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heyfarahey's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kaleja's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
hsarto's review against another edition
4.0
An unsettling piece, Little Eyes is an imaginative foray into the social impact of a fictional technology that bears a close resemblance to the framework of the internet itself. The structure of the novel is unexpectedly composed of vignettes, although obedient to a handful of core stories. It's a complex book, belied by a straightforward language, that touches upon the many facets of cyberlogic. There's as much critique here as there is an empathy for the complicated emotions of people, a balance that is, to my mind, a staple of Schweblin's work.
spenkevich's review against another edition
3.0
‘[F]or the first time she wondered, with a fear that threatened to break her, whether she was standing on a world that it was ever possible to escape.
Dr. [a:Sherry Turkle|153503|Sherry Turkle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1351354712p2/153503.jpg] has an anecdote she likes to tell about the moment she went from advocating for technology as an advancement for socialization to distrusting its benefits. Turkle escorted her class to a local long-term care facility where robotic pets that could react to human emotions were assigned to the elderly residents to provide company. As she watched people confiding their life stories and having an intimate friendship with these pets, she realized in horror that this was a disservice to people and that they deserved authentic emotions and care. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (wonderfully translated by [a:Megan McDowell|3392728|Megan McDowell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442512481p2/3392728.jpg]) feels like the natural progression in electronic pets from what Turkle describes with her newest novel comprising of a dozen or so narratives all surrounding a new invention: the Kentukis. The kentuki is an electronic pet with two ways to play. An owner can purchase the robot and allow it to live with them but on the other side of the camera eyes is a dweller: a person who purchases an activation account that allows them to control a kentuki. Nobody can pick who they are assigned and so now there is a social network of human on their computers dwelling as pets in homes all over the world. The concept is simple and rather believable. Where her earlier novel [b:Fever Dream|30763882|Fever Dream|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471279721l/30763882._SX50_.jpg|42701168] was a tension-building triumph of eco-horror, Little Eyes tackles the psychological traumas of technology in a way akin to something like the series Black Mirror. The horror in Little Eyes comes from how grounded in reality it seems as she examines all the ways this can, and inevitably will, go poorly and how this all plays into human psychology of loneliness and social media addiction when one opens themselves up to trust another person they do not know. Schweblin makes you feel like this is plausibly already happening all around you.
‘Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities,’ writes Turkle in her book [b:Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other|8694125|Alone Together Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other|Sherry Turkle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328841533l/8694125._SY75_.jpg|13566692], ‘and as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed.’ The way technology affects our mental health and well-being is a topic of frequent study as humanity plunges itself deeper into social reliance on the connectivity offered by technology. In the past few months of 2020 we’ve seen an abrupt global reliance on video conferencing in order to continue functioning as a society and reports have trickled in around the world about the privacy risks associated with use and the vulnerabilities we open up existing in a social media network.
Despite the warnings and frequent news of stalking, bullying, catfishing and other dangers when we engage in digital communities, people continue to become more invested in online platforms and are sharing more personal information at an exponential rate. This is the perfect realistic setting for Schweblin’s world of the kentukis. Opening with a stand-alone anecdote where three teen girls in South Bend, Indiana are blackmailed by their kentuki who has recorded footage of them nude as well as of their parents and sister, Schweblin launches into an array of stories all rotating in short bursts of people’s experiences with the new toy. We see locations all over the world to remind us of the vastness of social media we welcome into our homes whenever we share personal information online, and here are people quite literally inviting strangers into their homes to live with them. The stories are well nuanced and varied, such as a lonely, aging woman given an account by her son, a woman who purchases one as a companion as she feels increasingly distant from her artist boyfriend, a man hoping to use kentuki’s as a get-rich-quick scheme, a young boy who simply wants to touch snow or a recently divorced dad instructed by a therapist to get a kentuki for the well-being of his son. Schewblin keeps the narrative focus on only one side of each kentuki, leaving the reader to dwell within the same mysteries of what is occurring on the other side of the camera as each character. In turn, she probes the psychological state of each character and the way their experience with the kentukis can affect their lives.
