The first half of this book had be so absorbed and enthralled, then it resolved into a lackluster, idiotic thriller. It had a great premise and world-building with believabily flawed main characters, then threw that all in the garbage for a ridiculous plot. It took me months to finish because the second half was so bad. I go into specifics with spoilers below.

I don't think it was a horrible choice to make Emmett Maggie's mother, but Emmett's character because basically a cartoon villain. The beginning had great commentary on the Foucauldian nature of technology and social media and I wish she had stuck with that instead of basically throwing the characters into a blender of chaos and stupidity. And the fact that Emmett was so mad that Noa got her drug addicted, emotionally abusive mother deported (when Noa was a teenager), that she nearly killed her and then kept her in a simulation for possibly forever is just ridiculous. After all of this, Maggie's character basically fell apart. She became a mother/daughter object rather than a character with motivations and thoughts. I love multiple POV books. I love books with ambiguous endings. I love books that have nuanced commentar on women technology. But I very much did not love this book.

Overall, I do not recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.