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I like zombie fiction, I like it a lot. I like the narrative of survival, I like the tense situations, I like the potential for worldbuilding and the way it can put character development at the forefront. But zombie fiction, like most post apocalyptic fiction, is inherently conservative, falling victim to a 'come and take it' ideology that prioritizes hoarding, us-vs-them tribalism, and a particularly Evangelical flavor of paranoia about the future. It's the end times, after all, and in the Christian West, an event that has not ever happened, no matter how many times it's been predicted, is something that feeds into the constant background static of our culture and policy decisions.

But I still want to read zombie books and watch zombie shows and play zombie games. It's fun.

This novella is fun. This novella is about zombies. This novella is also what we think about when we think about zombies-- and the end times-- and how we cast ourselves as characters within a grand narrative of apocalypse. This story is also very, very concerned with the post-truth era, the Trump administration, Brexit and fake news. All swirl together into a complex and bittersweet story of... zombies. And survival. And the truth. And what it means when we interact with any of those things, and how, if we touch one, we're almost always touching one of the others.

Absolutely excellent, this is my new reccomendation for anyone who wants an introduction or a review of the French Revolution. Unlike many books that cover this period, it isn't afraid of casting the obvious parallels between the events of the revolution and the modern era, showing how the French revolution was a first or at least codifying example of early socialism and early despotism. The book never forgets to track the progress of Haiti's independence, something that almost every review of the French Revolution conveniently 'forgets', despite the fact that the two events are deeply intertwined. Popkin remembers the influence of woman and people of color in the movement, and how their lives were changed during different moments, how they contributed, triumphed and failed. The book isn't afraid to praise successes and criticize failings, treating all involved with an even hand, even when I, personally, would prefer it wouldn't. It gets into the grittier details with an agile ease, so those new to the period can follow along. A fresh and triumphant history overview of the revolution, I'll definitely be looking into Popkin's other works. Highly, highly recommended for any interested in the period.

I will be thinking about this book for a long time. I will be thinking about Shannon Moss. I will wonder at the possibilities in her life, the branching roads mapped out, hypothetical and real. This is the best time travel book I've ever read, the best mystery (simply because it has so many, unfolding like a rose), the best book about spaceflight and the apocalypse and sacrifice. Is anything really the end? The world keeps changing, blossoming, blooming. Everything is beautiful and simultaneously terrible. Time is an uroboros.

While this is undeniably a genre novel, it's also very much an adult contemporary novel, and I think it bridges the gap wonderfully, of interest for both crowds. If you like detective stories, stories about serious women solving serious crimes, this one's for you. If you like twisty pulpy benders with inexplicable unreality, this one's also for you. I am so glad I read this book.

I'll be thinking about the ending through all the recursions of my life, the echoes and the branching paths. Other reviews of this book compare it to Twin Peaks and True Detective. The prose does have a Lynchian flair for the bizarre, and the murder mystery is as gruesome, sad and violent as the first season of True Detective. However, it reminds me far more of the X-Files (in terms of setting, characters and location), Arrival (in terms of atmosphere), and perhaps the first season of Westworld (thematically, with its questions of personhood, the ravages of time, and the themes of impossible futures).

Yet the ending reminds me of nothing so much as Inception's ending-- something meant to be discussed, curled eternally in ambiguity. Yet unlike Inception, the entire book sets you up not to doubt every truth, but to experience and enjoy the multiplicity of endless conflicting truths, each equal and legitimate. In an age of 'mindfuck' twists and 'ending EXPLAINED' youtube diatribes, I find this extremely comforting. This book is not meant to be analyzed or picked apart (though not for lack of depth; the world of this story is as well-built and detailed as any of its more pulpy fantasy or science fiction contemporaries, while still being effortlessly understandable to anyone even glancingly familiar with the last 20 years of American history). The entire book could perhaps be seen as an effort to condition readers to accept dubiety; there are no easy answers. The journey is more important than the destination; time is a beauty meant to be experienced.

It doesn't matter if you're real. Be at peace. Keep going. Someone else would quit.

This book absolutely shines with promise, but its parts are greater than their sum. I genuinely loved large portions of this book, but they often felt stitched together and oddly out of place. The prose quality would go from sublime to sub-par between chapters. Plot developments were shocking and intriguing, but also frequently rushed and jolting. The characters are likeable and memorable, but often their most memorable moments are rushed, without enough foreshadowing or internal characterization to justify a change of heart. The novel expects us to know the tropes inherent in the genre and expect them in kind; it often fails to put in the elbow grease to explain, for example, sudden changes of heart beyond the fact that this is the part in the gothic novel where the heroine changes her heart.

None of this makes the book not worth reading. In fact, I recommend it! I'll be keeping an eye out for this author in the future. House of Hunger is a wonderful, energetic gothic horror novel with sparkling prose, an excellent plot, and tons of memorable moments. The incredibly lush descriptions, the world the characters inhabit, all of it easily makes a story and world you could get lost in. It just needs a little more polish before it can be truly great.

Also, to those reviews saying the twists were 'obvious', I strongly disagree.