Favorite quotes of 2025

This year, before I give you my rundown of best books read in 2025, I give you my favorite quotes in no particular order. These are just a sample. Some books I could have picked a favorite quote every couple of pages. Some you understand immediately and some might only become meaningful in context. But thus is the nature of writing.

 "Isla snorts, puts her hand to he mouth as if to prevent something falling out, worries it might be her heart and swallows." 
- Private Rites, Julia Armfield

"The hypothetical functions of my design are endless - if the community of plants and fungi can operate its trellis frame, will it be able to walk? If its light-sensitive elements become sophisticated enough, will it be able to see? And grasp with fingers and sense the weather, and know the world and sing its beauties?"
- A Botanical Daughter, Noah Medlock

"Right on cue, Aza chimes in, her words and teasing tone as predictable and familiar as Torah trope. Truning this whole exercise - rain, complaints, scibbled words, the sculptures' open mouths, the half-seen deer and ghost-echoes of her father - back into a recitation. Commemorative ritual. So much more satisfying than visiting a grave. Her family's version of the Mourner's Kaddish. Of We miss you, Dad. Whoever you were."
- Dry and Ready, Glen Hirshberg in Christmas and Other Horrors

"Such things wrestles inside the girl. She wanted to take the soft flesh in her mouth and bite it to blood; she wanted to strike the hand from the wrist with her dagger and guard it as a relic in her bodice for eternity."
- Matrix, Lauren Groff

"Those like us were not meant to be kind. We were born to rage and burn and destroy all that must be destroyed, so that maybe one day, much better people than us can live in a world where they're rewarded for their kindness instead of having it twisted to bind them."
- Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao

"When I remember this moment, I remember the thrum of the blades, though I know I couldn't possibly have heard them. I guess that much light looks so loud, you're surprised to find it doesn't produce any sound."
- The Morningside, Tèa Obreht

"How could a place be a dream? (Did we live up to their dreams? we wonder uneasy.) Understand that we will never fully comprehend their dreams having come of age in this Promised Land.
Understand: We are their Promised Land."
- Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades

"Whatever it was, he couldn't stay there surrounded by a passel of slaves whose silence made him imagine an avalanche seen from a great distance."
- A Mercy, Toni Morrison

"The meaning of life is still, as it was, simply other people."
- A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Hank Green 

 

Streaming, TV, and the Death of Episode Arcs

So, I'm watching the new season of Fallout and every episode I find myself routinely checking the time wondering how much longer the episode is going to be. It's not really that I find the show boring, I am entertained, I like to see where all of this is going. And still. The episode seems to drag. 

 

This is not a new feeling for me. I remember it most strongly back when I watched season 2 of Stranger Things. I didn't even dislike what I was seeing but every episode seemed to go on forever and I had to push through so much that I stopped watching the show altogether after the season finale. 

Now that I took active notice of that phenomenon, I remember that I had that same impression with multiple if not most made-for-streaming narrative shows I have recently watched or am currently watching. And now that I know it was happening I could feel out the why of it all. 

Let's get one thing out of the way first. Personally, I believe that letting the episodes just get longer and longer in general is an issue, in the same way it is true for movies. Time constraints force screenwriters and directors to decide what is necessary and makes, in most cases, for a better product. I'm not saying that episodes - or movies for that matter - should never be long, but you should have something to show for it, you know? (An excellent example is The Bear's Fishes, an episode that's over twice as long as the regular episodes. It's tense and dynamic all the way through. A masterclass of an event episode.)

However, that's not the only issue. And to me, it is not the main issue. More than the actual length increase, what makes these episodes feel longer is, to me, the almost utter lack of narrative arcs. No emotional arc, no thematic arc, no relationship or character arc. These episodes are just an accumulation of scenes until they are cut off at a seemingly random moment in time. You could've let the episode end a scene earlier or a scene later and it wouldn't have made a difference. 

I've floated the idea that maybe this is because these shows are meant to be binged, so it wouldn't matter that the collection of scenes that they call an episode aren't bundled into coherent chunks, but Fallout is released on a weekly schedule, so that's not it.  

My knowledge of the industry is not advanced enough that I could divine a reasoning beyond speculation but what I can talk about is the effect. 

If the scenes comprising an episode aren't following an arc, I am constantly waiting for something to happen. For the episode to go through the build-up climax denouement (or similar) stages but it never does and I end up waiting in vain. Sure, there'll be an action set piece in between or an emotional moment but it won't lead to anything, at least not in this episode. This is especially grueling when the show switches perspectives (this, too, often randomly). Fallout will show you an exciting or interesting scene and then take out all its momentum by then having you watch Hank MacLean blow up some mice. I know, I'm ragging on the show here but it is by far not the only offender, just the one where I noticed it most recently. 

