Hood by Evan Pickering grips with a high-octane tale of dystopian America, navigated by a gunslinging young man who both searches for and discovers family amidst the brutality of humanity’s depraved fall from grace.

Without hesitation, I highly recommend this gun-smoke infused, curse laden, high-octane, post-society adventure (even the cat food dinners). Pickering’s novel is a Robin Hood retelling in the world of a fallen America that blends the despair and grit of the Fallout franchise into the desperate hope of a single individual’s drive to retain the last vestiges of what make all of us human.

Mixed with smatterings of levity, Hood explores how humanity can devolve towards desperation, the despicable, and survivalist apathy where we lose sight of the integral part of ourselves which defined a shared sense of unity.

I could easily see this novel nestled alongside The Road by Cormac McCarthy thematically with yearning for morality amidst the depraved, and Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse stylistically infused with the grit and grind of a post society world.

This novel questions, eviscerates, tortures, redefines, and ultimately reclaims that fragile fabric that is humanity’s desire for unity. In this, Hood is a story ultimately about and for the discovery of family.

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