The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
4 — Wednesday, September 28, 2022 

I cannot stand horror movies. 
I flinch at every jump scare 
and end up watching most of 
it through my fingers. And 
yet, over the past five years, I 
have found myself shamelessly 
entranced by “American Horror 
Story” (AHS). From its debut 
season “Murder House” to the 
fan-favorite “Coven” to the most 
recent “Double Feature,” I have 
seen it all. “AHS” became famous 
due to its commitment to each 
season’s terrifying theme, the 
range of its cast members and 
some of the craziest plot twists 
and endings known to man. 
On September 8, creators 
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk 
wrapped up season two of 
their spinoff “American Horror 
Stories,” an anthology with 
each episode featuring new 
cast members and new stories. 
Season one made its debut last 
summer to an overall positive 
reception, as fans were delighted 
to see the introduction of fresh 
talent, some of whom entered 
the main cast of “AHS” in season 
10.
Season two of “American 
Horror Stories” had its highs and 
lows, kicking off with episode 
one, “Dollhouse,” bringing us 
the story of Mr. Van Wirt (Denis 
O’Hare, “True Blood”), a man 

with an unhealthy obsession 
with dolls, his victims and his 
son, Otis (Houston Jax Towe, 
“Animal 
Kingdom”). 
What 
made “Dollhouse” the standout 
of the season, however, was its 
ending. Devoted “AHS” fans 
will notice that the women 
with whom Otis leaves at the 
end of the episode are witches, 
and as we find in an incredibly 
satisfying moment, Otis is none 
other than a young Spalding, the 
mute butler in American Horror 
Story’s “Coven,” who was also 
played by Denis O’Hare. As a 
sweeter touch, we see a young 
girl with large glasses and 
crimped red hair run out of 
the famous Miss Robichaux’s 
Academy for Exceptional Young 
Ladies, introducing herself as 
Myrtle Snow and claiming that 
one day, she’ll run the academy. 
“AHS” fans know how that one 
turned out. “Coven” featured 
some of the series’ most beloved 
characters, and the little reveal 
at the end served as a great way 
to keep fans connected to the 
main body of the story while also 
ensuring that “Dollhouse” was a 
great episode in its own right, 
unmarred by fan service.
While 
“American 
Horror 
Stories” 
does 
feature 
fresh 
talent, viewers do see some 
familiar faces scattered across 
the 
episodes. 
Episode 
two, 
“Aura,” stars Max Greenfield 
(“New Girl”) as Bryce and 

Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) 
as his wife Jaslyn, the latter of 
whom is well known for her role 
as Queenie in American Horror 
Story’s “Coven”, “Hotel” and 
“Apocalypse.” The couple buys an 
Aura device, akin to the modern-
day Ring home security system 
and quickly begins experiencing 
supernatural hauntings through 
it. Episode three, “Drive,” stars 
Disney icon Bella Thorne (“The 
Babysitter”) playing a party 
girl who’s just trying to have a 
good time and “AHS” alum Nico 
Greetham (“Love, Victor”), who 
may or may not be a part of the 
creepy nightlife that follows her 
home. All four actors showcased 
their range in their respective 
episodes as the plots twisted and 
turned and ultimately landed 
on their heads. Both “Aura” and 
“Drive” showcase the classic 
“AHS” 
formula 
with 
great 
success: 
Introduce 
the 
extremely 
normal main characters
Oh no! Some disturbing stuff 
is happening to our very normal 
characters
Guess what! Our super normal 
characters are, in fact, not so 
normal! 
Despite 
the 
potential 
for 
distraction with some popular 
faces, these two episodes felt 
like classic “AHS.” The second 

‘American Horror Stories’ returns for a 
second twisted anthology

SWARA RAMASWAMY
Daily Arts Writer

Content warning: mentions of 
suicide.
When Rebecca recounts her 
sister 
Veronica’s 
suicide, 
she 
notes that a young man tried 
to intervene. He reached for 
Veronica but was too late. He 
caught her shoe as she fell from 
the overpass. “The second shoe 
was never recovered,” Rebecca 
narrates, “but as her feet were two 
sizes larger than mine, I could not 
in any case have worn them.”
Such is the sardonic tone 
that runs through “Case Study,” 
Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Booker-
nominated, brilliant and often 
disquieting work of psychological 
fiction. The novel is composed 
of two parts: a biography of the 
fictional 
1960s 
psychologist 
Collins 
Braithwaite, 
and 
the 
notebooks of one of his patients, 
Rebecca.
Only her name isn’t Rebecca. 
The writer of the notebooks is a 
20-something girl from London. 

