Go Back
Go Back is a daring postapocalyptic novel that asks open questions about people’s overreliance on technology.
In Emily Wagner’s portentous science fiction novel Go Back, people flee a fascistic, technology-hoarding regime.
Sarah, a journalist from Texas, writes an exposé on the Go Back Movement, which ingratiated itself to the United States government, helping to deny Americans the use of modern technology and “reeducating” dissenters. After publishing her piece, Sarah is kidnapped by agents of the movement and taken to a reeducation facility herself. There, she meets a rogue employee, Olivia, who helps her escape.
Olivia gives Sarah directions to the Garden, where those who resist Go Back have gathered. In hopes of finding safety and stability, Sarah flees with Chris, whom she met just before her detention. Together, they navigate a dangerous post-technology landscape and develop growing fondness for each other’s company.
Though the narration trades between Olivia’s and Sarah’s points of view, they share enough traits in common that there’s substantial overlap in their stories. Both have a strong sense of justice, flee the Go Back reeducation center with a man they develop feelings for, and struggle with leg injuries during their initial escape. Their voices are also ill-distinguished from each other, such that their storylines blend together. Further, for an extended stretch of the book, Sarah’s point of view is the sole perspective.
The worldbuilding leans into unsettling details about the urban wasteland and the unnerving interactions survivors have within it. However, exposition is too dominant early on, as with a thorough explanation of the world’s history and straightforward descriptions of its features. In conversation, people are also prone to making indiscreet statements about the state of the world; little is left to inference. But the storytelling becomes more natural as the book progresses, and the worldbuilding less intrusive.
In one visceral scene, a doctor in the reeducation center attempts to take advantage of Sarah; outside of the facility, many people hold dark secrets. There are clear divides between those who are dirty and disheveled and those who remain slick and polished, too. The hostile people Sarah encounters in inhospitable environments add to her palpable sense of isolation, from which she takes solace in her budding romance with Chris. She also allows herself occasional moments of reflection, wondering about the merits of the technology that was lost. Still, her and Chris’s goals change as they encounter new threats and challenges, and their constant state of uncertainty makes their motivations more opaque as the story nears its tense conclusion.
Survivors connect with one another to survive a postapocalyptic setting in Go Back, a pensive thriller that interrogates the foundations of technology-dependent life.
Reviewed by
Violet Glenn
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
