The Fell—or COVID Anxiety simulator 1.0–centers a woman, who during lockdown decides to venture into The Fell when she becomes anxious and stirred and indulgent in a fit of reckless selfishness. It shifts perspectives from her son, Matt, to Alice, the neck door neighbour, and finally to a member of a rescue team responsible for people lost in the wilderness. Told in a stream-of-consciousness manner, we experience really granular thoughts about the effects lockdown has had on people, as well as the direct consequences of a single action.

I can see why some people would say this book worked well for them. Personally, it feels quite myopic to me, simply because people are in anxiety induced circumstances around money and job loss and others realities. It very much feels like a journalist writing about what they feel now, without the context needed to really give it any degree of (needed) context and reflection. So it is immediate and it does capture something of the moment. But it’s also perfunctory because, yeah, we are in this state or know someone in it, or are reading about it in some other form, probably often.

I get that it’s about acknowledging the messy, intricate situation and then moving past it. Despite selfishness and our problems and pain. And there is something there, which is why I did think it somewhat pulled it off. Yet the stream-of-consciousness prose work is hit and miss because there is a lack of insight the writer generally has, but can’t have because of when this is written. There are wholesale boring sections of the book for no reason. Such as the verisimilitude of the contents of a fridge and making a meal and other extraneous details I simply did not think was engaging, causing me to skate across the prose work only to force myself to focus further, across many sessions. For such a small book it was sometimes quite annoying to consume.

The plot is extra predictable in every character. There’s some degree of easy empathize exercise because they are all in situations you are out of or were in or are in. But they also lack some humanity in that not one surprises you. Ever.

So, overall, barely pulls off the expectations. It tells the story. The prose work is mixed. Worth a read, maybe, if you’re into the premise. But also not particularly noteworthy to me, while acknowledging it could easily be a prize book.