Movies & TV Widow’s Bay What to Watch After Widow’s Bay A curated watchlist that is the next Martha’s Vineyard and definitely not cursed By Matthew Byrd | Published on June 18, 2026 Credit: Apple TV Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Apple TV Nobody is happy about Widow’s Bay ending. Yes, the show has been renewed for a second season and will almost certainly be a featured player throughout awards season, but the fact of the matter is that shows this clever, surprising, well-crafted, and simply fun don’t come along often enough. And once you’ve finished Widow’s Bay’s exceptional final episode, you will be left wondering what you could possibly turn to next to help fill the void. Well, that’s the strange thing about Widow’s Bay. Though it’s often a collection of horror references and concepts, there’s really very little that is quite like it. However, by breaking the series down into pieces, we can construct a reasonable watchlist of movies and shows that at least capture some aspect of the incredible horror comedy series. Storm of the Century Pretty much every Stephen King adaptation pairs well with Widow’s Bay (he was kind of a big inspiration, in case you couldn’t tell), but the eternally underrated Storm of the Century is the one Stephen King story you absolutely need to watch and maybe haven’t seen. As a massive snowstorm descends upon Little Tall Island, the residents of the small Maine town also receive a mysterious and unwelcome new visitor. They soon find out the two occurrences are connected in ways that will force them to make unthinkable decisions. Along with being a direct influence on Widow’s Bay’s final episodes, Storm of the Century is quietly one of Stephen King’s greatest stories (despite being an original TV screenplay rather than an adaptation of one of the author’s many novels). That’s admittedly a big claim, but this three-part miniseries perfectly captures the small town relationships King excels at without succumbing to an underwhelming giant cosmic spider finale. It’s simultaneously a nearly perfect encapsulation of the author’s legacy and one of his finest original works of the last few decades. Midnight Mass You do have to occasionally remind yourself that Midnight Mass is not technically based on a Stephen King story. Yes, it comes to us from Stephen King whisperer Mike Flanagan, and yes, it’s something of an unofficial Salem’s Lot story that’s better than the official Salem’s Lot adaptations. And though those qualities make it easy to fall under Midnight Mass’ spell (especially if you’re just coming down from a Widow’s Bay high), it’s the show’s more unique elements that make it arguably Flanagan’s greatest creation. What begins as the story of a young priest desperate to bring hope to a small island community soon grows into a poignant and genuinely terrifying examination of the allure and easily corrupted power of faith itself. It’s a series about the monsters born from blind hope for a savior as well as the monsters created when we harden our hearts to the idea of something better. It also features a career-best performance from Hamish Linklater, whose standout Widow’s Bay performance felt directly inspired by this series. Ravenous Speaking of Hamish Linklater, those who enjoyed the actor’s flashback episode in Widow’s Bay should watch The Witch: Robert Eggers’ beloved slice of New England period piece folk horror. Those who have seen The Witch a few too many times (there are dozens of us!) should instead consider checking out Antonia Bird’s 1999 film, Ravenous. Set during the Mexican–American War, Ravenous follows a group of soldiers who resort to cannibalism and must confront an ancient curse associated with their unforgivable actions. Ravenous is often described as a horror comedy, and its arguably the funniest cannibal comedy this side of Hannibal and Cannibal! The Musical. However, the comedy of this morbid tale is more in line with the Widow’s Bay-esque absurdity of watching increasingly bad decisions play out in a remarkable situation. This is also an arguable entry in the “Men would rather” subgenre. Blow the Man Down While not a horror movie, there are three very good reasons to watch Blow the Man Down after Widow’s Bay: It’s an incredibly atmospheric depiction of a fishing village It’s an absolutely brilliant murder mystery movie that more people need to see It features Margo Martindale giving a career-best performance What does Margo Martindale have to do with Widow’s Bay? I suppose I could argue for her Americans connection to Matthew Rhys, but the truth of the matter is that there is never a bad time to sing the praises of Margo Martindale. Speaking of singing, Blow the Man Down actually uses sea shanties as the loose framework for its story involving two sisters who dive into the surprisingly deep underbelly of their small town while trying to conceal a murder. Few movies capture the eternally foggy feel of a small fishing village quite like this one, and fewer still use that feel to paint a compelling story about what we hide from the people we know