A holiday gift guide that just might save your skin.

Organizing books makes me not care that I’m a decaying meat-coated skeleton living by the light of a dying star. I love skeletons! I love stars! Who cares, just let me read!

Ms. Blue’s aesthetics speak volumes: she wears librarian clichés – cardigans and tortoiseshell glasses – with bodycon animal prints, statement jewelry and long, blue nails.

I watched the 1935 thriller The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (released in the U.S. as Phantom Ship). I took notes while watching, which include helpful annotations like “what is even happening” and “yikes this is racist.”

The main question I have while considering Wytchwood is, why isn’t this my life? Should I acquire a goat companion? Would the goat get along with my cat?

Were Ben Throttle and Maureen Corley secretly boning after all?

Hunters/Gatherers/MacGyver-ers Assemble!

Romance and courtship in the post-dystopia.

Deirdre goes to a magical land of friends and Flash.

One more couldn’t hurt, right?

If I overheard someone talking about a bookish goth who listens to Rumours on repeat too much, I’d assume they were talking about me.

“I would be grateful to see the forest come to life.”

Roach is always there for me.

Deirdre played these Beauty and the Beast-inspired games so that you, dear reader, don’t have to.

I mean, really now, who hasn’t wanted to be friends with a talking, alcoholic skull?

The concept of turning artwork into reality—into an escape—has never been more tempting.

This spectral figure makes an impression as a great storyteller long before she’s ever introduced.

Animal Restaurant is a mobile game that does the impossible: It makes promoting in-game ads adorable.

Deirdre desperately wants to be friends with Jesse Faden, someone similarly comfortable with the surreal and unexplainable.

Who doesn’t love obsessively pondering over fictional characters’ tarot readings?

If you’ve never dabbled in goth subculture, you may not realize how many gothic sub-subcultures exist.

American McGee’s series seemed like a natural extension of Deirdre’s lifelong Alice in Wonderland obsession.

Deirdre survived a lonely summer by escaping to an equally lonely game.

Why bother trying to date in a dating sim when you can play with one very good dog!

Deirdre lists some of the best cat (or cat-looking, at least) familiars in pop culture.

An adorable cryptid from Microsoft’s 1991 Entertainment Pack for Windows makes it onto Deidre’s friend’s list.

For someone who constantly jokes about dying, the chance to date a ghost carries its own morbid comfort.

Just let players bang the robot, Todd Howard.

If the outbreak happened outside my window, I’d be digging through drawers for my most metal band shirts and cursing my lack of foresight in not purchasing a black Violator babydoll.

Just like Willow from Don’t Starve, Deirdre can’t control what goes on in the world. But she can keep her sanity meter up in the meantime.

Hidden in Microsoft Encarta ’95 lies one of the foundational goths of Deirdre’s childhood.

Donut County‘s Mira is The Best because of a) her punk aesthetic and b) her refusal to take any shit even as her world literally falls around her.

September 2018 is the first anniversary of This Mortal Coyle and, to celebrate, Deirdre Coyle lists ten characters that make her blood boil.

Both Deirdre and the titular sentient house in Wayward Manor just want to be left alone.

Spyro the Dragon’s thwarted vacation helped fuel the escape from my own.

Having been in love with the Beast since grade school, Deirdre thought seducing the ilk of Monster Prom would be easy. She was wrong.

Deirdre makes friends with Kyle Katarn in order to get closer to Princess Leia.

In Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Deirdre finds herself confronting her impostor syndrome.

After the world ends, Phase Scout Jess and I meet in an industrial park, attempting to harvest resources from the same dumpster. I’m wearing a Black Flag t-shirt.

Deirdre writes about Fallout 3, library school and killing our alternate selves.