Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun
Publication Date: October 27th, 2026
Hogarth
608 pages. Hardcover.
I was very intrigued by Public Access Afterworld from the moment I saw the cover and loved the sound of the premise, and I thought it reminded me of some movies I've seen... and then I saw that it was from the filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and We're All Going to the World's Fair and I was even more certain I wanted needed to read this because I'm such a sucker for those types of weird movies. And this book very much feels like an offshoot of those general ideas, though there is much more content to actually go off of and opportunities to feel invested in the characters, so I loved this expanded look into Schoenbrun's immensely creative and talented mind. I am going to massively struggle to describe this story and offer some thoughts, but let's give it a go!
Did you know that there might just be more in that static on your television than you might think? It's unlikely you'll see it, but spend enough time watching the static and perhaps Public Access Afterworld just might make it's way into your viewing experience.
We begin following Bethany Peters as she starts her job as a content moderator at GlobalVill, which is essentially what I'm comparing to YouTube/Twitch as a video streaming platform. As someone who has done work as a content moderator, I'll admit that I definitely found myself (unfortunately) relating a bit to Bethany's experiences and made me extra curious to see where her storyline would go at this role. And naturally, things do not stay simple with Bethany working this less than ideal new job, and what begins as simply a job soon becomes something much bigger as she becomes entangled with a stranger she begins seeing on various videos and is slowly drawn into a weird dive into mysterious television broadcasts, static, and many more things that begin to mess with her own view of reality.
We follow a number of characters here and there throughout this one, though Bethany Peters is the one with the most overall page time. We also follow David Sawyer, Jules, Willa, and get some glimpses into other people's experiences here and there, but there's a solid through-line of Bethany that's what really centers this story. I will say I was impressed by how well I think Schoenbrun managed to make each character individually interesting while also making them feel like equally important pieces of the much larger puzzle of the overall plot. They all fit together so well in their own ways, and I never really felt like we were spending time with a character whose story or background didn't have something important to contribute to the whole.
We travel across time in this book as we visit different characters and even television shows, and this really helped make this book feel like it was so much larger than pages it inhabits. I liked being able to better understand how the things happening in this book were affecting more than just the present moment and more than just one singular location. I will say that even with how well it does this, there's still a small part of me that feels like I'm the slightest bit fuzzy/blurry on how exactly some of these things affect the world in certain ways, but perhaps that's part of the whole thing, since I feel like none of it is really meant to be fully understood at any particular moment.
There's so much in this book, and it really blends a lot of genres here. We've got some horror aspects, but nothing too heavy there, and of course the fantasy/sci-fi speculative fiction vibes are absolutely there, and mixed into these is definitely a heavy dose of the conspiracy, which was an equally fun element. There was something fun about never really being entirely sure about what direction the story was going to take next at any particular moment, or really what sort of story it was going to end being in general, as I was definitely anticipating mostly horror and speculative fiction elements, but wasn't sure what I'd get in the end.
And while all the speculative fiction stuff is really cool, there's also a lot of great character work within the development of the characters that added a lot. There's so much queerness in this book--Bethany herself is a trans character--and I loved the different topics and ways gender and queerness were explored in this story in ways that both related directly to the plot and also still covered ground in relatable, very human ways. I especially appreciated seeing how these aspects of identity shaped the characters' lives and experiences in different ways, whether that was through their relationships with other people, their experiences in the world, even the ways they understood themselves. It wasn't the same experience for everyone, and I liked seeing all these different perspectives explored throughout the story.
I can't decide how I feel about the sheer number of ideas that were thrown around in this book. We have government experiments and conspiracy, big corporations doing bad things, rich people doing bad things, cults, relationship difficulties, struggles with identity, and somehow even more. While I was impressed by how Schoenbrun managed to weave all of these things into one story, I occasionally found myself wondering if it was all strictly necessary or just added more ideas to be thrown around--which somehow feels vaguely reminiscent of what the Public Access Afterworld followers were doing in some ways... but still, as a reader, it's a lot, and mind both liked and disliked this. And I do love an ambitious story, so that worked well. I think the sheer abundance of ideas is part of what makes this story so fascinating in itself, so I can't complain here.
I also almost wish there hadn't been as much of a strict 'bad guy/villain' in this book as there was. It's not that this villain figure didn't work or make sense within the story, because they absolutely did, but somehow it ended up cheapening things slightly for me. I feel there could have been enough of a threat. and even still people as threats, without having a more singular villain that's trying to get to Bethany. There's something about having this much larger, stranger, and more unknowable threat that I found much more compelling, and reducing that down to a more conventional antagonist took away a bit from the mystique of everything for me.
The ending was really fascinating and thought-provoking and I liked how Schoenbrun chose to wrap this epic tale up. It was a bit staticky in its own way (pun not intended?), where it had enough coherence to feel generally satisfying in certain ways, but it still left plenty of ideas out there to really think about and try to make sense of. I don't know if I have a strong feeling either way of liking or disliking it, but I think it fit the story. As vague as this sounds, it really did feel appropriate for the story, and while I'm not sure it's exactly what I wanted, I'm also not entirely sure what I wanted instead, so I think I'm good with what our imaginative author came up with!
I do think you need a lot of patience when tackling Public Access Afterworld. This is not a book that has immediate rewards. It's very long, and I honestly feel like it could have been just a little bit shorter. There were definitely moments where I found myself wanting a bit more momentum in the pacing, but at the same time, I think that's really the tricky balance with these sprawling, slow-burn epic-type stories. So much time is spent on character development, worldbuilding, and backstory, which can really slow down overall pacing, but those are also all the things that make the story so interesting and expansive. Therefore, while I think things could have been tightened up in a few places, it never felt overly excessive in length or content, and I think it all works well overall as long as you're willing to spend some time with it.
If you like Schoenbrun's movies, then read this. If you like shows like The Twilight Zone, The OA, Black Mirror, even Donnie Darko vibes, etc. (maybe Videodrome?) you should give it a read as well. If you just want a big 600 page tome to sink your teeth into, then you should read this!
*I received a copy of Public Access Afterworld courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my rating or enjoyment.*
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
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