Book Review: Wyrd and Other Derelictions

Wyrd and Other Derelictions
By Adam Nevill
Review by Liam

A freighter, fully painted white aside from its railings, powers through a sea storm to deliver unknown cargo – yet there is not a soul alive on board.
A hill surrounded by campfires sits abandoned to a grizzly scene.
A house, derelict, holds a scene of sudden tragedy.

What at first seems to be a disjointed anthology of odd post-human scenes gradually reveals an unsettling, overarching cause of the emptiness of these worlds. The tales contained within are myriad in their approach, and bleak in their description, but draw you into this mystery all the same. Nevill presents a novel style and a uniquely veiled intent in this work, focussing heavily on what can be observed or deduced from these scenes, and the implications for mankind’s inherent shortcomings when faced with something so overpoweringly unknowable.

5/5