In her latest unsettling thriller, Helen Phillips conjures a terrifying near future crippled by climate change where AI bots called “hums” have infiltrated every aspect of modern life. The novel begins as May, a young mother who just lost her job to artificial intelligence, undergoes an experimental surgery in exchange for some much-needed cash. With her earnings, she takes her family on a trip to the Botanical Garden, one of the only places in New York still lush with trees and grass. But May’s dream of a vacation quickly turns into a nightmare when unforeseen danger is thrown her way. Phillips examines the intersection of technology and humanity in this quietly unnerving story about the lengths a mother will go to protect her children.
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