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dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Intriguing premise: AI memory chips, VR worlds, and the civil rights of sentient uploads, all set against one woman’s messy grief and addiction. The world-building is great and the story starts strong by immersing you immediately, but the emotional depth never quite reaches the potential of its ideas
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
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
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
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, 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