I came into this book completely blind, but upon reviewing I'm not surprised this is his first book. the broadstrokes of this book seem very appealing to me, interesting 5 different characters representing the typologies of loneliness all while covering a variety of societal issues.

But it all seems half baked. Each of the characters don't seem to get the full attention their story deserves, and as a result, none of them feel fully fleshed out to me. characters are all unlikable, and the plot skimps out on the deeper exploration of concepts that I feel would be most interesting to me. Instead, right before the payoff, the chapter ends and moves to the next character's story.

I think I would have liked this book more if it was either trimmed down to focus on just 3 characters or 600 pages long.

Overall, rate it a 3.5 out of 5, still a pretty solid read.