Tag: Helpmeet

WWW Wednesday – October 8, 2025

Ryan4 Comments
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m between books at the moment!

Recently Finished

Last week I finished up reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu, which I’m happy to report I continued to find a lot better than the author’s previous book that I read a month or so ago, so I will likely pick up more of Uketsu’s work in the future after all. I was hoping going into this book that it would be more of a horror story, as advertised, with altogether creepier elements at play, but this is really more of a mystery novel, especially in how each chapter at first seems isolated, but close connections are slowly revealed. The overall mystery at the heart of the book plays out really well, however, and the motif of strange pictures with hidden meanings was used pretty creatively throughout and never felt contrived or forced. Something I find strange about the discourse I’ve seen around these books is the insistence that you will be compelled to pore over the images and uncover their meaning for yourself, but based on my experience that wouldn’t be a fruitful use of your time.

I also spent the last couple of days reading through Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, a rather short horror novella and another one of my Halloween reads for this year. I was originally going to borrow this digitally from the library, but I picked up a copy at a horror bookstore in Toronto the other weekend, where the shopkeeper spoke very highly of it. I was going to read it anyway, but this really encouraged picking it up. The book didn’t blow me away, but it was a very effective tale of medical body horror with unexpected eldritch elements. This went in directions I really wasn’t expecting and was exceptionally well told, but I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t successfully creep me out or scare me in any noteworthy ways. I suppose it’s rare that a book actually does, I guess this one just became a little too over-hyped in the lead up to me reading it.

Reading Next

Continuing with my Halloween reading plans, the next book I’m going to start reading is The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. Barker is one of those authors I’ve heard of all my life but never actually read, and as a fan of horror I’d been thinking it’s high time I actually read one. I picked this up earlier this year and am doing a good job for once and making myself read it soon after. This is a longer novel among the books I picked to read for this October so I want to make sure I get through it quicker, but with the progress I’ve made already thanks to reading Helpmeet so quickly, I’m starting to think I may be able to squeeze in another, larger novel before the month is out. Time will tell.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.

WWW Wednesday – October 1, 2025

RyanLeave a comment
www_wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a weekly book meme run by Sam over at Taking on a World of Words. Check out her post and others over on her blog!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

Since last week I’ve been reading Strange Pictures by Uketsu, a standalone novel written in a similar vein to the author’s previous novel Strange Houses. So far, I’m a couple of chapters in at just over 100 pages, and I’m liking it considerably more than the last book. Strange Houses had a problem of detachment, with the bulk of the narrative taking place as a conversation between characters, either speculating over floor plans or divulging secrets to each other. This time around, chapters are more couched in direct experiences, occasionally reviewing media, and it’s working out a lot better so far. I thought the chapters were their own self-contained stories with the motif of digging into the meaning behind seemingly mundane images, but the second chapter revealed they are in fact connected. I hope it pays off well by the end.

Recently Finished

Last week I finished reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett, the 28th Discworld novel. Though I wrote last week that I felt the book had oddly already reached its end despite nearly 50 pages reamining, I’m happy to report that it stills ends strong and did not feel disjointed with the rest of the book. In fact, throughout my reading I had felt that the community of Bad Blinitz was unusually absent for much of it, so it did a great job of taking that loose end and tying things back together. I’m curious if these characters will make any more appearances throughout the remainder of the series; I was already surprised to learn that they were first referenced all the way back in Reaper Man in 1991.

Reading Next

As today kicks off the Halloween season, I shall soon be starting my Halloween reads for this year (Strange Pictures still serving as the primer, which I’ll hopefully be finishing this week). First off, I will be reading Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, a novella I’ve been meaning to read for a while. Originally, my plan was to borrow a digital copy of this book from my library, but I ended up making an unplanned visit to Little Ghosts Books, a horror bookshop in Toronto, where I was able to buy myself a copy. I’m eager to find out what all the fuss is about with this book; according to the worker at the bookstore, it’s body horror, which I wasn’t expecting.

Until next time, thank you for reading! Feel free to share your own post down below.