There have been studies that do promote technology as a way to benefit our lives and well-being, such as a 2013 study at the University of Auckland in New Zealand that found electronic pets--such as the PARO therapeutic robot described by Turkle--have shown to assuage loneliness in elderly patients in long-term care facilities. Other studies have show that playtime with a digital pet shows an increased level of empathy and responsibility in children. Turkle herself was originally a big proponent for increased technology use as a benefit to socialization. However, there have been numerous studies, such as one conducted at the University of Michigan and others around the world showing that increased social media use leads to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction. Moderation might be key here, as the more a user, for example, scrolls Facebook per day, the more it exacerbate mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and leads to a feeling of perceived-isolation despite being more connected with others. This perceived-isolation is almost like self-gaslighting and increases stress hormones that can cause illness and premature death.
Much like the short stories of [a:Ted Chiang|130698|Ted Chiang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1399023404p2/130698.jpg] (who also has a novella, [b:The Lifecycle of Software Objects|7886338|The Lifecycle of Software Objects|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1589835529l/7886338._SX50_.jpg|11102380], dealing with the psychology of digital pets and attachment), Schweblin never takes anything to an extreme but instead plays out each narrative like a thought experiment to it’s natural conclusions. Most of what occurs for the first half of the novel is fairly mundane but really grips the reader in the mental states of each character and constructs very realistic scenarios. Horror stories and wonders about kentukis mostly occur as snippets of information people hear on the news or tell each other, which helps to build a feeling for each character that “these are things that happen to other people, not me,” which is a very natural stance to take in the real world when we hear about social media traumas yet continue to use it as normal. 'Why were the stories about kentukis so small, so minutely intimate, stingy, and predictable' one character wonders, so desperately human and quotidian.' We hear about pedophiles using them for mischievous purposes and one character even discovers there are online pornography communities revolving around kentukis. An interesting theme Schweblin plays with is one of boundaries and how establishing them or not has an effect on each narrative. We see some people who create ways of communication (kentukis have no way of communicating beyond yelps and purrs) such as ouija boards or simply writing down their email/phone number for the kentuki and establishing a further connection. There are some, such as the young girl in Germany we watch through the eyes of a kentuki dweller, who prefer to have as little contact opportunities as possible.
These boundaries are great natural examples of the way people set parental controls or may limit what they share on social media, but while some of the book concerns how lack of boundaries can turn tragic, other aspects show how even despite boundaries a person can come to be violated. Additionally, Schweblin looks at the ways we let our guard down as more and more becomes normalized in our lives. When things begin to go bad--and they very much do--it is easy to shake your head and say they invited that in. 'If there were abuses by some kentukis,' a character muses right before she realizes how deep she herself is in, 'it was only because of their keepers' negligence. Boundaries were really the foundation of these relationships.' But that is exactly the point, we slowly slip until we’ve become trapped in a cage of our own making. The progressions in each narrative feel natural and earned, and we watch the ways kentuki use can become addictive, lead to feelings of isolation or questioning of self-worth and the ways the toy becomes otherwise invasive toward personal space and mental health.
The last segment of the novel is deeply disturbing and Schweblin makes good on her promises of terror that she established in her earlier work. You will genuinely feel for these people and come to question how society so easily walks into these snares. On ending in particular is extraordinarily shocking. Not quite a twist ending as much as catching you off guard by subverting what you think you know, Schweblin unveils a small detail that left me gasping. The brilliance is that as you read it you can only trust the information given to you (she doesn’t even pull an unreliable narrator trick) and the twist makes you realize how misconceptions or assumptions can have tragic outcomes. Who is on the other side of these toys and for what purpose? I found myself saying out loud “oh fuck, no no no no” when the moment hit. Schweblin expertly strings the reader along into a feeling of complicity and the effect is pulled off remarkably well.
While not as white-knuckle gripping as Fever Dreams or quite as elusive and surreal as [b:Mouthful of Birds: Stories|52803744|Mouthful of Birds Stories|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585542305l/52803744._SX50_.jpg|6753362], Little Eyes is a successful examination of social media and the ways it consumes our life and leads us to the slaughter. Trigger warnings here include stalking, sexual assault, pedophilia, and child abuse, so reader be warned this book gets into some uncomfortable material. The real magic and terror is the way this book is so completely believable, so much so that if you saw a kentuki at the store tomorrow it wouldn’t even surprise you. Little Eyes is an addicting psychological horror that will leave you questioning your own complicity in social media.
