The Sudden Appearance of Hope

by Claire North

[empressbrooke]

I was mentally giving this 4 stars up to the 50% mark. It felt like a Black Mirror episode with a really unusual protagonist. Hope has an unexplained condition that makes people forget her as soon as she's out of their sight. Her family, friends, teachers, etc. suddenly can't remember who she is. The author does an impressive amount of work figuring out what implications this would have for someone's life and weaving it into the story. The plot revolves around her efforts to sabotage an app called Perfection, which people use to become, well, perfect. I was having a total blast with it for the first half.

Somewhere between 50% and 66% the plot took a turn that left not as eager to keep reading. Then the final third left me wondering if the editor went on vacation before finishing and they sent the book to the printer anyways. It's unfocused and I'm not entirely sure what the author's end goal was. To make matters worse, a pet peeve of mine popped up - characters who all sound the same. In the final portion of the book, four separate characters talk in manic, sentence fragmenty monologues even though it sounded nothing like how they spoke earlier.

I felt really disappointed in the end, and uncertain if I wanted to read anything else by Claire North even though I've had her other books on my "to read" list for a long time.