Random

WTF did I just read?

Ever been in one of those situations where you know something is wrong? Alarm bells are ringing, red flags waving, and yet you can't really identify the problem. You see hints of it maybe here and there, but there is nothing definite, nothing solid. And at so many levels.

Everything about this setup is so wrong. I'm going to spoiler tag the rest of this because I just can't think of any way to talk about it without spoiling. Understand, this is not a long story and everything seems significant one way or another.

Why does no one ever go there? Both of them have jobs, they have coworkers. There needs to be something around, someplace where these people live. Where they buy their groceries. Where their kids go to school, and similar. But yet, Junior and Hen might be the only people on the planet as far as we can tell.

Why do they never talk about anyone else? Or, for that matter, anything else? Again, they have jobs, they have coworkers. And yet neither one ever mentions a funny story from work, a joke shared among coworkers, a coworker who royally pissed you off. Nothing. They have screens but yet never speak about anything they see or read? This is weird.

Why do neither of them appear to react to Terrance and the news he brings? I mean seriously, if someone showed up one day and gave a line of bull like Junior and Hen got, I'd be telling everyone I knew. I'd be contacting the police. Is this for real? Is this legit? WTF! And yet, Junior and Hen seem almost completely unaffected by the news. Unrealistically passive.

And it gets better. Someone moves from a house and leaves a piano in the basement that just gets randomly found? They would leave live chickens in the barn without making arrangements for their care?

Junior and Hen have no pasts. The most we get of their lives before they got married is the first time Junior saw her. And again, no mention or anyone or anything else. No matter how introverted, our lives are a long string of personal connections going from birth to the now. And yet for Junior and Hen, there is nothing. its like a giant abyss. Notice how the description of Hen's home growing up is a run down farm house, just like the one they bought after they married?

Terrance walks into the mill where Junior works like he already knows the place. Knows exactly where the bathroom is located. Where is everyone and why does no one show up until after Terrence goes to the bathroom. Why does no one blink an eye about Terrance being there? How can Terrence instantly replace Junior at his job?

Nothing changes. Its always hot summer. It never rains. Hen is always wearing her black tank top.

And the beetles. Literal bugs in the system. To spy? Possibly. Symbols of bugs in the code? Also possible.

Notice how both replacement Junior and replacement Hen freeze staring at one of those beetles, neither reacting to them in any way and staying that way for way way too long.I had hopes that when real Junior returned that their relationship would be better. And yet that Junior was every bit as self centered as the replacement.

And near the end I wondered, maybe Replacement Junior and Replacement Hen might have been happy together and pity original was back.

And then I wondered, is this all for original Junior? This was his happiness. It was where he wanted to be, how he wanted his life to be, not Hen. He was the only one who attempted to get rid of one of the beetles too. Even original Hen didn't do that. Was this all for him? Though it doesn't explain why he was the one who went away initially.

Or did he even ever go away? Was he ever there? The first line in the book is Replacement Junior seeing the headlights. Was there a past before that moment?

There is a lot to digest in such a short book. I'm going to have to reread it at some point.

Taking down half a star due to what I felt were some pacing problems.

As a very long time fan of speculative fiction, I'm gonna say something.

This is not a horror book.

Now maybe some more hard core horror fans might disagree, but having glanced through reviews after having finished, I suspect at least some of the lower rated reviews are because of misled expectations. Because this is not a horror book.

This is a Science Fiction book.

All through the book I kept waiting for horror elements. Other than a couple of very minor things early on, and the very very last bit, there really didn't seem to be any. And the entire time I kept thinking that I felt like I was reading a SF dystopia novel instead.

Yeah, its not in the future. There's no advanced tech or space travel. No robots or alien intelligences. There is nothing that says this could not be happening at this very instant in our very real world. But the ideas seem very SF to me.

I recommend this book. I enjoyed it. But check your expectations at the door.

Really a 4.5. I might come back later and change this to a 5.

An excellent story and I loved how the perspective changed.

I think I find I'm just not as fond of this author's Fantasy as I am his Science Fiction.

The ending felt a bit abrupt. I think it really could have used an epilogue of some kind.