Publication Date: November 11th, 2025
Hardcover. 288 pages.
They’re all around us, hiding in plain sight.
One could be in the room with you, now, just to your left. You could be seeing it right now—but from this second to the next, you’ll forget that you did. If you managed to jot down a note, the paper would look blank to you afterwards.
These entities can feed on your most cherished memories, the things that make you you—and you’ll never even know anything changed. They can turn you into a living ghost—make it so that you’re standing next to your spouse, screaming in their ear, and they won’t know you’re there.
They are the perfect predators, equipped with the ultimate camouflage—the ability to wipe out memories of their own existence.
And they aren’t just feeding on us. They’re invading.
But how do you fight an enemy when you can never even know that you're at war? How do you contain something you can't record or remember?
Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day."
This is one of those books that's a little difficult to review due to the nature of the book itself, so I may keep things a bit vague.
I've been wanting to read There is No Antimemetics Division for years now. I remember first hearing about its sort of cult classic type of reputation and how it grew out of the SCP Foundation--which I was previously unfamiliar with--and was pitched as this mind-bending speculative fiction that would just blow my mind. And naturally I knew I had to read it. But unfortunately, once I actually got around to looking to buy a copy, it had turned into a super hard to find indie copy that was reselling on Ebay/etc. for ridiculous prices, so I decided to wait until the traditional published edition was available, though fortunately I received an ARC so got read it a little bit earlier.
All that being said, now that I've finally read it, I can absolutely say that it's just as fascinating as I'd hoped, though my overall reading experience was a bit of mix of feelings overall. My engagement was a little hit or miss in places and I still have this lingering feelings that I missed grasping something, but we'll get into that with this review.
At its core, There Is No Antimemetics Division revolves around this idea of antimemes, which are these ideas that erase themselves from your memory the moment you encounter them. It's a really fascinating concept that I think straddles the line of feeling really clever and also mildly unsettling, but is fully compelling. I found that paranoid was a very prominent feeling throughout this book, and it's done so in a way that doesn't just feel like your run of the mill anxiety, but feels deeper, almost existential, like that sort of paranoia you might feel in a dream or nightmare and after waking up from one. It's one of those books where you can't ever know or be sure of exactly what's real, what's forgotten, what's been done before, and so on. There's a lot of redactions in the text, as well as time jumps and missing time, bits of documents, and a general disruption of continuity that contribute to this uncertain feeling. There's aspect of this book that feel a bit dizzying in some ways. In all honestly, I found it slightly frustrating at times, but I think it's meant to be intentionally frustrating in a way that feels immersive, as if you the reader are just as frustrated as the characters might be in this world.
The main downside to all of this, in my opinion, is that I often felt like I was being held at arm's length in some ways. I assume this book is meant to be difficult to fully grasp, but that also left me feeling like I couldn't become fully immersed in it. There's this feeling that you're constantly chasing an understanding of what's happening and it's always moving and staying out of reach. I'm honestly not sure how much of this is meant to be part of the reading experience, because I do love books that keep you uncertain, but it left me a little unsure. I mean, antimemes themselves are hard to grasp, so it does feel on theme, at least. This extended to some of the characters as well, as I often felt like they were more ideas and game pieces rather than characters I could connect with.
I would also note that there were times when I felt completely captivated, but also plenty of times where I found myself not as interested, and I'm torn on whether that was some pacing inconsistency and/or just my own inconsistency with enjoyment of this book.
Despite all of this, I was totally hooked by this puzzle-y narrative. This book plays with structure in a lot of really fun ways, and I'm always a sucker for things that appear redacted or have documents formats, etc. It's clever and a disorienting and hard to feel bored.
I never read the original indie edition, so I can't personally compare if there are any major changes, but I have heard the traditionally published version has some structure changes. As a new reader, I think this book excels most in its vibe and concept, and it's a really fun experiment in storytelling.
Overall, I'm definitely glad I had a chance to check this one out and I had a great time with this bizarre journey. Highly recommended to those who love mind-bending stories that leave you constantly living in some ambiguity and wondering what's going on and what's next. But don't expect to remember everything when you're done reading it--I expect that's part of the point. (get it? ;))
No comments:
Post a Comment