3.5 / 5
'How did this nightmare disconnect?'
Dr. [a:Sherry Turkle|153503|Sherry Turkle|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1351354712p2/153503.jpg] has an anecdote she likes to tell about the moment she went from advocating for technology as an advancement for socialization to distrusting its benefits. Turkle escorted her class to a local long-term care facility where robotic pets that could react to human emotions were assigned to the elderly residents to provide company. As she watched people confiding their life stories and having an intimate friendship with these pets, she realized in horror that this was a disservice to people and that they deserved authentic emotions and care. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (wonderfully translated by [a:Megan McDowell|3392728|Megan McDowell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1442512481p2/3392728.jpg]) feels like the natural progression in electronic pets from what Turkle describes with her newest novel comprising of a dozen or so narratives all surrounding a new invention: the Kentukis. The kentuki is an electronic pet with two ways to play. An owner can purchase the robot and allow it to live with them but on the other side of the camera eyes is a dweller: a person who purchases an activation account that allows them to control a kentuki. Nobody can pick who they are assigned and so now there is a social network of human on their computers dwelling as pets in homes all over the world. The concept is simple and rather believable. Where her earlier novel [b:Fever Dream|30763882|Fever Dream|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1471279721l/30763882._SX50_.jpg|42701168] was a tension-building triumph of eco-horror, Little Eyes tackles the psychological traumas of technology in a way akin to something like the series Black Mirror. The horror in Little Eyes comes from how grounded in reality it seems as she examines all the ways this can, and inevitably will, go poorly and how this all plays into human psychology of loneliness and social media addiction when one opens themselves up to trust another person they do not know. Schweblin makes you feel like this is plausibly already happening all around you.
‘Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities,’ writes Turkle in her book [b:Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other|8694125|Alone Together Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other|Sherry Turkle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328841533l/8694125._SY75_.jpg|13566692], ‘and as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed.’ The way technology affects our mental health and well-being is a topic of frequent study as humanity plunges itself deeper into social reliance on the connectivity offered by technology. In the past few months of 2020 we’ve seen an abrupt global reliance on video conferencing in order to continue functioning as a society and reports have trickled in around the world about the privacy risks associated with use and the vulnerabilities we open up existing in a social media network.
Despite the warnings and frequent news of stalking, bullying, catfishing and other dangers when we engage in digital communities, people continue to become more invested in online platforms and are sharing more personal information at an exponential rate. This is the perfect realistic setting for Schweblin’s world of the kentukis. Opening with a stand-alone anecdote where three teen girls in South Bend, Indiana are blackmailed by their kentuki who has recorded footage of them nude as well as of their parents and sister, Schweblin launches into an array of stories all rotating in short bursts of people’s experiences with the new toy. We see locations all over the world to remind us of the vastness of social media we welcome into our homes whenever we share personal information online, and here are people quite literally inviting strangers into their homes to live with them. The stories are well nuanced and varied, such as a lonely, aging woman given an account by her son, a woman who purchases one as a companion as she feels increasingly distant from her artist boyfriend, a man hoping to use kentuki’s as a get-rich-quick scheme, a young boy who simply wants to touch snow or a recently divorced dad instructed by a therapist to get a kentuki for the well-being of his son. Schewblin keeps the narrative focus on only one side of each kentuki, leaving the reader to dwell within the same mysteries of what is occurring on the other side of the camera as each character. In turn, she probes the psychological state of each character and the way their experience with the kentukis can affect their lives.
There have been studies that do promote technology as a way to benefit our lives and well-being, such as a 2013 study at the University of Auckland in New Zealand that found electronic pets--such as the PARO therapeutic robot described by Turkle--have shown to assuage loneliness in elderly patients in long-term care facilities. Other studies have show that playtime with a digital pet shows an increased level of empathy and responsibility in children. Turkle herself was originally a big proponent for increased technology use as a benefit to socialization. However, there have been numerous studies, such as one conducted at the University of Michigan and others around the world showing that increased social media use leads to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction. Moderation might be key here, as the more a user, for example, scrolls Facebook per day, the more it exacerbate mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and leads to a feeling of perceived-isolation despite being more connected with others. This perceived-isolation is almost like self-gaslighting and increases stress hormones that can cause illness and premature death.
