Photo Collage of the best three pieces of entertainment for this great week by Arts and Entertainment Editor Olivia Cusick.

  Hello! As the 2022 – 2023 Expressions Arts and Entertainment editor, I wanted to use the wonderful reporting team to reflect the media that students at San Luis Obispo High School enjoy.

“Stray”: The cutest game about dystopia by Arts and Entertainment editor Olivia Cusick

  The day I saw a trailer for “Stray” (2022) I was captivated. I knew that was a game that I would just love to play. The game follows a stray kitten in a dystopian world.

  Run entirely by independent artists, the game was in development for seven years. The developing studio BlueTwelve said their company is, “a small team from the south of France mostly made up of cats and a handful of humans”. 

  The game is even captivating after finding out that the studio donated copies of the game to shelters to raffle off, raising money for the animals. Similarly, many content creators who stream video games, have been playing the game on charity streams for stray cats.

  My trashy gaming laptop couldn’t capture the full experience. I was forced to use my little brother’s gaming computer, but ultimately it made that game so much better. The graphics genuinely took my breath away, especially in the beginning in the outside world. 

  The protagonist kitten is running around in an overgrown world with three others. It’s clear this world is no longer inhabited by humans. One kitten gets lost and falls down into the sewers. As he continues to explore, he finds an underground system, and finds a small robot, named B-12.

  As we explore, B-12 helps us to translate the robots which live in this city, and communicate with each other. We learn that they are miserable, and have been trying to escape. B-12 explains he used to help a scientist, but his memory has been corrupted. As we explore we collect memories and learn more information about his past. 

  The world isn’t just a beautiful landscape and graphics, there are little monsters called Zerks, trying to stop the protagonist from escaping. But since we are smaller, more flexible, and faster than the robots in this world, we are their only hope. 

  The graphics are outstanding. I can’t discuss it enough. There are definitely faulty areas and glitched objects, but personally I just imagine that as a cat, we aren’t constrained to the physics of real life.

  The movements are also wonderful. Rather than the jumping controlled by the player, the cat has swift jumps that work within the game. Multiple objects can be knocked over, walking in paint, the cat can track pawprints all over, the cat can even get his head trapped in a paper bag. (When that happens, all the controls are switched to convey the confusion and panic of that situation). The cat can even cause robots walking around to trip. 

  The emotion of the game is my favorite. You can cuddle up to robots, and their faces literally light up and show a heart. Certain areas allow the cat to curl up and rest, zooming in on the face of the resting feline. Parts of the game can be rather sad, saying goodbye to friends, finding robots who had lost their memories and movements. Action scenes can be infuriating, constantly having to start over. But the tidewave of emotions that this game has caused me, is more than worth it. I love it. I one hundred percent recommend that you play it. 

Source: https://stray.game

What is “Heartstopper” and why do people love it? By reporter Charly Elston

  Popular among its San Luis Obispo High School fans, Netflix’s “Heartstopper” has recently announced that it is getting two more seasons in 2023-2024. “Heartstopper” is the perfect queer romance for anyone longing to watch a cute, light-hearted (so far…) show about LGBTQ+ teenagers, and for anyone who enjoyed the books.

  “Heartstopper” primarily focuses on the love story between “borderline outcast” Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and rugby player Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). Darcy Olsson (Kizzy Edgell) and Tara Jones’ (Corinna Brown) relationship is also explored. A third romance is between Elle Argent (Yasmin Finney) and Tao Xu (William Gao).

  Charlie is in his tenth year attending Truham Boys’ School, and was recently accidentally outed to his school. When he joins his new class, he meets Nick, who is in his eleventh year. At first, all they can say to each other is “hi”. After observing Charlie’s speed while running, Nick asks Charlie to join the rugby team. Hesitant at first, Charlie agrees. As boys’ friendship grows into something more, Nick goes on a journey of self discovery, attempting to figure out his sexuality. Nick’s character is relatable to anyone who has struggled with their sexuality.

