Synopsis
10 people head out on a backpacking trip, but the first night 11 set up camp. Everyone remembers everyone else. Who’s the extra?
Review
Annie Neugebauer’s novella The Extra, published by Shortwave Books, has a deceptively simple premise. 10 people head out on a backpacking trip, but by the end of the first night, 11 set up camp. Everyone remembers everyone else. So, who is the extra?
It’s what Annie Neugebauer does with this idea that grabbed me by the throat, pulled me into its web of paranoia, dread, existential questions, and nerve-shredding, palm-sweating pace, and refused to let me go until I read the whole thing in one sitting.
It’s also, in my mind, a difficult story to talk about. Simply put, this is one of those novellas that’s best experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible. Like, seriously, what I have written above, I feel like that is as much I can say without dampening your potential experience with it. So, why are you still here? Go and read The Extra! Its sequel, The Other, releases June 9th 2026, so now is the perfect time to pick The Extra up. You’ll blast through it in an evening. The pure suspense of it all will keep you hooked through one, heart-racing sitting. I guarantee it!
And for those of you that have read this already, I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT IT ASAP!
In short, The Extra is a masterwork of tension from page one. It asks some very heavy questions of its core group of characters, questions that you’ll find yourself subconsciously slotting your own experiences and life choices in to. I need the sequel immediately. I am also never going camping again…
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