Update: Life and Books (Oct 2025)

Update: Life and Books (Oct 2025)

 
 

I know I don’t really talk about the “life” part of “Life and Books” anymore, but, well. Today is not the day I’m going to change that, so let me tell you instead about the games I played (or attempted to play)!

Much to no one’s surprised, I’m still playing Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m currently close to wrapping up an all druids run, which has been very fun. Druids are so strong in combat (in this game, at least, can’t speak for tabletop), and there’s a lot of fun to be had outside of combat too, like speaking to all the animals and using animal forms to do things like escape from prison by turning into badgers and tunneling under the cell doors.

BG3 screenshot in a prison in Act 3. There's a guard, a Steel Watcher (big robot), and two badgers. The Steel Watcher in lying on the ground with an angry badger snarling at it.

I also took a break from BG3 a few times to play some other games, though that was mostly disappointment. Sub-Verge has some great art and characters, but overall it fell short for me. I’ll do a full review of that one. I tried Vane, it has beautiful art and music, but it gave me too much motion sickness, and I couldn’t even try playing in short bits of time because it only has a few save checkpoints too far apart. I also tried Palia, a free farming sim MMO. Another beautiful game, and the characters seem so fun, but it is also on the verge of motion sickness for me. I’ve been ok so far, but that’s because I’ve been careful about camera movement, and it’s a pain to play that way, and it’ll make it sort of a slog to make progress, so I’ll probably stop as I have other games I could be enjoying more. It does seem fun if you don’t get motion sickness though.

Sub-Verge screenshot of divers all around the sub, Imphrey saying, 'You had to tell everyone about me and the Krake, didn't you, Trembath?'
Vane screenshot of a crow or similar bird with iridescent wings flying over a canyon.
Palia screenshot of a purple man named Jel with round pink shaded glasses and black hair with a white streak, nicely dressed in a vest, saying, 'To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?'

Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing this month.

 

Books I Received for Review:

Moonlight Cherries by Alexa PiperMindworks by Neal Shusterman

I got Moonlight Cherries by Alexa Piper, queer magical/paranormal romance, from the Libro.fm ALC program. And after reading the description and deciding the book sounded good, I noticed the narrator is my all-time favorite, Michael Ferraiuolo! Doubly excited now.

I put the cover above so you could see it clearly, but I actually received a very cool special edition paperback of Mindworks by Neal Shusterman, so thank you to Simon & Schuster! It’s a collection of fantastical and uncanny short stories that sound really interesting, like a hot tub monster and soup that traps your soul. I’ll copy and paste exactly what the email says about the print editions: “The book is being published in three simultaneous editions: a standard Hardcover, a Paperback (which for the first printing will have stained and stenciled edges, as well as French flaps), and a limited deluxe edition featuring a decorative slip case, a ribbon marker, stained and stenciled edges, Paper over board case with foil and embossing, and is signed/numbered by Shusterman.” So I’m not sure about the others, but if you want this specific paperback edition, you should probably get it quickly. The page edges are really fun, the inside flaps are so colorful, and the title text does this cool oil slick thing where it shines with different colors at different angles. You know how I like book covers that shine differently at different angles 😅

Mindworks by Neal Shusterman paperback held up next to dried roses. The cover shows the outline of the side profile of a head, and inside in random sections is a bunch of weird stuff, like an eyeball, a lightbulb, a teddy bare, a plucked chicken body, a key, a sort of poop emoji, a dolphin, monster eyes coming out of the dark, and what's maybe a venus fly trap. In the background is a brick wall and some flying bats.The spine which just features the title in black block letters on a yellow background, and in smaller text the author and publisher.The page edges are colored to look like a brick wall, and one brick is replaced with the eyes of a monster peeking from a black void. Inside the page flaps is a pink and black checkered/spiral pattern.Close up of title text on cover, showing how it appears blue and teal in some spots instead of black.

 

Books I Finished:

Andalusia Dogs by Christian BainesThirsty by Lucy LehaneThe Good Vampire's Guide to Blood & Boyfriends by Jamie D'AmatoSubtle Mind by Zach DodsonWitchlore by Emma Hinds

If you’re considering buying any of these books from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

Four books is honestly pretty good for me lately, and these were all quality books! Three I’ve already reviewed, the other I probably won’t since I don’t feel like I have much to say, but I’d recommend them all if they sound good to you. (I just remembered I technically did read a fifth book, I forgot because it was DLC for a game. I’ll include it anyway just to make myself feel better about how much reading I did lol.)

Andalusia Dogs by Christian Baines – A mysterious, witchy, unpredictable, queer story with M/M romance.

🌟 Thirsty by Lucy Lehane – Loved this one! A very fun and cute M/M vampire romance.

The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood & Boyfriends by Jamie D’Amato – Another M/M vampire romance, this time YA with a little more vampire drama but mostly teens figuring out life.

Subtle Mind by Zach Dodson – Game DLC for Sub-Verge. The writing was good, but I was disappointed it didn’t really include the interesting characters from the game.

Witchlore by Emma Hinds – This one didn’t really grab me, but there’s nothing in particular wrong with it. It had a lot of interesting magic and shapeshifting and a nonbinary MC and a romance.

 
 
 

Talk to me!

How was your month?
Have you found any good books, games, movies, etc. lately?

 
 
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6 thoughts on “Update: Life and Books (Oct 2025)”

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  2. Roberta R.
    Reply

    “there’s a lot of fun to be had outside for combat too, like speaking to all the animals and using animals forms to do things like escape from prison by turning into badgers and tunneling under the cell doors”
    That does sound/look cool!

    Sorry it’s been so hard for you to find games that won’t give you motion sickness lately.

    S&S is still being generous to you, I love that! A special edition, even!

    1. Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight)
      Reply

      There’s so much fun stuff in this game!

      Thanks, it’s not like I don’t have other games I can play (and both games that gave me motion sickness were free since once was an extra copy a friend had, so no money loss either), just disappointment since they seem cool.

      I thought they’d send the normal hardcover, was so surprised to see it was this special edition, the page edges are so fun!

  3. Lola
    Reply

    Your all druid run sounds fun and being able to use the animal forms outside of combat too is neat. Getting motion sickness while gaming isn’t fun, I had that happen a few times as well and often stop playing as it just makes it hard to enjoy the game that way. Moonlight Cherries sounds promising and I hope you enjoy that one. Your copy of Mindworks looks pretty cool with those page edges. That’s great you read so many books this month!