You’ll be safe here. That’s what the greasy tour guide tells the Farmer-Bowens when they visit Plymouth Valley, a walled-off company town with clean air, pantries that never go empty, and blue-ribbon schools. On a very trial basis, the company offers to hire Linda Farmer’s husband, a numbers genius, and relocate her whole family to this bucolic paradise for the .0001%. Though Linda will have to sacrifice her medical career back home, the family jumps at the opportunity. They’d be crazy not to take it. With the outside world literally falling apart, this might be the Farmer-Bowens last chance.
But fitting in takes work. The pampered locals distrust outsiders, cruelly snubbing Linda, Russell, and their teen twins. And the residents fervently adhere to a group of customs and beliefs called Hollow . . . but what exactly is Hollow?
It’s Linda who brokers acceptance by volunteering her medical skills to the most powerful people in town with their pet charity, ActHollow. In the months afterward, everything seems fine. Sure, Russell starts hyperventilating through a paper bag in the middle of the night, and the kids have drifted like bridgeless islands, but living here’s worth sacrificing their family’s closeness, isn’t it? At least they’ll survive. The trouble is, the locals never say what they think. They seem scared. And Hollow’s ominous culminating event, the Plymouth Valley Winter Festival, is coming.
Linda’s warned by her husband and her powerful new friends to stop asking questions. But the more she learns, the more frightened she becomes. Should the Farmer-Bowens be fighting to stay, or fighting to get out?
Intriguing idea, but sadly not the best execution.
Slightly in the future, the world is getting to be a very difficult place. The only safe places are company towns, and there's almost no way to gain entry. When Linda's husband is courted by the biggest and best, she sees it as a miracle, a way to ensure her children will be safe. But the longer they spend in PV, the less sure she becomes...
It's a really clever idea, a great look at how the cult mentality can take over even in places that are not cults. Personally, I found it took too long and things were too repetitive, but I know there are readers who will love the slowly building sense of dread and the build up to the climax.
There are some really clever touches here, and everything has been carefully thought out and planned, but overall it just wasn't for me, sadly. I hope it finds the audience who'll appreciate it more than me.
A Better World publishes on the 2nd of July, 2024. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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