Ended up reading this right after it was released because Nagamatsu is a creative writing prof at my college. Such a good and weird read.

I'll always remember a history teacher told us that anything someone can imagine can really happen.

This book hit me so hard, easily my favorite read of 2022 (so far)! I rarely feel all that attached to the characters when reading short stories, but this was so well done that I actually cried over several of the stories in the first half of the book :'D

hey, this is my current read! it's so emotionally heavy that it's taking me a while to get through, but I'm absolutely fascinated by the narrative structure and I hope this "linear interconnected short stories" thing is something more authors start doing in the future. great review as always!!

I just finished this book and needed to find someone to share it with. It was an amazing book which made me think and feel like you said.

This book sounds amazing, scary and relevent. I Saw in a museum exhibit a few years ago about death the idea of the euthenasia rollercoaster. It is such an interesting concept, but the rights and regulation of euthenasia world wide needs to get to a certain point first. Can't wait to read this!!!

I read this back in February and loved it! Not enough ppl are talking about it. I love that you loved it!

I will buy any book you tell me to buy 😩

The pig story and the amusement park story will stay with me for a long time

Stop making me reading every book you recommend, I need more time :) I love how passionately you talk about the books, it makes me want to grab them instantly.

Absolutely amazed by this book. And you explained it perfectly- it is exploring BIG profound ideas through small intimate relationships. And the fact that it is near future, everything in this book seems plausible makes it so much more scary, haunting but also beautiful. Great review as usual. And ya I noticed no queer characters too.

Oh wow this book sounds intense 😬 A EUTHANASIA THEME PARK THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!!! Definitely would love to read about that! I really wanna read this book now. I've seen the US cover before and it looked so boring, but you totally changed my mind about it.

Happy to hear such a great review of a fantastic book! One of my favorites I've read this year so far, and your insights made me want to re-read it already. I love your analysis of the meaning behind the title.

This was so intriguing that I ordered it while you were talking. Please do more sci-fi book reviews! :3 (And I love that shirt!)

i juuust found your channel and have binge watched at least 10ish videos or so and absolutely love your style of reviewing. i’ve added almost every book you’ve mentioned to my reading list (including this one). thank you!!! i’m a new subscriber and looking forward to seeing more from you 💕

Oh, I'm so glad to see you praise this book. I read it back in February (that feels so long ago!). And I'm sure you're right about there being no queer characters. It's still one of my favorite books of this year for all the reasons you mentioned. I recently read Escaping Exodus (part 1 of a series) and The Prey of Gods (a standalone) by Nicky Drayden, which do have queer characters and if you haven't read them then you should!

your reviews always makes me want to buy every book you recommend ,even though I already have pile of unread books and top of that I've exam coming this week :))

A very lovely and great review. Loved the book, too. :)

I'm not the biggest fan of Emily St.John Mandel, but this sounds intriguing. I like interconnected short stories.

Just picked it up from the library, what a lucky coincidence!

It's been on my tbr for a while, but havent got round to it. So excited to read it because of your review!

This one sounds like something I might love! Thanks for the recommendation. Recently been obsessed with your channel hehe. Keep it up!

Wow! This sounds so good, I bought it right away. You really are my favourite bookfluencer 💕

I was looking for my next read, will start this one today. Thanks

Fantastic review, Willow! This was already on my TBR but now I’m going to have to move it to the top! Read Station Eleven a month ago and was enamored by it completely. This book sounds so amazing. Thanks again for your work, Willow. You share the best books. Have a great day! :)

Watching your videos before bed has become my nighttime routine that calms my mind and relaxes me so much it’s amazing 😊 you have an incredibly soothing voice, Willow 😍 and your reviews and book recs are chef’s kiss. Wishing you the very best in life ✨

I got as far as the end of the first roller coaster scene before I openly wept on the sofa for 10mins… I wasn’t in the right head space for this book.

This book sounds fascinating! Lovely review. And I just adore your shirt!

You convinced me within the first four minutes. I paused the video, put the book on hold at the library, and then resumed.

The intelligent pig used for body parts was used by Margaret Atwood in the Oryx and Crake trilogy, but this book still sounds very interesting.

This sounds absolutely fantastic. I'm sold!

Fantastic review! I loved this book.

This sounds amazing!!

In the chapter where a plague survivor is writing to his neighbours to invite them to a block party, the writer mentions a Benny and Phillip (might have that second name wrong, but it was two statistically probably male names) with their son. I only noticed because the gay goggles are permanently glued to my face too.

Considered reading this for a while, thanks for finally convincing me to pick it up :)

i just finished this book and i had to talk about it. i've never cried over a book like this in my LIFE. everything is relatable, bleak, there's a sense of misery sewn and imbued into every oage of this book, but fuck, everything says i want to LIVE, i want to get OUT, i will live this life if it kills me, i'll save this world if it ends my life, i'll make this happen, i wish i could save you, even the bit at the end (i've seen a lot of people complain about the last bit, which i understand but disagree with) is brimming with a very human "i want to see you again. i want to find you. please, let me find you." anyway i'm WRECKED

Proud to say this one is one my shelf!

It’s nice to hear good things about this book, as I am currently clawing my eyes through each part

I don't remember any other book that had me crying in the first three chapters.

I absolutely loved this book. I’ve followed your channel for a while now, and am always happy to see a new video up, and when I saw this one I had to watch it right away! Have you read My Volcano, by John Elizabeth Stintzi? It’s another one that blew me away this year, from my favorite small indie press, Two Dollar Radio. Sci-fi eco-horror meets mythology, it’s a non-linear, non-binary wild ride of a book. I smile just imagining your review. 😊

When I moved to France one of my first sf books I felled in love with was "Cosplay" by Laurent Ladouari (in the pocket size edition it got different tittle), he used the idea of ancient virus freed from ice in the second volume. I'm still waiting for the third volume 😪.

I had started it but put it down when I saw the first chapter was over an hour 😅. I need to start it again.

Well done.

The pig made me cry.

I love your review, really didn't love the book! 😅 (Below is just my opinion obviously, I know that a lot of people loved it, I'm sad it was a miss for me) While I really enjoyed the authors writing at times, it slipped into the ridiculous or melodramatic too many times. The setup and some of the various concepts were SO interesting, but we're often glossed over in favour of focusing on the emotional interior of the characters. (And that's ok, but only if your characters are at least a little bit interesting and engaging) The characters themselves were all very sad and melancholy and most of all, SIMILAR. The only thing that sets them apart are their relationships and their surroundings, which is interesting for about 1/3 of the book and then becomes intensely boring. The few female narrators we get are all devoted wives or lovers, which became again really monotonous towards the end. Also your point about the lack of queerness is so real!! It was the first book in months that I had trouble getting through and the first book in a long long time that really disappointed me. Still, I did like the writing at times, especially in the earlier chapters, I enjoyed the timing of the POVs, and while I was SEVERELY missing some close friendships, I liked the depiction of different kinds of relationships. Sadly the negative outweighs the positive, but considering that it's a debut novel (I think?) I might give the author another try some time from now!!

Wait, there was a guy who invented a hypothetical rollercoaster like that. Look up "Euthanasia Coaster" here on KZfaq.