In this gripping, moving, and genre-blending speculative debut, the world is unraveling from an epidemic of human vanishing. Two rookie agents from the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs are dispatched to small-town Kansas to investigate a woman who claims to have returned from Spontaneous Human Absence, offering answers that could change everything.

People are “popping”—disappearing, one by one, into thin air: an ongoing global cataclysm known as Spontaneous Human Absence. In a world where prospects for survival are increasingly grim, hopelessness prevails, political rifts widen, and doomsday predictions flourish.

Harvey Ellis works the night shift for the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs, an ad hoc federal agency meant to contain and catalog the crisis. Harvey’s job: to investigate claims of Absence, and, if validated, issue a standard government stipend to boost morale. Still recovering from losses of his own, Harvey is content in his routine—until his life is shaken by an unexpected assignment from the central office.

A woman long thought Absent has reappeared in her hometown of Dawnville, Kansas, claiming she’s been to the other side and back. But is her wild and irresistible account true, or is she just the latest false prophet, offering hope to a world desperate for it? Together with his no-BS partner, Shonda Erins, Harvey travels to Dawnville to find out.

A resonant portrait of a world beset by confusion and dismay, Andrew Dana Hudson’s debut is a vividly imagined novel of cosmic proportions, examining life in a time of exception and the stories we tell to get by.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

The premise of this one caught my attention immediately. It’s a very interesting read, I’m just sad I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.

In this world, people are randomly disappearing into thin air. It’s happening all over the world, and no one knows why. They call it Spontaneous Human Absence, or “popping.” One second someone is standing next to you, the next second they’re gone. The world as we know it is falling apart. Political rifts are wider than ever, cults are out of control, the population is dwindling and everyone’s waiting for their turn to pop.

Harvey Ellis works the night shift for the Bureau of Depopulation Affairs, a government agency created to track and manage the crisis. His job is pretty straightforward. Investigate claims of Absence, validate them if they’re real, and issue a government stipend to the family to boost morale. He’s still recovering from losses of his own, but he’s settled into his routine and he’s content with it.

But then he’s sent to a small Kansas town where a woman who disappeared years ago has reappeared. She’s claiming she popped as a teen and has been to the other side and back, and knows what happens when people pop. Is she telling the truth, or is she just another false prophet offering hope to a world desperate for it? Harvey and his no-nonsense partner Shonda head to Kansas to find out.

On the plus side, the premise of the book is fascinating, and the characters are all pretty interesting. I couldn’t help but wonder how much, or if at all, my life choices would differ from now if I were living in this world. The idea of “popping” is fascinating and terrifying at the same time. You could be going about your day and just cease to exist. No warning. No explanation. And the idea of someone “popping back” to their reality brought the central mystery that drives the whole story. It was really interesting, and the world Hudson built was clear and well thought out.

Harvey is a solid protagonist. He’s dealing with grief and loss while trying to do a job that’s essentially cataloging humanity’s slow extinction. Shonda is a great foil for him. She’s practical, direct, and cuts through the nonsense. Together, they make a good team. The woman in Kansas who claims she came back is compelling too. Her story is wild and irresistible, and you’re constantly trying to figure out if she’s real or delusional. The book does a good job of keeping you guessing about that.

I think my biggest problem with this one was that it felt really long, and for a while, it felt like it was spinning its wheels and going in circles. I found myself skimming over a lot of the text because it didn’t feel like it was moving the plot along. There are stretches where the story meanders and you’re waiting for something to happen. The pacing is uneven, and the book could have benefited from tighter editing.

That said, I liked that it never answered all of the questions that it asked but left things up to interpretation. Not everything gets explained, and for a book about an incomprehensible global crisis, that actually makes sense. Sometimes the mystery is more interesting than the answer.

Speculative fiction lovers will likely eat this one up. If you’re drawn to big concept sci-fi that explores existential questions and doesn’t hand you easy answers, this will work for you. I just wish it had been edited down by about 50 pages. I think it would have made for a tighter narrative and kept the momentum going throughout instead of losing steam in the middle. It’s an interesting read. Just know it’s a slow burn that takes its time getting where it’s going.