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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated Aaru in Books

Nov 8, 2019

Aaru

David Meredith | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Rose is only 16 but her life is over. She has terminal cancer but a mysterious strangers offers her and her family the option of taking part in a trial. When she dies they assume the trail failed and mourn her passing, her sister being hit particularly hard. Then the message comes... Rose lives on.

This books takes one fascinating idea - what if people's personalities and memories could be copied at the point of death and then recreated inside a computer? - and looks at it from a lot of different angles. It is certainly thought provoking, and occasionally disturbing.

The first half of the book deals with Rose's death, the grief of her family and then the emotional trauma, denial and final acceptance that in some ways she is still alive. It also follows Rose's journey as she discovers her new virtual world and its other inhabitants.

The second half is darker and moves into thriller territory as Rose's new paradise shows that it may not be perfect and both her and her sister are exposed to danger. Some of the themes here - obsession, violence, sexual abuse, suicide - are made all the worse by their premeditated nature.

This book will make you think about a potential life after death but it doesn't flinch from showing the emotional, physical and moral implications that might arise both for those saved and those they leave behind.

Kudos

Eleanor (1463 KP) rated Unfollow Me in Books

Feb 6, 2020 (Updated Feb 6, 2020)

Unfollow Me

Charlotte Duckworth | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery

5.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Another tale to warn of the dangers of social media - this time focused on a YouTube vlogger who suddenly deletes all her social media accounts - I mean shock horror what could be more suspicious!?!.

This book really wasn’t for me, I found all the characters irritating and unrelatable. We had Yvonne how spent most of her book uterus gazing which bores me to tears. As someone who doesn’t want kids, I sure do know a lot about fertility treatments and ovulation monitoring as this seems to be a recurring obsession in books at the moment and it’s just not interesting to me. Knew exactly where her storyline was going - sigh.

Then we have single mum Lily and get to hear the “woe is me being a single mum is so hard” bit, which I’m sure it is, but again not interested in the recurring theme. Yvonne and Lily both love to watch vblogger Violet on YouTube who is a mummy blogger and they flip out when she seems to disappear removing all her social media accounts. So that’s the mystery we move towards figuring out but I just don’t really care and I still don’t care once it’s all been underwhelmingly explained by the end.

I’m sure there are plenty who are as interested in these themes as I wasn’t - this book is for you - not me.

Many thanks to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the ARC in which I gave an honest review in return.