Fiction Review: Upgrade

My husband and I are huge fans of Blake Crouch, both his novels and the TV shows based on his books and/or screenplays. We both enjoyed the shows Wayward Pines and Good Behavior, based on his novels and screenplays. Recently, he has written an excellent trio of science fiction thrillers: Dark Matter (my favorite), Recursion, and now Upgrade. And I just read that Apple TV+ is making Dark Matter into a TV series, and Netflix bought the rights to Recursion for a movie adaptation! Like those novels, Upgrade is a fast-paced, action-packed thriller based on a terrifying scientific premise. (links here are to my reviews).

In the near-future, Logan Ramsay is working for the GPA, Genetic Protection Agency, a new government agency tasked with stopping any genetic modification research. The GPA is the result of an agricultural experiment gone terribly wrong. A researcher genetically modified the insects that feed on rice in China so that instead of harming the rice, the insects would cause stronger, healthier rice with greater yields. But unforeseen consequences resulted in a global famine that the world is still recovering from, decades later. Logan himself was a genetic biologist imprisoned for his work, and he joined the GPA as a condition of his release. As the novel opens, Logan and his partner, Nadine, are leading a raid on a laboratory in Colorado, based on information obtained from a scientist they just arrested. They have a whole SWAT team with them, but as Logan enters the building first, he is hit by some kind of explosion that rips right through his protective gear. Hospitalized for weeks afterward, Logan experiences extremely high fevers and terrible pain,. They guess that he was exposed to something from the explosive device, but none of the doctors can identify the infection that seems to have seized him. He recovers and is released from the hospital and sent back to his wife and daughter. Soon, though, Logan begins to notice changes: small at first but growing over time. He can think more clearly, speed read complex books and understand everything, and remember every word he's ever read in his life, like single lines from in-depth scientific reports he reads decades ago. Logan also notices physical improvements in strength and stamina. He suspects that whatever infected him at the laboratory introduced a genetic hack into his body; he's been upgraded. He figures out that what's happening to him will soon be forced on the entire population ... and he's the only one who can stop it.

And, that is just the beginning! As always with Crouch, this novel starts with a bang (literally) and takes off at breakneck pace. There are unexpected twists and turns around every corner and a whole lot of surprises. All of that makes it an excellent thriller, but the subject matter is also fascinating and thought-provoking. Crouch (as Logan) digs deep here into the ethical and moral implications of upgrading the human race and of the mind-bending concept of humans trying to save humanity by engineering our own evolution. This is the kind of science fiction I love, the kind that makes me think. Logan and the other characters are fully developed, so that you are rooting for him, to both save the world and hang onto his humanity as he becomes something new. This thoughtful, page-turning thriller was engrossing and gripping, with a very satisfying ending. It's a very close second to my favorite, Dark Matter! I hope this one gets adapted for TV or movie, too.

337 pages, Ballantine Books

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Colorado

R.I.P. Challenge

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here (from the beginning of the novel--it sounds good!) and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm (the same audio sample is available here) and support local bookstores.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

It's Monday 10/9! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Last week was busy but fun!  It was a big birthday week in my family, with four in a row. We celebrated my husband's birthday Wednesday evening with good friends who came over for takeout Mexican and cake. All four of us were pretty tired that night from busy days, but as our friend said when she was leaving, "It's so nice to have friends we can get together with even when we're not feeling up to being social!" We've known them since we all lived in New Orleans together in the 80's. I forgot to take photos Wednesday (like I said, we were all tired!), so here's two photos of us from the old days - my husband and I with her on a camping trip and all four of us on Halloween in 1987:

On Friday, we left for a weekend of camping with my cousin and his wife, something we've been trying to coordinate for years! He and I are the same age, and we were quite a bit older than the rest of our cousins (and he was the only boy among eight girl cousins). They have their camper set up on a permanent site at a campground in eastern Pennsylvania, less than two hours from our house. We met them there and had a wonderful weekend together. They have a nice group of friends there that we enjoyed meeting. It rained for about 12 hours Saturday, but they had a nice dry covered patio with a gas fireplace. And once the rain ended in the afternoon, we were left with a gorgeous fall day! My cousin, my husband, and I went kayaking on a nearby lake and really enjoyed the beautiful afternoon, with some touches of fall color starting to show in the trees.

Cousins!

Great Blue Heron

My husband and cousin kayaking

Some fall color starting!

Beautiful sky after the storm

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On the Blog

 TV Tuesday: And Just Like That ... - I never watched Sex and the City, but I enjoyed this entertaining reboot about women friends in their 50's.

Teen/YA Reviews: Crash and Bang (Visions trilogy) by Lisa McMann - I loved these paranormal thrillers by one of my favorite YA authors and I can't wait to read book 3!

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On Video

Friday Reads 10-6-23 - my brief weekly update on what I am currently reading, in print and on audio 

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 What We're Reading

 

 

I finished reading Upgrade by Blake Crouch. My husband and I are big fans of Crouch's sci fi thrillers (Recursion was excellent and Dark Matter is my favorite), as well as his TV shows, Wayward Pines and Good Behavior (and, oh my gosh, I just found out they're making Dark Matter into a TV series!!). Upgrade takes place in a near future where genetic manipulation is illegal due to a devastating famine that resulted from earlier experiments. Logan is an ex-genetic scientist who now works for the GPA, Genetic Protection Agency. During one raid of a lab, he's badly injured and exposed to something the doctors can't pinpoint. But, soon, he begins to feel different: growing smarter, faster, stronger every day. Is Logan's "upgrade," which is planned to expand to all people, truly the evolution that will save humanity? Or is it a terrible mistake that needs to be stopped? As always, Crouch starts his novel with a bang and an intriguing premise, and the suspense and action never let up.

 

 

 

And now I have started another book from my large pile of possibilities for the R.I.P. Challenge, The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld. This is a sequel to her earlier novel, The Child Finder, which my husband and I both enjoyed. Naomi is an investigator who specializes in finding missing children. She herself was abducted as a child, but her memories begin with her escape from her captor. Naomi's younger sister is still missing, after all these years, and Naomi has promised herself that the next person she finds will be her sister. She heads to Portland, Oregon, where young girls have been going missing in recent months, with six of them turning up dead in the river. Despite her determination to focus only on her sister, Naomi becomes interested in a 12-year-old girl named Celia who is living on the streets to escape an abusive stepfather and addicted mother. It's excellent so far, with the same suspense, attention to detail, and in-depth characters as the earlier novel.

 

I started a new audio book for the R.I.P. Challenge, When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash. It's a mystery set in coastal North Carolina. Sheriff Winston Barnes is awakened one night by a loud noise and goes out to investigate. On the small airfield near his house, he finds a private plane crashed on the runway, and a man who's been killed by a gun lying nearby. The man is a local, Rodney, who's always been a law-abiding citizen. Other perspectives are woven into the narrative, including Winston's daughter, Colleen, who is severely depressed after losing her baby, and Jay, Rodney's wife's younger brother, who's been sent to stay with them after getting in trouble at home in Atlanta. I'm interested to see how these different threads will come together and where the investigation goes. This is my first Wiley Cash novel, and so far, the writing is just as good as I'd heard.

 

My husband, Ken, got a big stack of books for his birthday (of course), but he had already started reading Kidnapped, a classic by Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island was a favorite at our house when our kids were young. He says that so far, the writing reminds a bit of Great Expectations (which he read earlier this year on my recommendation), though darker. 

 

Our son, 29 finished reading The Wizard's Crown, book 5 in the Art of the Adept series by Michael Manning. He's now moved onto the first book in a new sequel series to that one, Wrath of the Stormking, and is reading book one, Wizard in Exile.

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What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.  

What are you and your family reading this week?

Teen/YA Review: Crash and Bang (Visions trilogy)

Pulling books off my shelves for my large "pile of possibilities" for the R.I.P. Challenge and Series September last month, I noticed a forgotten YA novel: Bang by Lisa McMann, book two in her Visions trilogy. Lisa McMann is an old favorite author of mine (I loved her YA series Wake, standalone Cryer's Cross, and middle-grade series The Unwanteds, links to my reviews), so I requested book one of this newer trilogy, Crash, from my library and read both of them in September. They lived up to my high expectations, and I read these gripping paranormal thrillers in record time!

Jules is sixteen and lives in Chicago but doesn't have a typical teen life. She spends her free time helping out in her family's Italian restaurant, and her best friends (only friends?) are her older brother and younger sister. They're the only ones who really understand what it's like to live with their father's severe depression and hoarding. But Jules is managing OK until she starts to see frightening visions whenever she looks at screens. In her repeated vision, she sees a snowplow jump the curb and hit a restaurant full of people, followed by a huge explosion. Her vision ends with nine body bags in the snow, and she can see a face in the last one, of her old friend and current crush, Sawyer. As her visions increase in intensity and frequency, showing up in mirrors, windows, signs, and more, she searches them for clues and figures out that it's Sawyer's family's Italian restaurant that she's seeing exploding violently. The problem? She and her siblings have been forbidden from even speaking to Sawyer and his family because of some age-old feud among the adults in the families. How can she pinpoint the exact time of the impending disaster and warm Sawyer and his family in time? Or will the increasingly violent visions make her go crazy first? What if her dad's mental illness runs in the family?

