25/12/2025

Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

This year with my family, I watched two DVDs alone in my room - The Wizard of Oz and Spencer. You could not have more different tones of films. I watched various Christmas films this December, and those two were what I was building up to, apparently.

Isn't it funny that my favourite Christmas present this year is socks? My dad had two pairs custom made for me; they are book-themed and have my name and me as a cartoon on them, as well as words like, 'Shhh, I'm reading' and 'Yes, I do need all these books'.

I do wish everybody a happy and festive day, with your loved ones.

Be giving, generous and charitable.

Love and take care of everyone around you, all year round. Be kind and compassionate every day.

🎄🤶☃❄❅❆⛄🎁💌⭐🌟✩

My favourite Christmas reads (that have nothing to do with Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Fairytale Hairdresser, Heartstopper, or superhero comics):

A Christmas Carol

The Little Match Girl Strikes Back

The Christmas Carrolls

Tinsel: The Girls Who Invented Christmas

The Princess and the Christmas Rescue

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

The Snowman

Graphic Novel Review - 'High-Class Homos: Volume 1' by Momozerii

'High-Class Homos' (hell yeah with that title) is a cute, queer AF fairy tale webtoon, full of royals and class divides and other socioeconomic issues, and enjoyable, likeable, memorable characters. There is class rep, disability rep, homo rep, and trans rep.

It looks like a cutie-pie, childlike, childlight, cartoony princess tale (and make no mistake, the manga-esque art is adorable, soft, colourful and bright), but it contains sex references and F-bombs, so be warned. With that said, though, the first line from Princess Sapphia, "THIS IS BULLS**T!", has the only censored swearword, which is very odd.

'High-Class Homos' is also like the overrated-in-my-opinion YA novel, 'Gwen & Art Are Not in Love', only it's funny, far more good-natured and far less meanspirited. The webtoon contains good surprise twists - including a surprise witch!

Sapphia (clever naming there) is such a no-effs given, lazy, raunchy, pretty, pink feminine lesbian princess - she's a sapphic playgirl princess! A gay, pink-haired Princess Peach with a prosthetic leg! - who goes though meaningful development. I admire her for her totally unconventional attitude, and becoming aware of her privilege and learning how it affects others of a lower status than her (once it's shouted at her by a potential love interest, that is), and that includes the homeless. She actually makes the effort to try to do something about it. This rich, selfish, stupid, oblivious arsehole has it in her to be sweet, kind and thoughtful.

Princess Sapphia is not that privileged and spoiled, since as a royal she is still forcibly closeted and 

sheltered. She is no freer than any "peasant".

Odette and Marla, characters who make up the palace servant, maid and cook class, also make up the love triangle with Sapphia, and are great in their own right - what dark horses they are! The knights Percival and Lucas are nice and sweet, and like the rest of the cast they have deeper layers to them. Prince August, the other gay lead alongside Sapphia, his best friend (though nearly everyone is gay here), is comparatively less memorable at the moment, but he's getting there. He's a bookworm and the shy, quiet type, so how can I dislike him?

What a group of lovelorn yet positive and outgoing friends these darlings make! Of course the mysterious, badass gothic (and lilac) witch Luna, and her flying green frog mascot familiar Merlin, should join them soon!

What a nice touch, too, that no kings or queens are actually present in the story yet.

Everyone, but especially fans of 'Cursed Princess Club', 'Princess Princess Ever After', 'The Prince and the Dressmaker', 'The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich', 'Les Normaux', 'Unfamiliar', 

'Rainbow!', 'I Shall Never Fall in Love', 'ROADQUEEN', 'Mismatched', the YA novel 'Red, White & Royal Blue', the picture book 'Cinder & Ella', and the anime 'Revolutionary Girl Utena', and those desperate for explicitly queer Disney princesses, princes, knights and servants already - you need to read 'High-Class Homos', online or as 'Volume 1' in paperback. It is a webcomic with promise.

We'll see if I'll read the second volume when it comes out.

psst, Percival's 'Cinderella' dream sequence is a brilliantly funny highlight. High-class homo hilarity!

