I really loved this. I already had this on my list for a while before I realized that I could probably get an ARC of it, so this was an exciting one to get approved for. I didn't really know what to expect, but I felt going in that it was probably going to be really good, but also really confusing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's actually super easy to follow. It reminded me of so many things while reading it, but especially Thomas Ligotti and the video game Control. That being said, I don't think that I've ever read anything like it. The whole concept of an antimeme is something that you have to really read about in action to see how they work, because they're actually horrifying and the descriptions that you're going to get in a synopsis don't really do them justice. It's broken up into 3 books that converge in the end. It can be easy to get a little lost as to where it's all going for a bit, but it does get there in the end. I've never heard of qntm before this, but I'm definitely going to look for more of his work because this really did it for me. One of the best books I've read this year for sure.

This novel reminds me of Recursion but with some way more mind bending ideas. You have ideas that drive this story that at times are not tangible but yet they are tangible. The idea that the world reset its timeline is definitely the core to this story. Am I completely baffled by this novel- yes. Did I enjoy it- also yes but my head hurts because I feel like I needed post it notes to keep track of it all. It’s a good mind boggling science fiction story that gets you thinking.

This book ended up being both what I expected and not what I expected at the same time. The idea of sentient or quasi sentient ideas or thought that can be harmful or dangerous to the human mind is a very interesting concept. Over all I enjoyed it and it was a good read.

The book starts off feeling like a collection of short interlocking stories, almost like an anthology. But as I neared the end of the first third of the book I came to realize that the stories were all leading up to an overarching and horrifying story. The biggest question in the book is, how do you fight something you can not remember exists after coming into contact with it or the very knowledge of its existence is enough to kill most and drives other insane.

It is a very well thought out and executed novel, filled with horrifying ideas and imagery. Fans of sci-fi horror will definitely like the concepts and frights this book presents.

I feel dumber (in a good way) having read this book. I love sci-fi- horror and the stories in this book are fantastic. Did I completely understand the concepts in each one? not completely, but I loved all these ideas...and I was also a bit scared of them. Excellent book to make you know that you know nothing (or next to nothing lol).

Fairly solid spooky SCP story told via character vignettes. Nothing that particularly stands out on my end, but it's on the better end of "meh".

What an incredibly unsettling book (in the best way possible)! I made the mistake of starting in the middle of the night and had to put it down because it was starting to freak me out too much. The whole experience of reading it cultivated such a strong sense of unease, and it had me questioning all sorts of things. The premise itself is fascinating and unique. I'm pretty sure there are concepts and implications I didn't fully grasp, so I'll definitely be re-reading this in the future to see what else I can pick up. I feel like I can't really say much more without spoiling it, and I feel like this a good book for people to go in with minimal foreknowledge. So I'll just say that this book is definitely worth the read, and the terrifying thoughts that come with it!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

This book was an absolute fever dream, and I honestly don't think I've ever read anything like it. If you've ever heard of the SCP Foundation before this, you will definitely be interested in this book. If you have ever enjoyed the absurdity of Welcome to Night Vale, or the mystery of Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation then I absolutely think this book is for you. I don't want to say too much because I think it's best to go into this book knowing as little about it as possible, but I know that the Marie Quinn is going to stay with me for a very long time. I absolutely tore through this book in a desperate bid to know more even when knowing more brought the book to some dark and absurd places. Spooky and tense, mysterious and eerie, this book is just absolutely fantastic.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC!

I have not been familiar with SCP previously, so went into this book mostly blind. What a ride! It was a wholly original idea to me, and I read a lot of sci-fi. I don't know if this was on purpose given that this book has been gestating for a while, but with current events what they are, this seemed like a very timely book. I'll be on the lookout for author's other work!

The ending was weaker than the rest of the book, but the rest was so stellar, that I'll disregard my thoughts about the ending.

One thing I can say about “There Is No Antimemetics Division” is that it is the most unique book I will read this year, possibly ever. I had a lot of fun with this, especially the first 2/3 of the book. This is a story that definitely requires you to think and I’m honestly not sure I even “got” it fully but I definitely plan to reread it. It’s hard to say much about the plot, and I think it’s best experienced blind. If you like sci-fi/horror stories I would definitely recommend checking this out.
Thank you Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

It kills me to give this book three stars because it had such a strong start. Just a several chapters in, I was convinced that this book would easily become one of my top sci-fi reads. Even though it was consistently a little campy overall, the absurdity was a nice contrast to serious and complex premise.

However, at around the 2/3 mark, the carefully crafted plot began to fall apart. The author tried to tie it all back together in the final chapter, but by that point the grip the book had on me from the beginning was lost.

