Death Mark / 死印

Hey, hey... Have you heard the rumors about that weird review blog? It’s about some weirdo who keeps on writing about all sorts of obscure and gross murder stories. They say that if you read the intro to one of his posts, you’ll die just like the people in the story that post is about, unless you read the rest of the review as well...

The Monogram Murders

The glorious return of Hercule Poirot... or is it? It might be a bit difficult to tell from the cover, but The Monogram Murders was written not by Agatha Christie, but by Sophie Hannah. Hannah received permission from the Christie estate to write a Hercule Poirot novel, making this the first “official” Poirot novel since Christie’s passing. Does Hannah’s entry live up to the Queen of Crime’s legacy? Eeeh. The book is fun and well-written, but feels a bit too much like it’s clever just for the sake of being clever.

Steins;Gate / シュタインズ・ゲート

In my Raging Loop review, I said that one of the things that I thought made the game work so well was that the protagonist was intelligent and approached the situation in the same way the player would, creating a narrative flow that was engaging, natural, and aligned with what the actual player wanted to do even though there was very little direct control.

Steins;Gate is not like that.