Ambrose
6/20/2025
"Speculative fiction" is a great way to look at books like this. When you read something completely unlike anything you've ever read. Even if someone had told me the premises of this one, the spins the author took with it are incredibly unique. Books about animal cruelty and the sad reality of human greed always resonate with me. I liked a lot of little revelations characters had throughout the book, things like "So many people said they wanted to be understood. But who could want that?" are great to ruminate on. Or "And maybe something in every single person is broken, and we just keep moving forward as if it were all normal--all of it--like insects with their heads torn off who keep crawling toward a shadow to hide in. Until that thing that has already destroyed us catches up, and we stop moving." I'm glad I decided to pick this up, it's kind of sad and depressing, but I'm a magnet for dark fiction anyway.
(ATY #21 "Herd" of mammoths) Primarily read because: 2025 Locus award finalist.