Core

The more I think about this one the more I'm convinced that this book rules.

This book has been labelled dystopian, and although that is true on the surface, this book is less interested in exploring and warning of a potential future and more interested in the construction of identity. The premise is that forty people wake up in a cage with no memory as to how that came to be: specifically, thirty-nine women and one child. No one knows the child's parents; no one knows her name; she is only the Child, and she has no memory of the previous world: she only knows the cage, the thirty-nine women, and the (male) guards that watch over them but never speak. Those in the cage have no purpose, there is nothing to do, and their survival is guaranteed: when sick they are handed pills, when hungry they are given food. The novel begins as the Child begins to think, and is presented as her memoir. From the very beginning the Child understands herself as fundamentally different from every other human she can see: she is not like the other women in the cage, and she is not like the guards. The central question the novel is asking, then, isn't "how did this situation occur?"—the book tells you right off the bat that there will be no easy answers—it's "how does a person develop into a subject with no name, no gender, no mirror, no room for human activity, and no purpose?"

If that question sounds interesting to you I think this is absolutely worth a read. If you go in just based on the sci-fi premise however I think it'll be disappointing. But it's a short book, and after sitting on it for a few days I'm convinced I need to reread it. The author was a psychoanalyst and it shows, so I'm curious how much more I'd get out of this after deep-diving into psychoanalysis some more.

she really was back! a bit predictable but also a lot of fun. a lot of readers seem to hate Carrie and I think they simply don't get it. why didn't she and Nicki kiss though

Full review:

This was a fun one! Keeping up the TJR streak of fun enjoyable books for me (we're ignoring Malibu Rising).

This is a book about tennis, but it's really a book about desire. The premise is that of Carrie Soto as a world-renowned tennis star—the best there ever was—whose status as The Best suddenly becomes threatened, making her return to the sport despite her old age (for tennis... she's in her late thirties), with her dad as her coach. So in one sense, this is an underdog story: the entire world assumes she can't come back. In another sense it really isn't, as Soto's goal initially isn't to take back her title, it's to keep it. This alone makes Carrie an abrasive character: she has already proved herself, and what she's fighting for isn't to prove herself, not really, she's already done that: her impetus to come back is to stop someone else from overshadowing her legacy. More than that, she insists on bluntly stating what she believes (i.e. that she is The Best), and she will use any advantage she can get her hands on to win. This all makes following her comeback a lot of fun! I also never found her unlikable, though a lot of readers seem to.

Although on the surface it shares characteristics with sports anime of all things (and a hint of Marty Supreme, if it was actually about ping pong), it's really a grounded story. For me, that comes down to her relationship with her dad Javier (who is also her coach), which acts as the gravitational pull of the novel. We get the play-by-play of many tennis matches (and it is exciting! at least if you like tennis), but I think each and every one really characterises and reflects Carrie, Javier, and their relationship. (There is nominally a romance here, too, albeit a boring one.)

TJR ranking: Atmosphere > Daisy Jones & the Six > Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo > Carrie Soto is Back > Malibu Rising