Postscript by Cori McCarthy

“I’m not sure the how-pocalypse changes anything. I don’t think about it; this is hard enough.”

This is a depopulated archipelago off the coast of Massachusetts, home to a tiny handful of sapiens sifting the remnants of civilization for scraps of comfort and joy.

There’s no sense in trying to figure out exactly how humans got to this place of endless gray skies and so many mass graves—that’s a very long letter no one has the heart to read again. What matters is this fleeting postscript, a strangely joyous house of bones built by an unlikely quintet of survivors.

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After the world ends, what matters are the scraps we choose to keep.

Pre-Reading Thoughts:
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect - or how much I would understand. The setup is minimal, the context is deliberately sparse, and the narrative leans into atmosphere over explanation. I braced myself for ambiguity… and got exactly that.

Post-Reading:
As I thought...
The story is haunting and precise. Lines linger; small gestures and tiny moments of connection carry weight far beyond the words used. McCarthy’s writing is deceptively simple, but the quiet oddness of this depopulated archipelago and the survivors’ routines lodges itself in the mind.

It surprised me by...
Giving me a strange sense of joy amid the gray. The “house of bones” the quintet builds - the care, the ritual, the moments of shared laughter or tenderness - stands in sharp contrast to the bleak setting. It’s subtle, almost ephemeral, and perfectly in tune with the story’s minimalist ethos.

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🎧 MUSIC PAIRING
🎵 “Holocene” – Bon Iver
🎶 Ambient 1: Music for Airports – Brian Eno
🎧 Sigur Rós — sparse, quiet, with glimmers of warmth in the cold.

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🌌 VIBE CHECK
🎨 Colour Palette: grayscale, ash, and pale light.
🎬 Soundtrack: wind over empty streets, the soft scrape of footsteps, distant gulls.
🍂 Season: indefinite - timeless winter, suspended in grey.
😶‍🌫️ Mood: quiet, odd, fragile, slightly uncanny.
🌾 Scent: salt spray, damp wood, and smoke from small hearths.

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🃏 TAROT PULL – Ace of Cups (Lieselle’s Eternal Tarot)
A simple chalice framed by branches and leaves. Stark, black-and-white, and minimal, yet carrying the fragile promise of connection. “A New Start For the Heart” - perfectly echoing the quintet’s odd, makeshift family. Even in the greyest of worlds, small joys and bonds endure.

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For fans of:
📚 The Road – Cormac McCarthy
🎬 The Lighthouse or I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Disclaimer:
Postscript publishes on the 17th of February, 2026. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.