#zombietrait

shows

the bear - easily one of the best shows i've watched this year. episode 7 is a headrush

succession - technically season 3 was both new in general and to me. my sad little baby girl out from under logan's thumb and then spending 9 episodes desperately trying to get his siblings to respect him and realise all that he's suffered for them??? sooo eldest male daughter of him

industry - took me a while to get round to this. so juicy and dramatic and fast paced, and i loved not understanding any of the finance talk!

ugly betty - watched this for the first time as an adult at the beginning of the year and it's just so funny and fun and heartwarming i know it's an older show but i'm counting it

pachinko - tied between this and severance for what would make the top 5. this show is just such a masterpiece in storytelling and cinematography like just genuinely stunning and so moving

movies

i don't know if i've been that much of a film babe this year actually. i liked nope and the batman. i did watch cruel intentions for the first time this year and i liked it but that same weekend my laptop broke so it's a complicated situation

books

open water by caleb azumah nelson - i'm never going to shut up about this book! a Black british photographer meets a dancer one night in london and they become best friends and fall in love. both poetic in its prose, and unflinching in its reckoning of trauma within and outside of the Black body- my favourite book.

a passage north by anuk arudpragasam - one of the most tender books i've read this year. a guy gets a call that his grandmother's carer has died, so he makes the journey to the north of sri lanka. he reckons with the shrinking of his grandmother's world as she succumbs to her illness, the trauma and despair of outliving your own children, the spoils of war, religion, identity, mortality and politics. so beautiful

transcendent kingdom by yaa gyasi - i'm going to read everything yaa gyasi ever publishes. i loved reading homegoing last year, and this book just didn't disappoint. short but so substantial, a med grad prepares for her final project, trying to make sense of what makes an addict, an addict. caring for her depressed mother, she tries to bridge the gap between faith and science, as her family of 4 is now 2. there's just so much heart and care in this book

tell me i'm worthless by alison rumfitt - my horror book of the year. so twisted and malicious, a haunted house exposes the worst parts of a fascist society preying on a trans woman and her ex-girlfriend. this book is genuinely so insane, so menacing, and fucking incredible.

outline by rachel cusk - a writer travels to athens to teach a writing course. a novel in 10 conversations, she meets people who divulge their deepest desires, regrets, hopes and realities of their marriages, parenting, and what they think freedom looks like. i love a good monologue, and i got 10. cusk wields english in such an inspiring way

music

major music year. gonna do top 5 albums :)

AMERICAN GURL by KILO KISH

sexy by coco & clair clair

CRASH (deluxe) by charli xcx

renaissance by beyoncé

three dimensions deep by amber mark