Adeline
Dystopian horror mystery following Enka who meets a genius artist called Mathilde at art school, striking a friendship with her, but before she can make a career, marries into a family who develops various technologies including one where a brain can be downloaded and uploaded into another carrier. Soo I liked it though a bit less than the authors first book. The writing style is still gorgeous and lush with some great descriptions. There was a distance to it because of the narration style and the time compression that didn't make me more emotionally attached to the main character, Enka. She was compelling in that she was fully formed with positive and negative traits, to be honest she felt more like an anti-heroine to me. That being said this was written in first person, so it definitely enhanced the unlikeable/unreliable narrative. But because of that distance, the twists didn't really hit me as they should have especially regarding one of the characters, the reveal felt too quick and too abrupt. I really like the worldbuilding surrounding the technology aspect and the way the art world was portrayed (with that sense of pretentiousness that sometimes is present especially with rich people). The themes developed about technology and art, their interconnections, felt very à propos when you see what is happening in our world today. In terms of mood though, it felt less horror and more weird fiction than I thought it would be. Overall, despite my reservations about this book I'll look forward to read more of Ling Ling ‘s work.
Dystopian horror mystery following Enka who meets a genius artist called Mathilde at art school, striking a friendship with her, but before she can make a career, marries into a family who develops various technologies including one where a brain can be downloaded and uploaded into another carrier. Soo I liked it though a bit less than the authors first book. The writing style is still gorgeous and lush with some great descriptions. There was a distance to it because of the narration style and the time compression that didn't make me more emotionally attached to the main character, Enka. She was compelling in that she was fully formed with positive and negative traits, to be honest she felt more like an anti-heroine to me. That being said this was written in first person, so it definitely enhanced the unlikeable/unreliable narrative. But because of that distance, the twists didn't really hit me as they should have especially regarding one of the characters, the reveal felt too quick and too abrupt. I really like the worldbuilding surrounding the technology aspect and the way the art world was portrayed (with that sense of pretentiousness that sometimes is present especially with rich people). The themes developed about technology and art, their interconnections, felt very à propos when you see what is happening in our world today. In terms of mood though, it felt less horror and more weird fiction than I thought it would be. Overall, despite my reservations about this book I'll look forward to read more of Ling Ling ‘s work.