At the End of Every Day

April 24, 2023
Reiche’s slippery debut adds to the niche but growing genre of horror novels set in theme parks. Delphi Baxter has worked in a vast and immensely popular Disney Land–style amusement park for years as both a handler of guests and maintenance worker, alongside her long-term boyfriend, Brendan, who plays one of the park’s princes. The park is the first place Delphi’s felt at home after a childhood trauma. Then comes the death of a celebrity on its grounds and a failed attempt to replace the clumsy automaton attractions with more advanced robotics. News quickly arrives that the park is shuttering, and Delphi’s life begins to break down. She stays committed to her job while she still has it, but as the park’s shutdown begins, Brendan acts strangely, odd people roam the grounds, and it becomes increasingly apparent that either something is wrong with the park or Delphi is losing her mind—or both. Reiche uses both unreliable narrators and the occasional epistolary chapter to create an ethereal, hard-to-pin-down world. This style may go a little too far sometimes, but succeeds in creating a dreamlike, unsettling narrative that frequently slides into the uncanny valley. Readers are in for an eerie, psychological roller-coaster ride. Agent: Liz Parker, Verve Talent & Literary.