THE RAMBLER REVIEW: Issue #05

Loafers, rejection emails, and the paranormal

May 30, 2025

Welcome to the fifth issue of The Rambler Review - a monthly newspaper covering the crème de la crème of my media and arts consumption from the past few weeks.

May has been a balance of highs and lows that have been as exhilarating as they have been exhausting.

On Tuesday 6th, I found out that I had been longlisted for a literary prize for my unpublished manuscript, with a comment from the judges stating that they had been particularly impressed with my submission and that it had ranked highly in the competition. On Wednesday 7th, I was rejected from an application for creative funding, which would have allowed me to spend the next few months writing fulltime. On Friday 9th, I realized that — despite having spend three years as a university english major, and having sat happily with my chosen title for a year and a half — the title of my complete manuscript, which I had submitted to numerous potential agents, was a blatant rip-off of one of the most famous books of all time. (I cried for hours and questioned my most basic life choices at this point.)

And yet, we carry on. I keep writing around the edges of my life, my lovely partner bought me a moleskine notebook in a gesture of support, and my current fiction project just hit 20,000 words. I’m also sitting on some blindingly exciting news right now which, when taken into account, might mean that the timing actually wasn’t right for me to write full-time (yet).

Losing out on the grant also meant I felt entitled to buy myself the most chic work loafers in order to commit to romanticizing the grind for a while longer

The Mask Falling (2021) & The Dark Mirror (2025): I’ve been following Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season series since around 2016 and it has been a true exercise in patience, with a few years wait in between each new book. The series follows Paige Mahoney, a clairvoyant in a alternate version of London inhabited by spirits and a combination of fellow ‘voyants’ and amaurotics (non-clairvoyant). Watching over all of them is the corrupt Republic of Scion, a puppet government controlled by otherworldly creatures known as the Rephaim. The Mask Falling is fourth in the series and The Dark Mirror is fifth — not including the two novella — so I’ll refrain from spilling any details of the plot, but the ongoing worldbuilding is spectacular and I’ll always love the futuristic Gothic meets Victorian mob meets ethereal stained glass window energy of the series.

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as Dana Scully and Fox Mulder in season one of *The X Files*.

Thunderbolts (2025): I went to see this for Florence Pugh and I would watch it five more times for the exact same reason. I’ve never been particularly moved by the Marvel franchise, but Yelena Belova (not to mention our collective baby boy, Bob, bless him for doing the dishes) will unfortunately be enough to keep me coming back for more. Otherwise the film was fun, the characters had good chemistry, and the villain was unexpectedly interesting.
The X Files (1993-2002): My partner and I have continued our tradition of watching The X Files on a Sunday night, and highlights of this month’s episodes included Ghost in the Machine (season one episode seven), in which AI is the sci-fi bad guy, and Fire (season one episode twelve), in which Mulder’s ex makes a cameo and has the best coat + scarf combination of all time. Also I’d somehow forgotten that Mulder’s anonymous source is codenamed… Deep Throat? Who did that?

The Owens house, *Practical Magic* (1998)

Assembly Label’s Sadie Coat in black. I’ve been looking for a classic winter coat for some time and fell in love with the Sadie Coat as soon as I saw it. Perfect to layer with a weave scarf and gloves for the winter months.
The ‘Floral Velvet’ Bathrobe by Linen Connections. So beautiful, but I’ve read mixed reviews of the site so for the meantime have just been staring wistfully at the product page and trying to figure out if the pattern includes birds of paradise (a personal dealbreaker).
Practical Magic 2 (2026): SICK with excitement over this!!