I loved reading these short stories! Mini review for each:

✦ The Center for Immortality Research - this one didn’t really click for me! I didn’t find the story particularly compelling, which made me feel a little apprehensive about the stories to come. The ending also felt forced to incorporate the overarching themes of the book. This was the story that made me laugh the most - the back-and-forth drama with the board members resonated deeply as a fellow corporate girly

✦ The End of the Voyage - very entertaining read with a perfect ending. I would love to see this adapted into a horror film

✦ A Very Ordinary Marriage - a page-turner with an unsettling conclusion!

✦ Maria, Gratia Plena - one of my favorites. The memory extraction plot device reminded me of the film Paprika (high praise!), which I recently saw for the first time. This story really struck an emotional cord with me and I’ve been thinking about it ever since

✦ Your Utopia - this story is told from the POV of a car. It sounds like that wouldn’t work but it absolutely does. Also one of my favorites!

✦ A Song for Sleep - made me cry!!! Another story told from the perspective of an inanimate object that works far better than you’d imagine it would. I really think these kinds of stories are where Chung is at her strongest

✦ Seed - felt particularly relevant in light of what’s going on in the world…the idea of two corporations owning everything and people becoming carbon copies of one another…I’m on nature’s side for sure. We need Earth, Earth does not need us

✦ To Meet Her - very good but not as engaging as some of the other stories. The story felt the most “real” and easy to imagine as a potential future. I found the security measures at the end of the story amusing and intriguing. I would have switched the order of Seed and To Meet Her, as I think Seed is a more powerful ending to leave the reader with

Overall, Your Utopia is a quick, enjoyable read with some thought-provoking questions about technology and humanity. 4/5 ☆