A Little Piece of My Childhood, Rediscovered

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This trilogy has been a long time coming for me. A very long time, in fact. When I was younger, I absolutely loved the stop-motion adaptation of Truckers. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many times I watched that miniseries. It was one of those things I would happily watch over and over again without ever getting bored.

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A Colourful Concept with a Few Rough Edges

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh was a really enjoyable read, and one that managed to keep me interested pretty much from beginning to end. It's got an interesting premise, some great ideas, and, perhaps most importantly, it knows how to keep things moving without making you feel as though you're being dragged from one plot point to the next. It's not a perfect book, and there were a few things I would have liked to see handled differently, but overall, I had a great time with it.

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A Creeping Dread That Slowly Gets Under Your Skin

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I was with Creature for most of the book. Hunter Shea does a great job of grounding the horror in something painfully human, and that gives the story a very different feel from what I expected going into it. That said, there were definitely stretches where I felt the story was going in circles, particularly when it came to the main character’s illness.

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Even the Insects Were Screaming for It to End

⭐ The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix was an absolute chore for me to get through. For a book with a title like this, I expected something fun, bloody, maybe a bit ridiculous, and at the very least entertaining. Instead, I spent most of the book wondering when something was actually going to happen. It’s a fairly long book, but somehow it feels even longer because so much of it just seems to drag.

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When Someone Else’s Life Becomes Your Story

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I went into Fruit Fly by Josh Silver knowing very little about it, and I genuinely think that’s the best way to read this book. I’d seen it mentioned a few times, knew people were raving about it, and had a vague idea of the premise, but I wasn’t prepared for just how dark, funny, uncomfortable and completely addictive it would become.

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Not Quite Finished, Still Wonderful – A Final Visit to an Extraordinary World

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I knew going into The Shepherd’s Crown that this one was going to be difficult. Not because I expected it to be a bad book, but because I knew what it represented. This is the final Discworld novel. The last time Terry Pratchett would take us there, and, for me, the end of a read-through that has taken me across the entire series.

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Full Steam Ahead: Discworld Back on Track

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ After being pretty disappointed with Snuff, I went into Raising Steam hoping it would feel like Discworld getting back to its usual self, and thankfully, it really did. This felt much more like the Pratchett I love: funny, clever, warm, slightly ridiculous, and packed with observations about people and society without ever forgetting that it’s supposed to be entertaining.

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Bare This, Bare That, Barely Finished It

⭐⭐ I really didn’t expect to be giving a Rivers of London book two stars, but here we are. I’ve enjoyed this series for a long time, and even when some of the previous books haven’t quite hit the heights of the best entries, there’s always been enough there to keep me invested. The characters, the humour, the world, the strange mix of police procedural and magic — there’s usually something that leaves me looking forward to picking up the next one.

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Even Discworld Has an Off Day

⭐⭐⭐ Snuff is, unfortunately, my lowest-rated Discworld book so far. Giving a Discworld novel three stars feels strangely harsh because even a weaker Terry Pratchett book still has plenty going for it. There are funny moments, some great observations, familiar characters I love spending time with, and flashes of that Pratchett brilliance that makes Discworld such a special series. But…

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A Great Premise That Gets Bogged Down

⭐⭐⭐ I really wanted to love Devolution. The premise is pretty much exactly the sort of thing that should work for me: an isolated community, a volcanic eruption, people cut off from the outside world, and then a group of Sasquatch deciding that the humans have wandered a little too far into their territory. It sounds like the setup for a really entertaining monster survival story.

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A Slow Start, But a Great Discworld Finish

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely sold on I Shall Wear Midnight when I first started it. I went into this one expecting to enjoy it because it’s Terry Pratchett, it’s Discworld, and it’s another Tiffany Aching story, but for quite a while I found myself wondering where exactly the book was going. It felt like it took a little too long to get going, with a few false starts and different threads introduced without me being entirely convinced they were going anywhere.

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A Wild Ride Through Monster-Filled Mayhem

⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Haunted Forest Tour is exactly what it promises to be. The premise is wonderfully ridiculous in the best possible way: after a portal opens up and unleashes countless monsters into a forest, the government does the only sensible thing they apparently can think of and turns it into a tourist attraction. Visitors climb aboard reinforced trams, cameras in hand, to get a close-up look at creatures that would happily tear them apart if given the chance.

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Creepy, Compelling and Hard to Put Down

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had a really good time with Whistle. Linwood Barclay has always been great at writing fast-paced thrillers that are difficult to put down, and while this one leans much more into horror than some of his previous work, it still has that same page-turning quality. I found myself saying I'd read just one more chapter several times, only to realise an hour had disappeared.

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The Long Road to Finding Out What’s Wrong With My Hip

I wasn’t really sure whether to write this post. Not because there isn’t anything to say, but because when it comes to my hip, there is a lot to say. It has been such a long, frustrating, and honestly exhausting journey that trying to sum everything up in one blog post feels almost impossible. I’m not going to go back through every single thing that has happened over the years because I’ve already written plenty of posts about my hip problems, the pain, the appointments, the setbacks, and everything that has come with it.

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The Ultimate B-Movie Memoir

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I absolutely loved this book. I went into it expecting a few funny stories about making low-budget horror films, but I ended up getting so much more than that. Bruce Campbell has such a distinctive voice that it feels less like reading an autobiography and more like sitting in a pub while he tells story after story, each one somehow crazier than the last.

