At first, it’s a whisper on the edge of your consciousness. As it gets louder, you begin to make out words—dark, sharp, dangerous words… You clap your hands over your ears to shut them out, but you can’t escape what comes from inside you. The voice tells you to do things to yourself. Bad things. Awful things… The longer you listen, the more they seem reasonable. Desirable. Inevitable. And as you reach for the nearest knife, gun, or rope, the voice speaks the last four words you’ll ever hear. All hail the Unhigh.
Overall, this was a rather strong and impressive novella. The central premise is incredibly unnerving and plays out spectacularly, following the unnerving series of actions taking place in front of him, and the utter disconnect and nonchalance that takes place during these encounters create a wholly immersive starting point. Trying to uncover the source of the incidents and only being met with even further gruesome discoveries, involving more in the community undergoing the same thing, or the sheer madness of the situation not meeting the natural reactions of others, only furthers this starting point as we delve further into the strange situation. These are kept in fine order, and the more this goes along with the fine series of revelations that slowly point to something inhuman at the center of the madness pulling into his background and putting it together with some chilling encounters and brutal confrontations.
One of the better attributes of this setup is a strong talking point about suicide and mental health. Given the ultimate end game of what’s going on features an intriguing focus on why these people are killing themselves and what that ultimately means, involving why he’s chosen to carry out these strange accidents, there’s a healthy look at the impact of suicide on a person’s sanity. Given the detailed background about his childhood history with suicide, featuring how his father killed himself and the emotional scars that were left on him as he grew up, always being hampered by these incidents, there’s a strong look at how it weakens a person to leave them susceptible to something like this. This happens through some awkward time shifts and flashbacks that make following the main storyline a bit clumsy, but it’s still clear enough by the end that it won’t be a big deal in the end.
4.5/5
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