The overall feel is one of Siberia with a repressive government expressing total population control. This takes the form of people constantly 'marking' things by repeating their names. The world seems to be made of some multifunctional 'stuff' that requires some human involvement to maintain it form and function. The ending doesn't resolve all the questions. Inconsistencies begin to pile up and she finds herself in opposition to the local government. Most people are afraid of anything new and references to a splinter colony have been expunged. She ends up staying and there the mysteries begin. The main character is sent from another colony to do market research for hygiene products. Whether the world is a colony planet from a deprecated Earth or a fictitious place is never clear. The title is the name of an agricultural colony run by a mysterious committee that is never seen. Karin Tidbeck's Amatka is a bit of riddle wrapped in an enigma. Just wild.ĭystopic, repressive, totalitarian society It’s like an episode of the twilight zone or something like that. Definitely not the way you’re going to expect things to end. There’s a lot of wondering about the literal world building and how it would look though I don’t feel a deep longing for it to continue, like I did with The Giver. I can’t recall the last time I was left feeling weird after finishing a book. As you learn more about the town, the people, the job, things just aren’t quite what they seem. It starts out on a train with the main character heading into a town for a market research job, so already we get the indie horror vibes. So you’re left thinking “oh this must be a perfect world” but it’s really just that there’s so many other things to be worried about. You could swap genders around and the story wouldn’t be affected and I like that.

I was drawn in because I was looking for sci-fi/fantasy with LGBT characters and was left pretty satisfied overall with the representation being what it is. I gave this a shot because it seemed short and sweet as compared to my usual 20 hour, 5 to 8 book series I usually get drawn into.