i love when a book has two completely different titles in its synopsis. can't wait to find out how this is perfect for both readers of Klara and the Si love when a book has two completely different titles in its synopsis. can't wait to find out how this is perfect for both readers of Klara and the Sun and Chain-Gang All-Stars.
immediately my reading experience was not off to an auspicious start. people flagged to me that the author says she wrote this with AI. doing my own research, i found out she used ChatGPT to write the parts of this book that are ChatGPT dialogue. in some ways this is equally bad — using AI, in my opinion, is unbelievably tacky and corny — but it is not as bad, to me, as writing the book at large would have been.
what is not less bad is the cornball edgy cancel culture energy of every other part of this.
this is just ham-handed. (one of my favorite unnecessarily gross expressions.) it’s about a nearish future AI-powered society in which they build a big luxury apartment building for criminals with pitiable backgrounds, and everyone is either like “wow that’s so crazy, damn liberals” (essentially) or “how dare you question the art of sympathy!”
also the perspectives change between the loser architect and the young retail worker she’s shtupping and a racist journalist.
all of it is bizarrely literal, with no intention of letting the reader decide anything.
getting a little scared at how many recent releases take place in a flooded dystopian future...what do you guys know.
besides that, this did have a tougetting a little scared at how many recent releases take place in a flooded dystopian future...what do you guys know.
besides that, this did have a touching concept: a caregiver, bo, and her final patient, mia, building a relationship as their city clears of people and fills with water.
the problem is that it's 320 pages long.
while touching initially, this book drags. bo makes the same decision and reverses it four times. her slowly progressing memorial artwork and mia's slowly regressing health take up hundreds of pages. dialogue feels redundant and so do even climactic moments, because they feel so interchangeable.
i liked a lot about this, which is why it was such a bummer to be so frustrated by the end.
bottom line: this is not a long book, but it is too long.
new sayaka murata! i can't wait to finish this and just stare off into space for 6 hours.
ever since convenience store woman (a perfect book), sayaka mnew sayaka murata! i can't wait to finish this and just stare off into space for 6 hours.
ever since convenience store woman (a perfect book), sayaka murata hasn't had the same magic for me.
in spite of being very short and very fun, it was complex, making countless subtle arguments about the bizarre nature of social expectations and "normalcy."
ever since then, they have been very gross (which is fine), and very one-note (which is not ideal). this one follows a protagonist in a world where sex is no longer necessary.
the strength of character, plot, and theme i used to feel just isn't there. this has interesting things to say, but they all could have been pulled off in a 30-page short story. instead it was redundant and over the top, and i wish with all our extra time we could've given our protagonist some traits or logical decision-making or something.
alas.
bottom line: convenience store woman come back to me!
these days it's like, oh, a near future in which people are thrown in prison basedi'm ready to check in!
update: never mind. please do not check me in.
these days it's like, oh, a near future in which people are thrown in prison based on being determined close to committing a crime by a deeply flawed and capitalist algorithm created by a creep with political ambitions? who could imagine.
in spite of feeling about a week and a half away from our current reality, this is an intense, oppressive book. i felt so surveilled and so restricted, just by virtue of the depth of both on-page.
was this a perfect read? no. there is an unnecessary POV switch that lasts exactly one chapter. there are more loose ends than there are concluded plotlines. there is a lot of redundancy, and not only of the variety that adds to the experience.
but i think it's timely and terrifying.
bottom line: i can't imagine the next time i'll be in the mood for dystopian fiction, but if you are, this one'll do.
i lack the talent to be an artist, but that won't stop me from obsessively reading about them.
that made this book very relatable.
it took me ages to rei lack the talent to be an artist, but that won't stop me from obsessively reading about them.
that made this book very relatable.
it took me ages to read this because it is so immersed in the world of a truly gruesome heroine, who is consumed by envy and self-pity. but it also made it an unflinching and exciting read. the themes of legacy, identity, success, and art were a lot to chew on.
i didn't adore the author's debut, which made this all the more impressive.
bottom line: talentless but attention-starved representation is so important.
i was very kindly sent this book, and also a very cute green hat that says CREATION LAKE on it.
