The Book Thread

[Velaryon]

My current audiobook is a YA sci-fi horror thriller called Every Line of You by Naomi Gibson. My feelings on it so far are kind of all over the place.

The premise is that main character Lydia has poured all her time and energy into creating an AI named Henry, which is named after her younger brother who died in a car crash a couple years before. Her father abandoned the family, her mother is a nonfunctional wreck who can't even take care of simple tasks like putting money on Lydia's school lunch account, and her former best friend Emma (who was also in the car crash and survived with scars) now hates her guts, so Lydia is basically alone, friendless, and relentlessly bullied. Henry becomes her only confidante, and eventually more than that as he is transferred to a chip and implanted directly in Lydia's body.

I can see a whole lot of influences on this story. The premise definitely borrows from Frankenstein. The entire first act is basically Carrie but with magical computer hacking powers instead of pyrokinesis. Henry can quickly teach himself new skills similar to the "I know kung fu" thing in The Matrix. I've even seen some comparisons to parts of the movie Heathers, though I haven't seen that so can't really speak on it.

It requires a lot of suspension of disbelief and a fairly high tolerance for characters making bad decisions (though in fairness, I think most of the bad decisions are believable for these teens in these circumstances).

I've also learned about some accusations of plagiarism about this book, which is sad if true. I am mostly enjoying this book, even if I do notice a few flaws and even though I'm not loving the audiobook narration.