Frayed Branches

  The Tree Dream : Hardcover Edition - AVAILABLE NOW! After a bit of a delay--sorry, everyone--the hardcover version of The Tree Dream is now available on Amazon! You can purchase a copy by clicking here ! Description Cascading myself into the sea was the easiest route I could have taken. To have the wind whip against my cheeks, invisible razorblades cutting at my falling body. To feel the hard, drum-like beating against my chest as though a bat taking flight had lodged itself between my ribcage. The salt of the sea dozens of approaching feet below, splashing up in white-specked waves of frustration and anger. My eyes would have caught a vision of this dark blue frothing. It was a short but sweet event, an initiation of some kind that didn’t truly need to happen, but would for the sake of my personal sanity. I would never again need to worry and wonder and fear, for the sea would swallow me into its abyssal gorge and free me from my nightmare. …To think I speak of it as if this had...

  You Season 3: Love in the Suburbs Warning: This review will contain spoilers for You Season 1-2. Who doesn't enjoy a good love story? There's nothing quite like watching characters who you're rooting to get together to fall in love and finally achieve that happy ending. Although, in the case of You , that happiness is never always what it seems. Following the exploits of the obsessive Joe Goldberg, You is a series about one man's attempt to get find true love via stalking, killing, and eventual betrothal to the woman he loves. Season 1's target, Guinevere Beck, turned out to be someone Joe hoped she wasn't, a girl whose bouts of freedom left Joe in the dust. After disposing of her, however, past relationships and attempted murders come back to haunt him, causing him to flee his home of New York City for sunny California. Once there, he meets Love Quinn, whose name alone he takes as a sign that this is the woman he's destined to be with. As Joe continues st...

  Alien: Isolation : In Space, It Can Hear You Breathe Note: Despite being a video game title, Alien: Isolation shares the same canon universe as the films in the Alien franchise. This review will contain major spoilers for the original 1979 film Alien and some spoilers for its 1986 sequel Aliens . I cannot stress this enough: I love horror video games. The thrill of being in a dangerous situation in a game is unmatched by anything else in gaming for me. It always feels horrifically adventurous to be at the whims of whatever digital terrors game designers have conjured up. Often times, these games, like Amnesia or Outlast , invoke feelings of dread while telling stories set in their own universes. It's expected, really, for most horror video games to create their own worlds separate from any pre-established franchises. But this isn't always the case; sometimes, a pre-established franchise is ripe for creating a horrifying experience. While not every video game based on, say, a ...

  Dune: A Mixed-Bag Sci-Fi Film Full of Interesting Ideas Note: This is a review of the film Dune directed by Denis Villeneuve, not the 1965 novel it is based on. You can find a review for Frank Herbert's original novel here . One of the most worrisome aspects of an adaptation is the accuracy to which it will display the same themes, ideas, and plot-relevant details of the original work. Sometimes, works can remain almost entirely faithful to the source material, as transpired in The Hunger Games films based on the book series of the same name. Other times, an adaptation can retain the spirit of the original while changing events drastically, such as Amazon's adaptation of the comic series The Boys . But, when dealing with a work where heavy themes are of major importance, it is, in my opinion, best to retain as much of the original structure of the work as possible. Otherwise, there is always the threat that the translation of the work's original purpose doesn't make i...

  Dune by Frank Herbert: An Anti-Messiah Sci-Fi Novel Note: This is a review of the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, not the 2021 film based on the novel. You can find a review for Denis Villeneuve's adaptation here .  The best stories ever told are those that not only have a message, but craft that message in such a tactful way that the story comes well before what the work is trying to say overall. Some stories out there try their best to create certain thematic elements or motifs for the audience to think about, but in putting those elements before the actual story, they fail to engage people with what they are trying to say. The best stories are those where you know the author had a story to tell before they thought of thematic elements or deeper meanings, or stories where those deeper meanings were already weaved into the idea at hand. Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune explores a vast multitude of themes while telling an interesting, interweaving story between a...