Book Review: THE QUIET ZONE by Stephen Kurczy

THE QUIET ZONE: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF A TOWN SUSPENDED IN SILENCE by Stephen Kurczy (Day Street Books, August 2021)  Hardcover, 336 pages. ISBN # 0062945491 /9780062945495 

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Deep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the last truly quiet town in America. Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It’s home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. 

With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory’s telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity. But a community that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural and quiet can serve as a cover for something darker.

Stephen Kurczy embedded in Green Bank, making the residents of this small Appalachian village his neighbors. In The Quiet Zone, he introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. There is a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; “electrosensitives” who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff’s department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow. 

Amongst them all are the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible?  

My Four Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     Stephen Kurczy is a gifted journalist. His reporting is accurate and in-depth, but without judgment. He simply gains the confidence of his interview subjects, gets them to share their knowledge of this small Appalachian town, and lets readers get a birds-eye view of how life is similar and also different in this close community. 

     He spares readers his opinions and commentary, although after covering so much of what happened and is happening in this area I expected some type of summary/conclusion - - and there really wasn't one.