This novel is an exceedingly odd one. Seemingly about a man names Tom who works for a company called Capmeadow, the story involves Tom bringing his daughter, Hen, into work for a Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. Except no-one knows about the Day, and then Hen goes missing. And it turns out Hen was never there and has been at school the whole time. Or has she? And is the one at school the real Hen or not?
Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? That’s why I bought it – because it sounds intriguing. However, it turns out the book was more concerned with establishing an unsettling mood rather than actually having a narrative you could follow.
It’s taken me several days since finishing to decide how I feel about this book, and that is perhaps its charm. I enjoyed the way Pester writes, and enjoyed the initial premise. The writing evoked a very unsettling and upsetting mood. There can’t be anything worse than discovering your child is missing, in this case at a Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. I shared the panic the protagonist felt. But then the narrative fell apart. I was very invested in Tom and his daughter, but then the book goes off on wild tangents and disconnected ramblings. I think Tom was slowly losing his mind whilst being fixated on finding his daughter. But I’m not sure. I think the company he works for is doing something vaguely sinister. But I’m not sure.
Somewhere in the book The Expansion Project is a clear, exciting and terrifying thriller. The trouble is, it’s wrapped in so many layers with so much tape (apologies, it’s Christmas!) that it’s impenetrable. Don’t get me wrong, I sort of could see where it was going but the whole thing was so bewildering that by the end I was glad it was over. There were seemingly no answers to be had, no resolution to what I thought was the story, nothing.
No resolution to the story that I could understand, anyway. Tom’s story seemed to get lost along the way, there was a Night Market for no reason, everyone hated the protagonist but we didn’t see any results of this or any explanation as to why, apart from him being vaguely incompetent because he was preoccupied with finding Hen. And, what the heck was up with the big server farm in the basement? I’ll never know, and nor will you! It had something to do with missing children, maybe? I just don’t know!
I was left feeling disappointed as it sounded really good. The execution was just too disjointed and confusing for me. Oh well.
Two stars.