"Noah Hawley's latest book is a horror story of a different ilk than his latest TV series - or is it? Whereas "Alien: Earth" is chock-full of slimy, savage parasites like the titular xenomorph that don't think twice before slicing up waves of human bodies, the writer's 2022 novel, "Anthem," finds its dread in a cryptic, intangible threat: a sudden wave of teenage suicides. No one thing can explain the nationwide escalation, but an inscrutable symbol is found at the scene of each death, suggesting a link among America's youth that adults are at a loss to understand."
"The main narrative is driven by a group of kids who escape from their rehab facility, guided by the conviction they can put an end to their generation's "act of collective surrender," as Hawley describes it. But among the various threads making up his ambitious, enthralling epic, there's one recurring perspective that comes straight from the author himself. Hawley interjects, in third- and first-person passages as "the author," to talk about the story, his role in it, as well as his own children, their fears, and his fears on their behalf."
"At one point, the author asks his daughter - who's on "two different kinds of anxiety medication" - why she's so afraid all the time. "She didn't want to grow up," Hawley writes. "She didn't want to think about the future. I tried to convince her that planning for the future is the only way she'll have any control over it, but she was skeptical. We were in the middle of a global pandemic, after all. Control, she had learned, is an illusion.""
A TV series showcases slimy, savage parasites that violently consume human bodies. A 2022 novel locates dread in an inexplicable wave of teenage suicides, each scene marked by an inscrutable symbol linking America's youth. The plot follows a group of kids who escape a rehab facility determined to halt their generation's widespread surrender. The narrative contains recurring first- and third-person passages in which a narrator addresses personal fears about children, medication, pandemic-era loss of control, and the difficulty of planning for the future. The novel frames teenagers with agency and power even amid mass youth deaths.
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