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The People in the Box
Sophia Black is soulless. At least, that’s how people interpret the discovery that one in three people lacks consciousness. From the outside, these “Somatics” are indistinguishable from anyone else. But on the inside, as revealed by a strange new technology called an Ontiscope, there is simply no one home.
Living in a sanctuary with other Somatics, Sophia appears content to live a life of solitude, fully estranged from her ex-husband and two children. But after a senseless act of violence hits close to home, she resolves to cross the country in search of her former family, hoping to prove to herself and others that the love she holds is no illusion. Her the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where her son Sam leads a mysterious commune called the First Family.
To Sam’s step-brother Thomas, the group sounds like a lot of the spiritual hoopla gripping the country. But when Sam reveals a unique power to alter consciousness, forces from his past emerge, conspiring to control it for their own ends. Among the inventor of the Ontiscope, a megalomaniac tech CEO on a holy quest to “cure” Somaticism.
As the men, women, and children of the First Family are beset by forces that would have them scattered, divided, or worse, the lines between individuals begin to blur, posing difficult questions in a world lost to compassion, where paranoia reigns and nobody can be sure what it means to be human—or what it means to love someone.
Living in a sanctuary with other Somatics, Sophia appears content to live a life of solitude, fully estranged from her ex-husband and two children. But after a senseless act of violence hits close to home, she resolves to cross the country in search of her former family, hoping to prove to herself and others that the love she holds is no illusion. Her the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where her son Sam leads a mysterious commune called the First Family.
To Sam’s step-brother Thomas, the group sounds like a lot of the spiritual hoopla gripping the country. But when Sam reveals a unique power to alter consciousness, forces from his past emerge, conspiring to control it for their own ends. Among the inventor of the Ontiscope, a megalomaniac tech CEO on a holy quest to “cure” Somaticism.
As the men, women, and children of the First Family are beset by forces that would have them scattered, divided, or worse, the lines between individuals begin to blur, posing difficult questions in a world lost to compassion, where paranoia reigns and nobody can be sure what it means to be human—or what it means to love someone.
393 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 6, 2025
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April 13, 2026
The People in the Box by Eponynonymous opens with scientists discovering that 1/3 of all people are not conscious, are essentially simulacrum of experience, and the threads holding society together begin to unravel. America, because this is a story of that particular brand of American violence, paranoia, and insanity that echoes our times, descends into camps of religious, political, and separatist militia zealots, into cults, communes, and intentional livers, into townships and states breaking free from federal control. At its core, this is a story of broken families finding reconnection, in themselves and others, through it all. It's a novel of forgiveness and mending set as the world is tearing itself apart.
The People In The Box is told through a web of characters drawn slowly to each other with a poetic sense of divine synchronicity. And these are excellent characters by the way - believable, richly flawed - they are people I could know myself. They spiral through events, each one growing the network of interconnections until they are all pulled together into one awe inspiring finale.
To call this novel prescient is to sell it short. It is about tech companies coming up with a technology they can't control, about capitalism unhinging the heart of the world and opening us all to the void, and it is about a country on the verge of violence because they see in everyone else the other and not an echo of themselves. This isn't prescient, it's the very essence of our daily experience. And Eponynonymous has served it to us in the way the best fiction does - in a parable that makes us see the real meaning of things. I have read no more realistic picture of potential near-future America, of the cliff we're accelerating towards, than this.
And the prose! Infinitely quotable, at times drawing sentences into insane page-filling philosophical digressions, and at times full of the brief terseness of everyday life. It's a poetic book that I would need to spend more time with to fully grasp all the meaning. The allegories, references, and themes are deeply layered throughout. I connected with it deeply.
There are times when a book comes along that makes me stand up and pay attention. This was that experience. I'm obsessed. How can a book like this fail to get a publishing contract, wind up free to read on Substack, and as of writing this, have no public reviews? It's a true testament to how much magnificent art is hanging just out of sight, waiting to be found. I wanted to tear my hair out thinking that it might not get the readership it deserves. You have to read this book. I cannot recommend it any higher.
Read it.
The People In The Box is told through a web of characters drawn slowly to each other with a poetic sense of divine synchronicity. And these are excellent characters by the way - believable, richly flawed - they are people I could know myself. They spiral through events, each one growing the network of interconnections until they are all pulled together into one awe inspiring finale.
To call this novel prescient is to sell it short. It is about tech companies coming up with a technology they can't control, about capitalism unhinging the heart of the world and opening us all to the void, and it is about a country on the verge of violence because they see in everyone else the other and not an echo of themselves. This isn't prescient, it's the very essence of our daily experience. And Eponynonymous has served it to us in the way the best fiction does - in a parable that makes us see the real meaning of things. I have read no more realistic picture of potential near-future America, of the cliff we're accelerating towards, than this.
And the prose! Infinitely quotable, at times drawing sentences into insane page-filling philosophical digressions, and at times full of the brief terseness of everyday life. It's a poetic book that I would need to spend more time with to fully grasp all the meaning. The allegories, references, and themes are deeply layered throughout. I connected with it deeply.
There are times when a book comes along that makes me stand up and pay attention. This was that experience. I'm obsessed. How can a book like this fail to get a publishing contract, wind up free to read on Substack, and as of writing this, have no public reviews? It's a true testament to how much magnificent art is hanging just out of sight, waiting to be found. I wanted to tear my hair out thinking that it might not get the readership it deserves. You have to read this book. I cannot recommend it any higher.
Read it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review