Brandon

It was okay. It will be okay. Both everything and nothing happened, depending on your perspective. Within the head of the main character, everything. From the perspective of a reader, nothing.

I can relate to being that friend dragged along on the self-absorbed journey of someone who thinks the world revolves around them and their mental landscape. Hell, I can sometimes be that insufferable self-absorbed person. It's an exhausting place to be for everyone involved and I'm glad to be free of it for now, both in this book and in real life. I do appreciate that Green has expressed a perspective on mental illnesses and struggles to the world and think that the world is richer for it.

The repetition is intentional. The repetition is purposeful. The repetition is point. The repetition will continue until you fucking listen. Is this thing on?

A great universe, but an insufferable main character.

Boring characters and action, unsurprising plot twist, lack of interesting big ideas. Thankfully, it was short and occasionally fun to read.

Great, aside from the rampant sexism.

Great, aside from the rampant sexism.

Meh. This could have explored so many interesting ideas about the wealth gap, governance, and survival. Instead, it reads like an unambitious teen survival/ romance. It isn't terrible by any means; it was engaging enough that I finished it. Perhaps I'm just too used to the “escapism” of science fiction that literary critics love to deride.

A whirlwind tour of possible economic effects of automation mostly (as the title would suggest) focused on employment outcomes.

Interesting but simplistic and unsatisfying look at the worlds automation could create in coming years.

An interesting thought experiment on governance that could have gone in to much more detail. I would buy a follow up full length book or a novel about this!