Thank you to Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co. for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

I’m truly not sure how to rate this. While I enjoyed many of the individual elements in this story, they never quite built into something engaging for me. I have two requirements for any book to potentially be an enjoyable read for me: first, I need to have a likable character and second, the story needs to end in a satisfying way. This book, incredibly, had neither for me. 

 

I think my first issue was it was marketed to me as science fiction and I found it to be much more literary with moments of magical realism. For the right reader this is probably a fantastic combination, but it left me hoping for so much more. In fact, I felt the story should have started after the first part (a third of the way through my copy) and I wish there had been more focus on the portals and magical realism aspects. I was also frustrated with how the magical realism aspects were never sufficiently explained (I don’t need a detailed instruction guide but I’d like to be able to follow along as things happen). 

 

The story spends most of its time focused on the main character, Ethan, and his disappointing experiences in the startup tech industry. Unfortunately, I found Ethan to be pretty boring as a character and I wasn’t very interested in most of the workplace interactions. I question why Noma wasn’t chosen to voice this story: she would have been much more fascinating for me and brought much more insight to the world. 

 

It felt almost as if there were two different stories fighting for control: the first being about a disgruntled employee working in a career they are clearly miserable in and the second being about the portals and multiverses. In such a short novel, though, neither quite received the attention they needed to shine. 

 

While this didn’t turn out to be the title for me, thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC.