I found the book to be electrifying and immersive, this novel dives into the unsettling mystery of Polybius, weaving suspense and supernatural intrigue with a retro '80s vibe. The tense relationship between Andi and Ro offers both heart and heroism, grounding the eerie events in the small town of Tasker Bay. With sharp storytelling and a vivid sense of atmosphere, this book is a must-read for fans of Stranger Things and The Walking Dead, who crave a blend of nostalgia, danger, and psychological intensity.

Not for me. I requested this to read in October, as I always like to stock up on "spooky stories" to get me in the Halloween mood. This wasn't quite what I expected, and not my favorite.

I would describe this read as "Stranger Things meets The Purge." Things get creepy and unsettling, then slowly descend into madness before ending up in total chaos. The story is told from 3rd POV and we get to see things from every angle and from every person in town. There are twists and turns and shocks and surprises and I could see it all happening in my head. It was a fun and wild ride, and you will NOT catch me at any arcades any time soon.

This was such a fun read, I flew through it in two days. A new arcade game shows up at Andi's work and it seems everyone in town is infatuated with it. Andi and her crush Ro realize that the game is affecting people in a negative way. Almost everyone in their town is becoming aggressive and crime is escalating. But what makes this game so special? Andi and Ro have to race against time to figure out if they can save everyone. This book was perfect for the spooky season, seeing as it takes place during Halloween. I loved the retro vibes of the 80s and I think this would make a really good movie. I also learned that this is based on an urban legend that I had never heard of so that was interesting.
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery books for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

With his debut novel “Polybius,” author Collin Armstrong has given us a work of horror and suspense reminiscent of Stephen King’s “Needful Things.” I enjoyed much of it. However, parts of it struck me as didactic. Also, some story ideas were not as original as they could have been, while some very original ideas were not developed as fully as they should have been.

Welcome to 1982 and the California seaside fishing/farming village of Trasker Bay in Sonoma County, north of Silicon Valley. Once a close-knit, blue-collar community, its proximity to San Jose is turning it into an upscale suburb. Gentrification and development threaten to make it unaffordable for long-time residents.

Teen electronics whiz-kid Andi Winston has just been moved into town by her physician mom, Rachel, who has just divorced Andi’s father and left him in San Jose. All Andi wants to do is get back to her Dad and their old home so she can work with him on his next great project. She’ll be leaving any day now, so it’s best not to get too close to anyone at her new high school. Instead, she spends her after-school hours working at Home Video World, a video store and gaming arcade where she’s responsible for keeping the big box/joystick video games working. (Remember, it’s 1982 and “Ms. Pac-man” is all the rage).

Roman Kemp (“Ro”) is the teenage son of the local sheriff. He also has a passion for electronics and gaming. And he’s developing quite a crush on Andi, who wants nothing to do with him … because it wouldn’t be worth it … because she’s going home … any day now.

And then “Polybius” arrives in the shop. All-white and gleaming, with a display screen no one has ever experienced before, it’s a hundred times more sophisticated than anything else on the floor. Everyone wants to play, including Ro. Everyone, that is, except Andi who isn’t into gaming at all. Every day, throngs of players crowd the machine. Which is when the town and just about everyone in it—except for Andi—begins to fall apart in some very disturbing ways. Now, it’s up to Andi and her doctor-Mom, and Ro and his sheriff-Dad, to figure out what’s happening and how to stop it. That's if the currently raging storm will let them.

There’s a lot to like about this novel. The prose is clear. The dialogue is natural. The main characters have depth and complexity and are likable. I rooted for them and cared about what happened to them. There’s lots of conflict. Mr. Armstrong excels at creating suspenseful scenes. (He also includes a fair amount of violence and killing, although I don’t recall any graphic or gory depictions). Some might even say that he has a literary flair and that he has created something allegorical of our times.

However, I was not as impressed by the plot. While I thought some aspects were very original, other aspects I’ve seen numerous times in books, movies, and television shows. And I thought several interesting plot ideas were raised, but then left to languish.

Also, from time to time, there’s a didactic element to Mr. Armstrong’s writing that seemed cumbersome. He does a significant amount of “telling” us who his characters are and what happened to them, rather than “showing” us.

But fans of works like “Stranger Things,” “Needful Things,” and “Storm of the Century” probably will find much to enjoy here. All in all, 3.75 stars rounded up to 4.

My thanks to NetGalley, author Collin Armstrong and publisher Gallery Books for providing me with a complimentary ARC. All of the foregoing is my independent opinion.

Great horror/thriller about an MK Ultra-esque video game commissioned and abandoned by the US government that fell into the wrong hands. Bleak, but a great read.

