Safe Return Doubtful

British Literature – published 2020 – science fiction

I was inquisitive about this, as I had read several good reviews, though I usually don’t read this sort of mix of science fiction and cosmic horror. The premise also, was enticing, turning the idea of memes on its head. A meme is a piece of knowledge that spreads easily because it is interesting, funny, or useful. Antimemes are the opposite, they resist spreading, perhaps because they are boring, or more likely complex, or unpleasant and even dangerous to know. In this scenario, there are also antimemetic entities.

The book follows a series of individuals working for or with, the Antimemetics Division of a secret organisation. The body studies and attempts to protect the world from inexplicable phenomena, which range from the simply strange, for example, the loss of memory of how to ride a bicycle, to an inexplicable presence in a vast chunk of limestone, to the unfathomably horrific. More specifically, it deals with those entities that camouflage themselves not via affecting senses but rather by affecting minds.

As inventive as it is, the writing style is difficult to follow at times; multiple timelines and intentionally incomplete information are presumably meant to mirror what the various protagonists’ experience, but I often had the feeling I had missed something. Hughes creates a world in which almost anything can happen, so there the reader has no idea of what might happen next.
The second half of the book switches the plot around, what was bureaucratic satire becomes a world threatening piece of cosmic horror, with a protagonist unaware of the situation he finds himself in.

I found it all just a bit too much..

My GoodReads score 3 / 5