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reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the premise of this book and the questions that it probed around the construction of the "self" in our minds, mind vs body, and how memories can be warped or edited in the face of grief. It's a quick read and entertaining. But somehow the character development or prose didn't evoke any feelings for me the way you think a book about deep grief might. It was almost like the author (or an editor) didn't want to go too hard or make it too dark, or maybe the author hadn't actually experienced a loss and how grief manifests in such unexpected ways? Or maybe as someone who has experienced several major losses in my life I personally wanted something more intense that helped me sort through my residual grief in this story since death evokes all kinds of questions for me in these themes around selfhood and the existence of a soul etc.?
Still worth a read for sure. And, it's a strong debut and I'm interested to read future novels by this author as he develops
Still worth a read for sure. And, it's a strong debut and I'm interested to read future novels by this author as he develops
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Self harm
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a deeply, hauntingly gorgeous book. I'm gonna be thinking about this one for a long time. Thank you to Knopf Publishing for the gifted copy!
Trigger warning: This book deals heavily with suicide, grief, depression, and anxiety.
"UnWorld" tells the story of four souls who grapple with an inexplicable loss in a variety of ways. Anna, shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex. Samantha, Alex's best friend and the only eyewitness to his death. Aviva, an "upload," a digital entity composed of the memories of a human tether. And Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict who now works as an AI professor and "upload"-rights activist.
The novel is set in a time when the lines between human and digital have blurred. It is more than just a story about grief and loss: it is a commentary on what it means to be human in a digital world and digital in a human one.
I cannot believe this was a debut novel. This book reads as though it were written by a seasoned novelist. The prose was phenomenal and there were genuinely times where I had to stop and ruminate over lines I had just read. The feelings of grief and anguish and anxiety and self-doubt seemed to float off the page and settle beneath my skin as I connected with the characters. Having recently felt my own great loss, the sections from Anna and Aviva's point of view felt especially poignant.
A note: while this book did highly feature AI, it did not feel pro-AI or anti-AI, simply just set in a world where AI exist and some are intellectual beings formed from the memories of humanity, capable of forging connections, not just with their tethers, but with other human beings as well. It is obvious that in this universe that Greene has created that most AI is used for helpful tasks and menial work, but the concerns of children (and adults) becoming too attached to the digital world are well said and aptly seem to apply outside of the book as well.
Trigger warning: This book deals heavily with suicide, grief, depression, and anxiety.
"UnWorld" tells the story of four souls who grapple with an inexplicable loss in a variety of ways. Anna, shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex. Samantha, Alex's best friend and the only eyewitness to his death. Aviva, an "upload," a digital entity composed of the memories of a human tether. And Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict who now works as an AI professor and "upload"-rights activist.
The novel is set in a time when the lines between human and digital have blurred. It is more than just a story about grief and loss: it is a commentary on what it means to be human in a digital world and digital in a human one.
I cannot believe this was a debut novel. This book reads as though it were written by a seasoned novelist. The prose was phenomenal and there were genuinely times where I had to stop and ruminate over lines I had just read. The feelings of grief and anguish and anxiety and self-doubt seemed to float off the page and settle beneath my skin as I connected with the characters. Having recently felt my own great loss, the sections from Anna and Aviva's point of view felt especially poignant.
A note: while this book did highly feature AI, it did not feel pro-AI or anti-AI, simply just set in a world where AI exist and some are intellectual beings formed from the memories of humanity, capable of forging connections, not just with their tethers, but with other human beings as well. It is obvious that in this universe that Greene has created that most AI is used for helpful tasks and menial work, but the concerns of children (and adults) becoming too attached to the digital world are well said and aptly seem to apply outside of the book as well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Self harm, Suicide, Grief
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail