But that's precisely why it works so well. After the explosion of Mount Rainier closes the group's avenues of escape and takes out their tech, I'd been reading the book as an environmental disaster/survivalist story. To all intents and purposes, I'd forgotten about them. In fact, it was all so engrossing that when the creatures did finally show up, I was a bit disorientated. The social politics of this escape from humanity style set up are immediately apparent and entirely recognisable, each power play and misstep detailed by Kate with insight and humour. Through her perspective we get to see the place and its people with unflattering clarity. Her and her husband are the last to arrive at their new home in a super high tech version of an off-grid community and it means she's the proverbial outsider. But it takes very little time for her to get you on side. When you first meet Kate Holland she's a neurotic mess and her voice is annoying enough that if I hadn't known people were going to die excitingly awful deaths sometime soon, I might have put the book down. Despite the horror framework, the real strength of this book is not in the monsters, but in the character development.
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