madameroyale 's review for:

Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff

5.0

emotional hopeful sad

Loveable characters: Yes

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I really enjoyed this book. It paints a picture of the future, but ends up feeling extremely contemporary with the way it handles in-person and digital relationships. I loved Lee as a character and exploring loneliness both through her observation of others and in her own experiences. I thought her overly analytical mind was a great lens through which to tackle such an emotional and unpredictable feeling as loneliness. I really liked being in her head, more so than most first-person narratives I’ve read.

The little details Dyroff peppered in to remind you that this is a future, dystopian version of New York—the sunken land that used to be walkable, the automatic controls that only let you leave work if you smile convincingly enough—were really well done. I like that they were so small and few and far between that they can kind of slip past the reader if they’re not paying attention. I thought it was a nice commentary on how our current society is constantly moving towards a more dire version of existence (digitally and climatologically) without most people stopping to contemplate it, let alone try to stop it. I can very easily see us all ending up in a sad, disconnected, crumbling world like this.

The book sounds quite sad on its face, but I actually found it to be a very comforting read. Humans will be plagued by loneliness as long as we live and it’s nice to see a possible future where it’s recognized that we already have the tools to fix it between each other, and any digital stand-ins will only make things worse. I like that Lee, Verokina, Chris, and Janet all got to have a sweet, hopeful ending amidst all this existential stress.