[2,780] Joshua 2016!

Hi all,

This is something I've submitted twice before. It's intended to be the first chapter of a novel I'm working on.

It's also the first half of an excerpt that I will be sending out as my writing sample for Grad School. My anticipation is that I will take at least three more passes at this, if not to completely re-write, then at least to heavily revise.

Because of that, my concern is not really with line edits or grammar stuff yet. Not that I want to discourage those types of things, but my main concerns are with the piece overall. Two basic questions for this opening section that I'd like answered are:

1. Would you continue reading?

2. Did the setting feel too much like an info-dump?

Any and all critiques are appreciated. Thanks all!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NSAE7BYpDOm-AiRlQY_BO-aqx8IdUAOXI2NGhpzAGmg/edit?usp=sharing