Not every book is for every body. I wanted to love this but I struggled to finish it. It just didn't draw me in. That is not down to the writing which, for the right reader, will draw you in and keep you wandering about what is really happening.

I guess I felt mostly robbed from the description to the actual book I read. It had promise. I just wish it was something different.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this. I just wish I could rate it higher.

Thank you to #Netgalley and #DundurnPress for allowing me access to this arc for review.

South is a bewildering read. It is set in a totalitarian state, author B, tries to uncover what is happening in the Southern oil rigs. We are in an unnamed state with no place names offered, which is quite disorienting at times.
As events develop on the oil rig and B gets closer to the truth, it all becomes very rigid and Orwellean.

Lakghomi writes sparingly, leaving the reader to question what's real and what's not. The magic realism of the wind spirits is a nice touch, adding to the confusion you feel on B's behalf. Revealing little of the actual known facts of the place B is in, evokes a feeling of empathy for B's predicament and disassociation.

For a short novel, South provides a complex, intriguing story. I'm still thinking about it now.

Wow—this book crept up on me! It drew me in, and did not let go until it was done.

This is the story of B, a writer who, at the beginning of the book, is driving south on commission to report on possible labour strikes on an oil rig. We don’t get a lot of detail about the country he lives in, but we start to suspect that something may not quite be right with the company that runs the oil rig. As soon as he arrives, B realises he is not welcome: the staff are hostile, and no one will speak to him. Back at home, things are also growing increasingly strange. Events escalate on the rig, and we are thrust, with B and the characters around him, into a surreal nightmare.

I put the book down an hour ago, and am feeling quite haunted by B’s experiences. Some of this is because of how relatable I found it: forced disappearances, enforced silence, and living under state rules that change unpredictably is quite familiar to me. Never really knowing if what is happening to B is real or part of a mental breakdown is a excellent plot device. In the end, it doesn’t matter; things resolve themselves into something understandable, and B is my hero.

I very nearly put the book down when I started reading because the writing felt quite amateurish; I am very glad I didn’t. A little like when you read *Flowers for Algernon*, the writing style changes as B’s experiences change. The surrealism/magical realism is exceedingly well-done, adding to the dream-like feel, along with ghosts, spirit possession, drug-like visions and hallucinations, and exorcism, all beautifully executed.

This has been a fantastic read. Thank you to Dundurn Press and to NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks NetGalley for a copy of this book.

This book was not for me. I tried to read it three different times and finally stopped when I got 53% done. Since it is a short book, I feel really bad for not being able to finish but it was a struggle for me and was not enjoyable at all. I will leave a start rating but I am not sure it is fair since I didn't finish the book.

I agree with the person who said this reminded them of Kafka.

I enjoyed the ambiguity of this book. The protagonist, B, travels south in an unnamed country to report on strikes that are taking place on an oil rig. The unnamed country is a totalitarian state and, needless to say, things don’t go well for B.

It is one of those books where I never really knew what was going on but it didn’t matter.

Many thanks to Netgallery for the ARC.

The whole whats really happening approach for this novel had me reading on quickly. I needed to find out where it was going to lead to or what it would uncover.
I felt the main character was confusing yet really intriguing. His mind would go in so many directions and the story would twist so much but still it had me hooked. The complex relationship between him and his partner worked very well within this story. I felt for him throught this book.

The short sentence construction was a little off putting but overall i enjoyed. It was mysterious, errie in bits and the style was different to what i have came across before.

An interesting concept and a good attempt at a stream-of-consciousness style story over plot, this is the story of someone working on a rig. Their experience is the book however I thought it could have been a bit more fleshed out.

In 'South' the narrator is invited to an oil rig to write an expose on rig workers who have been protesting. There seems to be a lot of unrest in the country, and as the novel progresses, the narrator B is targeted by the officials running the rig.

I'm getting better at appreciating books where not everything is shared or explained (hello I Who Have Never Known Men). However, I think that's largely because it helps you embody the narrator, feeling their paranoia and confusion. This wasn't really the case in this novel. I think this book would have benefitted from giving away a little more - there were flashes of explanation, but that made it more frustrating.
The author relied heavily on dream sequences (which I personally hate) and some of the plot towards the end just didn't really make sense.
I kept going because I was interested to see if there would be a reveal, but since there wasn't really, I'd give the book 3/10.

2023 Book 16 - South by Babak Lakghomi

I receive an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Due for release 12 September 2023.

⭐⭐⭐

Babak Lakghomi has portrayed a very bleak world, with echoes of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, George Orwell's 1984, and elements of the latter half of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

Set against a totalitarian government, the protagonist, B, searches for truth in the face of lies and manipulation.

No matter where he goes, B is somehow always held and controlled by unseen forces - meeting resistance everywhere he goes. He asks questions, people disappear. He is watched, observed, and overseen every minute of the day.

