This dystopian novel follows a family, the parents May and Jem, their children Lu and Sy, in a world in the not-to-distant future. We do see hints of conflict and climate disasters on snips of news reports, but what the family experiences is the threats of climate change, pollution, and the negative effects of the rise of AI. Increasingly, smart robots called hums are taking service jobs, both telephonically and in-person, and even more sophisticated services as medical and dental care. The impacts have been predicted: precarious economic status for many, the choking of constant advertising, which only the rich can opt out of, the lack of person-to-person contact. Social media has become ever more punishing and judgmental, as everything is videotaped, and individuals have no rights to their images, which are routinely released for all to see, even on public transit. Children have their own wearable AIs, called bunnies, very personal, like best friends, confidents. Each person has a woom, an egg-shaped retreat where immersive videos provide comfort and escape. These are often preferred for sleeping, over bedding with your partner.

May’s family is teetering economically, causing the couple constant distress. She lost her job of training AI for improved communication, essentially no longer needed. Jem is reduced to doing unpleasant tasks for wealthy people, a far cry from his photography career. The author is clever about showing the influence on family dynamics of these developments: the children rely on their bunnies and woom for comfort, advice, and solace, creating schisms with parents. The children are emotionally fragile and dysfunctional in their responses to change or stress, over concerned about air quality readings, freaked out by anything natural that enters their personal space. May can see that her family will be lost to her if she doesn’t take decisive action, which she believes is to bring them in contact with nature, a natural environment, similar to her youth spent in a beautiful wooded area. May was probably a child in our time, so the author believes the world she describes is a couple of short decades away.

This is not an uplifting read— it can be quite depressing. It also has an interesting twist at the end— I think I figured out what she did there, although am not completely certain I worked out the ambiguity. Leave a comment if you figured out what she meant in the epilogue, and we can discuss. An effective, thought-provoking book for sure, but not at all comforting.