Going to start this review by being transparent: I’m a huge fan of Chapman, both as a person and as a writer. This book is probably my favorite of his work so far.

What I wanted more of or might not work for some readers: I wanted more of Noah and his family, as I felt he was the least well rounded of the characters we saw. I would have been curious to see more leading up to the situation, as the second part of the novel was the strongest element for me. Some of the carnal and physical violence might be a bit much for some readers—this is, in a lot of ways, both a psychological and body horror story. Proceed carefully.

What I liked: the characters! I found myself sucked into Asher, his family, and how they each succumbed to the pandemic through various means. I thought it was creative and addressed how we all find ourselves inundated by various ideologies, and theories. I also really appreciated the experimental choices of the novel, outside of the footage format.

What I really loved: the found footage style narrative. He experiments with the concept in a great anthology called FOUND, and this novel allows him to play with it even more. I also loved the balance of condemnation—meaning, we are all to blame for this pandemic of sorts. I will be thinking about one of the “videos”, and its commentary on responsibility. There were also images and experiences from this that will stick with me for a long while (I’ll never be able to drive in the harbor tunnel again without a certain song in my head).

All in all, a five star read for me. I’m curious to hear the audiobook in January.

A short horror focused on the ills of modern American society: twitter, beauty influencers, far right media personalities.

I picked up the book because I enjoyed Chapman's mix of scariness and empathy in his other books - unfortunately this book has none of that.

The prose also wasn't to my taste; lots of repetitive fragments and quippy one liners that prevent the reader from sitting with any of the commentary the book is gesturing towards.

The horror also goes for a more gross-out scare than anything else, which also isn't to my personal taste. If you dont mind your horror with a decent serving of goofiness and which has sat in Twitter discourse for too long, you may enjoy but this wasn't for me.