She works as a secretary and lives 
at home with her father and has 
no desire to marry and move out 
of the house. Her mother died 
when she was 15, and her sister 
died recently.
In 
a 
published 
collection 
of Braithwaite’s case studies, 
“Rebecca” recognizes her sister 
in a patient called “Dorothy.” In 
the chapter, Braithwaite gives 
Dorothy a thought exercise: If 
you had one day to do whatever 
you wanted without consequence, 
what would you do? 
“Eventually, the color rose 
to her cheeks. I asked her what 
she was thinking,” Braithwaite’s 
notes read. Dorothy doesn’t share 
her thoughts, but Braithwaite 
asks 
what 
the 
consequences 
would be if she indulged in them. 
“‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘There would 
be no consequences.’ I told her 
that she could do or be whatever 
she wanted. She seemed greatly 
unburdened. She did not, she 
told me, want to be Dorothy any 
longer.”
Rebecca recognizes this patient 
to be her sister from the way she 

gingerly reclines on a settee and 
uses the word “melodramatic.” 
She notes that Braithwaite’s office 
was “only a few minutes walk 
from the overpass from which 
Veronica had thrown herself.” 
She makes an appointment with 
Braithwaite. She means to learn 
more about him — or find proof 
that he led her sister to her end.
On the train to Braithwaite’s 
office, the narrator decides she 
can’t reveal who she is. He’d 
recognize her name and the 
details of her life from her sister’s 
own sessions. We never learn 
her real name, only the one she 
tells Braithwaite: Rebecca Smyth 
(with a Y).
What follows from this first 
flirtation 
with 
the 
Rebecca-
persona is a spiral into the 
performative problem of identity 
itself — as she plays the role of 
Rebecca, a clever and worldly 
woman in Braithwaite’s office, 
she feels it carve out more and 
more of her. 

Personalities abound in Graeme 
Macrae Burnet’s ‘Case Study’

JULIAN WRAY
Book Beat Editor

Design by Abby Schreck

Following in the footsteps of The 
Michigan Daily Arts’ Music Talks, 
The Michigan Daily Arts section 
presents Arts Talks, a series where 

Daily Arts Writers gather to discuss 
their opinions on and reactions to the 
latest and major releases in the Arts 
world.

In this segment of Arts Talks, three 
Daily Arts Writers well-versed in the 
Taylor Jenkins Reid Universe review 
TJR’s recent publication, “Carrie Soto 
is Back,” discuss her authorship and 
deliberate over her other mainstream 
work.
This conversation has been edited 
and condensed for clarity and brevity. 
Lillian 
Pearce, 
Managing 
Arts Editor: I, like many Taylor 
Jenkins Reid (TJR) fans, came to 
“Carrie Soto is Back” with high 
expectations. She’s the bestselling 
author of eight novels, and “Carrie 
Soto is Back” follows the particularly 
renowned “Malibu Rising”, “Daisy 
Jones & The Six” and “The Seven 
Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” All of 
these books became popular on 
BookTok, and for good reason — 
they’re entertaining, easy to read and 
fun. Though all of her books engage 
in the same fictional universe, there 
are a lot of parallels to and influence 
from reality; I think that’s partly why 
they’re so easy to eat up. 
Ava 
Seaman, 
Daily 
Arts 
Writer: Yeah! When I first read the 
synopsis of “Carrie Soto is Back,” 
I immediately thought of Serena 
Williams. Like Williams, Carrie 
Soto is a tennis player who’s been 
playing since a very young age under 
the direction of her father (and 
ex-professional tennis player), Javier. 
Carrie eventually becomes the 
greatest player of all time, earning 
the record for most Grand Slam titles 
before she retires. It’s this record 
that becomes her claim to fame and 
functions as the primary source 
of conflict in the book; the novel is 
about Carrie’s comeback and how 
she trains and relearns tennis in this 
new age of the sport. Even though it’s 
only been six years since she retired, 
the game has changed, and the 
players have improved.
This is a sports fiction novel, 
which is incredibly different from 
TJR’s previous works that have 
focused on other distinct eras (’70s 
music scene, ’50s Hollywood, etc). It 

