THE BEAUTY IN THE WRECKAGE: OR THE BIBLIOTHECA TREATMENT: AN EXPERIMENTAL HORROR NOVELLA
Andrew Buckner
Alien Buddha Press, 2026
ISBN-13: 979-8246708750
Fiorella leaves hearts on the doorstep of houses and everybody who eats the hearts will die. Her plan is to go from one town after another, leaving these hearts on doorsteps for the unsuspecting residents, until everyone is dead and she can create her own world of Fiorellas. But then Fiorella starts to question why she is doing this and if she is being programmed to do this. This changes everything and Fiorella is plunged into a world she no longer understands.
THE BEAUTY IN THE WRECKAGE: OR THE BIBLIOTHECA TREATMENT: AN EXPERIMENTAL HORROR NOVELLA by Andrew Buckner is a bizarre story of a young woman who has lost all memory of who she is and her past and only functions by doing what she is programmed to do. What she has been brainwashed to do. It is only when she breaks free – or tries to – that everything turns to chaos. When she begins to rebel against religion and against presidential orders, she becomes a target, and she knows she must do something to save herself before it is too late.
Even as Fiorella thinks about what she is doing and tries to change her actions, something called the “Father Figure” tries to stop her. It talks to her through her dreams. I couldn’t help but see this as religion forcing its beliefs and its ways on people, and stopping them from trying to get out of their bubbles and think for themselves. This is reinforced when I later read that the Father Figure’s spiel is ““not thinking and just doing is easier and more comfortable for you.” (page 58)
I loved how Fiorella’s love for books inspires her to write her own. On page 53, it reads (in Fiorella’s POV): “Now, I, too, must take up my pen, the mightiest of weapons in this barren warzone of bombs, tanks, and guns we naively call “life”, and fight by writing my memories, carving them for myself as well as for eternity, and dreams habitually, creating in any way that I can, so that the whole world can wake up through words and remember.”
I especially liked how she also uses her love for books to find a way to fight book bans. This love for books changes her and gives her new ideas, something the “monster-in-chief” oft mentioned in this story, as well as the “Father Figure,” would not approve of.
The Beauty in the Wreckage is a story not only of an individual who struggles to have the independence to think for themselves but also of an individual who wants to be free of an oppressive regime. Readers get to know Fiorella’s world through her stream of consciousness poetry and journal entries. She brings to light our natural desire for self-expression in a world that forbids individuality. Her story is a voice crying out for freedom from the chains her country has her in and one which readers may take heed of to create change in our own country.
Five stars
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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