Depart, Depart!

Thank you to Stelliform Press & Netgalley for an arc for an unbiased review.

Kern tells the story of Noah Mishner who finds shelter after a major hurricane within the walls of the Dallas Mavericks' basketball area. Noah starts seeing visions of his absent grandfather, Abe, who had fled Nazi Germany as a boy. All the while he is just trying to survive in a micro-community full of the same aggressors before the hurricane happened. This tiny novella packs such a punch. There were a few anxiety inducing moments but as someone new to the horror genre I feel like it was something I could handle. Within only 70 pages I found myself about to cry more than once. I devoured this in a single sitting and can't wait until I can go back and highlight the passages that really sunk in for me.

I finished this book weeks ago, somehow I haven't figured out how to write a semi-decent review for it.

Noah was a pretty compelling character, so it was easy to root for him but I wish the start of his story had been a little more fleshed out.

I really liked that Kern explored the feelings that come with being ostensibly in possession of a certain identity but not in possession of the culture that should have come with it. Here it was done through the lens of Noah's Jewish identity but I think the feelings are relevant to the non-jewish as well.