Title: Drone

Author: Dan Howarth

Release date: April 24th, 2026

Throughout history, people have shared stories of hearing an almost imperceptible ‘hum’ or drone. A quick Google search will bring up numerous examples, as well searching for it on Youtube or Tik Tok. I remember in late 2025 following a few Tik Tok accounts based out of Whitehorse in the Yukon who were asking about people hearing a noise and sharing folks recollection of the noise. It’s an interesting phenomenon, one that seems to have no specific reason behind it happening, while also seemingly ‘easily’ explained by others.

Over the last number of years, I’ve read a few of Dan Howarth’s releases – and seriously if you’ve not read his novel ‘Last Night of Freedom’ yet, you absolutely need to get on that, freaking phenomenal – and really enjoyed them. When he announced this one, I was at first drawn in by the gorgeous cover art, but then reading the description, I was hooked. I was hoping to get this read as soon as possible after it was released, though that wasn’t the case. When I did jump into it, I was smiling from ear to ear. Howarth has a cadence to his writing that is both comforting but also anxiety-driven. It’s as though each word has an energy to them and as you flip the page, that energy is minutely increased, only becoming apparent to the reader after it’s too late to turn back.

What I liked: The story takes place on a remote island where the inhabitants live a fairly simple life. Saying that, there’s nothing simple about it. They farm. Farming is perhaps one of the most difficult and stressful professions/lives anybody could ever choose and in this case, our main character Gallagher didn’t choose. He was born into the life, his father a farmer. And after his father passed away, Gallagher inherited the farm and all its shortcomings. Money is tight, losing a single animal can be a death blow and as the outside world moves further away from buying from those on the island, Gallagher wonders what awaits his own future.

And then one day he wakes with a noise in his head he can’t shake. He rubs his ears, tries covering them and even sees the local doctor whom he detests, but there’s nothing that seems to lower the never ending sound. It keeps him awake, makes him angry and begins to gnaw at his very psyche.

Then, when he finds his sheep in a mass of violence and throwing themselves against barbwire in an apparent attempt to take their own lives, he knows this is more than just a noise in his head.

Howarth does a wonderful job of making this novella feel gritty and unrelenting. The pacing of it is akin to how Gallagher must’ve felt as the days go by and the drone in his head doesn’t stop. At first, the chapters feel lush and pleasant. And then they begin to morph, the words becoming more caustic, more abrasive and the sections within the chapters harsher and dirtier. We see Gallagher become angrier, we see him interact with a neighbour whom he’s not spoken to in almost a decade and we see a follow up visit to the doctor, and all three aspects point him towards a single way, a single action to make the noise diminish and potentially even go away.

The novella also heavily deals with the realities we all face every day with prices going up, pay going down and how those not in the top 1% of the wealth have to find different ways to make ends meet, all while knowing we’re just one bad bounce away from total ruin. Gallagher runs these thoughts through his mind over and over, both to contemplate just how bad things have become, but also in an attempt to silence the sound. The drone won’t be silenced by thought.

The ending is a brutal look at where things go when left unchecked and Howarth has a cinematic penchant for delivering harsh moments through the lens of masterful prose.

What I didn’t like: There were two aspects that stuck out to me, but both are pretty much reader preference. The first was that not a lot of time is put into the likely cause of the drone or where it came from. Sure, Gallagher talks to others to see if they hear it, but there’s really no rumour’s or so-and-so said this etc. It’s just quietly accepted that the sound exists and Gallagher devotes his time to figuring out how to end it. Even when he goes to the doctor, she says she’ll contact colleagues and then we learn they don’t have any ideas.

The second thing was the POV shift at the end. I can’t go into it for spoiler territory, but I found it very jarring when it happened. It’ll either work for you or not.

Why you should buy this: Howarth manages to give us a novels worth of emotions in a novella page count and does it with blistering glee. ‘Drone’ teases the reader with the potential of a larger unknown at work, but focuses on a singular man. It’s essentially a master work in macro ideas with micro execution. It’s relatable on a number of levels; between the apocalyptic shifts that occur within the small town – first we see lines to shops lower and then we see first responder stations board up and nobody answers the phones, and then we see the shift in the people themselves. Howarth blends the familiar with the foreign, and it’s a unique look into what would happen to ourselves and to our neighbours should something like this ever occur.

A novella that is the true definition of a page-turner, ‘Drone’ is both eerily unsettling and absolutely captivating.