A deadly fog has covered the Earth and killed anyone it touched. The only survivors are a group of scientists and villagers who live on an island surrounded by the fog. No one can enter or leave the island as the fog hovers at the water’s edge, kept at bay by a security system. When one of the scientists is found stabbed to death, the villagers come to realize three things: someone on the island is a murderer, the security system keeping the fog away is starting to fail, and if they don’t solve the murder within 107 hours, the fog will cover the island and kill them all.
The past couple of books I’ve read have been a bit of a disappointment and unfortunately, this one was as well. I feel like I was bamboozled and misled by the synopsis of this story; it just wasn’t what I thought it would be. I watched a YouTube trailer for the book that called the island a perfect utopia and conveyed a sense of urgency and sinisterness about the fog approaching but, in my opinion, this book is nothing like that.
First off, the island is not idyllic or a utopia, at least not one that I would want to live in. The villagers live in these dilapidated army barracks that are falling apart. The showers are filled with mold and rust. It seems like everyone is constantly dirty. They work and farm all day because they have to grow their own food. Except for dinner time, it didn’t seem like anyone is having any fun on this island.
I also never understood the urgency of figuring out who the murderer was. The book keeps giving us a countdown and telling us that there are so many hours left until humanity is wiped out, but this need to act quickly didn’t translate onto the page for me. Part of this is because there are a lot of characters in the book and I kept getting confused about who was who and how they were related to one another. I think this kept taking me out of the book because I would have to pause and try to remember who they were.
But the one thing that bothered me the most was that the book uses both 1st and 3rd person narration. The book reads like it is narrated from the point of view of the omnipresent AI voice that can talk to the villagers in their heads and hear their thoughts. I kept getting confused, trying to figure out who was talking. I also didn’t even understand who the AI voice was – I really wish there was more explanation about that because I feel like I would have got the story more.
I did like some of the ideas that the novel puts forth about control and who should be in power and what makes a human. I think I was just expecting more from this one.
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I DNF’d this after a couple of chapters. I remember hating everyone and being bored. Sorry to see it didn’t improve!
Glad someone else felt the same about this book!