Thank you NetGalley, Visceral Books, and Raymond King for sending me this ARC. This review is voluntary and contains my own opinion.

I was initially drawn to Alien Nation for its science fiction premise, and the synopsis immediately hooked me. The story follows two main points of view in a society that aspires to be psychopaths and where sadism is the norm. One perspective is Jason, a service android who has never been able to conform and is at risk of being replaced. The other is Prince Marcus, a member of the ruling class of “monarchs.” Through a series of events, their roles in this world are quickly upended. 

The book had a lot of potential. There’s a sense of dread woven into the narrative, lots of the interactions are unnerving which I think was intentional. Since this is a shorter story, I expected the pacing to be quicker, but the characters felt hollow. The dialogue was somewhat clunky, which made it difficult to immerse myself in the story.

The most compelling aspect of the book was its worldbuilding and lore. However, I often found myself confused. The world introduces many different people and concepts, but much of it is left unexplained. Normally, I enjoy a book that tosses me in head first, but this was a lot with little pay off.