Final Score: 4/5

Book Review - 'The Witching Hour' by Jennifer Harris (Writer), Adelina Lirius (Illustrator)

Something cranky this way comes...

It's "the witching hour", with the emphasis on "witching", and it's about getting a crying, cranky baby to sleep, told through a witchy aesthetic and lens, and I adore it for it.

'The Witching Hour' is a witchy family picture book that has lovely art, nature, a hollow tree house, cats, rabbits, bats, spiders, owls, woodpeckers, mice, fairies, brooms, herbs, puppets, pink poodles, the crescent moon, two witch mums with bulbs, fruits and acorns for hats, and a helpful (similarly hatted) older sibling for the crying baby at the witching hour.

I love the aesthetic the most, and the idea is charming all on its own.

It's a cosy and familiar little fantasy book, for children and parents. There definitely could have been more to it, but I like it as it is.



'Anything can happen in the witching hour.'



Hooray for LBGTQ+ witch family books, for the holiday seasons - Halloween and Xmas, and every equinox!

Final Score: 3.5/5

Book Review - ''Twas the Night Before Pride' by Joanna McClintick (Writer), Juana Medina (Illustrator)

''Twas the Night Before Pride' is a sweet, beautiful, bright, inclusive, vitally important, magnificent and triumphant LBGTQ+ picture book for children. It is loud and proud in its love and educational factor.

The lovely, enchanting rhyming, the history lesson of the queer community and Pride (in the US) up to the current era, and the most wonderful family and acceptance theme make it the ultimate comfort read.

I wasn't sure about the simplistic and cartoony art at first, but it's part of its love and comfort aesthetic for children, and it does what it sets out to do very well. With charm. And pride.

It's all about love, which is what the world will always need.

It will always need drag, and gender nonconformity, too.

It will always be our responsibility to choose kindness, compassion and empathy.

Read another recent LBGTQ+ children's picture book review of mine, 'My Shadow is Pink', here.

Plus 'A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo', 'And Tango Makes Three', 'My Magic Family', 'The Answer (Steven Universe)', 'The Big Day (A GIANT celebration of love)', 'Power to the Princess: 15 Favorite Fairytales Retold with Girl Power', 'Maiden & Princess', 'Prince & Knight', 'Prince & Knight: Tale of the Shadow King', 'Heather Has Two Mummies', 'Molly's Family', 'Cinder & Ella', 'Love, Violet', and 'The Witching Hour'.

From the ''Twas the Night Before Pride' blurb: A glittering celebration of queer families puts Pride gently in perspective—honoring those in the LBGTQ+ community who fought against injustice and inequality.



'Pride’s... a day that means “Together, we are strong!”'



Happy Christmas and Pride, everyone.

Final Score: 4/5

Witchy Ways (2024) post

I feel it is my civic and human duty to let people know of the existence of an LBGTQ+ witch movie on Amazon Prime called Witchy Ways. It's very low budget, but it's nicely done, and made by a femme film crew. It's nothing like Hallmark or Lifetime. It's got witches, lesbians, nature, girl power, and bereavement, self-discovery and acceptance themes, what more could you want?

Witchy Ways is a sweet and moving little film, and I recommend it.

It's always good to let the queer community know that who they are is real, authentic, valid and accepted, and they deserve everything, and that includes being out in the open, and safe, and loved, and being represented 

everywhere - whether they are witches or not. Let them know they are loved so very much.

It makes no sense when they are censored, ignored, and erased. That is discrimination and prejudice, like any other.

People are people, and that means everyone is different. Nobody's existence should be up for debate; nobody's identity should be a political issue, agenda, or point of deliberate, malicious division. That is just fact.

Whoever you love and whatever your gender is human nature, nothing more to it. It should never be a cause for contention, and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong, and a coward afraid of change, progress, and love - for themselves and others. Plain and simple.

It is coming on 2026. I think it is time for us to grow up, and finally, fully see the harm - the dangerous, deadly harm - that bigotry is, and always has been, causing the world, don't you?

Help make the world a better, more loving and kind and safe place to live in for everyone.

