Alrightreads: This Is Just a Saga Now

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Betrayal

1993 / Audiobook / 161 pages

**

Some gruesome deaths don't make up for this mainly being a boring period romance with more to come. I wasn't looking forward to these.

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Secret

1993 / Audiobook / 160 pages

*

All of this just to justify the unlikely street name.

R. L. Stine, The Fear Street Saga: The Burning

1993 / Audiobook / 192 pages

**

A shlocky series doesn't need this much lore.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Evil Moon

1995 / Audiobook / 151 pages

***

A bonkers trilogy based entirely around a pun, this might be where Fear Street jumps the shark / joyrides the werecar, but it's a lot more entertaining than the last historical.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Dark Secret

1995 / Audiobook / 150 pages

***

As repetitive and drawn-out as any trilogy centrepiece until a Back to the Future ending left me craving the crazy finale.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Cataluna Chronicles – The Deadly Fire

1995 / Ebook / 147 pages

**

He may be a master of juvenile horror, but R. L. Stine has no idea how relative time travel works, which just makes it funnier. Another Fear Street spin-off trilogy ending in a fire isn't going to confuse pre-internet readers at all.

Workreads II

Alex Horne, Wordwatching

2010 / Ebook / 288 pages

***

A frankly duller subject than nature, but one that he still makes readable. More interesting than the book was realising I'd been played by the meta prank, since some of these new words sounded disconcertingly familiar.

Ben Mezrich, The X-Files: Skin

1998 / Ebook / 336 pages

****

The last literary X-File I got around to and probably the best, mainly for its impressive attention to detail, both gorily medical and character-wise.

Paul McAuley, Brazil

2019 / Ebook / 96 pages

***

Reappreciation of an oddball film I'll probably not watch again regardless. Even the fan who wrote it has only managed to sit through it a dozen times.

Tony Hawks, The A to Z of Skateboarding

2019 / Ebook / 115 pages

**

The slightly exaggerated contempt for his more famous namesake and the concept of skateboarding was briefly very amusing, but then that single joke rolled on and on.

Alrightgames: Deadeye Dinah (DIY)

Deadeye Dinah (DIY)

2021 / Card game / 1 player

***

Like a microscopic novel or animation made of atoms, this nine-card in-hand Wild West simulator was more appealing in concept than experience. The economical design is very clever, but flipping, rotating and squinting got old fast. I'll stick with SpaceShipped.

Alrightgames: Catan – Family Edition

Catan: Family Edition

2012 / Strategy board game / 3-4 players

****

Like some method meta player, I've traded Catans more than any other game, trying out various editions and expansions at bargain prices, then selling them on for minor profit when I repeatedly decided it wasn't really my kind of game, and probably my family's kind even less. But the 7 year old even likes chess now, and this was cheap enough on eBay to try again again. She's just started to appreciate Takenoko, so there's no rush.

Alrightgames: Hanabi solo variants

Hanabi solo variants

The problem with buying counterfeit card games for a couple of quid (besides inferior quality, supporting crime, destroying the industry and its future prospects and all that) is that you can't really resell or donate them like other games if you don't end up playing them much. Hanabi seems like a fun concept, but I'm the only person around here that thinks so. Fortunately, some bold or foolish fans have come up with solitaire solutions for the fundamentally social deduction game based around not looking at your own cards. I suspect a mirror may be involved.

Solo variant **

A reasonable adaptation of the two-player memory game for one, but it didn't take long for me to surrender to the tedious groove of mainly playing from one hand and relegating the other to token admin. While this should save you from exploding, the resulting display is invariably weak, which is fitting for the mode.

Solo mode for Hanabi in which you give and use hints ***

A more practical reworking of the game that does away with the blind memory aspect but keeps the tricky groupings. On the downside, it's not really Hanabi and it's not really fun.

Alrightgames: The Portal at Hill House

The Portal at Hill House

2020 / Solo journalling RPG / 1 player

***

As a failed writer, I always struggle to commit to the journalling aspect of these, but card-prompted imagination and notes still made for an enjoyable if not wholly consistent tale. I was concerned this was going to be too easy when I found two of the three essential items early on, but that just made defeat all the sweeter. I don't know how often I'll feel like returning, but the tiny book will hang around on the shelf for the prospect of a cooperative RPG session when the little one's a bit older and I won't get told off for giving her nightmares.

Alrightreads: Gonzo

Jon Ronson, The Castle: Adventures in a World of Unraveling Men

2026 / Audiobook / 336 pages

****

The usual curated eccentrics keep this fringe exploration of our ongoing apocalypse from feeling as heavy as it really is, though the audio excerpts occasionally spoil the illusion of all these characters sounding like an insincere Jon Ronson.

