Burrow Press: 8/20/19
eBook review copy; 130 pages
ISBN-13: 9781941681602
Radio Dark by Shane Hinton is a recommended quirky, dark, weird apocalyptic story.
Memphis is a custodian at a radio station in Florida when the apocalypse begins. In this end of the world scenario people fall inexplicably into a catatonic state where they require neither food nor water but they can be led around and posed. There is a DJ at the station who is still broadcasting and a local preacher who has a regular show when Cincinnati, an FCC field agent, visits the station with her procedure manual to enact emergency measures to keep the station on the air. As the power grid fails, Cincinnati's solution to keeping the station on the air and broadcasting to any survivors, is to build a tower of catatonic people (they are great conductors).
While there are a few comical incidences, there is no doubt that this is a weird, dark, bleak, odd story. Memphis is the narrator, but he is just relates the events without emotion or personality. It is never revealed why the plague occurred, though the preacher blames it on the radio waves, on all the noise. There is also no resolution to the plot. In some ways I feel as if I need to reread it in order to unearth any allegorical connections or references that I may have missed or some conclusion that slipped by me.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Burrow Press.
Memphis is a custodian at a radio station in Florida when the apocalypse begins. In this end of the world scenario people fall inexplicably into a catatonic state where they require neither food nor water but they can be led around and posed. There is a DJ at the station who is still broadcasting and a local preacher who has a regular show when Cincinnati, an FCC field agent, visits the station with her procedure manual to enact emergency measures to keep the station on the air. As the power grid fails, Cincinnati's solution to keeping the station on the air and broadcasting to any survivors, is to build a tower of catatonic people (they are great conductors).
While there are a few comical incidences, there is no doubt that this is a weird, dark, bleak, odd story. Memphis is the narrator, but he is just relates the events without emotion or personality. It is never revealed why the plague occurred, though the preacher blames it on the radio waves, on all the noise. There is also no resolution to the plot. In some ways I feel as if I need to reread it in order to unearth any allegorical connections or references that I may have missed or some conclusion that slipped by me.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Burrow Press.
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