Take House of Leaves’ endless house of horrors, mix in heavy helpings of Dark Matter’s parallel universes and sprinkle in some great LGBTQ representation and you get Subcutanean.
This book is creative and fun. The two boys you follow, Niko and Orion, have a fascinating friendship which grows and changes throughout the story. The moments of horror were often delightfully blindsiding and were handled SO well. I finished the story desperately wanting to read it again. And the best part is that I CAN reread it and have it be different the next time through. This book is generated in numerous differing versions so next time I might read a different one to see how the experience changes. This is definitely a book I don’t think I’ll forget for awhile.
I loved the themes that Reed touches on with this story, the importance of loving oneself, the dangers of basing all your happiness on another person, and how to really help friends in need. I think it exemplifies some painful lessons that many of us learn in our 20’s within the context of a truly fantastical tale.
Final Rating
You can find it on Amazon!
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