ll get around to someday…” Right? But it’s probably high time to read or weed, as painful as that feels.

I could probably weed one book per day for an entire year and still not quite be done with this process, but that feels a little too daunting, so for now I’m going to set a resolution to weed one book per week. It’s not nearly enough, but maybe it will get the ball rolling for some bigger purges later in the year—we’ll see! I probably won’t be highlighting what books I’m removing from my shelf because it feels a little mean to authors to announce publicly that I’m giving up on reading their books, but I’ll report back at the end of the year whether I managed to keep this up. (So far so good—I’ve picked ONE book to get rid of already!)

In terms of actually reading, though, I think I’ll stick with my number of 150 books for the year—I just managed to pass that for 2024, so I feel like it’s a good benchmark, considering I still have a whole lot of graphic novels to read and those tend to go very quickly once I start them. I do have a few specific titles on my short list:

• Inkworld by Cornelia Funke, a sequel to a series that my wife and I really enjoyed
• City Spies: London Calling by James Ponti, book 6 in this kid-spy series
• Against Platforms by Mike Pepi, a manifesto about digital technologies

I’m hoping I’ll get the next few books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman, since I enjoyed the first three recently. I also started May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans in the middle of 2024 but set it aside to get a few other books finished, so I want to go back and finish that one. Oh, and this year I’ll definitely finish the rest of the Spiderwick Chronicles series, too.

At the beginning of 2024, a few of us shared some reading resolutions—specific titles we wanted to read, habits we wanted to cultivate, book-related projects we wanted to try. Here, we look back at the year and see how reality lined up to our expectations and aspirations.

Mariana Ruiz

I am still chipping away at all of Stephen King’s career: I’ve read everything he has produced recently (although I need to check the short story compilations and miscellanea, which is going to prove hard to track), and my favorite was Later: a kid who has the uncanny ability to see and talk to ghosts, a corrupt cop who knows his secret, and some fantastic Tibetan lore. It is woven together as a novella, a long tall tale, a fresh glass of water. It’s King at his best. Now that he is pushing 77, I wish him clarity of thought and more books to come, pretty please. He says that people who feel empathy get more scared of his books; he looks at the human condition with clarity and compassion and knows that monsters are lurking in the night, most of them human.

As for diverse voices, I am resolutely including a lot more works in translation in our Stack Overflow (I would say that they are up by 25%). All these diverse voices, authors, and countries have brought me nothing but joy. John the Skeleton, a book translated from Estonian, was the highlight of the year for me.

GeekDad is a place where I have gotten the opportunity to access and read a wide array of new titles. Since I reside in Bolivia, a very complicated country, I am grateful for the opportunity and marvel at my luck every single year.

Jenny Bristol

I started 2024 out strong, with a good push toward my 24 book reading goal. I stayed on a steady schedule until the fall, when I guess I got caught up in too many TV shows and slowed my reading speed. So, December has had a last-minute push to finish four books (so much for my two-books-a-month pace!), but I’ll make it! I’m nothing if not stubborn.

As usual, I had a long list of books I wanted to read this year, but I only knocked out a few of them, and instead read random other books that came across my notice. I keep intending to read more Matt Haig (I’ll remedy that next year) and finish Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series (but she keeps writing more!), but I’ve found that it’s more important to me to keep up my reading momentum than to read anything specific. So, unlike most of my life plans, I’ve just gone in the direction of my whims, which I actually prefer.

Jonathan H. Liu

I did finally hit my goal of 150 books this year with about a week to spare, so that was fun. I do always clarify that I set a high number because I include a good number of kids’ novels and graphic novels in my reading log and those can be pretty quick reads, but I did manage to read a few longer books as well. Still not a huge proportion of non-fiction books, but that’s just where I’m at these days. (Okay, years.)

A few years ago I decided to try reducing my reliance on Amazon as much as possible, and that included Goodreads, where I was logging my reads. I started using Storygraph, and I’ve been pretty happy with that. I mostly just log what books I’ve read and give them a rating, so I don’t use a lot of the other features there, but that works pretty well for me.