Even when you tell a continuous story that has arcs that span the whole season and possibly the whole run, you can still have smaller arcs every episode that make them feel tighter, more coherent, and just better. I know it's possible because I've seen it work. Game of Thrones (in earlier seasons) had arcs in its episodes. Sense8 with its 8 story lines and season-spanning narratives managed to connect these in in emotional or thematic arcs within each episode. I sit down and rewatch single episodes of these shows sometimes because they are a satisfying experience by themselves. And there are many shows where I cannot imagine doing that.  

A rundown of horror movies of 2025: Sinners

While I’ve had to think about the order of movies 4-2, this one is unquestionably at the top. Not just my favorite horror movie of the year or even my favorite movie of the year but one of my favorite movies of the last couple of years if not this decade generally. When I first saw the trailer, I was already hooked. Then I heard and read good reviews and so I went into it with the highest expectations. I was still blown away. What a movie.

Sinners 

In 1932 twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan) return home to Mississippi to open a juke joint with money stolen from Chicago gangsters and the help of people of the local community, most notably their younger cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a blues singer. Their times of strife are far from over, as a sinister enemy rallies in the night.


Spoilers from here on out


The trailer alone is remarkable. Tense. Deeply atmospheric. This one, the first one, doesn’t even show the monster. It doesn’t tell us that it’s vampires. That’s not necessary to completely and utterly pull you in. And in contrast to 28 Years Later, this movie lives up to its trailer’s promise.

Sinners is a celebration of Black music and art. It is a caution against assimilation and its mechanisms. It is beautifully shot and wonderfully acted. Its themes are relevant and communicated clearly. There’s so much in it that’s worth discussing, so be aware that I will only scrape the surface here. (Go check out especially Black creators because there’s some stuff I, as a white European, just cannot get fully.)

Despite Smoke and Stack being front and center in the trailer and poster, one could very well argue that Sammie is the true protagonist. The movie begins and ends with him and it is his gift for music that plays a fundamental role. His music is the blues, which he pursues against his preacher father’s wishes. The blues is - in contrast to Christianity - a connection to his African forebears. It wasn’t impressed on him by the colonizing force and where Christianity is a tool of assimilation, the blues is a tool of community and self-expression, of celebrating your culture. Sammie’s gift isn’t just that he plays and sings very well - and will thus entice people to the juke joint when he performs - his gift transcends time and place and calls forth ancestors and descendants alike in one of the most gorgeous scenes I can ever remember seeing in the theater. Still today, when I watch the video I get goosebumps.

His music, however, does not only call out into time but also to a vampire in search of a culture he lost. Remmick (Jack O’Connell) is Irish, a people notable for their colonization by England and discrimination in the US. It’s not an accident that the house he finds refuge in after being pursued by Choctaw hunters (another great detail, as the Choctaw and the Irish are generally historical allies) belongs to a KKK couple. He uses an American accent with them and immediately builds an ‘us’ - white people - vs ‘them’ - the others - narrative to save his skin. As a vampire he has power but he no longer has a connection to his distinct culture. So when he hears Sammie sing, he recognizes his gift for what it is and wants it for himself to replace what he has lost (‘I want your stories. I want your songs. And you gon’ have mine.’). He pretends to be on our protagonists’ side, warning them about an impending KKK attack in the morning, empathizing with their struggle, stressing that he understands, but while his words ring true, his actions reveal his insidious goals. For one, he’s not giving anyone a choice here, he threatens, he stalks the night, he turns people violently and against their will. Furthermore, what he offers isn’t truly community, despite what he might claim. Remmick has everyone sing and dance with him, sing an Irish song, dance an Irish jig, even though he is the only Irish person there. As the quotes illustrate, he wants to take what Sammie has and make it his own, something that reflects how so much pop culture and music originated with Black people and was adapted by the dominant culture without giving credit or appreciation to its roots.

Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), another blues musician in the movie, says pointedly ‘see, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don't like the people who make it’. Which is still true today about too many things.

In the end, it is the blues - represented by the guitar - that saves Sammie as the Lord’s prayer is simply echoed by Remmick (Christianity again as a vehicle for colonization and separating Remmick, too, from his culture) and it is the blues to which he’ll dedicate his life. Because while assimilating - here, turning into a vampire - may grant you boons - Stack as a vampire, for example, is still around decades later and seemingly fine - it can never set you free.

