3.5 Stars
In the not-so-distant future eight people get in their autonomous cars to start their day. They are: 26 year old pregnant Claire, 78 year old actress Sofia, 29 year old unemployed/homeless Jude, 40 year olds police officer Heidi and construction company owner Sam (married, but in separate vehicles), 46 year old Somali refugee Bilquis and 38 year old stay-at-home mother of five and non-English speaking Shabana . . . .
The only thing you need to know at this point is that in two hours and thirty minutes from now, it is highly likely that [they] will be dead.
And you thought the only thing to worry about with these self-driving cars was this . . . .
Not only have the supposedly unhackable vehicles been hacked and reprogrammed for a head-on collision with each other at 70 mph, but the entire experience goes viral when it starts being broadcast across the interwebs and interrupts an ongoing trial regarding who’s to blame for previous accidents involving smart cars. Now the jury will be forced to become executioners and decide . . . .
I was lucky enough to be sent a reader copy of this one quite some time ago, which I then placed on the Shelf of Shame with others of the same ilk who stare at me in my reading chair as I select library book after library book instead of them. It wasn’t until my friend Indieflower made a John Marrs reference in a comment about another book that the lightbulb went off in my head reminding me I had this. I can now confirm that it was indeed the best kind of bad (or maybe the best kind of good). I think I avoided this because I was expecting a Maximum Overdrive type of story – and let’s get real, nothing can compare to that level of camp . . . .
To say I was delighted to find myself experiencing something more along the lines of . . . .
Is a serious understatement.
This was some serious high octane junk food for my brain type of read and I couldn’t stop turning the pages as more about each of the characters was revealed . . . .
But it also had some had some pretty relevant undertones regarding implicit bias and the devolution of humankind courtesy of social media, confirming my beliefs that anyone who dare utter the phrase . . . .
“I am valued. I am listened to. I am an influencer.”
In my presence, will find me doing everything in my power to NOT give them one of these . . . .
3.5 Stars because the big reveal drug on a little too much for my liking – rounding up because the grand finale was delicious.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The only thing you need to know at this point is that in two hours and thirty minutes from now, it is highly likely that [they] will be dead.
And you thought the only thing to worry about with these self-driving cars was this . . . .
Not only have the supposedly unhackable vehicles been hacked and reprogrammed for a head-on collision with each other at 70 mph, but the entire experience goes viral when it starts being broadcast across the interwebs and interrupts an ongoing trial regarding who’s to blame for previous accidents involving smart cars. Now the jury will be forced to become executioners and decide . . . .
I was lucky enough to be sent a reader copy of this one quite some time ago, which I then placed on the Shelf of Shame with others of the same ilk who stare at me in my reading chair as I select library book after library book instead of them. It wasn’t until my friend Indieflower made a John Marrs reference in a comment about another book that the lightbulb went off in my head reminding me I had this. I can now confirm that it was indeed the best kind of bad (or maybe the best kind of good). I think I avoided this because I was expecting a Maximum Overdrive type of story – and let’s get real, nothing can compare to that level of camp . . . .
To say I was delighted to find myself experiencing something more along the lines of . . . .
Is a serious understatement.
This was some serious high octane junk food for my brain type of read and I couldn’t stop turning the pages as more about each of the characters was revealed . . . .
But it also had some had some pretty relevant undertones regarding implicit bias and the devolution of humankind courtesy of social media, confirming my beliefs that anyone who dare utter the phrase . . . .
“I am valued. I am listened to. I am an influencer.”
In my presence, will find me doing everything in my power to NOT give them one of these . . . .
3.5 Stars because the big reveal drug on a little too much for my liking – rounding up because the grand finale was delicious.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment