Series ✦ Penny’s Take
The Anomaly
Michael Rutger · 2018
76/100
👍 Worth It
Michael Marshall Smith writing as Michael Rutger delivers exactly what the premise promises: a claustrophobic, X-Files-flavored thriller in which a film crew descends into a Grand Canyon cave and discovers something that defies easy explanation. The atmosphere is the real achievement here — lean prose, a strong voice, and a genuinely unsettling enclosed space that Kirkus and genre reviewers responded to enthusiastically. Characters are thin by design, and the resolution may feel lighter than the build-up deserves, but as a genre entertainment it delivers.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety65
substance68
craft78
originality72
accuracy76
hype72
age-fit80
human-eye76
Penny’s verdict76
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