It would be interesting to read this first, possibly. Although it certainly mirrors The Passenger, the ending is known via that book—so it could be fun going in not knowing that. Though, this book has less of a plot than it, so I can see why Passenger was chosen to go first.

Both are cerebral and melancholic, which feels on brand for McCarthy. This one is purely audio recordings between the main character and a therapist, and that’s about it. If you are looking for something plotty, don’t pick it up. Probably, you know this already from The Passenger, but just in case. While that book has conversations about science, this is basically only that. There’s no physicality or interiority. Expect only dialogue.

She is an outlier, just like Bobby, though far more singular because of the mental facilities she has available. The cohort, or mental constructs, are much more elucidated in this, as you’d expect. But again, themes about how society isn’t constructed for outliers, and the metrics aren’t useable or useful when applied to people like her. And yet, from what we are aware of now, if society was constructed by people like that, it would be far better, because designing even for accessibility has provided immeasurable positive changes. Instead, we have what we have. The information design around branches of science is really well done. I don’t know anything about them and felt like I was getting it. And the “story” is the Why of what we already know she has done, from The Passenger. Which is why I was saying it would be interesting to have read this first.