David Hughes reviewed The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Horror as metaphor
3 stars
Welcome to the funhole! The great thing about writing is that you don't need to explain anything, so there's this 3-d Rorschach test (ok, to the characters, it's a black hole, but to the reader it could mean ...anything) manifest in an apartment block's utility closet, that draws the attention of a group of mostly marginalised, mostly unlikeable characters. Some decent body horror follows, but the characters are so unsympathetic that we don't care (hiya, Nakota!) and while the ambience & atmosphere is well developed, it's still pretty yucky and you might want a shower afterwards. I'll go with the funhole representing late stage capitalism.