Review: Ubiety

By Grzegorz Kunowski

Genre: Mystery, Metaphysical, Urban fantasy

Pages: 112

Publication Date: December 27, 2018

Trigger warning: Self-harm. 

In the wake of a personal tragedy, Adam Johnson has committed suicide. Alone with only a large albino rat, his thoughts drift into the abyss. The portrait of his life has been scattered into pieces and reshuffled as he steps from darkness into the light. What has happened to bring Adam to this point? Where will Adam go from here? Is Adam dead or doomed to relive an endless cycle of self-destruction? These are the true mysteries to unravel.

Ubiety is highly philosophical. There are many quotes by other authors and ideological musings intermingled with the broken fragments of Adam’s life. An interesting quote might be followed by a long fourth wall-breaking monologue to the reader before cutting back to Adam. When the narrative shifts to Adam and his surroundings, it is either too descriptive or too vague. This environmental uncertainty built a dreamy atmosphere that left you adrift.

Many readers might find themselves tripped up by the heavy usage of archaic language in rapid succession that will pull them out of what is already a confusing story. When the narrative isn’t entangled by uncommon word choices, it’s poetic.

I was caught off-guard by what felt like an Andrew Ryan (from Bioshock) inspired quote of “A man chooses but a slave obeys”. It made me wonder if Adam was trapped in a layer of Hell, forever doomed to make the same mistakes for the amusement of the omnipresent or if it was Purgatory, where his cycle could be broken for a chance at redemption.

Thank you to Grzegorz for reaching out to me to review his book. There is a lot of potential here that I feel was bogged down by the infamous “trunk book” syndrome. While I cannot rate this book highly because it was a difficult read due to editing and word choices, I hope to see more from him in the future.

3 of 5