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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
when will goodreads inteoduce half-star ratings? this is a solid 3.5. clever, but eventually caught up in its own cleverness.
I really don't know how to rate this book. I did not now what to expect getting into it. I liked the main character and how she fought to not go insane. I also liked how she saw society and the Perfection aspect was just creepy. I think I'll give it 3.5 stars!
Not for the casual reader, this outstanding, clever book rewards perseverance and concentration as it scans 21st century values and what many people find motivational in modern life. Hope is a marvellous creation: super-human yet vulnerable, while North's research and her powers of observation are breath-taking. This is one to ponder and revisit. .
I found this book at the library where I work completely by accident. I was looking for The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (another book by the same author), and discovered this one, and saw that the premise was somewhat similar to another book I'd read before and liked the premise of, but not the execution, or the main themes.
It took me a little while to get into 'Hope' (not the fault of the book, but of life in general, which has been very busy), but once I really started reading it, I couldn't put it down! This is an excellent book, and a wonderful story. One of the best I've read all year.
It took me a little while to get into 'Hope' (not the fault of the book, but of life in general, which has been very busy), but once I really started reading it, I couldn't put it down! This is an excellent book, and a wonderful story. One of the best I've read all year.
Loved the concept and the beginning of the execution. Half way through, repeated conversations and florid prose grew tedious. Finally there was nothing but navel-gazing until the ending petered out.
Quite obvious this was written by the same author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. The writing style is identical. How much you like this book will depend on how much you liked The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
easy to read, fast paced, cool conceit, fun airport book. Main character is endearing, and I had a lot of fun reading this for about 200 pages. Definitely reads like a "NY TIMES BESTSELLER"
Then I got tired of reading paragraphs like this:
"fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckGETUPfuckfuckfucGETUPNOW-fuckfuckfucketyfuckfucketyfuckfuck.
The desert.
The train.
And what is worthy, and what is justice, and what are words, at the end of the day?"
I liked:
- reading about bougie rich people getting robbed and humiliated
- rejection of social media and 21st century global capitalism
- good heists
- woke-ish commentary on institutionalized racism/sexism
- writing is generally tight. Main characters are memorable. Tension building is usually good
I didn't like:
- about 200 pages too long. This would have been a really cool novella or short story
- incredibly repetitive characterization of Hope's condition. Yes, I get that no one remembers her. Yes, I get that's it's horrifying. I wish the book showed me how horrifying things were rather than just tell me over and over.
- main plot kind of stalls out, and the middle 100 pages becomes a travel documentary
- comic-book-esque tribal conflict between the wealthy elite (the "Perfect") and the rest of us. North really wants the reader to feel like they're part of a club of like minded poor people.
Then I got tired of reading paragraphs like this:
"fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckGETUPfuckfuckfucGETUPNOW-fuckfuckfucketyfuckfucketyfuckfuck.
The desert.
The train.
And what is worthy, and what is justice, and what are words, at the end of the day?"
I liked:
- reading about bougie rich people getting robbed and humiliated
- rejection of social media and 21st century global capitalism
- good heists
- woke-ish commentary on institutionalized racism/sexism
- writing is generally tight. Main characters are memorable. Tension building is usually good
I didn't like:
- about 200 pages too long. This would have been a really cool novella or short story
- incredibly repetitive characterization of Hope's condition. Yes, I get that no one remembers her. Yes, I get that's it's horrifying. I wish the book showed me how horrifying things were rather than just tell me over and over.
- main plot kind of stalls out, and the middle 100 pages becomes a travel documentary
- comic-book-esque tribal conflict between the wealthy elite (the "Perfect") and the rest of us. North really wants the reader to feel like they're part of a club of like minded poor people.
In 1952 Ralph Ellison brought us the Invisible Man. In 2016 Claire North bring us the forgotten woman in her novel The Sudden Appearance of Hope. Both novels have different agendas. Ellison probed how “invisible” Blacks were in society, in some senses anyway. Hope has a different problem, one which North uses to examine aspects of modern life. People don’t remember Hope, which permits her to be a thief. When an acquaintance commits suicide despite being on a program called Perfection, Hope sets out to combat it, and the notion that this technology will guide individuals to achieve uniform perfection. The long and short is that she teams with another person to do this, with disasterous results. It’s a quirky, fascinating story that does raise questions about individuality in an age of technological intrusion. It's a sci-fi novel set in the present, just about....