In terms of what I liked, as I mentioned above, the core idea was just so unique and well executed (at the beginning). The central theory of an anti-meme, the “classified” entries on different unknowns, and the continuing question of whose memories are actually reliable - all amazing.

The characters were a little flat, but I was originally able to look past that due to the positives I mentioned above. When it became clear that the ending wouldn’t be as strong as the beginning, it started to affect my overall opinion of the book. Especially considering there were threads of plots that were briefly picked up and then completely forgotten.

Despite the negatives, I would still recommend this book to others, especially those who love sci-fi. My personal take is that the ending was so radically different in terms of tone and execution, that even though it was an objectively fine ending, I was left feeling a bit let down. However, the book itself still has such a solid premise that one could easily look past any faults I found and find it an engaging read.

I would like to thank Ballantine Books and QNTM for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
5 Stars

"What if an idea was dangerous? What if an idea was tangible? What if there's monsters/entities around us all day every day that we can't see, hear, or remember? What if that entity has a defense mechanism that made you forget everything about them once you left the room, or everything about your entire day, even your entire existence?

How would we even fight this unknown? The unknowable? What if we've already been fighting and just don't remember we're even at war? Who have we already forgotten?"

Mayhem! Monsters! The Unknown eye on your back in every room.
This is such a great nod to a already delicious horror genre. I knew I was going to love this book before I read it and it did not disappoint.

There's so much here, so many thought experiments and I love following along the path of both Quinn's and their search for answers. I loved the little love story happening in the midst of it all. Even got me misty eyes there at the end which was the last thing I was expecting in this book.

Antimemetics and the Unknowns within this book and in a larger part the broader online database, have really served us up what I consider to be the best yet simulacrum of/for the Boogie Man. It's practically unknowable, unrememberable, and can be lurking just about everywhere. Just beyond your sight. Are they here now? Are they touching you? Are the behind every closed door? Are they taking your loved ones from your memory as we speak? Are they taking you?

All the stars. A new favorite. It got a little funky at the end (last 15%) but I still enjoyed it and can't complain.
100% recommend for horror readers.

4.25⭐️

A fever dream. A slow decent into madness. This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read before… and I LOVED it.

If you enjoyed Severance, if you were intrigued by Annihilation, read this book. A sci fi, psychological horror, weird, great time.

I don’t think I’m intelligent enough to give a brief summary of the book so I won’t try and I’m sure some of the brilliance of this story was lost on me. I’m just going to encourage you to give this a shot. It’s short and I ate it up.

I will be adding these types of book to my TBR immediately.

Thank you again for the advance copy of this re-released gem!

ARC from NetGalley on Kindle

NOTE: the version that came to my actual Kindle was heavily redacted. Sometimes, 80% of the page in spots. The version on my Kindle app was not. I don’t know if this was intentional and honestly it added to the mystique of the book, but I wanted to make sure to add that in this feedback. I would be happy to include photographs if necessary.
To be clear, I changed the font, attempted to highlight, and changed from day and night mode and still could not read the text that appeared “redacted”.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars

Any book that is based on the SCP universe is game for me. qntm was able to keep the same mystery as SCP but made their own.

From page one, I was hooked. The story itself is broken up into shorter snippets of Marie Quinn's life as she navigates being the chief of the Antimemetics Division while trying to save the world from an idea that she doesn't remember. qntm did a fantastic job in explaining the science of things clearly and concisely, until the end of the book. Maybe I need to reread it when it's not 2am, but I was trying (and failing) to wrap my mind around everything.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but still felt it lacked something. Maybe my expectations were more along the lines of reading different stories about different unknowns (like when you hit random entry on the SCP website). But I think that's more on my expectations and less on the story itself. I did go in blind without reading anything about it.

I was not expecting much but was *absolutely hooked* after the first chapter and devoured it in a single day (already planning to re-read). This book explores the SCP universe and follows the Antimemetics Division as they try to neutralize threats. The story is fast-paced and exciting. It does not shy away from giving real answers to hard situations, has excellent prose (well above average for sci-fi/fantasy imo), and builds an exciting, interesting universe full of weird creatures and 3-dimensional characters.
I will be recommending this to anyone I know that reads sci-fi!

Thank you for the ARC from Net Galley.

4.5 Stars

*A received an e-arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

This book of interconnected short stories are actually SCP stories turned whole, though as someone who knows only vaguely what SCP is, it holds its own as a separate entity.

The stories / chapters function as a more or less complete story, told in fragments / short story excerpt format, though all the stories take place in the same universe, more or less chronologically with recurring characters.

