A review by minimicropup
William by Mason Coile

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I’m not afraid of what Ai can do, I’m afraid of what humans can do. I think that’s why I loved this 😅. I liked the parallels around parenthood for what happens when something is starved of the guidance and care it needs. 
 
Energy: Dependent. Deranged. Devoted. 
 
🐕 Howls
Some predictable moments (moreso if you recently read the classic this was inspired by), but it didn’t take away from the story for me. Some of the symbolism was either lost on me or I missed the answers to some of the weird things that happened that I still want answers to! 
 
🐩 Tail Wags 
Eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere. Sense of watching everything unfold from a distance (almost how it feels viewing security cam footage). Unusual (but effective) metaphors. Exploration of the themes, motifs, commentary. The modern re-telling and end twist.
 
Scene: 🌎 Set in an unspecified Upstate College Town.
Perspective: Mainly a married couple. One is a severely agoraphobic robotics genius tinkering with their experiments in a home lab. The other is a brilliant computer scientist expecting a child but no longer invested in the relationship. 
Timeline: Not too distant future, on the day before Halloween. 
🔥 Fuel: Sense of confusion. Puzzle pieces coming together. Twists, why is this happening? Trapped in a fight for survival. Why did Henry create his Ai robot? Why keep him around half finished? Will Henry win back his wife? What or who has possessed the home? Will they get out? 
📖 Cred: Not too distant future sci-fi realism 
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Mineral scent of autumn. Black out curtains. Halloween decorations. Charred animal rot. Lights off. Steam. Basement. 
  • Marriage in peril
  • Dinner party gone wrong
  • Gone Horribly Right techno sci-fi
  • Ghost in the machine, it’s in the house
  • Consequences of abandonment
  • Gruesome deaths
  • Ironic bizarro 
  • Tragic monsters, anti-villains
  • Grey on grey morality
  • Flip the script endings (could re-read with new perspective)
  • Exploring the creator-creation connection, AI, human responsibility, and the future of technology
  • Detached perspective third-person narration
 
Content Heads-Up: Agoraphobia, anxiety. Pregnancy. Infidelity, betrayal, abandonment, loneliness. Violence. Confinement (house). Unrequited love. Blood, death, murder, dismemberment. Corpse discovery. Pregnancy.
 
Rep: Human. Ai. Hetero. Ambiguous skin tones. 
 
📚 Format: Library Hardcover
 
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