A Little Life update #17
What am I reading/watching/listening to/wearing/going?
Reading
Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses―though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care―threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
Absolutely stunningly chilling horror novel, that examines grief in the most monstrous of ways. Brilliant.
Watching
Widow’s Bay on Apple TV
A skeptical mayor leads the superstitious residents of a cursed New England island.
If you love Stephen King’s fictional towns of Derry and Castle Rock, and the stories set there. If you adore Mike Flanagan and think his Midnight Mass was criminally underrated. But if you also quite like a touch of humour with your horror (think; The Cabin in the Woods) then Widow’s Bay is the series for you! Absurd, darkly funny, fabulist, disturbing … it’s brilliant fun! It’s Stephen King meets Schitt’s Creek, in a nutshell.
Fun fact; creator Katie Dippold is the person behind this viral babadook Tweet from 2016! So if you want to know the vibe of the show, it’s very much this too;
Listening
Sold a Story - APM Reports podcast
Sold a Story: The podcast that’s changing how kids are taught to read
There’s an idea about how children learn to read that’s held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work.
Since Sold a Story premiered in 2022, more than half the states have passed laws designed to address problems the podcast brought to light. It has won numerous accolades, including a duPont-Columbia award and a Peabody nomination, and it was among the most shared programs on Apple Podcasts in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
This podcast had me RAGING, but it was also explaining so much; particularly in regards to what I was anecdotally hearing about the teaching of literacy in the US in particular.
Wearing
‘Bunny’ Variety Hour blouse
Sadly this print is no longer available (which makes me so glad I snapped it up in the recent sale!) but more than the print itself is the style of shirt I’m loving lately which is; dramatic collar.
Gimme a big ol’ collar on a shirt and I am there! Able to make it so interesting underneath jumpers and vests, so versatile and interesting.
Going
Dracula ballet - in October
Yes, I’m a sucker (ha) for vampires - so I’ve booked with a friend to see this ballet in October.
Fresh from a sold-out season in London and a record-breaking tour across Australia and New Zealand in 2025, the critically acclaimed Dracula returns to Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre.
Driven by masterpieces by Bach, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns and Debussy, guided by the visceral score of Emmy® Award-winning composer Jason Fernandez
Choreographed by Joel Burke, this haunting production features a powerhouse alumni cast from the Mariinsky, English National, Stuttgart, and Australian Ballet.A bold, cinematic reimagining of the gothic classic, Dracula is a work of visceral physicality and dark romanticism.
A bold, cinematic reimagining of the gothic classic, Dracula is a work of visceral physicality and dark romanticism.