best. In The Mouth of Madness Technically speaking, The Fog is the John Carpenter movie that probably has the most in common with Widow’s Bay thanks to its seaside setting and cursed community. To get even more technical, one never really needs a reason to recommend nearly any John Carpenter movie. Did you like Widow’s Bay? Watch Big Trouble in Little China. Why? Why not? However, In the Mouth of Madness shares an incredibly specific (and incredibly fascinating) plot element with Widow’s Bay: a fictional small town comprised almost entirely of horror tropes. Granted, the town is really just the embodiment of a popular missing author’s various creations rather than a real place, but our brief trip through it evokes that same feeling of being wrapped in a warm, spooky blanket that Widow’s Bay joyfully delivered week after week. It’s also another piece of media that makes you wonder why Castle Rock was rarely half as good as it should have been. Tucker and Dale vs Evil Truth be told, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil doesn’t balance comedy and horror quite as well as Widow’s Bay does. You may find an errant scare in this story of two wholesome fellas who accidentally become the villains in a group of teens’ horror story, but Tucker and Dale hasn’t become a cult classic because of its frights. It is, however, one of the absolute funniest horror movies ever made. You don’t even need to be that familiar with the “Hicksploitation” subgenre the movie most directly draws from to get the whole thing. Even a vague awareness of the concept of young people in peril in the woods will do. And while there is probably an essay to be written about the ways the movie examines our habit of creating villains out of others, it’s mostly an excuse to watch two of the kindest good ole boys you’ll ever meet become increasingly befuddled as a group of kids keep accidentally killing themselves all around them. Bodkin Curses aside, the scariest things about small towns are often the little things. You’re sometimes never quite sure if what you’re witnessing is just a little different or truly… off. Even the next Martha’s Vineyard has its quirks. At its best, Bodkin explores the sometimes thin line between outsider’s suspicion and outsider’s intuition. The show follows a group of podcasters (I know, I know, hear me out) who descend upon a small Irish town to investigate a murder mystery. They initially suspect they’ve found nothing but the world’s quaintest village, but before you can say “Midsommar,” the group discovers that some of the things they’ve been writing off as quirks are signs of something foul. It’s Bodkin’s comedic undertones and its embrace of the weird that make it a more natural companion to Widow’s Bay than the average cozy murder mystery. If you’re looking for something a little more in that style, definitely check out Prime Video’s Deadloch. Messiah of Evil If you have a taste for (or, perhaps more accurately, tolerance of) deeply weird, surreal, dreamlike, lethargic horror movies, then it is my great pleasure to add Messiah of Evil to your watchlist. Though technically set in a California coastal town, it feels more truthful to say that Messiah of Evil explores a particularly strange corner of an especially bizarre Lovecraftian hellscape. This surrealist painting of a slow burn nightmare takes the idea of a cursed town to often indescribable new levels. It’s not for every Widow’s Bay fan, but I can promise you that it will forever linger on the edges of your mind. The Devonsville Terror Yes, yes, yes, you should absolutely watch The Wicker Man if you love Widow’s Bay. That foundational piece of cinematic folk horror is clearly one of the biggest influences on Widow’s Bay’s plot and style. But if you hunger for something a touch more obscure, then allow me to recommend The Devonsville Terror. Is The Devonsville Terror good? Why ask such things when you can bask in the glory of a possibly half-drunk Donald Pleasance investigating a New England town that is supposedly cursed due to their historical violence against witches? It’s rough around the edges to say the least, but this movie’s village in the fall vibes are simply immaculate. Its acknowledgement that the crusade against witches was really just a power play by the patriarchy is also a surprisingly subtle plot point for a movie that feels like it’s based on some unpublished pulp horror paperback. Grabbers Despite having the worst (or best, depending on your taste) name in fairly recent horror movie history, Grabbers really is some kind of masterpiece. This horror comedy begins with an incredibly familiar premise: residents of a small Irish village find themselves under attack from mysterious creatures and only an unlikely pair of cops can stop them. In an incredible twist, though, we soon learn that the only protection against the monsters is to get, and stay, really, really drunk. Setting of the story aside, Grabbers’ most endearing similarity to Widow’s Bay is its commitment to remaining purely fun at every turn. Wellington Paranormal Wellington