In George St. Georges’s Ai: Opening, life seems perfectly normal for students of Credence University—that is, above ground. Below ground, a sinister secret society controls the mysterious island’s inhabitants without their knowledge. The underbelly of Ai is rife with unimaginable horrors and scandals, and it’s up to a college senior named Walt and his friends to find out how to stop it after he receives a strange message from an unexpected visitor.
Ai: Opening is an ambitious undertaking and an exceptionally long book at nearly two hundred thousand words, and it’s the first book in a series, so St. Georges is mostly setting the stage for a complex, lengthy narrative that will surely dive even deeper into the mysteries and atrocities of the island of Ai. The author doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter, which may prove to be too much for some readers. That said, the descriptions themselves aren’t overly graphic.
However, for readers who aren’t afraid to explore the darker side of humanity, the author has certainly woven a complex web of how corruption can infiltrate every aspect of society with its citizens being none the wiser, which strikes a delicate balance between conveying the gravity of situations. This is a premise that proves far more disturbing than any obvious horror.
The protagonist, Walt, is a beacon of light among this darkness. He’s a good-hearted guy who loves his girl, is honest, and has good moral values. The story takes a turn when he works on a project with a classmate named Nacja, whose motives are questionable. Their long-held view of the Bible is challenged. For Christians, some of the subject matter may be challenging to their beliefs, but this is a work of fiction, and for the sake of the story, St. Georges is a master at crafting how the Bible and what is occurring underground are connected. This fact in the story might prove even scarier.
St. Georges’s narrative is a true psychological thriller in every sense of the word. When an author takes the mundane and juxtaposes it with the terrifying in often subtle ways, the recipe cooks up a tale rife with persistent tension on the page that is hard to put down. St. Georges demonstrates strong skill in building atmosphere by allowing dread to accumulate gradually through subtle details rather than relying on shock value, which may account for the story’s length.
What sets this work apart is its patient approach to horror, letting readers become invested in the seemingly normal world before revealing the decay beneath. The author’s attention to character development and world-building suggests that subsequent volumes will delve even deeper into the island’s mysteries, promising readers an increasingly complex and disturbing journey ahead.
St. Georges’s strength lies in his ability to make readers question everything they encounter, creating an atmosphere of perpetual uncertainty that lingers long after the final page is turned. This psychological depth, combined with the author’s careful plotting and rich character work, elevates Ai: Opening beyond typical genre fare into something more thought-provoking and unsettling. Readers who enjoy a dive into deep thinking and challenging subjects will be eagerly awaiting the next volume in the series.
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