This is not your heart-warming, feel good search for truth that will reveal answers and wrap everything up with a nice little bow. Having said that, if you are after something to make you think, make you work for understanding, and pick it apart for representation of the world's political situations and potential to deteiorate, then this is definitely for you. He does have a style similar to Cormac McCarthy, with the short sentences and bleak descriptions, which only adds to B's sense of desperation and panic as his world and mind begin to deteriorate.

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South is the story of an investigative journalist, B, assigned to work an offshore rig in the south of an unnamed country under a totalitarian regime. The assignment seems doomed from the beginning; when he arrives there is only one person that talks to him and he disappears shortly after. Soon B sees the futility in his placement, but receives conflicting information from his editor and his shipmates when he tries to leave. B becomes stagnant; he’s rebuffed by the powers at hand and his anxiety morphs into fear when his situation rapidly changes. It’s never clear who he is afraid of or what he is guilty of, but the more he searches for truth, the more lost he becomes. There are moments in this book when the reader is left completely unmoored as B spirals into his own misery and madness, but Lakghomi created enough foundation for the reader to hold on to. We absolutely loved the unique first person perspective of someone slipping into insanity and the novel’s sparse prose added to the surreal landscape, haunting narrative, and captivating imagery. For fans of Kafka, or reader’s looking to dip their toes into a surrealist novel, we highly recommend South.

Thank you @netgalley for the advanced readers copy of South.

South read a lot like a psychological thriller for me. I was ready and waiting for something big to happen, some big revelation but if it did, it was buried for me and not obvious. The story kept me engaged even though some spots were hard to stomach. I just wish there was more, I felt like I was only reading the first half of a book. It left me with more questions than answers, but I loved it.

I was fully immersed in this book; the writing was great and I felt like I was right there experiencing it all. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book.

This eerie and compelling novel follows B, a journalist writing about a strike on a oil rig, but it's about so much more. The novel is disorienting, and you join B through the confusion of what is happening to him and the world around him. Is he being watched? Who are his friend and who are his enemies? This is an unnerving and interesting story that drew me in.

I didn’t like this at all, I only read the first few pages and just couldn’t connect with it at all. The style of writing was not enjoyable and the plot felt extremely convoluted.

I really wanted to like this dystopian story, but didn't work for me at all. DNF'it ata 40% the main chatachter was so meh that I didn't care. Also, despite the interesting premise, the story was really confusing making the reading a hard time for me. Did not engage with the writing style either, narrated in first person and as I was not interested in the main charachter, It was a difficult read for me to follow.

Writing distostopian books is not an easy job, but Lakghomi did an amazing job capturing the environment and the vibes of a totalitarian society that lacks human kindness. The desert in itself is such a powerful environment that makes you right from the beginning of the novel feel like you are not supposed to be there, and yet you are. Great and outstanding novel.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

I'm DNFing the book at 24%

Though I like the idea of this bleak, dystopian world, it's also pretty character driven, and I'm not interested in the main character.

The world is interesting, I like the writing style, I see how immersive this can be for other people, but it isn't working for me.

A short dystopian novel about a writer B on a journalistic trip into a land of drought, desolation and decay to explore life on fading oil platforms. A first-person account which falls into a hallucinatory nightmare, where people, events, and reality become unclear under a totalitarian regime where dissent is not tolerated.

An interesting and well-constructed novel of a person in these circumstances. Yes things are little unclear and unformed in places (see other reviews!) - this is a singular account from a mind that is unclear, due to personal history, current events and the general world with possible bad 'spirits' real or arising from living in deprived lands.

In portraying the dysfunction and bewilderment of a person the novel works. A book worth reading.

This was a pretty whacky, experimental book. At only 200 pages it really crams a lot in and goes through a lot of twists and turns.

Described in the synopsis as a dystopian, totalitarian world and compared to 1984 their certainty are elements of this in South. But where it differs for me is the execution and actual storytelling. The writing style is really unique and trippy, going between present day, flashbacks and hallucinations, which was really immersive and helped to show B’s deteriorating mental state. But this does become so confusing and the story just seems to go around and jump quite a lot, I felt it was a little disjointed in parts.

I really didn’t like B as a protagonist. I didn’t feel we understood enough about his backstory, his family and why he was searching for the truth about his father and what he actually found in the end. The characters of the Editor and Publisher seemed to blend into one too and it was confusing he was writing a book but simultaneously an article, which again wasn’t really explained.

The change in settings was quite rushed and confusing too and just seemed a bit lazy in terms of story telling in my opinion and relied too heavy on blackouts to join scenes together.

I also felt that the comments on the government, riots and society at the end felt like a completely different story all together to the start. And again the various settings seemed all over the place.

I love a good dystopian fiction, and thought the premise of this book showed great potential. But sadly the execution just wasn’t quite there for me. I understand the critiques linking this dystopia to our modern world, but just don’t think it could’ve been done better either with more pages or by cramming less into 200 pages. Maybe I’m just missing the point here?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

A very confusing short story. A man travels to an oil rig to write a report then it starts to unravel, unsure if what is happening is or if he is delerious. Hard to follow and confusing.