Amy (amy_alwaysreading)'s Reviews > Hum

(4.5⭐️) Many thanks to my friends at @marysuerucci and @simonelement books for the #gifted copy of this book.

Intriguing. Thought provoking. Disturbing.

The hum of the refrigerator. The hum of a fan. Those background noises are a common albeit invasive part of existence. Sometimes annoying. Other times soothing. Most often, such an integral part of life we forget the quiet that came in the before.

Such is true in this not-so-distant envisioning of our future where nature only exists in Disneyworld-eque creations, jobs are taken over by machines, and families co-exist while lost within devices. The hum of technology is a pervasive part of May’s life.

It’s not often that a book surprises me the way this one did. Written as a futuristic society and yet not that far removed from our current reality, I found myself deeply invested in this look at technology’s invasiveness— with its ability to help and harm.

Maybe most disconcerting was the subtlety with which technology was embedded in this society. Necessary and inescapable yet also supportive and accommodating. A Jekyll and Hyde conundrum. And most certainly, a nightmare of our own creation.

With a tense atmosphere, the anxiety laden storyline left me unsettled. But I was so intrigued I couldn’t look away. There’s an urgency to the writing that made the sense of foreboding stretch beyond the pages and into my own life, rife with technology.

As Phillips hit on many timely themes— surveillance, AI, dependence on devices, and consumerism— I found this read to be both a stern warning and a storyline meant for deep ponderings.
Compelling and visceral, this is a read I won’t soon forget.

This book is meant for discussion, and I was grateful to have @bookmarked.by.becky and @rachellelovesbooks to unpack this one with.