This stone cold chiller of a book fucked me up so thoroughly I did not sleep after finishing it last night (complimentary). I am begging you on my knees to read it 😭

I do not want to give too much away because (if you have not listened to the associated podcast, Within the Wires, already - I have not but am planning to check it out!) I do really feel like it is good to go into it without a lot of expectations, but I will say a few things.

This book is an extremely insidious alternate history dystopian presented in a super unique way, as an autobiography of a now-deceased psychologist within The New Society that is being published (and with light editing, commentary, clarifications, etc.) provided by an academic publishing press. This format is very engaging, and the audiobook is great - the two narrators are quite distinct so it is easy to track.

I bemoan all the time that people do not recognize patterns from history. But something very alarming about this book is how it highlights for us how attempts to “learn from the past” can result in black-and-white generalizations that are used to enforce authoritarianism “for the greater good.” This is used to great effect in this novel, because while The New Society is crystal clear on where it stands, the narrative itself leaves so much up to your interpretation. It is almost funny, for someone who loves nuance but deeply, deeply struggles with uncertainty and unknowns, how much I adore a story that does not really intimate an objective reality at any point or spell everything out, forcing me to think through the possibilities, motivations, and unanswered questions for hours on end.

I think this book is a deeply compelling one, and if you are at all interested in any of the following, I hope that you will pick it up (and talk to me about it, I desperately need people to discuss it with).

• dystopian lit (duh)
• psychology, memory, scientific research, their implications on policy
• utopia, world peace, etc.
• nationalism, tribalism, etc.
• unreliable narrative to the exxxtreme
• family bonds and trauma

There's something endlessly endearing about someone learning how to be a cat person. I'm so grateful this silly man made this. He needed a break from the horrors and I did too