Paranormal exists on a plane that’s parallel to Widow’s Bay. After all, both shows feature members of a municipality dealing with a series of supernatural events. Whereas Widow’s Bay mixes those adventures with moments of serialized compelling character drama, Wellington Paranormal is a deeply, deeply silly episodic series. Created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement of What We Do in the Shadows fame (it’s actually a soft spin-off of that series), Wellington Paranormal is a version of Cops in which said cops must deal with demons and devils. It’s a show best enjoyed by those who find some indescribable pleasure in watching the least capable (and therefore most hilarious) people in the world try to navigate supernatural cases while maintaining an impossibly bureaucratic disposition about the whole thing. The Babadook Tbt to Halloween when I dressed as the babadook but my friend's house had more of a grown ups drinking wine vibe pic.twitter.com/PoGKUFeLLw— Katie Dippold (@katiedippold) June 30, 2016 An essential part of Widow’s Bay lore, The Babadook is the film that inspired series creator Katie Dippold to share one of the greatest tweets of all time. It’s a fantastic movie in its own right and one of the most important horror films of the modern era, but you’re also here for the foundations of a generational meme. Bonus Patricia Double Feature! Friday the 13th Part 2 and Pearl As the breakout star of Widow’s Bay, Kate O’Flynn’s Patricia often steals the show. However, the character’s two best moments (aside from the reveal of her book van that the rest of the town clearly doesn’t appreciate enough) occur when she hosts the world’s most chaotic dinner party and when we learn that Patricia has long been something of a final girl hiding in plain sight. If your tastes veer more towards the final girl territory, give Friday the 13th Part 2 a go. Yes, Patricia’s final girl is much closer to Halloween’s Laurie Strode, and no, I’m probably not going to convince you that any of the Friday the 13th movies are masterpieces (despite my lifelong fondness for them). However, Friday the 13th Part 2 is both one of the best-made entries in the franchise and features one of the greatest final girls in horror history: Ginny Field. Intelligent, resourceful, relentless, and not afraid to live as well as survive, Ginny is both a foundational final girl and a subversion of many of the final girl tropes that would eventually emerge. If you’re more of a chaos party host Patricia fan, then give Pearl a watch. Not only was it directed by Ti West (who also directed one of Widow’s Bay’s best episodes, “Our History”), but it features Mia Goth giving what I feel comfortable describing as a generational performance. No, Patricia isn’t quite as desperate or murderous as Pearl, but the twinkle of madness in her eyes when she envisions a moment of stardom certainly recalls the look on Patricia’s face when she believes she has become the party princess of the island.[end-mark] The post What to Watch After <i>Widow’s Bay</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Column Anime Spotlight Five Anime for Fans of John Carpenter From wise-cracking antiheroes to shapeshifting aliens to dystopian hellscapes… By Leah Thomas | Published on June 18, 2026 Credit: Madhouse Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Madhouse In 2026, John Carpenter isn’t making movies. Instead, he’s doing everything else. He’s attending conventions, scoring FPS video games, or touring with his synthesizer. He’s working on comic books with accompanying heavy metal albums. He’s watching sports and playing video games.  This all… sounds about right. John Carpenter is the kind of creator whose appeal has always been tough to pigeonhole, based at least in part in his ability to combine the bizarre and unusual and the totally mundane in unique and unlikely ways. Sure, you can clock a John Carpenter film immediately based on the font and synth alone, but beyond that, his movies run the gamut when it comes to content and genre. Carpenter isn’t precious about his legacy. In interviews, he’s joked that he’s happy for anyone to make remakes of his films so long as he gets paid for it—what’s better than getting paid for doing nothing? Besides, he’s made a remake or two himself. But a legacy he has cultivated all the same—it can be hard to quantify the impact one odd-duck director has had on pop culture across the past 50 years, but Carpenter has certainly left his mark in a number of ways. I think it’s safe to wonder whether a bit of overlap exists between John Carpenter’s legions of fans and anime otaku: Frenetic energy and overblown sci-fi concepts exist happily in both spheres. So if you’re a diehard fan of Halloween but haven’t watched much anime, or if you love Shinichirō Watanabe but haven’t been exposed to the wonderful world of weird ’80s films, consider these humble suggestions for an eclectic Carpenter/anime cultural exchange… For Fans of Big Trouble in Little China — Space Dandy Credit: Bones While most Watanabe fans will point straight to Cowboy Bebop when asked to recommend a Space Western, that’s not today’s assignment. Carpenter has a long-abiding admiration for Westerns that manifests in his soundtracks or in his lawless main characters, but he’s never actually made an actual Western. Instead, he sticks Wild West types into other genres and puts them to work. Jack Burton is a trucker, not a cowboy, but he’s certainly found himself in a new frontier. Big Trouble in Little China is great, but much of that greatness comes down to it being completely goofy. And the goofy sibling to Cowboy Bebop is Space Dandy.  