I honestly could have rated this anywhere between 3 and 5 stars, but I landed on 4.5 because the story was so engrossing and I’ll probably think about this book for a long time. 

Set in the 1960s, Singer Distance is a genre-bending novel about the disappearance of Crystal Singer following her successful communication with Martians using a mathematical proof etched into the desert. There is some hard sci-fi in the book, but it’s mostly about relationships among very flawed  humans and the distance (real and figurative) between them. 

The premise was a bit confusing at times and I suspected some scientific accuracy might have been sacrificed for the sake of poetry. The dialogue and character depictions felt more contemporary than mid-20th century, and the two main characters were incredibly frustrating. That said, I loved the writing style, the road trip motif, and the reflective mood. It reminded me of Station Eleven mashed together with Interstellar. Overall, I highly recommend this for people looking for a really unique & meandering story with a sci-fi twist. 

My spotify playlist based on Singer Distance: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LM7vRZIpZqDhORmXih1zq?si=77a0f059b43e4456