This book is great for fans of Black Mirror meets Stranger Things with urban legends! I loved this 80s set novel with a government funded video game that a store receives, and chaos ensues. The characters are fun, and the book is fast paced. I may have gone down a rabbit hole (shocker) after reading this about government experiments using video games... I love that this book was equal parts plot driven as well as character driven because I was concerned we would get only the two MCs slow burn of a budding relationship. That was not the case at all. Amazing horror book!!! Also, parts can get a bit gruesome so check your trigger warnings.

With the popularity of Stranger Things, having things set in the 80's or 90's is cool. It's pre-technology advancement explosion. Where we become aware.

Polybus is a strange book. It has all the makings of an interesting book. A video game hidden by a company that when played causes people to trip out and go insane / kill people. It ends up in the hands of a arcade / film rental owner. The game arouses some suspicion by one of his staff, a girl who likes coding and doesn't play video games. She is struck by the amount of people lining up to play this game, but is uneasy regarding what happens after people play it or get interested in it.

A boy from school (who has feelings for her) and his ex-girlfriend (who he is friendly with) end up getting sucked into this mess, and they have to figure out how to save the town.

I made it to 50% before pulling the plug on this. How is it that you could have an interesting plot but the characters are a chore to read about? They have no 'character' to their character. The girl is into computer coding... what else do you know about her? Any of her quirks? Likes / dislikes? Nothing. Same with the boy, and his ex-girlfriend. All of it just seems so generic.

The horror aspect that comes from playing the game isn't uneasy or subtle or fills you with dread. It just comes across so obvious and blunt off the bat. It's turning these people into mindless zombies that kill but the reader figures it out too fast and or it's not layered with any sort of ambitious dread.

All in all, I wish I could like this book, but if you're a horror fan or someone who enjoys the retro vibe, you might be dismayed by the final product.

Thank you Netgalley and Collin Armstrong for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review

Prior to this book I have not heard of the myth regarding polybius, and regardless of the lack of expectation, truly delivered for me! In my younger years I spent time poring over creepypastas and rabbit holes of unanswerable horror mysteries. I loved reading Polybius. Andi and Ro, teenagers that they are, didn't feel like watered down characters that fit a standard "chosen one trope". They are reasonably capable of what they are doing and how they feel does not drive them but supports their goal.

Initially thought this was a horror only with a supernatural explanation, but the twist it reached made me laugh. Glad of the ending, as it covers the aspect of: "Not everything ends with a happily ever after". And the final explanation of how urban myths and legends grip our very lives

I enjoyed this book. The story was compelling and I liked how fleshed out all the characters were, which can be hard to do in a multi pov. The issues I had were the flow of the plot and the sci fi element. Sometimes this book really had me invested in what was going on, other times I felt like it was in a bit of a rut. I also wish the science behind video games had been explained more. Overall, I thought this was a fun spooky read.

I really wanted this to be better. Not a bad premise, but pretty basic, and the writing was very pedestrian. It was clearly a new author who didn’t understand the importance of maintaining a consistent point of view, instead of jumping from one characters head to the next in the same scene. And the action was not clearly described, so at times even the basic plot line was hard to follow. It was also unnecessarily bleak at the end. Not recommending.

There were times I was really into this book, but there were times I wasn't jiving at all. My 2 biggest gripes are too many POVs and I wish it was shorter and had better pacing.

What a wild ride. I was nervous with two of the main characters being teens that this would be a tame scifi horror, it’s not. The description of Stranger Things meets Walking Dead is pretty on point. I don’t want to give spoilers, but dang this is perfectly violent for a video game horror book.

The vibes:
1982
Video game arcade
conspiracy theories
scifi mystery
get out alive
teen computer /gaming nerds
80’s scifi horror movies
mystery thriller
small town
fast-paced action

*Thank you in advance to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I'll first preface this review by sharing that I was not familiar with the Polybius urban legend, so this was my introduction to that story. For those unfamiliar like myself, Polybius is based off of the legend of a government experiment around an arcade machine that induced psychosis in those who played it, creating hallucinations and short fuses.

This book is a retelling of that myth, told through the eyes of Andi & Ro, two teenagers in a quiet seaside California town. Andi works at the local arcade, where the Polybius machine appears in her local shop. Ro is a fellow classmate of Andi's and hope's to gain her attention. As the town gets faced with dark and strange occurrences, Ro & Andi team up to investigate the common link, which leads them to the Polybius cabinet.