A self-proclaimed alien hunter, Dandy spends his days searching for rare species so he can collect a bounty and enjoy his time at his favorite space Breastaurant. Dandy is not a heroic character, but he tends to find himself at the center of all kinds of action. Over the course of the series, he casually explodes entire planets by mistake, gets turned into a zombie (along with the rest of the universe), accidentally travels billions of years into the future, and opens up a black hole or two. All of these things weigh on him no more than another morning commute, and this isn’t because he has hidden depths: Dandy is incapable of introspection. Dandy has to be a joke, even till the end when the universe is destroyed and he turns down an offer to become the god of a rebooted universe. He’s just a dingus who wants to get paid and hang out at BooBies. Because Dandy is ignorant of the terrors of the universe, he is immune to fearing them. Similarly, Jack Burton doesn’t have enough knowledge or curiosity about the underground world of sorcery and mysticism in Chinatown to fear it. David Lo Pan is not terrifying to Jack Burton; he’s an old weirdo with lightning fingers. Burton just wants his truck back. An underground society rife with ancient sorcery and immortal martial artists doesn’t really concern him, apart from that. He is reckless when it comes to participating in fights in the underworld beneath San Francisco and gets in the way of fights involving the movie’s real hero, Wang. Jack spends much of the movie’s climactic battle unconscious after he shoots the ceiling in an attempt at bravado and some debris falls on his head. “I’m a reasonable guy,” Jack says, “but I’ve just experienced some very unreasonable things.” At the end of the film, when offered the choice, he chooses his truck, not the girl. The more I think about these two assholes, the more I think they are subversive as hell. Both skate by the abyss, sustained by swagger and sarcasm.  For Fans of They Live — Parasyte: The Maxim Credit: Madhouse “Why do we worship greed?” They Live is memorable for many reasons. That one genius fight scene in the alley goes on forever, doesn’t it? And heck if one-liners like “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum” and “Life’s a bitch… and she’s back in heat” didn’t define an era. The plodding, steady soundtrack is a driving force, and the visual elements are unforgettable: those ghoulish, rubbery masks in red, white and blue, with those bared teeth and gleaming asterisk eyes; the billboards peeled back to reveal subliminal messaging in stark font: Obey, Consume, Stay Asleep. But arguably, it’s the eternally relevant message of They Live that remains its most potent and memorable aspect. The aliens in They Live hide among human beings and profit from a capitalist society that preys on the disenfranchised. And why should anyone believe the poor who protest in the slums of Los Angeles? The wealthy monsters already run the world. In Parasyte, a manga classic that began serialization in 1989, the aliens are already among us, too, wearing the bodies of salarymen and career women in 1980s Japan. Whereas They Live is directly inspired by the avarice of Reagan-era America, Parasyte began as commentary on human egotism and the conviction that human beings are superior simply because they eat everything else. Mangaka Hitoshi Iwaaki wanted to write a story in which human beings are no more important than any other species in the eyes of alien invaders.  When one alien parasite descends from the sky and attempts to infect a nerdy teenager named Shinichi, it fails to reach his brain because a headphone cable cuts off Shinichi’s circulation, trapping the parasite in his hand. The parasite—named Migi because he replaces Shinichi’s right hand—retains its own consciousness and the ability to reason with Shinichi, but lacks empathy for humanity. After all, do human beings empathize with their chicken dinners? A little, perhaps, with some coaxing… Migi informs Shinichi that other parasites have invaded human society, replacing the brains of their human hosts, and when they sense that Shinichi retains his human brain, the parasites will destroy them both. An unlikely partnership is born, and two disparate minds must cooperate in order to survive.  