Synopsis:

When the internet collapsed, it took the world with it, leaving its digital ghosts behind – and they are hungry. Former photojournalist Katerina fled the overrun cities to the relative safety of her grandmother’s village on the edge of a forest, where she lives a solitary life of herbal medicine and beekeeping.

When a wordless boy finds her in the marketplace with nothing but her name in his pocket, her curiosity won’t allow her to turn him away. But haunting his arrival are rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease stirring up the ghosts, and the mood in the village starts to sour.

Accused of witchcraft, Katerina and Stefan escape into the forest, searching for his missing father and the truth behind the disease. If there is a cure, Katerina alone might find it, but first she must find the courage to trust others – because the ghosts that follow her aren’t just digital.

Review:

The internet is dead, and its ghosts haunt us all.

When I picked this book up I was expecting a pacy adventure through an apocalyptic world. This novel is not that. It’s something much, much better.

The internet is no more – it has broken out of containment and technology is no longer safe to use. Katerina lives in her Baba’s house with her bees, goats, chickens and a ghost cat for company. She travels around trading herbs and medicines for necessities and on one of these trips picks up a mute teenage boy holding a note with her name on it.

Katerina is a fantastic character. She’s clever and resourceful but guarded and reluctant to change her status quo. She is in tune with the land and her herbalism is just a little more than ordinary. Seeing her confront her own ghosts and open herself up to change throughout the book was a wonderful character arc to follow.

Themes of grief, love and acceptance are at the fore of the story. Katerina and the other characters have deep mental wounds, and only by learning to trust and accept each other can they begin to heal from them.

This novel is quiet and meandering. It doesn’t rush and it doesn’t hold your hand. You will have questions and they won’t be answered directly, but I think that is one of the things that makes this book so excellent.

Out on November 7, 2024.

Thank you so much to @solarisbooks for sending me an arc to review.