During the COVID pandemic, five strangers sharing a subway car in the London Underground experience lethargy and initially blame it on the heat. However, they soon discover something sinister happened which they can’t quite remember and which the cameras didn’t record.

The diverse cast of viewpoint characters includes Senyo (an off-duty subway conductor of African heritage), Elise (a diabetic coder starting a new job), Will (who works in finance), Aaron (who’s homeless), and Tash (a trans hotel receptionist with a horrible roommate).

The characters feel like real people and their jobs feel like real jobs as well, which can sometimes be tricky for writers to pull off. I sympathize with Elise’s passing thought that she should start smoking to get more breaks. I once had a job in which I was one of the few employees who didn’t smoke and had the same thought.

They soon discover there’s a monster in the Underground killing people and erasing itself from everyone’s memories. It also causes paralysis in its victims. This makes it terrifying and difficult to fight. We only catch glimpses of the monster until the half-way point when it’s revealed in full, which feels like the right pacing for a monster story.

This novel does a good job of building tension with a unique monster. The characters each have their own distinct personality. A solid, well-written book.