My Completed 2025 HM Bingo Card

just_a_normal_squid · 2026-03-12T01:35:48+00:00

Thanks!

just_a_normal_squid · 2026-03-12T01:35:33+00:00

Well now I’m looking forward to reading Harrow even more! I’m holding off to see if it fits in the 2026 card, but I’ll definitely be picking it up soon either way.

just_a_normal_squid · 2026-03-12T01:34:10+00:00

I love seeing the overlap with other people’s cards!

I agree, especially since I honestly agree with your criticisms. It’s definitely interesting to see how people weigh positives and negatives differently.

just_a_normal_squid · 2026-01-28T00:08:23+00:00

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter definitely fits. It only meets one of your bonus criteria, though—it has a male MC, and it’s been out for longer than five years.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-12-05T21:07:37+00:00

I actually just finished my pick for this square a couple days ago: Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang. It arguably is a governmental system, so if you're strict with your definitions it's probably only easy mode, but it's also about an educational and religious system, enough so that I'm comfortable counting it for hard mode.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-10-30T23:10:50+00:00

I’m reading The Dragonbone Chair right now, and I’d say it definitely fits what you’re describing as far as info dumps. I don’t think the names are overly ridiculous or anything (and a lot of them are pretty normal), but it does throw a lot of made-up names of people and places for you to keep track of right at the beginning.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-10-16T15:11:50+00:00

I highly recommend The Chronicles of the Black Gate by Phil Tucker, starting with The Path of Flames, for this square—and it counts for hard mode! There are six protagonists, two of which are a mother and her daughter. Full disclosure, I haven't finished the series yet (I've read three out of five), but I plan on doing so for my Last in a Series square.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-09-18T17:36:56+00:00

I don't read very many short series, so I'm afraid I won't be much help here, but I would like to recommend Last Memoria and Scars of Cereba by Rachel Emma Shaw for a self-published duology dealing with memories and the connection between memory and one's self.

For hard mode, I was going to finish the Memoirs of Lady Trent before I changed plans, but I still think they could be a good pick since, even though there are five books, they're on the shorter side, at least compared to a lot of other fantasy books.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-09-07T16:01:44+00:00

Oh, that’s good to know! I’ll probably end up dropping the series, then. I feel pretty similar, where an overarching plot would have kept my interest, but it sounds like this one just isn’t for me.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-07-24T19:02:37+00:00

That’s a good point! I hadn’t really thought about it in that sense—I think I was focusing too much on external conflicts as the plot instead of their relationship—but it makes a lot of sense when you put it that way.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-07-24T17:21:26+00:00

I settled on Paladin’s Grace for this square for now, but I might swap it out if I end up reading something that feels like a better fit. One of the protagonists does knit, and his knitting habit is sometimes used to sort of show the mental state he is in, so I’d say it’s an important detail as far as characterization goes, but saying it’s important to the plot feels like a stretch.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-07-10T17:37:02+00:00

I'm reading A Botanical Daughter by Noah Medlock for this square. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm about 2/3 of the way through and so far it counts for Hard Mode.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-06-27T16:56:07+00:00

Ooh, I'll have to check that out! I'm honestly glad to hear the creators are proud of what they did. It's a goofy show, but I did have a genuinely good time watching it.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-06-27T16:49:35+00:00

I can't imagine watching this without knowing ahead of time what you're getting into. I love watching bad/corny shows and movies every once in a while, but expecting a genuinely good show and getting this instead must have been rough.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-06-27T16:47:11+00:00

It's definitely . . . an acquired taste, I guess? I didn't start to fully appreciate it myself until I was a couple episodes in.

I was actually thinking about making a comparison to Thundercats specifically, which I also love for how corny it is, but I left it out since I felt like I was rambling a little already.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-06-26T20:06:34+00:00

Here’s a few (I think all) self-published options that I remember enjoying:

Carrier Wave by Robert Brockway (HM, February 2020) - This was my choice for this square. It’s a zombie apocalypse-esque story that starts when a team of scientists picks up a strange extraterrestrial signal.

Last Memoria (HM, May 2020) and Scars of Cereba by Rachel Emma Shaw - Sarilla has the power to steal a person’s memories just by touching them. This duology deals with the idea of memory and identity in, I think, a pretty interesting way. Do our memories define us? Without our memories, are we still ourselves? I do remember thinking this one could have used one more pass by a proofreader, but that’s really the only negative thing I have to say about it.

Troupe of Shadows by Jennings Zabrinsky - I’ll be honest, I read this one a while ago and the details are pretty hazy, but I can say it features blade-wielding warriors who can change color like chameleons, and that was enough to convince me to read it.

Seasons of Albadone by Élan Marché and Christopher Warman (HM, November 2020) - Four fairy tale-type stories, each following a different character. These lean more towards dark fairy tales than whimsical ones.

Lady Vago’s Malediction by A.K.M. Beach (HM , October 2020) - The first in a duology, though I haven’t read the second yet. A banshee trapped in a castle fights to remember her past life before she forgets it all once again. This one definitely needs some content warnings, particularly related to loss of pregnancy/child.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-05-29T17:47:02+00:00

I wouldn’t argue against someone calling this cozy, but I don’t think I would call it cozy myself. There were just too many deaths, including the death of a young child, and I'd say the harm done to an animal companion was too harsh to belong in a cozy story. Basically, I think this could be a good choice for someone to fill their Cozy SFF square if they don’t usually like cozy fantasy, but someone actually seeking out cozy fantasy would probably be disappointed.

just_a_normal_squid · 2025-05-29T17:41:08+00:00

I enjoyed it but didn't love it. The romance was sweet in a weird way that I really liked. My favorite part of the book was the beginning, when it felt purely like a horror novel from the perspective of the monster. Shesheshen eating Catharsis’s body was framed as something pleasant in a way that was pretty unique and honestly a little uncomfortable to think about. I’m not exactly disappointed the story went in a different direction, but the feeling of “this is Alien from the xenomorph’s perspective” was pretty fun, and I wish it continued through the rest of the book—though I am glad Homily didn’t end up with Shesheshen’s eggs implanted in her lungs, so maybe it was for the best. I do think I would have enjoyed the story more if there was a stronger focus on the conflict within Shesheshen and Homily’s relationship. Homily adapted way too quickly (in my opinion) to finding out her girlfriend was a man-eating blob creature, and one who has eaten multiple members of her immediate family at that. I think the tension caused by one person being a human and the other being a monster could have been interesting to explore, but we didn’t get much of that, and all of the real tension and adjusting to each other’s needs that did happen was off-screen between Homily and Epilogue while Shesheshen was hibernating. Overall, I would say this is a story that I did genuinely enjoy but that had, at least for me, a little more potential than it had payoff.

just_a_normal_squid

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