tovac 's review for:

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe

4.0

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I became totally immersed in the majority of these interrelated short stories and the universe within which they take place. I have not listened to the album or watched the video short tied to this book and am actually surprised at the amount of reviews claiming they couldn't get into the book because there wasn't enough world building (apparently that happens in the video). To me, the context of New Dawn, how it operates, why it exists, were entirely familiar. It is a near-future take on what could happen to our society as it presently exists. I wonder if the queer themes threw people off? Idk. This unapologetically queer, afro-futurist sci-fi anthology really did it for me. It's getting a 4/5 because I didn't love the second Timebox story (although the first Timebox one was my fave overall).