![]() ![]() ![]() Children, one teen, one older teen (cue: whiny stuff). Adults are bleary (cue: ginger sex in a hot tub). The book has a well-worn Stephen King meets Twilight Zone setup, but fails to have any of the (admittedly lighter) weight of either of those: White family of four goes to a rented vacation home (cue: cabin in the woods). If this isn’t a masterclass in getting a book published in 2021 I don’t know what is. Of course he got a publishing deal! The agents were drooling at the bit (if not over their lockdown sourdough) at the thought of the TV deal that would follow. Nod to COVID and Black Lives Matter? Double tick. A book set in one location with a small cast? Tick. It’s so perfect on paper: BAME writer with a literary background? Tick. Trope after trope might mangle into a literary novel in the right hands, but Alam’s hands seem to have grabbed wholeheartedly for one of those Netflix deals with a book that reads like a first-draft treatment for, oh, I dunno, a Julia Roberts vehicle, maybe? Someone like Jordan Peele sweeping up the pieces for some kind of shallow Black Mirror? Maybe a Sam Esmail. Because this book, seemingly so very beloved in every literary corner of the (middle-class echo chamber) world, is touted as ‘the book of an era’ ( The Independent) without delivering the basics. A book coming from a former critic for The New York Times Book Review must have friends in high places. ![]() At the very worst, a book so trumpeted by critics must have seams to unpick. When a book is so hailed on social media, one must dig in and read. ![]()
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