Despite pre-ordering this book pretty much the second I finished Dead Silence, I am just now getting around to reading it. The reasons for this are two-fold.

One, this book was released five days after I gave birth to my first child.

Two, by the time I emerged from my post-partum haze with an interest in picking this up, the reviews had started to come in and they were not that impressive. What they all essentially boiled down to was that this book wasn't as good as Dead Silence, and they were right.

However, that doesn't mean that this book was bad by any means. The world building is interesting, far enough ahead from our current technology to be interesting but tempered enough to seem plausible in the near future. It explored themes of colonialism, corporate greed, and mental illness without smacking you over the head with the messaging. There was plenty of creepy imagery and the story was fun and interesting enough to keep me engaged.

On a personal level, I was dissatisfied with the ending. I also felt like most of the characters were pretty flat. I didn't feel attached to any of them, and when bad things happened, I wasn't particularly emotionally affected by any of it. To be fair, though, I feel as though the characters of Dead Silence weren't that memorable on their own either. What both books excel at is the atmosphere of unease.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for something easy to digest, unsettling without requiring too much brain power from the reader.