My favourite read of January. It is truly depressive and bleak, yet it's difficult to put down, reading this felt like slowly suffocating. Multiple teenagers in a small town, each distinctive and eccentric in their own ways grappling with a mysterious hallucinogen named WHORL, while suicides seem to occur everyday. You're in for a descent into madness alongside the characters which turns equally mystical and horrifying.

I think B.R Yeager does a really good job at encapsulating young people today, not just through his characters but also capturing the impending doom we face. Existential dread, anxiety for the future, political/economic uncertainties, yet an inability to fix these problems that settles into a lethargy we numb with drug use, video games, music, and whatever other forms of distraction. Witnessing how the different characters react to the situation is fascinating, in their own distinct ways that we can empathise with in some capacity. You can't help but feel you know these characters in how well they encapsulate the fears and desires young people have (hell, you're probably friends with them)

There's elements of body horror, cosmic horror and occultism but I think this book depressed me far more than it terrified me. It kind of dawned on me after reading this how desensitised to the world we are, with unspeakable tragedies occurring everyday and how systemic issues are far larger than any of the small trivialities we distract ourself with.

I think it also would strongly resonate with people who have experienced grief, addiction or abuse. The pain here is potent and it's beautiful how each character interacts with their grief and sadness. Sometimes we don't understand why we behave the way we do, and we can't control the way it manifests or when it'll arrive. Some conquer it and some don't