My 2023 Favourites
Happy New Year!
I wanted to share some of the things I loved the most in 2023 (Note: These are not necessarily things that were released in 2023, in fact most of them weren't lol)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin (2022)
Zevin was charming and insightful, and when discussing Tomorrow she mentioned that many people had told her “I feel like you wrote this book for me.”
In my review of Tomorrow I wrote: “Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when a book turns out to be exactly what you hoped for? Or when it appeals so specifically to your interests that it feels like it was written just for you?”
Hearing that I was not the only one who felt this way reminded
me of what’s so special about books. Of all the ways we consume art, reading is
arguably the most subjective, and certainly the most
intimate. It’s something that no two people will ever experience in the same
way. It’s also one of the few ways in which we can truly immerse ourselves in
lives beyond our own. I think this is why it feels so meaningful to connect
with people over books, and why another highlight of my year was starting
a book club and talking about books with people! (more of this in 2024 please!!)
The rest of my review:
"Tomorrow, and
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow follows two childhood friends across the decades,
exploring the highs and lows of their complicated friendship and their careers
as video game designers.
It’s a lovely, well-structured story that covers a lot of ground without ever
dragging its feet or wandering off course.
It has its tragedies but never loses its soul or its empathy for the
characters, a quality I often find missing in contemporary fiction. It’s
subtle, but I feel that the key theme of this book is forgiveness &
acceptance – of yourself and the people you love and the people you used to be.
My only grievance is that the games aren’t real because I want to play
them!!!!!"
Honorable Mentions:
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese (2023)
A modern classic. This big book is so full of life, the story and characters will stay with me for a long time. It contains some of the most vibrant and immersive writing I've ever read, and I look forward to reading it again someday.
I can whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone who loves reading.
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara (2015)
There are two kinds of people in this world - those who have
read A Little Life, and those who
have not. I have mixed feelings about it, and I will never read it again, but
it was definitely one of the most intense reading experiences I’ve ever had.
Unpacking - Witch Beam (PS4 Version, 2022)
Unpacking is nostalgic, cosy and astoundingly simple. The game is
literally just unpacking boxes, and yet there is a beautiful depth
to it. I played the whole thing in one sitting and I spent months
searching for another game to satisfy the niche desire to organise things, but
nothing ever came close.
It's done with lovely subtlety, and despite not showing any characters or dialogue, the story this game tells is so uniquely human. I replayed it again in December, and on my second playthrough it occurred
to me that the gameplay also reveals a lot about the player.
My first playthrough was clean, structured, organised. Everything
was stored neatly in the appropriate place, reflective of how I have set up my
own apartment irl.
My second playthrough was a bit more relaxed, less fussy (read into that whatever you will). Rather than trying to
appease my need for organisation I tried to imagine myself as the character.
Particularly noteworthy is a chapter in which you must move your things into an
apartment shared with your boyfriend, who leaves very little room for you in
his sleek monochrome bachelor pad. In my first playthrough I found it it a little heart-breaking and all too familiar, the sense of making yourself smaller, forcing yourself to
fit into someone else’s life with little space to be your true self.
On my second playthrough this was not a concern. Instead of hiding and stashing
“my” things away, it was the “boyfriend’s” stuff that was thrown into drawers and hidden out
of sight to make way for my colourful mess. It was liberating, and fascinating in the way it changed how I perceived the character and perhaps even myself.
I won’t spoil any more but this is a lovely little gem of a game, there is nothing else like it.
Honorable Mentions:
Chained Echoes - Matthias Linda (PS4 Version, 2022)
A throwback to old-school JRPGs like Suikoden, Secret of Mana and early Final
Fantasy. The characters are mostly forgettable, but the combat, exploration and story are decent. If you’re a fan of the genre you should check this one out.
Honkai Star Rail – miHoYo (Android Version, 2023)
I used to be a Genshin Impact player, but after experiencing the fast-paced and
generously rewarding HSR, Genshin has become completely unplayable to me. Star Rail is tremendously fun (and funny)! I never grow tired of it! I also love turn-based combat so I’m always pleased to see it in new games.
Movies
The Boy and The Heron - Hayao Miyazaki (2023)
To be honest I’m not a big movie person as I prefer the richness of long-format storytelling. But I love Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away is my favourite movie of all time) so I went to the cinema for the first time in years to see The Boy and The Heron.
I think I need to watch it a few more times to digest all that it has on offer, because there is a lot going on in this film. But it’s easily a top 5 Ghibli movie and a fitting denouement for Miyazaki's incredible career (though I don't truly believe this will be his final work).
Glitch – Netflix (2022)
I was drawn to this show because I was a fan of Nana since her Orange
Caramel/Afterschool days, and she did not disappoint with her wild and carefree
performance. (She was also great in Mask
Girl).
The entire cast is hilarious and has great chemistry. It gets a little
soapy in the second half, and starts to lose focus with unimportant
subplots and repetitiveness, but I find this to be true of all k-dramas. A cute and fun little show with a lot of spirit.
Honorable Mentions:
The early season twist fell flat for me (probably because I was spoiled 😒) but what an impressive season and finale. I still find myself thinking often of the third act – the chaotic boardroom scenes and that haunting final coda. It all sounds so silly on paper; the memes about Succession being a show about stocks and boardrooms and whiny adult-children are all accurate! And yet through remarkable writing, performance and music it was able to build itself up to the greatest heights of true drama.
I'm not a fan of endings where people get married, have babies, move away and/or everyone dies (aka most series finales). I think this is cheap and lazy writing! TV shows are like the friends we leave behind as we make our way through life; when we think of them years later we don’t want to imagine that they are strangers, we want to believe that they are still the people we knew. (Maybe it’s selfish of me to think this way but it’s why I’ve never watched the last episode of Friends). I much prefer endings like that of Succession, where the story is wrapped up but you can still imagine everyone going back to work the next day.
This show is SO funny. Just watch it. Trust me. I’m laughing right now just thinking about it.
Pluto - Netflix (2023)
Exceptionally well-made. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, the characters are layered and fascinating. The plot is a little convoluted, and the ideas it presents about robots and AI are nothing new. But if you're a sci-fi and/or anime fan you absolutely must watch this!
Girls - HBO (2012-2017)
If Skins (which I also re-watched last year) was *the* show of my generation’s teen years, then Girls was the show of our twenties. I
watched most of it when it first aired, but this was the first time I’ve seen the show in its
entirety. Lena Dunham has said and done many stupid things, but with Girls she
truly did capture at the very least “a voice of a generation.”
Music
I don’t care about music, lol
Let me know what your favourites were! And if you have seen any of these or plan to read/play/watch them after reading this, let me know what you think :)
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