Much like the short stories of [a:Ted Chiang|130698|Ted Chiang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1399023404p2/130698.jpg] (who also has a novella, [b:The Lifecycle of Software Objects|7886338|The Lifecycle of Software Objects|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1589835529l/7886338._SX50_.jpg|11102380], dealing with the psychology of digital pets and attachment), Schweblin never takes anything to an extreme but instead plays out each narrative like a thought experiment to it’s natural conclusions. Most of what occurs for the first half of the novel is fairly mundane but really grips the reader in the mental states of each character and constructs very realistic scenarios. Horror stories and wonders about kentukis mostly occur as snippets of information people hear on the news or tell each other, which helps to build a feeling for each character that “these are things that happen to other people, not me,” which is a very natural stance to take in the real world when we hear about social media traumas yet continue to use it as normal. 'Why were the stories about kentukis so small, so minutely intimate, stingy, and predictable' one character wonders, so desperately human and quotidian.' We hear about pedophiles using them for mischievous purposes and one character even discovers there are online pornography communities revolving around kentukis. An interesting theme Schweblin plays with is one of boundaries and how establishing them or not has an effect on each narrative. We see some people who create ways of communication (kentukis have no way of communicating beyond yelps and purrs) such as ouija boards or simply writing down their email/phone number for the kentuki and establishing a further connection. There are some, such as the young girl in Germany we watch through the eyes of a kentuki dweller, who prefer to have as little contact opportunities as possible.
These boundaries are great natural examples of the way people set parental controls or may limit what they share on social media, but while some of the book concerns how lack of boundaries can turn tragic, other aspects show how even despite boundaries a person can come to be violated. Additionally, Schweblin looks at the ways we let our guard down as more and more becomes normalized in our lives. When things begin to go bad--and they very much do--it is easy to shake your head and say they invited that in. 'If there were abuses by some kentukis,' a character muses right before she realizes how deep she herself is in, 'it was only because of their keepers' negligence. Boundaries were really the foundation of these relationships.' But that is exactly the point, we slowly slip until we’ve become trapped in a cage of our own making. The progressions in each narrative feel natural and earned, and we watch the ways kentuki use can become addictive, lead to feelings of isolation or questioning of self-worth and the ways the toy becomes otherwise invasive toward personal space and mental health.
The last segment of the novel is deeply disturbing and Schweblin makes good on her promises of terror that she established in her earlier work. You will genuinely feel for these people and come to question how society so easily walks into these snares. On ending in particular is extraordinarily shocking. Not quite a twist ending as much as catching you off guard by subverting what you think you know, Schweblin unveils a small detail that left me gasping. The brilliance is that as you read it you can only trust the information given to you (she doesn’t even pull an unreliable narrator trick) and the twist makes you realize how misconceptions or assumptions can have tragic outcomes. Who is on the other side of these toys and for what purpose? I found myself saying out loud “oh fuck, no no no no” when the moment hit. Schweblin expertly strings the reader along into a feeling of complicity and the effect is pulled off remarkably well.
While not as white-knuckle gripping as Fever Dreams or quite as elusive and surreal as [b:Mouthful of Birds: Stories|52803744|Mouthful of Birds Stories|Samanta Schweblin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585542305l/52803744._SX50_.jpg|6753362], Little Eyes is a successful examination of social media and the ways it consumes our life and leads us to the slaughter. Trigger warnings here include stalking, sexual assault, pedophilia, and child abuse, so reader be warned this book gets into some uncomfortable material. The real magic and terror is the way this book is so completely believable, so much so that if you saw a kentuki at the store tomorrow it wouldn’t even surprise you. Little Eyes is an addicting psychological horror that will leave you questioning your own complicity in social media.
3.5 / 5
'How did this nightmare disconnect?'
northernblonde's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
jaclyncrupi's review against another edition
4.0
Schweblin teases that uncomfortable, sometimes beautiful sometimes sinister interplay between technology and humanity in Little Eyes and it makes for the best kind of thought-provoking reading. I missed Schweblin’s usual use of mood and tone as the vignettes here just didn’t fully allow it but I’ll follow her anywhere.
honeycomblibrary's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5