It is an interesting book, and I was quite absorbed by the reading. Though I actually felt that Emiko's story was more compelling than the rest of the books, so whenever I was reading about someone else, I just wanted to get back to her.

Set in a world in which genetic modification has become normal, the books tells the story of a group of people living in Bangkok. We have different politicians who are constantly fighting for power, Anderson Lake, a man hired to weaken Thai economy, and Emiko, a Japanese abandoned windup girl, forced into prostitution.

Even if I have not live anything of what she lived, I felt very close to Emiko as a character. While with all the other characters I felt quite distant (and I was angry at them a lot of times), she felt so close and real that was unbelievable. Her longings for freedom and being able to chose by herself were very powerful. And I think that she was probably the most human character in the book, despite being a windup and not considered a person by all the other characters. She is the ultimate embodiement of the woman-object, but she also intends and actively tries to move away from it, even if she is genetically designed to, basically, be an object. Oh, and every time I read about the abuse she was subjected to, I became really angry. She was sensitive and yet she was treated as a machine, as if her feelings didn't even matter. And it made me more angry because I know that that's reality for lots of women all over the globe. Awful, really.

The author makes a lot of very good world-building (something that is sort of missing from most dystopias you can find nowadays). I mean, he really worked with the WORLD as a whole, not just the US. And I also liked the way in which he presented what had happened before. Little bits of information here and there, comments by the characters and so on. It felt realistic in a way that lenghty exposition just can't. And his work really shows in the way in which he portrays the 23rd century Thai society.

The world presented was so utterly interesting. The genetic engineering and the creatures that developed through it was indeed quite amazing. I want a Cheshire cat for myself! I think that there's a lot to explore there. I mean, all those differents castes and the relations that people established with these new beings are crazy. Especially when it came to New People. It was shown that they were sentient beings, capable of feeling, bleeding and thinking. And yet, people still thought of them as animals. Even lower than animals, because in the Buddist tradition shown in the novel, animals have souls. Windups didn't.

My only problem with the book has to do with its pacing. At some points it felt as if it was dragging unnecesarily and I just wanted to read about Emiko. I got the feeling that the book could've been a lot more interesting (though I don't mean it was uninteresting at all) if the story was completely focalized in Emiko. It would've been amazing to read about all the events in the novel only from her perspective. It is true that by having different character's points of view we get a bigger picture, but I'd say that bigger doesn't always mean better.

I can summarize my feelings (there are many) about this book in just a few words: LOVED IT.

Of course, now I’ve got to explain why I loved a book that is literally about dead bodies. No, I’m not a serial killer looking up how to disguise anything. And yes, I know this is a highly specific negative.

Anyway, I think everyone should read this book.

To begin with, we should all read this because we are all going to be cadavers at some point. Despite whatever you think regarding life after death, we’re all pretty sure that our bodies are going to die eventually. We might not like to think about it, especially when we’re young, but it’s just a part of life. This book shows that death is not necessarily the end, not in a religious understanding of life but in a physical way.

In this book, Mary Roach discusses several things that can be done with our bodies after death: we can be crash-test dummies (because actual dummies don’t work as well when it comes to identify certain injuries possible in a car crash), or we can help other people study, donating your body to science. Probably, most people know about the latter option, but Roach does a really good job at showing how people who work with the bodies and how they relate to them. Those interviews were among my favorite parts of the book. Scratch that, they were my favorites.

Of course, you may not be particularly keen on medical students cutting you up (I’m not sure I am, either, even after reading this). In that case, there’s also a bunch of options that are not necessarily the traditional burial or cremation. I found particularly interesting the ecological burial that Roach describes, in which basically your body is made into compost, so it can be used to nurture a plant. I thought it was really good and I want it to expand world wide and become an option for everyone.

Death is one of those “taboo” topics, so it’s rare to find something like this book. She treats death naturally, and makes it very close to the readers. We’re often used to think that death is something that happens to other people, but this book manages to make you conscious of your own mortality. And it’s not in a depressing I-have-too-little-time way. It’s more like something around “it’s going to happen and I’m totally okay with it”. Also, she brings up alternatives by which our bodies can do something, even if we’re already dead.

Writing scientific non-fiction is quite hard, and it’s doubly hard for it to be interesting and fun. Roach writes in a very funny and creative way, despite the subject matter (also, she never feels disrespectful, even if she does throw a joke or two around). I was truly captivated by her, so I really want to read everything she’s ever written (I’m like that). I highly recommend this one, it’s cool and easy to enjoy.