The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

The Dream Hotel is a work of speculative fiction set in the near future in a society that abandoned privacy for security. After a mass shooting at a Super Bowl half time, people allowed mass data collection that a crime prediction algorithm will use to identify citizens likely to commit crimes. Everything digital is harvested and used by the algorithm.This includes dreams. Someone you haven’t seen for 20 years did something, it will be linked to you by the algorithm.

Sara Hussein, a Moroccan‑American wife and mother is flagged at the airport upon returning to the US. Her risk score is above 500 and the algorithm reports that she is likely to murder her husband. People flagged as a risk are shunted off to retention centers for a two week (supposedly) quarantine to make sure they aren’t a danger. The center is ironically referred to as a hotel and a nightmare can have a disastrous effect. Sara finds herself in a bureaucratic Kafkaesque nightmare that appears rigged to keep her at the retention center as long as possible.You see the retention centers are privately run and it’s to the company’s advantage to keep retainees and monetize everything it can.

Sara is not able to keep her head down and her two weeks quarantine becomes months as points are arbitrarily added to her score.

Obvious themes here are the dangers of sacrificing privacy for security and privatizing detention facilities. But within this bureaucratic structure is the real core of the novel, the relationships among the women in the center. There is a real Orange is the New Black vibe here as the women find a collective strength with Sara at the heart. Apologies if you haven’t seen Orange…, but there is a character that made me think of Pornstache striding through the dormitory handing out demerits.

This is a beautifully written story of resilience, friendship, and strength. The reader cares about the characters who are all treated as individuals.

Highly recommended.

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

 

Science fiction and horror

Seven years ago, a ship filming a mockumentary about mermaids over the Mariana Trench was found abandoned, with no sign of the crew. Horrific found footage shows the ship being attacked by creatures from the sea. The footage is generally written off as fake but some people believe it was real, among them Victoria Stewart, now a marine scientist, whose sister was on the previous expedition. Now the Imagine Network is sending a second ship to the area, not for entertainment, but a legitimate scientific expedition. This time the ship is armored and has armed security that includes a husband/wife team of lethal and remorseless bug game hunters. The ship arrives on station and the scientists find what they are looking for but these mermaids ain’t Ariel. Teeth, lots of teeth.

I read this 438 page book in one day, so yeah, it pulled me in hard. Besides being fast paced and thrilling with characters you’re invested in, the story is founded on hard science. The author avoids the pitfalls of the info dump while showing the reader how science is done. There are multiple POVs but the MFC specializes in interpreting sonar signals, i.e. she interprets signals returned from beneath the surface.

When the story cranks up it is a heart racing thriller but it’s the science that pulls it together. What is the biology that allows the “mermaids” to exist at the crushing depths in the Trench? What kind of society do they have? How do they communicate? The story also has fun with scientists’ egos and how graduate students are treated. The two big game hunters are blatant caricatures but that didn’t bother me, they are mostly fun to watch. I did think the ship security was pretty bad but I think that was deliberate since they were hired by an entertainment company. I would have been looking for combat veterans myself.

I recommend this if you want a solid, fast paced horror story, grounded in science, with scientists doing science stuff, and awash in a significant amount of splatter gore. It was a fun read for me.

Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram

 

This is a tough book to write about and I would recommend it only to someone I know well. It deals with suicide ideation which will be a red flag for many. This short (135 pages) novella is compelling and beautifully, even lyrically, written. I can’t use the word “enjoy” to describe the reading experience but I do appreciate it.

Vicken is on the Montreal Metro to Saint Lawrence River where he plans to drown himself. He has battled depression and anxiety since adolescence and having only “The withering ember of dreams” left he decides this is the time and place to end things.

He falls asleep and wakes when the train reaches what he thinks is the terminus of the line and, indeed, it is a terminus, just not what he expects. At the top of the stairs he passes through a formidable turnstile gate that grants “permission to exit only”. He finds himself alone in a dull grey brutalist concrete station. There is no exit to an outbound train, only a labyrinth of halls. He meets a caustic and dismissive woman and together they explore. Unfortunately they aren’t together long.

Vicken finds himself “...denied a destination, caught in a transitional environment, a space between beginning and an end”. What is this place? My thought was that this is a form of purgatory, that Vicken could find a way out by sifting through his memories, searching for meaning, exploring what it means to be himself. Instead is alone, isolated from any community, experiencing an existential, often surreal horror. I took the labyrinthine halls as a metaphor for endless despair, no way out. Would Vicken have the courage to leave if presented with a possible exit or is he doomed to remain trapped within himself?

