Eva

ugh. DNF a quarter into this.
If you're describing a person's every single thought, make them interesting at least.

Diminishing returns on my Sally Rooney experience:
book 1. loved
book 2. loved
book 3. ok-ish
book 4. couldn't even finish

Thought I'd give this a try but the protagonist using his neuronal interface to get laid on the first twenty pages makes this read like it's been written 50 years ago. Oh nerds.

Got a quarter into the audiobook, was initially charmed but have since grown somewhat bored and annoyed. Could be the narrator's fault. Won't finish.

A family of geniuses, a grandpa only talking in prose, and that twin situation at the heart of it - too much to take.

Abandoning at 6%. This is all interesting, but there's something about the rhythmic flow of anecdotes, without any buildup, that bugs me.

6% and will dnf as this feels too YA in the character and plotting

Will abort this mission at about 20% in. Setz takes you on an interesting well-researched journey, but I find his style rather tedious when you don't have a protagonist you can relate to. I might have endured, were it not so long.

Very surprising this apparently was mostly written pre-covid and the onset of the conspiracy theory epidemic!

Gave up 10% into this, and surprise, it wasn't even the supernatural element that did it, no it was the annoying protagonist, who devoid of all self-confidence let's herself get dragged along on a night out on the eve of an important deadline.

Got 20% into this audiobook, but I just couldn't connect to the story nor characters. I guess I'll wait for the next Menasse to get my fix of European politics.

I made it nearly halfway and yet I will give up on this.

The main narrative is told in the you-perspective and is interlaced with a story told in the we-perspective. And as grating as that sounds, that wasn't my main issue with the book. I thought the setup was quite interesting - near-future, AIs, compassion, trauma - but the poetic stream of consciousness style was exhausting and the plot itself didn't crystallise enough to make up for that.

Made it ~40% in the audiobook, but every time I see I still have ~10 hours ahead of me, my desire to finish crumbles. If only this was told a bit leaner.

Honestly, super interesting. But will DNF nontheless, because there are just too many people and details to keep track of, and the author is not making it easier by telling multiple stories in parallel.

I still think [b:GRM: Brainfuck 43465986 GRM Brainfuck Sibylle Berg https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546646384l/43465986.SY75.jpg 67587992] is brilliant, but I don't seem to have the patience for its sequel. Listening to Berg's dry and hyper-cynical social tech-dystopia is very anxiety inducing. It's darkly funny, it's highly researched, and the depressing thing about it is, that the trajectory of turning society into a mindless mob ruled by algorithms and social-virtue-signaling feels so very inevitable. And this is hard to take. Maybe if the book was shorter, maybe if there was more narrative structure. I got about a quarter into it, before deciding my brain doesn't need this.

Stopping this at 23% because I'm spending more time rolling my eyes at some of the language and structural choices, than being interested in the plot.