I could not put this book down. From the epistolary nature of the prose, to the way Bockoven seeds details in each character’s perspective that come back later or call back to something you’ve already read is incredible.

There’s a few really gory moments of violence that really elevate this as a horror book. When one of the “tribes” is the “Pirates”, you can imagine some of the shitty hypermasculine shit they might get up to.

but I think what really made me enjoy it was the Lord of the Flies-ness of it all. I began to really wonder about what would happen in this situation. I think Bockoven really nails it. Down to the corporate shitbags taking no responsibility for the situation they put their young underpaid workers.


I don’t think I fully agree with the assertion that so much of the violence can be attributed to a lack of technology use. If anything, as some characters assert, technology may have made it worse?


Shoutout to Mike Bockoven being a local Nebraska author.