Media I've Consumed this Month: June 2026
you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love by Olivia Rodrigo
A universal girl experience is screaming the lyrics of ‘good 4 u’ at the top of your lungs, either at karaoke or at home on your bed (or crying on the floor of my bathroom). As a Lover Girl, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Olivia Rodrigo’s new album for quite some time now.
A step away from her signature teenage angst in previous albums, her new album takes a slightly more melancholic and reflective tone, it feels like an evolution into early adulthood. Starting with ‘Drop Dead’ which perfectly encapsulates that beautiful, fleeting, electric feeling in the early stages of a relationship, where all you want to do is stay up all night talking. It’s the perfect song for having a crush. As a Gemini, this song made me particularly delusional.
She takes us on the full arc of falling in love, the ecstasy and agony that is the package deal with love, the euphoria and the inevitable unravelling that follows. The turning point comes with ‘purple’, where she explores how easily this all-encompassing love becomes unhealthily all-consuming. “I had big dreams till I tied myself to you” hit particularly too hard on my morning commute.
Other personal favourites were ‘u + me = <3’ which captures the joy of new love, with beautifully optimistic lines like “got a feeling wounds are healing, talking on the phone” balanced with self-aware lines like “they say modern love’s a cruel endeavour, and to that I say “fuck it, whatever””. This one is for all the Lover Girls out there, willing to give love just one more go.
‘expectations’ is the one for all the girls who’ve gone through the post-break up crash out and are now thriving. Falling in love, to having his number blocked to hitting up the bars with an open heart is a canon event every girl goes through, coming out the other side with having higher standards. It’s the post-break up glow up in a song, and just like Olivia says: I am secure, I am evolved and I am not afraid to ask for more.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
A Christmas gift from my sister, Pachinko isn’t something I would have picked up on my own. Thank goodness she gifted it. It’s genuinely one of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read.
Spanning over a century, the novel follows four generations of a Korean family who emigrate to Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea. At the heart of the novel of Sunja, the beloved daughter of a crippled fisherman, who falls pregnant by a married Yakuza. Refusing to be complicit in his infidelity, Sunja chooses hardship instead, building a new life in Osaka with her growing family after marrying a kind-hearted minister passing through her hometown. It’s a story of love, desperation, resilience and filial piety, with the women of the novel sacrificing everything in the hopes for a better future for their children.
Set in a piece of history that’s rarely explored or taught in mainstream narratives, the novel weaves in events such as Japan’s annexation of Korea, the division of North and South Korea, and the devastation of the 1945 atomic bombings. It also shines a spotlight on the system racism and discrimination faced by Koreans in Japan - something I only had a vague awareness of before but never understood the intricacies of until now.
I was completely gripped from start to finish. It’s a deeply tragic story, steeped in suffering, loss and hardship. Death is rife, so don’t get too attached to anyone. While some might find it long, I thought its length was exactly what the story needed. I tore through all 500 pages in ten days.
Materialists directed by Celine Song
The kind of film that makes you think: romance is truly dead in this day and age.
Initially, I started this film on a transatlantic flight home and passed out about a third of the way through (possibly something to do with the six Bloody Marys in the airport lounge and onboard). Bored, lonely, and mildly yearning on a Saturday night, I decided to give it another go. Also, an exclusive track from Japanese Breakfast? I’m sat!!
Ambitious NYC matchmaker Lucy finds herself torn between her broke ex-boyfriend and the man of her dreams. It’s the perfect female wank fantasy: stunning Dakota Johnson is caught in a love triangle between investment banker Pedro Pascal and her poor actor ex Chris Evans. I mean me personally? I have an idea, but we all have to be open minded…
Perhaps it’s an appropriate rom-com for the hellscape that is today’s modern dating scene, where superficiality and salaries lead the way, delving into the concerningly prevalent trend of hypergamy. It’s basically The Notebook if everyone had botox and Linkedin Premium. At times, the plot meanders in unexpected directions, but I enjoyed Lucy’s gradual disillusionment with both her career and her choices. I loved the premise and the setting and aside from the Poor Man Propoganda, the film's true crime was just, truly, being boring.
The ending was very predictable and had me so incredibly outraged that I actually joined Letterboxd just so I could leave a review. #SelfSabotageFinalBoss.
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
One on the ‘to read’ pile for the longest time, I finally took the plunge. I’m a long time fan of Ottessa Moshfegh’s work with ‘My Year of Rest & Relaxation’ firmly in my top 10, so I was curious to go back to the debut that put her on the map. This novel feels like a stark departure from her later work, which often centres around female rage. Instead, Lapvona was a far more brutal read than I anticipated.
Set in the beautiful but brutal kingdom of Lapvona, the story follows God-fearing Marek, a motherless boy caught in a cruel and shifting power structure. Raised by his abusive shepherd father, Marek commits an atrocity that unexpectedly leads to his adoption by the Lord of Lapvona. Meanwhile, the peasants suffer under drought and famine, victims of their corrupt ruler. The novel probes just how far people will go to survive when stripped of their hope and morality.
I’m a big fan of ‘no plot, just vibes’ books, where the story lies more within the world and characters. Her endless cast of characters are detailed and desperate, the world of Lapvona so merciless and magical at the same time. Her worldbuilding is unparalleled, fully fleshed out and hypnotising to read. Moshfegh’s worldbuilding is sickeningly visceral, a grotesque exploration of the barbarity of human nature and survival.
Heavy trigger warning on this one. For everything. Almost DNF’d several times.
Shiva Baby directed by Emma Seligman
“Who the fuck brings a baby to a shiva?” is an iconic line in this tightly-wound 78 minute comedy, where 20-something Danielle dragged along to a funeral service with her well-meaning but overbearing parents, only to bump into both her ex-girlfriend and her sugar daddy. Nightmare blunt rotation if it was a movie.
The film plays out with the same tension of a horror movie, keeping you in a constant state of second-hand embarrassment as Danielle scrambles to simultaneously avoid and arouse her sugar daddy. A second layer of complication is added when his effortlessly glamorous wife - played by MOTHERRR Dianna Agron - arrives with their relentlessly crying baby, a revelation that Danielle is completely blindsided by.
What unfolds is a slow-motion car crash that you just can’t look away from. Danielle is fully complicit in her own unravelling, it’s both excruciating and hilarious to watch. The final scene in her parent’s minivan is truly the cherry on top.
This film is for all the messy girls out there who make spectacularly bad decisions that backfire horrendously. But that’s what your twenties are for. (I am Danielle).
