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.

jan. – mar. 2025 | 📚 6 ∙ 📽️ 1 ∙ 📺 2

• 📚 recursion, blake crouch — a fun sci-fi thriller, but kinda typical blake crouch in a way i was hoping he would avoid after dark matter. there's an emotional unevenness to his writing where i can't always buy the full emotional lives of the characters, but that's blake crouch for me. this one didn't land as well as dark matter or summer frost for me, but it's miles better than the wayward pines trilogy which i found unreadable by book two. so, a nice way to spend a wintery sunday while recovering from rsv. read jan. 12, 2025
• 📺 ♡ shrinking, season two — i wish apple tv did better at marketing because it truly has quite the selection of really good to great shows (the movies...less so) that no one knows about. i watched this one randomly because of the cast and i heard it was pretty good, and i was not prepared for how much i would love it. it's like...healing and comforting and also heartbreaking all in one?! often in the same episode?!?! but always in a good way?!?!?! it's also very millennial indie rock coded (iykyk) so every time there's a heartbreaking scene with one of my favorite the national songs soundtracking it i'm just like, "this show's made for me!" anyway, this is super good and i wish more people watched it. also a great watch when sick—nothing like getting lightly weepy with the flu or whatever i had, but it also got me today after my fever broke with the last two episodes of this season (see: the national comment). jason segel does sad bastard being sad to sad bastard music so well! watched jan. 9 – 10, 2025
• 📚 immortal sergeant, joe kelly & ken niimura — ugh, i do not enjoy art that is clearly an extended therapy session for the artist. it was clear from the first page that this entire graphic novel was the author working through his relationship with his father, and then at the end he basically admits as much. this is my least favorite type of storytelling so i did not enjoy this. read jan. 10, 2025
• 📺 ↺ ♡ severance, season one — i am so thankful that i only got around to watching this show last winter and not in 2022 so i didn't have to wait three goddamn years for season two. one year was tough enough!!! this show is so good and i am so obsessed. mark s(cout) has my heart. anyway, watching this with whatever this cold-with-a-fever respiratory illness is that's going around has been fun because i'm too exhausted to do anything but stare at the screen and catch all the clues as the episodes autoplay. rewatched jan. 8 – 9, 2025
• 📚 reactor magazine short fiction may/june 2024, various — this was way worse than i expected from tor (now reactor)! wth. just five mediocre stories in a row. this makes me glad this was free. read jan. 4 – 6, 2025
• 📚 rich af, vivian tu — pretty solid financial explainer, including how to actually do the damn things. i didn't know everything in this book, so i already have a short list of things to look into to get into better financial shape asap. plus, the resources on the website are really great! read jan. 5, 2025
• 📚 ♡ north woods, daniel mason — i loved this. i loved the entire conceit, i loved the way it looped back in on itself, i loved the way it was ended for all. i'm gonna need to check out daniel mason's other work. read dec. 29, 2024 – jan. 4, 2025
• 📽️ anora (2024) — if this had come out 20 years ago, the first act of this would have been my whole personality for my early 20s. i see why this won the palme d'or, which has been awarding films that deal with class for a while now, but there is something missing from it that wasn't missing in sean baker's earlier films (to my memory): a true empathy for and development of the female protagonist. watched jan. 3, 2025
• 📚 daughter of fire, sofia robleda — i really enjoyed this. i found the characters more interesting and believable as real people than the usual ya-aged characters, and i learned quite a bit about the popol vuh as well. for an amazon first reads, this was much better than expected. read dec. 26, 2024 – jan. 1, 2025