I found the story to be well written and with characters that I enjoyed. You can tell that the author has some writing experience, which is explained from his career in television writing. There were some violent scenes depicted to be aware of, but overall, found the store to be enjoyable and a fitting introduction to the Polybius lore. Look forward to reading more of this author's works in the future.

I heard about this game a while ago as an urban legend. I was so excited that a book was made. This book was great and it accurately depicted the urban legend. I would highly recommend reading this.

Small town horror
Nostalgic 1982
Based on the "conspiracy" of a Government built video game to intensify violent urges within the subconscious of a player causing them to have sezuire and memory loss.
Animal and people violence.

The story follows Andi, a recent transfer from Silicon Valley to the small town of Tasker Bay where she works in an arcade. While there a new video game cabinet is bought and people can't get enough of it. Strange things start happening after people start playing the game, but the local law enforcement doesn't realize the connection. Andi and the sheriffs son Ro are trying to figure out where this video game came from and why it's affecting people in this manner.

This was a very fun book, especially as a reader of old conspiracy theories. The story had a fair number of characters in it and moving parts of the plot to put together at the end. It lost a star for the pacing being a bit off at some points, but as a debut novel out was very good.

Thank you to netgalley and Gallery (Simon and Schuster) books for allowing me the opportunity to read and review honestly.

What a great read! 1980s and video games, that’s what sold me!!! This was nothing like the Walking dead or Stranger Things, I feel this was a whole new concept and a great one! If there were any similarities, I didn’t seem to notice then that much...
The author, Collin Armstrong, paced this book beautifully and there was never a dull moment. I loved the main group of characters, there were a couple I was rooting for! Also, the scenes were so engrossing and left me wanting more
The ending had me torn in two…
1. How does a parent let something like that happen??!
2. Why couldn’t the characters succeed! (I can see why but, at the time I was mad lol)
3. Andi…
However, this was great, and I had to read it in one setting because, you can’t put it down, you’ll want to know what happens next.

Thank you though for another great ARC, NetGalley!

This book was a decently easy read, and was interesting. However, there were points that it seemed to bit a bit slow or not fully developed (mainly, there wasn’t much character development). And to be fully transparent - this could’ve just been a me thing - but I tended to forget the relationships between characters. However, this was a good creepy read and I would recommend it.

Polybius by Colin Armstrong, is a horror novel that plunges readers into a nightmare unfolding in a small coastal town in 1982. At the story's center is Andi, a smart, tech-savvy teenager working at the local arcade/movie rental place, where the trouble begins with the arrival of a mysterious new arcade game. This game quickly becomes an obsession for the townspeople, young and old, players and nonplayers alike, triggering a series of disturbing events. As the victims start experiencing severe mood swings, paranoia, and hallucinations, Andi finds herself drawn into investigating the game's sinister origins. The situation takes a dire turn when a violent coastal storm cuts the town off from the outside world, coinciding with a surge in aggressive behavior among the residents. Alongside her friend Ro, the sheriff's son, Andi races to uncover the connection between the game and the town's descent into chaos, all while grappling with her own desire to escape Tasker Bay.

Armstrong's writing style immediately reminded me of the horror novels I devoured in my younger years. It's action-packed and straight to the point, not trying to romance us with flowery language and linguistic frills. Polybius is quite different from the "literary horror" that's become popular in recent years. But there's been a lot of talk about horror with lush, beautiful prose and supposedly elevated concepts, but Armstrong's novel isn't trying to be that. The writing is straightforward and focused on propelling the story forward rather than waxing poetic. It gets you from point A to point B efficiently, even if you won't swoon over the writing.

I will say though, that I wanted more from the urban legend aspect of the story; I honestly didn't come away from the book with any sense of urban legendry at all, and only remembered it was supposedly meant to be an aspect of the story as I was reading reviews about it, so I definitely feel like there was potential for deeper exploration there. On the other hand, the government conspiracy angle didn't really grab me, and I found those parts a bit boring.

The marketing compares this to The Walking Dead or Stranger Things, but I'd say it has more in common with the Crossed comics (not THAT bad, though) or CJ Leede's American Rapture. The rapid spread of the contagion, the extreme violence and aggression of those affected, and the overall bleakness of the situation really reminded me of those works.

For readers who appreciate horror that prioritizes visceral thrills over introspection, "Polybius" capably scratches that itch.  It's not going to win any literary awards, but I am not sure that's why we are reading horror in the first place, is it?

With a description starting with "Stranger Things meets The Walking Dead," expected something hard hitting and exciting. I could not get into this book at all. The beginning is so slow with too much character development. The concept seemed very exciting, but the execution didn't work for me.