Invisible Things

The characters changed, but we were told this, not shown it. Nothing really changed the whole book

Science Fiction and political satire, featuring a sociologist who heads off into space as an experiment and ends up in a replica of an American City on one of Jupiter's moons.The story is obvious commentary and the city is a microcosm of our world where the haves do anything to keep their place of power, including lies, propaganda and exploiting the fears and indifferent of people who just want to live. The conflict is intensified by adding what may or may not be an alien presence that scares the residents into paranoid silence. I enjoy the way Johnson structures his plots to increase in chaos all the way to the end, like a Mel Brooks movie. Invisible Things didn't have as much heart as [b:Loving Day 23164956 Loving Day Mat Johnson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420795734l/23164956.SY75.jpg 42710982] and it wasn't as funny as [b:Pym 8501708 Pym Mat Johnson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320435734l/8501708.SX50.jpg 13367639], but it's still a good read. Johnson should be much more popular.

Things move at a good pace and enjoyed the longer passages and less dialogue in the first half specifically because of the writing - it' s clear, it flows, it isn't too much prose and has a solid mystery, characters, and readability.  Unexpectedly turned into an alternate future-esque political thriller in the second half, which actually made it a bit more interesting, but really only started to address the title matter in the last 75 pages.  The power jockeying and shady practices towards the end were a timely parallel to current real world challenges, but disappointed with what felt like an unfinished conclusion and more like a cliffhanger.