Kiernan’s storytelling is brutal, unrelenting. This is a nightmare that goes on in the day, in the night, awake, asleep – it doesn’t matter. And it can’t be explained. And in the end, these characters, and all of us, can try to be the heroes, but there’s no way to know if any of it really matters, or if any of it even happened. The only things you can be sure of are fear and madness.