Our Favourite Media of December 2023

[helloladies]

Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more.

Jodie

The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

This was phenomenal.

Baxter is a black railway porter in 1920s Canada; desperately saving tips so he can pay for dental school. He has been stuck working his demeaning, demanding job on the railways for much longer than he ever imagined. The story follows him during a crisis point as he undertakes a four day working journey on barely any sleep. When the train is unexpectedly stuck, Baxter's sleepless trip turns into an unending, mundane nightmare lit with growing hallucinatory terror, and everyday fear.

Baxter's precarious position, as he tries to perform perfectly in order to earn tips and keep his job, is part of what drives the tension in this novel. Due to his lack of sleep, Baxter has hallucinations. Or, it's possible he's haunted. He's also saddled, on this journey, with the constant, clinging care of a white child, and this makes his work even harder. And when he finds, and decides to keep, a postcard of two men having sex he puts himself in danger, and opens up memories about his past relationships with men.

This is a book full of psychic violence. There are lots of inheld emotions which all build to a rattling, jangling picture of someone on the edge. And, at the same time, there is a cast of characters on the train who all seem to shed their presentable images the longer the journey goes on. Many of the passengers morph into low-level malevolent characters. I was constantly worried about Baxter, but then the ending comes so good! I loved that there was almost a low level fairytale reward for Baxter making it through the dark, and perilous trials in the woods/train.

Susan

Baldur's Gate 3 [CW: body horror] — I FINISHED BALDUR'S GATE 3! I lost three months of my life to it and have no regrets. Not just because it's good, although it is good! But because I'm feeling fannish again. This is the first game since the Great Burnout and the Quarantimes where my brain has been in full fandom mode for a thing, where I'm writing fic and properly capslocking on the internet about it. It's been years since I felt like this. I missed it so much.

My emotional upheaval and replenished urge to create to one side: Baldur's Gate 3! I'm about 10,000 words deep into yelling about it with more to go, so I don't know that I can truncate a full reaction to it. But – it's so good. I'm so invested in all of the characters; the performances are amazing, and the storylines all have impact, even when they're glitchy or I squint suspiciously at their endings. Plus, I just want to replay it again so I can find more things that I missed. That's either a good sign for the game, or a bad sign for me. Definitely one of those two.

(I'm playing a half-drow bard, and have two saves on the go; one for romancing Karlach and one for romancing Astarion. I know what I'm about.)