could be off-putting to some people, 
but I think TJR explains tennis 
really well. The thing about sports 
fiction is that it’s also so fun to read; 
it’s exciting and engaging because 
you can’t help but wonder what’s 
going to happen next. The story itself 
is very fast-paced and keeps you on 
the edge of your seat. 
LP: The first 20% of the book 
focuses on how Carrie started 
playing tennis with her father, who 
was a famous player in Argentina 
known as “The Jaguar.” There’s a 
brief description of his move to the 
United States, where he works as a 
trainer and meets Carrie’s mother, 
who ends up dying when Carrie is 
very young. Javier’s grief is evident 
in how he pours himself and all that 
he knows into his daughter. From 
the moment Carrie first picks up a 
racket, he claims that she’ll be the 
greatest player of all time. “Carrie 
Soto is Back” is a story about a father 
and daughter as much as it is about 
tennis. 
AS: Her relationship with her 
father is definitely as complicated as 
it is interesting. I think the reason for 
that is the lack of a relationship with 
her mother — the lack of motherly 
affection and warmth that fathers 
typically aren’t expected to have 
(though they can obviously still 
provide it). Javier makes up for this 
absence with his affection on and off 
the tennis court; their relationship is 
so compelling because it’s not what 
we typically see in fictional father-
daughter duos. 
LP: Another compelling aspect of 
“Carrie Soto” is that we, as readers 
of TJR’s previous works, came to it 
with preconceived notions of who 
Carrie Soto is. 
AS: 
Carrie 
Soto 
makes 
an 
appearance in “Malibu Rising” when 
she cheats with the protagonist’s 
husband, another tennis player. We 
therefore already have this idea that 
Carrie is a very cold, icy woman, 
who knowingly had an affair with a 
married man; the idea that she’s not a 
likable person sets the tone for “Carrie 
Soto is Back,” and for our perception 
of Carrie herself in particular. 

Arts Talks: Taylor Jenkins Reid’s new 
release ‘Carrie Soto is Back’

DAILY ARTS WRITERS

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Design by Grace Filbin

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Brooke Husic
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/28/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/28/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2022

ACROSS
1 Enthusiast
5 Embarrass
10 Member of an 
ancient religion 
that values 
nonviolence
14 Like some exams
15 “__ Man”: Village 
People hit
16 High ponytail, e.g.
17 WNBA alum 
Barnes who 
coaches the 
Arizona Wildcats
18 Skateboard stunt
19 Baby bird’s home
20 Fudge-and-
caramel ice 
cream dish
23 Bubble tea pearls
24 Abu Dhabi’s 
country: Abbr.
26 Regulations for a 
big contest
34 “Tomorrow” 
musical
35 Branch of Islam
36 Body spray brand
37 500 sheets of 
paper
38 Plenty of
40 Organ component
41 Note-taking aid
42 Auth. unknown
43 Ready to play, in 
a way
44 Gradually and 
reliably
48 Agree silently
49 Units of 
resistance
50 Ambiguous 
outcome, and 
what the circled 
letters literally 
contain
57 Dreary and dull
60 Beyond mad
61 Ames’s state
62 Coffee, in slang
63 Golf course 
halves
64 Pre-calc math 
course
65 Petty quarrel
66 Grind, as molars
67 Creator of a 
Sonic boom?

