[Book Review] ABYSS – Nicholas Binge

On bookshelves now is the latest release for author Nicholas Binge – a fitting last name because that is exactly what is going to happen when you open the cover of ABYSS, you’re going to binge it. Without a doubt, ABYSS is one of the quickest-paced reads so far this year.

Coming in at a lean 146 pages, it is horror condensed to its purest form. Not a single word is wasted, not one paragraph is unintended, not one page is filler.

Binge has managed to take the daily doldrums of having to slug away at a boring corporate job and turn it into a nightmare journey into a cosmic horror hellscape. We follow Joe as he starts a new job for a company called Ponos. He’s landed a job as an administrative assistant, a Monday – Friday nine to fiver that promises a steady check and not much else.

Things seem off from the moment he steps into the building; it’s heavily automated and sparsely populated. Lots of empty offices, cubicles, and an unsettling silence. Most disturbing of all, though, is the company’s AI staff well-being app named WELBOT. Designed to ensure the employee has all they need to be healthy, happy, and productive.

The first day, though strange, goes relatively well, but on day two, things take a terrifying turn into the weird, and man, this one never looks back.

Never a dull moment, and the twists and turns are fresh, original, and completely unexpected. I had no idea where this one was going, but I could not wait to turn the next page to see what Mr. Binge had up his dark little sleeve.

Coupling most people’s desire not to want to be at their job with our inborn mistrust of large corporations, and then throwing in a healthy dose of WTF horror, Binge weaves himself a tight, insane, scary, all to relateable tale of survival at the corporate level.

Binge keeps his character list small and expends most of his energy constructing this wild, never-ending labyrinth of horror that is Ponos.

It’s fun, it’s fast-paced, it’s intriguing, but most importantly – it’s scary.

Answer the “help wanted” ad on this one, and make it a title you find time to add to your calendar.

ABYSS is out now – so go get it.

4 out of 5 meetings that could have been an email for this one.