Arborescence by Rhett Davis

What makes a person want to be a tree?

Bren and his partner Caelyn are feeling at a standstill in their lives. One day they come across a video of people in the forest who believe that if they stand still for long enough they will transform into trees. The idea is absurd. But it's spreading. Soon, people start to go missing and trees appear in unlikely places.

As cities decay and the world becomes greener, Caelyn becomes more and more convinced that arborescence is exactly what will save the planet from human destruction. Bren isn't so sure. Drifting apart, Bren and Caelyn are forced to question what it really means to be human - and if they are ready to stand still.

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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.

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🎧 MUSIC PAIRING
🎵 “The Wolves (Act I & II)” – Bon Iver
🎶 Selected Ambient Works, Volume II – Aphex Twin
🎧 Grouper — ethereal, slightly unsettling, meditative

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🌌 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.

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🃏 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.

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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.