Welcome to the second annual Jordies! These are my awards for the top books, games, movies and TV in 2022!* Yes, this is incredibly late and I should have posted it in December 2021 2022, but nevermind all that.
Book: The Humans
The bad news is I only hit 74% of my reading goal last year (26/35), but the good news is that I did read some absolute bangers. While there wasn’t an obvious winner like last year’s Annihilation, picking a winner for the Jordies 2022 was a major challenge. However, as I look over my Goodreads list, a book does sneak its way to the top: The Humans by Matt Haig (of The Midnight Library fame).
The Humans by Matt Haig is an extremely funny and extremely touching story of what it means to be human. This book was gifted to me (thanks Jess!) in early 2022 as I was emerging from a very deep depression and it hit all the right notes. You should absolutely read it.
Runners up that you should check out in no particular order: Slewfoot by Brom, The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht, Dawn by Olivia Butler, The Bone Mother (thanks Serenity) by David Demchuck, Wenjack by Joseph Boyden, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer, and What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. These were all really excellent books for different reasons and you should give them a read.
Game: Signalis
Signalis hit just in time for my birthday and what a birthday gift it was. This was the best game I played all year and probably one of my favourite games of all time. A lovingly crafted ode to survival horror of olde (particularly Silent Hill) with fantastic pixel art and a beautiful story in a very unique sci-fi setting. Signalis is on everything and you owe it to yourself to try it.
Shoutout my runner up for best game of the year: Vampire Survivors which is just an incredibly fun little game which you should absolutely play.
Movie: The Northman
I’ll be honest. I don’t actually watch a lot of movies in the course of a year. It’s a big investment and I’m usually too tired at the end of the day. 2022 was a busy year for me, so I watched even fewer movies than I normally would. However, I will always make time to go see a Robert Eggers movie, and the best movie I watched in 2022. Eggers does a great job of capturing the theme of whatever he makes, and The Northman captures the saga in the same way that The VVitch captured an Elizabethan folktale.
TV Show: Wednesday
If you’re like me, you find it difficult to start watching a show. I struggle to invest time into a TV series and most require an episode or two to really grab me. I started watching Wednesday as something light to watch with my wife at the end of our day, but after two or three episodes I was pretty hooked. I think Wednesday is a very fun show with well realized horror elements (well realized enough that you are willing to forgive the absolutely awful, and I mean awful CGI creature) that keeps you interested. If, like me, you did not enjoy the first episode very much, keep watching. Like many shows, the first episode leaned too heavily on the most extreme aspects of the characters and it came off as very goofy, but by the second or third episode it hit a good balance and ended up being my favourite show of 2022.
*For the book category the book does not have to release in the year it is awarded, just the year I read it.
Jordan Galbraith 