so the whole time i read this was a high-stakes situatii was very kindly sent this book, and also a very cute green hat that says CREATION LAKE on it.
so the whole time i read this was a high-stakes situation of really hoping i'd like the book so i could wear the hat.
my life is so hard.
fortunately, it's good news.
nothing much of anything happened in this book, which is a compliment. i plodded through it and felt immersed in a world of surveillance and clumsy dual motivations, unglamorous rural life and glamorous-on-paper jobs.
this is the kind of book that is full of things you google instead of action, which is my preference.
bottom line: my first rachel kushner but it won't be my last!
this book has everything: speculative aspects, childhood trauma, murder, estrangement, forbidden romance, a robot sibling.
it also has multiple perspecthis book has everything: speculative aspects, childhood trauma, murder, estrangement, forbidden romance, a robot sibling.
it also has multiple perspectives, which i'm a recorded hater of. there are simply very few books in which several POVs are necessary, and also varied, and also equally strong. this did not meet all 3 of those standards.
there was a lot going on, which was both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness.
overall, i thought this was crazy and interesting.
bottom line: maybe we will live in a world of silicone robots soon, but after this i pray not.
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)...more
thinking too much about ai also makes me feel insane!
that, and...nothing drives me crazy like books about people who don't have money spending excessithinking too much about ai also makes me feel insane!
that, and...nothing drives me crazy like books about people who don't have money spending excessive amounts of money. PLEASE STOP. I GREW UP UNDER CAPITALISM. DEBT IS MY BIGGEST FEAR.
this really was a terrifying look at the future — ads everywhere, personal data commodified for sales, ai creatures performing surgeries and then trying to sell you anti-aging hand cream, nature being packaged and sold like disney world, kids with phones physically sealed to their wrists.
it made for an unpleasant, highly realistic horror show. a lot of the time this is not very interesting, because it basically takes everything that already exists and just extends it to its natural end point, but it is scary and real and its short chapters will keep you breathlessly going.
bottom line: we are heading nowhere good!
(3.5 / thanks to the publisher for the copy)...more
if you told me "what's the most fun thing about a gender-bent YA retelling of frankenstein in which the monster is a teenage girl with a crush," i douif you told me "what's the most fun thing about a gender-bent YA retelling of frankenstein in which the monster is a teenage girl with a crush," i doubt i would have been like, "the world." but it's true! the best part of this book is amaris, an island where uphill is boring and downhill is fun, and everything is fried food and blackberries and night markets. generally i was unprepared for how hungry this book would make me.
i was also unprepared for how...boring it would be? i don't know how this book managed to have vibrant world-building and genuinely humorous moments and still feel dry, but this never felt easy to pick up. there wasn't much of a plot to speak of, and what did exist moved in fits and starts, with deus ex machina and instalove and character non-development making up for the fact that this book is 99% description.
so. do with that what you will.
bottom line: pros and cons!
----------------------- tbr review
you had me at "YA retelling of frankenstein in which the monster finds love"
our generation's tragic backstory is these books. this level of devastation should be kept away from 14 year olds.
even withi'm ready to be hurt again.
our generation's tragic backstory is these books. this level of devastation should be kept away from 14 year olds.
even with this one, i know exactly where it's going! i know haymitch is alive with 25 years of alcoholism-fueled depression and loss under his belt in the future. and yet i'm sitting there like :) surely happy stuff will happen too :)
i hated the last book — who ever wanted more snow? — and this one did bring all the annoying-ass songs (suzanne collins for all your talents lyrics are not one. and that includes the radio edit of the hanging tree as performed by jennifer lawrence, why am i in the club being asked about a man who murdered three) and some of the annoying ass character energy.
but i am a haymitch girl till i die.
and this, i'm pleased to share, had traces of that catching fire magic.
bottom line: however many hunger games books are released, i'll be reading them....more
and true to my personal female experience, something just felt off here — i don't know if this was strangely translated, or just lacjust girly things!
and true to my personal female experience, something just felt off here — i don't know if this was strangely translated, or just lacking in plot and answers, but this felt very concerned with building a slow-moving and confusing dystopian world and not much else.
the perspective, which switched between past and present and future, sometimes within one sentence; and the language, which alternated between very simple and very purple; and the structure, featuring chapters of somewhat unpredictable timeline mixed in with lines of what might've been poetry, all contributed to a very slow, unfortunately annoying, generally confusing reading experience.
if it had been done with more style, i probably would've liked it. as is...