Although the aliens in They Live aren’t shapeshifters, the alien designs in Parasyte are highly influenced by monsters of Japanese folklore. The parasites can reshape the flesh of their hosts, malforming skulls into blades with eyes while leaving humanoid bodies intact. Arguably, it’s more reminiscent of The Thing than They Live, but thematically, They Live is the stronger comparison. In They Live, alien invaders are an analogy for the dehumanizing nature of capitalism. In Parasyte, alien invaders inspire philosophical questions about humanity and empathy. Differences aside, both of these ’80s classics plead with viewers to question the tiny monstrosities and casual inhumanity we normalize every single day.  For Fans of The Thing — To Your Eternity Credit: Brain’s Base While there are certainly more egregious examples of shows that completely squandered a great start (staring at you, The Promised Neverland), it’s no secret that To Your Eternity promises its audience more than it can deliver. Even so, dizzying ambition and a harrowing pilot episode have kept it on my mind. I feel as though author Yoshitoki Ōima watched The Thing and wondered, “What if said Thing lived long enough to become an actual person?” The Thing is the closest thing to a perfect film that Carpenter ever made, and To Your Eternity exemplifies flawed execution, but they are kindred spirits. Both stories begin in an isolated tundra. In The Thing, an alien entity mutates the body of a dog at a research facility; in To Your Eternity, an alien entity transforms into a wolf and becomes companion to a boy left alone in an abandoned village. In both, the alien can adopt the appearance of other creatures it makes contact with. While this is used to scale superb heights of horror in The Thing, in To Your Eternity this ability is used to reinterpret grief. The boy cannot escape the snow, and when he dies alone in his hut, the thing takes on his appearance and lives on in his place, immortalizing a human being who otherwise would have been forgotten. The Thing is a creature that cannot learn empathy; Fushi, the immortal at the center of To Your Eternity, must do so to find purpose in its existence. Somehow, pairing these two stories creates a means for exploring two very different angles of a classic sci-fi trope.  For Fans of Halloween — Monster Credit: Madhouse Halloween is widely considered the prototypical slasher film. Upon its release in 1978, the concept of a horror franchise being centered on a serial killer did not exist. It is easy to dismiss the franchise now, given how many terrible sequels have diluted its impact, but even that—the idea that one horror movie would spawn decades of profitable sequels—was groundbreaking. Michael Myers stalked so Freddy Krueger could claw and Jason Voorhees could slice. “Slashers” in the colloquial sense do appear in anime sometimes, but usually within the context of a wider story. There are serial killer plotlines in several seinen series—Durarara!!, Erased, and Psycho-Pass come to mind. But in general, horror in an anime context manifests much differently than it does in many American films. Usually, there’s a supernatural element to the violence. While that’s true for slasher films in general, it’s important to remember that Halloween was devoid of ghosts or magic. Michael Myers is terrifying because he is an actual person, not a creature. In that first film, he has fewer than ten minutes of screentime, but his presence looms large over that suburban neighborhood. Serial killer horror, to be effective, has to practice the art of restraint. Anime is not especially known for this. But Monster is not like most anime. Written by award-winning mangaka Naoki Urasawa, it has been admired on an international scale, receiving accolades such as the Tezuka Award and multiple Eisner nominations. The story’s chief antagonist, Johan Liebert, does not need to appear in most episodes to make his impact felt. He manipulates others from the shadows and torments our protagonist, the disgraced surgeon Dr. Tenma, by surrounding him with disaster. Dr. Tenma made the mistake of saving Johan Liebert’s life when he was a boy, not realizing he was saving the life of a calculating psychopath. The psychological terror in both Halloween and Monster can be distilled as follows: the most terrifying monster of all is man, and also? All men were once children. Michael Myers, subject to apparent abuse (though that’s not apparent in the original film), killed his own sister. Johan, a born murderer, killed his own parents in front of his twin sister. Both men revisit the sources of their childhood torment in order to wreak chaos upon them. It’s hard to explain how very different Monster feels from virtually every other anime, even twenty years on. Like Halloween, it set a new standard for what horror stories could accomplish. For Fans of Escape from New York — Blood Blockade Battlefront Credit: Bones Say what you will about the terrible disappointment that was Escape from LA, but Snake Plissken is one fabulous guy, and Escape from New York is one fun film. The concept is a bit ludicrous—in the far-flung future year of 1997, Manhattan is no longer a city, but a high-security prison. Some convicts have managed to hijack Air Force One