A review by travisclau
Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot

4.0

"A+B=C is not the way to go here." In a Sternian way, the novel is frank about its absurdities like what Abby experiences as a data archaeologist. The plot folds on itself -- this is Boudinot's "slipstream" fiction, a kind of mixed-genre novel that plays with your mind and has you underlining all the wonderfully genius lines that Boudinot has buried in the prose. It is a novel that you consume quickly, but if you're looking for A+B=C, you're not going to find it here. It is expansive, full of spaces that appear and disappear out of sight but remain resonating as you oscillate between narratives. Blueprints is truly a "novel experience" that captures so much of the anxieties of our present. Boudinot provides some fascinating critiques and imaginations of capitalism and its flows, biotechnology and its frightening implications. Hard-hitting where you least expect it. He may have written an article that managed to piss off the world, but this novel is worth the anger.