By Abby Lynch, ’29

Staff Writer

 “I cannot forget Carcosa where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men’s thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask.”― Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow

Most people these days haven’t read about the King in Yellow, an eerie supernatural entity that, legend claims, can drive a person insane. Many authors have written versions of the character, some claim that you go insane just by looking at him or his face under his mask. But the one I have read was written by Robert W. Chambers, who included this story in a collection of supernatural horror tales published in 1895. Chambers’ book includes a play within the book and a series of stories that link together. Sometimes the stories within stories are confusing and mess with your brain, but that’s kind of the whole point of the book. It has inspired a lot of supernatural horror media, including the works of HP Lovecraft, comic books and video games.

Here are two of my favorite stories from Chambers’ book:

“The Repairer of Reputations” — This short story is about a character named Mr. Wilde who basically blackmails his rich and powerful clients to “fix” their damaged reputations. I found this mini story interesting because Mr. Wilde connects to another story called “Imperial Dynasty of America,” where he drove that story’s main character, Hildred Castaigne, insane by making him believe he is the King in Yellow’s heir.

  “The Mask” — This mini story is way different from the last one. It is about two sculptors who are in a love-ish triangle with another girl. The group finds a cool liquid that turns living things into marble, but when they find The King in Yellow book, one of the characters is turned into marble. That drives one of the trio to suicide before the other learns that the transformation is only temporary. At least it’s a happy ending for two of them.

By Maverick Langill, ’27

Staff Writer

When my mom asked me to see this movie with her, I was not expecting the stunning cinematography or the absolute emotional rollercoaster that I was sent on while watching. Now I am among the many who are rushing to buy the book and experience this story again and again.

Music had a huge impact on this movie’s success, from the film score by Dainel Pemberton to songs from artists including Harry Styles, The Beatles, Ike & Tina Turner and Prince. The music was absolutely breathtaking, and incredibly important to one of my new favorite characters Rocky; he communicates through echolocation that sounds like and is music. This was not just a small detail to the book’s author Andy Weir. In a recent interview, he explained that he chose to have Rocky communicate with echolocation because of Rocky’s home planet’s relative location to a star. “Since the atmosphere is so thick, light doesn’t reach the surface so there’s no need to evolve vision,” he explained. “If you cannot evolve vision, I’ve got the obvious answer — echolocation.”

Even though the book Project Hail Mary only came out in 2021, the rights to it had already been sold in 2020 to MGM. Ryan Gosling, who stars as Dr. Ryland Grace in the movie, saw this book as an amazing opportunity to pursue a passion project, and he helped develop the film before the novel’s release. Unsurprisingly, the book was an immediate success upon its May 2021 release, debuting at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list and quickly becoming a popular and critically acclaimed sci-fi hit. Since its release, this bestseller’s popularity has only grown. As of today, Project Hail Mary has sold millions of copies and become one of the most-read books on Goodreads.

Another factor of Project Hail Mary’s success is the work of its clever marketing team.  Synchronizing the movie release with the Artemis II launch was a great marketing strategy. Using the buzz around the Artemis II launch prompted multiple companies such as Lego to hop on this opportunity and make a couple new sets inspired by the Artemis II launch and Project Hail Mary. The timing of both events created  more revenue  for both Lego itself and the Project Hail Mary franchise. Lego developed the Project Hail Mary set rapidly after the film team showed designers a 10-minute preview. The Project Hail Mary set, an 830-piece model focusing on the spaceship’s rotating gravity configuration, was released in March. The Artemis II set, scheduled to be available in May, features 3,601 pieces. 

Speaking of the Artemis II,  NASA was quoted saying “amaze amaze amaze” to commander Reid Wiseman during the mission. This echoes a line that Rocky says when he is overjoyed in one of the scenes from Project Hail Mary. Before they left, the crew of Artemis II had a private viewing in their homes with their family members of the movie team. And just like the rest of us, their hearts were captured by the pure joy that Rocky emitted throughout the movie. 

This movie is one of my personal favorites so far this year and I know a lot of people would certainly agree. The film had a wide range of scenes from heartwarming moments with Ryland Grace and Rocky to action-packed moments where we were left on the edge of our seats. If you were going to go to any movie in theaters, and not wait for it to stream, Project Hail Mary would be the movie to see.

By Abby Lynch, ’29

Staff Writer

I bet that most people have read R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps by the time they’ve gotten to high school, but I don’t think you’re ever too old for them. Stine wrote the original 62 books in the series in the 1990s. But since then, the series has been re-issued, spun off and made into movies countless times. They’re the first scary stories for many children, and even fun to read when you’re older — and harder to scare. Here are a few of the books that I’ve read recently:

Diary of a Dummy: This book was a fun adventure to read. It involved Slappy, the evil ventriloquist’s dummy found in many stories, and two other characters. The other characters found Slappy’s Diary which contained the dummy’s different thoughts. The diary also had clues to find a treasure of gold. The book showed Slappy in a better light than previous books he has been in, which might make readers see him a little differently. Overall the book was really good.

Bride of the Living Dummy: This was a really funny read. The book is about Slappy finding a supposed love, so instead of one dummy making trouble for the main characters, it’s an evil doll and a dummy. I really liked reading this book because it showed what happens to Slappy’s victims when he wins. There were also many funny interactions between characters both bad and good.

Slappy’s Tales of Horror (graphic novel): This book has multiple stories including some of the classics like Night of the Living Dummy, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, A Shocker on Shock Street, and Ghost Beach. This was also a fun read since I actually got to see some of the characters from classic Goosebumps. After every story, Slappy talked to the reader, acting like a funny, but scary friend.

Slappy, Beware!: This book was interesting to read because it explained some of Slappy’s backstory. One surprising thing about this story is that Slappy lost, even though in most of the stories he usually wins. It was a great read and learning about Slappy’s backstory was really fun.