I did read A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen and wrote about it back in February, and then finally started on the Spiderwick Chronicles series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi in time for spooky season (though I still need to read the rest of the series). Those were the only specific titles I had listed this year but I tend to do better with those, so maybe I’ll try to do more of that for next year.

The one big reading habit I had mentioned in January was to spend more time in my basement office, reading the books I have stashed here and maybe getting to the point where I could see the floor again. At the very least, there are several boxes of books that I should either read or get rid of (though I always tell myself I’ll have so much time to read when I “retire,” right?). Unfortunately, that did not happen at all this year, and if anything I have accumulated even more boxes of books and it’s gotten even more difficult to walk around in my office without stepping over and around them. (That photo at the top of this post is just a fraction of the books in my office area.) It feels like this may take a hard reset at some point but I’m not quite ready to do that yet.

Robin Brooks

I’m not sure how many books I hit this year. I did read more than in previous years though, I think. I could count it up, as for most of the year I wrote monthly round-up columns of the books I read. 

The main thing I wanted to do in 2024 was build up my YouTube channel. Like a lot of my ideas, this fell by the wayside fairly quickly. By April, I’d given up on YouTube. It’s remarkably hard to create good quality meaningful videos, and I found I wasn’t dedicated enough to push through. The monthly book round-ups on GeekDad were the final vestiges of that idea and even they dropped away by the end of the year, when I missed my November round-up and December preview. I don’t intend to return to them in 2025. 

Which leaves me in much the same position at the end of 2024 as I was going into it. How best to review? I’ve dropped X altogether and barely make a dent on Bluesky or Threads. Social media is generally a time sink I don’t need, so I suspect, bar the odd author tag on those platforms, I won’t use them. 

On book-specific resolutions, I did get my signed copy of Jasper Fforde’s Red Side Story – the long-awaited sequel to Shades of Grey. The book arrived at the end of January, but I finally picked it up a week before Christmas, because I new I had to write this post.  I still have my weird foible of not reading follow up books in series I’m enjoying. As far as a review of Red Side Story goes, I probably should have reread Shades of Grey first, as I struggled to remember what was going on. The book was fine, but nothing outstanding. 

I didn’t finish Susie Dent’s Interesting Stories about Curious Words, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because without the impetus to read an entry per day, as had been the case for Word Perfect, I started skipping my nightly read to focus on whatever novel I was reading. At first, I did catch-up reads, but soon, it became covered over by other books and got forgotten. I must return to it soon. 

I’m left in a quandry about how to approach reading in 2025, but I guess we’ll talk more about that in our New Year’s reading resolutions post! 

Ah, the Christmas Village. That ubiquitous indoor holiday tradition that collectors steadily add to, year after year. But how many Santa’s workshops and North Pole trains can one have? Sometimes you want something just a little different. And so when I saw the FG Square Chicken and Waffles Restaurant, I knew I just had to take a look at it. I had previously reviewed their Flesh Eater’s Refuge Halloween Village building, and enjoyed the aesthetic and lighting of the piece. So I was looking forward to seeing how they handled this rather unusual Christmas offering.

Chicken and Waffles Restaurant Animated Christmas Village Decoration

Much like with their Halloween Village, there are many offerings available for Christmas 2024. In addition to the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant, there’s a Retro Department Store, a Hill Town Village, a Ski Resort Village, and more. But none of them are quite as, shall we say, unexpected as the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant.

The Chicken and Waffles Restaurant Animated Christmas Village Decoration is sculpted out of porcelain, and measures 10 x 5.5 x 10 inches. It retails for $79.99, and can be ordered directly from FG Square Villages. Many of the FG Square Christmas Villages are available on Amazon, but as of this writing the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant isn’t included among them.

The building comes with a fairly standard AC power supply, which plugs into the back of the restaurant. There’s also a 3-way power switch, which allows you the option of running lights only, or lights and sound.

Here’s a look at the Chicken and Waffles restaurant, all lit up:

Whether the building is running on lights only or lights and sound, the chicken on the roof also rotates continuously. With both the lights and sound on, the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant plays several different instrumental Christmas songs.