These stories tackle memory - how you separate what is real from what isn't, how you handle losing memories and gaining false ones. They are also fundamentally character driven - and I love the Quinn's in particular. This is definitely on the horror side of sci-fi, but I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is perfect for fans of Severance and The Silence from Doctor Who. Seeing that I’m a fan of both, I definitely enjoyed this book! An enemy that you forget as soon as you look away has always been a concept that deeply unsettles me. This book conveyed that uneasiness very well. It mixes science with horror in a very satisfying way. I also love when books are scientific without making the reader feel confused or stupid. This book is able to include a lot of science and still be understood by the average reader.

*There are sections of this book that are blacked out throughout the book. I thought that was a stylistic choice by the author to represent things being forgotten/ classified. However at about 60% through this book I realized there are supposed to be words that you can read peeking through the blackout. You are not able to see these on a kindle because of the low contrast. Keep that in mind if you’re using an e-reader.

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm--I've described other books as feeling evocative of the SCP Foundation project, but this book truly feels ripped from the wiki. It's a collection of somewhat cohesive short stories that explore (sometimes literally) unfathomable threats in the world. There's a lot of heart here, but I think some of it gets obscured by the jargon-heavy world building. For that reason, it's hard for me to recommend unless you already have a keen interest in the paranormal. Sideways thumb.

Having read stories by qntm before, I was eager to read this novel! It definitively delivered - this was a fun sci-fi romp! It was a fast paced, adventurous novel that I really enjoyed. Highly recommended.

How can I even describe this book? There Is No Antimemetics Division is the story of a woman in charge of an organization that investigates and studies and contains unknown antimemetic entities. From a beam of light that eats memories to a stone that prevents people from being able to remember how to ride a bike, the organization collects, categorizes and contains everything from relatively harmless to world-ending unknowns.

I don't want to go into too many more details about the content of the book so that I don't give anything away but this was really a fun read. It felt a little like a monster of the week episode at first as the character went through a series of chapters coming up against different types of antimemetic entities but it was a set up to get the ready into a space where they could understand everything that would follow. The overarcing narrative of the book was more than worth the first few chapters and over all the whole book was a five-star read for me.

The character development was great, the world was wild, and though it was a high concept novel it was well written enough that I never really questioned what was going on.

My only complaint is that there are several instances of blacked out text throughout the novel and on my e-read they just appeared as black squares. I read 85% of the book this way only to realize when I pulled it open on my laptop to read the last 15% that on a screen with higher contrast there are actually words in those black squares, which means I missed things throughout the book. It wasn't enough to derail me giving this five stars but any readers who are going to tackle this book on an ereader with lower contrast just be aware that you might be missing out on some things!

I'm about to go back and read through some of the sections that I missed but even still this was a highly enjoyable novel.

Thanks to qntm for writing it, to Ballantine Books for sending it over to me, and NetGalley for facilitating the delivery.

There Is No Anti-Memetics Division by QNTM (aka Sam Hughes) was one mind-bending rollercoaster ride of a book. How do you combat a creature that exists as a concept and can erase your ideas immediately as you have them?

Originally, this was posted as an online series of stories based on the fictional SCP Foundation, which was built as a collaborative writing project on Wikipedia by its users as a mysterious organization that studies unique creatures named “Unknowns”. Each entry is presented as a scientific case file, cataloged by a letter/number sequence and a corresponding danger level defined by a Greek letter. While some of the creatures listed are hysterical, others, like the ones explored in this book, are downright terrifying.

This story focuses on a subclass of creatures known as antimemetics. They hide in plain sight, feeding off memory and thought, shaping reality and wreaking havoc on society without anyone realizing they're there. Any that are captured by the Organization are studied by its Anti-Memetics Division. They must be specially contained, and the workers dealing with them have to follow very specific precautions with everything from having to use paper and pen (because their ideas can be stolen from their heads), injecting themselves with medicine to allow them to retain their memories from day to day, and even leaving notes for their future selves.

The book unfolds through a series of interconnected stories that follow different members of the Division and their pursuit of knowledge regarding these creatures. As they piece everything together, they realize that something huge and monstrous is coming for our world…or has already. There are a few main characters that are threaded throughout these stories, but don't expect any happy endings.

Without giving anything away, some scenes are quite grisly and disturbing, while others are thought-provoking and haunting. This book is dense with the science unique to its world, which makes it sometimes difficult to follow, but not impossible. There are also a few time jumps, both forward and back, that can add to the confusion.

This is not a book for the squeamish, nor is it a light read, but if you're a fan of smart, concept-heavy horror that truly gets under your skin, this one's a standout. It's unlike anything else I've read. I highly recommend this book for those who enjoy horror with a heavy dose of existential dread, which is a genre I happen to love.

Thank you to the publisher Ballantine Books, the author QNTM, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.