Take a photo of a barcode or cover
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
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unworld is an extraordinarily timely novel, one that examines the edges where AI and what-makes-us-human may come uncomfortably close in the (near) future. It’s also a poignant look at grief and the lengths we will go to in order to process it, and it asks what makes a memory true and what makes it ours. All really interesting, deeply resonant themes. Plus, it’s a fast-paced, quick read.
And so I liked it a lot — up until the end, which fell short for me (and, it seems based on other readers’ reviews, for a lot of people). I had expected something that made me — and the characters — feel a little more changed; the central mystery has a lot of energy that fizzles out instead of exploding.
Ultimately, it’s like this book aaaaaalmost became what it was trying to be. A bit of a bummer, tbh.
And so I liked it a lot — up until the end, which fell short for me (and, it seems based on other readers’ reviews, for a lot of people). I had expected something that made me — and the characters — feel a little more changed; the central mystery has a lot of energy that fizzles out instead of exploding.
Ultimately, it’s like this book aaaaaalmost became what it was trying to be. A bit of a bummer, tbh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Suicide, Grief
Moderate: Addiction
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Super weird, well written insight into the relationships between humans and their minds and humans with each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Suicide
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
No book I’ve ever read has felt more like a Black Mirror episode, and I mean that as a compliment. This was a beautiful, fascinating, challenging, and heartbreaking book that, yes, was partly about AI but was more about the ways we fail to connect with those around us, the ways our insecurities and obsessions can get in the way of those connections, and the way grief can shake us out of what once felt like a stable world. I loved the approach taken of the interconnected stories told by the women/girls whose lives were affected by this one teenage boy, and I know I will be thinking of the questions raised here about digital personhood for a long time to come.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
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
informative
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
UnWorld is told through the perspective of four women - Anna, who recently lost her son; Sam, Anna’s son’s best friend; Cathy, a professor of AI in the emerging field of Upload personhood; and Aviva, Anna’s Upload. This story speculates about a future use of AI by which humans are able to have a separate “brain” by uploading their memories, ideas, task lists, etc to an embedded microchip called an Upload. Because this AI technology can essentially act like a person, there is a debate about whether these Uploads are entitled to personhood apart from the human they are embedded in. Also central to this storyline is an implication that Anna’s Upload, Aviva, could have played a part in the death of Anna’s son without Anna knowing it.
I found this book really engaging. It is very heavy with grief from all angles, but it brought up some very real questions for me around AI and the use of machines to replace human activity, like nurses in a palliative care ward, or cashiers in a drug store.
I recently read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and I think this novel brought up similar themes and questions - how much do we let the machines into our lives? Once they’re trained to think like humans, are they replacements for humans? While these works are only speculative, it’s an interesting thought experiment to play out how far we’ll let AI go.
Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf Books, and Jayson Greene for my review copy!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In the world of UnWorld, humans have the ability to accessorize their brains with a device that stores their memories. Smooths them out. Helps them organize their thoughts. Not quite an implant, as they are externally worn, but somehow these devices grasp the human's brain and intersect with it.
Anna has a son, Alex, and a husband, Rick. Alex is 15 and a bundle of anxiety. Rick has the boundless enthusiasm and energy of a golden retriever. Both Alex and Rick feel too much, while Anna is more stoic. Anna was gifted an 'upload' by her husband for her 40th birthday. For eight years she's synced nightly with this non-human part of her brain. But when things go horribly, terribly wrong in her life, she can no longer handle having this extra voice inside her head. It has simply become too much.
This was not an easy book to read. Some of the themes are very dark and tragic. The characters are all struggling with their own issues. But that being said, it's also an amazing dive into the human psyche. Each chapter covers a point of view of one of the main characters, starting and ending with Anna. While Anna really is central to the entire story, the true center is the 'upload.' This fictional bit of hardware that almost seems to have a soul is the main character and the reason for the story to exist.
Quite creative in the sci-fi sense, this book really isn't science fiction. While the town Anna and the others inhabit is mostly run by AI, the people are just people like you and me. With the same quirks and habits. It's really very well done in the sense that you don't feel like you're going to an alternate universe.
As I said, not the easiest book to read. But worth every minute spent reading. The character development and storyline are interesting. Well thought out and well constructed. I did enjoy it.
Trigger warning: suicide and addiction
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Addiction
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I love that a lot was left to the reader's imagination. The point comes across easier since you're not getting distracted trying to learn the details of this near-future world and how everything works in it. It's just there in everyday life, so you figure out how it works as you read on.
It reminded me so much of Black Mirror in the setting, technology, and the swift shocking moments that pop up quickly and move on just as your eyes had time to widen a bit! The main similarity between the show and UnWorld is that the story is focused on emotional complexities and just uses tech as a lens into human behavior and relationships.
The dialogue is the only thing I found a little predictable, or maybe not convincing enough? The overall writing is so smooth, and I enjoyed reading the character's inner thoughts!
Thank you to Knopf for the Advance Reader's Edition
It reminded me so much of Black Mirror in the setting, technology, and the swift shocking moments that pop up quickly and move on just as your eyes had time to widen a bit! The main similarity between the show and UnWorld is that the story is focused on emotional complexities and just uses tech as a lens into human behavior and relationships.
The dialogue is the only thing I found a little predictable, or maybe not convincing enough? The overall writing is so smooth, and I enjoyed reading the character's inner thoughts!
Thank you to Knopf for the Advance Reader's Edition
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Suicide
Minor: Addiction, Cursing
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