protean depravity

The German word "Vorfreude" which describes the happiness you feel before something, a "joyful anticipation" according to internet dictionaries, should be a word in every single language on this world for me to express the joy I yearly feel between New Year's Eve and the month of February when all my favorite film festivals and showings takes place. The constellation of those festivals is somewhat different in 2025, with the Fantasy Filmfest White Nights taking place as late as the first weekend of February and the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival even in March! Even with this shift, it's all fine by me, I have been blissfully busy in my joyful anticipation and putting bookmarks on films I want to see and buying tickets where I can.

In the same way as it is not unusual to return to the same music one used to listen in their teens and twenties, I lately feel the need to return to books that I've read in my early youth and that have left a mark on me. Of course, the role both books, music, and the associated communities play in the shaping of one's personality is undeniable, so presumably no matter how many decades past, you'll always be partial and subjective, and it's nearly impossible for the fan to give an objective assessment on these works. It would be still interesting to observe how you perceive them now compared to back then, and what feelings those same books awake in you today.

Hey everyone! Hope your passage to the new year was smooth and you've made it healthy and happy and maybe a little drunk into 2025! In my first post of the new year I give you mostly reads from the end of last year which I had somehow left unreviewed (mainly because I didn't enjoy them too much, but there are a couple I really loved too), so here are the short reviews, enjoy!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Only it was never the best of times. 2024 is my personal 2020 and made me miss pandemic times we were sitting in peace at home, watching movies and reading books.

All the Protean Depravity columns have a deeply ritual (or shall I, less flatteringly, say repetitive?) character, and although I'd love to add more new, flashy, and exciting things to my blog, I also find comfort in little traditions. The wrapping up column, in which I look back at my reading challenges of the past, and most anticipated books in the upcoming year, is one of those comfort writes. The other main one being the best titles of the year, which is due next week, so hold on tight for that! But before, let's wrap up this year's reading. Among all the chaos and bad luck I had last year, there is one accomplishment that I'm proud of - I finished ALL my reading challenges I pledged to finish, and I'm a little proud of that. I have to add that I was very careful not to put too much on my plate and sometimes read as little as four or seven books per challenge, but that technique helped me finishing them, some of them even quite early in the year.

So, I definitely need to start wrapping up everything 2024 and to look into the future, and that involves writing the last short reviews of the year, focusing on the End of the Year list, and plan new challenges for 20. Hope you enjoy them as always, despite the abominable weather.

On the verge of her cousin Keziah's marriage, Bata, a girl who lives in a small Nigerian town with her family, has a kind of episode during which she steps into another dimension and, dressed as an awesome warrior-bride, kicks the ass of an evil ghost bride, who apparently formerly was engaged to her cousin's groom. See, Bata has been different all her life, suffering from nightmares which keep the whole household awake - and make them resent her a little bit. Before she is subjected to an exorcism by the town's medicine man Dibia, she is snatched by a magnificient spirit who takes her to Ibaja La, the land of ghost brides, and informs her that she is a sort of chosen-one, and she has a paranormal mission she needs to fulfill as a Bride-Sentinel. Of course, for a ten year old girl coming from a family in which things are less than ideal, a household divided into itself, a house in which she always has been the odd one, to arrive in a sort of wonderland of young women in ...

End of the year also means deciding which books to take along into the new year and which ones can find their way to new owners who will appreciate them more than I do. Before they wander into the second hand section of the Otherland Bookstore or the phone booth little free library at the end of my street, I'm giving you guys the choice to take any of the books in the picture you may want to have. 👉 These are mostly review copies, but this time I included a couple of books I actually bought years ago, but never have read, and presumably never will read. It's better and only fair someone who will really read takes them. Please don't hesitate at all and seize the opportunity!