ARC Review: Postscript by Cory McCarthy
Postscript by Cory McCarthy is very different than other Cory McCarthy books I have read, but also somehow very much a Cory McCarthy book. Does that make sense to anyone other than people who have read Cory’s work…IDK but I am going to do my best to give you my thoughts and review below. Postscript is a short read full of heartbreak and emotion, at the end of the world. Check this one out on its release February 17th.
Thank you to Dutton Books for the advance reader copy, which does not influence my review below.
Postscript
by Cory McCarthyPublished by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
on February 17, 2026
Genres: Dystopian, LGBTQIA+, Young Adult
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From Stonewall Honoree Cory McCarthy, joyful, affectionate, read-in-one-sitting novel about letting go of the things we can’t change and holding on to the passion of our instincts.
On the far side of a swift and unknowable apocalypse, a few sapiens are surviving off the last scraps of humanity. No longer recognizable as Cape Cod, the dunes of their archipelago are empty apart from regrets and ruins—until West blows in like a storm.
West is a prophet of instinct, the last amateur anthropologist, ever aware of being present in life. He can’t help but move through Ani’s rage, Karen’s anxiety, and Emil’s immense longing with curiosity and care. West’s unbridled love and grief challenge the survivors to defy extinction with the most beautifully human thing imaginable: a family.
He may even impress Death.
ARC Review
First of all, I just have to say, WOW. Like I knew Cory was brilliant, I have read almost all of his books, and yeah, wow, is like the only adjective I have right now, but I will try to give you more.
As you start the book you are greeted with art block prints, that Cory made himself, and it sets the feel and tone right off the bat. Very 1990s zine, low tech, lo-fi, and it really takes me into the setting, which is about six years into the darkened post-apocalyptic Cape Cod. Post, is what our main character, West, calls this new world…post, as in after the old ways of the world ended.
It is so hard for me to explain the emotions that are ripped out of me by the words on the pages. Like Cory just has this way with his prose that somehow grows inside of you, pulls you through the depths of the oceans, and then puts some healing balm into your wounds. I don’t even know. It was like poetry, it was sad, it was hope, it was love, it was survival.
One passage really stood out about our humanity.
“The point of language is community. Shared narrative. Sapiens need a story about themselves to tell themselves.”
Postscript by Cory McCarthy (unedited Advance Readers Copy)
Well like I said at the beginning of this review, this book is full of the WOW, its like poetry yet it isn’t. Postscript is an exceptional book, it may be short, extremely emotional, and somehow breaking, yet beautiful. It is a commentary on society, guns, gender, queerness, what we value, and what makes us live. It’s about love, family, and survival. It is heartbreaking, yet healing.
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