In the year 2025, it often feels as though the internet (yes, the thing you are using now to read this) has grown into an untamable mess. Much like weeds in a festering, untended garden, the places in which technology reaches know no bounds, disrupting the growth of healthy foliage and flourishment. With his debut novel, rekt, it feels as though Alex Gonzalez has harnessed this fear, tapping into the unending void of depravity that is a few keystrokes away.
Sammy Dominguez has grown up with the internet, finding weird videos with his friends at sleepovers way too young, reading and writing creepypastas, and documenting his relationship with his girlfriend, Ellery. One car accident changes this all, Ellery’s life claimed, and Sammy left to navigate the world from his warped perspective, alone. One link to one website plunges Sammy’s already bleak world into deeper darkness as he watches the deaths of numerous people, even those he holds dearest who are still living. Descending into a madness of conspiracy, Alex Gonzalez thrusts us into the brokenness of the digital age showing there is no bounds to depravity.
One of the most rattling sentiments behind rekt is Gonzalez’s ability to examine our morbid fascination with violence in a way that immerses us wholly within this very notion. As we follow Sammy through this depraved navigation of death, hurt, and gore, we, the reader, also cannot look away from the destruction unfolding in Sammy’s life. Are we any better than him in our fascination with his struggles? It’s a strange, self-referential conundrum Gonzalez presents, adding a depth to a story that thrives on thematically dark motifs.
Even more impressive is the grit that is deeply ingrained in Sammy’s story. Many novels have delved into the nefarious nature of technology, the internet, and artificial intelligence, but rekt is a book that feels unique in its unfortunate honesty. While much good has come from these technological advances, the unchecked nature by which this beast has grown, spawning new dimensions of illicit activity, is purely terrifying. Sammy’s descent into this realm of death, conspiracy, and violence feels otherworldly as the events that transpire are riddled with shock and brutality. Somehow, Gonzalez has bottled the fear of the future, the horrors of the uncontrollable, into one unputdownable novel.
A book that accomplishes so much through its harshness, rekt by Alex Gonzalez feels like one of the most pertinent novels of the digital age. There are no doubts that this is a mean novel, one that is genuinely frightening with the lines of reality and digital fiction blurring beyond comprehension. Yet, this fear is for good reason with every transgression reading as a warning, a flashing warning sign of the destruction to come. For these reasons and so many others, rekt is a bold debut with an unwavering voice that needs to be heard.
rekt by Alex Gonzales releases on March 25th from Erewhon Books.