Coup de Grâce is a remarkable book that challenges the reader. This is the most difficult book I’ve read in a while. Read through to the; the author makes a stylistic shift that is pretty neat.

Piransi by Susanna Clark

Piranesi lives in the House, a labyrinthine structure with seemingly endless halls each with statues of different size and theme. He can remember the 7,678 he has visited. He spends his days fishing in the Drowned Halls and cataloging the statues and performing research for the Other, a well-dressed man who visits once a week and gives him tasks in pursuit of the Great and Secret Knowledge . The Other gave him the name Piransi though he is certain that isn’t his real name. In fact, Piransi remembers nothing of his past including how he got there. He is content with his life, innocently marveling at the halls and statues. There is a religious aspect to the way Piransi sees the House, it is the giver. 

Then things start to happen and Piransi begins to doubt the Other. To the reader, he is being gaslit with the Other manipulating his memories. The story then takes on a different tone. 

The first third of the book describes Piransi’s daily life and interactions with the Other. This is where I might have given up if the book wasn’t only 158 pages on my Kobo. Once Piransi begins to put bits of information together the story picks up and gets more intriguing.

Memory is a major theme in Piransi and how important it is to a person’s identity. As the Other gaslights Piranisi, he begins to question himself. I was much interested in what memories and the lack of memories can have on one’s sense of self.

The nature of reality is another consideration. To the reader, the House is unreal but to Piranisi it is his whole reality, he doesn’t question it, or even find a way out. He has nothing to compare the house to so his whole perception is shaped by the House.

I enjoyed Piranisi. I don’t think the story could sustain a longer book and it works quite well as a novella. Once you get into the rhythm, the story flows along and begins to pick up momentum. Plus, I really like mazes, labyrinths, and the no way out story.

Note: Piransi probably refers to Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a 16th century architect and artist who made a series of prints of imaginary prisons.

 

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okoraf

This novel didn't grab me at first. I read 100 pages then let the library loan expire. When it became available again I flew through it..

There is so much I’d like to write about Death of the Author but can’t for spoilers. The reader needs to experience it themselves. When I finished, I just sat there thinking, “wow”. 

So, the basics: Zelu is the American born, second daughter to Nigerian parents, a legitimate princess through her mother, paraplegic since an early age, failed author, and recently fired adjunct professor of creative writing. Feeling especially down and self-pitying after the wedding of a sister, Zelu opens her laptop and rather than writing about normal people having normal problems, begins to write about something not human, rusted robots.

This is a story within a story. Zelu’s novel, Rusted Robots is narrated by Ankara, a Hume robot, i.e. has the shape of the human. In this world, the human race is no more. Ankara is a scholar and collects stories, something the Humes love since they can’t create any of their own.

The other half of the novel is Zelu’s personal story. Her life changes dramatically when Rusted Robots is embraced worldwide and she is suddenly worth millions and can finally become independent. But there is a price to fame, her family doesn’t approve and her fans think they own her. And her sudden rise to fame naturally leads to cancellation when an ill-advised comment on a talk show brings a backlish.  

Death of the Author is a deep exploration of Nigerian culture and the place of some like Zelu within that culture. Zelu is loved by her family but because of her disability they see her as broken, someone who needs to be protected. Her success isn’t celebrated by her family who resist her attempts at independence and are frustrated by Zelu’s defiance and obstinacy.

For me, the themes are the power of stories, the need for stories, treatment of people with disabilities, generational communication, relationships, family, conflict between traditional culture and the generation one step removed from the culture,

Zelu isn’t particularly likeable and the reader might want to smack some sense in her but we still empathize and root for her. Likewise her family would drive me crazy but we see where her parents and siblings are coming from and can empathize with them as well. 

This isn’t hammered but Zulu is clear that there are different rules for black authors. This ties in with a book I’m reading called How to Read Now by Elaine Costillo which explores, among other issues, that there is the expectation that writers of color are expected to educate white readers. I recommend Costillo’s book.

This is a well written and moving story that I enjoyed and I want to read more by the author. I also had a tear in my eye at the end.

On a lighter note, food plays a big role in the story and I really want to find a Nigerian restaurant and try jollof rice and pounded yam.