The Down Days by Ilze Hugo

The Down Days

by Ilze Hugo

In the vein of The Book of M comes a fast-paced, character-driven literary apocalyptic novel that explores life, love, and loss in a post-truth society.

In the aftermath of a deadly outbreak—reminiscent of the 1962 event of mass hysteria that was the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic—a city at the tip of Africa is losing its mind, with residents experiencing hallucinations and paranoia. Is it simply another episode of mass hysteria, or something more sinister? In a quarantined city in which the inexplicable has already occurred, rumors, superstitions, and conspiracy theories abound.

During these strange days, Faith works as a fulltime corpse collector and a freelance “truthologist,” putting together disparate pieces of information to solve problems. But after Faith agrees to help an orphaned girl find her abducted baby brother, she begins to wonder whether the boy is even real. Meanwhile, a young man named Sans who trades in illicit goods is so distracted by a glimpse of his dream woman that he lets a bag of money he owes his gang partners go missing-leaving him desperately searching for both and soon questioning his own sanity.

Over the course of a single week, the paths of Faith, Sans, and a cast of other hustlers—including a data dealer, a drug addict, a sin eater, and a hyena man—will cross and intertwine as they move about the city, looking for lost souls, uncertain absolution, and answers that may not exist.

Reviewed by shannonmiz on

4 of 5 stars

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You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

This is a bizarre and timely book about what happens after the pandemic has wreaked havoc. I mean, I won't pretend it didn't scare the hell out of me to think that the world could be like this for the better part of a decade, but alas. In this book, set in South Africa (which yes please, more of this!), one of the symptoms of the disease is uncontrollable laughter. The bananas part is, people in our timeline are vilified for coughing, much like these folks are for laughing. Obviously, laughing in public is not allowed. People wear masks everywhere. People attend online funerals only. There are random temperature checks. Honestly it hits really close to home.

Luckily, this book doesn't focus on the plague itself so much as the aftermath. It follows several characters (maybe one or two too many, if I am being totally honest, but it wasn't a dealbreaker, just... a thing) throughout their new normals. Gone are the jobs of yesteryear, they now do things like ferry bodies. Engage in fight clubs. Steal and sell hair. Look, when the apocalypse comes to town, you sometimes have to find some... inventive ways to make a dollar. And that's the whole thing- the severity in which life has changed, and how these people have come to adapt when the only choices are adapt or die. 

I really can't say much about the plot, because it takes some turns I did not see coming and obviously I have no plans to spoil them. I will say that it is a slower paced book, definitely dealing more with the character development and world-building than action. I loved all the little South African details that are seamlessly woven into the story. I had to look some of them up (though there is a glossary at the end in the eARC) and I absolutely loved falling into this culture. By the end, I even had a pretty good idea of the phrases and such without having to look them up! 

Bottom Line: An incredibly timely look at what happens to a society after the end of the world. It asks all kinds of questions, and definitely provides a lot of character exploration. Perhaps you'll find some of your own reactions in some of these characters. 

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 April, 2020: Finished reading
  • 13 April, 2020: Reviewed