3,75/4 Es el hijo bastardo, perdón, love child, que en inglés suena mucho mejor, de otras dos obras de la autora: [b:Touch|22314178|Touch|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415977617l/22314178._SY75_.jpg|41706739] (conciencia fluida que salta de cuerpo en cuerpo) y [b:Sweet Harmony|54359267|Sweet Harmony|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597966289l/54359267._SY75_.jpg|84827280] (nanobots para perfeccionarte, cuerpo y mente, hasta la náusea a cambio de microtransacciones in-app).
En este, Hope es una ladrona muy poco memorable. La ves, la conoces, hablas con ella, te giras y, en unos segundos, se te borra todo recuerdo de su existencia y de tu interacción con ella. Te giras de nuevo. Hola, ¿eres nueva por aquí?
Y un día, Hope se encuentra con alguien que sufre en silencio por una app de mejora personal. Corre más, come menos, hazte un retoquito en la nariz, busca la pareja perfecta, el trabajo perfecto, la vida perfecta. Eliminaremos todo lo indeseable de ti y esculpiremos tu mejor versión. Hope pasa de ser una fría ladrona a ser una fantasma cabreada [¿sabías que, antiguamente, en español “fantasma” era un sustantivo femenino?] con esta perfección destilada y todas las frustraciones asociadas.
Como novela no corta, tiene los mismos problemas taladrantes que tenía [b:Touch|22314178|Touch|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415977617l/22314178._SY75_.jpg|41706739], de Claire North, e [b:Innombrable|59632928|Innombrable|Caryanna Reuven|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637007355l/59632928._SX50_.jpg|93905102], de Caryanna Reuven. Vive tanto en el presente que tiene que presentarse una y otra y otra vez: a veces a sí misme, a veces a otras personas. Cansa MUCHO.
En este caso, más que en la fluidez del (todo lo que tenga que ver con) género y de la personalidad, el debate se lleva a la moralidad. Si nadie te recuerda, lo que hagas no tiene consecuencias… para ti. Si vives por completo fuera de la sociedad, no tienes más imagen de ti misma, y más reglas, que las que tú misma crees para ti. “You choose your own perfect. You choose to be who you are, and the world cannot shape you, unless you permit it”. No es fácil vivir así, y en parte es por esto que Hope está un poco pallá.
Otro libro de Claire North palasaca y me quedan otros dos que leer para la HispaCon 2022 de Ferrol, donde estará invitada la autora. ¡Qué ganas!
En este, Hope es una ladrona muy poco memorable. La ves, la conoces, hablas con ella, te giras y, en unos segundos, se te borra todo recuerdo de su existencia y de tu interacción con ella. Te giras de nuevo. Hola, ¿eres nueva por aquí?
Y un día, Hope se encuentra con alguien que sufre en silencio por una app de mejora personal. Corre más, come menos, hazte un retoquito en la nariz, busca la pareja perfecta, el trabajo perfecto, la vida perfecta. Eliminaremos todo lo indeseable de ti y esculpiremos tu mejor versión. Hope pasa de ser una fría ladrona a ser una fantasma cabreada [¿sabías que, antiguamente, en español “fantasma” era un sustantivo femenino?] con esta perfección destilada y todas las frustraciones asociadas.
Como novela no corta, tiene los mismos problemas taladrantes que tenía [b:Touch|22314178|Touch|Claire North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415977617l/22314178._SY75_.jpg|41706739], de Claire North, e [b:Innombrable|59632928|Innombrable|Caryanna Reuven|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1637007355l/59632928._SX50_.jpg|93905102], de Caryanna Reuven. Vive tanto en el presente que tiene que presentarse una y otra y otra vez: a veces a sí misme, a veces a otras personas. Cansa MUCHO.
En este caso, más que en la fluidez del (todo lo que tenga que ver con) género y de la personalidad, el debate se lleva a la moralidad. Si nadie te recuerda, lo que hagas no tiene consecuencias… para ti. Si vives por completo fuera de la sociedad, no tienes más imagen de ti misma, y más reglas, que las que tú misma crees para ti. “You choose your own perfect. You choose to be who you are, and the world cannot shape you, unless you permit it”. No es fácil vivir así, y en parte es por esto que Hope está un poco pallá.
Otro libro de Claire North palasaca y me quedan otros dos que leer para la HispaCon 2022 de Ferrol, donde estará invitada la autora. ¡Qué ganas!