In this quaint little town everything is fake and perfectly manufactured bliss, but nothing is as it seems. And deputy Hardy, who is dealing with his own demons, begins to see the cracks pretty quickly. Sure this has all the requisite pieces: perversion of the “American dream”, fake plastic veneer of society, rampant hypocrisy, shocking revelations and twisted horror, etc. But it also has a protagonist who is coming in with baggage of his own, and that adds another dimension.

I did find myself frustrated with Hardy, who seems to have no agency of his own and merely lets the story carry him along. I found myself wanting to yell at him to DO SOMETHING. There’s also a climactic scene near the end that was, in my opinion, entirely too graphic in an unnecessary way. I had to put the book down and to be honest I didn’t even want to finish it. I had to reflect for a day before giving my rating.

Overall the book is a lot of fun. The pacing is great, slowly building the dread with long moments of unease punctuated by instanced of shocking vulgarity. While reading I found myself thinking about the best parts of Hot Fuzz, Bioshock Infinite, mother!, Black Mirror, and basically any good cult film. It’s quite a trip, and for the most part it’s worth the ride