NiceonaTuesday

Semi antiquated writing style using words like "lest" which made what felt like a modern protagonist hard to place and define. The research motive and subject to Lou staying in the house was just uninteresting and hard to follow - I'm not sure what overarching themes were meant to be connecting past to present if any.

I liked the protagonists honesty about desire and sex though. With the current buzz about women preferring to be alone in the woods with a bear than a man in real life, this er adds an alternative flavour to that argument. Still, for me, the most interesting dynamic was between Lou and Homer as we get a sense of Homer's character and voice whereas the Bear remains a voiceless object she cajoles and projects into her orbit. Maybe thats the point?

Great world building. Particularly like how Piercy develops the vernacular for different groups and how that reflects the underlying forces and most importantly principles that those groups shift around. Sometimes I feel points are repeated and whilst there has been a lot of work to flesh out this world, sometimes the pages are busy with description and dialogue rather than momentum. The presumably expected crescendo toward the end therefore doesn't land so loudly for me. Protagonist is great, love her passion and inner world, felt fresh to be placed alongside her in a sci fi context.

Stays tonally the same throughout with only a brief punch right at the end. It's like the writer is deliberately trying to swerve being engaging. Maybe this lies in the choice of the protagonist who remains emotionally distant throughout. A sense of emptiness prevails beyond anything else as a result, emphasized by tiny smears of context. I would have been more curious about the perspective of the doctor, security guards, chairman or any of the management as a protagonist over this guy. Maybe then that's the point, the protective yet overthinking bubble he resides in presents the information of what not to do.

There is some relevancy in the themes however which kept me reading on; prophetic dreamscapes, some nice self aware nuggets on choices are some notables. Most pertinently for our world - with the rise of billionaire apocalypse bunkers - I am curious about the social structures/roles that are expected to remain (and for how long?) if society for whatever reason does collapse.

Enjoyed this world, it cleanly and visually builds - I can see this translating well onto film or TV. The protagonist has a fresh, accessible, thoughtful, aware and self deprecating contemporary voice which lends well to keeping the mixed controversial themes on the table in a conversational sense without it turning it heavy . My irk was that I felt it was a great set up to another novel (I went to an evening with the author and she has no plans to write another sadly) - I felt it offered a lot of exciting possibilities.

Yoshimoto's light touch style feels too convenient at times. There are squeaky clean memories and characters that fail to provide richness depth or complexity alongside some morally ambiguous themes the book deals with. It was an underchallenging read as a result.

Love the subtle sci fi elements woven into this book. I never read whodunnits but this one really kept itself hearty, considered and grounded throughout. Found it to be a quick engaging read.

An uneasy dark dive into the impacts of dissociation. The protagonist is the last person to be aware of how the violence in the systems she inhabits has permeated her behaviour. Powerful.

Left too much work for the reader. Sometimes I feel mystery is relied on to seem clever when sometimes it works in lieu of actually being bold enough to commit to stand for something. Kind of felt like the first of the new Dune films where it's setting up the story and the protein - except this doesn't have any follow up. There's so much possibility in ocean sci fi. Reading In Ascension by Martin Macinnes, which covers similar ground but gives so much imaginative yet believable detail.

I love her dry approach to surreality but the short stories didn't give me the depth or emotional weight like her long form ones

Focuses on naturally gluten free recipes, as I tried a couple out I realised I was looking for more gluten free alternatives to gluten based recipes. It's interesting in understanding the origins of where these naturally gluten free recipes come from though.