I have just put my Kindle down having finished this and actually said out loud “What a good book”. Sadly the only other person in the room is my toddler who has spent a good portion of the last half hour emptying his Megablocks out of the Ikea drawer so he can unzip it and wear it like a costume. Still, I can add a review here and let it be known how good this is!
I expected something along the lines of Curious Incident or See You in the Cosmos with this one. Not to lump together stories like that while disregarding their wonderful stories you understand. However, this was more along the lines of dystopian fiction but very close to the real world at the same time. It’s actually quite scary how something like this could be done easily – I am currently in a room that contains 6 screens…
Alex is on the autistic spectrum and as such we get information such as how many footsteps things take or how he eats the same food all the time or what he sees as ‘normal’. He has to make things normal in order to accept them in his life – something I liked about his character – so he sees it as normal to be picked on in school by the usual bully type or when something new appears in his life he has to make it feel like it’s always been there. One day his teacher brings in a TV screen to teach them their new curriculum; only for the TV to explode moments later after Alex sees black flies appearing from the screen. After a few mishaps like this in school, it seems Alex is going to be sent away from the mainstream and back to the ‘special school’ he attended. Before any of this can happen though it seems that the TV screens start to pop up everywhere and Calliope technologies are taking over. People start to forget memories, forget where they need to be or what they are doing with their lives and are trapped in front of screens.
Sound familiar?
While this sounds like a lecture on our dependence on technology, it’s actually a very interesting look on how we can be so easily controlled by information and what we are told on screens. How we can believe what we are presented with and how easily people can be taken over by what they see. The strange manifestation of this technology, known as Sophie, wants everyone to love her and to listen to her. Alex is proving more of a challenge than everyone else, as are the friends he makes along the way.
While this book does contain its fair share of men in vans and people jumping out of nowhere to try and brainwash everyone into their way of thinking, it never takes over and never feels frustrating. There’s nothing worse than rooting for your main character who seems to have the upper hand only for a van to appear from round the corner and take them away: lather, rinse, repeat. That doesn’t happen thankfully.
The characters are great. Alex is full of information and in control of what he does. While he is ASD, this doesn’t define him and only forms part of his character. I found this refreshing – there’s more to him than just seeming to be the “weird kid”. In fact, being the weird kid always seems to be to his advantage here. Sara is his friend and seems to actually adore Alex from the off – it’s not something she falls into. She is totally on his side from the start and, while appearing the typical mouthy girl at times, is a really great character you find yourself cheering for at various points. There are other characters that we pick up along the way, the other supporters of the ‘rebellion’ if you like – one of whom is French and so one slight criticism I would have is how they always spoke in French then said it in English… People who speak second languages don’t really do that in real life yet they always do it in books!
This book was a great read – an ARC I am really going to advocate. It was quite a shocking tale at times and also something that appears realistic as scary as that sounds. Calliope Technologies want to control everyone and they will not allow anyone to stop them – using whatever means necessary. I teach some Year 11 pupils who would probably be well and truly sucked in by this!
Heartily recommended – I hope there is more of the same from this writer.