408 pp. June 3, 2025, Bindery Books. SF.
So much promise in this premise. Something weird happens in New York: One day, on the back of a storm, buildings are just not where they were yesterday. And then it happens again the next day, and the next, and the next, indefinitely, each time at 4 am. Why is it happening? What happens to water and gas pipes and sewer systems and electrical lines? What effects? And do the city’s leaders give the same level of attention to poorer neighbourhoods as they do to affluent ones?
I started out really liking this book, but in the end its shaky grasp on “why” let it down. It lost focus around its midpoint, and all of its promising threads began to unravel. What was the storm about? It’s loosely linked to climate change, but why that affects reality isn’t explored to this reader’s satisfaction. Oh, and the MC’s missing husband gets found, but there’s no real clarity on why he left in the first place. Instead of explaining, he runs (which, plausible, I guess). A missing boy also eventually reappears, but the emotional hook that should have carried his story is lost as he’s forgotten until near the end of the book (and when he returns, but it’s not about him anymore even). Then there’s a weird cult that’s actually fun to read about (something something Christmas) but I was just left bewildered by the town it originated in and the significance of the fake Christmas trees. And why the pregnant woman mattered. Oh, and there’s also a weird church… but why? I never found out.
So many interesting ideas; but in the end the author failed to pull the narrative together around them, I feel. I finished the book mainly to try to make sense of it all, in the hope that something would coalesce—which it didn’t, not really. Iffy about recommending this baffling one (except for the really imaginative ideas); but I’ll be looking out for reviews from readers who had a different experience.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for early DRC access.
Harare Review of Books 
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