• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2021 December #1
  *Starred Review* It's 2025 and America is still healing from the COVID pandemic as a more terrifying virus emerges—The Violence. Once infected, the sufferer's gaze goes as blank as a zombie's as they violently kill the closest living thing, and then, just as suddenly, snap out of it. Our guides through this dystopian-horror landscape are three generations of women who have lived with violence and trauma their entire lives: the "perfect" housewife Chelsea, her teenage daughter Ella, and her mother Patricia. With a visceral hook, a fast pace, and a story that provides plenty of action while allowing the characters to propel the plot, Dawson delivers both a realistically messy portrayal of everyday violence and a highly unsettling, utterly entertaining tome. Dawson notes that this is a novel by a survivor for survivors, but do not pigeonhole this engrossing and thought-provoking story; like the very best science fiction, she applies a slightly askew lens, challenging readers to take a critical look at our current world. Enthusiastically suggest to readers who enjoyed the table-turning feminism of Naomi Alderman's The Power (2017), the band-of-survivors theme in Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014), and the emotional journey of Victor LaValle's The Changeling (2017). Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

Delilah S. Dawson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: Phasma, as well as Star Wars Galaxy's Edge: Black Spire, Mine, the Hit series, the Blud series, the creator-owned comics Ladycastle, Sparrowhawk, and Star Pig, and the Shadow series (written as Lila Bowen). With Kevin Hearne, she co-writes The Tales of Pell. She lives in Georgia with her family.