I enjoyed this book but I also found it somewhat difficult to follow. The futuristic, degraded English many of the characters speak can be difficult to parse at first but becomes a rewarding bit of world-building as it goes on. Some of the major plot points could have been made clearer and keeping track of everything became difficult towards the end.

What made it enjoyable to me was its brisk cinematic pacing, it's vivid action scenes, and the gritty setting that was swarming with memorable and bizarre characters. A psychic who spies through the eyes of her feline companions, a cannibal subterranean warrior, and a cult of deranged fundamentalists who worship Beyonce as a Goddess, are just a few of the freakish characters you'll encounter. Despite it being a bit overwhelming at times and not always as clear as I would have liked, I had a great time slumming through post-apocalyptic New York City and mingling with our twisted descendants. I'd happily read it again to catch what I may have missed the first time through. A wild ride and an absolute blast.

This book was hard to follow and hard to get into. I just couldn’t understand the lingo or the plot and the icons inserted in the text were distracting and I couldn’t figure out why they were there.

I'm honestly not sure how to feel about this book. I love Polansky's work, but this one took a long time to get into. Like....most of the book. But once I got into it, I couldn't really put it down.

First of all, the cast of characters is massive. It's so hard to keep track of who's who, especially at the beginning when it jumps from character to character very quickly and you're only getting quick snippets without getting to know any of them. However, over the course of the book, you do get a feel for some of the main characters such as Gillian, the Kid, Ariadne, Hope, Ael, and a few others. But overall, I felt that a lot were very shallow and didn't have much connection to them.

The world itself, set in some kind of post-apocalyptic New York was interesting, but you never find out what the funk is, which is a little frustrating, despite the fact that it is central to the plot. Not a lot is handed to you and you have to work things out for yourself, which a lot of readers will like, but personally, I do like things to be a little clearer.

That said, once I got into the book, I did like all of the twists and turns that it took. There's a lot of backstabbing and betrayal from unusual places. You just have to stick with it through the first third or so.

All in all, I would say it's a solid 3.5 stars.. I rounded up because I genuinely like Polansky as an author.

This was a very interesting futuristic plot. At first the amount of characters was overwhelming and it took me a while to tease apart who everyone was. However I did find myself excited to follow certain characters.
I really struggled with the use of emojis for the images/language - it was an interesting concept but it felt a bit strange and disjointed.

I enjoyed this book, though I didn't really warm up to any of the characters, the story was interesting and I wanted to know what was happening. It's set in Manhattan after being entirely surrounded and isolated by a low-hanging fog that causes instant exploding death for some and hallucinations or mind-control abilities for others. The island has devolved into a lower tech tribal kind of society, with each neighborhood having a warlord and the more powerful neighborhoods forming a loose alliance. Some of the tribes are subterranean, in the now unused subway tunnels. There are a lot of characters to follow, but we mainly follow a sheriff hired by the alliance to investigate the assassination of one of the more minor warlords. The relationships between the various characters is complex and revealed slowly. The writing is excellent, which overcomes how generally unlikeable everyone is. Plot advancements are doled out expertly, this is not so much a murder mystery but a puzzle, and you need to discover how all the pieces fit together. It's a pretty grim tale, but ultimately satisfying and thought provoking.

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed the low town books I thought I was in for a treat with this book……. I have to be honest and state it was not for me, the story just didn’t engage me and I DNF about half way

It took me quite a while to really get into this book, I struggled my way through the first 40% of the book but oh God that was something, totally worse the struggle.
At first I wasn’t understanding anything, there was so many characters and so many things were happening I was a little lost. I ended up loving it, I learned to love the characters, especially The Kid, Swan and Gillian. I think i would have liked a map at the beginning of the book, I really think it would help understanding the story and the power play between the groups. Thought I didn’t quite like the emoji speech, while I think it wasn’t such a bad idea, it was a good idea I just think the execution was kinda poor(?). The dialogue were to me sometimes unintelligible, i couldn’t make sense of them sometimes, pretty sure this is made on purpose but i don’t really enjoy being this lost when reading s book.
If you like post-apocalyptic books and being lost this book’s definitely for you.