Andrew Callaghan, All Gas, No Brakes: A Hitchhiker's Diary

2018 / Ebook / 60 pages

***

Like Jack Kerouac, if he was from a generation that claimed to be roughing it while still whipping out their permanently charged and online phones every chapter.

Louis Theroux, Theroux the Keyhole

2022 / Audiobook / 384 pages

**

A potentially fascinating Coronavirus lockdown commentary for future generations, published with pointless immediacy.

Alexandra Robbins, Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities

2004 / Audiobook / 370 pages

**

Dispatches from an alien world.

Danny Wallace, Somebody Told Me: One Man's Unexpected Journey Down the Rabbit Hole of Lies, Trolls and Conspiracies

2024 / Audiobook / 352 pages

***

The Alan Partridge-voiced journalist recaps things you've probably already heard, sweetened insufficiently with some personal paranoia. He used to be more fun, but that was in less interesting times.

Babyliography CCLIV

Charlotte Raby and Alessandra Fusi, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: The Dragon King’s Daughter

2017 / School book / 24 pages

**

Back to school tonguetwister books, but at least they're bothering to tie them into a theme now.

Ann M. Martin and Arley Nopra, The Baby-Sitters Club: Mallory and the Trouble with Twins

2025 / Paperback / 160 pages

***

The same thing as always, save for a fun digression into made-up laraganguaragagarages.

Teresa Heapy and Davide Ortu, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: The Knight Who Could Knit

2020 / School book / 24 pages

**

Are there going to be enough themed ones to last out the term?

Neill Cameron, Donut Squad: Make a Mess!

2026 / Library book / 208 pages

*****

I mainly suggested we borrow the latest in a seemingly endless conveyor belt of food-based kids' graphic gangs from the library to see how desperate it would be. I wasn't prepared for the funniest comic since Viz. I immediately bought the others for her birthday and Christmas presents so I we get to read them.

Kathy Webb and Fabrizio Di Baldo, Collins Big Cat Phonics for Letters and Sounds: The Shy Monster

2021 / School book / 24 pages

**

They ran out of knight books. She read this one in her head due to a sore throat, so was presumably pronouncing it correctly.

Alrightreads: The 59th Fear Street Song (Feelin' Gory)

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: Bad Moonlight

1995 / Audiobook / 195 pages

***

The Super Chillers are back on form with a werewolf rock band and chicks scoffing down cold meat in Asda. What more do you want?

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: College Weekend

1995 / Ebook / 147 pages

**

Same stupid characters, same tedious cliffhangers.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: The Stepsister 2

1995 / Ebook / 145 pages

**

The first had good misdirection. The sequel's all cheap-scare fake-outs.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: What Holly Heard

1995 / Ebook / 145 pages

***

That's what you get for being a nosey parker, Holly.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street Super Chiller: The New Year's Party

1995 / Audiobook / 193 pages

**

It's just pranks, bro.

Junior Gamesmaster: Tails of Equestria – The Fake Pain

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Fake Pain

DIY roleplaying game adventure

For someone who claims the official, child-friendly Halloween adventure is too scary to ever play again, her own improvisations can get pretty dark, this one involving child poltergeist attacks, but I helped steer it towards the conventional happy ending. She'd be happy enough just playing with the toys, so we're lucky I'm on hand to remind her about character traits and dice rolls and keep myself interested, aren't we?

Junior Gamesmaster: Tails of Equestria – Wind or Blood / Mystery of History (DIY)

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – Wind or Blood / Mystery of History

DIY roleplaying game adventures

After only a little persuasion to try out some dice-randomised food festival antics while we were in town, courtesy of The Games-Master's Book of More Random Encounters (an oddly appropriate eyeball-meatball food cart and unnecessarily brutal tattooing), the young GM had us explore the classic dilemma: wind or blood? She got to tell a story with plenty of dice stuff along the way, and Draculaura added a new spell to her page, inspired by Final Fantasy's limit breaks.

Our next session took things into the third dimension as we tried to scale and dig under a seemingly infinite wall, likely inspired by Minecraft, but keeping things on brand and finding creative uses for our stock spells and skills. I don't need to bother planning these outings any more.

Alrightgames: Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?

Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?

