Praise

“Equal parts memoir and film criticism, Splice of Life: A Memoir in 13 Film Genres is a bruising coming of age, coming out, and coming into one’s own chronicle that rifles through everything from Mean Girls and Scream to Westworld and Black Swan to stress how formative filmgoing (and keen-eyed cinema analysis) can bleed into our own sense of self. With juxtaposition as its anchoring structural conceit (How best to narrate the surprising enormity of the all-encroaching grief for a past lover than to dive into the horrors of The Descent? What better way to grapple with one’s bodily insecurities than to dissect the chilly and chilling vibes of Gattaca?), Jensen reminds us not only how cinema can help elucidate our own lives, but how stitching up our own memories into any semblance of order is always but a brave stab at organizing them into well-worn stories we’ve gathered from those looming darkened screens where our desires, our fears, our anxieties, and our wildest dreams live. Deeply personal and armed with a playfully erudite cinephile sensibility, Jensen’s book is sure to be treasured by fellow queer boys who have similarly found solace in the throes of the treasure trove that is Hollywood.”

—Manuel Betancourt, author of The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men

“Weaving together his own powerful experiences with examinations of current films, Charles makes a clear and compelling point that what we experience culturally influences our personal opinions and choices. Splice of Life reads more like a conversation with a close friend about truthfulness and authenticity, starting from where one is learning to listen to oneself. It’s also a commentary on how our cultural influences both support and keep us questioning our own experience.  Smart, and energetically honest about living and loving, Charles’s book is a must read for anyone who understands how it feels to be on the outside, looking in, for anyone who has hoped against hope to fit in, for anyone who looked at the “popular” kids and wished they’d been among them…you fit in here. This is your book.

—Monica Holloway, author of Driving with Dead People and Cowboy & Wills

Charles Jensen is my hero. By scrutinizing touchstone films through an adult lens and amplifying their personal significance, he meticulously analyzes their pivotal plot developments, themes, and character threads. These threads, though not immediately apparent, possess a profound resonance that tightly weaves this book together. Jensen’s well-curated choices of each movie and his personal stories provide a truly awe-inspiring depth of relatable introspection, justifying reading this book multiple times. Make no mistake, the inherent beauty of this book lies in his earnest writing, carrying the poetic flair that truly defines him as an artist. Splice of Life is a brilliantly clever and teeming with ingenious wordplay, well-crafted characters, intricate plot developments, subtle song references (if you catch them), and introspective meditations on Charles Jensen’s cathartic journey. While his gay coming-of-age story is uniquely his own, paying close attention reveals that he has offered his life story to you as a friend who understands your own experiences of isolation and longing for a sense of belonging.

—Deven Green, Comedic Chanteuse and LBGTQI+ advocate DevenGreen.com