Arborescence by Rhett Davis
What does it mean to be human… if standing still can make you something else entirely?
Pre-Reading Thoughts:
I knew this would be strange, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the odd, fragmentary way the story unfolds - sections sometimes just a few lines, each a quiet nudge toward disquiet. The premise alone, people standing still until they become trees, is enough to make you pause and wonder what exactly “human” even means.
Post-Reading:
As I thought...
The writing is curious and provocative, pulling you into a slow, meditative drift. Each short section feels like a leaf falling - light, precise, and oddly weighty. The idea of transformation, of nature reclaiming human form, is compelling and uncanny.
It surprised me by...
Balancing subtle unease with a strange, creeping beauty. Cities decay, the world grows greener, people disappear - and yet the imagery is vivid and almost mesmerising. The tension isn’t about action or chase, it’s in that quiet, almost casual strangeness that keeps lingering in your mind.
🎧 MUSIC PAIRING
🎵 “The Wolves (Act I & II)” – Bon Iver
🎶 Selected Ambient Works, Volume II – Aphex Twin
🎧 Grouper — ethereal, slightly unsettling, meditative
🌌 VIBE CHECK
🎨 Colour Palette: muted greens, greys, deep browns.
🎬 Soundtrack: wind through forests, rustling leaves, faint creaks of urban decay.
🍂 Season: late autumn turning into winter - a quiet, suspended time.
😶🌫️ Mood: eerie, meditative, subtly unsettling.
🌾 Scent: damp soil, fallen leaves, sap, and smoke from abandoned fires.
🃏 TAROT PULL – The Empress (Horror Tarot)
A figure with a plant literally bursting from her stomach, surreal and uncanny. Growth and transformation here are beautiful, grotesque, and inevitable - just like the story’s arborescence phenomenon. Humans and nature entwine in ways that are mesmerising, bizarre, and quietly alarming.
For fans of:
📚 The Overstory – Richard Powers
🎬 Annihilation
Disclaimer:
Arborescence publishes on the 15th of January, 2026. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