Before I close out. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Wunmi Mosaku, whose character Annie, is such an important figure. As a Hoodoo practitioner, she is a counterweight to the assimilating force of Christianity and presents continuity and community. Her relationship with Smoke is an emotional throughline that made me cry.

 

Add-On: Watch this talk from fantastic youtuber F.D. Signifier about Sinners and its place in the entertainment industry: "The Hidden Truth Behind Sinners"

Wolf Man Addendum: Wikipedia and interpretive authority

The beauty about fiction is that all our experiences are different. Our life influences how we view and interpret a piece of media and it can be so joyful to discuss these interpretations. 

Sometimes when I go to Wikipedia to check something about a movie or a book, I will be confronted with an interpretation that is quite different than mine. And that's generally not an issue. Despite what I might joke about from time to time, I do not actually believe my opinions are the only correct ones. However, because these interpretations on Wikipedia usually aren't presented as such and are instead, for example, part of the plot synopsis on the same site that lists facts about the movie like its director or year of release, that makes it seem like a fact as well. 

 For example: In the plot summary of Wolf Man (2025) it says "like his now-estranged father, he [Blake] struggles to control his temper when he senses Ginger is in trouble", which makes it sound like he has anger issues that are in line with his own father. Especially considering the next part of the sentence talks about his wife's growing sense of alienation from her family, a problem that marks her character throughout the movie. I viewed - and therefore described to you - the scene with his daughter differently. Yes, it parallels Blake and his daughter with earlier scenes of Blake and his father but - in my opinion - not to show how they are similar but instead how they are different. Instead of treating her harshly in general, Blake just yells out when he thinks she might get hurt. As is reasonable I think. And instead of more anger and blame, he is the one to apologize to her and get on her level to explain. To me, this is an early sign of how Blake managed to break the cycle and not how he is like his father. 

Maybe this seems nitpicky to you - and admittedly, it isn't that important in this instance - but it is just the most recent example of a phenomenon I've come across many times in the past. 

And sure, I, too, don't constantly add "in my opinion" or "I believe" to sentences I write but on personal blogs you can expect the audience to understand that. People don't go to Wikipedia for opinions. 

 I feel similar about some of those "XY ending explained" videos or articles. Because while they sometimes do just explain references or symbols or similar you might have missed, sometimes they do in fact present and interpretation of a purposefully ambiguous ending as the one true and correct one. 

All in all, it is not a major problem in the grand scheme of things, especially considering the stresses fiction is under, but I want to remind everybody that while some interpretations might be more valid than others (and some interpretations are plain wrong), just because it's written down on Wikipedia or presented by a YouTuber as the truth doesn't mean it isn't merely one of many interpretations. 

A rundown of horror movies of 2025: Wolf Man

A friend found this movie for us and we ended up all going together. I wasn’t sold on the trailer and went mostly for the friend hang-out, but this movie positively surprised me so much that it became my second favorite horror movie of the year so far. 

Wolf Man (2025)

A young boy grows up with his father in the woods. The father is strict and violent and claims to be so to protect his son from what is hiding in the forest. When decades later the estranged father is declared dead, the son, who now has a daughter and a slightly struggling marriage, and his family revisit his childhood home and get confronted with his childhood curse.

Spoilers from here on out

I like it when movies have a theme and stick to it. My favorite horror uses the horrific happenstances, the monster out to get you, as allegory for something else. To say it with tumblr user valtsv’s words “the symbolism is Real and Trying to Kill You”.

The symbolism here is generational trauma. Because it turns out, the werewolf menacing the son and his family is not what was waiting in the woods for him as a child but his own father; his father who now in turn infects him with the werewolf curse.

Watching the trailer it was already clear that the husband, Blake, would be turning into a werewolf during the course of the movie and it looked like the mother, Charlotte, and daughter, Ginger, would have to defend against him as well. I was pleasantly surprised when that did not turn out to be the case. While the transformation is unsettling both for mother and daughter as well as for Blake himself - made visible and tangible for the audience with distorted vision and him gradually losing the ability to parse speech - he is never a danger to them, even when they fear it. In fact, he protects them from his father and in the end chooses death over harming anyone else and passing the curse on, and thus breaking the cycle. 

The beauty of this is that you could already see Blake’s refusal to pass on the metaphorical family curse when early on the daughter behaves thoughtlessly and almost gets hurt. His own father treated him like a soldier and here he raises his voice at his daughter in alarm. But instead of justifying his actions and doubling down as his own father would have, Blake promptly apologizes for it, gently explains why her behavior was dangerous and reaffirms his love for her.