DOWN
1 V-shaped sitting 
pose in yoga
2 Language spoken 
by Kamala Khan’s 
family on 
“Ms. Marvel”

3 Carnival
4 Feature of some 
ball caps
5 Slide show?
6 Fragrant sap
7 Org. with a 
Reproductive 
Freedom Project
8 Knee-to-ankle 
area
9 Cleared weeds, 
say
10 Capital of Alaska
11 Gorilla, e.g.
12 Cards with pics
13 “__ all heroes 
wear capes”
21 Sole
22 General vibe
25 Olympic sprinter 
Thompson-
Herah
26 Waterproof 
covers
27 Oscar winner 
Tatum
28 Eel-and-rice 
dish
29 College sports 
channel
30 Org. with the 
Blues and the 
Blue Jackets
31 Dead heat
32 Toss out
33 Run-down

38 “Press __ key to 
continue”
39 Crowd around
40 Occupations
42 Grocery chain 
based in 
Germany
43 Antacid brand
45 Tasmanian 
marsupial
46 Rich cakes
47 “Yikes!”
51 Abbr. seen under 
a deer silhouette

52 “__ Brockovich”
53 “The X-Files” 
agent Scully
54 Shared stories
55 Item needed to 
play Poohsticks
56 Story that might 
take hours to tell
57 Playlist 
overseers, for 
short
58 Knock sharply
59 Director 
DuVernay

SUDOKU

By Bonnie Eisenman
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/21/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/21/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2022

ACROSS
1 Thwack
5 Informed (of)
10 Compensation
14 Tuck out of view
15 Wrinkled
16 Many a univ. 
donor
17 365 days
18 Rub ingredient
19 HBO political 
satire starring 
Julia Louis-
Dreyfus
20 Impractical way 
to get dressed?
23 Barack and 
Michelle’s eldest 
daughter
26 Family room
27 Impatient
28 Lives
30 Cookie fruit
31 Planning meeting 
for the costume 
department?
35 “Stop filming!”
38 Broody sorts?
39 Sir or sri
40 More than dislike
41 Donkey
42 Disappointing 
sign on a 
store selling 
warm-weather 
garments?
44 GPS display
45 Small village
46 Food cart snacks 
in South Asia
49 Texting letters
52 Swerves
53 Really pulls off a 
jacket?
56 Initial poker bet
57 Japanese noodle 
dish
58 Carried debt
62 Appear to be
63 “You __ kidding!”
64 Grow tiresome
65 Jekyll’s 
counterpart
66 Basil-based 
sauce
67 Yields, as a profit

DOWN
1 Bashful
2 Blip on a 
polygraph, maybe
3 Hugo-nominated 
novelist Palmer

4 Continues
5 “One more 
thing ... ”
6 Totally beat
7 Ouzo flavoring
8 Scouting mission, 
briefly
9 Garden with 
forbidden fruit
10 Fluttering in the 
wind
11 Warning signal
12 Ballpark figure
13 Like cans in a 
recycling bin, 
hopefully
21 Doth own
22 Fall flat
23 Anime genre 
featuring giant 
robots
24 Wheel-
connecting rods
25 NFL team whose 
mascot is named 
Roary
29 Punchline lead-in
30 __ and blood
32 “Pull up a chair”
33 Corp. computer 
exec
34 Fuzzy sitcom star 
of the 1980s

35 “The Grouchy 
Ladybug” writer/
illustrator
36 Out-and-out
37 Tries, as one’s 
patience
40 Place of origin
42 Cheerios grains
43 “__ Nagila”: 
Israeli folk song
44 Defiant retort
46 Cymbal sound
47 Bee product

48 Performed
49 Open up, in a 
way
50 Fast-spreading 
social media 
posts
51 Fragrance
54 Hip hop genre
55 “I’m __ your 
tricks!”
59 Pint-size
60 “Mangia!”
61 Many profs

PARKING

Parking Space 
for Rent

North State & Kingsley

734-904-0649

CLASSIFIED ADS

Your classified 
ad here! Email 
wmg-contact@
umich.edu for more 
information.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