  Tara and Darcy have been dating for awhile, and are slowly becoming more and more comfortable with other people knowing about their relationship. Navigating homophobia and being confident in her sexuality is difficult for Tara, and working through this strengthens the two girls’ relationship.

  Elle has just transitioned, and is getting used to going to Higgs Girls’ School instead of Truham. Not ready to branch out, she keeps to herself at first, struggling to move past her friend group with Charlie, Tao, and Isaac Henderson (Tobie Donovan). Eventually, she makes friends with Tara and Darcy. Elle and Tao find themselves slowly growing feelings for each other, though neither seem confident enough to confess.

  Heartwarming, adorable, swoon-worthy. All perfect words to describe the “Heartstopper” TV show on Netflix. Based on the books by Alice Oseman, this show is a wonderful adaptation, and as someone who loved the books, the changes they made were good and helped the story.

  As you’re waiting for the next two seasons, enjoy the books. They’re quick reads, all graphic novels, with four books so far, the fifth to be released in 2023.

Source: https://netflixlife.com

“Diary of an Oxygen Thief” by Anonymous review by editor-in-chief Izzy Nino de Rivera-Krieger!

Genre: Memoir

Izzy’s Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Price (Retail): $16.99

Price (Barnes and Noble): $13.99

Price (Amazon): $10.16

Length: 160 pages

Any warnings?: Very strong language, graphic descriptions of sex, a man who likes to hurt and manipulate women emotionally, alcoholism, violence, rape, child abuse, trauma, all of it. For a further in depth look at the trigger warnings, look it up online – these are simply the noteworthy topics through the book, but certain topics come up that aren’t as prominent but are triggers. One of the most vulgar books I’ve read.

Yes, I caved. I read one of the most unrecommended books out there. The curiosity was killing me to read it. 

  And honestly? I don’t regret reading it, as stomach-knotting as it was.

  As the trigger warnings say, it’s one of the most vulgar books I’ve ever read. It’s definitely up there with “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis.

  I feel like it’s safe to compare the narrator/author to Patrick Bateman in some aspects, speaking of “American Psycho”, except the narrator is much more in touch with the world around him and doesn’t have an urge to *physically* hurt. But he does not have any true emotions like love or compassion for others, as well as struggling with alcoholism. He doesn’t have much remorse for his actions either, as he clearly states in the first page.

  The book, as people have probably heard, is most famous for its first lines: “I like hurting girls. Emotionally, not physically. I’ve never hit a girl in my life. Well, once. But that was a mistake. I’ll tell you about it later. The thing is, I got off on it. I really enjoyed it.” (1)

  And news flash: I’m one of those readers who gets either pulled in immediately by the first page or just puts off reading the book until later if it doesn’t captivate me or pique interest immediately.

  I didn’t enjoy the book because of its content. I’d be insane if I did, but not to say you are if you did enjoy the content (kind of…).

  But then, why did you give it four stars, Izzy?

  Simple, my beloved readers. 

  I’m someone who likes psychoanalyzing characters, even if the character is meant to be horrible. That’s what brings fun back into the book for me and makes me be able to stand it. Otherwise, I’d probably be in the category of the faint-hearted that would hate this book because of how awful the content of it is. 

It’s written well, once you get beyond the fact he’s a rotten human being. I also just sat through the sex scenes and read them to get past them.

  It is satisfying to get to the ending, although I wish he got more of what he deserved. I did have to read it twice to fully understand it but it left me with more questions – hence, my currently reading the sequel.

  It rambles on at times and goes on tangents – it sometimes be difficult to understand or to keep track of the plot. However, insight into his mental state of mind made this book enjoyable and I wouldn’t take out anything, except for a couple of churning depictions of hurting women or sex scenes I would have rather not read.

  Do not eat if you’re reading this book. It churned my stomach at some points and I definitely believe this book is not for everyone.