The movie is straight-forward in its plot and theming and contains emotional moments like the repeated ritual Blake has with his daughter that shows their love for each other. It is wonderfully self-contained creature transformation horror and makes me very glad for the scrapping of Universal’s “Dark Universe” without which it never would have existed.

A rundown of horror movies of 2025: Nosferatu

This one was infamous before it was even out. The movie’s reputation preceded it and as a lover of vampires, clearly I had to make this one a field day.

Nosferatu (2024)

Newlywed Thomas is called to Transylvania to assist reclusive Count Orlok with a real estate deal. Against the warnings of his wife Ellen whose nightmares make her cautious, he goes. The horror he experiences there will end up following him home.

Spoilers

Nosferatu (2024) is a fantastic movie. Everyone acts their heart out and the lighting and cinematography are really something else. I found the sequences in Transylvania especially chilling. It’s all just so well made.

A young Ellen feels lonely and abandoned and calls out into the night for someone, anyone, and someone answers. Later she is in a relationship society expects from her but there is something standing between her and her husband, between them and marital happiness. That something is at once a repressive society as well as Ellen’s traumatic adolescent experiences. The relationship between Ellen and Count Orlok is sexually liberating in the same way it is obsessively predatory. The movie asks us to hold both of these ideas in our head even if it makes us uncomfortable, especially if it makes us uncomfortable.

Gothic fiction has us sit with discomfort and instinctive disgust and rejects a black and white interpretation. And judging by pearl-clutching reviews the movie succeeded in that beautifully.

I feel like I have to justify putting it at 3, because in many technical aspects it is better than the movie I put at 2. It’s just Nosferatu is a story I’m familiar with and while this movie was certainly worth making in my opinion, because it brought with it new perspectives, it didn’t surprise me so much; possibly also because I’d already heard many good things about it before I watched it. I was told it was excellent and it is. Expectations met.

A rundown of horror movies of 2025: Companion

 
I watched this one on Valentine’s day with a good friend. It is sorted under “science fiction thriller” or “dark comedy” more often than “horror”, and maybe that means I shouldn’t include it here. Genre is fluid, however, and mutable and to me the movie’s terror is central to the story.


Companion

Happy couple Iris and Josh join friends of his for a getaway in a remote villa in a sprawling forest. The cheerful if a little awkward atmosphere devolves into chaos after the death of one of them reveals secrets kept.


Spoilers from here on out


As the second trailer reveals, Iris is a robot Josh has purchased to be his girlfriend. She is unaware of this fact and believes both herself and her relationship with Josh to be real. It becomes clear very fast that Josh does not consider her real. He plans to have her kill a man and rob his house and ultimately blame it on faulty code within her.

Iris wakes up. Iris escapes. Iris fights for her life.

The movie can easily be read as an allegory for abusive relationships. Iris is there for Josh’s entertainment and enjoyment, is literally and legally an object. Sophie Thatcher does this great thing where her expression is empty whenever she isn’t actively smiling at him, which shows beautifully how she only exists in relation to what he wants from her.

When Josh set the parameters for her character and abilities, he set the slider for intelligence all the way down, showcasing how insecure he is and how much he doesn’t want her to be a partner. Later when Iris has control over her sliders and slides it to the top, she’s not even genius-level smart, just college educated, but he couldn’t even stand that.

After everything he did, Josh makes her sit at the table, unable to respond or move, forces her to light her hand on fire, and makes her listen to all his grievances. Ending with ‘you don’t know how hard it is for people like me’. (A line that made me say ‘says the conventionally attractive white guy’ out loud in the theater; but that’s the point, right?)

When she confronts Josh in the end, it is to tell him that he no longer controls her (a mechanic from the company removed the part of the code that makes her do what others say). She kills him in a way that is satisfyingly brutal; automatic bottle opener to the temple.

Josh’s whole attitude towards her is just the endpoint of how dismissive he is of those around him in general (dragging an unwitting friend into it, planning a murder in the first place). He is portrayed as self-centered and overestimates his abilities to such a degree that he doesn’t consider the consequences of his actions and thus gets everyone killed. Iris, on the other hand, starts out with manipulated memories and (programmed) rose-tinted glasses that get rudely ripped off her. During the movie she struggles with the realization that Josh never actually loved her, just what she could do/be for him. Only when she accepts that Josh could never see her as a person and would only ever continue to treat her the way he did, can she break away.

The world might be dangerous for her, but that doesn't matter, because she is free.