Solipsism

by Derek Wachter

Jacob Whitlock is a young drifter who carries his troubling childhood with him everywhere he goes. Having run away from home before he turned 18, he was a young man who was trying to find his place in life with no guidance or support along the way. Jacob soon came to find out that there is a hotel in the desert town of Tonopah, Nevada that is offering people a free room, meals, and pay to anyone who would come to work for them. The young drifter then embarks on a journey to be one of the first to make it to the hotel to get a job. Along the way he meets up with a trucker at a roadside diner who drives him to an old gas station along the desert highway. However, when he got out of the truck to use the bathroom, his ride, the trucker, the gas station, and all evidence of civilization all vanish without a trace. Jacob decides to continue to try to make it to Tonopah by walking there, but along the way Jacob encounters multiple hallucinations of his abusive childhood while in the desert, as well as a creature from Native American legend that has given reason for man to stay far away from this wilderness for centuries.

130 pages, Hardcover

Published January 22, 2025

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t want this to sound like an overly negative review, however, I have more criticisms than compliments here. The most glaring issue was the amount of formatting and grammatical issues throughout. It was all extremely distracting and continually took my focus off the story. The beginning was a very rough start, specifically with the writing quality, but that luckily found its flow after the first few chapters. Now the writing wasn’t the biggest issue, but the content had a lot of repetitiveness. It was also a very slow burn type of story, which can be beneficial for this type of plot. But watching the lead, Jacob, have repeat conversations with the same people, unsure if he was hallucinating or being taunted by a monster, over and over again, made even the 115-page length seem like a exhausting journey. The flashbacks also felt like they were a little forced at times, and the whole thing just didn’t come together for me at all. But I could tell that the effort was there, and neither the plot or Jacob were bad at all. It just needed a lot more fine-tuning to have the desired effect on the reader. Whether it was expanding itself to flesh out such a wide-scale concept more clearly, or reducing itself a bit to hone in on some of the key ideas, there was a lot that could be improved on.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt this story had good potential with the right editorial help. The author provided a good storyline, and the character is well developed. There were times the story felt disorganized and probably with the right help could have pulled it together. I am not a big fan of the profanity used and felt it could have been toned down or eliminated. It did nothing for the scenes when it was used. The ending felt confusing to this reader as I can't tell if the author intended for this story to be about and individual with schizophrenia or if is truly about and abused child syndrome. I felt the author left it for us to come to the conclusion of it. I wish the author had started the story with a little more information on his family, it could have helped instead of the characters viewpoint only.

[Katie Parkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heavy on Symbolism, Light on Substance

This book walks a hazy line between a desert fever dream and philosophical reflection, but unfortunately never quite lands on solid ground. While the descriptions were enough to follow the journey, the story itself felt repetitive and meandering.

The formatting and grammatical issues didn’t help—at times they pulled me out of what little momentum the story had. By the end, I was left wondering what the point was, and whether Jacob would just wake up and shrug off the whole experience. The ending, especially, felt disappointing and made the journey feel more futile than thought-provoking.

There were hints of something interesting here, but ultimately, it didn’t come together for me.

[Ryan Butterfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good read

This author knows how to write interesting and engaging stories. I will definitely be following for future movies. Thanks for writing for us.

[Sarah Tercel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly talented writer. I could not put the book down. Can't wait to read more of his work.