My first 5-star read of 2023. And what a book this was !It will leave you speechless(in a good way, obviously) after you've completed reading it.

This is a very unique dystopian novel that in the beginning may seem confusing to the readers. The book is set in the year 2035 and fiction, in all forms, is banned. There are no fiction books being published and all the books barring non fiction have been destroyed. Parents cannot read aloud books to their children and kids deprived of a bedtime tale are sleepless, being prescribed pills to overcome their insomnia. Fern Dostoy is one of the authors whose book resulted in the ban and now she has been retrained to work as cleaner in a hospital. But yet secretly she keeps a diary, writing, against the government's orders, about her daily, monotonous life without the magic of books to add color to her life. In an act of rebellion, she joins a secret group of people who read bedtime stories to children over the phone. Here she meets Hunter, an 8 year old boy and she feels an instant connection with him. But in a world where technology can invade lives at home and can be used for surveillance, is Fern's secrets really safe?

In the first 30-40% of this book my main grouse with the story was that I wasn't convinced with the reasons given for why the government took such a drastic ban on all fiction. And also in a span of one to one and half year the book ban was so complete brought about by a totalitarian government, that I felt I was missing something. But by the end of the book, the whole story was wrapped up in seamless manner that I was in awe of the author. The ending left me in tears but everything made sense. In fact the last 20% of the book actually made me give 5 stars for this book.

Just go read this book, while for me it will take some time to recover from the after-effects of reading it.

4.25⭐️

Tagline this one will spin you on your axis

A new author to me. Also publishes as Louise Beech.
I had the audiobook narrated by Sophie Bentinck. She does a good job with the voices, and feeling.

I’ve not included any of the blurb, I think it’s better to go into this one totally open, as it won’t be what you expect, prepare yourself to be unsettled.
It’s a very original delivery of the story, so it gets points for originality. But be warned it’s a weird book which feels totally unrealistic it only makes sense at the end, so you really need to just go with the flow keeping your judgment to the end.
It dragged a bit for me though on the slow build up.
It’s a book of 2 parts, the first I could easily have given up on, I commented to a friend that I thought that it was heading for a shredding, the reveal was a total revelation and I loved it.

I didn’t like the plot device of leaving the sentence unfinished at the end of the chapters. For most of the book I thought I had a corrupted audiobook file. By the end it makes total sense. Another device to unsettle the reader from their comfort zone.

My final thoughts, it’s very cleverly done, my question is, is it too clever for the readers? will enough people be able to get to the end with an open mind? Or will they make quick snap decisions. I really hope that they do, its so worth it.

Set in 2035, all fiction is banned and storytelling is illegal. All famous former authors are imprisoned by being relocated to unknown places and ordered to keep low profiles. The Big four were the last four famous books and one was written by Fern Dostoy, our narrator, who chronicles what her life is like in this new reality. Fern is forced into low-wage job with another identity with the only change to her monotonous life when two police officers who come to inspect he periodically. Fern has to learn to live in her new life or find a way to change it.

This was amazing from start to finish, it was so gut-wrenching and detailed. I loved all the twists and this felt like a black mirror episode. This book brought out every different emotion and made me miss having my own bed time stories. I also really liked Fern as a narrator who was allowed to have you own trauma and faults she just felt like a real person. It was really interesting having the mix of real-world aspects such as covid and this dystopian future (that's not far off)