Justin's Notes
Jul. 10, 2025
I found Nat, the author of Husk, on Instagram quite a while ago, specifically from a reel where he was talking about Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I don't remember anything else from that reel, but it got my follow. So when he shared that he was writing a sci-fi novel, I knew I was going to get it when it was released, and I am glad I did. The story follows a man named Isaac, a tech left in the physical world to help keep the digital world of Meru running. The plot was gripping, with intense action scenes and exciting plot twists (some I could see coming and others that were quite a surprise).
These comparisons may not make a ton of sense, but I was reminded of Red Rising and Dark Matter while reading this story, primarily because of the pacing, the anticipation I felt throughout the action scenes, and the relational toil that Isaac experiences. I have said it before, but the relationships between characters are one of my favorite things about reading. I love seeing how characters change, how they grow together or fall apart, and the way they interact with the world. I thought that Eliason did a really great job building fun and interesting characters, and the relationships that Isaac builds really helped his own development, which I enjoyed. I also thought the action was engaging and exciting. There were often a ton of different things happening within any given scene, but Eliason keeps you grounded and locked in on what is important while building the chaos required to help me as the reader feel the pressure and significance of what is happening.
The world-building was also well done. It is a little in the vein of "Could this be the future?" which is mildly terrifying to me, but that helped make the world feel much easier to engage with. I loved the mix between advanced physical and digital technology dropped in a world that feels collapsed and void of any future. That said, I would have loved to have learned more about the plague that got the world to this state, and I am curious to see if the story expands geographically in the future. I pictured everything being within a few hours of each other and the whole time wondered if there were other societies and groups of people across the country that had survived. The places the story did go thought really fit the post-apocalyptic vibes, and I was there for it.
If you like sci-fi and/or fast-paced action, I would definitely recommend it. I flew through this story and am stoked for the next installment of the series.
