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A review by mimosaeyes
Without Disruption by Carrie French
5.0
This book may give you an existential crisis.
Based on the first few chapters, I would not have predicted that. Initially, I found the narrative voice false-sounding and the dialogue stilted. Every character, even the protagonist, seemed artificial. I worried that the author had a poor ear for natural speech and a writing style that would grate on me more and more. I braced myself for another insipid book about everyone living in a simulation under an evil AI that a messiah-like main character eventually manages to foil. Blah blah free will, blah blah humanity.
I'm so glad to have been proven wrong. The direction this story takes really delivers on its high-concept premise. Not only is the ending fantastic and ironic, prompting both despair and comfort, but the structure works really well in developing Harrison's personality and gradually unveiling the world that the author has imagined. The chapters where he struggles with depression and his sense of self also hit me especially hard.
There are questions that remain unresolved and will continue to haunt me, along with the disquieting feel of this book. It makes me ask myself scary questions about the compromises we make in our reality, and the endless chase for contentment, even happiness, that capitalism and the social contract trap us in. Definitely a book that will stay with me for a long time to come.
I received an advance review copy via BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
Based on the first few chapters, I would not have predicted that. Initially, I found the narrative voice false-sounding and the dialogue stilted. Every character, even the protagonist, seemed artificial. I worried that the author had a poor ear for natural speech and a writing style that would grate on me more and more. I braced myself for another insipid book about everyone living in a simulation under an evil AI that a messiah-like main character eventually manages to foil. Blah blah free will, blah blah humanity.
I'm so glad to have been proven wrong. The direction this story takes really delivers on its high-concept premise. Not only is the ending fantastic and ironic, prompting both despair and comfort, but the structure works really well in developing Harrison's personality and gradually unveiling the world that the author has imagined. The chapters where he struggles with depression and his sense of self also hit me especially hard.
There are questions that remain unresolved and will continue to haunt me, along with the disquieting feel of this book. It makes me ask myself scary questions about the compromises we make in our reality, and the endless chase for contentment, even happiness, that capitalism and the social contract trap us in. Definitely a book that will stay with me for a long time to come.
I received an advance review copy via BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.