“You make things normal by being normal in the midst of them. That’s a lesson everyone had to learn on a whole new level. You make things normal by sheer force of will. You make things normal and then you don’t have to be freaked out all the fucking time. And, after a while, you could be amazed by how many things become normal; how many things you simply learn to accept and fold into what passes for your life.”

A mysterious affliction causes people to go into a murderous and suicidal state of isn’t it y anytime they make eye contact with another human. Riley survives by being reclusive and hiding herself from even encountering mirror or pictures of herself. She finds a comfortable rhythm in her isolation in an abandoned suburb until Ellis, a friendly man with a charming voice and a protective welding mask moves into the neighborhood. While avoiding truly seeing each other they forge a connection trying to navigate a new and torn up world.

COVID’s influence on this pandemic novel are incredibly apparent. Moraine visibly internalized the idea that the real life pandemic broke apart both communities and internal mental processing. This world is wild but it’s all that is leftover.