and trap the president! Since this is a work of fiction unrelated to our current reality, in the context of the movie, the president is a guy that has to be saved. Snake Plissken is a special agent with an eyepatch and an attitude, and he’s breaking into Manhattan on a rescue mission. In another vision of New York, a deity pierces an interdimensional rift and exchanges some kid named Leo’s eyes for god-tier weapons at the cost of his sister’s sight; it’s not a great deal for anyone. This New York, renamed Hellsalem’s Lot, isn’t full of convicts, but it is pretty damn lawless. A new population of paranormal immigrants from the Beyond have moved in and reshaped the boroughs. Our boy Leo joins up with a crew of oddball investigators known as Libra and helps them take care of the conflict that inevitably arises in a vibrant city going through a major cultural shift.  Created by Trigun mastermind Yasuhiro Nightow, Blood Blockade Battlefront is a show that’s grounded in a specific, if slightly unconvincing, setting. Escape from New York was not filmed in New York, and it took a lot of clever camera work, matte paintings, and models to sell the illusion that it was. Blood Blockade Battlefront was created not by a New York native, but by an enthusiast from afar who probably watched movies like Escape from New York in his younger years. Don’t we all have an illusory vision of New York and other major cities, informed by art and media and diluted endlessly by other creators and their works, that we never replace until we finally visit the places and see them for ourselves?  Both Blood Blockade Battlefront and Escape from New York rely on settings that balloon out of control but remain grounded by compelling characters and a sense of unexpected playfulness. And both of these stories pay homage to a city that is endlessly inspiring new and unlikely ideas. John Carpenter isn’t making movies anymore, and that’s a shame, though we can certainly enjoy whatever else he decides to make in the meantime, too. While his unique brand of filmmaking—slapdash and dark and strange and, well, pretty great—is hard to imitate, it’s good to know that when it comes to telling stories that toe the line between weird horror and timeless camp, anime has us covered.[end-mark] The post Five Anime for Fans of John Carpenter appeared first on Reactor.

Books cover reveals Revealing Tyrant in the Cracks by Hache Pueyo A dark fantasy arriving March 2027 By Reactor | Published on June 18, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share the cover of Hache Pueyo’s first full-length novel, Tyrant in the Cracks. A dark fantasy of time rifts and what-ifs, Tyrant in the Cracks is forthcoming March 16, 2027 from Tor Books. In a tropical island country brimming with magic, cracks appear in any surface, visible only to those with a natural and trained talent for the occult. Professor Cícero Dangeris—ascetic, beautiful, disciplined—is among the very few, and together with his quiet assistant Eco, he embarks on a journey to track these fissures and study their secrets.The cracks show echoes to another timeline, one in which the brutal military dictatorship that oppressed the island never ended. There, a puppet general commands the nation, controlled by another version of Dangeris—debauched, excessive, hedonistic—who is obsessed with finding an elusive mirror of a girl he has seen in these fissures since childhood.As they travel the island via an underwater train, new realities appear, proving how easily people and countries can change. What Dangeris finds in those images are his own secrets, from the past he tries to hide to the desires he would rather repress, and there’s only one common denominator between all his parallel lives: Eco herself. Cover art by Raja Nandepu; Design by Esther S. Kim Buy the Book Tyrant in the Cracks Hache Pueyo Buy Book Tyrant in the Cracks Hache Pueyo Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Hache Pueyo is an Argentine-Brazilian writer and translator. She won an Otherwise Fellowship for her work with gender in speculative fiction, and her work has appeared as H. Pueyo in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, among others. She is the author of A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias, But Not Too Bold, and the Nebula-nominated Cabaret in Flames. The post Revealing <i>Tyrant in the Cracks</i> by Hache Pueyo appeared first on Reactor.

