Title: The Warren
Author: Brian Evenson
Pages: 96
Read via: Kindle
Summary: A mysterious being named ‘X’ grapples with his own existence and the questions behind what it means to be human.
Reminiscent of: Planetfall, Moon, 2001: A Space Odyssey
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review: I had heard that this one was weird, frustrating, and confounding. It certainly checked all three boxes.
The most intriguing and also most beguiling part of this novella is something not mentioned in any plot synopsis that I’ve seen. A case of dissociated personality and identity is at the forefront of the conflict within The Warren. When I came upon the abrupt ending, I felt in need of 20 or 30 more pages of content to reach some sort of resolution that I never ended up finding. I reread the final chapter four times trying to uncover some still undiscovered deeper meaning. Perhaps they were for the reader to ponder, but The Warren presents existential questions that are not answered by the author nor the narrative itself. I never reached any profound conclusions from them myself and I likely won’t think on them on further.
It was written in an accessible, yet mystifying way that kept me engaged but never really allowed me a firm grasp of what was happening. This is simultaneously the crux and the downfall of The Warren.
★★½ out of 5
The Speculative Shelf 
Finally, an honest review. I’m two-thirds of the way through this novella, and very little makes sense to me. I swear, because of the mysterious sc-fi setting, I want to like this tale, but I can’t dissect the convoluted plot, and I am clueless about the characters. Names pop up, one after another, and the author never explains who are what they are. The voices, thoughts, and actions of the main character are his but not his, and it’s all one confounding mass of meaninglessness.
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