Review: Bleak Is One Thing, But This Is Just Ugly 41/100
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
How quickly would you submit to a state of barbarism after the apocalypse? If you're Nelson Lowhim's protagonist, it would take about an hour-and-a-half, long enough to watch the film version of Lord of the Flies and develop a rooting interest in Jack. Granted, there is some measure of reflection and internal debate, but considering that our "hero" kills just about everyone he meets, it's pretty one-sided. There's no slow, painful evolution into reverting to an animal state in a hostile climate; he's just immediately a brutal beast "trying to survive" by engaging in murder and rape. As if that wasn't grim enough, there's an unmistakable vein of misogyny running through the entire story, making it all the more bewildering that the writer would come up with something as sappy as "her touch was a thousand sunsets" and then objectify and denigrate the female sex almost every chance he got. What is the viewpoint? Where is the logic? I get the argument that humanity would drain away if civilization should collapse, but no one seemed to have humanity to begin with. The story is actually fairly well-written, and Lowhim has a sizable grasp on creating set-pieces and generating tension, but the characters and narrative are a wreck. This story is beyond unpleasant; it's pointless.