media journal. this is a place to dump my scattered thoughts on books, comics, graphic novels, movies, and tv shows. most recent on top. here there be spoilers.

apr. – jun. 2025 | 📚 5 ∙ 📽️ 1 ∙ 📺 2

• 📚 funny story, emily henry — i'm sure people do it, but i have no idea how to not binge emily henry's books. they instantly pull me in. this one got me especially because i felt especially seen/called out by the fmc, goddamnit. i can tell emily henry grew up in the midwest because usually her characters all have one or more of the deep psychological issues you encounter in white people 'round these parts. i don't know that i cared that much about miles (he is exactly the kind of nice/kind but deeply traumatized by shit parents white guy i've seen around the midwest my whole life. my dudes, go to therapy!! at least miles went no contact; good for him!), but i'm here for daphne and ashleigh's friendship and daphne's journey. i'll probably forget about this one quickly though—one of the highlights was the reference to the characters in beach read lol. read apr. 12 – 13, 2025
• 📚 james, percival everett — huckleberry finn was one of my favorites growing up and it still is, so i was pretty excited to see what percival everett did with jim. in the original, jim is a person in his own right but in a limited way. here he is a full-fledged human, which is great. i also really liked that this book addresses that huck finn is likely a biracial character—for years i have believed that about the character. i could never explain why, but in memory he is always biracial and then the original story throws me for a loop when it's like, "he's white!" huh? it's maybe a little wish fullfillment-y at the end, but if you can't do that with a reimagining, where can you?! i enjoyed this quite a lot, and it was a fast-paced read just like the original while adding so much more context to the original. read apr. 8 – 13, 2025
• 📚 the road to roswell, connie willis — this was so silly and i enjoyed it a lot because of how silly it was. there's this sub-genre in sci-fi where the alien is just a poor wittle thing who needs some help and love and probably a hug or two and this is one of those books, which is hilarious when it's a ball of tentacles that rolls around like a tumbleweed. indy is adorable! indy can fix everything! indy just wants to be besties and ride around in an rv with a bunch of human friends! sure, why not? silly fun! read apr. 6 – 13, 2025
• 📽️ ↺ ♡ office space (1999) — every year, my work life becomes even more like office space and dilbert cartoons, i swear. this film does meander a bit in the back half, but it's still so accurate that i can't even a little dislike it. replace the memos with emails, for instance, and that is just as relevant today ("did you see the email?"). when peter asks the hypnotherapist if he could have basically the entire conceit of severance done to him...relatable. also, if you've ever dealt with the monstrosity that is the printer/fax/photocopier in an office, the scene in the field is so cathartic. anyway, 1999 was a great year for film. rewatched apr. 10, 2025
• 📺 futurama, season eight (or eleven) — a revival of a revival probably wasn't needed, yeah? of course they had a sense of humor about it in the first episode, but so many of the topics feel like, 3–5 years too late at this point. at least they let amy and kif appear as a couple again. the robot devil had one scene which is an absolute travesty, imo. anyway, it was fine. watched apr. 6 – 10, 2025
• 📚 horror movie, paul tremblay — this came in from the library while i was reading the deluge and i attempted to use it as my night reading instead, but it just wasn't interesting enough in comparison so it just sat for a while. the format is fun—it's an audiobook narration read by the protagonist, and it's sliced in with the original screenplay for the movie. but where it went? meh. it was pretty obvious to me, and it just wasn't an interesting ending. i read this specifically because i loved the short story "the last conversation" by this author. maybe i'll check out more short stories by him...this novel could have been a novella, honestly, and i think it would have been far better. read mar. 22 – apr. 6, 2025
• 📺 ↺ ♡ severance, season two — rewatching really is required with this show. there is so much more context around everything, and i'm also able to enjoy it more because i'm not waiting anxiously for gemma to finally get her episode. speaking of, her episode is still the best of the series so far, and catapulted her to the top of my character list. i want everything gemma next season. actually, what i really want is a team-up between gemma, outie irving, outie burt and fields, devon and ricken, and cobel to take down lumon. fuck lumon, man!! at this point i'm more invested in what happens outside than inside as it seems like inside is now on borrowed time (and their expressions in the last shot of the season show they know it!). anyway, great character development as usual, mostly strong writing, and a lot of unexpected laughs. this show is great, and i hope season three doesn't take three years. rewatched mar. 30 – apr. 6, 2025
• 📚 ♡ the deluge, stephen markley — storygraph has a descriptor ("mood") for books called "challenging" and, generally, i haven't often agreed with my fellow readers on the books that deserve that description. but this book? "challenging" fits it perfectly. it was so good and incredibly engrossing, but also so hard to read. i would read one chapter and then lie awake (don't read this in bed!!), or read a few chapters and just be down for the rest of the day. it's very well-written, and very incisive, and also disturbingly close to american reality as "speculative fiction." stephen markley really gets what makes us tick, and it's tough as hell to read nearly 900 pages chronicling how many ways we will shoot ourselves in the foot no matter our social class or any other identifiers only to finally kinda, sorta snap a half victory from the jaws of defeat. "american exceptionalism" is such a sickness that's embedded so deeply in every one of us (especially us white folk, but no one's immune...it seeps in, honestly) that it makes us act crazy more often than not, and sometimes about the most mundane shit. not that other countries came off any better in this, but it was mostly about america, americans, and our fucked up collective psychology even in the face of climate disaster and mass extinction. each character felt so real and lived in and at least half of them were kinda like people i've known irl here in the u.s. this was just such a remarkable book that i will almost certainly never read again. at least i'll be able to sleep better finally. (note to self: do not read his prior book while trying to fall asleep when it comes in from the library!!) read mar. 10 – apr. 4, 2025