There are several nice details which gives this piece both a whimsical feel and, yes, captures the holiday spirit. A wreath on the door and snow on the ground, roof, and bushes advertises the time of the year:

A father and child stay warm and enjoy their chicken and waffles:

And while there is a giant rotating chicken on top of the restaurant, your eyes will probably be drawn more to the huge stack of Belgian waffles:

The sculpting of the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant can appear a bit rough when you look at it close up, but the effect at a normal distance is quite charming. The use of colors in the paint job gives it a homey charm.

Much as with the Flesh Eater’s Refuge, the volume on the speaker can run a little loud. I’m hoping that in their 2025 releases, FG Square will add a volume control. However, as long as you’re not sitting right next to the decoration, you’ll still be able to enjoy the holiday music.

If you’re looking for something just a little different for your Christmas Village, I recommend taking a look at the Chicken and Waffles Restaurant Animated Christmas Village Decoration. It’s quite charming, and will really stand out amongst the more conventional offerings. And who’s to say you can’t have chicken and waffles for Christmas? But if you’re looking for something more traditional, FG Square has plenty of that on offer for Christmas Villages, too.

For more information or to make a purchase, head to the FG Square website.

FG Square sent a decoration for evaluation, but had no input into this review.

It seems like just yesterday that I was reviewing Halloween decorations like Lowe’s Haunted Living 12-Ft Talking LED Bone Collector Animatronic. Sure, the spooky season is over (for now!) but that doesn’t mean that the fun has to stop. Why not take a look at some Christmas decorations?

Lowe’s recently sent me their Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker to review. And who doesn’t love a good nutcracker during the holidays? Here’s what I thought of this seasonal staple.

Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker 

The Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker retails for $129, and is available to purchase at Lowe’s stores or from Lowe’s online for delivery. Here are the specs:

• Indoor or outdoor use
• cULus approved adaptor 150 warm white LED
• Metal lawn stakes included
• Pop up construction for easy assembly and storage.

For a 6-ft figure, the Nutcracker arrived in a fairly compact and lightweight box. That’s thanks to the pop up assembly, which allows you to break down the Nutcracker after the holidays and store it back in the box.

Assembly for the Nutcracker was fairly straightforward. Like a lot of decorations, you’ll start at the base and work up:

Metal parts are secured to each other using wingnuts. After attaching the leg poles, you add a mid frame from which the legs and boots are hung:

Untying some twist ties releases the legs, allowing the boots to drop down:

The boots are then secured to the base using included zip ties:

A body pole is attached to the mid frame, which serves as a base to drape the head and body piece of the Nutcracker. Power cords are connected between the body and the legs. Then the skirt of the Nutcracker’s uniform is secured to the mid frame with more wingnuts.

Click to view slideshow.

Finally, the arms are attached. Each arm has two metal prongs which slot into corresponding holes on each shoulder. Then the power connector for the lights is connected between the body and the arms.

Here is the finished Nutcracker, with crown added:

Of course, the true final step is plugging in the Nutcracker to go with your holiday lights. Here’s a look at night:

Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker  – The Verdict

There’s a lot to like with the 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker. It’s easy to assemble, and creates a striking image on our porch. And while it may be obvious when looking at it, it’s worth noting: this is a Black Nutcracker. My girlfriend, who is African-American, appreciated that this was a more diverse holiday decoration than you usually find. Lowe’s also had carried a White & Gold Nutcracker that wasn’t Black, but that one is sold out on their website.

If you’re a seasoned holiday decorator, you may already be aware of a certain quirk when dealing with decorations like this Nutcracker. But if you’re not, a word of advice: you’ll probably want to assemble this outside. Because no matter what, be prepared to clean up a lot of shed glitter! I’m hoping that the amount of glitter that has already fallen off is just par for the course for decorations like this, and not a harbinger of how it’s going to look after multiple Christmases. Only time will tell.

Everyone in the family enjoys the look of the Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker, as do our neighbors. It definitely brings a lot of festive cheer to our porch, and we’re very happy to have him. The Nutcracker is a good value for the price, and will go well with any holiday light displays.

For more information on the Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker or to make a purchase, head to Lowe’s website.

Lowe’s provided a nutcracker for evaluation, but had no input into this review.