Early Review – Hum by Helen Phillips (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 272 pages
Publisher: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books
Release Date: August 6, 2024
ASIN: B0CDXW1GPN
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.
Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was an intriguing read that kept me entertained and was thought-provoking. I think my only complaint was that it ended incredibly abruptly, and I wasn’t really sure what happened at the ending even though I read the ending multiple times.
The story follows May. She lost her job to AI and is struggling with her husband (who does odd jobs) to make ends meet. When an opportunity comes up to be a guinea pig in a process that alters her face so that it can’t be recognized by surveillance in exchange for huge sum of money, she jumps at the chance. She also decides after the procedure to use some of the money to book a weekend at the lush Botanical Garden resort, which ends up having bigger ramifications for her family than she expected.
There were some things I enjoyed about this and some things I found confusing. I enjoyed the world-building here; the Hum are AI robots that work service jobs. There is a hint that they might be more human than they appear, but this isn’t explored in detail. They do both harm and help, and it is hard to tell if the harm is intentional or just part of them trying to help. They are not a huge part of the story but more in the background.
I also enjoyed the depiction of May and her family trying to survive in this world that is slowly sliding into extinction. This is not an apocalyptic setting; things are just slowly getting harder for humanity to deal with. The settings are recognizable and even the issues they face on a day to day level (air quality, food quality, etc) are issues that are seen today…just worse.
The book is less clear on the story and the purpose of the story, which shifts around as you read. First, you think there is a going to be a big plot about May’s face getting altered and this does have impact on the story but it’s not as much as you think it would. Then you think the story will be about the humanity of the Hum, but again, this is more of an element woven into the background. Then you think something will happen at the Botanical Gardens and it kind of does, but then it doesn’t. There is a lot of May fighting against the technology her kids use and discussing both the benefits and detriments of having them “unhooked” from this system.
In the end, this is an intriguing and thought-provoking read. It is more of a look into a chaotic time in the life of this family rather than any one story or message. It touches on many issues but doesn’t fully explore or resolve any of them. In the end, does May’s face change really matter? Is it wrong to take her kids’ tech away from them? Is technology good or is it bad or is it both? Was humanity right to create the Hum or not? These issues are all explored lightly but never deeply discussed and never resolved.
This was well written and easy to read. I found it engaging and intriguing. I was just disappointed in how open-ended everything was left and at how unfocused and wandering the story was.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I mostly enjoyed this but was a bit disappointed in how ambiguous the ending was and how unfocused the themes in the story were. I did enjoy the look into a normal family trying to survive in a near future Earth where things aren’t apocalyptic but are just a bit worse than they are now. The questions around technology and the ambiguity of whether it is helpful or harmful were intriguing as well. I will keep an eye out for Phillips’ future books because I did enjoy some of the concepts in here.
