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This started as a four star for me! It's very well-written and fast-paced. I liked the idea a lot and it was a good choice for the midst of a pandemic (and at a time when I somehow went over my data plan so my phone didn't work while I was reading this book outside). And I found most of the characters annoying yet not totally horrible. And I thought the fake community that's always on TV was believable. This book is kind of The Truman Show meets The Hills meets Y2K.
I got a kick out of the future mayor of New York City being Chelsea Clinton's daughter, but was confused that the president of the U.S. in 2016ish was clearly Trump yet not identified as him. He spoke in Trump cadences and the words seemed to be his. Here are a few quotes from "the president" who is not named Trump:
- "...it used to be a great town, Atlantic City, it was a fantastic town when i was there..."
- "We are deporting thousands of illegals. We're getting them out of America, folks. And now we're going to build that wall--I always said we'd have a beautiful wall, didn't I?"
- "The internet, our tremendous new internet--it scares them. They're losers."
Also he blames Mexico when Russia was culpable. But the book never mentions the 2016 election or names Trump, which I get stylistically but was confusing. But I got a kick out of this anyway.
My biggest quibbles came near the end of the book, so they're all terrible spoilers. So please don't read any further if you haven't yet read the book, because I like how the book evolves and I wouldn't want to mess that up for you.
- The biggest issue that I have is that everyone seems to completely freak out -- to the degree that there are hundreds of suicides -- when their secrets are revealed. Not everyone has such embarrassing secrets! Sure, we don't want our secrets exposed to the world, but if everyone's trash is being laid out to bear, I'm sure they'd be less devastating when everyone's in the same boat. And I bet hundreds of white people's would be that they wore blackface at a party...But shared experiences lesson tragedies to some degree.
- How does a bot determine what is most embarrassing? Embarrassment is such a complicated human emotion. I struggled with believing that a bot could measure this. But then again, it is fiction and I need to learn how to better suspend disbelief. Also, so many of our worst secrets were from a pre-internet age in 2016, so a bot would have to work pretty hard to find that terrible music video I made in 1992 that's on VHS.
- I'm also confused how the U.S. government would take over the internet but the book avoids discussion of any other countries. Wouldn't more internet free countries be places to escape to? How would the U.S. control the entire internet? The book mentions that Russia is to blame, but what was the goal? Were they just 2016 election meddlers that got far more sophisticated? Would have liked some comparisons to places like China which already severely restrict internet usage. I think if a character mentioned something like this I would have found it more believable.
- What changes Ashton's personality? He is this fame-hungry, Justin-Bieber-like character who becomes this soulful human later in life. I know that's possible, but it would be nice if his character was given the ability to evolve. Yes, we see some streaks of kindness in the Before Time, but it's hard to believe he made such a stark adjustment.
I got a kick out of the future mayor of New York City being Chelsea Clinton's daughter, but was confused that the president of the U.S. in 2016ish was clearly Trump yet not identified as him. He spoke in Trump cadences and the words seemed to be his. Here are a few quotes from "the president" who is not named Trump:
- "...it used to be a great town, Atlantic City, it was a fantastic town when i was there..."
- "We are deporting thousands of illegals. We're getting them out of America, folks. And now we're going to build that wall--I always said we'd have a beautiful wall, didn't I?"
- "The internet, our tremendous new internet--it scares them. They're losers."
Also he blames Mexico when Russia was culpable. But the book never mentions the 2016 election or names Trump, which I get stylistically but was confusing. But I got a kick out of this anyway.
My biggest quibbles came near the end of the book, so they're all terrible spoilers. So please don't read any further if you haven't yet read the book, because I like how the book evolves and I wouldn't want to mess that up for you.
- The biggest issue that I have is that everyone seems to completely freak out -- to the degree that there are hundreds of suicides -- when their secrets are revealed. Not everyone has such embarrassing secrets! Sure, we don't want our secrets exposed to the world, but if everyone's trash is being laid out to bear, I'm sure they'd be less devastating when everyone's in the same boat. And I bet hundreds of white people's would be that they wore blackface at a party...But shared experiences lesson tragedies to some degree.
- How does a bot determine what is most embarrassing? Embarrassment is such a complicated human emotion. I struggled with believing that a bot could measure this. But then again, it is fiction and I need to learn how to better suspend disbelief. Also, so many of our worst secrets were from a pre-internet age in 2016, so a bot would have to work pretty hard to find that terrible music video I made in 1992 that's on VHS.
- I'm also confused how the U.S. government would take over the internet but the book avoids discussion of any other countries. Wouldn't more internet free countries be places to escape to? How would the U.S. control the entire internet? The book mentions that Russia is to blame, but what was the goal? Were they just 2016 election meddlers that got far more sophisticated? Would have liked some comparisons to places like China which already severely restrict internet usage. I think if a character mentioned something like this I would have found it more believable.
- What changes Ashton's personality? He is this fame-hungry, Justin-Bieber-like character who becomes this soulful human later in life. I know that's possible, but it would be nice if his character was given the ability to evolve. Yes, we see some streaks of kindness in the Before Time, but it's hard to believe he made such a stark adjustment.