Happy Christmas! 🎄🤶❄❅❆⛄⭐🌟😇😃😍😊🥰

Nov/Dec 2025 Update

I've decided I don't like novels anymore.

Except for some of the classics, and the very rare, genuinely good contemporary ones I've already read. Novels nowadays have been so disappointing - and often so artificial, badly written and edited (and f*ck trends, fads and TikTok, and especially f*ck AI) - that I feel like I'm done with them. It's graphic novels and short stories for me from now on.

I don't trust Goodreads anymore, either. I don't trust anything that is owned and controlled by billionaires (and like those wilfully ignorant, anti-education monsters care about books, anyway, unless it's to ban and censor some and propagandise others). The Goodreads Choice Awards this year - and the year before - are terrible, and are the last straw. It's mostly commercial TikTok garbage now. And how dare they remove their graphic novel, middle grade, and picture book categories - that is shameful and disgusting.

It's in December that I've resolved to read less and finally resubscribe to Netflix and Disney+, so stay tuned for news there.

(I've quit Amazon Prime, too.)

In 2025, I got a driver's licence and a car, and for the first time in my life, I went to a concert (in November, in Brighton) (Gary Numan, and Raven Numan - I got her T-shirt!). In 2026, I'm going to get a new, much more favourable job and possibly a new house. Hopefully I'll be more social and start dating again after too long, as well. Some things to look forward to.

I will definitely be reading far less next year. And I mean it this time.

Here are the books I reread this year, and therefore rereviewed:

Hyperbole and a Half

Nimona

Mary Who Wrote Frankenstein

The Big Day

The Fairiest Fairy

The Adventures of Superhero Girl

Friends with Boys

All the Jem and the Holograms comics

All the Adventure Time comics

Bitter Greens

Heidi

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland

Not rereads, but important rereviews:

Red, White & Royal Blue

Not My Problem

One Last Stop

Imogen, Obviously

Lucy Undying

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart

Marnie Midnight

I still encourage other people to read as much and as often as possible. Keep reading. Keep hoping.

Keep fighting fascism.

Non-Fiction Book Review - 'What's Up, Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics' by Alina Tysoe

I ordered this immediately after reading Alina Tysoe's fantasy graphic novel, 'My Sister the Werebeast'

(which I'm now starting to see is slightly semiautobiographical, LOL).

Wow, what cute autobiographical, anecdotal comic strips!

What started off as a webcomic, and is now available in a hardback collection, 'What's Up, Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics' basically tells of artist Alina "Beanie" Tysoe's childhood, teenage years, college years, and adulthood (up to her late twenties) - with occasional commentary from her time-travelling four-year-old self.

How cute she was as a baby and toddler! What a sweet, funny little bean - a hyper bean! A bundle of joy, play, imagination, curiosity and mischief. She's what children should be like, and often are!

Beanie's family and pets are also too lovely and adorable!

'What's Up, Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics' - 'aCUTEly relatable' is right. It is comedic, comical, upbeat slice-of-life. And there are A LOT of dogs and cats. And one of the best parts for me - it references video games, manga and anime - including 'Sailor Moon'!!!!!!!!!!!

'What's Up, Beanie?' is like 'Adulthood Is a Myth', 'Hyperbole and a Half', 'I Left The House Today!', 'Book Love', 'Quiet Girl in a Noisy World: An Introvert's Story', and 'Lavender Clouds' - though it it much happier and peppier than the latter two!

Beanie's comic strips don't delve into any serious issues. They don't explore any aspects of modern womanhood, either. There are subtly deep, introspective anecdotes, but those are very few and far between. They exist to be cute and funny, really. And there is nothing wrong with that, especially when "cute and funny" is coming from an artist's personal, heartfelt passion.

'What's Up, Beanie?: Acutely Relatable Comics' is soft, bouncy, bubbly, cartoony, laugh-out-loud hilarious, geeky, and positive. Just what the world needs.

I consider it to be an all-ages comic collection. There is nothing objectionable in it, apart from one censored swear word.

Final Score: 3.5/5