‘Take the Long Way Home’ – Brian Keene (Deadite Press)

I’m in the office today so my ‘Brian Keene Reading’ took me into the depths of the Kindle App rather than grabbing a book from the shelf. This worked out just fine today as I fancied reading something that I hadn’t read in a long time which, given my preference for reading actual books instead of off a screen, made the Kindle App to hunt through. I settled on ‘Take the Long Way Home’ in the end, mostly for that very reason. It has been so long since I read this book that I could remember the concept but very little else, apart from the fact that a lot of walking is involved… So, just like reading a brand new book for the first time then 😉 Let me tell you about it…

All across the world, people suddenly vanish in the blink of an eye. From their cars during the rush hour commute. From the shopping malls. Their homes. Their beds. Even from the arms of their loved ones. Airline pilots. World leaders. Teachers. Parents. Children. Gone. Steve, Charlie and Frank were just trying to get home when it happened. Now they find themselves left behind, and wishing they'd disappeared, too. Trapped in the ultimate traffic jam, they watch as civilization collapses, claiming the souls of those around them. God has called his faithful home, but the invitations for Steve, Charlie and Frank got lost. Now they must set off on foot through a nightmarish post-apocalyptic landscape in search of answers. In search of God. In search of their loved ones. And in search of home. 

‘Take the Long Way Home’ is a novella that doesn’t hang around. It gets to business, fucks up a few innocent bystanders (although fuck you Volvo yuppie) and then proceeds to leave us with the deliberately vague yet deliciously unsettling knowledge that things have only somehow got worse since Steve made it home. And I liked that approach, there was a danger that this trek could have spiralled out of control and become more of a plod. There are no supernatural enemies here to move things along (well, depending on your spiritual persuasion I guess, lets just say that there are no supernatural enemies at ground level) so Keene has taken more of a hand here and made sure that things moved briskly enough to keep things interesting.

With a short read such as this though, is there really much more to say than that…? Of course there is 😉

Keene peppers the plot with enough instances of humanity debasing itself to catch your eye and make you gasp. I like to imagine that there’s a little plaque, in Keene’s office, that says something along the lines of ‘If you’re going to write the apocalypse, make sure you do it properly’. And that’s very much the case here with a devastated hellscape constantly popping with reasons why certain people didn’t make the cut when the Lord took his people home. It doesn’t take a lot to get people going at the worst of times, and this is far worse…

It’s not just that though, Keene gets very thoughtful about what this all means for the people left behind, including some surprising types whom you would have thought would have been taken straight away. ‘Take the Long Way Home’ is very much about taking responsibility for your choices and facing up to the consequences of these. Steve doesn’t want to accept this but as his friends are taken from him, even he comes to realise that he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. I’ll bet he wishes that he followed Carlton now…

‘Take the Long Way Home’ was a good ‘lunchbreak read’ that hit the sweet spot between thoughtful and really getting down and dirty in the apocalypse. It’s only a couple of quid on Kindle, give it a go.