Well, this book kind of goes…nowhere
Written by
| Daryl Gregory in 2014 |
Everyone in this book has been driven insane by drugs, in a world where you can simply use a chemical printer to make your own. Our main character, Lyda Rose, hallucinates an angel as a result of a drug overdose that occurred many years ago. A drug that was first concocted by her and her friends cum business partners.
The story goes that a teenager down on her luck finds shelter amongst some caring strangers. She also finds God after attending services. However, she’s picked up by welfare officers and doctors, and taken to hospital. Unfortunately, she loses God during this process, and kills herself.
Lyda is being treated in the same facility when the teenager kills herself, and knowing exactly what the drug is (since she had a part in making it), she tasks herself with the mission to destroy it and find out who released it into the world. Her first thought is Edo Vik, a billionaire who funded the drug’s development in the first place.
She manages to get out of the rehabilitation facility, and with the help of her old business partner Rovil Gupta and another crazed inmate of the facility, Ollie, they set off on an adventure to stop the spread of NME110, called Numinous. In the background, is Lyda’s guilt over the death of her wife Mikala, apparently at her hands while under the influence of the drug they developed.
Make no bones about it, it’s a fun read, with lots of pop-culture references and interesting characters, some of which are imaginary. However, the story fizzles out at the end and leaves you wondering what could have happened. Is there a sequel in the works? I don’t know if it’s good enough to deserve a sequel.
Afterparty is enjoyable enough to finish and well written enough to keep you engrossed, but the end leaves you a bit empty. It’s a happy ending of sorts, but there are threads that remain loose and untied, which would be fine if they made any sense.
Rating
Three randomly selected crazy people out of five
Read this if you…
Enjoy a bit of multiple personality disorder and need a personal angel to guide your life
Don’t read this if you…
Actually have multiple personality disorder
Typed by McMoron 