No spoilers of Crash's ending, but in book two, Bang, Jules' visions have ended, but someone close to her begins to see different--but similarly horrifying-- visions of another impending disaster. Together, they are trying to figure out what is being seen so they can stop it from happening.

As always, McMann has created a bizarre but believable paranormal premise in the midst of a very realistic situation. The tension here ramps up higher and higher as Jules' visions worsen, while she tries to navigate high school, working in her parents' restaurant, and dealing with her dad's issues. She's a fully-developed character, with wonderfully close relationships with her siblings as the three of them band together to keep their family's secrets. There is even a sense of humor in these novels; did I mention that Jules has to drive a food truck with giant meatballs on top to school? That humor is on display in the audio sample below, as Jules lists "5 Reasons Why I'm Shunned." I love the way this novel is a thriller, with great suspense, while it also has so much emotional complexity, dealing with issues like mental illness. Lisa McMann has done it again, with an original premise and engrossing page-turner, and I can't wait to read book three in the trilogy, Gasp.

Crash, 256 pages, Simon & Schuster

Bang, 272 pages, Simon & Schuster

These books fit in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (Bang)

Diversity Reading Challenge (both)

Literary Escapes Challenge - Illinois (both)

R.I.P. Challenge (both)

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. This sample highlights the humor in the novel as well as some background about Jules and her siblings.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (there's also an audio sample here, a different one, about the visions).

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  
 

 

TV Tuesday: And Just Like That ...

Back in July, my husband went away for a week to play golf with his two best friends from high school in their hometown. Major Oklahoma road trip for him, and major alone time for me! I was searching for the perfect TV show for me to watch on my own, and after several false starts, I finally settled on And Just Like That ..., the sequel/reboot of Sex and the City. This show didn't even occur to me at first because--admission time--I never watched Sex and the City! I missed that whole 6-year-long pop cultural phenomenon (I was busy with my kids), though of course, I heard about it and recognized the four actresses who starred in it. But I gave And Just Like That ... a try because it was about women my age (ish). While it's not a perfect show, I enjoyed watching it during that week alone and during lunch on golf days since.

Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, was at the center of Sex and the City, and she is back here, along with two of her best friends from that previous show: Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon, and Charlotte, played by Kristin Davis (Samantha has moved away). At the start of the first season, all three of them are married (presumably to the men they ended up with at the end of Sex and the City) but not all are happy. I'll avoid spoilers here, though I already knew what happened in the first episode from seeing it on the Today Show! They each make some new friends, too. Dr. Nya Wallace (played by Karen Pittman) is the Black law professor in Miranda's new program at Columbia. Che Diaz (played by the wonderful Sara Ramirez of Grey's Anatomy fame) is a non-binary, bisexual, half-Mexican podcaster, who asks Carrie to be on her podcast discussing sexuality (the show's new version of Carrie's old newspaper column). Miranda is quite taken by Che when she meets them. Lisa Todd Wexley, a very accomplished, wealthy Black woman played by Nicole Ari Parker, is Charlotte's new mom friend from the private school their kids attend. And Carrie ends up befriending her real estate agent, Seema Patel, played by Samita Choudhury. As the show moves forward, all of the women deal with their own highs and lows: divorce, death of someone close, sexual wondering/awakening, dealing with teen kids, work-life balance, and more. They are also dealing with the more minor aspects of aging, like hair turning white. 

I watched the two seasons that are currently available and enjoyed getting to know these characters. I made a point in my description above of pointing out the race or ethnicity or sexuality of some of the new characters because it felt so obvious to me that the show was making a concerted effort to update itself and become more diverse. I'm guessing the original show was pretty focused on the four white privileged women at its center? Don't get me wrong--I was happy to see a diverse, interesting cast, but it sometimes feels a bit forced here. And, almost all of them are still quite wealthy and privileged! But I enjoyed most of the characters, old and new. It was refreshing to see some of the issues and situations of 50-ish women get some attention on TV; that's a rare thing. The characters all get their own storylines, background, history, and dreams (even the newer ones), but somehow it didn't feel like too much. I'm assuming, from the title, that the original show was quite outspoken about sex, and this one is, too. This is not a show for the faint of heart or the easily offended! From gay sex to teen sex and much, much more, this is a very open, honest, sexual show. Overall, it's not a perfect show, but it was enjoyable entertainment for me and a refreshing change of pace.

There are currently two seasons of And Just Like That ... available on Max (formerly HBO Max). A third season is coming in 2024, according to IMDb.