A few of Flyn’s destinations are firmly established on the dubious ruin-tourism trail...But she also visits unfamiliar places.

... brave, thorough.

While her travels to these locations form the central focus of each chapter, Flyn weaves so much more into the fabric of this book. Social histories, comparisons to similar cases across the globe and references to cultural touchstones help illuminate the areas’ current state further. But it’s Flyn’s lyrical, incredibly evocative writing style that truly brings the book to life; her time on Swona in the Orkney Isles is memorable for bookending its historical perspective with somewhat gothic undertones describing her stay.

... studded with arresting facts.

Flyn is an energetic guide.

Just when you thought there was nowhere left to explore, along comes an author with a new category of terrain — not scenes where man has never trod, but places where he has been and gone.

Flyn writes with the soul of a poet and the eye of a painter, evoking the beauty and the horror to be found in decimated places that, through abandonment, invited the most tenacious and patient forms of life to survive and revive..

... strangely beautiful.

... riveting.

... fascinating.