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A Fun Trip to the Moon

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoyed Artemis. It isn't quite on the same level as The Martian for me, but it's still a fun, fast-paced read that kept me turning the pages. Andy Weir has a real talent for making science feel interesting without it becoming overwhelming, and the setting of a city on the Moon is easily the strongest part of the novel.

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Even a Non-Football Fan Can Enjoy This One

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Going into Unseen Academicals, I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The central focus is football, and as someone who has never really been interested in the sport, I thought this might be one of the few Terry Pratchett books that wouldn't quite work for me. I couldn't have been more wrong. What impressed me most was how quickly Pratchett made me realise that this isn't really a book about football at all.

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A Brilliantly Funny Take on Banking and Human Nature

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I've been slowly working my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, and Making Money has easily become one of my favourites so far. What surprised me most was how Pratchett managed to make a story about banking, economics, and finance not only entertaining, but genuinely difficult to put down. The novel follows Moist von Lipwig, one of Discworld's most charming and reluctant civil servants, after the events of Going Postal.

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A Story That Never Quite Starts

⭐ There are books that overwhelm you with the sheer volume of events, where every chapter feels like it is trying to outdo the last. Mosaic by Catherine McCarthy goes in the opposite direction, and while that might sound like a relief on paper, the result is far more draining: a story in which very little of any real consequence happens, and what does rarely feels like it matters.

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A Wintery Return to Tiffany Aching

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ There’s always something a little strange for me when I pick up a Tiffany Aching book. I never dive into them with the same immediate excitement I get from some of the other Discworld novels, and every single time it takes me a while to properly settle into the story. Wintersmith was no different. I spent the first chunk of the book feeling like I was still waiting for it to click, wondering if this would end up being one of the Tiffany books I struggle with more than enjoy.

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Blood, Screams, and Not Much Else

⭐⭐⭐ I went into Camp Blaze expecting a grimy, over-the-top slasher and, to be fair, that’s exactly what it delivers. Unfortunately, it rarely feels like it wants to be anything beyond that. The entire novel leans so heavily into shock value that it starts to feel repetitive long before the ending arrives. Every brutal scene is written to top the last one, but after a while, the violence stops having any impact because there’s very little underneath it.

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“WHERE’S MY COW?” — Rage, Revolution, and One of Discworld’s Best Watch Novels

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ve been slowly making my way back through the Discworld books, and every time I return to the City Watch novels, I remember why they’re some of my favourites. Thud! might honestly be one of the strongest of the lot. It’s funny, angry, clever, absurd, surprisingly emotional, and somehow manages to balance a murder mystery, political tension, ancient dwarf grudges, and a children’s bedtime book all at once without ever feeling bloated.

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Science, Survival and Another Trip Across the Stars: Revisiting Project Hail Mary

Another of this year’s re-reads for me, and revisiting Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir felt oddly well-timed considering the film adaptation has recently come out. I haven’t actually seen the movie yet, but it definitely pushed the book back to the front of my mind. Sometimes a re-read can flatten the excitement a little because you already know every twist and reveal, but honestly, this one still worked incredibly well for me the second time around.

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Late Fees & Nostalgia: A Surprisingly Addictive Return to the Video Store

Retro Rewind: Video Store Simulator is a management sim that was released in March 2026 for PC via Steam and allows players to manage a 1990's VHS rental store. I’m not usually the kind of person who goes anywhere near simulation games like this. Running a shop, managing stock, dealing with customers—it’s never really been my thing. But there was something about…

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Angry Sloth Gaming: Pressing Record (and Hoping for the Best)

I mentioned on Monday that I’d been toying with the idea of putting myself out there a bit more—moving beyond just writing and actually doing something a bit more immediate. Well… I’ve gone and done it. Or at least, I’ve taken the first proper step. “Angry Sloth Gaming” is officially a thing. The name might sound a bit random if you’ve just stumbled across it, but it actually goes back quite a while for me.

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Pressing Record: Taking the First Step into YouTube Gaming

I’ve been toying with the idea for a while now, and I think I’m finally at the point where I’m seriously considering starting a YouTube gaming channel. It’s one of those things that’s been sitting at the back of my mind, quietly tapping me on the shoulder every time I boot up Steam and lose a few hours to a survival game.

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Another Hip Update

I feel like I’ve been talking about this hip for ages now, and in a way, I have. It’s become one of those things that just quietly (or not so quietly) sits in the background of everything I do. Some days I can almost ignore it. Other days, it’s impossible to think about anything else. Back in March, I had my appointment with the consultant, which felt like it had been a long time coming.

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A Strong Premise That Doesn’t Quite Stick the Landing

⭐⭐⭐ I’m always up for anything involving zombies or virus outbreaks, so The Splits by M.V Clark immediately felt like something right up my street. It has that kind of premise that promises tension, collapse, and all the messy human reactions that come with it—and going in, I was expecting to really get pulled into it. To be fair, the premise is easily the strongest part.

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A Relic Worth Returning To: Pendergast Steals the Show

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ There’s something ridiculously satisfying about going back to a book you already know you love and finding out it still completely holds up—and that’s exactly what happened with my reread of Relic. Honestly, if anything, I think I enjoyed it more this time around. It’s easy to forget just how tightly put together this book is. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child don’t mess about—this thing moves.

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Cleaning Up After Her

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I went into My Sister, the Serial Killer expecting something a bit louder, a bit more overtly shocking. The title kind of dares you to brace yourself for blood, chaos, and brutality. But what Oyinkan Braithwaite actually delivers is something far more unsettling—and, honestly, far more impressive. This isn’t a story that lingers on the act of murder itself. There’s no indulgence in gore, no drawn-out violence designed to make you flinch.

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