intertextu[allie]ties | issue 15

The best things I read, watched, and listened to in 2025 (plus a new excerpt from my novel-in-progress!)

hello, dear reader.

Here we are, together, at the close of another year, another collection of moments and memories, surprises and setbacks, challenges and changes. As a former English major, I’m tempted to look for meaning in everything – to pore over my life like the pages of a book and search for hidden themes, recurring motifs, or clever foreshadowing – and there’s something about the approach of a new year that always puts me in an extra reflective mood.

So, what did 2025 mean to me? Well, life is messier than fiction, so it’s impossible to trace a neat character arc for myself over the past year. But, when I look back at the last twelve months, I’m proud to see a marked commitment to my creativity. For the first time in my adult life, I managed to carve out time to write every single week. This allowed me to finish one chapter a month, which puts me on track to complete the manuscript for my second novel midway through 2026!

Another thing I see as I look back on the last twelve months are all the books, movies, television shows, and songs that brought me joy and fed my creativity. I’ve already shared many of them through this newsletter, but I figured this issue would be a great place to round up all my absolute favourites from the year. So, read on for the top things I read, watched, and listened to in 2025…

Wishing you all a brand-new chapter full of peace, promise, and living, breathing poetry.

✍️ Allie

A few of my favourites from the entire year!

According to my Storygraph,* I read 30 books this year, which amounted to 11,065 pages. I don’t tend to set reading goals, but my personal preference is to read at least one book a month because I don’t write well unless I read well. 📚

In no particular order, these are my ten favourite books I read for the first time in 2025:

1. The Favorites by Layne Fargo

2. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

3. An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

4. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

5. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

6. Writers & Lovers by Lily King

7. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune

8. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

9. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

10. Good Spirits by B. K. Borison

* If anyone else is on Storygraph, let’s be friends! My username on there is @miss_frankenstein.

Somehow, I watched even more movies this year than last. According to my Letterboxd, I logged 158 movies in 2025 compared to 147 in 2024! And while I don’t watch nearly as much television, there were some really special shows that left a lasting impression. 🎞️

So, in no particular order, here are the ten best things I watched for the first time this year:

1. Frankenstein (2025)

2. Heated Rivalry – Season 1 (2025)

3. KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

4. Shōgun – Season 1 (2024)

5. Sinners (2025)

6. The Rehearsal – Season 2 (2025)

7. Anora (2024)

8. Superman (2025)

9. Black Bag (2025)

10. What We Do in the Shadows – Season 2 (2020)

If you’d like the complete picture of every movie I’ve watched recently, you can check out my Letterboxd diary for all my reviews.

I don’t think a single day goes by for me without music. In fact, I can prove it. According to my Spotify Wrapped, I listened to 46,137 minutes of music in 2025, which amounts to a little over two hours every day of this past year. 🎶

As part of my Spotify Wrapped, I was also provided a playlist of the top 100 songs I listened to the most in 2025. However, some of my favourite songs were not necessarily the ones that I played the most since I discovered a few later in the year. I have therefore put together a playlist of my ten personal favourite songs that I listened to the first time in 2025:

In 2025, I wrote close to 50,000 words in my novel-in-progress! To look at where I was in the story back in January to where I am now, I marvel at just how much narrative ground I’ve covered. To know that there is less plot ahead of me than there is behind is nothing short of a thrill. Plus, the finale is where a lot of the fun stuff happens, so I’m genuinely excited for the chapters I have left to write!

Unlike the other sections of this issue, it’s difficult to make a top ten list of my favourite moments to write since I would be giving too much away. But I’d like to share a snippet from a pivotal scene that I had a lot of fun writing recently:

His raven hair is slicked back and he rests his leather-gloved hands on the balustrade like a dark king surveying his realm. Tonight, he wears a black mask shaped like a skull that covers everything but his mouth and eyes – eyes, she realizes with a jolt, that are fixed on her from across the room.

✨ comfort and joy. ✨

I don’t feel like it’s much of a hot take to say that January is one of the worst months of the year – it’s long, it’s dark, and it’s cold. So, how do you get through it? Please share your best January survival tips in the comments below. ❄️

See you all in 2026! 🎉✨🎊