2000 / Sega Dreamcast emulator game / 1-4 players

***

With a complete list of emulated Dreamcast titles available on the Internet Archive, the six year old was most excited to try this turn-of-the-millennium quiz show simulator, though she prefers being the host and setting her own impossible questions. It seems to match the difficulty of the show well (until you presumably play enough to learn it – or just cheat, without having to cause a national scandal) and it's impressive that Chris Tarrant's narration manages to be stingily minimal and annoyingly omnipresent at the same time.

Alrightgames: Pretense

AEG Black Box 2015: Pretense

2015 / Deduction card meta game / 2-12 players

**

This secret role "game" played in the background while you all play proper games (or just go about your day) is a fun concept with underwhelming execution. We only found a few options in the deck that were really relevant for our lives and habits, and the fact that everyone will quickly learn what these are (which even seems to be encouraged by the superfluous tokens) seems to ruin most of the fun. It didn't take us long to start setting our own personalised traps on scrap paper that proved more entertaining.

Alrightgames: Lands of Amazement expansions

Lands of Amazement expansions

It doesn't take long to work out the solo puzzle, so fortunately, as ever, they provide some extra challenges to expand your... what was the pasted-on theme again? Ah, theme park. Of course.

Restorations ***

An only slightly annoying hard mode that adds more parks and more things to think about, while also bringing out the theme a little more, which was sorely needed. It's a keeper.

Family Fun **

Maybe I'll eventually master the game enough to enjoy these ironically-titled torturous obstacles, but for now, they turn an occasionally patience-testing finale into a frustrating ordeal.

Alrightgames: Lands of Amazement

Lands of Amazement

2025 / Solo card game / 1 player

***

I may not have needed another rotating spatial puzzle, but at least it's not another -Opolis game, and an economical print-and-play to boot, though I was slightly disappointed that the theme park theme doesn't really come through at all as you try to efficiently line up icons to form randomly differentiated grids.

It became clear fairly quickly that playing well involves careful clinical analysis to ensure you're only reserving optimal cards, but I prefer to enjoy the rides and struggle through the mess I've made at the end.

Alrightgames: En Garde (DIY)

En Garde (DIY)

1993 / Fencing board game / 2 players

**

Maybe this fencing simulator loses too much vital flavour when playing against yourself using random five-suited cards rather than properly themed ones and a cribbage board rather than shaped figures, but there didn't seem to be much to it. But I'll always give games a go when I can make them myself, and at least it was quick.

Alrightgames: Sketch (DIY)

Sketch (DIY)

2022 / Drawing game / 2-4 players

**

Extrapolating preliminary lines and shapes into pictures isn't the most fun drawing game in our repertoire. We only tried it once.

Alrightgames: Gloom of Kilforth – Encounters

Gloom of Kilforth: Encounters

2018 / Roleplaying card/board game expansion / 1-4 players

****

Loads more cards to extend the life of your cards-based sagas, plus new character options, some of which (Halfling and Druid) have joined my daughter's favourites in our tamer take on the game. I thought I'd have to do without until a bundle showed up on eBay at a tempting price, so I traded in the old set and got more optimised upgrades than were advertised or really desired...

Alrightgames: Star Realms – Stellar Allies

Star Realms: Stellar Allies

2018 / Deckbuilding card game expansion pack / 2-4 players

****

Oh, look, it's the missing combinations from the United dual-faction sets, which they cheekily made a Kickstarter exclusive you couldn't buy from shops. I didn't expect to ever have these until an eBay seller accepted my insultingly low offer for their unwanted Kickstarter bundle that must have been sitting around for the best part of a decade, so this rarity worked out as one of my cheapest Star Realms purchases ever. The lesson is, just be patient and tight and everything works out in the end.

Hm? Oh, yeah, the cards are pretty good. More of the same.

Alrightreads: If You Live on Fear Street, These Are the People You Could Meet

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Wrong Number 2

1995 / Audiobook / 165 pages

**

The original hardly stood out, and this even more forgettable continuation is only justified by the comic potential of young readers hoping for a story about some kind of evil poo.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Truth or Dare

1995 / Audiobook / 146 pages

**

Similar to the last ski break one I read, but with a dumber resolution.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Dead End

1995 / Audiobook / 147 pages

**

Another guilty secret, another credulity-stretching denouement, but some good tension along the way.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Final Grade

1995 / Ebook / 148 pages

**

If they'd had ChatGPT in 1995.

R. L. Stine, Fear Street: Switched

1995 / Audiobook / 150 pages

****

This seemed like it was going to be lighter fantasy fluff, but it didn't take long to pull out a bloody twist. This series doesn't have the highest hit rate, but this is another one I'll be able to recommend to my daughter unironically one day, depending on her squeamishness.