Books Necessary Whimsy There’s Never Been a Better Time to Celebrate Queer Joy Let’s support LGBTQIA+ stories and creators this Pride Month, and every month… By Lish McBride | Published on June 18, 2026 Cattywampus cover art by Abigail Dela Cruz Comment 0 Share New Share Cattywampus cover art by Abigail Dela Cruz I’ve you’ve read the Necessary Whimsy column before, you know that I consider whimsy to be both a comfort and a weapon. It’s a soft, sparkly rainbow blanket that you can wrap your heart in, and a brick you can throw against hate, injustice, and the seething mass of awful the world chucks at us sometimes. Necessary Whimsy is a Pride parade, full of joy, rainbows, and love, which wouldn’t exist if not for a riot. Comfort and bricks, rainbows and riots, whimsy sustains us in the rough times and soothes us so we can fight again… As it’s Pride, we’re going to focus this month’s whimsy on LGBTQIA+ titles. While you should of course be reading widely and diversely all year, I think it’s worth seizing this opportunity to highlight LGBTQIA+ stories and authors. Why? Well, selfishly, for your own gratification: Think of all of the delicious book morsels you might be missing! Why would you not treat yourself? Don’t you think you deserve it? I do. TREAT YOUR SELF. Selfishness aside, consider doing it for the team. The team here being the authors, booksellers, librarians and book industry folk who work their butts off to bring this fresh queer whimsy to you. If you’ve read this Book Riot article, you might know that queer books and authors could use your support. (For some deeper context, I suggest this post by fabulous author Malinda Lo, whose books I haven’t featured in this column before only because they don’t generally fit into the ‘Whimsy’ category, but she’s immensely talented and you should all read her work.) So read widely, my friends—FOR THE TEAM. But also because you love yourself and you deserve nice things. The following list is non-exhaustive, for sure—it’s just a sampling. I have limited space, and even though I’ve been trying to read All of the Books, I haven’t figured out how to make that happen yet. Which is where you come in. Did I miss one of your favorite LGBTQIA+ stories (whether fiction or TV or anything else)? Recommend them in the comments! It’s good to share, isn’t it? Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland Do you like pirates? Did you get super upset when Our Flag Means Death was cancelled? Then I have good news for you—this book exists. Avra Helvaçi, former intelligence officer turned poet, might have used his extremely good luck to steal something that will absolutely get him killed. Then he immediately panicked and jumped on to a ship…which unfortunately was captured by pirates. Which also, unfortunately, happens to be the ship of Avra’s ex, Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār, who is not happy to see Avra…especially since Avra wrote that song about them. Worse than all of this, Avra feels he might have been replaced in Tev’s heart (or at the very least their bed) by the startling handsome and mysterious Julian. Still, Avra seems to have been cursed by good luck, so maybe this will all turn out for the best? Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell Shesheshen is an amorphous blob with simple goals—hibernate, then eventually find someone she clicks with so she can deposit her eggs in them and co-parent her brood. Who among us, am I right? Unfortunately, her hibernation is rudely interrupted by monster hunters, and even though she builds herself a pretty badass body out of chains, bear traps, and whatever she has lying around, she’s badly injured. Which is bad. But then she’s nursed back to health by Homily. Which is good. At times gross (complimentary) and trauma-filled, this book is also funny, healing, and surprisingly sweet considering the body count. Look, the bottom line is amorphous, shapeshifting blob monsters need love, too. And really, maybe everyone needs to think about what makes a monster a monster, anyway. The Spells We Cast by Jason June Okay, so I have a big ol’ soft spot in my heart for fantasy books with Western elements, and this book delivers fantasy tropes but with cowboy vibes. Plus swoony romance, magic competitions, complicated family relationships, and lassos. LASSOS. I’m always a big nerd for genre blending, and Fantasy + Western is one of my favorites. I mean, this book is not really a Western but… just, there’s cowboy hats! And lassos! Speaking of favorites, The Spells We Cast features one of my most beloved tropes—grumpy/sunshine. Nigel is a delightful ball of sweetness and light, and Orion is a Broody McBrooderson. Some things just go together, like chocolate and peanut butter, you know? Maggie & Abby’s Neverending Pillow Fort by Will Taylor Full disclosure here—Will is my friend and I’m horribly biased in his favor. That’s not why I’m including his book here. I’m including it because this book is whimsy made flesh. (That came out creepier than I planned, but I’m going with it.) Maggie has had nothing but her incredibly vivid imagination to keep her company while her best friend, Abby, has been away at camp. When Abby gets home, it’s like she’s still not there, because all she wants to do is talk about camp. And while this book deals with the very real heartbreak of growing apart from your best friend, it also has magically connected pillow forts. A visit from the North American Founding and Allied Forts Alliance (NAFAFA) causes big problems for Maggie and Abby, sending them on a rollicking adventure to fulfill the requirements needed to keep their magical pillow fort going. We could all use a heart-warming pillow fort adventure these days… Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo To paraphrase bookseller Kate at Ballast Books, this is the “cutest zombie book ever.” Which is why I bought this book and why indie booksellers are the greatest and will always be better than algorithms. (A hill I will stubbornly live on.) Delpha McGill has been forbidden from learning magic by her mama, even though it might solve their money problems. Katybird Hearn’s magic is acting strangely, causing her to worry that having XY chromosomes instead of XX is causing issues with a magic that is passed down from mother to daughter. Both of them think that Della’s Mamaw’s family spellbook has the answers, but there’s an age-old family feud standing between them. An argument between them accidentally unleashes a hex that raises up a graveyard full of their ancestors, who aren’t too happy about it. This book is the Power of Friendship, but with zombies, raccoon familiars, and an Appalachian setting. (Honestly, they had me at raccoons.) The Owl House Sometimes your favorite things connect. Nothing has brought me more joy than finding out that the old animation website, homestarrunner.com (Trogdor forever!) is connected to Gravity Falls, one of my favorite cartoons ever, which is connected to The Owl House. If you’re familiar with the first two, but haven’t watched The Owl House, go watch The Owl House. If you’ve not watched any of these things, great, you now have amazing weekend plans! If you have watched them all… have you considered a rewatch? There’s so much to love about The Owl House. It’s deliciously weird and fulfills one of my childhood dreams—to get whisked off to a strange world where I can become a witch and have an adorable demon best friend like King. (Also, I absolutely adore Wendie Malick and she’s great as the voice of Eda Clawthorne.) This was an award-winning show that tragically only got a few seasons, but will live on forever in my (admittedly creepy) heart. Los Espookys It’s kind of hard to really encapsulate Los Espookys as a show. It’s a mostly Spanish-language comedy with subtitles, centered around Renaldo, a horror enthusiast who comes up with a business plan where people can hire his team to create spooky effects for everything from parties to staged exorcisms. While it’s about horror, it’s not scary, but rather an off-kilter, dreamy sort of comedy perpetuated by a top-notch cast. It’s unapologetically quirky and kind—like cracking open Frankenstein monster’s chest only to find a soft heart made of rainbow cotton candy. It’s rare for me to find a show I love that has both a high critic and fan score on Rotton Tomatoes, but Los Espookys managed it. It only ran for two short seasons (twelve episodes in all), so if you’re looking for a quick watch that’s not quite like anything else you’ve ever seen, I highly recommend it.[end-mark] The post There’s Never Been a Better Time to Celebrate Queer Joy appeared first on Reactor.

News Spider-Man: Brand New Day Spider-Man: Brand New Day Trailer Teases Mysterious New Villain The fourth Spider-Man film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set to premiere in theaters in July By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on June 17, 2026 Screenshot: Sony Pictures Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Sony Pictures The latest trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day sees Peter (Tom Holland) going through some changes (black eyes… you know what that means!), and having some anger issues since everyone he knows and loves has no memory of who he is. It’s a bummer! But we see him getting help from Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and also saving MJ (Zendaya) even though she’s not quite sure who he is. There’s also an enemy who jumps from mind to mind that no one can see… except Peter. Here’s the official synopsis that spells everything out: It’s a BRAND NEW DAY for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves – a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them. The movie comes from director Destin Daniel Cretton, who also worked on Wonder Man and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The script comes from Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers and Justin Kuritzkes, and you can see it in theaters starting on July 31, 2026. When you’re deciding where to watch it, keep this fun fact in mind: The movie comes in two native aspect ratios to fit both flat screens and scope screens. What does your local theater have? I don’t know! But Marvel wants you to know that whatever shape your screen takes, the film will look fabulous. While we wait for July 31, check out the latest trailer below on your flat-screen phone and/or laptop. You can also check out this Spidey Tracker website, which lets you see where in NYC a few of the trailer’s clips are set, get a little more info on some of Brand New Day‘s major characters, and seemingly see where a few upcoming promotional events will occur.[end-mark] The post <i>Spider-Man: Brand New Day</i> Trailer Teases Mysterious New Villain appeared first on Reactor.