Frayed Branches

  Ozark Season 3: A Bridge Between the Beginning and the End WARNING: This review contains spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 of Ozark alongside minor spoilers for Season 3. If you are interested in either of the two previous reviews--which contain fewer spoilers than this one--please click either here or here . Otherwise, if you have already seen the series or are unbothered by spoilers, I urge you to continue your read. Thank you. As a series progresses, especially one with a lot of moving parts in terms of plot, characters, or writing, there is often some level of decay that is inevitable. The longer a series continues, the more strapped for ideas its creators become. As this transpires, it becomes more apparent in longer-running television series that a full vision of the program had not been set forth by the showrunners at the outset. Ozark , however, is much different from this. Instead of continuing with seasonal renewal after seasonal renewal because of its undeniable popularity...

  A Promised Land by Barack Obama: Reflections of the 44th President The reflective nature of autobiographies can be helpful for both readers and writers when exploring the past exploits of subject, most notable when those subjects are people in power. Even before the above memoir, United States Presidents have always released reflections of their time in office a few years after the end of their final term. Many of these allow for the public to be informed of the thought processes behind different decisions or actions taken by former Presidents, especially in times of great strife or conflict. While this does not mean everyone is expected to agree with them because they've decided to explain themselves after the fact in the written word, it can offer an alternative perspective to decisions from the person behind the actions. No more obvious is this than in former President Barack Obama's A Promised Land,  the first volume in a planned duology chronicling his eight years as C...

  Echo Paradise: Preview #2 The following is a free preview to my novel,  Echo Paradise , releasing on Amazon in paperback and digital on Sunday, August 15th. *** It didn’t take long before she was standing in the parking lot. The lights illuminating this paved field were no longer tinged with azure. Instead they conveyed a dim, almost sickly yellow that permeated across the pavement. Unlike the street, where spots existed where her shadow would disappear, here she could see it stretched out forever, always striding by her side as she made her way to the dumpster. A short gust of wind picked up as she walked, chilling her legs and arms. It left as soon as it came, though, dying down without making a fuss of its return to nonexistence. She hoped that, when she was finally at the dumpster, the bag would do the same. Her footsteps were silent as she made her way across the lot. Despite the wind having left, another chill ran up her arms and legs. It wasn’t the chill of the outsid...

  Echo Paradise: Preview #1 The following is a free preview to my novel, Echo Paradise , releasing on Amazon in paperback and digital on Sunday, August 15th. *** Deservation . Not a dictionary word, but it felt right when it slipped off her tongue. Deservation . It made sense against the dim background of the high-end laptop behind her, glowing an effervescent blue as screen saver bubbles bloated and shrunk onscreen. Distractions. It had all been a distraction, one new way to cope in every new click, new playback loop, new pause. In every new scan her eyes made across the video feed on the sidebar, in every new thumbnail that would disappear to be replaced by a video preview when her cursor hovered over something of interest. What would she watch next? That’s the only question she’d asked herself over the last four hours, resulting in the consumption of two video game analyses, a rant about a popular YouTuber who’d been outed as a pornographic artist, and a three-hour superhero mov...

  Echo Paradise I'm happy to announce that my newest supernatural horror novel, Echo Paradise , will be available in paperback and on Kindle Ebook starting Sunday, August 15th! Description Deservation . Lisha Winters has repeated this fabricated word in her head for the better part of a year. After a tragic accident, she has succumbed to her blame, content to put the horrible event out of her mind by staying distracted at her computer. One night, she sneaks downstairs to get a snack, only to discover the world changing around her. Objects long gone are reappearing in her home. Gaping black maws to an unknown void hunt her in the dark. Everything trying to drag her into remembering a past she yearns to forget. Soon, however, Lisha realizes the memories of last spring will not stop haunting her until she confronts them. Awakening from the nightmare of her reality, she discovers an inverted world of blue trees, red leaves, and a purple sun high in the sky. While this new world attempt...

War of the Worlds Season 1: An Alien Invasion Story, Bleak Yet Unique War of the Worlds is a classic alien invasion story that everyone has at least heard of because of its cultural significance. Serialized by H.G. Wells in 1897, The War of the Worlds was one of the earliest known works to use extraterrestrial invasion as a central plot. It’s become so influential in culture today that I’m sure just mentioning the tripods from the story conjure up classic images of three-legged alien machines intent on killing any human that stands in its path. The story is most well-known for its 1938 radio drama, which allegedly caused a panic among listeners of the channel who tuned it late, not realizing the dramatization was not a real alien invasion. This, however, was only one of a plethora of adaptations the story would receive, including films, comics, and even a 1978 music album. There have also been a number of adaptations to television, although a consistent theme amongst them is that non...

The Sinner Season 1: The Mystery of a Senseless Murder One of the failsafe methods to many crime series—whether they be books, films, or television shows—is their instance to leave crimes that happen in their respective universes a mystery. Much of the intrigue from this genre comes from seeing a crime and trying to figure out who the perpetrator is and how they managed to evade the law in committing a horrible act. Investigative characters often take center stage, the audience experiencing the mystery with them as both a participator and an observer. Can the audience use the clues the detective finds to solve the mystery before the big reveal? It’s a race against time, and it’s why I love mystery media so much. Especially because it’s one of the few times where, even if you’re just reading or watching the story unfold, you too can participate in uncovering the mystery. The Sinner , however, subverts this notion entirely while maintaining a quality story that is less about crime and mo...