A review by quadrille
Lightspeed Magazine, April 2014 by John Joseph Adams

3.0

I'm a little surprised that so many people reacted so viscerally against this novelette due to its unlikeable main character, because that didn't bother me one whit while reading -- he was loathsome, yes, but I don't think I need to sympathise with my protagonists all that much in a story this short. I definitely highlighted a few quotes along the way because I simply found them so funny, in their black humour and sheer assholery and narcissism, that when the entire world has ended and most people are suffering or dead, this guy can't get his head out of his own navel beyond his own man-pain & the concept of trying to win his girlfriend back. I definitely saw the humour in it, and didn't think we were supposed to identify with this guy.

It's surreal, dream-like, more like a fairytale than a grounded story, and I dug it.