Overview

The Delusions takes place in Processing, a vast bureaucratic afterlife where the newly dead arrive to be assessed before moving on. Edi, a former tattoo artist who died young, works in Admin processing souls as they confront the delusions they carried through life. When unprecedented numbers of dead begin arriving and rumours spread that humanity itself may be facing extinction, the system starts to buckle under the pressure.

Writing & Voice

We found Fagan’s writing imaginative, angry, funny and deeply compassionate. The novel moves between cosmic ideas and everyday observations with remarkable confidence. One moment it is satirising bureaucracy and human vanity, the next it is asking profound questions about love, grief and what remains after death.

Content & Perspective

The story is told through Edi, whose work in Processing places her at the centre of an endless stream of human lives and regrets. As she watches souls arrive and struggle to face the truth about themselves, her own longing to see the son she left behind becomes increasingly important. Around her, the machinery of the afterlife begins to fail in ways nobody fully understands.

Themes

The Delusions explores mortality, self-deception, love, accountability and the nature of the soul. It asks what people would discover if they were forced to confront every lie they had ever told themselves. Running through the novel is a belief that human connection remains meaningful even against the backdrop of eternity.

What Worked

• A wildly original setting that feels both absurd and believable.
• A memorable narrator balancing humour, grief and defiance.
• Big philosophical ideas delivered through an emotional story.

Minor Quibbles

• Its ambition occasionally makes the narrative feel sprawling.
• Some readers may find the world-building more compelling than the plot itself.

Final Thoughts

What stayed with us most was Edi’s determination to hold onto love in a place designed for judgement. Strange, funny and unexpectedly moving, this feels like a novel only Jenni Fagan could have written.

Rating: ★★★★★ / 5