Once When We Were Human by David Swan

3/5 stars

The story started with the main character drinking. He heard a drone coming for his neighbors, so he hurried into his house. He heard his neighbors being shot by the drone. The reason they were killed was because they were growing their own food. He then started thinking about how everyone slowly changed into either a humanoid dog or wolf. Those who turned into dogs were those who were complacent about the rules being made to control them. The wolves were the people who were rich and powerful.

The main character’s wife went to a protest and was taken by a drone. He tried to talk to his wife at the police station, but she had been sent to an education camp. The main character got together with several people he knew to put on an offensive display so he could go to the education camp like his wife.

Once he got to the camp, he was so enamored by what he saw (tech and food) that he forgot about his wife for a bit. When he remembered her finally, he felt guilty.

While he was there at the camp, the main character realized that the older people in the camp were being brainwashed into ending their lives to make room for the upcoming generation.

At the end of the book, the main character, his wife, his artist acquaintance, and his two neighbors were crucified. They turned back into humans, and the book ended.

This was an interesting story. I liked that it pointed out that society needs creativity in order to be free. I felt like it took elements from The Giver as well as 1984. It also referenced the WW2 death camps in Nazi Germany, which I thought was interesting. I felt like the author wanted to warn the readers about complacency. After all, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

I didn’t really like the main character. He was so apathetic throughout the entire book until the end that it was just annoying. I have a suspicion that that was the author’s intention. He wanted to show how apathy can affect us and society.

The book had a lot of errors. Commas in the wrong spots, misspelled words, and incomplete sentences on every page. It was annoying because I had to go back and reread the sentences to make sure I was understanding what the author was saying.

This book was better than I expected it to be.