River

River, 2023 film written by Makoto Ueda and directed by Junta Yamaguchi (who I keep mispronouncing like the military government rather than, you know, a Japanese name, argh). Utterly delightful movie. I like time loops as a trope and all the very different things that you can do with them, and this is such a clever, high-energy take. Highly recommended, available with Prime Video if you have that. We did have one little problem with the subtitles lagging and slowly falling further behind but it was always pretty clear what was going on.

The Sapling Cage

The Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy, 2024 novel. Fantasy, apparently first of a trilogy but I thought it stood alone very nicely. 16-year-old trans girl takes her friend's place as an apprentice witch so that she can live as a girl and become a witch. Not particularly being marketed as YA afaik but it totally deals with coming-of-age themes and I might nominate it for the Lodestar, although nobody else on the spreadsheet has (but nor does it appear on the novels tab so maybe it's just obscure or unpopular?). I really liked it; I like Killjoy's writing (she's apparently kickstartering the next one of those Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion novellas soon) and I thought the fantasy world had some nice touches. Also the cover is great.

Killjoy thanked Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments and I was struck by (spoilers) ( Read more... )