With climate change and the Holocene extinction looming in the background, as characters variously seek to halt it or fall victim to it, the reviewer in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described this narrative as "a good old-fashioned monster story." It begins with an inciting incident and follows characters who interact with privileged groups unwilling to change their habits to address the monster. This type of metaphorical monster—climate change, in this case—was compared with those of " Babadook (grief), Rosemary's Baby (motherhood), Get Out (racism), and Frankenstein (humanity)."