"this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction"
so...a utopia?
reading this in our current political clim"this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction"
so...a utopia?
reading this in our current political climate was unbelievably peaceful. even temporary immersion in a world where humans barely cling to survival and can hardly form communities, let alone societies destined to devolve into fascist government, was like a cool shower.
this book is a challenge. it almost veers into a collection of interconnected short stories: chapters vary wildly in plot, style, perspective. your brain strains a bit to hold and place each new piece of information in the world you're growing an understanding of, which reminded me of the book of love, a book only i liked.
i think in some moments it felt like a bit more trouble than it was worth (it didn't always coalesce well), but i liked it.
even better since it stuck the landing.
bottom line: i love you, confusing vaguely fantastical very literary books.
sometimes you encounter an author's mind that's so one of a kind you're like yeah. i'll read whatever you writesometimes you encounter an author's mind that's so one of a kind you're like yeah. i'll read whatever you write...more
they already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas andthey already found the cure for loneliness. it's called "Reading + An Active Imagination"
...anyway.
like many things, this had a lot of great ideas and fell flat on the execution. it never really works for me when the first 200+ pages of a book are exposition and then the climax hits with 40 pages to go, and this was left feeling sloppy and rushed. this book felt like it had the concept it wanted, and the ending it knew it wanted to get to, and then it just kind of rambled in between.
reading the epilogue and finding our protagonist transformed, (view spoiler)[armed with friendships with barely mentioned characters, a terminated relationship that had showed no signs of being stopped, and a totally different career path (hide spoiler)] with none of the development it would have taken to get there, felt frustrating. also i just don't know why this book felt like it needed a love triangle, or why the roommate had to be constantly eating and made fun of for that, or (and maybe it's just me) why this had to do that sci-fi thing where you just capitalize common phrases to indicate they have taken on some sort of dystopian brand.
oh well.
bottom line: this was really promising, and i really enjoyed moments of it, but its last page and its middle pages threw me off.
i've read books where the synopsis is better than the actual book, but this is the first time i've wished the whole book was the prologue.speculative!
i've read books where the synopsis is better than the actual book, but this is the first time i've wished the whole book was the prologue.
this great hemisphere begins in modern-day new york city, as a Black unhoused woman who is continually overlooked by society gives birth to a baby who is literally invisible. this brief introduction to our story is striking and raw, and i found myself gobbling up the pages.
then, moments after the birth, we're dropped 500 years in the future and this becomes a strange, almost young-adult-dystopian feeling sci-fi speculation of what our world could be. instead of the emotional and pared down writing we had, we have to spend passages of dialogue with quirky inventors who are explaining why there aren't hovercrafts.
it's a bummer.
bottom line: another point in favor of prologue haters.
groundbreaking feminist literary classics is like my family.
i expected more of an Anarchist Feminist vibe from this one, and instead what i got was kigroundbreaking feminist literary classics is like my family.
i expected more of an Anarchist Feminist vibe from this one, and instead what i got was kind of a grown-up version of the kind of island of the blue dolphins / boxcar children type kiddie survivalist classics i used to buy three for a dollar from my library booksale with, like, quarters i'd scrounged up from couch cushions.
who knows where kids acquire money, is what i'm saying.
that was a fun ride in and of itself, minus the fact that it had the kind of devastating ending that should make it infamous everywhere around the world. i'm not even of the opinion that animals in books are all that great, or that their deaths are the most upsetting of any character type.
until now, i guess.
sorry for the spoiler? but i'm actually sparing you unexpected suffering. so never mind. you're welcome. welcome to my version of does the dog die dot com.
anyway. in addition to all that, this is a pretty striking exploration of the role of humans in the world, and it made me wish all of us were dead except for maybe one lady who can help the cows and pet cats.
that's my new political perspective. also i'm calling not it.
