A review by bowman
Hystopia by David Means

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

It's hard to describe this book as anything other than Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthy getting together and trying to fictionalize The Body Keeps the Score. This book is very in line with the spirit of all three, but it also maintains its own identity as an examination of not just the personal aspects of trauma, but trauma as a sort of collective, evolving ecology. We see this reflected in the forested setting of Michigan (on fire, mostly), and in the jarring changes and constant movement of the local apex predator Rake (who is also, in a way, on fire), in the many social experiments of the Corps and the collective reaction to the (final, successful) assassination of JFK. I liked the beatnik-ish, meandering organization of this book, and the dreamlike way it denied its reader any sense of certainty, especially when it came to its climax. It will not be a book for everyone, but books for everyone are only for everyone in that they're reduced to boring, common denominators. This was a weird little drug-fueled adventure that is loyal to the spirit of its mid-century cousins, and well worth the read.