Safe Haven by Peter Hargraves.
This book had an intriguing dystopian sci fi premise that initially drew me in.
The world building was interesting, and the imaginative cover caught my attention.
Given it's a debut novel, the writing was impressive. However, I found the slow start and character development made it hard to maintain my interest in the beginning.
The author's use of imagery was noteworthy, and I appreciated the originality of the story.
Overall, an engaging and interesting read despite some pacing issues.
Thank you to NetGalley and Wildcat Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

3 Stars

Reviewer’s note: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Safe Haven by Peter Hargraves offers a genre-bending blend of suspense, science fiction, and survival, with a central story about a woman breaking free from abuse in a world stranger than she imagined.

Margaret is a deeply sympathetic protagonist, and her journey from fearful wife to independent survivor is the emotional heart of the book. The early chapters set up a dark, realistic tone, but once the story shifts into the realm of genetically modified cougars and their human agents, it takes on a more speculative and surreal tone.

The ideas are intriguing, and there’s a lot of originality here, but I did feel that the worldbuilding needed more depth and clarity to fully immerse me. Some plot points felt rushed or underexplained, and the writing occasionally lost momentum in key emotional or action-heavy scenes.

That said, I admire the ambition and uniqueness of the premise, and I think readers who enjoy cross-genre fiction or dystopian survival themes might find a lot to like here.

A solid 3 stars from me—original and emotionally grounded, though uneven in execution.

Review: I had a feeling I was going to be bored out of my mind based on the current reviews. Yeah, most collapse era novels are as boring as a bag of hammers with sudden intense near-death escapes. This novel runs the gauntlet of personal abuse within a sea of abuse. Like looking for a specific needle in a warehouse of needles. Would not the abuse reside under a collectivized umbrella of the post apocalyptic genre?

The catamount culture was kinda dumb as a plot vehicle and the story line dragged. A good writer that lacked in the creative and movement build areas. I think they will get better with some good feedback.

I rarely ever read dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories. First and foremost, so many of them just seem so depressing. Secondly, way too many of them are just ridiculous zombie stories. I hate zombie stories. This one was neither. The story is supposedly sometime in the 22nd century, I think, yet it seemed more historical than futuristic. Even the cars, or rather “steamers”, seemed reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th, early 20th century. That along with a couple of other odd realities (like airships) of the time kind of gave the story a bit of a steampunk feel to it.

The book summary pretty much lays out the whole storyline for this novella. Margaret is pretty much held hostage by her abusive husband, Barron. He has even assigned a guard to her so that she can’t escape/defect and has instructed the guard to provide her with a daily allowance for food. While she lives in Newingland, a country that basically encompasses the northeastern states from Maine and down the eastern coast of the former US, where a significant percentage of the population was wiped out by a virus. Margaret is on vacation in Germany when she meets a man named Jonathan, who is also on vacation, and is from the Midwest Republic, a country consisting of the Midwest states of the former US.

What the book summary barely mentions is the secondary storyline of Wolfe/Mark, a young man, who was drafted into military service in Newingland and chose to run, get a new identity and escaped to the Midwest Republic and then later traveling north to the Catamount territory. This is a place inhabited and run by genetically engineered cougars, who can talk and are highly intelligent, although not very physically adept due to their thick and clumsy paws. The cougars end up hiring humans to work for them doing what they can’t.

The first half of the story is really slow, developing the storyline and characters. If you can hang in there until the second half, the pacing picks up and the two storylines collide with a really scary and intense ending. LOVED the ending; very satisfying.

The character development of Margaret and Wolfe/Mark was well done, but everyone else was mostly just a bunch of talking heads. The pacing and storyline I’ve already mentioned. The writing was good, once again, it seemed more historical fiction than futuristic. This was an odd little story, but I liked it. I’m looking at an overall rate of 3.4, which makes me and my 3star review outliers. I want to thank NetGalley and Wildcat Press for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #WildcatPress #SafeHaven