Book Review: The Many (Nathan Fields)

The Many, by Nathan Fields, caught my interest right away. The concept was completely original. People go on blind dates with people from the Internet and they come back different. They are colder, cruder and mentally unstable. As they turn violent, their families are left searching for answers. Conspiracy thriller meets psychological thriller, and a bit of horror brought in, this novel had a lot to offer. I read it easily in a few sittings.

What I Liked:

• Multi-Genre Connections: This novel could be categorized in so many different ways. I think that is so refreshing when you finish a novel and feel like it doesn’t fit anywhere because it was so different from other reads.
• Film Connection: This one read like a film; I could imagine it on the screen. It really reminded me of the 90s cult classic, The Faculty or some sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.   It had a similar ominous tone.

What I Struggled With:

• Pace: the novel started out with a bang and, unfortunately, lost some momentum in the middle. It started to feel a little redundant. Luckily, the pace was picked right back up for the conclusion.
• Ending: The novel ends abruptly and with a sort of cliffhanger. It was not clear whether or not this book was the beginning of a series and I could not find much information about it.   If this was meant to start a series, then I’m okay with the ending, otherwise, I was not impressed with how this one ended so sudden!
• Narrative Voice: Although claiming to be a novel for adult eyes only, this one read like a dark YA novel. Our protagonists are 18 and 21 years old, so, naturally, some of the narration seemed young.

Overall, I really enjoyed the general tone and plot of this book and will be looking forward to (hopefully!) more to this series.   Be warned that this one does have moments where the narration is sexually explicit, so if that bothers you, you will not like this book.  However, if you want an original novel that bends lines of genres, then you will like this read! I gave it 3.5/5 stars!

 Thank you to the publisher, the author, and Netgalley for a digital copy of this title; it was my pleasure to provide an honest review.