Book Review: Youtopia: A Techno-Thriller

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At a glance:

"Youtopia" is a part epistolary novel (a word I didn't know, basically means found-documents format) and part... normal novel? There are other documents that are a part of the story that add to the premise. This reminded me of the movie "Surrogates" from 2007 and has a similar idea: what if people could live through a vicarious means and what happens when someone dies through means that they shouldn't?

In general, the story follows Ana (short for Anabel), an investigator who is looking into a murder at Youtopia. As the novel unfolds, we get to know a bit more about Ana, including her dating habits, her past, her desires. The character work for Ana is really well done, and I get to know her pretty well from the actions. The other characters weren't as noteworthy because they didn't seem to be a focus. Other than Sonya, the creator of Youtopia. There is also Evan, who I found well written.

However, while you read the story, the document will randomly come in and entirely disrupt the story. The most jarring example of this is when we receive an essay from a queer individual who mentions a harrowing event that I, quite frankly, made me put the book down. It wasn't bad, I don't mean this as an insult, but as a gay person I found it wholly out of place, and even though it was poignant, it didn't seem necessary in the grand scheme. I feel this way about a lot of the found documents, they don't really add much to the entire story. They aren't bad--and I don't mean to make it seem like they are! They just don't really fit.

What I liked:

I really, REALLY liked the exploration of the "dark side" of human desire. Youtopia is a virtual reality that lets people mold their wildest dreams. I do think that maybe having some sort of warning about the content of the book would have been helpful in this regard for other readers.

I also liked the motivations. Everyone seemed to have clear intent, reasons, and generally I accepted the world as it was. The prose is absolutely beautiful, the descriptions are some of the best lyricism I have read in recent memory, and it isn't heavy-handed either. There aren't pages of Sonya's appearance or Ana's inner turmoil, but the description that does appear is on point, clear, and well-written.

What I didn't like:

I really don't think that the found-documents style was necessary. I think that this was because the connection to the pieces that were incorporated didn't add much. I understand it is like the evidence or background information Ana has and references, but they didn't add to the story. If anything, they bloated it and broke the flow that I really liked.

I also listened to this as well as reading (I bought it twice because it was good and I had an extra audible credit!) and I think that this is much better read than listening. The author, I believe, was the reader, and while he was fine, his voice lacked emotion when reading. It almost sounded like an AI reading it, but it wasn't bad just... empty?

Finally, I really think the prologue could have been axed. I would have liked a lot of removal of what I consider to be fluff and instead additions of more to the world as the characters interact with it.

Concluding Thoughts:

I am happy that I read this book. It gave me a good bit of thought, and even though it was jarring in some ways, it was overall a really well written story. I think that you could honestly skip most of the found documents and still have an excellent story, although (obviously) shorter. Also, this isn't something that I didn't like or dislike, but the references to things like Twitter (but called X) indicated to me that the timeframe for this novel was present day, which was a bit confusing because it makes it feel almost like historical fiction.

Recommended to:

If you enjoy more grounded science fiction/speculative fiction, murder-mystery, or the movie Surrogates, I think you'll really like this book. If you are sensitive to darker imagery and ideas that would require a trigger warning, I don't suggest this book. But for me, I enjoyed the most of it, and am a happy reader!