Age: High School
Culture: Brazil

I couldn't do it. I can't finish it. There was an INSANE amount of promise for this book: distopian set in Brazil, impending doom for a main character, the protagonist (June) is a rebel graffiti artist, mother remarries another woman, sex is not taboo. So much hope. But the arc of this book is so confusing. There's all this buildup to June's frakking awesome, artsy light display and then it happens for about 1 page and is ignored. The only residual effect of this scene in the story and amongst the characters is the alteration that the Summer Prince creates in the light show.

The science fiction aspect felt so strong and on par with the creativity of the classics but the writing felt incomplete. I had no care for the result of the technophiles vs. traditionalists because the protagonist had absolutely no investment in either side--for reasons I cannot figure out.

Finally, I think what really caused me to stop reading was the confusion of the plot. Nothing felt fully fleshed out. I think a contributing factor to this was that Johnson writes in a way that describes rather than feels and this probably created a disconnect between June and I. Perhaps the story should have been written in 3rd person omniscient narrator.

A sad ending for such promise, but Johnson did have some poetic moments that I wish had more attention given to them instead of being drowned in June being forever indecisive and emotionally disconnected from everything around her.

In this passage, June comments on technology's ability to allow immortality, but at the cost of humanity: "A disembodied collection of data can dance forever, but how much would that be worth without the tension of pushing up against the limits of the body?"