Good Citizens Need Not Fear - Maria Reva

Fiction (Speculative)

Rating: 7/10

A bureaucratic glitch omits an entire building from municipal records in a totalitarian system.  Officially, neither it nor its inhabitants exist. The absurdity of a system rigged to control its human beings that loses track of several of them is a running theme throughout this book.

This collection of interconnected stories plays out like a funhouse mirror. Each unearthing either a treasure or a horror. Written with such stealth that at first glance you may not be able to tell which of the two you are looking at.

This slim volume is not going to be to everyone’s taste with the oddities in both the characters and the vignettes in which they are cast. While high appreciation for the craft in this writing is in order, the fragmented narrative structure can cause the reader to stumble a bit.

Footnote: A masterful appropriation of withering satire that is steeped in deeper meanings