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Tom is a skeptic. He’s been bought up to question everything and to follow the lead of science. Although, he hadn’t always been a skeptic. When he was little, he used to love reading The Bollingbrook Babbler. A local news-sheet which printed fantastical tales of the Mayor of Bollingbrook and his heroic deeds in keeping earth safe from alien colonists. He’d keep the village safe from weredeer – werewolves, but in deer form. It was what he looked forward to each week – until his parents introduced him to skepticism, that is.
As an adult and facing a bright future as a journalist at the Bollingbrook Star, Tom is attending a convention of skeptics – in particular Habencon – a convention for followers of a skeptic named Reese Habenstein. Tom is a huge fan, and has followed him since his parents introduced him to skepticism. It’s at this convention that Tom meets a myriad of like minded people, including a man named Matthew Bennett. Bennett persuades Tom that absolutely no one is out of his league, and all he has to do is ask for what he wants. Feeling somewhat bolstered by this great academic, Tom follows a woman called Jamie Kyle into an elevator and propositions her. The fallout that follows see’s a stratospheric fall from grace for Tom, and a whole lot of anger at women proclaiming to be feminists.
While this makes The Rift: A Bollingbrook Babbler Story sounds like it’s full of pretty heavy, don’t be put off. It does have a very heavy theme running through out it, but it also has a lot of wry and dry humour. There’s moments in it where you think ‘what on earth just happened?’ And moments that have you feeling angry at Tom, Jamie and every other minor character who spout fundamentalist views – whether they’re anti-feminist or even anti-man. What the main theme is though, is that you should always listen to both sides. To put ones ego aside and to understand all and everything that’s being discussed in detail. Not everything is always as it seems at first glance and if you take in information when in an emotional state, you won’t actually understand the real intent behind the words.
This book isn’t an attack on feminist ideals – which is what I thought as I started reading it. It’s not even an attack on the extreme patriarchy. It’s simply a wry observation of the way words and intentions can be misconstrued and the disastrous results that could follow.
S. A.
Originally published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC Program. You can read that review here.
You can purchase The Rife: A Bolingbrook Babbler Story via Amazon using the link.