Babbling Into The Void

 At the start of July, Boris Johnson was revealed to be looking into a policy to create 50-year mortgages intended to be paid back by the applicants' children. So that's what came to mind as I began reading Andrew J. Stone's All Hail the House Gods , a novella in which the inhabitants of a tent city are forced to constantly produce children to sacrifice to hungry houses. From the off this concept is both inventive and timely (somehow even more the latter than it was four years ago) and it's one that allows the author to blend moral drama with some truly memorable imagery. Yet this firm foundation doesn't mean the structure proper is without cracks. The narrative follows two strands. Punctuated by glimpses into a scene in which our protagonist stands on the bridge sacrifices must cross to be consumed by the House Gods, the main story follows the steps that led him to that point. As both he and his wife, Katie, begin to seek ways to break out of the cycle of endless r